Lightspeed Retail Software

The Best POS for Niche Entrepreneurs and Businesses!

Lightspeed came to the rescue when our antiquated, old, no-longer-supported and dying POS system was on the fritz and costing us dearly. They worked with us on implementation and migrating to the new system. They worked with us on payments so that the sticker shock hurt a little less. And when I say they worked with us, I mean they worked with possibly the highest maintenance customer they have ever had. We're an old company that moves slowly and tends to be extremely "cautious" of new technology. Lightspeed was patient. They never pushed, got frustrated, or stopped calling to check on how we were coming. They did several product demos, training sessions, and have spent countless hours on the phone with us helping us get the software and hardware setup and working. They have been with us every step of the way and we now have the POS system of our dreams!

Pros

It is very in depth and detailed. There are so many functions and fields for data entry, recording, ​and tracking. It's in the cloud! No backups! Clean and simple, yet so powerful! Technical support is AAA+++! They're the bomb! Can't believe we tried anything else first.

Cons

It is a bit involved for setup and some may consider it "expensive." All I'll say is that you get what you pay for. For every con, other POS have two or three. And for every con, Lightspeed has a workaround.

Inexpensive & Customized POS System

Pros

The company I set this up for had many different custom needs that other POS systems could not handle. They had a Shopify store and needed a POS system that could keep up. Their store was very large with over 20,000 SKUs that Shopify alone could not handle.

Cons

It took another company to do all of the set up into Shopify and that took a very long time to do. We were not expecting such a long set up of the tool.

Lightspeed Retail Review

Pros

Simple to use, cloud based. Products automatically populate via bar code scans.

Cons

The cost is somewhat high, especially considering how much we use support ( very little )

Aging Cloud Based POS

It is our transaction POS system.

Pros

We like that Lightspeed is cloud based. We also like that it integrates with lots of other applications (scheduling, ecomm, etc). Also Lightspeed is awesome at inventory management.

Cons

Reporting. Lightspeed Reporting is incomplete and very buggy. Yet it is over 4 years old.
As a company they are expending very little resources on making reporting work better.
Their answer is to try to sell you Lightspeed Analytics. An OEM version of Looker.
Yet Lightspeed Analytics appears to have not been updated in over a year.
It is also incomplete and buggy.
Lightspeed management team, you would never accept that quality from your CRM vendor (Salesforce?).
So why do you expect your customers to put up with incomplete and buggy reporting?

Sold our soul to a POS system riddled with issues

Before I even opened my business, I was doing research on which POS system to get. Lightspeed seemed like the best choice because at the time you owned the license and the backend is great. Also, we used Apple exclusively and lightspeed was the ideal choice because they dealt exclusively with that before. Five years later, I regret the choice that I made. It used to be that every time there was an update from Apple, the system would crash. Then we would be one the phone with them for hours to get anything to resolve. But the worst was when we updated to multi-user in the last year as we expanded to a second location. There will be issues that they can't resolve in days. We would run into issues with processing a transaction, to updating a product. Also- there is no help on the VPN which is rather significant when you need to set up two locations and requiring them to talk to each other. All of this which you now have to pay a very expensive support fee for their 'professional' services. The breaking straw was really this week. After calling lightspeed for yet another minor but complicated issue, the customer rep informs me that we have been maintaining our computers wrong by not restarting or letting them sleep. This is after years of them recommending the complete opposite. But of course, they won't send you a notice or anything. Somehow you're just supposed to know. BTW, after all of that, they still didn't resolve the issue we called them for. If you have a PhD in computer programming, this is the POS for you. But if you're anything like the rest of us, choose another system and save yourself the trouble.

Pros

Lightspeed is very easy to train a staff to use. Their functions are massive and you can 'technically' do everything you need to for this business.

Cons

It is quite expensive. Before you can buy the license and 'own' the software while paying for the very expensive support system yearly that costs over a thousand dollars. Now they forcefully switch you over to the subscription model and you still have to pay an exorbitant amount of money but less ownership of your software. There is a lot of headaches involved with very small details. The customer support staff have varying degrees of knowledge so you don't always know what is wrong or how to resolve it on the first call. Since expanding to two stores, the headaches have increased. They offer so little help with setting up or support that you basically have to know lightspeed inside and out to set it up. One small change can fully stop your entire system from working. At one point, an issue delayed our entire issue over several days and our customers suffered along with us. Save your money and buy something cheaper and easier to use.

Agree with others, Lightspeed want your money!! Subpar support!!

Pros

Vendor integration...when it works it works well to import Purchase orders and inventory counts. Helped keep service writing organized and efficient.

Cons

Instead of grandfathering my subscription rate, they pushed price hikes and tried to coerce us into yearly prepaid subscription plans to receive my old rate?? Seriously??

At one point their IT Infrastructure has experiencing widespread outages which affected us enormously (we were on the verge of leaving back then).

We signed up solely due to their Magento Integration, soon to find out they ditched it in favor of their own garbage eCommerce solution.

I think Lightspeed has the potential to be great, but their greed overshadows their implementations.

Their Merchant Partner Cayan is also a SCAM, subpar support, slow responses. Blah!

Bye Bye Lightspeed, Hello Square :)

My new helper

Îm gong on my second year and i have no regrets.

Pros

Apple compatible
Basic reports
The way we manage the products
The easy link between In store and on Line.

Cons

Few features are non intuitive. A few of those are difficult to learn.
Sellers can be insistant
The wifi scanner is a pain

Coudn't do business without Lightspeed!

Overall I love the system and would recommend it to any small business like mine.

Pros

I love how my inventory is synced between my retail and online stores. Lightspeed provides instant reporting to keep track of sales.

Cons

A few too many steps when adding a new product matrix. I also wish I could have more than 12 colours of an item shown on the web site.

Fantastic platform to run the whole business

Fantastic you guys!!

Pros

Good features for money - robust functions and full supply chain management capabilities. quick to get around in and easy to teach others to use.

Cons

Not sure I know of any yet, maybe better functions for invoicing for B2B wholesale for those not on credit accounts.

I’ve used this for years and what do I get.

For the first years it was good and now it’s all about the contract...there are plenty of better services that will not lock you into contracts, have much better web options.

Pros

It’s a point of sale software that has become more expensive extra feature means extra cost.

Cons

Well if you like contract games this is the company for you. If you want be locked in go for it. Oh and my favorite line from there customer support well we have a high que I can’t stay on the line.....

Best E-commerce Software

I will continue and always recommend it to others.

Pros

I really like this software because it enable users manage online and in-store inventories on the croud.
The multi channel retail information feature is very helpful to for me.

Cons

I don't have any difficulty using this software but l think it should be a little more user friendly for everyone to use.

Lightspeed wants your money and does not care about your business.

It is my mission to make sure nobody falls into the trap that Lightspeed sets for it's potential customers. I foolishly signed up for a yearly contract to save some cash as any smart businessman would do. What I didn't realize is that a company needs a POS system specific to their industry because trying to work around certain functions or the lack thereof will slow down the sales process. I realized a little under 2 weeks that this system wasn't right for me so I requested a cancellation of the contract. Considering they offer anyone a free 2 week trial, I thought they would thank me for the opportunity and wish me well in my future endeavors. Especially because I actually put some trust in the company and paid upfront instead of using their 2 week trial with no commitment whatsoever. At the very most I thought they would charge me for a month worth of service at the usual non-discounted yearly rate just to pay for any costs associated with me going through the 2 weeks of service. What came next was a shocker of a response. They actually said because I signed the contract, there was nothing that could be done. What? That's used car sales language. NOTHING? But I only used the system for 2 weeks and you give out 2 week free trials to anyone who asks? NOTHING! But my business will suffer as a result of your system not functioning the way I need it to run. NOTHING! But you guys have a digital product which costs you nothing for me to use and the only expenses incurred by you were the 1 hour of training and 1 hour of customer service I utilized in the entire 2 weeks I used the system which I am willing to pay for. NOTHING!! You signed a contract and that's that!! (Official Lightspeed Motto) After a certain point, they actually told me that it's my decision to use the system or not (well obviously) but they are not giving me back a single Canadian cent. (They're based in Canada). They only care about the almighty dollar (Canadian of course) and the lack of customer concern is mind boggling in this day and age of "no questions asked" business practices. Well Lightspeed, you have my money but you lost my respect. DO NOT USE LIGHTSPEED until you've gone through their 2 week free trial. Even after the free trial I suggest you only sign up for a 1 month commitment to put it through real world scenarios before you fully commit to their 1 year contract because Lightspeed wants their money and you WILL NOT get it back once they have it.

Pros

They have 24/7 customer support, their e-commerce platform is integrated with their retail platform.

Cons

They trap customers in a 1 year contract with no way out. Not designed for the furniture industry but they'll force you to keep using it if you're signed up with them no matter what.

Our full service solution

Pros

We use this product for everything from work order creation/tracking, in-store sales, quotes/invoicing, inventory tracking, purchase ordering, etc. So many features it'd be hard to list them all. Is it the best at everything? No. But at most things it's better than other options

Cons

It is difficult to communicate from within the software with customers/clients. We wish there was a customer portal for work orders so customers can track the status of their repair easily.

Easy to use web-based POS

Generally positive, a much nicer POS than anything we've tried in the cycling industry.

Pros

Very simple to use. Keyboard shortcuts make this web-based POS very simple and quick to use. Ordering and inventory system is great and the integration with multiple vendors makes import or exporting sales orders a breeze.

Cons

We would always have problems with the software defaulting to the wrong retail location since we have employees work multiple locations. Setting the default location in a cookie or something would be very helpful.

“Versatile Software”

Pros

- Software is easy to use and very convenient to the employees to be used. Tracks all inventory and manage to correct mistakes at the same time.

Cons

A little bit issue on this software as the system is sometimes slow and need to have more patience. Nevertheless quality will make you satisfy.

user friendly backed by great support

Pros

Lightspeed is easy to use, doesn't require a lot of training. Any problems we have encountered have been resolved with future updates and their support team have been a phone call away. It's nice to see they are always looking to better their product.

Cons

We have encountered a few problems, mainly with gift card sales and use. these problems seem to get resolved over time with updates.

Lightspeed Retail Review

Pros

> Good in Tracking inventory.
> Good Communication.
> And easy to calculate.
> Easy to use, functional and manageable.

Cons

> Difficult to tracking large inventory but still manageable.
> Experienced Buffering.
> Some hiding saved documents.

Outstanding POS system!

Great company and awesome software. Every software system will have plenty of ups and downs but for the money, this is as close to perfect as possible!

Pros

Super simple to use and setup! Very friendly interface.

Cons

Doesn't communicate well with Lightspeed eCommerce

“Excellent software”

Pros

Great software, simple and easy to train employees on it. It's automates a lot of functions in this stuff.

Cons

Nothing much to say about this software as of now as I don’t encounter much negative about it.

Good POS System but a Little Pricey

Pros

The customer service and setup help provided by Lightspeed is second to none. They can be integrated with WooCommerce, albeit after a few tweaks here and there.

Cons

The system is a little pricey, but they justify it with customer service and functionality. Since you are technically on their platform if something goes wrong they cover it. Still though, a monthly fee, setup fee and er product sale fee.