Item: Lightspeed POS
Rating: 3.5
Author: Hillary Crawford

	Lightspeed POS
	3.5 NerdWallet rating

Lightspeed Retail, a cloud-based point-of-sale system for retailers, provides both the software and hardware a business owner needs to run transactions. Its inventory management capabilities are excellent, letting business owners track items across multiple locations, add product variations and use integrated vendor catalogues to order inventory.

The product is a good match for more established small businesses, such as chain clothing stores and other shops with multiple locations. Newer small businesses with less complicated operations could be better served with a simpler, less expensive product.

For information on the brand’s POS solution for bars, cafes and restaurants, read NerdWallet’s review of Lightspeed Restaurant.

» MORE: NerdWallet’s best POS systems

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Deciding factors

Software cost	$79 per month plus $29 per additional register per month and up (when billed monthly).
Hardware cost	Quote-based.
Payment processing cost	2.6% plus 10 cents per card-present transaction and 2.6% plus 30 cents per keyed-in transaction with Lightspeed Payments; can also choose from third-party payment processors.
Contract length	Annual contracts required for lower pricing.
Live support	Excellent. Available 24/7.
Ease of use	Excellent. Lightspeed Retail has an intuitive user interface and clean layout.

Pricing

If you’re not going to use Lightspeed Payments for payment processing, monthly subscription prices are significantly steeper. For example, the Lean plan is $109 per month without Lightspeed Payments versus $79 per month with it, when billed monthly. For those operating more than one store location, Lightspeed recommends reaching out for a personalized quote.

Software cost

Plan	Pricing	Features
Lean	$79 per month plus $29 per additional register per month with Lightspeed Payments (when billed monthly).	One-on-one onboarding. Free training for you and your employees. Dedicated account manager. Lightspeed Payments.
Standard	$139 per month plus $29 per additional register per month with Lightspeed Payments (when billed monthly).	Lean plan capabilities plus: Lightspeed Accounting. E-commerce platform.
Advanced	$239 per month plus $29 per additional register per month with Lightspeed Payments(when billed monthly).	Standard plan capabilities plus: Omnichannel Loyalty for syncing marketing campaigns and customers’ rewards programs online and in-store. Analytics Core for in-depth reporting.

Hardware cost

Lightspeed Retail’s hardware pricing is quote-based. Businesses can choose between an iPad hardware kit or a desktop hardware kit, both of which come with a receipt printer, cash drawer and scanner. Note that iPads and desktops must be purchased separately. The company sells individual hardware items like label printers, contactless card readers and iPad stands as well.

Payment processing cost

Lightspeed Payments comes with free PCI compliance and fraud prevention, and funds will arrive in your business bank account within two business days. There is a $15 chargeback fee. When you sign up, a Lightspeed representative will work directly with you to set up your new payment processor, and you’ll get 24/7 support thereafter. The company provides quote-based rates for businesses processing more than $250,000 per year.

Tapped, inserted and swiped rate: 2.6% plus 10 cents per transaction.
Keyed-in rate: 2.6% plus 30 cents per transaction.

If you don’t want to use Lightspeed as your payment processor, the system integrates with a variety of other options, including Cayan and Worldpay (formerly Vantiv) too.

» MORE: NerdWallet's best small-business apps

Features

Checkout

Employees with iPads can bring the POS to the customer to complete checkout from anywhere in the store. Refunds can be performed without using the customer’s credit card, and Lightspeed Retail can accept other forms of tender, including checks, gift cards and cash.

Inventory management

Import your product catalog into Lightspeed Retail by uploading a CSV file. Once your catalog is uploaded, you can categorize items by size, color and more, and assign unique serial numbers for stock-keeping purposes. Just as importantly, the company allows you to upload vendor catalogs and order new stock directly from your POS. Transferring stock between stores is possible too.

Accessing supplier catalogs through Lightspeed POS.

Customer relationship management

The POS system has a bunch of features that help you foster stronger relationships with your customers. Stores can add new customers to the CRM database and build out their profiles, add notes and save information. Additionally, the database lets you view customer sales history to help determine purchasing habits, and assign customer “types” (VIP, employee, etc.) to automate special discounts. Finally, businesses can use the POS system to create loyalty programs so customers are awarded points each time they shop.

Employee management

Lightspeed Retail features a basic time clock for employees, allowing them to punch in and out via a PIN number, as well as a log of employee sales and performance. Additionally, you can assign custom roles to your staff, giving them unique back-end permissions. For onboarding new employees, there's a series of webinars to help users get acclimated with the interface and functions of the POS.

Reporting

With more than 40 report templates, merchants can analyze data on sales, inventory, staff performance, marketing effectiveness and more. The system integrates with popular accounting platforms like QuickBooks, Sage and Xero to help with bookkeeping too.

Loyalty program

Merchants can use Lightspeed Loyalty to offer customers redeemable points on purchases they make. You can also automate marketing campaigns and group customers together based on their buying habits. Lightspeed Loyalty comes with the Advanced plan, and business owners with the Lean or Standard plan can bundle it into their subscription for an additional cost.

E-commerce

For those who operate a brick-and-mortar store and an e-commerce website, Lightspeed lets you manage both from the same place. With its e-commerce platform, you’ll be able to upload your products and design your own website using one of over 50 customizable templates. Once your site is live you can streamline sales and inventory data across all physical and digital locations. Lightspeed’s e-commerce platform comes with the Standard and Advanced plans. Clients with the Lean plan can bundle it into their subscription as an add-on.

Pros

Robust inventory management

Lightspeed Retail’s inventory management features offer an impressive level of functionality that lets business owners customize how they keep track of items. This platform allows you to manage multiple locations, send notifications when it’s time to reorder an item and add customized fields for categorizing inventory. You can also create a purchase order for a single vendor or a master order for multiple vendors in the platform.

Customer service

Lightspeed offers exceptional customer service for all plan tiers. It includes a free onboarding session, 24/7 phone and chat support, guides and webinars. This type of support doesn’t come standard with all POS systems, and the fact that clients are matched with a dedicated account manager can help you get in touch with the right person sooner.

Integrations

Lightspeed Retail allows you to extend the functionality of your POS via a wide variety of applications available in the Lightspeed app marketplace. These include accounting, e-commerce, payment processing, reporting, marketing, invoicing and payroll integrations among others.

» MORE: 7 best credit card processing companies

Cons

Price

The price you pay for Lightspeed Retail is tied to the fact that you have a broad range of features at your disposal. However, if you own a new small business, having all those extra bells and whistles probably isn’t necessary. In that case, you might be better off trying free or cheaper options from competitors like Square.

Annual contracts required for lower pricing

Monthly subscriptions to Lightspeed Retail are less expensive if you pay annually versus monthly. For example, the Standard plan ends up costing $119 per month if you choose the annual plan versus $139 per month with the monthly plan. A handful of reviews also complain about multi-year contracts and pricing transparency issues.

Lightspeed POS alternatives

Square for Retail

Square for Retail charges similar processing fees as Lightspeed Retail and offers free and paid plans. The Plus plan costs $60 per month per location, and includes a handful of features you won't find in the Free plan, like advanced inventory management tools, advanced reporting capabilities and Square Team Management. Loyalty programs are available as an add-on starting at $45 per month. For more information, see NerdWallet's review of Square for Retail.

Square Retail POS

Shop Now

on Square's website

Shopify for Retail

If you like Lightspeed Retail because of its e-commerce store integration, consider Shopify for Retail. Starting at $29 per month, you’ll get a Shopify e-commerce store and 24/7 support. The Basic plan is meant for businesses that do most of their sales online. Businesses that do in-store and online sales might consider the company’s $79 per month plan, which also includes lower processing rates. For more information, see NerdWallet's review of Shopify.

Shopify Retail POS

Shop Now

on Shopify's website

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FAQs

What is Lightspeed eCommerce?

Lightspeed eCommerce fully integrates with Lightspeed POS so that small-business owners can streamline their in-store and online sales and manage them from one place. The software lets you combine inventory and transfer it, sell gift cards, organize shipments and build a professional online store, among other capabilities.

How is Lightspeed different from Shopify?

Lightspeed and Shopify both offer e-commerce platforms and in-store POS solutions to small-business owners. They each have 24/7 support, inventory management capabilities and in-house payment processing. Shopify has historically been more focused on developing clients’ online presence, whereas Lightspeed is better known for its in-store POS systems. The latter is better for businesses with multiple brick-and-mortar locations, and Shopify is better suited for businesses that have a tighter budget and prioritize online sales.

A version of this article was first published on Fundera, a subsidiary of NerdWallet.

Methodology

Point-of-sale systems providers ratings methodology

NerdWallet’s point-of-sale systems provider ratings reward companies whose products and services are priced well and work in a variety of payment scenarios, among other criteria. Ratings are based on weighted averages of scores in several categories, including cost, system capabilities, contract requirements, customer service and integrations and add-ons. Learn more about how we rate point-of-sale (POS) systems providers.

These ratings are a guide, but services, hardware and pricing can vary widely from business to business and provider to provider. We encourage you to shop around and compare several providers.

NerdWallet does not receive compensation for any reviews. Read our editorial guidelines.

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Lightspeed POS Review 2022: Features, Pricing and Alternatives