This article emphasizes the importance and requirements for a coffee shop POS. There are many factors to consider when searching for a POS for your coffee shop. Finally, this article includes an overview of several options for a coffee shop POS.
How Does a POS Help Your Coffee Shop?
A POS system is an absolutely essential tool to operate your coffee shop. You can process a variety of payment methods with a POS, and you can use it to facilitate other operations, such as inventory management.
What to Look For in a Coffee Shop POS
Fast and Easy to Use
Your POS system must be fast, efficient and convenient. You want customers to enjoy their experience in your coffee shop and want to come back the next day. Therefore, it is crucial to have an easy-to-use and reliable terminal with which your employees can easily take customer orders. This also allows you to train your employees quickly on the terminal.
Allows for Integrations
A good coffee shop POS allows for various helpful integrations, such as inventory management, employee management, and reporting. These will enable you to use one easy-to-use system to manage and improve various aspects of your business.
Variety of Payment Options
Allowing your customers to pay in a variety of ways is essential. Over the past few years, providing your customers with a variety of ordering options, such as online and contactless, has become more important.
Additionally, you want your POS to be able to accept a variety of credit cards or other forms of payment, such as Apple Pay. Finally, you do not want to lose customers because your system cannot process their credit card.
Customer Facing Screens
Systems that have customer-facing screens are also crucial for improving customer experience. Your customers can see how their order is being taken and can fix any errors that arise from your staff mishearing them. This way, you spend less time and money remaking orders, and your customers avoid annoying inconveniences.
Durable Hardware
A busy coffee shop can quickly become a high-spill and drop-prone work environment, and you need POS hardware that can handle this. Durable hardware is a must as you do not want to stop taking orders just because some coffee spilled on your POS hardware.
Kitchen Display System
Hardware should also include a kitchen display system that eliminates the need for paper tickets. This feature is helpful as paper tickets that can be easily lost or damaged when your coffee shop is busy. This also allows your business to cut back on its paper usage and allows your staff to clearly see an order rather than try to interpret a paper ticket with small font or stains on it.
Customer Loyalty and Rewards Programs
To maximize the potential of your coffee shop, you want customers that come in day after day. You can accomplish this goal with a POS system that allows you to use customer loyalty and rewards programs.
With these, you can offer customers coupons, discounts, deals, and other perks that make them want to come back in. This is an absolute must for any POS system that you are considering for your coffee shop.
Options For a Coffee Shop POS
Square
Square is an excellent choice for a POS system since it is easy to use and provides your business with remarkable flexibility. You can easily use third-party equipment, and there is no need to sign a long-term contract with Square.
You can easily set up customer facing displays with Square and enhance the workflow of your coffee shop. There are also numerous integrations available with Square. You can also accept a wide variety of credit cards and payment options, such as online ordering.
Square also has a very easy-to-use system that allows you to efficiently train your staff and includes numerous service tiers for you to customize your POS as your business adapts and grows. For these reasons, it is quite a popular tool among coffee shop owners.
Square has limitations as some of its software integrations are not the most robust. Square’s inventory management does not go into ingredient level detail, and the reporting is not the most detailed. Additionally, some of Square’s hardware is not very durable and could break easily in a coffee shop.
Clover
It is straightforward to customize clover to the needs of your business as they offer a wide variety of payment hardware for you to choose from. The equipment is easy to use and set up and allows you to start processing payments right away. You pay the same rate with all cards, which makes reporting and cost predictions a lot easier for your business.
An added bonus of Clover’s POS is the fact that it can operate effectively without WiFi. No need to stop taking orders if your internet goes down. Clover’s handheld terminals also allow your staff to take orders from customers without paying for an additional large terminal. This is especially useful if you have a long line at your coffee shop.
Lightspeed
Lightspeed POS allows you to train employees on its system very quickly. In addition, it operates very efficiently, allowing you to process many orders in a short amount of time. It also can integrate well with third party systems providing you with more options to customize your system.
They have excellent customer service that can assist you with any issues you may come across. Additionally, the reporting and inventory management is top of the line. It allows you to make your coffee shop as efficient as possible. Lightspeed’s customer management features are also ideally suited for a coffee shop.
Lightspeed also allows you to install your hardware yourself and will enable you to accept online orders easily. Its hardware is not the most durable and may not be suited to a spill prone environment, and there is a one year contract requirement.
Payline
With Payline, you have a wide variety of options for POS as we operate on several different systems, including Clover. You can choose among this wide variety to find the best fit for your particular needs in both hardware and software.
Payline also operates seamlessly with numerous integrations. For example, suppose you need customer rewards programs, reporting, inventory management, or other integrations. In that case, Payline can work with you to get the specific tools your business needs in order to succeed.
In addition, Payline can process a wide variety of transactions both in person and online. This way, you will not have to turn away a customer because you cannot process their preferred payment method.
We also offer excellent customer service to ensure that your coffee shop does not lose any business due to any technical malfunctions. We also offer a free trial for you to try out Payline on your own terms and require no long term contracts. At Payline we want you to work with us because we help you, not because you signed a contract forcing you.
Price Comparison
| Payment Processor | In Person per Transaction Cost |
| Square | 2.6 + 10 cents |
| Clover | 2.3% + 10 cents |
| Lightspeed | 2.6% + 10 cents |
| Payline | 0.4% + 10 cents |
