Does the customer facing display feature exist in ecommerce platforms?

[shopanemoia]

Does Shopify have Customer Facing Display hardware? I've been considering switching to Lightspeed (in fact I've been paying for it for over a year, trying to find the time to move inventory over and set up), because transparency is incredibly important to our business, and we want our customers to be able to see the cost of everything as we ring it up, in case there's any discrepancies or the total ends up being more than they were thinking. We don't ever want a customer to walk out with buyer's remorse. It would also be nice if they could see their rewards on the CFD, and have the option to cash in rewards points for coupons. It would also speed up checkout if we were able to do so.

[RubyWalker]

Yes, of a sort. Check out the Shopify Customer View app:

https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/sell-in-person/hardware/customer-view-app

You can install this app on any suitable Android device, link it to your POS and mount the device appropriately for the customer to view. As you ring up items, they display on the device with a running total and any discounts. When you go to checkout, a message appears to show the final amount the customer needs to pay, and after payment the customer can also select to email themselves a receipt. If you’ve added a customer to the order, their name displays at the top of the screen and the email receipt loads their email address etc.

We don’t use it in our store, but we tested it and it seemed to work fine. YMMV.

[shopanemoia]

Thanks @RubyWalker! Do you by chance know if it has the ability to integrate payment? Either tap to pay or a plug in chip/swipe device?

[RubyWalker]

The Customer View app is purely a repeater running on a second device for the customer's benefit. You still need the basic POS system (tablet/scanner/card reader/receipt printer etc) to process the transactions. The Customer View app links with the main POS tablet via WiFi and shows the items, per the description above, as you ring them up on the main system.

[shopanemoia]

I understand I still need the POS system, I was just hoping to find a device that I could integrate payment. I’ve never used android, so I don’t know what hardware/card reader options there are. I’d ultimately like to have an all-in-one customer facing display and card reader, so the customer doesn’t have to use 2 different devices during a transaction, to eliminate confusion. 

[RubyWalker]

Jess, no I don’t think you can easily achieve that. The Android device in this case is a standard phone/tablet and the Customer View app is just for display purposes (it has no built-in payment capability, irrespective of the hardware its running on). Meanwhile, the payment devices currently supported by Shopify don’t have the itemised display that you would want (they’re essentially for payment, not display). The closest in hardware terms is probably the Shopify POS Go device, which does have integrated scanning and payment capability, but doesn’t currently support a Customer View type operation. Maybe one day 🙂

For now, therefore, I think you would need two devices; an inexpensive android phone or small tablet for the customer to look at (only), mounted next to or above the card reader device for payment.

Someone else may have a better idea of course (or even be able to make you a nice integrated stand/dock for the two devices!)

[baltasarb]

Do you know if through this APP the client can accept the privacy policy when registering?

[Carl-]

Hi there, sorry to jump on an old thread, but we're just migrating over to Shopify from Lightspeed (Vend) and are looking to integrate our customer-facing POS display setup. Can someone confirm 100% that the Android "Customer View" tablet can interface with the main iPad POS tablet? My Shopify support person said no, but this thread seems to suggest otherwise. Does anyone know 100%? But not just any "100%", more like: "I've got $3,000 worth of iPads on order that might need to be canceled 100%". 😅

Thanks heaps for you help.

[RubyWalker]

That’s some 100%! Like I said, we don’t use the Customer View Android app in our store, but I just hooked one up to see what happens in the latest version  (two-minute job – install CV app on android device, open CV app, scan the displayed QR code on the POS terminal in Setup Hardware, the two devices link up, done).

Here’s how it seems to go after that:

1. CV app displays an idle message “Welcome to ABC Space Rockets”
2. Next customer arrive at the till. As you scan/add items to the POS, they appear on the CV app (like a wide till receipt with a total at the bottom). If you've associated a customer with the cart, their name appears at the top of the CV display.
3. When you press Checkout on the POS, the CV display changes to “Present payment card $56” or “Pay with cash $56” as appropriate.
4. Once the payment is confirmed, the CV display changes to “Payment approved” and gives the customer the option to email, text or print their receipt (they input their own details, or confirm the ones displayed if they are a known customer) after which it says “Thank you” until you press Done on the POS terminal.
5. Rinse and repeat.

Will this work for you? I assume so. Should you try it out yourself to make sure it works exactly as you want for all those expensive iPads before they arrive? Absolutely 🙂

[BB8]

One of the main reasons I'm planning on switching to a different POS. Their workaround is clunky at best, check out the 2 stars rating on their Customer View app. I'm surprised they haven't found a way to paywall a Customer Facing display setup yet.