Announcing the All-New Shopify POS: A Better Retail Solution for Omnichannel Merchants

Right now, merchants are adapting their businesses and embracing new ways of connecting with their customers. Whether they’re new to ecommerce, exploring curbside pickup, or finding creative ways to continue serving their buyers, every merchant can benefit from an omnichannel solution that syncs inventory, customers, orders, and more. That’s why we’re introducing the all-new Shopify POS, a better solution for your clients and users. 

With this new point-of-sale system, apps are easier for merchants to leverage, and omnichannel sales are made smoother. As you help your clients change how they sell, or update your apps to be more impactful, the all-new POS is an ideal solution. In this article, we'll give you an overview of the highlights of the all-new POS for merchants, explain how you can help get your retail clients set up, and explore the new opportunities it presents for developers to build integrations into Shopify POS.

The benefits of the all-new Shopify POS

Running a brick and mortar store is now trickier to navigate than ever before. The all-new POS provides a simpler and more customizable solution for your retail clients.

Below, we look at the different features of the all-new POS that will help your clients better manage their businesses now and in the future. Armed with this information, you can consult and advise your retail clients on their options, and educate on the benefits of upgrading to the all-new POS.

The all-new POS also presents big opportunities for app developers to build new technical solutions and integrations. Let’s take a look.

1. Apps at the forefront

Apps are at the forefront of the all-new POS, making the experience highly customizable depending on the differing needs of your clients. The smart grid interface makes it easier for retailers to spotlight the apps, discounts, and workflows that their staff use most often, right from the home screen. Tiles on the smart grid automatically adapt to what’s happening in the cart, to help keep checkout quick and easy. You can help your retail clients by recommending the right apps for their use case.

For app developers, this also opens up a powerful area to surface your POS apps to users right when they need them most. POS functionality can be extended through apps that cover everything from in-store appointment booking, to foot traffic monitoring, and more. In addition, loyalty and marketing apps using the POS cart app extension are more prominent than ever. 

The need for additional POS capabilities is ever growing, and there are currently only a few dozen POS apps available in the Shopify App Store. Using Shopify App Bridge, you can build for the all-new POS in the same way you’d build for POS classic. Learn more in our tutorial on how to build point of sale apps.

2. A better customer experience in the time of COVID-19

Managing a retail store while respecting the safety of customers and staff during the COVID-19 pandemic is challenging. With the all-new POS, you can work with your clients to create systems that work, while meeting the needs of customers now, and in the future.

The all-new POS includes curbside pickup functionality. This means merchants can create customized instructions for curbside pickup in front of their stores, allowing buyers to shop online and pick up their orders safely, while maintaining physical distancing protocols.

3. More convenience for store staff

Retail is a hectic environment, and convenience is often at the forefront of creating a positive customer experience. To help store staff, the all-new POS includes:

• Global search. To make it easier for your clients and their staff to help customers, we’ve refined the search feature of the POS so they can more quickly find products, customers, and orders across all locations and online.
• Ease of use. The tappable areas of the all-new POS interface are larger, so in-store associates can more easily navigate the system, and keep their attention on the customer, not the technology.
• Better staff management. The all-new POS now includes staff roles and permissions, so store owners can select which information and workflows specific staff members have access to. This protects sensitive information like financial information and customer data without having to restrict usage of the POS system to just some store staff.
• Ship to customers from multiple locations. The all-new POS allows merchants to search for items at different locations, such as their warehouse or other stores, and ship directly to customers from there. To make the sale easy to coordinate, carrier shipping rates are automatically calculated at checkout.

4. Better tracking and display of store performance 

To help your clients grow their businesses, it’s important to be able to track and monitor key performance indicators like average order value and volume of checkouts. This information helps you optimize sales, spot trends, and identify top sellers, so you can further consult your client.

The home screen on the all new POS includes daily sales figures, average order values, and average cart size compared to the week before. Merchants can also quickly identify their best performing products and product types. Having this information on hand makes it easier for your clients to track their performance, and easier for you to spot ways of helping them grow.

5. Ability to create customer profiles 

In the new POS, customer profiles are more detailed. Customer profiles are created with every online or in-store checkout, and further information is added every time that customer interacts again with your client’s store. 

This information can now include lifetime spend, loyalty points accumulated, and other indicators through customizable tags. This helps merchants create and identify target customer segments for marketing campaigns, and personalize interactions with customers to create brand loyalty. 

How to set up your clients with the all-new Shopify POS

The all-new POS is available now, and pro features are free until October 31, 2020. If you think your client is a good fit for Shopify POS, here’s how to get them up and running on the new system.

Merchants who are new to Shopify

You may be eligible for a bounty for recommending POS clients to Shopify. If you submit a lead who ends up launching on Shopify POS and Shopify Payments, you could receive a $500 USD bounty payout. We’ll even help you out by jumping on a call with your lead to detail the benefits of the POS system. 

This offer is available to your clients who operate one to 10 brick and mortar store locations in the United States, United Kingdom, or Ireland, and who are not currently using Shopify POS. See full terms, and submit your request below.

Submit request

For existing Shopify POS merchants

For your clients already using Shopify POS who would like to upgrade, they can follow the following steps to do so:

1. Log in to the Shopify POS app.
2. Go to the Store tab and select Upgrade to the all-new POS.
3. Repeat for all devices that use Shopify POS.
4. Before they start the upgrade, ensure the Shopify POS app has been updated to the latest version on the iOS device. 

Help more merchants move to a modern retail experience

The all-new Shopify POS can help your clients not only adapt to the new business normal, but find ways to even grow and thrive. As a Shopify Partner, you can be part of this change by helping merchants onboard or upgrade to the all-new POS, or by building POS apps that help them pivot successfully and better serve their customers.