How to Get Your Clients Up and Running With Shopify POS

As a Shopify Partner, most of your client work is likely focused on developing commerce experiences for the web. However, as more ecommerce brands begin to expand outside the borders of the browser and into the world of physical retail, there are new revenue opportunities popping up for your business in the world of in-person selling.One way your agency or freelance business can take advantage of this growing trend, is by offering point of sale (POS) services to your existing or new Shopify clients.In this article, you’ll learn:• How to setup your client’s Shopify POS system.• Details about the Shopify POS hardware requirements.• What to discuss with your POS clients before setup.

As a Shopify Partner, most of your client work is likely focused on developing commerce experiences for the web. However, as more ecommerce brands begin to expand outside the borders of the browser and into the world of physical retail, there are new revenue opportunities popping up for your business in the world of in-person selling.

One way your agency or freelance business can take advantage of this growing trend, is by offering point of sale (POS) services to your existing or new Shopify clients. Not only can adding POS to your list of service offerings be a great way to upsell clients, but it can also open doors and expand your client roster to entirely new verticals and business types.

Not only can adding POS to your list of service offerings be a great way to upsell clients, but it can also open doors and expand your client roster to entirely new verticals and business types.

In this article, we’re going to walk through the basic flow for setting up your client’s Shopify POS system, so you can expand your reach in the world of commerce.

The Shopify POS setup process

Getting your client’s Shopify POS system set up is a relatively simple process. But to help you with the basic setup process, we’ve outlined the steps you’ll need to follow to get your client up and running with in-person selling.

1. Review your client’s POS hardware requirements — You should start by identifying your client’s hardware requirements before doing anything else on this list. Depending on how they wish to sell with POS, they will need specific hardware to facilitate their retail sales.

We recommend reviewing our Hardware documentation and our Shopify POS retail package breakdown to help guide this discussion with your clients. Once you have a better sense of their intended direction, you can purchase your client’s POS hardware from the Shopify Hardware Store, depending on the availability in your client's country of residence.

2. Select their plan and configure their admin settings — All Shopify plans include access to the Shopify POS app on both iOS and Android. If your client is on the Shopify or Advanced Shopify plans, they also have access to the retail package. The retail package comes with POS's advanced features, like additional hardware integrations or staff management.

 

Once you have a sense of the in-person selling functionality your client needs, you can go ahead and select the appropriate plan for their store. From there, you’ll need to configure their basic administrative settings, including store address, email address, staff accounts, and billing information.

Note: You can skip this step if your client already has an online store.

3. Install the POS app — Download the Shopify POS app to your client’s iPad, iPhone, or Android device. Please note that your client’s Apple iOS device must be running iOS 8.2 or higher, and their Android device needs Android 4.1 or higher for the app to function appropriately.

We’ve created a handy device comparison chart that you can check to ensure your POS setup will work with your client’s preferred device.

4. Help your client add and organize their products — If your client already has an online store set up, then their products will already be available in their POS system upon login through the app.

If your client doesn’t have an existing Shopify store, you’ll need to add products to their catalog through either the Shopify Admin via a desktop browser, the Shopify mobile app, or directly through the Shopify POS app. Once products are listed in their Shopify Admin, you can then select which ones they’d like to make available in-store via the visibility settings.

5. Add retail locations to the Shopify Admin and assign locations to POS devices — From their Shopify Admin, you simply need to navigate to Point of Sale, and then click Locations. From there, select Add location and enter the details of your client’s retail location in the dialog. You can also select a primary retail location at this point, if your client intends to sell from multiple storefronts, cities, or regions.Once your client’s locations are added in their admin, you can quickly assign these locations to their respective POS devices via the POS app Settings screen. This will ensure your client’s devices are associated to the appropriate retail locations, the right taxes are applied to the in-person orders, and that order tracking is enabled.

6. Configure tax settings — Regardless of whether your client chooses to sell in one or multiple physical locations, you’ll need to ensure your client’s sales tax rates are set up to adhere to the rules and regulations of the region of the world they're selling in. From there you can assign the selling location to their POS device to enable local tax rates.

Take the time to review this documentation if you’ve never set up taxes with Shopify POS.

7. Select a payment provider and customer payment methods — You’ll then need to set up a payment provider for your client’s POS system, which you can enable via the Shopify Admin just as you would for any online store. Once that’s done, we recommend customizing your client’s preferred payment methods for POS purchases via the Select payment screen within the POS app.

For clients operating in Shopify Payment Card Present supported regions, they will be automatically set up with Shopify Payments as their card processor for in-person payments. This allows them to take credit card payments manually in-person or order a card reader to tap or swipe credit cards. If they’re already selling online with Shopify Payments, clients will benefit from using one card processor selling both in-person and online. For clients in unsupported Shopify Payment regions, they can use an external terminal to accept credit card payments.

8. Set up the Shopify POS hardware — Once you’ve completed all the steps above, it’s finally time to set up your client’s POS hardware. This step is pretty simple — you just need to get a card reader to begin accepting in-person payments straight from your client’s mobile device. Depending on the reader, you’ll be able to easily pair it using bluetooth or connect via the mobile device’s audio jack. With the new Shopify Chip & Swipe Reader, it’s easy to pair the portable hardware within the app using the tutorial.

With the Shopify Retail Package, your clients can connect their receipt printer, cash drawer, and barcode scanner through bluetooth for a cohesive in-person selling experience.

9. Test out your setup to ensure things are running smoothly — It’s important that you process some test orders through your client’s POS after you’ve completed the basic setup process. This is a great opportunity to have your client get their hands on Shopify POS, so that they're familiar with the transaction process, while also giving you a chance to verify that everything is working properly.

We recommend testing a few different types of transactions at this point, which could include partial payment, refunds, or order updates.

Once you’ve confirmed that orders are being processed appropriately, your client is ready to start selling in-person with their newly set up Shopify POS system.

Expand your spectrum of commerce services

Adding POS setup to your service offering can help your business grow from an ecommerce consultancy to a full-fledged commerce consultancy. And with more online businesses turning to in-person selling as a means to augment customer experience and brand penetration, , this is a business opportunity not to overlook.

Do you offer POS services to your ecommerce clients? Let us know how you approach those conversations in the comments below!