Shopify launched what it is calling “a fully rebuilt and reimagined” Shopify POS on Monday. The new point-of-sale (POS) system is now available to Shopify merchants globally.
The rebuilt POS is focused on creating an omni-channel experience that brings together in-person and online sales. The Ottawa-based e-commerce company said the new POS “unlocks the power of omnichannel” for its businesses, which is typically defined as a multi-channel sales approach that provides the customer with an integrated customer experience, whether that’s shopping from mobile or desktop or at a brick-and-mortar location.
“Retailers deserve a point-of-sale that helps them shift their sales from in-store to online, easily offer curbside pick-up and local delivery.”
“Retailers need help right now. Shopify is doing everything we can to help retailers adapt to current challenges and come back stronger,” said Ian Black, director of retail at Shopify. “We are releasing our new Shopify POS to give retailers, especially small, local businesses, every possible advantage. Retailers deserve a point-of-sale that helps them shift their sales from in-store to online, easily offer curbside pick-up and local delivery, and be ready for growth when in-store customers start to return.”
Shopify noted that in 2018 and 2019 merchants who connected their online and in-store sales with Shopify POS saw revenue increase by 30 percent year over year.
Between March 13 and April 24, the e-commerce company saw an increase in its retail store merchants adapting to social-distance selling by offering local delivery or buy-online-pickup-in-store. Twenty-six percent of Shopify’s brick-and-mortar merchants are now using these forms of service compared to 2 percent at the end of February.
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Over the past couple of years, Shopify has been on a mission to expand its brick-and-mortar retail presence. During its annual developer conference in 2018, Shopify put the spotlight on a number of its POS and payments platform services and also revealed new services for its brick-and-mortar merchants. In early 2019, the company hired Black as its director of retail.
“The series of big product investments that [Shopify] made are really targeted around people that have expanded into, or are starting with, brick and mortar spaces,” Satish Kanwar, VP of product at Shopify, told BetaKit last March.
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Black also told BetaKit at the time that Shopify teams across the organization were working closely in order to provide “very integrated and very seamless” solutions for retailers, regardless of whether they start as a brick-and-mortar store, a pop-up, online store, or through social media
Shopify POS is included with all Shopify plans. Shopify POS Pro is available to merchants with brick-and-mortar locations and reportedly offers an advanced set of tools built specifically for retail stores. The company is making the Pro version free until October 31, 2020. Afterwards, it will be available for $89 per month for each location.