Lightspeed offers powerful POS systems for the retail and restaurant industries, with a greater focus on retail in the US. Whether you use Lightspeed Delivery for your restaurant or Lightspeed eCom to sell products, you’ll get the same level of detail and functionality. Accounting integration with Quickbooks takes just a few clicks. You can also manage special orders and discounts from your Mac or iPad and include special touches like branded receipts.
Pros
- Original analysis of product, sales and employee management.
- There are no setup fees
Cons
- High monthly costs
- Customer complaints about software failures
Here’s Why Successful Businesses Choose Lightspeed
“We’ve been using Lightspeed since it was first introduced. The company is fantastic to work with small businesses and really care about small businesses. The software continues to evolve and seems to get better and better with each update. I would recommend it to any small business that wants to be as efficient as possible and wants an outlet that can grow with them.”
– Ray’s Bike Shop
“Lightspeed Restaurant is extremely easy to use and offers excellent customer and technical support. “Lightspeed has many POS formatting options, which is a plus for any restaurant.”
– Hive Café Solidarity Cooperative
“Lightspeed is like your most important employee. Manages your entire business for you. Now I can focus on what Exclucity will be like in 5 years, 10 years. I am 1000% confident that we will continue to expand and grow.”
– Exclusivity
Why Go With Lightspeed
Lightspeed is a business management tool for the retail and service industries as well as a powerful POS system. A restaurant POS allows you to create floor plans to match your restaurant’s seating plan, control access to the system among your staff members, and the ability to create and edit your menu online. You can print your orders anywhere and send information seamlessly from your front desk to the kitchen. Special features for different types of businesses are what set Lightspeed apart; for example, the integration of bar accounts for nightclubs or the separation of accounts for cafes and restaurants.
What’s On Offer
While some platforms serve only one industry, Lightspeed has many different functions for different industries. That means the roles available can vary widely, from retail to restaurants, and even within specific verticals within each industry. They include:
LightSpeed Retail.
- Import your shares to the online platform with one click
- Create discount codes
- Use tables to update product data
- HD product display
- Choose from customizable eCommerce templates
- Create points-based reward systems with Lightspeed Loyal
- Allow customers to create wish lists
- Arrange deliveries through eCom back office
- Integrates with shipping apps like EasyPost and Shipstation
- Improve marketing with integrated SEO tools
- Create newsletters and send email alerts
- Websites are available in up to 14 languages
- Track performance with weekly sales reports
Lightspeed Retail is generally best suited for businesses with physical inventory that is sold in whole units. Businesses whose products are priced by weight (such as candy stores, soft drinks, and gas stations) or sold in fractional quantities (such as fabric stores) have proven to be less compatible with Lightspeed, as have resale shops (which product has no skus). ) and service-based companies (those with no physical inventory).
Lightspeed Retail typically works best with the following types of businesses:
- Clothes and clothing stores
- Sellers of sports goods and shoes.
- Gift, toy and hobby shops.
- Vape and smoke shops
- Wine and liquor stores
- electronic stores
- Jewelry stores and jewelry repair companies.
- Pet stores and pet supply stores.
- Home decoration and furniture stores.
- Any other business with physical products sold in firm units.
Lightspeed Restaurant:
- Create custom menus with photos and menu descriptions.
- Adjust floor plans so everyone can see them
- The kitchen screen allows you to create visible kitchen plans
- Create individual staff profiles
- Process pick-up and delivery orders
- Access data, menu and ordering system from mobile devices
- Monitor progress with real-time reports
- Create individual staff reports to track hours and performance.
- Get an overview of sales and cash register activity with end-of-day reports
No matter what you use Lightspeed for, you can expect many more features, including:
- Multiple bidding options
- Inventory management with extensive customization to individual product/part inventory tracking. You can also group products for group product sales and promotions.
- Purchase order management to track suppliers and purchase orders, product management, shipping corrections and warranty/customer return events.
- Employee management with key employee time clocks, employee sales, customizable roles, and more
- CRM functionality to better engage current customers, prevent churn, manage customer data, and more.
- Work order management
- Versatility for location and transport between warehouses, plus mobile POS/kiosk functionality for trade show events.
- There are also various integrations including QuickBooks, Xero, NimbleSchedule, Booxi and MailSync or MailChimp.
Additional Lightspeed POS integrations and add-ons include:
- Accounting program
- Loyalty rewards to integrate with CRM related software to track and reward customer behavior.
- Scheduling online employee time tracking, including vacation time requests and shift changes.
- E-commerce integration so you can use your own web store to sync data between platforms
- Rental management for retailers that rent equipment such as bicycles or tools.
- Email marketing to use platforms like MailChimp to drive customer engagement and drive return purchases.
More Reasons to Choose Lightspeed
Lightspeed is technically a cloud-based POS platform that is hosted on Lightspeed services and automatically syncs with every device you use. If you are using a desktop device, you can also access Lightspeed through the browser interface. This is not necessary if you prefer a mobile or tablet experience. The iOS app can be downloaded to your iPad to use as a POS device.
Either way, you’ll need additional hardware to pay, including a cash register and printer, as well as integration with a retail barcode scanner. Because it can work in both formats, Lightspeed sells all peripherals in bundles if you don’t have one on hand. This includes your choice of iPad POS Kit (drawer, stand, plug-in scanner, receipt printer; iPad not included) or Desktop POS Kit, which includes painting, USB scanner and printer. Like the iPad, you must have your own computer.
Because of the browser interface, you don’t have to use Apple’s desktop products. This gives you more freedom in the environment in which you work.
Ease of Use
Both front-end registration and back-end management tools are very easy to use. Like many iPad solutions, it’s beautifully designed and involves a very small learning curve. You will be guided through the desktop or iPad software to add inventory and manage payments. There are also many customization options for inventory, analysis and design. The iPhone app is also easy to use, although you can’t use it to accept payments.
Whether you’re working tables with guests or serving a long line of customers at a big event, you want your POS to work effortlessly. Lightspeed offers an extremely intuitive design that is easy to operate on both the front and back.
Since it’s primarily browser-based, installation and setup is a simple step-by-step process with a wizard that walks you through the setup from start to finish. Control functions are strategically grouped by category on the back, making all important information easily accessible instead of being buried in multiple menus.
Whether you’re working on the front or the back, the buttons are easy to push with clear, concise instructions on functionality and progress through the sales process. It is almost impossible to get lost in the menus. From product management to employee management, this POS platform is easy to customize and use… and fun to work with. Once you get the hang of it, it feels effortless.
What’s Unique About Lightspeed?
Lightspeed comes with hundreds of pre-made printable reports that you can customize as you like based on date. Reporting is essential to running a business, and Lightspeed definitely delivers. The platform allows you to view total revenue or margin profit, track the effectiveness of promotions, schedule and assign tasks to employees, perform day-ends and much more. Lightspeed’s advanced reporting features include a variety of responsive widgets so you can create a visual dashboard of the elements most important to running your business. In addition, any report can be exported to an Excel spreadsheet.
In addition to advanced reporting, it also offers opportunities to sell services alongside physical products. This extends the use of Lightspeed beyond retail to any service-oriented environment, such as oil change shops or any other business with service and repair orders.
Customer Support
Lightspeed has 24/7 support through its toll-free phone number and contact form, as well as live chat. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable, and you’ll get absolutely free installation help, as well as free updates with all the support you need to learn any new features. With secure cloud backup, you’ll never risk losing customer data or important inventory information.
Pricing (Software and Hardware)
*Prices are for annual payments. If you choose to pay monthly, the rates will increase.
All Lightspeed retail plans include a POS system with payment terminals, while benefits begin to accumulate with the starter plan. For example, the Starter, Standard, Advanced, and Professional plans all include e-commerce capabilities. The top 3 tier plans (Standard, Advanced, and Professional) also include accounting tools, while higher tiers also include customer loyalty tools and analytics.
Restaurant POS is offered at a basic price, although users have the option to add upgrades such as customer-facing displays, advanced reporting, and self-ordering table menus. Premium add-ons include accounting, loyalty apps, self-service kiosks and delivery integrations.
Contract Terms
Lightspeed has a free 14-day trial so you can try out the POS before committing, making sure it’s the right solution for you, and then you’ll be offered a long-term contract to get the lowest prices on a monthly basis. The standard term is 14 months. For hardware, Lightspeed offers its own 30-day warranty, which is then rolled over to the manufacturer’s warranty.
Bottom Line
Lightspeed wins with features, with specific systems for retail and restaurants, as well as specialized options for subcategories of the restaurant industry, such as cafes or bars. You can choose your own powerful integrations from over 250 partners and purchase all-in-one hardware solutions directly.
If you need to balance an efficient and intuitive interface with high functionality for front and back of house, Lightspeed is a great choice. If you are a small business or a startup, this is probably not the right option due to the high cost.