Do I need POS? / can I delete pos from store

[Chancesartcreat]

Hello I’m new here trying to set up my store by myself…. My store checklist has a point where it says manage POS ….long story short it made me download another Shopify POs app and wants me to buy “hardware” which is very expensive unfortunately. At this point I do not want to sell in person so is there a way to opt out of pos and still start my store …..or is it required to use ? 

[Imogen · Accepted solution]

Hi there, @Chancesartcreat. Thanks for taking the time to reach out to the Shopify Community with your question regarding Shopify POS! Welcome to the platform! Also, thank you @RubyWalker for jumping in and providing some info! Gotta love it when the Community comes together!

I wanted to jump in and provide some information as well! To confirm, Shopify POS is not required in order for you to start your online store. It's just a sales channel that we offer to merchants that want to give selling in person a try! All stores have Shopify POS Lite for free, so having the app downloaded won't cost you anything aslong as you don't upgrade from POS Lite to POS Pro. This also means that you don't need to purchase any of that hardware that you mentioned. If you were going to be selling in person in a retail setting, then yeah, the hardware may be something you would consider, but if you're just starting out and focusing solely on selling online, then you don't need to invest in that equipment.

I saw in your post that you mentioned that you were following along with a checklist. I wanted to provide you with another set-up resource we have here that doesn't include information regarding POS. This may help avoid any potential confusion regarding POS's role in your store.

I'd love to hear more about the business you're starting! How long have you been at setting it up? What sort of products are you selling?

[RubyWalker]

No, POS is not required. Point of Sale (POS) is just one of a number of customer-facing sales channel through which you can sell on Shopify and have all your inventory and sales managed and synchronised centrally. The default Shopify channel is essentially the Online Store, but you can also sell through Facebook, Instagram etc as well as in-person using POS - or indeed use Shopify *only* for Point of Sale, with no online store. As you've discovered, POS has its own App and hardware (barcode scanner, receipt printer, payment device - not all of which are necessary in every situation) - and of course, its own set of fees!

[Imogen · Accepted solution]

Hi there, @Chancesartcreat. Thanks for taking the time to reach out to the Shopify Community with your question regarding Shopify POS! Welcome to the platform! Also, thank you @RubyWalker for jumping in and providing some info! Gotta love it when the Community comes together!

I wanted to jump in and provide some information as well! To confirm, Shopify POS is not required in order for you to start your online store. It's just a sales channel that we offer to merchants that want to give selling in person a try! All stores have Shopify POS Lite for free, so having the app downloaded won't cost you anything aslong as you don't upgrade from POS Lite to POS Pro. This also means that you don't need to purchase any of that hardware that you mentioned. If you were going to be selling in person in a retail setting, then yeah, the hardware may be something you would consider, but if you're just starting out and focusing solely on selling online, then you don't need to invest in that equipment.

I saw in your post that you mentioned that you were following along with a checklist. I wanted to provide you with another set-up resource we have here that doesn't include information regarding POS. This may help avoid any potential confusion regarding POS's role in your store.

I'd love to hear more about the business you're starting! How long have you been at setting it up? What sort of products are you selling?

[Chancesartcreat]

Thank you very much for the help on this. setting up the behind the scenes stuff like pos, shipping and tax info definitely is not my strong suit lol. I just started my shopify about 5-7 days ago after the 3 day trial I signed up for the basic plan because after being on etsy and just not getting results and not being able to set up my page the way I would like with photos and reviews I decided to make the change and come here. The one downside here is there is a limit on "variants" and being as my work is customizable there are a lot of options so im trying to figure out how to get a higher limit on variants or possibly  unlimited variants .I am an artist and my main medium I work with is epoxy resin but I also do woodburning, clay work, painting ,crystal wrapping and more and also with this is gives me the ability to have instagram and Facebook stores which is where most of my sales generate from as of now .

[Imogen · Accepted solution]

Hey again, @Chancesartcreat!

Congrats on being with Shopify for a week! I always love chatting with folks that are new to the platform! I've met some folks at tradeshows that work in the niche you do, especially with resin epoxy and wood burning. I'd love to see your store and some examples of your products!

Currently, Shopify allows for 100 variants per product. Are you requiring more variants for your products? I'm curious to know what sort of options you require for your products. If you can provide me with some context around the customizations you offer, I may be able to provide you info on how to offer those customizations more efficiently to your customers.

Where abouts are you operating your business from? I'd love to be able to provide you with some tax resources, too, since you mentioned you were having troubles around that.

[Chancesartcreat]

Hello again I hope all is well with you and that is honestly  so cool that you have met people who sell in the same niche here I don't know any artist on this platform yet....my fiance sells here as well but he is more commercial plant hangers and I'm custom art 😂 

As for the variants though ....so I sell custom peices meaning almost every single detail of your order is changeable from the colors to glitters add ins ect ....for example I sell hand made crystal frames and mirrors when I give people options I let them choose  the frame color which is 12 options THEN they can pick their crystal colors as well and that is another 12 options so that's 144 variants right there not to mention if I wanted to go a step further and add a option from transparent or opaque lol so if you could help me figure that out I would greatly appreciate it .

I'm based out of south florida and my page is still under construction  butttt if you would like to check out my art you can search "chancesartcreations"  on ig,fb,or tiktok to find me it won't let me attach a photo here lol 

[Imogen]

Hey again, @Chancesartcreat! Sorry for the delayed reply here. I've been away for the past few days so I'm just catching up with everyone!

Thanks so much for providing me that info about your business, and telling me your fiance uses the platform, too! You definitely offer a lot of customization options to your customers, and that's all part of the charm of having an art business! I definitely get the headache here.

I jumped into our Shopify App Store to see if I could find some free apps that can help you accomplish this and, guess what? I found one! There is an app called Globo Product Options that will let you feature a product, and then provide menus for your customers to select their customization options! The app page features a demo shop where you can see the app in motion, and honestly I think it would be a perfect fit for what you're looking to do!

No worries about not attaching a photo! It's awesome that you're active on so many different social media platforms. My sister in law markets on Instagram and TikTok a ton and finds a ton of success there reaching folks! What's nice about Shopify is that it can integrate directly with those platforms you mentioned so you can feature products on your accounts incredibly easily, and have your content link directly back to your store. You should check out this blog we wrote on marketing on TikTok! I'm sure you'll find it helpful!

Let me know if you have any other questions, or if you wanna chat business some more!

[KJonesEdney]

Hi I have experienced my first billing for point of service and try to delete it because I am not doing any face to face sales I'm only using the Shopify for online so I don't know why I was billed I must have hit something mistakenly trying to set up my account so that is $89 that was actually just snatched from me and I am trying to deactivate remove you install I don't even have the app on my phone for the point of service so how do you remove the subscription without deleting or deactivating your Shopify account If I can't find it I'll just close my store. Because this is not been helpful

[Greta]

Hi, @KJonesEdney!

I'm sorry to hear about your issue. You can find the steps to cancel your POS subscription in this help document. You can also contact our team through the Help Center so we can determine if you're eligible for a credit or refund. Simply enter the details of your issue into the chat assistant and click "I still need help" to be connected with a Support Advisor. 

Please let me know if you have any other questions! 

[KJonesEdney]

Please cancel the point of service I cannot find out how do I contact customer service I've been pressing the button but I don't see no number I don't see anything it keeps sending me back to the same location of your website The point of service the $87 I'm not looking for refund looking for the cancer so I can reopen my store because I'm not selling in those store I'm just doing online and that's it so let me know if it can't be taking off then I won't open the store back up thank you

[Dirk]

Hey, @KJonesEdney Happy to help.

 

While we're not able to provide account-specific support via Community at this time, we'd be happy to continue assisting you through our available support channels. You can get in contact with us here.

If there is anything else I can help you with, please let me know.