February 22, 2023
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The Shopify POS iPad app is a great solution for any Shopify e-tailer wishing to move their business into a brick-and-mortar location. It's incredibly easy to use, while not at all skimping on features.
In order to get up and running in your market stall or bricks and mortar shop, here's what you're going to need:
In the UK and elsewhere the autojack card reader is not yet available, so it's not possible to take card payments. See below for more information.
While the Shopify POS app used to only be free for 14 days, it's now completely free for all Shopify merchants! Read on for an in-depth exaplanation on how to use the app...
In the US and Canada, you can use the 'autojack' card reader above to take card payments directly via the app.
Sadly, outside of those countries you'll still need a seperate PDQ machine to take card payments. You can then mark the order as paid from within the app, as explained below.
Type in the URL of your shop in the first field, your email in the second, and the shop's password in the final field. Then hit 'Done'.
Shopify will import everything from your shop into the app.
Once everything is imported, which shouldn't take long, you'll be notified that your store is ready to use. Click 'Get Started' to access it!
The Products tab will be the first thing you see by default. It's here that you process all the orders you receive, which we'll go into shortly.
Clicking on the icon at the top-left with the three blue lines will open up a sidebar, revealing the different tabs available in the app. As you can see, you're currently on the Products tab.
The Orders tab is where all of your past orders will be stored, so you have a detailed record of any sales you've made. I've only just made this shop, so no orders quite yet!
The last tab is the Settings tab, which has 5 sections of its own. The first one, expanded in the above image, is labelled 'General' and lets you choose preferences for your shop, such as personalisation of receipts and whether the screen should lock automatically after a period of inactivity.
The next tab is labelled 'Hardware' and is the place where you configure all the machines that work alongside the app to create your brick-and-mortar shop. The hardware is found via bluetooth and is easy to set up, but if you're having difficulty the app comes packed with a Setup Guide, which you can access by clicking on the blue button at the top right.
The 'Payments' part of your shop's settings is where you decide what forms of payment you will accept in your store. You can switch on or off all the default options, including gift cards, and you can even add a Custom Payment Method such as Bitcoins.
This is where you add all the staff members that will be using the app. Try clicking on one of the staff members' names.
When customising each staff member, you can allocate them a unique icon colour and allow them to choose a pin code that they will use to sign into the app. This will be their own code, so you can track which staff members have been processing which orders.
The final section of the Settings is called 'Register'. Turning on the function available will keep track of the money in your cash register and ensure that it balances!
In this example I've started a bookshop. To add a product to the cart, all you have to do is tap it in the list. As you can see, I've added James Joyce's novel 'Finnegans Wake'.
If you press and hold the product instead of just clicking it, it will open up the image much larger and give you a description of it. This is great if customers want to confirm what they've bought before they pay.
Back to the product screen, I've clicked on The Catcher in the Rye to add that to the cart also. However, I've just realised that my friend also loves this book, so I want to buy a copy for them too. To change the quantity of the product, tap it in the cart and you'll get a pop up where you can edit how many you want to buy.
Also in this popup is the option to add a discount. You can add either a monetary discount or take off a percentage of the item's price. If you opt for a percentage then do note that this is a discount off the product, and not the entire contents of the cart.
A very subtle button on the Products page is 'Custom Sale'. I've highlighted it in the picture above. If you click on this, you'll be prompted to put in more information about the sale:
All you need is the title of the product, 'Jane Eyre' for example, and the price. When you're done, click Add to Cart.
This is how my cart is currently looking, with the custom sale included. Note how bold the total cost of the transaction is.
If you are shipping the items out to the customer, it may be useful to add notes for whatever reason. To do this, click on the icon of the three dots at the top right of the cart, then 'Add Note'.
Type in any notes, and click 'Done'.
Below the button for adding a note is an 'Add Shipping' button, where you can add the customer's shipping address.
You can put in the customer's shipping address here, or allow them to type it if they feel comfortable enough with technology!
The last button here is labelled 'Save Cart'. What this does is archives an order so it's no longer in the cart but can still be accessed at any time.
As you can see, saving a cart totally wipes all the products so you're free to move on until that customer is ready to complete the transaction.
All you have to do is click on 'Retrieve Cart' to load all those previously selected products back into the cart.
It's good practice to save customers when you make a sale. That way, if they return in the future you can process their order much faster, and you can get their email for your mailing list. Select 'Accepts Marketing' if they agree to receiving emails from you.
To take the customer to checkout, click on the bold blue 'Total' button at the bottom of the cart.
Here you will find the payment options that you have previously configured in your shop's settings. All you have to do is click on the one that the customer wants to pay with.
In this example the customer will pay using cash. Suggested payments are provided for this £37.96 transaction, such as '£38.00' and '£40.00'. However, in this hypothetical situation the customer gave you £39.00. You type that in and click 'Done'.
Here, click on the blue 'Complete Order' button.
The app will tell you exactly how much change is due, and give you the option of emailing the receipt to the customer. To do this, just click the blue 'Send' button.
A confirmation notification will pop up letting you know that the receipt was successfully emailed to the customer.
Here is the email receipt in my inbox.
If, for this £12.99 order, the customer wanted to pay just £5 in cash and the rest on their debit card, you can do this. Go to complete the transaction as you would have, had they just paid with cash, and type in whatever amount they are paying there. Then, click the blue 'Add Payment' button.
You'll be given the option to add another form of payment to complete the insufficient funds. Click on the method the customer would like to use. In this case, I'll use External Debit.
The remaining sum of the order will automatically be charged to the second payment method. All you have to do is click the blue 'Complete Order' button at the bottom!
So there you have it, a very useful and very easy-to-use POS app! Shopify clearly designed this with the merchant in mind. It's uncluttered, intuitive, and very simple to train your staff in. Have a play around and you'll get the hang of it in no time!
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