Syncing POS With Your Ecommerce Store

There is a way to make your business even more profitable if you sell successfully online and in brick-and-mortar locations. How? You can achieve omnichannel consistency by combining your business operations handled via point of sale systems at brick-and-mortar locations and an online site.

Your inventory synchronizes across your Ecommerce site, marketplaces (Amazon, eBay, Fancy, Farfetch, Jet, ChannelAdvisor), and your point of sale system with POS Ecommerce integration. Controls how data is entered and keeps each online store and marketplace up to date to fit your unique company requirements. With POS integration, inventory is automated, and orders are automatically downloaded with Ecommerce integration.

Remove the need for duplicate data entry; with POS to Ecommerce connectivity, you’ll never have to manually reconcile upload/download information again.  Let’s find out more about POS in Ecommerce in this guide.

What to Look for in an Integrated Point-of-Sale/Ecommerce System

In terms of feature sets, multichannel POS systems can range from basic to complex. While you may not require all of the bells and whistles, a system with solid core functionality would be beneficial. Here are some of the major elements to look for in a POS-Ecommerce system that is integrated:

  • Inventory synchronization is done automatically (including product database, product descriptions, item photos, etc.)
  • All orders are under centralized supervision.
  • Reporting on Ecommerce sales
  • Options for selling on social media
  • Your site should be mobile-optimized so that it looks good on a PC browser as well as a smartphone.
  • Templates that are appealing and customizable, ensuring that your website does not appear generic.
  • Shipping that is integrated (calculate rates, print labels, track shipments, etc.)
  • Discount and promotion features are available.
  • Options for gift cards
  • Customers may be tracked across numerous channels with a centralized CRM.
  • Payment processing that is integrated (with competitive rates)
  • Integration of email marketing
  • Search engine optimization (SEO) tools can help your website rank better in search results.
  • Text messages about the status of your order
  • You may not require all of these functions, or you may require extra features specific to your sector.

Why is POS Ecommerce integration required?

  • You get to sell in more locations simultaneously.
  • There will be no more over-selling.
  • Allows for distinctive inventory stock in both online and offline stores.
  • Automates product pricing and quantity adjustments.
  • Enhances the client experience by providing options. “Purchase online. Pickup is available in-store.”
  • On the website, displays the inventory of adjacent stores.
  • Several retail outlets have the same inventory.
  • Displays the total quantity of the firm or a specific store’s quantity on the website.
  • Reduces the time it takes for fulfillment processes.
  • Installing and integrating POS, Ecommerce, Marketplaces, and M-Commerce is simple.

Besides these advantages, integrating POS with your ecommerce site also turns the latter into a “fulfillment center.” How so? The sync enables shoppers to buy online and pick-up in store. One extension of this (which also enhances the customer experience), is exchanging of products bought online through the POS app. You can even put up a store locator showing inventory availability to make things even more convenient. 

What’s more, if you’re using a CRM, it can pull data from the point-of-sale system. Using that data, you can set up personalized campaigns that drive people to your site, mobie app, and other touchpoints based on their interests.

How To Connect Your POS To Your Ecommerce Website

If you’re looking for a way to monitor your online sales, you might want to consider integrating your POS with an Ecommerce platform. The process is simpler than you might have thought. We’ll give you a few tips on how to use these two platforms together.

If you’re already working online but want to expand into the physical world, connecting your software is important. You’ll want to make sure that whichever POS service you buy is compatible with your Ecommerce platform; this can help you narrow down your options from a large number of alternatives.

  • Once you’re up and running, the process of syncing your website with your POS and importing your inventory and other data is similar to what’s seen above. However, there are a few more considerations to make while putting up a POS system.
  • Check Sure Your POS Works With Your Current Processor: If you’re selling online, make sure your payment processor is compatible with your POS, as many now have their own processing service that you’re forced to use. It’s always feasible to change processors, but that may be an extra step you don’t want to do.
  • Examine Add-Ons and Integrations: A decent point of sale system should have a variety of useful functions, such as advanced inventory tracking and reports. It can also be integrated with companies that provide additional items that may be of use to you, or perhaps a whole app store with a variety of software to pick from.
  • Consider Curbside Collection: Even after the Covid-19 outbreak has passed, consumers may prefer to use safety and convenience features like curbside pickup and contactless payments. Many POS systems have introduced tools to help you with this option, which may help you increase sales.

Top Ecommerce-Friendly POS Systems

Lightspeed Retail: The best for social selling

Lightspeed Retail with Lightspeed Ecommerce offers a robust cloud-based POS and integrated online store for $99/month (paid annually). Depending on your store’s setup and preferences, the system can be run on an iPad or a desktop computer.

LightSpeed Retail includes free upgrades, basic reporting, and 24/7 support, as well as a slew of integrations and card-processing flexibility. The best part is that Lightspeed’s powerful Ecommerce system is totally in-house, so you won’t have to integrate any third-party software. On PC, iPad, and mobile, a lightspeed Ecommerce website.

The following are some of the benefits of Lightspeed’s Ecommerce platform:

  • Mobile-friendly
  • Shipping that is integrated
  • SEO tools built-in
  • Web store analytics with a built-in blog
  • Integration of social media and review sites
  • Customer refunds are simple.
  • Variants and item categories
  • Use templates that may be customized or an HTML and CSS template editor.

Square: The best option for small budgets

Square is one of the most widely used point-of-sale systems for small companies. It’s free, simple to use, and offers payment processing at a fixed fee. Square POS is most commonly used with an iPad, but it may also be used with any other device, including a smartphone for on-the-go sales.

Square also provides its POS system users with a free Weebly-powered Ecommerce website integration. A free Square Online Store will suffice for many tiny, low-volume enterprises. Square also offers paid online store plans and interfaces with a variety of different Ecommerce systems for organizations with more extensive Ecommerce needs.

Square’s free online store includes the following features:

  • Square POS syncs inventory, orders, and items automatically.
  • To make shoppable posts, connect your website to Instagram and Pinterest.
  • Provide alternatives for curbside pickup and local delivery*.
  • Featured items and upcoming events are displayed.
  • Accept appointments and money for charity.
  • Website layouts that are responsive look fantastic on any device.
  • Accept Square gift cards as payment.

Shopify POS: The best option for fully integrated Ecommerce

Since the launching of Shopify POS in 2013, the company has grown from a simple shopping cart to a full-fledged retail point-of-sale system. Shopify now incorporates both Ecommerce and brick-and-mortar sales functionality, allowing even the smallest shops to sell online and offline with ease.

Shopify offers reasonable monthly rates for merchants that sell solely online or exclusively in-store, but it is ideally suited for those who sell both online and in-store. Shopify Payments, which can be accessed via an iPad, iPhone, or Android app, offers integrated payment processing.

Now that you’ve learned the fundamentals, here are some additional details on Shopify’s in-house Ecommerce solution:

  • Shopify’s website, your existing website with a Shopify “Buy” button.
  • Choose from a variety of online store themes and/or make changes to the HTML and CSS code.
  • Calculate shipping prices for online sales using fixed-price, weight-based, or location-based methods.
  • Recovering abandoned carts
  • Coupon codes
  • Create and print shipping labels.
  • Pricing for USPS Priority Mail Cubic.
  • App for reporting on the go
  • Gift cards with many channels

Conclusion

There you have it – the way and tools to sync a point-of-sale solution with a brand new or old ecommerce website. Once integrated, you can see shared, real-time inventory for web, store, and warehouse. If you have multiple stores, you can quickly move stock from one store to another to prevent stockouts. Moreover, you can replenish the inventory based on max/min values. By determining the optimal inventory level in the beginning, you can tell the POS to do the work.