Best Footwear & Shoe Store POS Software of 2026

Updated January 27, 2025 at 9:59 AM

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Buyers Guide

This detailed guide will help you find and buy the right footwear & shoe store pos software for you and your business.

Last Updated on January 27, 2025

Footwear is difficult inventory. A single shoe in three colors in standard sizes and widths could be as many as 108 different stock keeping units (SKUs). There may be matching accessories, which may also be in colors and sizes. Then there are special orders for the styles and sizes that are not in stock. There are even shoes that can be dyed to match the color of a particular outfit. Shoe sales are fiercely competitive; programs to encourage customer loyalty are common. So, shoe stores are adopting electronic communications as part of maintaining customer relationships.

Because of the complexity of the inventory, order entry and inventory receiving are critical functions. Payroll is standard, although commissions sales are the rule. Accounts receivable, accounts payable and general ledger are also standard. While most systems are premises based, software as a service (SaaS) is a small but growing option for retail shoe store systems.

There are some interesting customer relationship management (CRM) issues. Usually, one of the benefits of being a supporting member of the organization, for example, a contributing member of a museum, is a discount at the gift shop. Another factor is subscription sales. Some gift stores sell limited-edition items; patrons can subscribe to the items and receive a notification when a new group is in stock.

Here's what we'll cover:

What is Footwear and Shoe Store POS Software?
Common Features of Footwear and Shoe Store POS Software
Market Trends to Understand

What is Footwear and Shoe Store POS Software?

Point of sale (POS) software is a business management solution for retailers that helps them manage their inventory control, point-of-sales operations and retail accounting operations. POS software allows users to manage both in-store as well as online purchases and transactions.

Most of the products offer a barcode scanner integration that allows retailers to read product information using the barcode labels. This functionality enables faster and efficient checkouts at the payment counter. Some vendors in the market also offer POS hardware along with the software set, which comprises of cash registers, a printer, customer screen and barcode reader. Alternately, users can also choose to deploy their software on their personal devices, such as PCs, Mac computers and iPads.

There are both cloud-based and on-premise products in the POS software market. While cloud-based systems offer ease of use for non-technical business users, the on-premise systems offer lower costs for long-term use.

Common Features of Footwear and Shoe Store POS Software

In addition to the core accounting functions, footwear and shoe store operators should evaluate the following functions to meet their unique requirements:

Size, width and color matrix	The key to a successful footwear inventory software system is a matrix of modifiers. The general description is entered once and the sizes, widths and colors are listed as modifiers to the basic description. The inventory must track each item as a separate SKU and maintain separate reorder points.
Accessory coordination	Many shoe makers provide matching accessories, such as belts and handbags. In other cases, different manufacturers make accessories to “coordinate” with shoes. The inventory and POS system should list matching accessories on hand and available as special orders.
Customer relationship management	Because of competition from online, warehouse and department stores, shoe specialty stores have aggressively adopted CRM. In particular, they are adopting social networking by establishing Facebook pages and tweeting coupons to registered customers. The system should also track color, style and designer preferences to notify customers when new shipments are due.
Customer loyalty program	As part of CRM and to further solidify customer relations, many shoe stores have customer loyalty programs. The store system should track sales history and monitor loyalty program points awarded and redeemed.
Prescription management	If the shoe store offers orthopedic supplies, the system needs to track prescriptions for clients and doctor contact information. The system should also notify customers if prescriptions should be updated, for example, as children grow they need to have their prescriptions changed.
UPC database	Because of the large number of shoes, other footwear and accessories from numerous vendors, the system needs to provide a catalog of products and UPCs. The catalog must be updated frequently or better yet, available online.
Split tender	The system must be able to accept payment over several different methods. For example, a customer may want to pay with cash and two different credit cards. The system must properly apply the split payments to the correct ledger accounts.
Package sales	The system should support combining different inventory items into a single package. The POS should treat the package as a single SKU, but correctly adjust the inventory level for each item.
Inventory images	Since many shoes are similar, the inventory system should show pictures of the inventory. Advanced systems will be able to show each item in the inventory in all available colors.

Market Trends to Understand

The landscape of footwear retail is constantly changing due to advances in both POS hardware and software technologies. Below are a few trends that are shaping up the footwear and shoe retail software market:

E-commerce integration: According to the NDP Group, a market research firm, footwear and shoe retail market alone accounts for 23 percent of total online sales in the United States. This poses a significant business opportunity for shoe retailers to sell their products online. As a result, many vendors in the market have started offering website integration in their product offerings. Some products also allow users to set up an e-commerce website to manage their online presence.
Gift cards and loyalty programs: Gift cards have become highly popular gifts in the past couple of years. Gift cards, therefore, occupy a vital space in the retail marketplace. Leveraging this trend, POS software vendors are offering loyalty programs and gift card integration. This trend is expected to pick up further as the gift card market completely transitions to online mode from the traditional paper format.
Tablet POS: This software helps users conduct transactions using their tablets. Tablet POS is gaining popularity as an alternative to traditional hardware-based POS solutions due to the lower costs and ease of use. Also, it’s more convenient to use tablet POS applications than mobile POS software because of the bigger screen size. More and more stores are expected to offer this feature in the future.