Square VS Shopify Development: Which POS is Right for your Business?

Introducing POS Systems The Point of Sale system is a place where the customers complete their payments for the services and products of the e-commerce store. It acts as a central component for the business where sales, customer management, and inventory are merged. It is important to have Shopify Development Company to run the daily operations easily and faster.

Key features of POS:

Sales Reporting 

• Generate a sales report that is based on hour, product, employee, price, retail amount, and profit percentage.
• Provides snapshots and charts of the e-commerce store performance

Inventory Management

• Keep track of the products digitally
• Manage the stock by product variations 
• Define unique serial number for products
• Track the inventory level on multiple locations
• Offers seamless reorders from the best sellers

Customer Management

• Provide sales or transaction report to customers
• Keeping the track of purchase history 
• Gather customer information like name, contact details, age, and special events.
• Use Email marketing  for better customer interactions

What is Shopify? 

Shopify is a famous e-commerce solution that can act as a POS service for retailers. It is cloud-based on software as a service (SaaS) that allows businesses to set their online store and sell products at ease. Shopify development can add multiple pricing plans and features that can benefit the business. Shopify provides integration of various components that helps in business growth.

Shopify Pros

• Shopify is easy to use and small-scale businesses might not require skilled developers for the development of an e-commerce store. It is very easy to add products, process orders, and create discounts as it is user-friendly that offers a drag-and-drop editing tool.
• It is relatively affordable to develop websites. One can choose the basic or mid-level plan for small-scale businesses. 
• It has a great collection of mobile-responsive themes that are free of cost. 
• The dropshipping is much simpler for the Shopify admin
• Shopify offers technical support for phone, email, and live chat.

Shopify Cons 

• It comes with preloaded features but some specialized requirements cannot be covered using Shopify. Many merchants need to spend extra money for better results.
•  Many useful features are not available for free of cost and the owner needs to pay for add-ons. 
• Shopify waives the fees that are added when you accept online payments which are dependent on the pricing plan. 

What is Square? 

It is a technology created to make merchant services and mobile payments easier. Solutions that Square includes:

• Square for retail
• Square stand
• Square Cash
• Payroll services
• Square wallet
• Square point of ale
• Square register
• Square for restaurants
• Merchant cash

Square Pros 

• It has predictable, flat-rate pricing
• It supports low-volume merchants
• It does not have monthly fees
• Square has impressive features
• Affordable chip card readers
• It has tools for selling online
• It has an all-in-one payment

Square Cons

• It is not considered ideal for large scale business
• It has some account stability issues
• It has high costs for big companies

It’s Showtime: Shopify vs Square 

What does Square POS offer?

• Process the check and cash
• Swipe the card without an internet connection
• Set up recurring payments
• Track progress using online payment reports
• Manage refunds
• Add tips and discounts
• Easily set up gift cards
• Create digital or printed receipts
• Send invoices
• Access the tax information

What does Shopify POS offer?

• Accept different payment methods
• Discounts 
• Offline services
• Employee accounts
• Partial or full refunds
• Split the tender
• Report generation
• Inventory management

Hardware

Square does have some advanced offerings in the hardware but it might be costly for small-scale business. It a card reader, receipt printer, cash drawer, and more items that can be availed from Square.Shopify has equipment costs that do not offer free mobile magstripe pursuer. Shopify has a retail kit that incorporates a tap and chip card, iPad stand, dock link, and mounting unit.

Payment Processing

They both provide payment services that accept credit card payments without requiring a merchant account. The Square POS will require square as the payment processor, while Shopify will allow third-party service with additional fees. Shopify is more flexible as compared to Square in the payment method.  

Price

Shopify has five different pricing plans that range between $9 /month to $299/month. The pricing for Shopify POS and e-commerce is not separate and gives access to each other. Square POS is free and users can use it easily but it charges credit card processing fees that depend on the POS hardware that is selected by you. 

Checkout

Both Square POS and Shopify POS allow us to end the customized digital receipts via email or text and physical receipts. They also accept discounts, split tenders, gift cards, partial payments, and store credit. Shopify POS system automatically determines the tax rates based on the business location or shipping zones while Square requires the input of the tax rate.

Employee Management

During the Shopify app development, you need to have a standard or advanced Shopify plan to access the features of employee management. This includes tracking employee performance, creating multiple PINS, and managing register shifts. On the other hand, Square POS has two options for employee management:

• Team Management: This gives access to a set of permissions for a time clock, payroll experts, timecard reporting, and overtime reporting for every location. 
• Team Plus: There are costs decided monthly for each location and gives you unlimited sets of wages rates, some advanced reporting capabilities, and more. 

Final Verdict

When to select Shopify? 

• When you don’t want to pay extra for using the POS application on different devices
• To build complex and large e-commerce websites using Shopify app development company 
• Integrating various features easily into the platform
• To get a secure platform for the websites

When to select Square?

• Already have Square for the payment process
• Sell items online without paying monthly fees
• POS system that has a strong inventory system with offline capabilities and team management. 

In this blog, we shared with you the pros and cons of the Shopify and Square POS system. You can make the correct decision once you know your business requirements and budget. You can hire the best and experienced Square or Shopify Development Company to build your websites efficiently and increase the returns. Reach us now for more services.