A POS (point of sale) system is the most important part of your retail store’s tech stack. It should help you make decisions with confidence and simplify day-to-day operations for you and your teams.
Are you feeling held back by your current POS vendor? Whether you're dealing with system crashes, missing crucial features, or security concerns, you're not alone. Yet many retailers hesitate to make a change, especially after investing significant time and resources into their existing system.
Let's explore when it's time for a change and walk through practical steps to find a better POS solution. With the right approach, you can switch providers smoothly and choose a system that truly supports your business growth.
Signs it’s time to switch POS providers
It’s complicated to use
If it takes more time to ring up a customer and process a sale than you’d like, then it may be time to look for a new POS system. Slow checkouts keep customers waiting, which can lead to abandoned sales and a poor shopping experience.
Modern POS systems like Shopify unify your front- and backend operations into one system, so there’s only one platform to train your staff on. Elph ceramics co-founder Sophie Rankine says that with its user-friendly system, “teaching new staff how to use Shopify POS is really easy. It makes onboarding new staff less stressful, since it’s so simple to look up products and prices, check in-store pickups, and process sales.”

The impact of a more efficient system is measurable: some retailers report saving 10-20 seconds per transaction through streamlined workflows. Plus, with Shopify POS's intuitive design, businesses benefit from 21% lower training and onboarding costs compared to other systems, making it easier and more cost-effective to get new staff up to speed.
Poor integration capabilities
When ecommerce platforms and POS systems don’t play well off of one another’s capabilities, it leads to a poor experience for customers and creates excess administrative work for retailers.
It also becomes hard to keep inventory synced, understand your customers’ preferences, and offer flexible order fulfillment options like in-store pickup. As a result, you may miss out on opportunities to unify your sales channels and let customers shop however is most convenient for them.
After integrating its enterprise POS and ecommerce platforms, bicycle company tokyobike was able to fuse its in-store and online shopping experiences.
“Sometimes we’ll have customers who are interested in things that we only have in-store,” says Juliana Di Simone, tokyobike’s partner in America. “So if you need a new set of wheels we don’t have on the website, we can easily email a pre-loaded shopping cart to a customer with items that are only in the store, and they can complete that purchase as if it was an online sale.”
It’s too expensive
Some POS systems make their payment processing fees a mystery. Without transparency, you don’t know how much of your profits are being eaten up by fees. This knowledge can help you find a payment processor with more favorable pricing.
Plus, if you have to pay per device, costs inflate whenever you want to hire more staff or open another retail store.
A more cost-effective alternative is paying one upfront cost per store location and having unlimited terminals so you can equip your staff with as many POS registers as they need to serve customers efficiently.
💡 PRO TIP: Paying per register is usually more expensive than paying per location—even for merchants with multiple store locations. Do your due diligence when researching POS system pricing plans to ensure your new provider will support growth without breaking your budget.
It’s not scalable
The POS requirements for a local shop that only sells in-person will be different from an omnichannel retailer with 50 global locations. If you didn’t look to the future when choosing your initial vendor, or your vision didn’t account for scale, it might be time to consider a new POS system.
Also think about how scalable your POS system is within your store. When you can’t give employees access to certain actions in your POS, like approving returns, that can slow down operations and create more work for managers. Conversely, if your system doesn’t let you restrict anything, staff could abuse the system by doing things like giving unauthorized discounts, for example.
It doesn’t support omnichannel commerce
POS systems need to support shoppers who discover, research, and buy products using a mix of online and social channels and in-store experiences. However, not all POS systems are built to provide an omnichannel shopping experience.
Some POS systems silo their data, making it difficult to get a full view of your customers. For example, you might not be able to see that customers have earned 500 loyalty points when shopping online, making them unable to redeem those points in-store
Offbeat Bikes switched from Square Retail POS to Shopify after disjointed online and offline systems held the business back. “We had a clunky online experience, and inventory management was a nightmare,” says owner Mandalyn Renicker. “I was manually checking and updating inventory numbers all the time, which was really tedious and time-consuming. We needed to move everything to one integrated platform, and Shopify felt like the logical solution.”

It poses a security risk
Your POS system holds a wealth of data on your customers. Their full names and email addresses might be stored in the legacy system, not to mention credit card details taken when an order was rung up at checkout. This can spell trouble if it falls into the wrong hands.
If your POS vendor isn’t committed to security or you’ve discovered a potential flaw in how it handles sensitive data, it might be time to switch to Shopify. Shopify POS encrypts sensitive data during payment processing, while safeguarding your data from unauthorized access with PIN-protected staff profiles.
Lack of payment options
While almost all POS systems can accept and process payments via cash and credit card, not all accept near-field communication (NFC), or “tap” payments (Apple Pay, Google Pay, tap debit/credit cards, etc.).
Having fully integrated payments means your POS system speaks directly to your card reader. Instead of manually entering transaction totals and recording payments in your POS, it’s done for you automatically.
Another benefit of integrated payments is that you no longer have to juggle multiple contracts for your POS and payments provider. Everything is taken care of in one place, and you can track payouts for online and in-store purchases from the same system you use to run your business.
With Shopify, for instance, you don’t have to manually enter and reconcile online and in-store purchases. Payment processing is integrated with your POS system, so you can accept all popular payment methods and track payments from your Shopify admin.
It’s fixed to the checkout desk
If your POS system is fixed to the checkout counter, you can’t serve customers on the floor. But with a mobile POS system, any smartphone or tablet becomes a checkout point, which facilitates line busting and a smooth shopping experience.
A portable point-of-sale system also makes it easier to sell at pop-up shops, shows, and other temporary events. Shopify Tap to Pay, for example, turns your smartphone into a mobile POS device—with no need to invest in extra hardware.

Poor customization options
If you can’t customize your POS software to meet your needs, doing basic business functions may take too long. You may even forego some critical processes because they slow transactions down too much.
With Shopify POS, you can customize functionalities and workflows by yourself—no coding or expensive consultants needed. There are hundreds of apps that plug in seamlessly to help you build the tech stack you need to run your business, and you can also build new services and add to your customer experience with ease.
“When we were switching POS systems, we needed a system that helped us keep up with the rapid changes in the retail industry,” says Allen Springer, owner of The Wine Connection. “We wanted our next POS to be flexible and let us add new features and functionalities. Shopify and its App Store helps us do that.”
💡 PRO TIP: With Shopify, it’s easy to customize your POS system and extend its capabilities. Find apps in the Shopify App Store to help you do things from counting foot traffic to appointment booking and beyond.
Data is fragmented
Oftentimes, POS systems can only report on store data, forcing you to go through the time-consuming process of exporting data and building spreadsheets to get a unified view of physical and online store performance.
If your POS system’s reporting and analytics is inaccurate, incomplete, or difficult to access, you can’t have a complete understanding of how your business is doing. If you can’t track store performance, then you may not be aware of opportunities until it’s too late to take advantage of them. And if your POS system doesn’t help you make sense of how much cash is coming in and when, it could be making your business more difficult to run.
With unified customer data inside Shopify POS, you can build stronger relationships with customers, and increase repeat purchases and lifetime spend. With customer acquisition costs on the rise, this unified data helps fuel your retention marketing and lift revenue without breaking your budget.
“Shopify’s unified customer profiles have helped our email marketing significantly,” says Sophie of elph ceramics. “Now, we can send emails to shoppers and draw attention to products that reflect what they like, with confidence. We know we have enough inventory to support demand for the products we market, and that we aren’t sending three of the same email to one person as a result of disconnected customer profiles.”
💡 PRO TIP: Only Shopify POS unifies your online and retail store data in one back office—from customer data to inventory, sales and more. View easy to understand reports to spot trends faster, capitalize on opportunities, and jumpstart your brand’s growth.
Bulky hardware
Many legacy POS systems run on bulky hardware. If you have a small store or are running a pop-up shop, your POS could be taking up precious space. You’d be better off finding a POS software that runs on sleek, portable hardware that doesn’t take up much room on your counter.
Shopify POS, for instance, can run on any iOS or Android tablet or smartphone. This enables you to serve customers wherever they are in the store, accept payments, and prevent congestion at checkout.
Things to consider before switching POS providers
Contractual obligations
Are you currently in a contract with your POS provider? Don’t let that deter you from shopping around. If you find the right solution for your business, contact their sales or support team to see if they’ll buy out your contract.
Costs—including hidden fees
Think about which types of payments you want to accept in-store and online. Consider the fees associated with these transactions and how an in-store payments processor will work with your ecommerce platform.
Do you need to use separate payment processors for in-store and online payments? What are the fees associated with each payment type? Do you have visibility on payouts and how much you’re spending on payment processing? If a POS provider offers integrated payments, read the fine print and understand additional fees for hardware leases or annual fees.
Product limits, staff limits, third-party integrations, additional POS terminals—these are all places that POS providers may hide additional fees. Be sure to understand which features come out of the box and which may increase monthly POS costs.
Customer reviews
Don’t be afraid to ask fellow shop owners which POS system they’re using and how they like it. Merchants will be more candid than POS provider sales executives and can point out shortcomings you should be aware of.
Dustin Kroft, founder of home goods brand Kroft, found his new POS system after asking a fellow retailer to show him how their Shopify POS worked: “The store owner gave me a live demo. It looked so easy to operate. I basically learned how to use the system in five minutes.”
Vendor roadmap and scalability
Think about how you want your business to grow and how your new POS can support you. For example, if you want to open more stores, you’ll need more employees, access to capital, and more POS terminals.
In this case, it would be best to look for a POS system that charges per store, rather than per register, and lets you create unlimited staff accounts. This will ensure you equip staff with enough POS terminals to serve customers without breaking your budget.
Hardware options
Will your existing hardware work with your new POS provider? Luckily, many newer POS systems are cloud-based and offer iOS and Android apps that make it easy to switch software while keeping your existing smartphones and tablets.
Before you switch to a new system, see if you’ll be able to use your existing hardware or if you’ll need to buy new tools. If the latter, make sure you can afford the investment of new POS hardware.
Features
Switching POS systems is something you’ll only want to do once. Make sure that your next system is future-proof by confirming it has all of the features you’ll need—not just for now, but in the long term as your business grows.
Important POS features to look for include:
- Omnichannel selling support, such as pickup in-store and local delivery options
- Unified customer profiles that track previous interactions online and offline
- Checkout tools like draft orders, exchanges, and returns
- Inventory management tools like low stock reports and automatic reordering
- Staff management features, like unique staff PINs and unlimited profiles
- Unlimited products and variants
- Detailed sales reports and analytics
- Native payment processing
- Built-in marketing tools like email marketing and product reviews
- Compatible hardware, such as card readers, portable POS terminals, and barcode scanners
Ease of use
The quicker it is for cashiers to navigate the new POS system, the less disruption you’ll face during the switchover. Shopify POS, for example, has a completely customizable POS interface. You can add tiles to the Smart Grid to make it easy for retail associates to complete basic tasks and speed up checkout.
Pet food retailer Tomlinson’s switched to Shopify POS to speed up the checkout process. It can now apply automatic discounts and let customers redeem loyalty points in a matter of taps, which has resulted in 56% faster in-store checkout times.
“It used to require multiple steps to apply a percentage off products that were part of a promotion,” says owner and operator Kate Knecht. “But with Shopify, the right discounts populate automatically when you add items to the cart. It’s a thing of beauty.”
Uptime and reliability
The last thing you want is for your POS system to freeze or go down when you’re trying to serve a customer or process their transaction.
Opt for a POS vendor with stable infrastructure, means-tested hardware, and high uptime reports—like Shopify’s 99.9% payment uptime.
How to switch POS system providers
1. Choose a new POS vendor
POS providers offer free demos to show off their capabilities. Book several no-strings-attached demos to see what’s out there and get a sense of their POS’s features and how easy they are to use. You could also take advantage of a free trial to see if the POS you’ve chosen lives up to its promises.
💡 PRO TIP: If the POS provider doesn’t let you try the product before buying, it’s likely the product has a steep learning curve. This may lead to spending more time with customer support than running your business.
2. Organize your existing data
Once you’ve selected your new system, you’ll need to migrate your sales, inventory, and customer data from your legacy POS system to your new one. This often needs to be formatted in a particular way.
Your new POS account manager or onboarding specialist should help make this process as easy as possible. Other retailers schedule a moving day to focus their attention on cleaning data and preparing to import it to your POS.
3. Create an implementation timeline
When you’re ready to make the switch, create a POS implementation timeline. This outline of dates gives both your retail team and vendor something to work toward.
For example, if you want the new system to be fully functional by the Black Friday rush, your POS implementation timeline might look something like this:
- September 1: Confirm a new POS provider
- September 15: Purchase hardware
- September 31: Import data and configure the system
- October 10: Deploy the new system and run test orders
- October 25: Full switchover
4. Offer POS training
Next, create a training schedule for staff so they have a chance to get used to the new system. Teach them how to complete basic tasks on the POS, such as:
- Adding items to the cart
- Processing payments
- Applying discounts, gift cards, and loyalty points
- Accepting returns, exchanges, refunds
- Recording inventory
- Viewing a customer profile
- Operating POS hardware
Reach out to your POS provider for training resources to help staff get up to speed. Most vendors, including Shopify, have video tutorials to get self-help without having to contact your account manager.
5. Launch an MVP of the new POS system
This stage of the POS switchover can feel daunting, especially if you’re making a full transition from a basic setup to a more customizable POS. Consider the first deployment a minimum viable product (MVP)—a way for you to begin learning the new system before you add extra customization.
It often helps to maintain both your old and new POS system for a small period of time so you can still default to the old system if you run into teething issues.
Challenges when switching POS systems
Retailers often run into the following issues when switching POS vendors:
- Disruption. Your POS system is the lifeblood of your retail store. A switchover can cause disruption, potentially creating checkout issues that elongate queues and frustrate customers. Aim to have both systems running in the early stages so you can default to the original one if you’re experiencing issues with the new system.
- Long contracts. Some POS vendors ask retailers to lock into lengthy contracts. If the switch is time-sensitive, you might wind up paying two subscriptions until your current contract expires. Negotiate with your point of contact at the current vendor. In some cases, you can pay an early termination fee to cut the ongoing cost.
- Costs. Like-for-like comparisons are hard when some POS providers have complex packages that only include certain features. Ask your vendor for complete transparency. For the setup you describe, how much should you expect to pay?
Make a smooth transition with Shopify POS
As more customers demand seamless experiences between in-store and online shopping, more businesses are making the move to POS systems that can help them sell everywhere and manage all sales channels in one place.
Switching POS providers doesn’t have to be complicated—particularly if you’re migrating to Shopify POS. Use Shopify’s migration tools to securely migrate products, inventory, and customer information from your old POS system to Shopify.
What you’ll get in return is an all-in-one commerce operating stack that unifies your front- and back-end data, helping to cut operational costs and give shoppers the omnichannel experiences they expect.
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Switch POS providers FAQ
Can POS be changed?
It is possible to change POS vendors. This often happens when retailers outgrow their current solution. Most POS vendors, including Shopify, have migration services to help import your existing data into the new platform and speed up the process.
How long does it take to switch POS systems?
How long it takes to switch POS systems depends on several factors, like the size of your store, how many locations you operate, and the level of customization required from your new system. Generally speaking, it can take between two weeks and a few months.
What is the lifespan of POS?
The typical lifespan of a POS system is between five and seven years, though this largely depends on the hardware offered by your vendor. Software doesn’t tend to have a time limit, so long as it is updated regularly.
How to switch POS systems?
Follow these steps to switch POS systems:
- Choose a new POS vendor.
- Organize your existing data.
- Create an implementation timeline.
- Offer POS training to your retail team.
- Launch an MVP of the new POS system.
- Make the full switch.