A POS system is a comprehensive solution that handles sales transactions, manages inventory, and provides crucial business analytics. Choosing the right one is a critical business decision.
POS Nation stands out with its user-friendly interface and robust features tailored for small to mid-sized businesses.
But does it live up to its promises? In this review, we’ll dive deeper into POS Nation’s offerings, look at its most commonly served industries, explore its strengths and weaknesses, and help you determine if it’s the right fit for your business needs.
POS Nation: Our Verdict
POS Nation is a robust point of sale solution catering to various retail verticals. It offers tailored systems for industries like liquor stores, convenience stores, and specialty shops, enhancing operational efficiency and customer experience.
With user-friendly interfaces, comprehensive inventory management, and advanced reporting tools, POS Nation streamlines transactions and boosts profitability.
Its customizable features and dedicated customer support ensure seamless integration into diverse retail environments. Businesses benefit from secure payment processing, loyalty programs, and scalable solutions that grow with their needs. Overall, POS Nation is a reliable choice for retailers seeking a versatile and efficient POS system.
Processing: 2% to 2.5% in-house with the option for third-party providers
Best For: Grocery stores and c-stores with scales
Pros
- No long-term contracts
- Strong customer support
Cons
- Steep learning curve
- No free trial
Monthly Pricing
Starter
$69 ($49 for c-store)
- Reporting
- Order management
- Discounting
Growth
$99 ($69 for c-store)
- Employee management
- Customer loyalty
- Product auto-ranking
Premium
$149 ($99 for c-store)
- SMS marketing
- Customer reviews at the POS
- Multilocation inventory
Full POS Nation Review
POS Nation is a retail technology company founded in 2001 and based in Charlotte, NC. It offers solutions to retailers of all sizes and works with a wide range of verticals, from garden centers and hardware stores to convenience and grocery stores and even apparel.
Businesses can choose from various packages with different features, so you can find one that aligns with your budget and needs. POS Nation allows clients to select from multiple credit card processors to find the best rates. Retailers also enjoy the flexibility of month-to-month subscriptions with no long-term contracts.
Some useful features include inventory management tools to track stock levels, employee management functionalities, and mobile access for on-the-go monitoring. Additionally, POS Nation integrates with Pointy to keep Google local listings up-to-date and drive more traffic to brick-and-mortar stores. They even offer a “Dual Pricing” option that lets you incentivize cash purchases and potentially offset credit card processing fees.
Finally, POS Nation is known for its robust customer support, assisting merchants through various channels.
Payment processors
giving you trouble?
We won’t. KORONA POS is not a payment processor. That means we’ll always find the best payment provider for your business’s needs.
What Business Types Is POS Nation For?
POS Nation provides a comprehensive solution for specialty retail stores by offering strong sales and inventory management features tailored to their needs. Here are some industries they excel in:
Lawn, Garden, and Hardware
- Lawn and Garden: POS Nation caters to garden centers with features like weather-resistant barcodes that are ideal for tagging plants, streamlining checkout, and tracking inventory even outdoors.
- Hardware: Hardware stores can easily manage inventory, track various items, and handle bulk options.
Grocery and Convenience
- Grocery: POS Nation caters to grocery stores with features like scale integration, allowing for weighing produce and other bulk items directly at the point of sale. This feature streamlines the checkout process and increases accuracy.
- Convenience: Take advantage of features like mix-and-match pricing for combo deals and lottery ticket sales.
Liquor and Tobacco
- Liquor: Tackle all the challenges of running a liquor store head-on with built-in age verification tools, case breaking, and more, making this a worthwhile liquor store point of sale system.
- Tobacco: POS Nation seamlessly integrates with Scan Data to streamline and support a robust customer loyalty and rebate program. This enables retailers using this smoke shop POS to manage their inventory efficiently, track customer purchases, and offer incentives that boost customer retention and satisfaction.
Clothing and Apparel
The solution offers a comprehensive matrix for managing various clothing styles and sizes and streamlining inventory and sales processes. They also provide an unlimited database of items so you can add as many products as you need. For example, this offering would work well as a thrift store pos system.
POS Nation Pricing
Overall, POS Nation keeps its pricing relatively simple. There are several subscription tiers available on the software side, and POS Nation offers a few different bundled hardware deals for those looking for a complete solution.
POS Nation Subscriptions
For most verticals, POS Nation offers the following monthly subscription options:
- Starter: This plan costs $69 monthly and includes all the essentials for running a retail store, including reporting and mobile back-office access. Retailers also enjoy purchase order management and discounting.
- Growth: This plan costs $99 per month and includes all of the features of the Starter plan with a few additional benefits. This plan equips retailers with employee management tools and customer loyalty. It also has more advanced “mix and match” discounting and product auto-ranking.
- Premium: At $149 monthly, this plan is built for complex multi-location businesses. It includes all of the features in the Growth plan plus multi-location product transfers, customer review generation at the POS, SMS marketing, and more.
The only exception is for Convenience Store POS, for which the monthly pricing tiers are a bit lower: Starter: $49 / Growth: $69 / Premium: $99
POS Nation Hardware
POS Nation offers hardware options as bundles or individual a la carte items.
Hardware Bundles
- Basic Bundle: This costs $1,349 and includes a 15.6″ touchscreen display, a thermal receipt printer, a barcode scanner, a cash drawer, and a mini keyboard.
- Premium Bundle: For $1,549, this includes a 15.6″ touchscreen display, a 9.6″ rear touch customer display, an age verification barcode scanner, a thermal receipt printer, a barcode scanner, a cash drawer, and a mini keyboard.
Individual Hardware Items
Here are some more individual and peripheral hardware items offered by POS Nation:
Scanners
- Age Verification Scanner Of Pos Nation: $199.99
- Wireless 2d Barcode Scanner: $269
- Bluetooth Barcode Scanner With iPhone Clip: $99.99
- Unitech MS910, Wireless Micro Scanner with Bluetooth: $189
- 1D USB Barcode Laser Scanner: $99.99
- 1D and 2D Age Verification Presentation-Style Scanner: $179.99
- Zebra 2D Bluetooth Barcode Scanner: $569
Displays
- 8.4” LCD Rear Customer Display: $199.99
- 8.4” LCD Customer Rear Touchscreen Display: $299.99
- 15.6” Widescreen Touch PC: $1,199.99
- 15.6” Premium Wide Screen Touch PC: $1,499.99
- Integrated LCD 8.4” Color Customer Rear Display Touch PC: $259.99
- 10” HP LCD Customer Rear Display LCD: $339.99
Printers
- Thermal Receipt Printer: $ 279.99
- Zebra Thermal Barcode and Label Printer: $ 319.99
- Epson Network Enables Remote Order Printer:
Card Readers
- PAX 5300 Pinpad: $399.99
- Ingenico Pinpad 7000: $869
- Ingenico Pinad 3000: $559.99
- Ingenico Lane Pinpad 8000: $999
Inventory
- Zebra Mobile Inventory Trigger Device: $215.99
- Zebra Mobile Inventory Device: $929.99
Scales
- Integrated Label Printing Scale: $1,999.00
- CAS Integrated Retail Scale: $499.99
Cash Drawers
- 16” Standard Cash Drawer: $139.99
Contracts
POS Nation does not require long-term contracts.
Processing
Retailers have the freedom to stay with their previous processor, choose a third-party processor, or use POS Nations’ integrated processing.
The effective rates for businesses using their in-house processing are between 2% and 2.5%.
What Businesses Can Expect From POS Nation
Here are some more specifics about what POS Nation has to offer.
Key Features and Deciding Factors
Inventory Management: POS Nation offers top-notch inventory management with features like case-breaking, letting you track individual items, and mix-and-matching for combo sales. Plus, their mobile inventory with handheld devices keeps your stock levels accurate on the go.
Quick transactions: Streamline your checkout with features like contactless payments and mobile checkout, keeping customers moving. Customizable hotkeys and on-the-fly coupon applications ensure fast and efficient transactions.
Employee Management: POS Nation empowers managers with robust employee management features. You can create custom user permissions, restricting access to sensitive data based on employee roles. Additionally, POS Nation integrates with payroll services, streamlining the process of paying your staff.
Customer Relationships: Build customer loyalty with features like purchase history tracking, allowing for targeted promotions, and a rewards program that keeps them coming back. Their built-in retail marketing tools also empower you to connect with customers and personalize their experience.
Integration with Pointy: POS Nation boosts your online presence through its integration with Pointy. The integration automatically syncs your in-store inventory with Google Local listings. This ensures customers searching for products online can see if your store has them in stock.
Reporting and Analytics: The auto-ranking system uses color codes to highlight fast-selling products and those needing a promotion, helping optimize stock levels. Pre-built reports provide valuable insights into sales analytics like trends and product performance, allowing you to make data-driven decisions about ordering and product placement.
Dual Pricing: POS Nation’s Dual Pricing option helps businesses mitigate credit card processing costs. Retailers can offer customers a discount for using cash or pass credit card processing fees onto shoppers if they choose that payment method.
Pros of POS Nation
- No Long-Term Contracts
Unlike some POS systems, such as Lightspeed, that lock you into lengthy contracts, POS Nation offers freedom and flexibility with their month-to-month plans. This empowers retailers to avoid long-term commitments and switch to another system if their needs evolve or a better deal emerges.
- Strong Customer Support
According to many online reviews, POS Nation shines in its customer support. They offer multiple channels for assistance, including phone calls and emails for troubleshooting. This comprehensive support ensures you receive timely help whenever you encounter issues with your POS system, minimizing downtime and keeping your store running smoothly.
Cons of POS Nation
- Steep Learning Curve
POS Nation offers comprehensive and advanced capabilities. Thus, adapting to all of the features and software presents a significant learning curve. Users may need time to fully understand and utilize features like mix and matching, case breaking, and remote inventory management.
- No Free Trial
POS Nation does not offer a free trial, which can be a drawback for some retailers who prefer to test software before committing. Without a trial, potential customers might hesitate to invest in the system without firsthand experience of its features and benefits.
KORONA POS is not connected to a processor company. While taking advantage of any new processing company that offers a better rate. I get a real person to talk to in less than a minute every time I call with a question. No Contract, month to month. Can’t lose to try.
-Aaron F.
POS Nation Reviews
Below are some reviews from different third-party sites:
Positive Reviews
- Capterra: Some reviews highlight POS Nation’s strengths in ease of use, customer service, features, and value for money. Users appreciate the intuitive interface, comprehensive features, and excellent customer support team.
- Trust Pilot: This user-generated review site highlights positive customer experiences, emphasizing its excellent customer satisfaction and support,.
- Software Advice: Users find POS Nation a user-friendly system with excellent customer service. They mention the smooth onboarding process and the software’s helpful features for inventory management and purchasing. However, some users wished for more flexibility in generating reports.
Negative Reviews
- Fits Small Business: This digital content resource gave POS Nation one of the harshest reviews. They especially disliked POS Nation’s pricing, which they considered much more expensive than their competitors. It must be noted that POS Nation has since updated its pricing structures and formatting.
- Better Business Bureau (BBB): A complaint was filed regarding unexpected charges for unused services. The customer also mentioned difficulty receiving refunds.
Overall Impression
POS Nation appears to have positive reviews regarding its user-friendly software, excellent customer service, and helpful features. However, some complaints have also been about unexpected charges and refund difficulties. You should carefully review their pricing structure and terms before purchasing.
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Alternatives to POS Nation
While POS Nation is a great option, it may not suit all types of retailers. Here are some alternatives to consider:
#1 Best Free Subscription – Square
- Square offers a free POS system with no monthly fees, making it an excellent choice for retailers looking to minimize expenses while still accessing robust POS features.
- The system is intuitive and easy to set up, allowing retailers to quickly train staff and start processing transactions without extensive technical knowledge.
- Despite being free, Square provides a solid set of features, including inventory management, sales tracking, and customer engagement tools.
#2 Best for Full-Service Restaurants – Toast
- Toast offers tailored features such as table management, split checks, and menu customization, which makes it one of the best POS systems for full-service restaurants.
- With built-in online ordering and delivery management, Toast helps restaurants handle takeout and delivery seamlessly.
- Toast provides detailed reports and analytics on sales, inventory, and staff performance, empowering restaurant owners to make informed decisions to optimize their operations and increase profitability.
#3 Best for Retail and Quick Service Restaurants – KORONA POS
- KORONA POS offers fast and efficient order processing, which helps reduce wait times and improve customer satisfaction.
- The system features an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, allowing staff to quickly learn and operate it, minimizing training time and maximizing productivity.
- As a cloud-based solution, KORONA POS is an excellent choice for QSR operators looking to scale their business into multiple locations or franchises.
- KORONA POS provides robust inventory management tools that help quick-service restaurants track ingredient usage, manage supplies, and reduce waste while assisting retailers to manage stock levels and product ordering.
Conclusion
POS Nation offers a comprehensive and feature-rich POS system for small to mid-sized businesses across various industries. Its robust inventory management, quick transaction processing, and vital customer relationship tools make it a valuable retailer asset. However, the steep learning curve and lack of a free trial may pose challenges for some potential users.
Despite these drawbacks, POS Nation’s flexible month-to-month contracts and strong customer support provide significant advantages, making it a worthwhile consideration for businesses seeking an efficient and adaptable POS solution.
To learn more about KORONA POS, click below to start a free trial or schedule a personalized product demo with one of our product specialists.
