Regional Support: Selling in Person (UK)

[Victor]

Learn more about selling in person and using the Shopify POS system while running your Shopify store in the UK.

This thread is part of the Regional Support threads offered for merchants in the United Kingdom. To see which other topics are available, you can visit the UK hub here.

The Shopify Point of Sale (POS) system is available for merchants in the United Kingdom to use.

Unifying your online and in-store selling has many advantages. It can help you save time by managing your inventory in a single place, and also create opportunities for more sales and re-engaging your customers, regardless of where they buy.

Shopify offers two POS app subscriptions to fit your business needs, and you will have the flexibility to decide which POS subscription works best for each of your locations. POS Pro offers the unique features you'll need to run a brick-and-mortar store, and is priced at $89 USD per month, per location. POS Lite is built for selling on-the-go at markets and fairs, and is included as standard with all Shopify subscriptions. We offer a features page that breaks down the features and functionalities of both options.

The Tap, Chip & Swipe Reader offered in the hardware store integrates with Shopify Payments, meaning you can use the gateway to process both online and in-person sales simultaneously. You can also use an external reader to process payments via a third-party gateway.

If you have a question or comment to make about selling in person with Shopify in the United Kingdom, please post it below.

[thekeenangler]

how do I create a new post or ask a question? when I was on Shopify before I could have a chat box to talk about issues can't find that now

[Victor]

Hi @thekeenangler,

You can post a new thread on the forums by going to the sub-forum you wish to post in and selecting the "Start a topic" option:

If you're wanting to speak to our support team directly, you can do so via https://help.shopify.com/en/questions. You can log in here, enter in what you need help with, and you'll be presented with different available support options.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[DizLun]

Hi Victor,

Thanks for putting this information together. Hopefully, you can steer me in the correct direction.

I stumbled upon the hardware page a little while back and thought $49 (£36) for a fairly modern reader was a bargain. However, I soon realised the error in my ways and found the UK hardware store, but was instantly taken back by the jump in cost (£59) for what also seems to be a less modern reader.

Are you able to shed any light on this for me at all? I.E when will the newer/cheaper card readers be available to the UK? Or can I just buy the US one and it will work the same way?

Thanks for your time.

[Victor]

Hi @DizLun,

Thank you for reaching out today with your question. Our card readers are region-specific, meaning the UK card reader can only be used by merchants in the UK with a Shopify Payments account, and the same rule applies to the US reader. For this reason you would not be able to use the reader sold on the US hardware store if you're based in and operating your business in the UK.

I do not have specific details as to why the prices are different, but each reader we sell is built and designed with the regional market it is being sold in in mind, as card processing in the US works differently in some ways in comparison to the UK. As you'll likely have noticed, for example, the UK reader includes a PIN pad whereas the US one does not, as I believe in the US it is more common for businesses to use card readers without PIN pads. It's also worth noting that the UK reader offers EMV chip card support whereas the US one does not, as EMV usage is in general far more common in the UK and Europe than it is in North America.

I hope this explains things, and that the UK card reader still represents good value for you and your business. I do not believe we have a new card reader set to be released in the UK in the near future but an announcement will be made if this changes. Please let me know if you have more questions.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[Alex291]

Hi,

Thank you for sharing informative details. Looking forward to getting more details about Shopify Apps.

Thanks

[Victor]

Hi @Alex291,

Thanks for the kind words. If you have any questions about Shopify Apps, or anything else about the Shopify platform, please let me know.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[Alex291]

Hi Victor,

Thanks for the quick response, I just want to promote our Shopify apps and want more installation from customers, what should I do for it? Please let me know about running any kind of Shopify Apps ads.

Thank you

[Victor]

Hi @Alex291,

One thing many Partners do is monitor this Community for questions and problems merchants have, and maybe their app can solve. This is a good way to speak directly to merchants and recommend them your app. I'd also recommend checking out this blog post that offers plenty of advice on marketing your app: How to Market an App: 11 Expert Tips.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[Nashsxm]

can someone assist to set up more pos for a sport goods store. Team not that tech savvy 

[Wedevagency]

@Nashsxm Hey! Are you still looking for help with this?

[Alex291]

Yes, I agree as this a good way to directly connect with the merchants to provide the solutions to their queries. Also, suggest some useful Shopify Apps that can help merchants to increase customer engagement and generate more business on their store. 

Please check Some of the best Shopify apps to increase sales on Shopify stores.
- Product Reviews App
- Quick Stock Notifier App
- My Wishlist App
- Oberlo ‑ Dropshipping App
- AI: Loyalty, Referrals & More AppAll the above apps are the classic Shopify Apps to boost your sales.

Product Reviews: The simplest way to share your customers' experiences.
Shopify Product reviews allow you to add a customer review feature to your products. This provides a way for your customers to engage with you, as well as each other to encourage sales. App URL: https://apps.shopify.com/product-reviews?

Quick stock notifier: Get your customer back 
Alerts your customer through email & SMS when their selected products are back in stock. As an admin, you have complete control over the desired customization (template, storefront pop-up), customer info, and notifications sent. You can easily track all activities and get revenue analytics reports. App URL: https://apps.shopify.com/back-in-stock-notification-1

My Wishlist App: Allow your customers to save favorite Items
This app is most useful when your store has a variety of great items, customers may find it hard to pick up where they left off if they don’t immediately purchase their favorite items. MyWishlist app gives them the option to save their favorite items and get email reminders for them as well.
You can customize your own email template, add to wishlist button color, launcher icon color, etc, and can track all activities. App URL: https://apps.shopify.com/mywishlist

Oberlo ‑ Dropshipping App - Find products to sell on Shopify
Side hustle, passion project, full-time career – whatever your drive, Oberlo is the toolkit to help you start and grow your own thing. For free.
More than 100 million products have been sold using Oberlo’s dropshipping app. Think of it as the keys to a virtual warehouse packed with products from thousands of suppliers. Electronics, fashion, beauty, toys. You name it, you can find it. App URL: https://apps.shopify.com/oberlo

AI: Loyalty, Referrals & Mor: Reward & Get more customers engagement
Allow your customers to earn reward points based on different activities and they then redeem points for discount codes that you control. This app enables you to create a seamless rewards and referrals program that will motivate your customers to continuously shop at your store.
It has an extremely intuitive dashboard to set earn and redeem points. It increases customer engagement & referrals, ultimately results in more sales. App URL: https://apps.shopify.com/hubify-earn-loyalty-rewards.

Thanks

[Nashsxm]

can someone assist to set up more pos for a sport goods store. Team not that tech savvy 

[Alex291]

Hi,

I am sharing a video of how to set-up POS for your store. Please check and share your feedback.

https://www.loom.com/share/171b7f83c111477996624264fdc058bb

Thank you

[JohnFederkins]

Can I sell at UK markets and fairs with the Shopify POS app and card readers even though my account is based in the USA?

[Victor]

Hi @JohnFederkins,

Technically you can, yes, although the main issue you will run in to is that you can only charge in USD. You also will not be able to use our card readers when selling abroad in this instance.

Our recommendation would be to set up a new store specifically for selling in the UK, with your store address and location being set to one in the UK and your default currency to GBP. You'd then be able to use one of our UK card readers when selling there.

Alternatively, you could set up a custom payment method and use a third-party card reader to process in-person payments. The main advantage of this is that it would prevent you from having to set up a new store or make account-level changes. All of your reporting would remain in USD, but you could accept payments in GBP using the third-party reader.

[n0kitty]

Now that I am being made to pay over $1000 dollars a year for POS Pro (essential if you want to offer something as simple as customer exchanges, extortionate imo), are there any plans to upgrade the un-Pro looking, janky, terribly card payment machine to something that looks even vaguely 'Pro'-fessional?

It doesn't beep. Elderly customers can't press the buttons, they're too stiff. When they put their card over the machine to do contactless, the green lights that indicate that the payment has been successful is covered up by the card itself. When a customer has to do chip and pin, they can't find the hole for the card to go in to, there is a lip that gets in the way.

It's genuinely terrible.

I'm happy to invest in equipment, if it's good.

[Victor]

Hi @n0kitty,

Thank you for getting in touch and for providing your feedback, although I am sorry to hear that you have been experiencing issues with the card reader we currently offer. If you continue to experience errors and bugs with the reader, please contact our support team so we can investigate further.

My understanding is that in the New Year we are set to introduce new payment hardware for our merchants in the United Kingdom, and we will be sharing more details on this soon.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[chrisgeorge]

Hi,

Can you please tell me if you support 3rd party payment providers with Shopify POS in the UK?

General help documentation on Shopify POS seems to be North American centric and I'm not clear in this from a UK point of view.

Regards

Chris

[n0kitty]

My understanding is that if you choose to use a 3rd party provider, you will be charged 1% by Shopify; which makes their card services cheap by comparison. 

You would think, this being the case, that Shopify would offer better quality card machines for us to use, but sadly we seem to be stuck with this rubbish card machine. The only card machine available in the UK does not beep, elderly people can't depress the buttons, the card slot isn't easy to find and it just feels and looks cheap and nasty. Because it is.

[chrisgeorge]

But are 3rd party payments allowed with Shopify POS in the UK?

An official response from a UK perspective from Shopify would be beneficial (@Victor?).

Regards

Chris

[Victor]

Hi @chrisgeorge,

If you're in the UK and not using Shopify Payments, you would need to accept payments through an external terminal if you're using a third-party gateway instead. No transaction fees would be charged by Shopify if this is the case, as you are not processing the payment via the POS system directly. You can enable this as an option in your POS settings.

Please let me know if you have further questions.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[n0kitty]

Hi Victor

According to the Shopify Pricing Structure page - https://www.shopify.co.uk/pricing, if you're NOT using Shopify Payments there are additional fees to pay. It's 2% on the basic plan, 1% on the $79 dollar plan etc. 

Are you saying this is not the case?

Many thanks

Emily 

[Victor]

Hi @n0kitty,

The transaction fees listed here only apply to sales made via the online checkout, and would not apply to processing orders via a third-party terminal in person. In this case you would not be using the Shopify checkout to process a sale, so therefore no transaction fees would apply.

This information is cited in our charges section on the Shopify Help Center:

If you're using Shopify Payments, you aren't charged transaction fees on orders for stores located in most countries. Also, transaction fees don't apply for manual payment methods, which include cash on delivery (COD), bank deposits, checks, test orders, and draft orders marked as paid or pending. Transaction fees don't apply for POS orders.

I hope this explains things but please let me know if you have further questions.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[Graham78]

Hi @Victor,

My company is seriously considering implementing Shopify POS. However, we recently negotiated some great rates with our Card Terminal provider. Is there any way that we can integrate our current terminals with Shopify POS. We don't want to be processing them as Custom Payments and manually entering amounts on the card machines. It's ripe for errors.

Thanks,

Graham

[Victor]

Hi @Graham78,

Thanks for getting in touch. If you opt to use a third-party card reader, and not one of our supported devices, then you would not be able to integrate the device directly with the Shopify POS. You will still be able to process payments using your external terminal but will have to just mark the payments as "paid" within Shopify while the actual payment is processed by the third-party payment gateway that has provided you with the terminal.

If you wish to compare processing rates, you can view the in-person processing rates for Shopify Payments on our pricing page for the UK. Rates start at 1.7% + 0p per in-person transaction for our Basic plan and reduce if you move up a plan.

[Graham78]

Hi @Victor,

Thanks for the coming back to me on this. The rate with our current provider is 0.53%, which is considerably better than the Shopify Payments rate. It's just such a shame that this can't be integrated into Shopify POS, as using the Custom Payment method is not practical, doesn't look very professional and ripe for errors.

Any idea if external payment integrations are in the roadmap for Shopify POS. It seems odd that it's easy to set-up external payment gateways online, but not in person.

Many thanks,

Graham

[Victor]

Hi @Graham78,

I don't believe this is something that is currently on our roadmap but I will certainly be sure to submit your request to our development team. Generally, the custom payments option for the Shopify POS is not too dissimilar from using a third-party gateway on the online checkout—in both cases the third-party credit card processor will process the payment on their end, while Shopify will document details of the order (e.g. total cost, line items, tax etc) for record-keeping purposes within the Orders section of your admin. I can still appreciate how having it integrated in one place would be preferable, however, and as mentioned I will communicate your suggestion to our team.

[ErickaMurchison]

Hello, I am wondering if you can help me, I have a new store going live soon and i am looking at adding the tap and chip card machine for when I am doing pop up events. When I created my shopify i used my company name but that has changed now and although everything else on shopify says my new companies name my URL by the sounds of it has to be the one I originally created. Will this show in any way to my customer when purchasing via online or through any payments on the card machine?

Many Thanks

Ericka

[Victor]

Hi @ErickaMurchison,

Thanks for reaching out. Even though the myshopify.com URL you started with cannot be changed, you can add your own domain to the store and make this your primary domain, meaning this is what customers will see when you browse the online store. This should effectively mask the myshopify.com URL of your store from view and your custom domain will be the public URL used instead.

In terms of the POS you should not have any issues, as the URLs on your store are used to access the online store and are not really applicable to the POS. You can check and ensure that your store name is correct in Settings > General, as this is what may appear on some POS functions (e.g. receipts).

I hope this explains things for you, but please let me know if you have further questions.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[George_Greenhil]

Hello guys,

We have just opened a small physical store to go with our online business, therefore, we want to add local pickup allowing local customers to pick up their orders free of charge.

When they get to the checkout to pay, no matter where they're located in the world, it shows the option of free local pickup.

If we're near Birmingham (UK), we don't want to show local pickup to someone over 10,000 miles away in Australia to add confusion. 

For the local delivery feature, you can add a delivery radius of say 10 miles, how can we do the same with the local pickup feature aka. click and collect?

Many thanks,

George 

proteinpackage.co.uk

[Victor]

Hi @George_Greenhil,

Unlike our local delivery option, where you can set a distance radius for delivery,  you cannot set geographic boundaries with regards to the visibility of your local pickup option. Our local pickup feature is based on locations, so if you enable local pickup for a location and a customer opts to buy a product from that location, they will see this as an option at checkout regardless of where in the world they are located. I know that being able to limit the local pickup option to customers in specific areas or regions is a feature request we've been had before, and I'll be sure to add your comments to our feedback log.

In terms of alternative options, you can check out third-party apps that offer a local pickup feature and they may allow for more customization in terms of which customers can see this option. I'd recommend considering Store Pickup Click and Connect and Store Pickup + Delivery, two of the most popular apps that offer this feature.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[Online_Seller]

Some questions and comments around using the POS system in the UK

Feedback:

We have the 'latest' card reader a WisePad3, which seems to be a Stripe card reader which possibly has some level of custom firmware.
Currently this seems to be the only card reader available which is quite surprising as it is not much better than a toy.
The button are fiddly, and the speaker to mark if a contactless payment has gone through is almost inaudible.
It is far from a robust professional product and much closer to a sumup machine that vendors have at a car boot sale.
Shopify really need to up their game in this regard.

We have a Star mPOP till/cashbox/reciept printer.  It is 'OK'.  The print quality of the receipts isn't great.  Also the receipts have the amount printed across the top in bold font, this looks pretty crass.
We can only connect the mPoP to one iPad at a time, so we can't print from multiple iPads if serving several customers.  Something to watch if you are considering this option.

Question:

I'm considering getting a wifi receipt printer, which looks as thought it must be reasonably decent quality given that it is similar price to the mPoP unit and the printer has a single function to perform.
https://hardware.shopify.co.uk/collections/receipt-printers-and-paper/products/wifi-receipt-printer
The reason that I'm considering getting the printer is so that we can print from several iPad POS units.  Can anyone confirm that the wifi printer is capable of having several iPads connect without unpairing/pairing, as you would expect from a network printer.

Thanks,

 Online_Seller

[Victor]

Hi @Online_Seller,

Thank you for getting in touch and for sharing your feedback about the Shopify POS system and hardware here. I can see why you're frustrated with the limitations you've mentioned and I will be sure to submit your feedback to our development team which builds and develops the Shopify POS and the hardware that integrates with it.

In terms of your question, I checked in with our retail team they confirmed that the printer can only connect to one device at a time and therefore we'd recommend unpairing from one iPad before connecting to another. You can read more about the printer and how to set it up here.

[tlh1719]

Hi Victor,

I could really do with someone assistance as we move into the festive period. We are going to be attending a handful of trade fairs over the coming weeks. We currently solely sell online.

We are looking to add POS to our store to assist with this but also understand the Shopify hardware card reader only integrates with iOS and we operate on Android solely. Therefore, we are looking towards Sumup and iZettle to offer a card reader to use on the day but also hear various horror stories about trying to reconcile these.

We currently have a2x integration from our store to Xero to reconcile our Shopify payouts. Does anyone have any insights into this and can recommend the easiest way for us to off card reader payments on the day as this would ultimately make us look more professional.

Thanks

TLH

[Victor]

Hi @tlh1719,

You are correct in saying that you would not be able to connect the WisePad 3 Reader to your Android device, as this is for iOS devices only, and that we do not currently offer other card readers in the UK at this time. You would therefore need to enable custom payments in Shopify POS and use a third-party terminal to accept card payments from customers at your trade fair events. Using a third-party reader still means that the order details—such as the number, line items and customer information—will all still be saved within your Shopify admin for tracking purposes, but the payment itself will be processed by the payment gateway that has provided you with the card reader.

My understanding is that Sumup and iZettle are POS systems in and of themselves, so would likely be best used as alternatives to Shopify POS rather than alongside it.

Please also be aware that the WisePad 3 Reader can be used with most iOS devices, including both iPhones and iPads, so if you or someone involved with the business did have one of these devices you could use it to process payments with the reader.

[JuliaCH]

Hi Victor

I am finding it hard to get a clear answer about  transactions fess for PRO. 

If we subscribe to PRO for $89/month and use Shopify Payments, as we currently do for our online store, can you tell me what the transaction fee would be for an in person purchase using (i) a debit card, and (ii) a credit card. 

I need to compare to cost of using the POS compared to our current system. 

many thanks

julia 

[Victor]

Hi @JuliaCH,

Thank you for getting in touch. If you are using Shopify Payments to accept card payments in the UK, either online or in person, you will not pay transaction fees. There are different card processing fees depending on what your plan is, and whether you're selling in person or online, which are detailed on our UK pricing page.

As an example, if you were using our Basic plan ($29 USD p/m) then you would pay 2.2% + 20p for a credit card transaction processed online with Shopify Payments, whereas the in-person rate would be 1.7% + 0p. The in-person rate applies to both credit and debit cards, and these fees are dependent on which subscription you have for your Shopify store, not which retail plan you are using (POS Lite or POS Pro). You can view a breakdown of the differences between POS Lite and POS Pro on the Shopify Help Center.

If you'd like to tell me what sort of business you run, I'd be happy to discuss our POS options and going into more detail about the features we offer. Please also let me know if you have any other questions.

[JuliaCH]

Thanks for the quick reply!

We are currently using the Basic plan. You say 2.2%+20p for credit cards online and 1.7% in person for credit AND debit cards.

Does this mean than online there is no fee when using a debit card?

[Victor]

Hi @JuliaCH,

My apologies, I did not clarify that properly—the online rate of 2.2% + 20p per transaction for Shopify Payments on the Basic plan applies to both credit and debit cards used at checkout. The 1.7% rate for in-person sales also applies to credit and debit cards.

I hope this now makes sense but please let me know if you've any other questions about our pricing or the Shopify POS.

[Greg0ry]

Hello, is anyone using Shopify POS to run a retail store in the UK? 

Thankyou

[Victor]

Hi @Greg0ry,

Thanks for getting in touch. If you'd like to tell me more about your retail business and what features you're looking for, I'd be happy to talk to you about Shopify's POS system and how it might suit your needs.

You can view an overview of our POS offerings here, including the sort of features that are included and the associated costs. A more detailed breakdown can be also be found on the Shopify Help Center, while you can also review the hardware that integrates with Shopify POS over on the UK hardware store .

[linzal]

Hey, am I right in thinking the card reader in the Shopify Hardware section is only compatible with iOS and there is not yet a card reader Shopify can supply that is compatible with Android?

We have a few fayres coming up and would really like to utilise the POS Lite solution but not sure how we could capture payment? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[Victor]

Hi @linzal,

Yes, that is correct. The Wisepad 3 Reader is the only card reader we currently offer to UK merchants and it is only compatible with iOS devices, and not Android ones. 

You are still able to process payments using an external card reader that is compatible with your Android device and can mark it as a custom payment within Shopify POS. The order will be marked as paid within Shopify but the payment will be processed by the external reader, and details of the transaction will be accessible through your account with the payment provider who has provided the reader. Many payment processors will offer terminals for rent which might be the best option for you if you're only going to be accepting in-person payments on specific days.