Shopify POS UK & Ireland Review

In January we decided to take the plunge and deploy Shopify POS in our gallery in Kinsale.  After a month in use, I thought it might be about time to do a Shopify POS UK / Ireland review and explain the process of getting it up and running in-store.  The bottom line? We're really pleased with the how user-friendly, convenient, and flexible the system is and would definitely recommend it to any Shopify merchant with a physical store presence.  I'd go further and say to anyone thinking about which hosted e-commerce solution to deploy, Shopify POS is a huge advantage when weighing up your options.  

Setting up Shopify POS is incredibly easy. You download the app onto your ipad and log in. Hey-presto: your online store products are sitting there and ready to be selected for a sale at a press of the screen.  It's frighteningly easy and intuitive to use.  We decided to go with a LAN thermal printer which we sourced from Charles Mitchell at POS Hardware UK Ltd. He was very helpful and shipped the printer to Ireland on the same day we ordered.  Install it on your network and the Shopify POS app picks it up immediately on your wireless network - couldn't be easier.  You can add your logo to the receipt from inside the Shopify POS app - again, it's a breeze and makes all your receipts look so professional.  The printer itself is lightening fast.  The next part of the set up we wanted to consider was how to mount our ipad in-store.  After some research online, we settled for the Australia- based outfit Studio Proper.  Their Swivel POS mount is beautifully crafted and allows for a totally secure but incredibly sleek and attractive presentation of the ipad.  And they're a Shopify merchant - even better! It took us a little bit of time to fit the swivel mount to our new counter - but the final result was flawless and makes for a very professional in-store set up.  

Day to day use of Shopify POS is wonderful.  In particular, I'm super impressed with how selling gift cards works.  When you take a sale, the system automatically prints a gift card with a QR code and a unique gift card code. This can then be placed inside our pre-printed Gift Voucher presentation cards - no more handwritten codes that tends to look a bit amateurish.  The other huge advantage for us in using Shopify POS is the admin time saving.  We use Kashflow for our accounts and CRM package and our Shopify website uses the Carry The One Shopify app to seamlessly import web sales into Kashflow.  Now, thanks to Shopify POS, our in-store sales also come directly into Kashflow, marked as paid and sitting in our accounts.  It's particularly easy when we don't need to take any customer details - ie we're just ringing a sale through the till.  It's a little more time consuming when we have to set up the customer on Shopify (usually for custom print orders or where we are delivering) but again, there are distinct advantages to doing all this on the Shopify POS rather than through Kashflow which is what we were doing previously.  The primary advantage is that because the customer is now set up on Shopify, we can re-market to them and send them account invites, thus encouraging them to shop again with us online.  

Are there any disadvantages or drawbacks to Shopify POS? Not really - even where you don't have a webstore product set up, you can easily take a custom sale on Shopify POS so really there are no obvious situations where Shopify POS won't work in-store.  The bit that takes the most getting used to is probably being confident enough to add customers to the system in real time while they are standing in front of you.  In summary then, if you're running a click and mortar set up, Shopify POS is a wonderful addition to your in-store experience.  It's a head turner when combined with an attractive ipad mount like Studio Proper and I'd have no hesitation in recommending the system.  Take advantage of the free two week trial to get your head around the system and make sure it's right for you.  And then make sure you time your deployment correctly - do it during a quieter time of your business cycle.  

Shopify POS for UK and Ireland has made a serious difference to our in-store experience for both customers and staff.  Good luck with your deployment and if you want to ask us any further questions about it, don't hesitate to contact me.