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Clover is a powerful all-in-one POS system designed to help small businesses streamline their operations. The system offers a range of features, including payment processing, inventory management, employee tracking, and more. Clover's hardware devices, suc...Read more about Clover
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Epos Now POS systems are an effective business management, sales, and payment solution for single-site, multi-site, and online businesses. Popular with retailers and hospitality businesses in many industries, Epos Now POS systems are perfect for cafes, bar...Read more about Epos Now
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NetSuite is a cloud-based business management suite that incorporates ERP, financial management, CRM, and eCommerce functionalities into a unified platform, helping organizations automate core processes and gain real-time visibility into operational and fi...Read more about NetSuite
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Rain is an all-in-one point-of-sale, website, and marketing system for small to midsized retailers. Music, dive, sporting goods, paddle, craft, sewing, quilting, and clothing boutiques will find Rain is an excellent fit for their stores. Features that se...Read more about Rain POS
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Epicor retail POS and business management solutions are designed to help independent retailers work smarter, not harder. With more than 45 years of experience built-in, Epicor retail solutions help retailers in nearly 8,000 locations. Epicor provides power...Read more about Epicor Propello
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Pacific Amber’s AmberPOS offers a point of sale software solutions to a variety of retail specialties, ranging from small to midsized, in the United States and Canada. In addition to point of sale functionality, AmberPOS includes customer relationship...Read more about AmberPOS
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POS Nation is built to support retailers, including specialty businesses such as convenience stores, liquor, wine and beer stores, tobacco and vape shops, lawn and garden centers, and hardware stores. The software comes with all the features you need incl...Read more about POS Nation for Retail
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Rapid POS is a certified NCR Counterpoint point-of-sale reseller and systems integrator providing software, hardware, installation, training, and support for retail stores in North America. The POS solution fits the needs of virtually any retailer, whether...Read more about Rapid POS
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For over 40 years, Paladin Data Corp. has been helping independent retail businesses run better. Paladin point of sale (POS) and inventory management software automates time-consuming inventory chores and provides business owners with the data they need to...Read more about Paladin Point of Sale and Inventory Management
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Lightspeed Retail is a cloud-based point of sale (POS) and retail management system (RMS) designed for retailers of all sizes in industries such as apparel, footwear, bike, jewelry, electronics, pet, sporting goods and home decor. The platform integrates w...Read more about Lightspeed Retail
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COMCASH ERP is a cloud-based retail management solution that caters to multi-channel and multi-location retailers. The point of sale module utilizes multi-touch capabilities allowing users to navigate the menu similarly to the iPad. COMCASH POS module...Read more about COMCASH Retail ERP
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LS Central is a unified POS and ERP software solution built on Microsoft Dynamics technology. It brings together several functionalities in one application such as financials (the Microsoft Dynamics ERP), point of sale (POS), store operations, supply chain...Read more about LS Retail
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RetailEdge is an on-premise, retail POS solution designed for small and midsize businesses. It offers mobile POS, multi-location support, website integration, credit card processing and gift card management functionalities within a suite. It runs on both W...Read more about RetailEdge
Square for Retail is a cloud-based point of sale (POS) and retail solution for all retailers. Key features include inventory management, customer relationship management, reporting and employee management. The solution comes with built-in payment processin...Read more about Square for Retail
PayPal is a digital payment platform that enables businesses and individuals to pay and accept payments through an online portal. The solution is suitable for businesses of all sizes. PayPal provides a one-touch login process, eliminating the need to re-e...Read more about PayPal
PHP POS is a hybrid point of sale (POS) solution that helps small and startup retail businesses across various industries to manage their day to day business operations, interact with customers and process financial transactions. PHP POS can be accessed v...Read more about PHP Point of Sale
Drawing from our firsthand experience in the consignment industry, Ricochet has been meticulously designed to empower store owners for the future. Our comprehensive software solution not only prepares businesses for what’s ahead but also ensures they thriv...Read more about Ricochet
STORIS is an end-to-end retail management suite tailored for home furnishings, bedding, and appliance retailers. It combines all essential retail functions—point of sale, inventory control, order management, warehouse operations, and eCommerce—into a singl...Read more about STORIS
Magestore POS is specifically designed for retailers who use the Magento platform. It syncs data in real-time, so you receive an up-to-the-minute view of your business’ performance across all sales channels. Magestore POS leads to better in-store efficienc...Read more about Magestore
WooPOS is a Windows-based and Hybrid solution that helps small to midsize businesses in the retail industry manage inventory and streamline point-of-sale operations. The centralized platform enables users to record clients' contact information in an in-bui...Read more about WooPOS
Agiliron is an all-in-one Retail Management System which allows you to manage all orders, inventory and CRM records, from all channels, in one place. Agiliron also integrates with many of your existing business tools like Quickbooks, ShipStation, SPS Com...Read more about Agiliron
Authorize.net helps makes it simple to accept electronic and credit card payments in person, online or over the phone. Get solutions that go to work for your business and let you focus on what you love best. Nearly 500,000 merchants. That's a lot of passi...Read more about authorize.net
Alert Rental is a retail management system designed to help rental businesses manage inventory, order dispatching, work orders and other administrative processes on a unified interface. Managers can utilize the drag-and-drop functionality to create routes ...Read more about Alert
POS Prophet Systems (PPS) offers a point of sale solution for retailers and small businesses. POS Prophet Systems is compatible with most brand-name POS peripherals and can be further integrated with Quickbooks or Peachtree to assist with retail accounting...Read more about POSExpress
Mi9 Retail is a retail management solution suitable for businesses in a variety of industries. Key features include point of sale (POS), inventory management, analytics, e-commerce and order management. Mi9 Retail can be used on fixed tills or mobile ...Read more about Mi9 Retail Suite
Your Guide to Top Retail Management Systems Software, July 2024
Software Advice uses reviews from real software users to highlight the top-rated Retail Management Systems products in North America.
Learn how products are chosenExplore FrontRunners
“Usability” includes user ratings for Functionality and Ease of Use.
“Customer Satisfaction” includes user ratings for Customer Support, Likelihood to Recommend and Value for Money.
Reviews analysis period: The reviews analysis period spans two years and ends the 15th of the month prior to publication.
Buyers Guide
This detailed guide will help you find and buy the right retail management systems software for you and your business.
Last Updated on January 27, 2025From a technology perspective, it’s a glorious time to be a retailer. Even the most basic retail point of sale (POS) systems on the market today have evolved into full-fledged retail management systems. In fact, "retail management system" is probably a better name for today’s POS systems, given the many features they offer.
Here’s what we'll cover:
What is Retail Management Software?
What Are the Common Features of Retail Software?
What Are the Benefits of Adopting Retail Software?
Essential Hardware for In-Store Retail Management Systems
Retail Management Software Tips for New Buyers
What is Retail Management Software?
Retail management software is technology that helps business owners drive more sales with applications that include point of sale features, inventory management, retail customer relationship management and more. These solutions often include hardware for payment terminals and can support mobile devices.
Common Features of Retail Software
There are some core features that all retail management systems offer. The complexity and breadth of these features varies between systems, but in some capacity, a retail management system should offer the following five features:
Core Retail Management Software Features
POS/Transaction automation | Automates the assignment of prices to items at checkout and processes payments. Mitigates some human error from cashiers. Adjusts inventory levels accordingly. |
Inventory management | Tracks inventory levels and makes real-time adjustments as products are purchased. Alerts retailers when stock amounts drop to defined level. Allows for more efficient and detailed organization of inventory. Offers reports on inventory movement to spot trends. |
Reporting and analytics | Records and analyzes sales data and business performance and turns it into easily understood reports and dashboards. Incorporates inventory figures as well as other expenses to provide accurate snapshot of revenue leaks or opportunities. |
Stores customer information and purchase history. Enables retailers to track contact information, key dates such as birthdays and anniversaries and preferred items to market to customers. | |
Employee management | Completes tasks such as shift scheduling. Often provides ability to clock in and out. Keeps track of employees’ hours for payroll. Can also assign sales commissions. |
For single-store retailers, a retail management system offering these core features is likely more than enough power to get you going.
For retailers with an online store or more than one brick-and-mortar location, there are some extra features you might want to consider folding into your retail management system. These additional feature could include:
Advanced Retail Management Features
Merchandise management | Enables in-depth structure and organization of inventory management, often broken into assigned stock keeping units (SKUs). Provides analytics for pinpointing purchasing trends. Interacts between multiple stores to create one master merchandise repository. |
Automates the tracking, locating and management of inventory within a warehouse. Commonly includes capabilities such as positioning/locating system for products, order receiving and invoice management. | |
Similar to the retail reporting and analytics capabilities of a POS system, but with increased detail to accommodate larger businesses, e.g., multi-store data integration and analysis. |
Benefits of Adopting Retail Software
A properly implemented retail management system should help business owners drive more sales, better manage inventory, efficiently direct employees and get back more time in the day due to process automations.
More specifically, the benefits of using a retail management solution include:
Increased efficiency at checkout. Perhaps the most important benefit of retail software is the improvement at the point of transaction for both employees and customers. Retail systems integrate with credit card processors, cash drawers, digital displays, receipt printers and barcode scanners to minimize transaction completion times.
Improved inventory and merchandise management. As you and your retailer peers know, maintaining proper inventory levels is a delicate dance. This is especially difficult with little or no software support for tracking and controlling inventory. Insights gained from inventory and merchandise management features provide unparalleled transparency for managing stock levels. For example, bakery software helps manage inventory for ingredients and products used at a bakery.
Actionable customer management insights. Retail CRM applications enable you to learn about and track customers, so you can offer more personalized interactions. Customer databases that house purchase histories, contact information and even loyalty program profiles allow for targeted emails and other marketing promotions. Developing a strong repeat customer base is often dependent upon the effectiveness of your CRM.
Overall increased efficiency and transparency into business. Retail management software eliminates much of the grueling time spent completing tedious manual processes. This gives you time back to spend deepening relationships with customers, monitoring and training employees and optimizing inventory and business performance.
Essential Hardware for In-Store Retail Management Systems
In our breakdown of what exactly a POS system is, we outline some key hardware features that should not be overlooked. These same must-have tools apply to new retail management software as well. Don’t let consideration for the following retail hardware slip through the cracks:
Crucial POS Hardware Components
If you’re looking to upgrade from a POS to a system with more retail management features, you likely already have most of this hardware. If so, you’ll want to make sure any existing hardware is compatible with a new retail management solution.
If this is your first system, you need to get all of these pieces in place.
Retail Management Software Tips for New Buyers
When it comes to reviewing and choosing your new retail management system, the many considerations and options can make it a daunting task. Our survey of software buyers (from a variety of industries) uncovered some effective, commonly-used tactics that work best for building a case and making a decision between systems. The most recommended methods from the survey include:
Research what’s available in the market. Begin by building a baseline understanding of what the market looks like in terms of common features, additional applications, prices, deployment models etc. Keep an eye out for industry terms or jargon that you’ll need to understand when working with vendors. Software provider websites are a good resource for this initial research.
Define and prioritize your business needs. Make a detailed list of what you want your new system to accomplish. Begin by gathering common pain points of current software or processes. Task managers with reaching out to employees to learn what would make their roles easier. Create a formal needs document you can share with vendors to keep the scope of conversation focused on your specific requirements.
Evaluate solutions based on demos and user reviews. Consulting retail software reviews is a fantastic way to start evaluating and eliminating specific systems from the running. Once you’ve narrowed down your choices to a list of three to five systems, you can start participating in software demos to get a snapshot of the different solutions in action and assess the usability and functionality firsthand.