TrustRadius Insights for Lightspeed Retail are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.
Business Problems Solved
Lightspeed Retail is a versatile software that caters to a range of industries, including retail, grooming, and lodging. Users appreciate its ability to handle transactions seamlessly in these various sectors. Additionally, the software offers valuable analytics tools that allow users to track purchase history, enabling them to make informed decisions for future offerings. This feature has proven particularly beneficial for businesses looking to grow and improve their operations. Many users have found the inventory control capabilities of Lightspeed Retail extremely helpful for tasks such as conducting year-end inventory assessments and transferring products between locations. By having a comprehensive understanding of their inventory, businesses can effectively manage their stock levels and optimize the use of resources. The ability to implement Lightspeed Retail across an entire company streamlines processes and facilitates quick issue resolution. Users have found it much easier to resolve any problems or discrepancies as all relevant information is accessible through a centralized system. The reports and analytics provided by Lightspeed Retail are highly valued by users as they offer valuable insights into their businesses. By analyzing sales data, trends, and customer behavior, businesses can make strategic decisions to drive growth and boost profitability. The cloud-based nature of Lightspeed Retail offers greater flexibility and accessibility, allowing users to access the system from anywhere without being tied to a specific location or device.
Lightspeed Retail has proven useful in a variety of settings. For example, in a campus bookstore, the software serves as a simplified and modern point-of-sale system, making transactions smoother for employees. It has also been successfully utilized in brick-and-mortar stores across multiple locations and integrated with other platforms such as loyalty programs, Mailchimp, and Homebase. In the context of retail stores like LIJ retail group or pet supply stores, Lightspeed Retail acts as a reliable source of truth for inventory, orders, and customer information across all channels. This holistic approach ensures accurate inventory management and enhances the overall customer experience. Other notable use cases include bike shops, where Lightspeed Retail has resolved previous business problems and offered the convenience of remote access. Similarly, garden centers and animal shelters have found value in utilizing barcode scanning at registers and better stock management without the need for external inventory companies. While some users have expressed concerns about the auto-add feature affecting inventory accuracy, overall, Lightspeed Retail is widely used and trusted as a reliable point-of-sale system that effectively manages transactions and inventory for brick-and-mortar stores. The software has also made it easier for businesses to integrate with other platforms and streamline operations. The integration with LS Ecom allows users to expand their reach and sell products online, opening up new avenues for revenue generation. This seamless integration ensures that inventory and pricing remain accurate across various channels, including warehouses and online platforms like BigCommerce. Lightspeed Retail has also addressed the need for in-house purchases for customers who prefer not to buy online.
As the main point-of-sale system in a garden center or an animal shelter retail area, Lightspeed Retail enables smooth transactions using barcode scanning at registers. Additionally, it assists with record-keeping and reconciling inventory levels periodically. Customers appreciate the convenience of accessing Lightspeed Retail from anywhere, thanks to its cloud-based nature. Its modern interface has simplified tasks for employees, making their jobs more efficient and enjoyable. Furthermore, the software's analytics capabilities have provided valuable insights to users, allowing them to make data-driven decisions that contribute to their business growth.
While some users have encountered issues with certain features such as the auto-add function affecting inventory accuracy, overall, Lightspeed Retail continues to be a go-to choice for various industries seeking efficiency and growth in their retail operations. As a comprehensive solution for point-of-sale, analytics, and inventory management, it offers reliable support for businesses looking to streamline operations and drive success in their respective sectors.
It is a great platform that encompasses a multitude of tasks, all in one place, and is easy to use.
Pros
Inventory Management.
Selling
On Account Sales with Deposits and Final Payment Completion.
Quick Keys in the Sell Screen.
Built-in Timekeeping System.
Cons
Backorder Remaining Items: Bring back the option to print only those items again.
Cross Communication with Add-ons.
Build an accounting system that looks and feels like QuickBooks.
Likelihood to Recommend
The point of sale is fantastic when making sales to customers, receiving, stock control, etc., all around perfect. I would say that the merchant services component could use some other options for providers and hardware.
We use Lightspeed Retail for our museum stores at three different locations. The only challenge we have had is if there is no internet we can't use it.
Pros
Set up from our old POS system was easy
Credit Card fees are minimum
Inventory control
Reporting is easy.
Cons
I am happy with it as it is.
I don't need it to do more than what is does for my stores.
Likelihood to Recommend
Well suited for larger companies who have a lot of inventory and / or multiple locations. Smaller businesses without inventory may use a smaller product.
We were looking for a more simpler and modern POS system to use in our campus bookstore - and Lightspeed has definitely delivered on both of those things. There are less of working in our store than ever before, so we needed something that wasn’t going to make our jobs harder.
Pros
Streamlined and easy to use
Sleek and modern
Easy to correspond between in store
And online portions of the retail
Business
Cons
Support isn’t always the best
We’ve had some history of dips in the system working
Communication about updates is lacking
Likelihood to Recommend
Lightspeed is great for a store that has inventory that is shared between in store and online sales because they are so well connected in the POS system software, whether it is inventory counts, images, etc.
lightspeed is also great if you have items in your store that has variants such as sizes or colors, the system makes it so easy to add these into each individual circumstance.
We use Lightspeed as our main POS system for our garden centre. We don't do much with the inventory side of things but we do use barcode scanning at the register.
Pros
Very very user friendly.
Easy iPad interface that is easy to upgrade to new hardware if an iPad breaks, etc.
On the Advanced plan the reporting is outstanding.
Very easy to train new employees, especially younger employees raised on phones and tablets.
We use their payments system and it's a very easy integration. I believe Stripe is their payment provider.
Cons
Incredibly overpriced. We're paying almost $400 a month ($5K a year!!!) for the advanced edition with one extra register. The problem is that you have to have the advanced edition in order to have any proper sales reporting. The entire point of a digital POS is to track sales and specific items etc. You can't do that with lesser editions.
Online Help is USELESS. You better hope you're tech savvy and can figure stuff out yourself because they will tell you things like "Did you try clicking this button?" Problems can be very complex and the online help has zero idea how to deal with them excpet in infatile terms that are not helpful.
There's constant room for improvements in all sorts of areas and when you point it out, the best you'll ever get is "Ok, we'll send this recommendation off to our development team". And of course nothing ever happens. It feels almost like an abandoned software that just is what it is.
Likelihood to Recommend
Very small coffee shop-style business would be perfect for this. Medium sized business can get away with it but there's probably better and cheaper options. Larger businesses wouldn't bother with software like this.
We use Lightspeed Retail as our point of sale system for our 2,000 sq. ft. retail business, currently carrying over 8,000 active SKUS. As far as basic transactions and inventory management, it does a fantastic job. We also heavily use the customer management features of it, as well as heavy use of the special order features.
Pros
Great for scanning in items
Master Orders for generating purchase orders across multiple vendors at once
Ability to track multiple vendor costs
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.
Likelihood to Recommend
For retail environments with small a smaller SKU assortment and fairly straightforward receive item, sell item needs, Lightspeed is a great choice. When you start to get to larger SKU assortments and more complicated inventory reorder requirements, look elsewhere. Also cloud-based with no kind of off-line support, so bear in mind if you are in an environment where internet connection isn't always fully stable. Label printing is also limited, with very little off template printing support, so if you need more information on your labels than the default, ensure you see actual evidence of it before committing to Lightspeed.
We use Lightspeed retail as our main interface with customer purchases. It is used in all of my locations. It creates more business problems than solves them.
Pros
Robust matrix system
24/7 support
Cons
They have not had major updates to their system in years. The inventory system is stagnant. Although their inventory system is robust, it is outdated.
They do have 24-hour support, however, wait times are excessive and representatives have challenges understanding your issues.
Trying to get issues resolved can take months or never at all. Management is non-existent. Trying to reach a supervisor is impossible.
They have a culture of telling you what you want to hear but have no intentions of actually following through.
Lightspeed is a great solution if you are a small business just getting started. But if you are intending to grow and expand, Lightspeed will become detrimental to your growth.
The reporting/analytics is basic at best. They do offer paid options that are very expensive, but it is very robust. The basic reporting is very minimal.
Likelihood to Recommend
If you are a very small business just doing it for fun with no intentions of growing or expanding, Lightspeed is a perfect solution. If you are more entrepreneurial and want to grow, Lightspeed will only hold you back. I highly recommend Lightspeed though, if you are just doing it for fun.
We use Lightspeed Retail to complete transactions for retail, grooming, and lodging. We now have the analytics to track purchase history so we can make better decisions with what we offer in the future. The inventory control side is very useful for year-end inventory and sending product from location to location.
Pros
Inventory control
Analytics
Ease of use
Cons
Some equipment is expensive
“Lightspeed payments” needs a lot of work
Wish they had a few mor plug ins
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.
It's used across the entire organization, and it's the source of truth for inventory, orders, and customers.
Pros
Inventory management: it's not great but it's the best in class. Think "the least bad option."
Sales: it works well here, but don't use their payments system. It's overpriced and doesn't offer chip/pin.
Reporting: if you buy the advanced reporting package, it can work well, but is still limited, as all canned reports are.
Cons
Special orders are poorly organized.
SQL connectivity is non-existent if you just want to dump to a SQL instance somewhere to do your own reporting.
Open connectivity to e-commerce platforms: they want to force you to use their e-com platform, which is awful and non-standard.
Likelihood to Recommend
To be honest, it's the least bad thing out there at that price point. If you need to run a single or multilocation retail store in the mid-single-millions of revenue, it's fine, but definitely not something I'd look at for 5+ locations or 20+ mil in revenue. At that point, it's time to move up to the big boy options.
We use LS Retail as a POS system for our retail store which includes processing sales and keeping track of inventory. Our loyalty program, Mailchimp and Homebase are integrated and we also use LS Ecom to sell online.
Pros
Extremely good customer service.
Constant cloud-based improvements.
Easy to integrate other programs.
Great online sales integration.
Cons
Would love to be able to offer our gift cards in LS Ecom.
Likelihood to Recommend
Lightspeed has been just perfect for our retail needs.
Lightspeed Retail is being used in our brick and mortar store. It's currently tied in with our warehouse and BigCommerce to keep inventory and pricing accurate. We have it set up on 2 iPads that we have set up with our register. It addresses the need for a separate way for customers to ring up their purchase in house since many of our customers don't like to buy things online.
Pros
Cash drops
Inventory item searches
Discount management
Cons
I feel it needs the ability to charge a "restocking fee"
I would also like to be notified ahead of time before updates are made
The work flow when using the "pin before each sale" feature could be a little cleaner
Likelihood to Recommend
Well suited for a retail store that has thousands of different items and categories. We are able to use reports and analytics to help groom our store to stock what the customer is actually buying.
You do need to have a staff that has at least a little bit of tech knowledge sometimes but overall it's a rather easy system. I can't really think of a setting that it wouldn't work in.
VU
Verified User
Account Manager in Product Management (51-200 employees)
