Lightspeed Retail Reviews

A great all-inclusive system

Comments: Our industry was using a server-based software which was cumbersome and VERY outdated. Switching to Lightspeed has allowed me to more easily fulfil online orders, process transactions remotely, and communicate with our customer base more effectively.

Pros:

Integration across POS, eCommerce, Accounting, Data Analytics is excellent. We have been able to increase both sales and efficiency with this system. The accounting feature and its daily export to QuickBooks allows me to spend only a few minutes each day keeping books up to date. It certainly makes year-end a breeze. Lightspeed Analytics is an invaluable resource for forecasting and identifying areas of opportunity. Customer support is available 24/7 and if they aren't able to answer my question immediately, I have received a timely follow-up within a day or two.

Cons:

There are some work-arounds that I have implemented. It would be nice to have the option for recurring billing and serial number tracking (not just adding a serial number to an item) as well as a better protocol for backordered items on Purchase Orders.

Over promise, under deliver

Comments: Overall, I have had a really negative experience with Lightspeed. Their account managers are not helpful and rarely answer. The company is focused on sales and add ons and not improving the product or ensuring the system does what retailers want / need

Pros:

Lightspeed has the basics complete. Matrixes, easy sku set up and fairly intuitive POS.

Cons:

The customer service is terrible. The team is constantly selling new add ons that don't work and then no one every responds. Overall, I have felt the system does not do what they say it does. For example, we were sold on a shopify integration, which is not true. We were also sold that their reporting is great. It is not only terrible, but you have to pay a lot more for any reports that give you actual information (like inventory valuations).

Lightspeed Retail for Gift Shop

Comments: I use Lightspeed every day in the shop I run. It has a great back office feature and connects to the POS system very well. I like how all your reports are in one place and you can easily find the information you need by filtering the reports. Inventory is very easy with Lightspeed.

Pros:

I like how easy it is to pull data on Lightspeed Back office and how easy it is to have it communicate to your POS device.

Cons:

Connection to the card reader goes in and out frequently and it Lightspeed only works with certain processing companies.

Satisfactory Product

Comments: customer service not good, very hard to get a hold of them

Pros:

like the ability to add and change products easily,

Cons:

Very hard to set up events in the system

Lightspeed Retail - User Friendly & Great Customer Service

Comments: The cost is a bit high in comparison to other retail POS systems. I may have considered an alternate provider based on the cost alone, but we wanted to get our store opened right away, and Lightspeed came very highly rated.
Over and above customer service is so very important, and this alone keeps us on-line. I would recommend Lightspeed to any new user considering them.

Pros:

I enjoy using Lightspeed. The features are easy to navigate, learn and train. There is a newsletter that alerts us to new features and interests. We were offered a significant start up discount for the first year, and the terminal was free. Once we set up the system, it has been clear sailing. Any time we have had a question, on-line customer service has been wonderful! We have never not had an issue unresolved. Lightspeed offers capital advances after a certain period of time, based on sales. This could be useful to help with additional expenses as they come along.

Cons:

I do not love the monthly fees now that our yearly discounted rate has come to an end. That is really the only thing I dislike about the entire system. I do wish that Lightspeed would partner up with Faire, the wholesale platform we often use, to integrate the inventory and invoicing.

Best POS for small businesses

Comments: One major benefit is how easy my ordering is with their PO system.

Pros:

I moved from Lightspeed to Clover and it's night and day. I had to piecemeal the Clover system on the back end to be useful and Lightspeed hands you so much. I've since added more and more of the Lightspeed system like loyalty because their tools are amazing. One of the best parts is their customer service. You get quick answers and they go above and beyond. Whether it's something as simple as why isn't my shipping working on ecom or how can I verify my website with the different social media platforms, their FAQs and customer service team never disappoint. If you are thinking about switching, do it. You won't regret it. It's made me more efficient all around. Thanks Lightspeed!

Cons:

Lots of different options so it takes a bit to determine what you need to use.

The Point of Sale solution

Comments: Overall, the software does a great job in helping Accountants, managers and front liners in the Retail industry. What's great is that it integrates with ECommerce to be more efficient in selling your products out there, not just from the brick and mortar setup, but in the online as well.

Pros:

I tinkered with this software and got ot know this from the inside and out. I like the functionalities as it allows you to break free from the spreadsheet and manual entry. Gone are the days of tallying and doing adjustments on a piece of paper. It has filter functions for reporting, it auto calculates taxes by assigning it in the initial setup, browser printing integration, you can conveniently import inventory from a csv file to your POS system and export those reports in a csv format. The hardware associated to it works seamlessly like the tablets, scanners, and printers. Although , it endorses Apple products, it works perfectly fine with Windows operating systems. It also has a companion product which is called Lightspeed Accounting that is comparable to Quickbooks

Cons:

A few bugs are slowly being fixed as each maintenance and update is released, just like any other software. Although workarounds can be done to remedy it, but you'd have to seek assistance from Tech Support.

Packs some punch among the punchless

Comments: We are a 40 year Brick and Mortar AND E-commerce company that carries 1000s of unique skus. Needing a software that is heavier than just the POS is essential. Inventory management and the ability to integrate with E-commerce was a non-negotiable for my next POS.
Lightspeed does have some frequent, mostly minor bugs, it is nice that they constantly update and enhance their program. There often seems to be a disconnect between software designers and the retail experience, but this program bridges the data management needed to go with the point of sale functionality.
Product management has been efficient. Customer service has been very helpful via telephone or chat and are always available which is nice. Even better, the amounts of time to need to contact customer service is minimal. After one year of use, I can say I use this program with confidence and I believe it packs the punch needed to handle scale.

Pros:

Customer Support is included and accessible Intuitive Useful for heavy amounts of inventory Cloud Based Accessible via multiple operating systems Integrated with Cayan for seamless transition from my previous POS Has extensions that enable enhanced reporting, loyalty and ecommerce integration Updates are included

Cons:

Frequently Buggy UX issues at times E-commerce integration is through third party Advanced Reporting is an additional cost and is still poorly designed and buggy Long waits for Customer Support Widespread Outages do Occur

Lightspeed for Small Business

Comments: Our overall experience has been very good - I have much more control over inventory, discounts, more robust reporting, and human error estimated.

Pros:

Inventory, POS, Reports, and discount features are all easy to configure and use.

Cons:

When completing an End of Year inventory count, you must submit the entire count before seeing the total cost of products counted.

Customer Review

Comments: Overall I have spend way more time on the help desk waiting the 24-48 hours for technical support and I have had to invest more money and time into additional products I didnt expect. Overall the experience has been a mixed bag, but the latest integrations issues has left a really bad taste in my mouth.

Pros:

The fact it could do the basics well. i.e. take payment of an order.

Cons:

The integration issues, added costs of including so many additional applications and the delayed payment over the weekend, where lightspeed invoices did not match bank account inputs due to when the eftpos fee is attributed. This adds a lot of manual effort when reconciling.

Lightspeed makes retailing easier.

Pros:

The user interface was my first draw to Lightspeed. Ease of use and mostly easy workflows pulled me in. We also like the numerous integratabtle add ons available. The multi-store feature works well.

Cons:

It did not believe in negative numbers but that is changing. We do not like that custom fields don't save the same way as other standard fields.

We LOVE Lightspeed POS Retail

Comments: More Accurate Inventory
Many Sales Report Options Available/Analytics
Ease of Doing Business
Customer Friendly

Pros:

This software is designed for RETAIL, makes doing business in our Realtor Store simple. Ringing up customer is a breeze. Easy and fast to create a purchase order and receive products to inventory. This software is intuitive and simple to learn. We keep track of our inventory and sales reports, with accuracy. Love the scanners and printed product label option.

Cons:

The only negative is the long wait by phone, when we need to speak to support. Definitely worth the wait! All customer service people are polite. They always help us work through our issue with professionalism and follow-up email.

Best business purchase EVER

Comments: After investing in a competing product and being incredibly disapointed, we were faced with a tough decision; do we make the change to lightspeed only a month after investing $$$ that we did not get any value from?
We decided to make the jump and were rewarded with the best upgrade our business has ever seen. This system is very easy to use. We have saved money and become more organized through efficient inventory management. Lightspeed has made our customers happy throughfast and organized checkout and allowed our staff to be the best they can be. Our service department has never been more organized. I feel like it has consolidated multiple areas of management and allowed more time to fucus on business. We re-invested for multi-years and could not ask for more from a POS.

Pros:

Lightspeed is easy and efficient to operate. From training new employees to hectic busy days, Lightspeed reduces human errors and allows our staff and business to achieve their fullest potential.

Cons:

As a relatively small business, it would be nice to have different register modes for convenience without purchasing an add on register.

Easy to build, train and implement

Comments: I worked with other POS systems in the past and find Lightspeed much more user friendly than the others. You can build your menu in literally a few hours and the flexibility is amazing! I have not come across a single scenario in the build that isn't already addressed within the system. And the video tutorials are well done, explaining processes step by step,
The technical support team are quick to respond and follow through issues to resolution. I recommended Lightspeed to two colleagues already and will continue to share my positive experiences with others.

Pros:

*Ability to build system at any location *Ease of use *Well produced self help videos *Ability to delete mistakes *Helpful technical support team *Integration with Cloudbeds

Cons:

The end of day closing process is not as clear as it could be

Best decision we ever made

Comments: The experience has been fantastic. The support staff and sales team have been great. The ease of use is something very special compared to their competition. It has allowed our business to prosper in these uncertain times.

Pros:

Being able to always be connected to our point of sale via my phone or computer, no matter where I am has been crucial. With Lightspeed being cloud based, I can work from anywhere I want. I am able to ring up customers on my phone if needed, create purchase orders from trade shows, and stay connected to customers at all times.

Cons:

There aren't any real issues that we have had with Lightspeed. They are continuing to improve the workflow with Lightspeed eCom which will only make the overall package even better.

Do not use Lightspeed for easy use

Comments: I really dislike Lightspeed, but most other companies do not want to take on the risk of CBD, so Im stuck with Lightspeed

Pros:

nothing at all, i do not like this software

Cons:

Loyalty program, discounts are hard long and aggravating to set up, customer service takes a long time to respond,

Read This Before Switching to Lightspeed

Comments: I have used Lightspeed for almost a year and it is not good. I read these reviews before we switched from another POS system and I was so confident I was going to love it, I switched both of my stores. Lightspeed has a great sales team, they tell you with confidence how great the system is and the demo works in the limited amount you can use it. All the features sound so easy and perfect and the integration with accounting was just what I was looking for!
If you are a fan of duplicate and complicated processes that fail regularly, you have found the system you are looking for. Lightspeed payments is a mess, it has crashed multiple times since our switch in June, 2021. We started out with iPads and the bluetooth chip/tap reader and receipt printer disconnect constantly. We have had to manually enter credit cards for up to 2 weeks at a time because the readers wouldn't connect. Duplicate credit card charges on single purchases are common (up to 5 charges! Yeah I get to pay fees on all of them too.) because the computer or iPad says payment failed and the customer swipes or taps the card again. We have 2 registers at each store and they randomly switch from register 1 to register 2, which makes EOD a mess! We have spent hours on hold with support and get the same answers each time, "they are working on it".
Many of the features are for older versions that really don't do much but clutter the system. I am sure in 2005, this was a great system but now the UI is not int

Pros:

Reporting is better than my previous POS and integration with Quickbooks. works most of the time.

Cons:

Everything but reporting. This system is not user friendly, there is no consistency and it is difficult to get a workflow down because the pages are not similar. Searches are difficult ant there is much duplication in efforts! To enter a P/O and create items for e-com, you have to open as many as 5 browser tabs! All for something that Shopify can do in 1.

They over promise and under deliver

Comments: Couldn’t get off the ground after 1 year of getting tossed around the company to make sure we had everything set up properly. The onboarding process is painful and they take no accountability for their own issues. Spent $3k and tons of time and just cancelled it was so bad. Started billing me before we received are POS equipment. All they said is it was part of the contract. Salesman told me we could integrate old gift cards and they would help walk us through the transition. No help at all and ended up telling me they don’t do that. Tried to cancel as they didn’t hold up their end of the deal. Said we had to be through the account manager who wouldn’t get back to us. Come to find out he was let go. This is after 6 months of trying to get a hold of him as that was the only way to cancel. To find out that account manager was let go from the company and they didn’t bother to assign us a new one. The company organization is flat out horrible. Customer success is horrible and not good at communicating. I would look to somewhere else.

Pros:

The features is most everything you need. The support is the problem.

Cons:

The support is horrible. They think they know and understand issues better then the customers. They don’t listen and will treat you like you don’t even matter.

Disappointed in their business practices and how they stand behind what their employees sell you.

Comments: I'm still disappointed and now looking for another POS system. I fear Lightspeed will come up with more charges as I go along this year. If my employee sold a customer a product at a certain price, I would at least honor that for 1 year. Especially since I had been using that product for 4 months. Changing POS systems is very stressful and any company that does not stand behind what they sell, well, can you trust them?

Pros:

Accuracy is very important and when I run a report or look at inventory it is correct.

Cons:

The sales person told me I would have reports and I did for about 4 months, I was then locked out of the reports and could not pay my suppliers. I had to pay more money per month based on their employees mistake. I went with Lightspeed based on the monthly price. It is not completely what I needed for my store but the price was within my budget. Now I have to pay hundreds more per year so I can run one report to pay my suppliers. Be warned they do not stand behind their employees promises.

Robust System Integrates Webstore and Brick- and - Mortar Store

Comments: I'm super happy with Lightspeed and I like how they have 24/7 customer service in case of a glitch. The staff is always very friendly and extremely knowledgeable.
I tried another service (Sunrise POS) when I first started out and the guy promised me the world. Little did I know it wasn't even geared for retail it was a restaurant system. I was totally taken advantage of, I had no one to call for support and ended losing over 5k.
Lightspeed is up front and caters to your needs. They are awesome!!

Pros:

It's easy to use, It's easy to check on the store activity when I'm not there through my iPhone. It gives detailed reports on categories, vendors and daily sales. I love it because it manages the inventory on my website as well as my retail front. If I have 12 pieces listed on my web store and sell 4 in the store, it will deduct accordingly.

Cons:

Nothing really. I wish some of the paid upgraded features were free.

Have been using CDK for many years for Maintience & Repair set opp DMS system.

Comments: Over all, I have always liked to way the system has operated, The functions and the data inputting controls are easier than most other DMS systems that i have tried.

Pros:

I have always like the way the system is produced from the Service personnel's prospective & The way CDK tries to customize the product for each of the specific user's or Locations.

Cons:

I think this system could be improved by having the ability to communicate with & Be programed with available patches to adapt the system to communicate and share info with all other outside vendor's and the coinciding systems that they use. Every company will have separate systems all that are needed for what type of Service it provides. - IE. *( Scheduling a Boat's launch for Valet Service or for Spring launch of boats for pickups ect. ) *( A customer Text communications program for Receiving, Sending or Monitoring text conversations ect.) Each will always require some type of outside applications like those for that specific company to operate and function more efficiently over what is offered in any DMS System. I believe this to be true for all software DMS company's on the market & this is including light speed EVO. Is it impossible to Make an Automotive or Marine type DMS system that all Info could be shared across to and back from any of The other software system types that are used externally? I believe that would be a great benefit for any and all company's that need a DMS Fixed operations type Repair or Maintience operating systems.

BUYER BEWARE! I WAS SCAMMED BY LIGHTSPEED RETAIL

Comments: BEFORE MY LIGHTSPEED RETAIL EXPERIENCE: I have been with Lightspeed Onsite (different program that is server based, not online based) since I believe 2013 and have been super impressed, referring their software to friends and other local business, literally like if I was a rep for light-speed. AFTER MY LIGHTSPEED RETAIL EXPERIENCE: I was scammed by Lightspeed Rep [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] Campanile who straight up told me YES, YES, YES. Then his manager [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] was not only rude, but completely unhelpful, difficult to get a hold of, very late to return calls, and would push me off to support, who then would just tell me they couldn't help me with the issues of Lightspeed Retail as the software wasn't programmed to accomplish what I needed. I had never experienced Lightspeed retail for myself, I was fed all these lies and misinformation from a slick salesperson [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN], and now when lightspeed has confirmed that this Retail software will not work for my business, Im being held to a 3 year contract and a $4,850 loss. All of my questions, [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] assured me lightspeed retail was the same software just better and more integrated, he told me I could continue to print my quotes with pictures as I was on Onsite (Not True) that they would have programming make the changes for me(Programming wasn' able to accomplish this, without me recoding the receipts for each and every receipt based on if it was to print pictures or not. [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] misled me and lightspeed would not refund me or credit me towards onsite.

Pros:

...Lightspeed Onsite is a great program, Lightspeed Retail is not a good program and still needs alot of work. In my opinion it is being sold without the kinks and issues being worked out of it. Even lightspeeds own technical support reps will admit the many issues wrong with the software and specifics that are different to lightspeed onsite.

Cons:

-You are not able to take deposits on an invoice (without using a difficult round about method) -My inventory pricing can change weekly, prices are not able to be adjusted, but only discounted, and discounts have to be created, its not something you can just type in. -I sell Fish & Corals, thus I currently type them in as miscellaneous coral or miscellaneous fish on Lightspeed Onsite and then change this description to Yellow Tang, Clownfish, etc to reflect the name of the fish and then i just type in the price. Super easy on Lightspeed Onsite, on Retail impossible to do this. When you type in/scan Misc Fish, then change it to Yellow Tang (For example), as soon as you type in/scan misc fish again, it changes the first one to a quantity of 2, preventing you from typing in clownfish. How am i supposed to scan each fish? Even if I made barcodes for each and every fish, my pricing on livestock can fluctuate based on availability week to week, supplier country, and size, so I can just re-inventory 3000 fish every week. Not to mention we have over 3500 corals in store, and when we sell them they almost all have different prices, again I cant type these prices in. -DISCOUNTING IS A DISASTER!, you have to first create a discount and then choose it from a drop down box. So a customer comes in and negotiates with myself of one of our employees, instead of paying $60 for a coral, we sell it to them at $53, its not possible -Does not allow Negative Inventory List goes on

Lightspeed issues

Comments: not horrible not great

Pros:

it's pretty easy, the inventory entering is easy, sales are easy. Reports are good, although none of them integrate, you have to pull 3-4 reports to get what you need unless you upgrade to way more $

Cons:

This is an app based program, so there are definite issues using this with an iPad, which is how we run our retail store. The gift card has been a problem from day one which we have reported many time and have an open ongoing unresolved case. We purchased the gift card from the company they recommended and they both point fingers at each other, meanwhile it is a nightmare for our customers who have to sit & wait while we figure out how to make their return or issue a gift card. Still not resolved. The cache fills up and you have to delete the app and reload it or certain functions do not work, like getting a new customers name in the system. The last thing you want to deal with is deleting an ap and reloading it. Customer service on management level is incredibly slow to respond if they ever do. The day to day service is very responsive. The rep also over sold us the program and sold us 2 registers and so we over paid $1,000 a year for 3 years until we caught it. Never heard back from upper management regarding a credit or a few free months. They are very responsive when you are up for review though! ALSO beware of their own integrative payment processing that they tell you will save you a lot of $, not really true.Get it in writing. First of all they will take their fee right off the top daily, so forget trying to reconcile your statement with your daily reports. You will get paid for Wed, Thur & friday the following Tuesday...so your cash flow is delayed. Way slow!!!!!!

Think beyond initial implementation

Comments: We are aware that every system has something to complain about. Overall we are happy with performance and support from LightSpeed. It's reliable and with the small amount of problems we have we are pleased.

Pros:

It's a relatively easy system to navigate. Permission settings are acceptable. Reporting is decent but all very basic unless you purchase Analytics. We use the software for multiple locations but keep separate inventories at each location. We can easily see inventory at other locations, transfer inventory from store to store effortlessly. Creating inventory items is easy as well as setting up pricing rules. Able to customize receipts, labels, and transfer paperwork with some HTML knowledge. Sales are smooth as well. Split payments are pretty easy and relatively intuitive.

Cons:

No really good way to do rentals. We are a tennis shop and rent/demo racquets. We had to come up with our own solution. B2C eCom is great - and can use the existing inventory; we have it set up as a separate location so we can see all inventory across eCom and retail - until you want to add B2B. It's difficult and expensive to add B2B and have it work the same as eCom. We learned, much later, that we need to have a separate website, a separate database of inventory and we would not have visibility into this inventory from our retail or eCom side. Huge disappointment. The eCom module is not native to LS. They purchased the product and have integrated it into LS - so their APIs won't even allow you to have that visibility. Support is good for the most part. Simple things, but, holy smokes the printing!!! First, you have to use Firefox to get the printing to work at all. But Firefox constantly loses the printer default settings. So swithching printers throughout the day between labels, transfers, receipts...causes Firefox to throw up allover the printer settings. This happens daily, sometimes several times during the day. It's ridiculous. Support doesn't give a good answer - they tell us to follow the documentation. But that doesn't fix anything. Many times during the day we have to go back into the Firefox configuration and reset the default printer. Painful.

Excellent software for growing businesses.

Comments: Overall the software is amazing and the good outweighs the bad and a tested about 10 different PoS softwares when I was shopping around and none of them encompass everything I have mentioned so i know my expectations are very high....which is why I state again...if they added in these features it would make them industry leaders and really a phenomenal PoS system. (its 90% of the way there for me...just a few more features and if would be the best)

Pros:

The integration with xero accounting has been a true time saver for my business. It transfers all sales data at the end of the day seamlessly so I don't have to. The ability to use the front end off site has been super helpful as well as it doesn't tie me down to the store and I can do a lot of my work on the go. Creating products, invoicing clients, setting up the main screen custom to what I want is extremely simple once you run through it once.

Cons:

Theres a few simple features that are missing from the PoS software which I would like to see integrated and would make it hands down the best in the industry for small businesses. 1) Getting an integrated payment terminal that accepts chip, pay pass and swipe options would avoid any mistakes between manually punching in the amounts on the debit/credit machine and would avoid any back end work after the day closes to be able to balance the day 2) Allowing me to enter the details of the invoices (supplier name, invoice number, total amount being paid, gst, pst, etc.) that are being paid out on a daily basis and having that information transferred to xero would alleviate tons of paper work after the close of the day. 3) There is no way to pull out a month end statement for corporate clients that pay their account once a month. Checks have to be cross referenced manually with the bills that have been put on tab. You should be able to at the very least select which tab invoices are being paid from the list of invoices on the clients account. This would show which ones are outstanding at a glance rather than having to refer back to the paper invoices that the system creates. 4) A front facing screen to display pricing of items being charged, advertisements, and other information is something I have been asking for since day 1 (3 years now). And I would love to see this feature incorporated. 5) Having the ability to offer a discount for a bulk purchase is something that should be automatic.