Hi, I’m hoping someone can clarify what the costs will be for me, as the Shopify website seems confusing.
I am in the UK and looking to open a bricks and mortar store with a e-commerce website. Needless to say having an integrated inventory will be vital. I’m attracted to using Shopify for the website (the basic plan seems fine for £25/month), but the physical POS side seems expensive for the hardware, and it’s not clear how much that will cost for subscription on top. Do I have to go for POS pro at an extra £69/month?
Are there any UK based retailers who are using Shopify who can share their experience?
You pretty much have the costs right. I work with a number of bricks and mortar stores that also sell online. To be honest the core Shopify is amazing value at just £25 so it makes the monthly POS seem quite alot. It is however still quite good value for the functionality it gives you. Ideally for a bricks and mortar you do really need to have the pro to take advantage of everything it can give you. Like with anything there are setup costs, so an iPad and a receipt printer are your essentials. You can get these second hand if you want to keep the costs down. You also need to consider what payment solution you will use in-store. Feel free to ask any questions and I’ll help as much as possible.
Thanks for confirming that. In terms of the hardware, I was thinking it was easier to go with a Shopify card reader to reduce the charges. What do I need to look for to ensure the cash drawer and receipt printer are compatible?
You can find a list of all compatible items here
https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/sell-in-person/hardware/supported-hardware/receipt-printers
The cash draw usually plugs into the receipt printer. You will also need to consider if you want to print barcode labels for your products (not sure what you are selling).
Shopify Payments in-store is a great starting point for a new business as it’s easy and accessible. I did drop you a direct message.
Hey @JohnR99
For hardware, you can really consider what you really need. If you have no barcode printed on product tags and operate with small scale, I think you can go with the combo of receipt printer, monitor/ or ipad, cash drawer, payment processors (for card payment).
And with software, start with something small and decent for your need, like online to offline operation, inventory management, order management and support multiple payment methods, handle refund and exchange? For that and cheaper than Shopify POS, I recommend ConnectPOS. You can have a trial on Shopify Marketplace while exploring other options