The 6 Best Retail Software To Help Your Business Thrive in 2022

Whether you’re running a small or large retail company, your business depends upon the point-of-sale (POS) system to manage multiple vital operational functions, such as processing online orders and food delivery, as well as retail management.

There are hundreds of software tools on the market, so choosing the right retail software for your business needs careful evaluation and consideration. To help you shortlist the right tool, we’ve created a list of top-rated retail software solutions that have received great reviews by real software users like you.

This report recognizes six products that stood out among 1000+ applications in six retail-related categories to deliver excellent value, according to feedback from thousands of reviews from software users.

Here’s our list of six products, selected based on their appearance in at least three FrontRunners reports—our annual reports that rate the top software products based on user reviews. The products that appeared in the most FrontRunners reports appear at the top of the list.

Clover

Clover

3.8 out of 5 stars

564 reviews

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• Number of appearances in 2022 FrontRunners reports: 4

Clover is a web-based all-in-one POS system that helps small businesses in accepting payments, sales tracking, online ordering, reporting, customer engagement, and inventory management anytime and anywhere.

Here’s what reviewers on Software Advice say about Clover:

Pros:

• “I like that the business can see your profile once you have ‘checked in’ in order to easily give you the points. It’s also very easy to look on the app for other local businesses that use Clover.”

• “The mobile POS option is great and has made navigating the Pandemic and Curbside orders much easier. Another feature I and my customers love is the ability to check-in.”

• “I like the POS hardware compatibility with my bluetooth/phone data plans, PC/Printing equipment and also as an Inventory management since it provides a built-in scanner on the Clover Flex.”

Cons:

• “Plus size of file is limited to 10MB which for the effort I could have keyed in the few items quickly to get to the file limit size. Customer support was painful to interact with and not helpful.”

• “It is very frustrating because there is no knowledgeable customer support. They all act like they are confused and also tell me their system is down.”

• “Customer service is poor. If you find yourself in a situation like we are in, you will be in a panic and desperate to get help and you will get crickets, nothing.”

Source FrontRunners reports that listed Clover in 2022: Online Ordering, Retail POS Systems, Retail Management, Bar POS

CAKE POS

CAKE POS

4.6 out of 5 stars

521 reviews

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• Number of appearances in 2022 FrontRunners reports: 3

CAKE POS is a cloud-based restaurant POS and management system that enhances the dining experience by streamlining operational tasks such as curbside pickup and waitlist management. It helps in guest management, online reservations, payment processing, online ordering, gift cards, and table-side ordering.

CAKE POS

4.6 out of 5 stars

521 reviews

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Here’s what reviewers on Software Advice say about CAKE POS:

Pros:

• “Easy to change user permissions, access reports, and update menu from system, back office, and from any computer or mobile device even offsite. Reporting is clear and easy to use as well.”

• “We don’t spend any time on training new team members to use our POS System (CAKE). Seriously, it’s so easy we show them a few features and they are running it like a pro on day one.”

• “Back end programming is fairly easy to use once you are familiar with it. Online ordering has been fairly easy to implement and has all of the BASIC functions you need.”

Cons:

• “There are very few settings to adjust preparation time for online ordering during peak hours. There is one function that was added to help this problem.”

• “We have a small frustration with how the POS screen aligns the option buttons in ordering windows. It takes us a few minutes to adjust after we change menu items, but is not a big issue.”

• “Sometimes updates would change a feature. After one such change, it became hard for servers to check a little box for “To-Go” to print on kitchen tickets.”

FrontRunners reports that listed CAKE POS in 2022: Online Ordering, Bar POS, Food Delivery

Epos Now

Epos Now

3.8 out of 5 stars

708 reviews

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• Number of appearances in 2022 FrontRunners reports: 3

Epos Now is a cloud-based POS solution for retail and hospitality businesses. It streamlines payments, staff management, table and kitchen management, reporting, stock control, online ordering, and inventory management.

Here’s what reviewers on Software Advice say about Epos Now:

Pros:

• “I like the clock in/out features for payroll. And the style of the til is easy to use.”

• “We purchased this software for better inventory control and its MYOB integration function.”

• “Good variety of features and highly customizeable.”

Cons:

• “I can’t get a detailed end of day report that separates my sales types by-products. Lottery redemption is a huge task and customers complain of wait times.”

• “Worst service, you need waste your time at least 2-3 hours to get in touch with support.”

• “Difficult to set up promotions and biggest problem is not the software but constantly trying to add additional charges unlawfully.”

Source FrontRunners reports that listed Epos Now in 2022: Online Ordering, Retail POS Systems, Retail Management

Pros:

• “I love that Rain POS integrates with a website. I also love that RAIN continues to listen to suggestions and strives to add new features.”

• “I appreciate that I can do so many facets of my business from one platform. POS, online sales, integrated inventory management, emails, and merchant services.

• “I love being able to see what inventory we have, what our customers are buying, being to look back and tell a customer what a fabric was that they purchased.””

Cons:

• “One feature that is extremely helpful in our industry (music store) but missing from Rain, is a Maintenance Agreement/Service Contract module.”

• “At times the system has quirks that are an annoyance to the user and is a low priority fix for developers.”

• “Lack of support and woeful capabilities for multi-store operations.”

Here’s why you should offer click and collect

Click and collect makes the shopping experience more convenient for consumers. They can make purchase decisions from the comfort of their home or on the go, then collect their items at any time. They can also save money with click and collect by avoiding shipping and delivery costs.

But if a better customer experience isn’t enough to convince you to adopt click and collect, let’s take a look at the numbers: When asked how they’re prioritizing different business goals over the next 12 months, 39% of retailers say they are permanently increasing the priority of delivery and fulfillment strategies.

Imagine that you’re a customer who has placed an online order for pickup. Checkout was easy, but then you arrive at the store with no instructions for how to collect your order. Confusion ensues, and you end up spending more time than you hoped to figuring out how to pick up your goods.

This is not the experience you want your customers to have. Statista found that 50% of consumers cite convenience as the main reason for choosing curbside pickup, which means that your click-and-collect experience should be as straightforward and easy as possible.

These are just some of the reasons many retailers (50%) are already using or rolling out cryptocurrency technology and reaping the benefits.