





Integrated POS & website






Supported Operating System(s):
Mac OS, Web browser (OS agnostic), Windows 8, Windows 10About Rain POS
Rain retail software is a cloud-based point of sale (POS) and integrated website solution that is Mac OS and Windows compatible.
Rain is an all-in-one platform designed for small to medium sized specialty retailers that offer sales, rentals, repairs, events, and classes. Rain is typically recommended to music stores, ski and snowboard shops, scuba shops and similar specialty retail segments.
Multi-store capable, Rain’s real-time POS and web store are integrated through a single database, ensuring inventory levels are always accurate in-store and online. With access to Wi-Fi or a mobile hotspot, employees can check or update inventory, make sales, process rentals or work orders from anywhere inside or outside of their store.
Rain POS is P...
Integrated POS & website
Supported Operating System(s):
Mac OS, Web browser (OS agnostic), Windows 8, Windows 10Average User Ratings
Overall
Ease-of-use
4.0
Value for money
4.0
Customer support
4.0
Functionality
4.0
Likelihood to Recommend
Not likely
Very likely
February 2020
Roger from The Drum Shop
Company Size: 2-10 employees
Industry: Music
Time Used: Less than 12 months
Review Source: Capterra
Ease-of-use
4.0
Value for money
5.0
Customer support
4.0
Functionality
4.0
February 2020
Switched to Rain from Lightspeed
Overall pleased with RAIN and glad we made the switch. A bit more thought into easier workflow within the Register, Special Order and LayAway screens and it will be a force to reckon with. I was hoping for an easier eCom experience, but that is not what I received. Much like other POS Systems that offer an integrated eCom Site...building out the site and making it look the way we want doesn't follow the basic HTML buildout process. As a web developer for over 20 years...I find the eCom platform to be VERY challenging to use and often times VERY discouraging. I can see they worked hard to have the functionality be similar to other CMS Website Platforms (Wix, WordPress, etc), but it's too confusing to navigate effectively taking up valuable time.
Pros
Integrated Marketing Automatic "pushing" of items to our Reverb.com Account Lightweight on system resources on our iMac's
Cons
Special Order Workflow is clunky and needs to be simplified. We've resorted to using the "Quote" option to better manage Special Orders and ring in total sales under a "Gift Card" first. That way when working with multiple vendors on a special order, we have easier use of customer funds when "finalizing" the deal. Register is Average and would prefer ability to see cost of products on screen. In Register - when scanning duplicate items they get entered as "new" line item versus adding to the SKU already input. Can't us an IR Gun on an iPad when scanning incoming inventory or during inventory counts. Layaway Screen has some great features, but workflow is a bit convoluted. Website build out is horribly confusing and NOTHING follows traditional HTML processes. This was the same problem with Lightspeed's eCom platform - hard to work with and no sense of workflow.
Reasons for Choosing Rain POS
Price, integrated marketing features and the ability to "push" items to Reverb.com.
Reasons for Switching to Rain POS
Price at first - Lightspeed wanted us to pay 40% MORE than we did previously and provide us less.
December 2020
Travis from Carl's Pro Band
Company Size: 2-10 employees
Industry: Music
Time Used: Less than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
Ease-of-use
5.0
Value for money
5.0
Customer support
5.0
Functionality
4.0
December 2020
Excellent for Music Stores!
Overall we have been extremely pleased with our choice to switch to Rain in 2018 for our point of sale and website. The product is incredibly user friendly, can be used on any device (not tied to a license on one desktop machine like other systems) and support is great. One area other shops have asked us about is QuickBooks exports. We don't use that much, but other stores seem to be very reliant on those exports, which they say are lacking in Rain. Again, not a direct complaint from me, but one that I hear about on industry forums & from direct messages. We were a somewhat early adapter of Rain in our industry and are relatively connected in our industry & repair organization, so we seem to field a lot of inquiries about the program. We have recommended the product to quite a few other shops and want to make sure that it fits their accounting needs as well.
Pros
We've had a great experience thus far using the Rain point of sale program. The initial training was extremely in depth and helped us grasp all of the features before implementation. We love the product integration with Reverb.com and the fact that our inventory remains cohesive across online and in-store platforms. Online & phone support is quick & helpful. Rain has also been very helpful designing and updating our website, which is tied into the point of sale. They are constantly improving, updating and listening to customer suggestions to make their product even better.
Cons
One feature that is extremely helpful in our industry (music store) but missing from Rain, is a Maintenance Agreement/Service Contract module. We were disappointed it was not available when we switched to Rain, since we used that feature daily with AIMsi. We have found some halfway workarounds in Rain, but would like a more robust integrated module. Ideal features would be: MA identifier on serialized instruments in Work Orders module, ability to auto-send renewal emails to customers when their annual MA is expiring, MA batch operations for large inventories of instruments (many of the schools we service have 200-400 instruments that we maintain on MA's annually).
Reasons for Choosing Rain POS
Overall features: website/online platform integration, ease of use, extensive initial training and mobile friendly platform.
Reasons for Switching to Rain POS
AIMsi was very antiquated and not user friendly. Support was spotty and typically condescending. At the time there was no seamless website integration and we were tied to licenses on desktop machines. That is not very useful when we're on the road at a school and need to access our POS.
November 2020
Holly from Ada Music Center LLC
Company Size: 2-10 employees
Industry: Retail
Time Used: Less than 2 years
Review Source
Ease-of-use
4.0
Value for money
2.0
Customer support
1.0
Functionality
2.0
November 2020
Disappointed
It was a rough year and a half trying to operate a business with that many mistakes from their side.
Pros
I liked that the website and the inventory were combined. That people could see in real time what we had in stock and purchase online. That was nice and was one of the main features of why we went with Rain originally.
Cons
We spent a lot of time and money on Rain POS. It was the first online computer software company we ever used for point of sale. I spent an entire year in 2017 logging our entire inventory, coming up with pricing and pictures and history on every item. We went live in 2018 and by April 2019 we were done with the contract side and we closed out the point of sale side by the end of that year. Their inconsistences within the contract module were too high. And every time we called in to tech support, all they could tell us what that there was a "glitch" in the system and they couldn't fix it within a timely manner. I really felt like I was losing the trust of my customers because of Rain's mistakes.
Reasons for Choosing Rain POS
Because of the umbrella effect: It linked our website with our store inventory in real time with our rental contracts. Everything was in one place. Sadly it was too good to be true.
Response from Rain Retail Software
Replied December 2020
Holly, thank you for taking time to share your experience with our POS software. Here at Rain, our main objective is helping small businesses like yours succeed, so the fact that you found us to be detrimental to your store is disheartening. We've been busy in the 12 months since you cancelled and have greatly improved our rent-to-own module. If you like, please contact us to see those enhancements.
January 2020
Sam from Cherry Tree Quilts
Company Size: 2-10 employees
Industry: Arts and Crafts
Time Used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
Ease-of-use
4.0
Value for money
4.0
Customer support
4.0
Functionality
4.0
January 2020
Like Sew POS Review
Overall we are happy with Rain/Like Sew. It gives us an easy to manage Web front end for our store that behind the scenes in completely integrated with our Brick & Mortar operation. Improvements are still needed in many areas - the system is a work in progress regularly rolling our new and improved functionality.
Pros
We bought it for the seamless integration of Web and Brick & Mortar inventory management, sales and ease of use. It works very well for this purpose.
Cons
It is ultimately POS and Inventory Management software with little Accounting functionality. Daily exports to QuickBooks or other software are required, with additional entries in the accounting s/w to accommodate accounting best practices, Taxes on Receiving orders, billing and other financial tasks not accommodated in Like Sew. There are still some issues with Sales, Shipping and Taxes in Canada, and there is no ability to set up multiple price levels internally
Reasons for Choosing Rain POS
Ease of use, simplicity of architecture, direct web integration and an offering specifically tailored to the sewing/quilting industry
Reasons for Switching to Rain POS
WIndward was an excellent ERP level system with integrated accounting, however, it was technically complex, did not integrate easily to a web site, would have cost a significant amount to integrate web and shop data for sales and inventory management, and incurred significant annual/recurring maintenance charges
December 2020
Mary Virginia from Dixie Knits, LLC
Company Size: 2-10 employees
Industry: Retail
Time Used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
Ease-of-use
5.0
Value for money
5.0
Customer support
5.0
Functionality
5.0
December 2020
Love this system!
I can get the reports I need and want. Tech support is wonderful. They are constantly updating and improving the software.
Pros
Product is very easy to use. It's nice that I can put items on my website right from the product page. Web page is easy to edit.
Cons
I wish there were more yarn and knitting notions vendors integrated into the system.
Reasons for Choosing Rain POS
The reps presented the information well. They answered any question I had and were willing to show me on a demo. The nicest people work here.