About Lightspeed Retail

Lightspeed Retail is a cloud-based POS solution that is suitable for retailers in industries such as apparel, footwear, bike, jewelry, pet, sporting goods and home decor. The solution offers retailers tools including inventory management, retail store management, cash drawer control, payment processing, purchase order management, customer profile access, accounting software integration and integration with POS hardware such as barcode scanner or receipt printer tools. Lightspeed offers a fully integrated, eCommerce platform that allows customers to manage in-store and online inventory, have a single view of customers and analyze multi-channel sales data. The retail POS system offers multi-store capabilities such as inventory sync across all locations, while mobile extensions mean that associates can check on inventory and conduct sales from anywhere in the store via iPad. The retail POS solution offers inventory management tools which enable users to create, track and assign serial numbers to products as well as create product variations such as size, color and material using a matrix system. Lightspeed Retail also offers some customer service features such as profiles, sales history logs, and customer insights. Lightspeed software is available on a monthly subscription and offers free, personalized onboarding and 24/7 support. The Lightspeed Retail POS iPad app enables businesses to create an iPad POS system within their retail store to process payments, perform returns, accept gift card payments, apply discounts and more, and it can also be used in offline mode.
Lightspeed Retail Software - Lightspeed omnichannel
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Lightspeed Retail Software - Lightspeed accounting
Lightspeed Retail Software - Lightspeed omnichannel
Lightspeed Retail Software - Lightspeed eCommerce
Lightspeed Retail Software - Lightspeed omnichannel
Lightspeed Retail video
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Lightspeed Retail pricing

Lightspeed Retail does not have a free version but does offer a free trial. Lightspeed Retail paid version starts at US$79.00/month.

Starting Price:
US$79.00/month
Free Version:
No
Free trial:
Yes

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Lightspeed Retail Reviews

Feature rating

Value for Money
4.0
Functionality
4.0
Ease of Use
4.2
Customer Support
4.1
5 reviews of 935 View all reviews
Sean
  • Industry: Retail
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 29/5/2019

After Two Years - Lightspeed Remains The Best In All Categories

Lightspeed has literally saved us 20-30 hours per week. It connects and communicates well with all of our other systems; including accounting and loyalty platforms.
Their customer and technical support have been extraordinary and have exceeded our expectations. In fact, I think their technical support is the best not just in the point of sale industry but any industry. I find myself wishing other vendors I work with had the same level of support and professionalism.
Lightspeed also listens to their customers; this is evident by requests made in their support area. They actually respond to every request.
As a small business owner, we worry about many things. Lightspeed is not one of them!

Pros

After two other point of sale systems; and after two years using Lightspeed, it is by far the best in all categories.
We had two previous POS systems that fell short in comparison to Lightspeed. Part of our success with Lightspeed is that after two previous point of sale systems; we knew what we really needed and the right questions to ask during the sales process. We submitted specific questions in writing. All of our questions we answered in detail in less than 24-Hours. The sales team knows their products and knew my industry. In fact, most of our distributors catalogs are already pre-loaded into their system.
The transition from our other popular POS was relatively easy, especially in comparison to our previous transition. The Lightspeed team was always there to help and even anticipated needs before I knew them. The inventory system and purchase order system work well.

Cons

The only limitation we have with Lightspeed in related to the fact that we sell a lot of items by weight. This does not create a significant problem for us; but having bulk items accounted for in inventory would be a nice to have. We would love an integrated scale capability. The Lightspeed team was more than willing to help us set up our system to sell bulk items; it works better than another other POS we looked at.

Steve
  • Industry: Retail
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
4
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 20/1/2021

A great all-inclusive system

Our industry was using a server-based software which was cumbersome and VERY outdated. Switching to Lightspeed has allowed me to more easily fulfil online orders, process transactions remotely, and communicate with our customer base more effectively.

Pros

Integration across POS, eCommerce, Accounting, Data Analytics is excellent. We have been able to increase both sales and efficiency with this system. The accounting feature and its daily export to QuickBooks allows me to spend only a few minutes each day keeping books up to date. It certainly makes year-end a breeze. Lightspeed Analytics is an invaluable resource for forecasting and identifying areas of opportunity. Customer support is available 24/7 and if they aren't able to answer my question immediately, I have received a timely follow-up within a day or two.

Cons

There are some work-arounds that I have implemented. It would be nice to have the option for recurring billing and serial number tracking (not just adding a serial number to an item) as well as a better protocol for backordered items on Purchase Orders.

Alternatives Considered

Rain POS

Reasons for Choosing Lightspeed Retail

Easy choice. Transitioning from a local server based software to a cloud based system was the first priority. After seeing what else Lightspeed had to offer, I immediately made the change.

Switched From

AIM

Reasons for Switching to Lightspeed Retail

When I was ready to purchase Rain, the sales team kept putting me off time and time again. If that was indicative of their customer service, I knew it wouldn't be the right fit for me.
Mindi
  • Industry: Retail
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
1
Features
1
Ease of Use
2
Customer Support
1

1
Reviewed on 22/7/2023

Connectivity

Pros

Originally, ease of use. Now is not the case.

Cons

We have had Shopkeep/Lightspeed for 9 years. It does not make doing inventory easy at all. We have nothing bur problems with the chip reader/swiper, continuously disconnects. Cannot make sales. Have spent many calls to fix, they make us buy new card readers every time. Also multiple problems with scanners not working! Problem has not been resolved in 9 years! Our other stores using another POS does not have these problems. Looking to switch.

Cameron
  • Industry: Retail
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Features
4
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
3

4
Reviewed on 1/6/2023

Customizable POS solution

Overall Lightspeed has been a pleasant experience. Pricing is affordable for small business. Some bug fixes, and added features are slow to come to fruition. Integrated vendor catalogues save a tonne of time.

Pros

Ease of implementation Multi location abilityPortabilityLinks to e-commerce optionAbility to use multiple terminals to access data and input sales/work orders/purchase orders etc over cloud

Cons

Lacking in some reporting function, is available at added costNew fee structure for users not interested in Lightspeed payments

Andrew
  • Industry: Apparel & Fashion
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Features
3
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
5

4
Reviewed on 28/12/2020

Packs some punch among the punchless

We are a 40 year Brick and Mortar AND E-commerce company that carries 1000s of unique skus. Needing a software that is heavier than just the POS is essential. Inventory management and the ability to integrate with E-commerce was a non-negotiable for my next POS.
Lightspeed does have some frequent, mostly minor bugs, it is nice that they constantly update and enhance their program. There often seems to be a disconnect between software designers and the retail experience, but this program bridges the data management needed to go with the point of sale functionality.
Product management has been efficient. Customer service has been very helpful via telephone or chat and are always available which is nice. Even better, the amounts of time to need to contact customer service is minimal. After one year of use, I can say I use this program with confidence and I believe it packs the punch needed to handle scale.

Pros

Customer Support is included and accessible
Intuitive
Useful for heavy amounts of inventory
Cloud Based
Accessible via multiple operating systems
Integrated with Cayan for seamless transition from my previous POS
Has extensions that enable enhanced reporting, loyalty and ecommerce integration
Updates are included

Cons

Frequently Buggy
UX issues at times
E-commerce integration is through third party
Advanced Reporting is an additional cost and is still poorly designed and buggy
Long waits for Customer Support
Widespread Outages do Occur

Alternatives Considered

Retail Pro and Shopify

Reasons for Choosing Lightspeed Retail

We found limitations in integrations with e-commerce as well as difficulty with the licensing for Retail Pro. Not being cloud computing was very limiting, customer service being an additional fee was frustrating and that same customer service torpedoing our system and the backup was the death knell

Switched From

Retail Pro

Reasons for Switching to Lightspeed Retail

Most cloud POS seemed geared for start up or micro retail. Lightspeed had the best blend of power needed to handle a sizable company as well as the agility to be cloud based and utilize mobile platforms. The ability to have an integration with Shopify as well as the integrated customer support was the perfect nudge to migrate to Lightspeed

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