Inventory Management
Point of Sale
Multi-Store Management
Financial Accounting
Customer Loyalty POS & Offers
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25 Oct
Shopify vs Vend POS vs Books POS – Let’s compare which point of sale software is better for your retail store?
When looking for POS software, don’t only search for a point of sale, but also evaluate it based on your store’s requirements. Vend and Shopify POS are limited to Purchases and Sales. However, BooksPOS focuses on all aspects of the retail business to help you grow.
Let’s look at six important things you need to consider making an informed decision”
Inventory Management
Inventory management is hard. An ideal POS software needs to make complex inventory management easy.
| Features | Shopify POS | Vend POS | BooksPOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unlimited Product Bins inside a retail location | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Delay stock adjustments | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Multi-Store Inventory | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Stock Transfers with approvals | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Inter-location Stock Replenishments | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Advanced inventory reports | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Tag Sales (or Purchases) using multiple vouchers | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Warehouse Management | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Partial physical stock counting | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
Shopify POS lacks behind as it doesn’t offer even basic features except for its multi-store inventory management.
Vend POS however offers you basic inventory management features where you can manage and control physical stock count also.
BooksPOS makes inventory management easier through its advanced features like unlimited product bins, replenishment, advanced inventory reports, and so on. BooksPOS gives you the control you need.
Winner – BooksPOS
Learn more about BooksPOS inventory management ->
Omni Channel
| eCommerce Platform | Shopify POS | Vend POS | BooksPOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Woocommerce | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
Shopify POS is limited to its own Shopify platform. It does not allow you to sell over any other eCommerce platform.
BooksPOS and Vend POS, on the other hand, already integrates with Shopify, Woocommerce, and more marketplaces.
Winner – Tie between BooksPOS and Vend
Point of Sale
| Features | Shopify POS | Vend POS | BooksPOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| End of day report | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| User activity reports | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Advanced controls | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Centralized Inventory | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| User Access Control | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Barcode Scanning | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Split Payments | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Customized Invoices | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Customer Data | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
Shopify POS is good software and offers you basic POS services that small retailers might use. Yet, Shopify lacks many advanced features such as customized invoices, customer data management, and so on.
Vend POS though popular, does not provide you an integrated point of sale features except a few. Using Vend, you will have to purchase add-ons to access those advanced traits. Also, there exist security demerits with Vend POS.
BooksPOS offers you almost all the point of sale self-integrated advanced features like customer management, user access control, split payments, etc. required in retail to help them grow.
Winner – BooksPOS
POS Security
| Features | Shopify POS | Vend POS | BooksPOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Data Privacy | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Secure sales history | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Customize staff access | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
Shopify POS offers you business security with sophisticated features to customize staff access.
Vend POS, the staff that enters new stock items, are also granted access to all your sales history that can reduce your privacy.
BooksPOS allows you to manage your staff access completely. Every part of BooksPOS can be shown/hidden based on user roles as well as specific user permissions. You get to define what each type of user should see when they log in.
Winner – Tie between BooksPOS and ShopifyPOS
Multi-Store Management
| Features | Shopify pos | Vend POS | BooksPOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multi-Store inventory | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Stock transfers between stores | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Single report for all stores | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Franchise management | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Create sub-locations in the warehouse | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Process B2B and B2C orders from warehouses | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
Shopify POS proves futile for a multi-store point of sale system. It offers no such important traits that retailers can use to manage their multiple stores efficiently.
On the other hand, Vend POS provides you primary features for your multi-store inventory.
BooksPOS enhances and integrates with your stores or franchises with its single multi-store POS system with sophisticated features. Moreover, BooksPOS gives you visibility of all your stores in one single report.
Winner – BooksPOS
Franchise Management
| Features | Shopify POS | Vend POS | BooksPOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| MRP Discount | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Revenue Sharing | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Stock Replenishment | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Profitability Reports | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Real-Time Reports | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
Here, Vend’s and Shopify’s POS are on the weaker grounds when weighed for franchise management.
Shopify POS doesn’t support franchise management.
Vend POS provides you real-time reports only for other stores.
BooksPOS allows you to manage all your franchise stores and bill them on MRP discounts or allow revenue sharing. Moreover, BooksPOS also offers advanced replenishment controls, allowing you to see the current stock at your franchisee stores and fulfilling them quickly.
Winner – BooksPOS
Learn more about BooksPOS Multi-Store Capabilities ->
Financial Accounting
| Features | Shopify POS | Vend POS | BooksPOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tax Compliant Reports | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Financial Statements | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Multi-Currency | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Accounting | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Expense Management | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
Shopify POS runs on a weak accounting framework and you will have to use any other accounting software that is compatible with their POS software.
Vend POS accounting has been a hit or miss. Similar to Shopify POS, it is neither tax compliant nor even provides you with advanced accounting.
BooksPOS never lets you down. Accounting comes built-in in BooksPOS. Journal, General ledgers, Financial statements, Expense management, tax reports, etc, everything is included in the software. BooksPOS is the only platform that depicts the true picture of your business.
Winner – BooksPOS
Learn more about BooksPOS accounting ->
Customer Loyalty POS & Offers
| Features | Shopify POS | Vend POS | BooksPOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advanced loyalty slabs and features | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Unlimited price-lists | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Gift Cards | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Coupon discounts | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Product combos | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Offers based on customer’s purchase history | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Club multiple offers on the same product | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Controls to disallow discounting | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Manual discounts | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
As a retailer, you should be able to run smart offers that are unique, resulting in more sales.
Vend POS supports a loyalty program, but a miss is that it only offers gift cards.
Shopify POS allows you to create manual discounts and offer coupons to the customers.
However, BooksPOS does much more. BooksPOS allows you to create custom offers as well as feature-rich customer loyalty benefits and membership options. Moreover, all the offers get applied to your sales automatically with BooksPOS software.
Winner – BooksPOS
Learn more about BooksPOS CRM ->
Get more value for what you pay
Shopify POS for retail needs a Shopify Subscription and an additional $89/month per location.
Whereas, Vend’s POS costs $119 per month.
However, BooksPOS starts with $29/month per device, which is the most affordable option with the best features for small retailers.
Winner – BooksPOS
Transaction Fees
| Terms | Shopify POS | Vend POS | BooksPOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transaction Fee | 2.0% per online transaction | Swiped Rate – 2.90% + $0.30 Keyed-in Rate – 3.30% + $0.30 | No Fee is Charged |
| Integrated Payment | Available | Available | Available |
| Use of POS Payment Provider | Mandatory – otherwise the fee is charged | Optional – the retailer may use his own best payment solution | Optional – the retailer may use his own best payment solution |
| Surcharging | Not Available | Not Available | Available |
Vend POS allows you to use either a solution that it already integrates with or you can bring your own. Also, Vend POS’s swiped rate and keyed-in rate are so costly that a small retailer cannot afford it.
Shopify POS, however, charges a separate transaction fee unless you use their own Shopify Payments.
BooksPOS, allows you to save more by using a payment solution that it already integrates or you can bring your own – either way, it does not take a cut off your sales. Additionally, BooksPOS natively supports surcharging, allowing you to save a lot more on your credit card transaction fees.
Winner – BooksPOS
BooksPOS Value
| BooksPOS’s Features | Value |
|---|---|
| Accounting (Quickbooks) | $75/mo |
| Omnichannel Inventory management | $40/mo |
| Business Intelligence tool | $200/mo |
| White Labelling options | $50/mo |
| API Access* | $250/mo |
| TOTAL | $615/mo |
*API Access is a customs requirement, and there will be an additional cost to using it. The cost depends on a case-to-case basis.
BooksPOS gives more value to the dollar you pay than any other POS software in the industry. With the BooksPOS subscription, you get access to all the features as well as the updates that we release frequently.
Conclusion – Shopify vs Vend POS vs BooksPOS
It is now clear that Vend and Shopify POS though popular, can’t compete with BooksPOS. It is not always compulsory that the well-known one is the only best. You should always look for alternatives before making any decision.
BooksPOS is an all-in-one Retail Management solution for your business. Shopify POS, on the other hand, is a part of a larger Shopify platform which is an eCommerce platform. Though BooksPOS supports everything Vend and Shopify POS provides, it does much more.
Therefore, BooksPOS is the current best POS software in the industry. To know more,
