Shopify vs. Lightspeed

Shopify is the better choice for retailers growing in store and online, because Shopify POS and your online store share one back office that supports 1,000+ locations.⁵ Shopify POS also has a 22% lower total cost of ownership on average than the competition.¹

Brands that migrated from Lightspeed to Shopify report spending too much time maintaining and reconciling data between multiple systems. Shopify built its ecommerce platform and POS system on the same infrastructure, enabling you to manage your physical stores and ecommerce website from the same back office. Inventory, orders, customers, and reporting are centrally managed, and you don’t need APIs or integrations to keep both sales channels in sync.

Brands that moved on from Lightspeed also report having to tolerate clunky workflows and complicated workarounds to support established and emerging ways people shop: like placing an order in store and having it shipped to their home address. Shopify builds ecommerce and POS features together so both sales channels work together seamlessly. This enables more cohesive omnichannel shopping experiences for customers and more straightforward workflows for staff.

Shopify builds its POS and ecommerce platform in-house on the same infrastructure, so you manage online and in-store sales from one back office. Lightspeed Retail (X-Series) is a POS that comes with Lightspeed eCom, in a basic version on its entry plan.⁶

Shopify also innovates at a pace no other platform can match so you can create unique shopping experiences and support emerging behaviors before they become table stakes. The proof is in Shopify’s track record, focus, and commitment to innovation. In 2023 alone, Shopify invested $1.7 billion into research and development, and has shipped over 200 product updates every year since 2021.⁸

Brands that migrate from Lightspeed to Shopify report feeling limited by Lightspeed’s ecommerce platform. If brands choose to integrate Lightspeed with a third-party ecommerce platform, they report having difficulty unifying in-store and online shopping experiences without tolerating clunky workarounds, excessive administrative tasks, or costly custom development. For brands committed to growing ecommerce and retail sales concurrently, Shopify's unified commerce platform is the top choice. It enables more efficient management of both sales channels while offering customers a more cohesive shopping experience.

Yes. Lightspeed Retail (X-Series) has a Shopify integration that shares product, inventory, customer, and sales data between the two systems, with Lightspeed as the system of record.⁷ Using Shopify for both your ecommerce website and POS makes running your business in-store and online more efficient. Brands who sync Lightspeed POS with Shopify report having issues maintaining accurate inventory quantities online and across all store locations, tracking orders across sales channels, having limited omnichannel functionality, and relying on workarounds and custom development to bridge the gap.

Using Shopify’s ecommerce and POS system together will help you win back time that would otherwise be spent managing multiple systems and reconciling inventory, order, and customer data. It will also equip you with more robust omnichannel fulfillment capabilities like endless aisle, unlock streamlined workflows that seamlessly blend online and in-person fulfillment, and give you access to holistic customer insights directly from your point of sale.

Shopify plans start at $29.00 USD a month billed yearly, with prices that vary by country, and in the US, POS Pro adds $89 USD a month per location, billed yearly.⁵ In the US, Lightspeed Retail plans start at $89 USD a month billed annually, or $109 billed monthly, with one register included and extra registers and locations added to the price.⁶ Shopify is the more affordable option if you have an ecommerce website, run multiple stores, and want multiple POS registers per store location.

In addition to the base plan cost, Lightspeed charges a fee per extra store location as well as per register. With Shopify, you can add an unlimited number of POS registers per store location at no extra cost. Shopify’s lowest plans include ecommerce, POS, payments, reporting, 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.

Shopify POS manages inventory for every store and your online store from one back office that supports 1,000+ locations, and POS Pro adds inventory counts, purchase orders, and low-stock alerts.⁵ Lightspeed Retail updates inventory across locations in real time, and each extra location adds to the plan price.⁶

To start with Shopify POS, you need a smartphone or tablet and a Shopify card reader.⁵ You can add accessories such as barcode scanners, cash drawers, and receipt printers, and check whether the accessories you already own are compatible.⁵

Export your product and customer lists from Lightspeed Retail as CSV files, then import them into Shopify with a bulk importer such as Matrixify or with a certified Lightspeed migration partner.⁷ Shopify POS has 34% lower data migration and transition costs per store than other POS systems.¹