NCR CounterPoint is a retail management solution, from NCR Corporation. The software features point of sale, an inventory management system, customer management, and reporting and analytics.
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ShopKeep
Score 7.0 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…
We interviewed quite a few systems while researching a POS replacement for our current retail store. We had things like a second store, a fully integrated website, accounting system integrations, inventory management, restaurant-style ordering integrations, etc. in mind as we …
It is a definite solution for a basic store point of sale, we prefer Ingenico card swipes and Epson receipt printers and have had great, reliable success. We have setup the same system at events with VPN connectivity to its server and it works very well with the only bottle-neck being connectivity, this did cause a 3-8 second delay with receipt printing, but was manageable. Mobile tablet in store works well with credit card sales, and can print wirelessly, cashless here is best. Inventory managem[e]nt is vast, with terrific reporting.
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.
Offline mode -- your POS server can go down - you can still ring sales. Your internet can go down, and you can still ring sales and accept chip-based credit cards. Wow.
Mobile and wireless. Mobile -- you can take your POS on the road and ring sales out in the field, at trade shows or at a flea market booth. Wireless inventory, and order picking - you can walk around the store and ring sales, perform inventory, pick orders, intake items, edit pricing, print labels, etc. Again - Wow.
Magento integration -- with the help of a 3rd party connector, we're integrating our CP system tightly with our Magento based website. This keeps us working out of one system with multiple channels.
E-Plum scale software integration -- we can update prices and information within our scales with this integration, right out of CP
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 interviewed quite a few systems while researching a POS replacement for our current retail store. We had things like a second store, a fully integrated website, accounting system integrations, inventory management, restaurant-style ordering integrations, etc. in mind as we made our way through that process. We also made our way around the area to see what other retailers - similar to us - were using as a POS system. After much deliberation, many demos and conference sales calls, we settled on NCR CP because this system did everything we wanted and so much more. But perhaps the biggest reason why we went with NCR was the local support availability. There's more than one player in that field available in the greater NYC area, and we are very happy with the current support team but we also know that should we want or need to, we can switch support to another team, and have no issues going forward. That was a big part of this decision for sure.
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.
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.
