Likelihood to Recommend It is perfect for any small business looking for inventory control, Tracking purchase history, and just an all round easy to use software for retail and beyond. I would not use it if I have only a few hundred items or was a larger company that can afford to build my own POS software.
Read full review No solution is perfect, but I would say that Thrive is a particularly robust and complex solution that's intended to tackle major demand management and inventory forecasting problems. Smaller companies simply won't need a solution that's so all-encompassing. I would recommend waiting unitl you know that you need it before moving forward with a solution like Thrive.
Read full review Pros Lightspeed Retail has great reports that are very easy to read and understand. Lightspeed Retail is great to train new employees on because of its ease of use. There are not lots of different things that you have to learn just basics. Read full review Cloud-based, accurate forecasting system saves lots of time and can tangibly boosts ROI Robust demand management down to the SKU level Optimized replenishment prevents too much money from being tied up in inventory Read full review Cons With a larger SKU assortment size, the software really starts to struggle with doing physical inventory after scanning in a few hundred items. Several times throughout each year Lightspeed went down on us (not our internet connection but actually Lightspeed verified). Special order system could use a lot of modern improvements (ability to schedule ahead of time, etc.) Reports are very basic, and will likely require there Lightspeed Analytics to actually get reports useful for day to day operations. Weak system for receiving purchase orders. Does not handle items and cases for reordering very well. Have used multiple Point of Sale systems in the past 10 years that allow to set reorder points based on single items, but reorder the case automatically, Lightspeed has no support for this. Read full review Although it's simpler than many alternatives, it's a highly complex system and at times we felt lost during the transition period. We didn't get the results we had imagined when looking at their case studies and marketing materials. I understand many factors go into those things, and their case studies are not necessarily indicative of typical results, but your mileage may vary. Inventory replenishment alerts about potential stockouts weren't always reliable. Read full review Usability Very easy to use and figure out without calling customer support which is also very responsive and helpful.
Read full review Support Rating I gave the rating of a 9 because ninety percent of the time when I talk to their support they're very helpful. One of the only real issues I have is there are times where the queue will be 7-9 people deep. When you have an error you don't know how to fix, sometimes this is very troubling. But overall their support is usually quick and friendly.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Lightspeed is faster, sleeker and more modern than our previous POS system. I can’t express enough how easy the online store portion of Lightspeed is - it just intuitive and sometimes, is TOO easy, I feel like I have to be forgetting something. Lightspeed is staying modern and current where our previous POS was not
Read full review Abas ERP was what we had used previously, and though it did its job adequately, it lacked the forecasting, demand management, and inventory replenishment sophistication of Thrive. We reached a point where we felt it was untenable to supplement the previous system on our own which necessitated the switch to Thrive.
Read full review Return on Investment Certainly has saved money on cash-outs/ accounting due to QuickBooks integration. Faster processing through tills means happier customers and more sales per hour. Expensive product at $5K a year has taken away some profitability for this small business. It's way, way over priced. Read full review We were able to reduce the amount of resources tied up in inventory Forecasting tools meant significantly less time spent trying to wrangle spreadsheets The transition was painful, causing initial doubts, but it was certainly worth the growing pains Read full review ScreenShots