Shopify vs Lightspeed
Shopify vs Lightspeed 2024 - Which POS system is the Best?
Your business needs a system that matches, not patches, in-store and online sales. Choose Shopify for a solution that delivers on its promise to unify your entire business.
Compare Shopify POS vs Lightspeed
|
Key features |
Lightspeed Retail |
Shopify POS Pro |
|---|---|---|
| First-party hardware and payments | Rates from 2.6% + 10¢ | Rates from 2.4% + 0¢ USD |
| Email an in-store cart to a customer | No | Yes |
| Local pickup | Yes | Yes |
| Local delivery | With a monthly add-on | Yes |
| Gift cards that can be used in-store or online | Yes | Yes |
| Fully customizable POS | No | Yes |
| Mobile POS | Yes | Yes |
| Returns of online purchases in-store | Yes | Yes |
| Unlimited POS staff | No | Yes |
| Multi-location inventory, in-store and online | Yes | Yes |
| Unlimited products, in-store and online | No | Yes |
| Low-stock reports | Yes | Yes |
| Product recommendations | No | Yes |
| One-click online checkout | No | Yes |
| Online marketplace sales (Google, Amazon, and more) | No | Yes |
| Unlimited registers | No | Yes |
| 24/7 support | Yes | Yes |
Based on features available in the US as of September 2021
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7 Things Shopify Can Do vs Lightspeed
Email carts
On Shopify POS, you can start a customer cart in-store and email it to them to complete their purchase online. Perfect for indecisive customers or big-ticket purchases. This feature isn’t offered on Lightspeed.
Unlimited registers
In addition to your monthly subscription cost, Lightspeed charges an extra fee per register you have in your store. On Shopify, you can have unlimited registers at each location by downloading the Shopify POS app onto as many devices as you need.
Customizable POS
With Shopify POS, you can speed up checkout by keeping best sellers, frequently used discounts, and common tasks at your fingertips with an editable interface. Lightspeed cannot be customized, forcing you to adapt to their workflows.
Inventory locations
Shopify offers locations where you can assign inventory. Use them for retail stores, warehouses, or pop-ups. Lightspeed’s plans only include one retail location, so managing inventory at locations beyond your store requires an upgrade.
Unlimited SKUs
Add an unlimited number of products to your POS and website on Shopify. Lightspeed sets limits on the number of products you can have in-store and online with variants counting towards your limit.
Online marketplaces
Reach new audiences and make more sales with Shopify’s tools to sell on marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, and more. Lightspeed can’t tap into these platforms, leaving you to manage multiple logins, online orders, and inventory.
Local delivery
From route planning to delivery updates, Shopify gives you the tools to deliver online purchases to nearby customers yourself. On Lightspeed, you have to use a third-party add-on to offer this convenient option for customers.
Why Businesses Choose Shopify Over Lightspeed
You can run your business without workarounds
Whether it’s offering local pickup from multiple locations or transferring product information between Retail and eCom, Lightspeed requires workarounds to stay up-to-date. Shopify syncs in real time so workflows for inventory, customers, and orders are streamlined—no patches or manual reconciling required.
You can stay in control of inventory
On Lightspeed, online sales can only pull from a primary retail location. This means you could end up overselling at that location, even if other locations have available inventory. Shopify allows you to prioritize which locations should fulfill online orders first or which should fulfill an order based on whichever location is closest.
You get speedy workflows for returns
To accept returns of online purchases in-store using Shopify, you simply find the original order in POS and process the refund—inventory gets updated and shipping costs can be reimbursed. This process on Lightspeed requires toggling between your eCom account, Retail account, and online payment provider. This also means whoever is performing the return must have a login and will have access to all of your eCom data, even if they are just processing a return.
You can make changes to your plan at any time
Changes like increasing your product limit or adding staff, require a conversation with sales when you’re on Lightspeed vs Shopify POS, where you’re in control of your business. You can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel at any time—right from the Shopify admin. And if you need support, our team is here to help 24/7.
You get powerful commerce features
Over 1 million businesses around the world choose Shopify to sell in-store, on a website, on social media, and on online marketplaces. The platform is designed to balance ease-of-use with robust features, giving you all the tools you need to manage products, people, and payments as your business grows. Shopify also offers features that go beyond sales, from marketing and customer relationships to product sourcing and order fulfillment.
We switched our point of sale from Lightspeed Retail to Shopify POS and the transition was really easy... When we moved to Shopify, we doubled our sales from the year before in 6 months.
Juliana Rudell DiSimone, tokyobike
From the seamless checkout experience, to the ecommerce integration and apps, to the simple and powerful reporting, there’s no beating Shopify POS.
Ben Sehl, Kotn
Shopify has allowed me to seamlessly sell products on my website, in my brick and mortar store as well as on Facebook & Google. I load my products once and it's done… Once one realizes that the Shopify platform is a one stop shop for marketing and selling it is literally off to the races.
Curt, via G2 Reviews
Shopify, Shopify POS, and the back-end reporting has helped us to really analyze our business in a way that we couldn’t before. To have one system where every aspect of the store is put together has been really, really helpful.
Ale Tarver, Assembly New York
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Try Shopify POS Free for 3 Days
Start unifying in-store and online sales with Shopify to streamline operations, make more sales, and keep customers coming back.
Try Shopify free for 3 days, no credit card required. By entering your email, you agree to receive marketing emails from Shopify.
FAQs
How is Lightspeed different from Shopify?
While Shopify and Lightspeed both unify in-store and online sales, Shopify’s superpower comes from a single back office for managing inventory, customers, payments, and orders across all the places you sell. If you’re comparing Shopify vs Lightspeed, keep in mind that Lightspeed splits your workflows into separate admins for Retail and eCom, which need to be synced and reconciled to stay up-to-date.
Which is better: Shopify or Lightspeed?
Shopify provides independent retailers with a complete solution for running their business and taking payments both in-store and online. An intuitive POS, powerful ecommerce features, and transparent pricing plans make Shopify a great fit for all businesses, whether they’re starting or scaling. While Lightspeed has made strides to unify in-store and online sales for retailers, their inflexible platform and expensive pricing model makes it difficult for businesses to scale—from opening new locations to building on online success.
Does Shopify work with Lightspeed?
Shopify can integrate with Lightspeed via third-party integrations, but using Shopify for both your website and POS makes running your business in-store and online seamless. Unifying sales with Shopify can help you win back time spent on inventory, make more sales in store and online, and keep customers coming back.
Shopify vs Lightspeed pricing: which is more expensive?
Pricing on Shopify POS vs Lightspeed seems comparable, but a closer look at the feature sets and required add-ons show that Shopify is the much more affordable option. Lightspeed charges for additional registers while Shopify allows you to add an unlimited number of registers to your store. Shopify’s lowest plans include ecommerce, POS, and payments as well as the ability to integrate with accounting and loyalty programs. To get this same feature set on Lightspeed, you must be on more expensive plans.
Page last updated September 2021
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