Lightspeed Retail Reviews

Pros

I moved from Lightspeed to Clover and it's night and day. I had to piecemeal the Clover system on the back end to be useful and Lightspeed hands you so much. I've since added more and more of the Lightspeed system like loyalty because their tools are amazing. One of the best parts is their customer service. You get quick answers and they go above and beyond. Whether it's something as simple as why isn't my shipping working on ecom or how can I verify my website with the different social media platforms, their FAQs and customer service team never disappoint. If you are thinking about switching, do it. You won't regret it. It's made me more efficient all around. Thanks Lightspeed!

Cons

Lots of different options so it takes a bit to determine what you need to use.

Alternatives Considered

Square Point of Sale, Shopify POS and Revel Systems

Reasons for Choosing Lightspeed Retail

Clover wouldn't allow me to do a website. Lightspeed integrates inventory on the brick and mortar and ecommerce sides.

Switched From

Square Point of Sale, Shopify POS and Revel Systems

Reasons for Switching to Lightspeed Retail

Best integration of inventory, ease of use, I liked all the different standard things the system had like inventory POs, employees, special orders, and more.

Pros

The sales tools are very easy to understand and enable us to train new employees quickly on the software. The software also makes managing multiple store locations easy and centralizes order and vendor information for our product managers to use across the company and analytics and insights that the software provides is essential to master the merchandising and inventory needs of our store.

Cons

While Lightspeed offers excellent analytics tools and integrations, most of them come at an additional cost which may be a deterrent for smaller businesses. If you aren't planning on investing a great deal of effort into the growth of your business (i.e. more locations or omnichannel sales) than you may be better served with another option. Also, while there are several integrations and API connections available for the system without designing custom solutions, some POS systems offer greater scalability and integrations with software like third-party e-commerce management tools. When moving away from Lightspeed's products for solutions such as this, costs can quickly add up.

Alternatives Considered

Revel Systems

Reasons for Switching to Lightspeed Retail

We prefer that Lightspeed POS is a cloud-based system that can run on a desktop computer as opposed to Revel's iPad operating system. Also, Lightspeed offered greater flexibility in selecting merchant solutions like payment processors and credit card transaction equipment.

Pros

When it was Shopkeep.
It has only gotten worse with every update.

Cons

They buy out the competition and change the system to a new hybrid version every other year.

Pros

It seems to have everything in one solid platform

Cons

This System DOES NOT work with Android which I was never told!

Pros

It is easy to use as you can search for the individual items and put items in categories. It also enable us to put in modifier on each item with additional price too

Cons

Very expensive compared to other POS. Only if the report format can be modified to be a little bit more simpler

Pros

Love its ease of use. Cloud based makes taking it on the road to do mobile events a breeze for payment processing and inventory management.

Cons

Could have used a little more help importing our inventory but after I figured it out it was easy to do.

Alternatives Considered

eTailPet and Retail Pro

Reasons for Choosing Lightspeed Retail

It was expensive to maintain and use and not user friendly customer support was the worst.

Switched From

Retail Pro

Reasons for Switching to Lightspeed Retail

Ease of use. Products can be searched via product number, skew number, upc or item description.

Pros

nothing at all, i do not like this software

Cons

Loyalty program, discounts are hard long and aggravating to set up, customer service takes a long time to respond,

Alternatives Considered

Square Point of Sale

Reasons for Choosing Lightspeed Retail

I wanted a more user friendly POS, smaller, more easily accessible

Switched From

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise

Reasons for Switching to Lightspeed Retail

Because the other ones would not take CBD sales

Pros

The System was very use friendly and I am sad to say I will have to go with another company because the customer service was so poor.

Cons

Customer service is worse than anything we have experienced with more than 20 years in running a business.

Alternatives Considered

Epos Now and GoDaddy Website Builder

Reasons for Switching to Lightspeed Retail

Functionality and features. Retail and E-com in one package.

Pros

We have been using Lightspeed for our retail firearm business and this has been very helpful for us in monitoring our sales and inventory. This is great for small businesses like us and priced reasonably.

Cons

None that i can think of. Lightspeed has been great for our business.

Alternatives Considered

Square Point of Sale

Reasons for Choosing Lightspeed Retail

Better in inventory management, control and audit for Lightspeed

Switched From

Square Point of Sale

Reasons for Switching to Lightspeed Retail

Better in inventory management, control and audit for Lightspeed

Pros

Easy to use and set-up. Customer support is great. You are always talking to a real person and they always answer your questions or solve your problems.

Cons

There have been a few bugs every now and again. I would have liked some more one on one time when setting up our system.

Alternatives Considered

Lavu POS, TouchBistro and Oracle Primavera Cloud

Reasons for Switching to Lightspeed Retail

The weren't pushy. They let us decide. There was always someone there to talk to. Webinars were great!

Pros

Nothing
In theory, the reporting
In theory, the inventory management

Cons

Over promised
Under delivered
Zero communication

Pros

Nothing, I really have no positive things to say about Lightspeed Retail.

Cons

Apart from the fact that it is cloud based which caused so many connectivity problems (constantly unable to even connect to make sales) it also apparently means that Lightspeed owns all of your data once you no longer have a good standing account with them. What I mean by that is that once you no longer have lightspeed service, you can no longer look at your sales data without paying a $50 a month per location fee to access sales info. If a report didn't completely transfer when trying to download a csv file of a report, to bad. You don't get access to it any more.

Pros

LS Retail is smart, accurate and quick. Inventory management is great, and reporting is comprehensive. This is everything we need to efficiently run our business. Being a cloud based system, we can track the business remotely.

Cons

LS Retail (coming from LS Onsite), can be a little clunky at first, however once you understand the work flow of the system, it all makes sense.

Alternatives Considered

RepairShopr

Reasons for Choosing Lightspeed Retail

LS Retail is more powerful, and is cloud based, meaning no more backups required!

Reasons for Switching to Lightspeed Retail

The Lightspeed Retail platform made more sense

Pros

Being able to always be connected to our point of sale via my phone or computer, no matter where I am has been crucial. With Lightspeed being cloud based, I can work from anywhere I want. I am able to ring up customers on my phone if needed, create purchase orders from trade shows, and stay connected to customers at all times.

Cons

There aren't any real issues that we have had with Lightspeed. They are continuing to improve the workflow with Lightspeed eCom which will only make the overall package even better.

Alternatives Considered

Square Point of Sale and Shopify

Reasons for Choosing Lightspeed Retail

We needed something easy to use, something cloud based, and the ability to completely integrate with our website. Lightspeed made this possible for us overnight.

Reasons for Switching to Lightspeed Retail

Shopify seems to be build for a website instead of a retail brick and mortar shop with a website. Lightspeed is perfect for a retailer who wants to take their business online and grow.

Pros

Lightspeed is easy and efficient to operate. From training new employees to hectic busy days, Lightspeed reduces human errors and allows our staff and business to achieve their fullest potential.

Cons

As a relatively small business, it would be nice to have different register modes for convenience without purchasing an add on register.

Pros

Lightspeed is very user friendly and easy to teach employees how to use it. The reporting is top-notch and they even can help you create custom reports which was very important to us. Customer service is excellent and always very responsive.

Cons

It would be great if it came with a built in CRM or integrated with one like Salesforce. It's great for franchisees, as a small business, but for the franchisor it may not have all the functionality needed to roll it out to the entire corporate system.

Alternatives Considered

Epos Now, Odoo, PHP Point of Sale, Clover, QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise, ERPLY and Revel Systems

Reasons for Choosing Lightspeed Retail

Opsuite is not very user friendly, reporting was very lacking and clunky, and for what you get it's very expensive.

Reasons for Switching to Lightspeed Retail

Had all the features we needed at a great value.

Pros

Is very flexible, can be made pretty (if you can figure out the documentation), and does interface with other modules

Cons

The company, the company attitude, and the support it provides to paying customers. The experience during the "Sale" was filled with promises of support and help to move from a new account to a finished "Go-Live" product. Unfortunately, the Lightspeed platform is highly proprietary and therefore, success for most is dependent upon satisfactory support from the company. Here, they fall short of success and short of the promises made. When attempting to work with the company, they fall short again, lacking any of tier 2 or 3 technicians needed to satisfy anything more than a basic question. This leaves so many of the customers without any real ability to make use of what they were sold. This is a company predicated on "Sales", "Sales Pitches" and "Promises", but fails to deliver on what was promised and paid for.

Pros

The integration with xero accounting has been a true time saver for my business. It transfers all sales data at the end of the day seamlessly so I don't have to. The ability to use the front end off site has been super helpful as well as it doesn't tie me down to the store and I can do a lot of my work on the go. Creating products, invoicing clients, setting up the main screen custom to what I want is extremely simple once you run through it once.

Cons

Theres a few simple features that are missing from the PoS software which I would like to see integrated and would make it hands down the best in the industry for small businesses.
1) Getting an integrated payment terminal that accepts chip, pay pass and swipe options would avoid any mistakes between manually punching in the amounts on the debit/credit machine and would avoid any back end work after the day closes to be able to balance the day
2) Allowing me to enter the details of the invoices (supplier name, invoice number, total amount being paid, gst, pst, etc.) that are being paid out on a daily basis and having that information transferred to xero would alleviate tons of paper work after the close of the day.
3) There is no way to pull out a month end statement for corporate clients that pay their account once a month. Checks have to be cross referenced manually with the bills that have been put on tab. You should be able to at the very least select which tab invoices are being paid from the list of invoices on the clients account. This would show which ones are outstanding at a glance rather than having to refer back to the paper invoices that the system creates.
4) A front facing screen to display pricing of items being charged, advertisements, and other information is something I have been asking for since day 1 (3 years now). And I would love to see this feature incorporated.
5) Having the ability to offer a discount for a bulk purchase is something that should be automatic.

Pros

it's pretty easy, the inventory entering is easy, sales are easy. Reports are good, although none of them integrate, you have to pull 3-4 reports to get what you need unless you upgrade to way more $

Cons

This is an app based program, so there are definite issues using this with an iPad, which is how we run our retail store. The gift card has been a problem from day one which we have reported many time and have an open ongoing unresolved case. We purchased the gift card from the company they recommended and they both point fingers at each other, meanwhile it is a nightmare for our customers who have to sit & wait while we figure out how to make their return or issue a gift card. Still not resolved. The cache fills up and you have to delete the app and reload it or certain functions do not work, like getting a new customers name in the system. The last thing you want to deal with is deleting an ap and reloading it. Customer service on management level is incredibly slow to respond if they ever do. The day to day service is very responsive.
The rep also over sold us the program and sold us 2 registers and so we over paid $1,000 a year for 3 years until we caught it. Never heard back from upper management regarding a credit or a few free months.
They are very responsive when you are up for review though! ALSO beware of their own integrative payment processing that they tell you will save you a lot of $, not really true.Get it in writing. First of all they will take their fee right off the top daily, so forget trying to reconcile your statement with your daily reports. You will get paid for Wed, Thur & friday the following Tuesday...so your cash flow is delayed. Way slow!!!!!!

Alternatives Considered

Clover and Shopify

Reasons for Switching to Lightspeed Retail

5 years ago it was the best option.

Pros

It's a relatively easy system to navigate. Permission settings are acceptable. Reporting is decent but all very basic unless you purchase Analytics. We use the software for multiple locations but keep separate inventories at each location. We can easily see inventory at other locations, transfer inventory from store to store effortlessly. Creating inventory items is easy as well as setting up pricing rules. Able to customize receipts, labels, and transfer paperwork with some HTML knowledge. Sales are smooth as well. Split payments are pretty easy and relatively intuitive.

Cons

No really good way to do rentals. We are a tennis shop and rent/demo racquets. We had to come up with our own solution.

B2C eCom is great - and can use the existing inventory; we have it set up as a separate location so we can see all inventory across eCom and retail - until you want to add B2B. It's difficult and expensive to add B2B and have it work the same as eCom. We learned, much later, that we need to have a separate website, a separate database of inventory and we would not have visibility into this inventory from our retail or eCom side. Huge disappointment. The eCom module is not native to LS. They purchased the product and have integrated it into LS - so their APIs won't even allow you to have that visibility.

Support is good for the most part. Simple things, but, holy smokes the printing!!! First, you have to use Firefox to get the printing to work at all. But Firefox constantly loses the printer default settings. So swithching printers throughout the day between labels, transfers, receipts...causes Firefox to throw up allover the printer settings. This happens daily, sometimes several times during the day. It's ridiculous. Support doesn't give a good answer - they tell us to follow the documentation. But that doesn't fix anything. Many times during the day we have to go back into the Firefox configuration and reset the default printer. Painful.

Pros

Nice user interface. Good features for a shop that does service work. Cloud-based software makes it easy and convenient.

Cons

Our bike shop has been using Lightspeed for 5 years now, first with their Mac based software, and then with their cloud based software (Lightspeed Retail). There are many great things about the software, but on the whole I would not recommend a small business owner to hitch their cart to this company. There are significant bugs, inventory control is a disaster, but worst of all, fundamentally Lightspeed does not care about their customers. What Lightspeed cares about is their roadmap which in most cases doesn't deal with fundemental issues that their customers have been bringing up for years - if you have any doubt on this, look at their "ideas" page where top voted on features and requests have sat dormant for years.

My frustration has boiled over due to an issue with the way their inventory system works, and the way their customer service team has responded to my pleading that they at least give me an ETA on a fix. Here's the backstory: Lightspeed does a very peculiar thing which is that it will auto-add inventory if a product is sold but does not exist in inventory. Not only this, but Lightspeed will auto-check-in inventory off of POs if a product is sold. Now this in and of itself is a disaster as far as accountability is concerned: how is one supposed to track POs when product mysteriously gets checked in! But the worst part is that there is a bug in their system which will auto-check-in product off of POs if product is put into a work order. Doesn't matter if said product is sold or not, it will check-in the product regardless, causing a nightmare scenario where we are trying to figure out what POs have truly been received, and which POs Lightspeed has decided to receive automatically.

I brought this issue up for the first time around 6 months ago, and never got any solid response on a fix. I contacted support in April again. After a lot of back and forth about whether this was a real problem (like I love spending time contacting support) the support tech Derrick agreed that this was an issue. I asked for an ETA. No ETA was available.

I followed up a month later in May. Still no ETA, but Derrick assured me this was a priority, but also assured my significant problem that is causing myself and my staff time and frustration and vigilance and additional systems and workflows to remedy is "an extreme edge case scenario so I'm curious about how it could be causing you significant workflow issues."

So now we are in July. This supposedly "high priority" "extreme edge case" bug is still not fixed. No ETA. No communication. Since we started experiencing this issue Lightspeed has stuck an e-commerce link in the middle of the navigation bar and continued to work on integrating their e-commerece into every other cranny of the software, even if you don't use their e-commerce. They've added a new feature called Analytics which costs additional monthly fees. Their API is still slow and unsupported. Their App marketplace is effectively a Potemkin village of fake apps with no real syncing with the silo that is Lightspeed.

The promises of a cloud based POS are so great, but Lightspeed does not deliver. If you are looking to invest time and energy in a retail POS platform, I would strongly encourage you to look elsewhere. Lightspeed looks very slick on the surface, and it is quite good in many ways, but the underlying company culture does not put their customers first.

Pros

The check-out system is nice and easy.
For multi-locations it is helpful to see sales and inventory in one place.

Cons

-there is no flexibility in the system. The way Lightspeed wants you to see and retrieve your data is the ONLY way you can get your data. And their way 90% of the time is not relevant to the basic needs of a retailer to analyze and evaluate their business.
-Customer Service is not responsive. The company does not seem willing to listen to complaints or provide work arounds to the rigidity of the system.
- The eCom site is FULL of problems that they do not have a handle on. There are many limitations with the way you have to present information on the site.
-It's very expensive for what you get. I was willing to pay a premium for a system I was told would exceed our needs and expectations. For the 2 things it does well, there are 98 headaches.
-They do not offer refunds or a way out of your contract if you are unhappy.

Pros

Onboarding and setup was a breeze - After signing on, we were tasked with a tutorial and onboarding process which, at times, was drawn out, but VERY helpful. It was a great learning tool and incredibly useful. They offered additional resources, but given my stubborn nature I set out on my own. The onboarding process was fairly easy. Painstaking, but simple. There were a few tasks that more difficult than necessary though. Like building the floor plan. I am very meticulous and there were not many options for the design, but I was able to figure it out with assistance from the help desk.

Very customizable layout and very versatile - The overall operation of the system is very easy, but not basic. Ease of use is key to me, especially when training new employees or adding/changing features. Need a new menu item on a certain screen? 30 seconds. Need to reorganize the layout? Just drag and drop. Color code menu items? Sure why not. We change our menu daily/weekly, so this was an important feature to me and my FOH manager. GThe back end and reporting is excellent as well. I was able to show the owner how to access the dashboard and view sales and sales vs goals. I can see how many of (X) item I sold when I ran it as a special, or how much of a certain item I sell week to week. We use it as our time clock, and even my BOH with ZERO knowledge of the system figured it out in seconds.

Cons

The only major complaint I have is that there aren't enough credit card processors integrated in to the system, which is crucial to me.

Pros

The system ties together items, sales, customers, and sales staff seamlessly. This allows us to dig in and review product performances like never before. Using the matrix feature makes creating items with multiple sizes, colors, and fits easy.

Cons

The system crashes. These past few months have been especially stressful with our busy season approaching. The following list is made up of days in which we were not able to take payment from customers anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours.
Monday March 16, 2020
Wednesday Feb 26, 2020
Saturday Feb 15, 2020
Saturday Feb 1, 2020
Thursday Jan 30, 2020
Saturday Dec 14, 2020
Friday Dec 13, 2020
Friday Dec 6, 2020
Sunday Nov 3, 2019
Monday Sep 30, 2019
Thursday July 18, 2019
Saturday July 13, 2019

We've had an email in, with several followups, to our Lightspeed rep for the reassurance these outages will slow/stop. Unfortunately every email has gone unanswered for over a month now. This lack of communication is very frustrating. We're just waiting for an outage on a weekend during our busy season. Being we are locked into a contract we have no way out but are actively searching for an alternative as to not live in the fear of an outage at any moment.

Lightspeed Payments is another spot to touch on. All told, the switch to Lightspeed Payments would cost our company roughly an extra $7,000/year on top of our current processing costs with Vantiv.

Pros

I think it makes accepting online sales easy but that's about it for me.

Cons

I didn't realize how much I LOVED Lightspeed On-Site until we switched to Retail.
We were recommended to move to Lightspeed Retail because On-Site is old technology, however this program is way inferior for small businesses. Once we were contacted to move to Retail coincidentally our On-Site started having issues like our subscription wasn't renewed and our e-Com store was turned off randomly. Not really knowing what was going on... it made sense to change to the cloud based program they were really encouraging us to move to. Now that we have gone live I realize this program is not as complex regarding small businesses, and offers very little customizations for our personal style. I was told the Analytics feature for $1000 would give me the options I need to customize the program to our business such as implementing sales targets our staff could see and a customizable dashboard.... don't think it can. It really just gives you more reports than a one brick & mortar plus online store needs. It's not relevant. Also....we thought moving to retail with our physical and eCom store would run smoother and that gift cards would work between both platforms. Again... not the case. Gift cards are not available online nor can in store cards be used online without a lot of effort in making that happen. I think if you owned multiple stores that just reordered the same inventory and didn't care about labels or gift cards this would be the perfect system for you!