Overview
What is Lightspeed Retail?
Lightspeed Retail is a retail PoS system from Lightspeed headquartered in Quebec. Core retail POS features are expanded on higher service tiers with ecommerce option and payments gateway, an accounting system, and a customer loyalty program.
Lightspeed saves us time and money!
Great simple software, WAY overpriced
Great retail point of sale software for smaller needs, but be careful!
Lightspeed POS
Great POS software for any small business
It's good enough.
Has made our retail life much more easy and efficient!
Lightspeed Retail - Get your store moving!
Great POS System for all Applications
Lightspeed Retail
Great but could fix one big thing
Lightspeed: best investment for starting a small retail business.
Lightspeed is a pretty good POS system
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
Basic
$79.00 ($69.00)
Starter
$119.00 ($99.00)
Standard
$139.00 ($119.00)
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Product Demos
Textem - Using Text'em within LightSpeed Retail
How to text in a Lightspeed Retail Workorder | Lightspeed Essentials
LightSpeed Retail Request API Key for Kosmos eSync
Lightspeed Retail POS Demo: Getting started
How to text in Lightspeed Retail | Lightspeed Essentials
Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Lightspeed Retail?
Lightspeed Retail Video
Lightspeed Retail Integrations
Lightspeed Retail Technical Details
Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
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Operating Systems | Unspecified |
Mobile Application | Apple iOS, Android |
Frequently Asked Questions
Comparisons
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Reviews and Ratings
(31)Community Insights
- Business Problems Solved
- Recommendations
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.
Based on user reviews, users commonly recommend the following for Lightspeed:
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Explore additional options to add value: Users suggest exploring additional features, such as Analytics, to enhance the subscription and get the most out of the system.
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Utilize reporting and setup features: It is recommended to take full advantage of Lightspeed's reporting and setup features in order to optimize data management and analysis.
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Try out the free trial before purchasing: Many users highly recommend taking advantage of Lightspeed's free trial to experience its versatility and user-friendliness firsthand before making a purchase decision.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-4 of 4)Lightspeed saves us time and money!
- Streamlined and easy to use
- Sleek and modern
- Easy to correspond between in store
- And online portions of the retail
- Business
- Support isn’t always the best
- We’ve had some history of dips in the system working
- Communication about updates is lacking
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.
- Retail and Ecom interconnectedness
- Strong online store customization
- Ease of use at checkout
- I have to spend a lot less time training my employees because Lightspeed is so easy to use!
- Keeping track of our inventory is as simple as clicking a few buttons.
- Our online sales have grown tremendously since changing to Lightspeed
Great simple software, WAY overpriced
- 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.
- 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.
- Ease of use.
- Cheap hardware.
- Integration with QuickBooks/ Mailchimp.
- 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.
- Great for scanning in items
- Master Orders for generating purchase orders across multiple vendors at once
- Ability to track multiple vendor costs
- 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.
- Sales transactions
- Purchase Orders / Master Orders
- Special Orders
- Easy to set up compared to other Point of Sales systems, if you have your data ready to go, you'll be up relatively fast with Lightspeed Retail.
Lightspeed POS
- Robust matrix system
- 24/7 support
- 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.
- Inventory control
- In the beginning, they were great! But as we grew they did not.
- They have become a hinderance to our growth.