The Epicor Eagle N Series is Epicor's present comprehensive retail software system built around features such as multichannel sales, a point-of-sale system, and inventory and merchandising management.
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ShopKeep
Score 7.1 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
ShopKeep is an iPad point of sale system; The vendor says it is intuitive, secure, affordable software that helps merchants run smarter businesses. The product optimizes staffing and inventory, while offering sales reports and customer information on a cloud-based platform. The product includes low-cost, integrated payment processing, as well as point of sale hardware. According to the vendor, ShopKeep has 23,000 customers, and a customer…
My area covers our general ledger accounting. Let me tell you how much I appreciate that Eagle will fully track the entire journal entry of a sales transaction! Our previous ERP provider did not track the Cost of Goods Sold and Sales Tax portion of a sales. It was really labor-intensive to fill the missing gaps. Switching to Eagle N Series has saved the company up to 40% in various labor costs because the reporting is accurate and detailed.
ShopKeep can maintain up to 10,000 individual stock items. This is perfect for a cafe, coffee shop, wine bar, small retail store, etc. If you're inventory exceeds the 10,000 items then it may not be a fit for you. Also, ShopKeep works with Apple tablets only (iPad 2 or later). If you prefer Android or PC based tablets then this won't work for you.
Mobile applications like Mobile Manager, Mobile Lookup, and Pricing Planner put resources in the palm of your hand to use in the store, at trade shows, or at your competition.
Eagle N has powerful promotional tools with Dynamic Promotions to keep your Marketing fresh and current.
By combining Compass Analytics with Eagle N you can create almost any query, simple of difficult. This powerful tool lets you simplify difficult research, you can easily find a customer's receipt from ten years ago.
Functions like ITR (Inventory Tracking Record) ICL (Inventory Change Log) let you quickly determine the electronic history of a sku. It allows you to see what, why, how and who changed a record.
ShopKeep provides solid pre-sales support. They did a pre-sales screen-share demo that helped us ensure that their system would handle the needs of the business, and they assisted us in making decisions around which hardware would be appropriate.
ShopKeep's hardware seems well thought out and well integrated. One exception is issues with the connection between their recommended iCMP credit card scanner and the register. Other than that, the hardware works well together.
The register has excellent configurability and customization capabilities, and handles a large variety of products easily. High-volume products can have their own buttons on the register. Products can be added to a purchase by using these buttons, by scanning a bar code with an integrated bar code scanner, or by doing a live text search.
The register is also easily configurable to handle product options - either multiple options like pizza toppings, or exclusive options like regular or decaf coffee.
The ShopKeep system can handle hybrid retail/quick serve/restaurant scenarios with grace. This was a factor that eliminated many other systems that are optimized for one or the other, or where the products for handling retail are completely separate from the products for handling quick serve/restaurant operations. Since this customer has a location where there is a quick serve counter, a restaurant, and a retail gift shop all in the same location, ShopKeep's ability to handle all of these kinds of transactions from the same platform is a powerful advantage. ShopKeep also recently added functionality to transfer open tickets between registers, so that if a customer starts out with a cup of coffee at the quick serve counter, their ticket can be picked up and added to at the gift shop if they wander in there to purchase items.
ShopKeep has a Back Office system that can be accessed through any Web browser, or through their mobile app. The Back Office system is used to import and export data, manage inventory, configure the iPad registers, set up product options, manage employees, and report transactions, sales, product costs & margins, and other data.
Discounts, returns and credits are relatively easy to handle from the register, and the system can be configured to require a manager to approve these kinds of transactions, or not.
Bulk imports and exports are handled well by ShopKeep's Back Office. When setting up initial inventory, products can be added through Excel, then imported as comma-separated values (CSV) files by uploading them through the Web browser. Once inventory is established, adding or modifying items can be done directly through the Web interface.
ShopKeep has a mobile app that can be used by owners or managers to remotely access real-time snapshots of sales and other important data whenever they wish.
Eagle N series is a great tool. It really compliments the Eagle 4 Windows. The additional features are really nice to have. You can never have too much information. It helps me make better, wiser decisions. Eagle N allows compass functions without having to leave what function I'm in and see the additional information. GREAT TOOL!
Because we expect the current issue with the credit card reader disconnecting from the register to be solved with an upcoming software update, and we like many of the features of Shopkeep.
There is a lot of information provided in Epicor. From Simple viewers to detailed information for the owner of the company, there is a lot of information. Also, let me mention, the Audit information. From a simple sku change to deletions, everything is recorded in an audit trail. It really helps to stop a thief or simply help you see what you did so you can undo it. Epicor also has a great security system. Their security bits allow you to decide who can perform what function. There are a lot of options to the funtions. This allows you to customize functions to your operation. We are not all alike!
The register functionality is excellent, both from a learning standpoint and an operations standpoint. Cashiers learn how to use the register quickly, and the registers can be configured with hot buttons for fast-moving products. Setting up product variations and additions is straightforward. The web-accessible Back Office has good features, but lacks enough granularity to provide a store manager with the ability to modify inventory settings without giving them access to all of the financial reports as well.
When I call in for support, they connect to my problem, view my computer with me and walk me through a solution and fixing the problem. They educate you and explain in simple terms what they are doing, how and why they fix it. This way, you understand and feel more confident moving forward and I am more efficient using the functions next time. They really are very patient.
Occasional long waits [5 minutes or more] or call-backs needed for telephone support. Email support replies usually take several hours. Support personnel are generally friendly and knowledgable.
The process, from my point of view, was handled very well. It was a smooth transaction with lots of support both on site and by phone. All questions were answered and everything was explained each step of the way. A lot of information and support were provided including decisions on options and securities.
If moving from a "dumb" cash register system, spend all the time needed to get starting inventory and product costing and pricing correct. Shopkeep has good tools for reporting inventory, margins, and other critical business info, but the information is only useful if the starting figures are accurate.
We were already Eagle customers when a guru from our parent company recommended we switch some of the computers on the system over to N Series. Now that I primarily use N Series, it is especially when I find myself on a computer that does not have it, that I realize how much more intuitive N Series seems to be set up.
ShopKeep is an inexpensive choice iPad POS system that comes with all of the tools needed to do business without any long-term contracts or expensive fees. It also offers free 24/7 phone and email support along with online live chat during business hours. Coffee Shop Manager offered some of these items, but they also tied you into a long-term contract and you were charged fee after fee for support, etc. Also, the CSM system was big and took up a lot of space compared to ShopKeep's integration with an Apple iPad tablet.
Epicor does provide almost a real time reporting dashboard so we have insight into our sales data and numbers necessary to make price changes if needed that have affected our bottom line and GM.
Our insight into certain products and the cost drivers continues to improve with the GM detail capabilities in business advisor.
ShopKeep didn't integrate with my accounting software. I had to double enter all financial data.
Without inventory controls, all of my financial information was inaccurate. It is impossible to grow a business without accurate financial information.
