The best software for retail business has these key features in common:

Must-have features:

• Inventory management: oversees the entire stock lifecycle from purchasing to the point of sale. It helps you track stock movement, update stock levels in real time, alert low-running stock, and predict inventory demand. In addition, it allows you to manage special orders, product exchanges and returns to ensure accurate inventory. Thanks to a barcoding system and shipping label printing, you can also facilitate the fulfillment process.
• Sales management: tracks the order details with information on customers, products, and order value, and provides multiple transaction methods like credit/debit cards, mobile payments, cash, etc.
• Vendor management: organizes a list of vendors and their products, and evaluates their performance based on quality, price, and speed. You can automatically generate and send purchase orders to your suppliers when your stock reaches a certain level.
• Customer relationship management (CRM): stores all customer data and creates a complete profile of your customers: demographics, interests, behaviors, and past purchases. You can use this information to better engage with them, suggest relevant products, offer them excellent services and build long-term relationships.
• Employee management: creates and manages accounts of your team. You can grant different permission levels for your members, schedule working periods, and track the staff’s performance.
• Reporting and analytics: centralizes all data on inventory, sales, customers, employees, and suppliers to provide a full spectrum of your business. You can gain valuable insights and identify areas to improve.

Advanced features:

• Warehouse management: simplifies order fulfillment with a pick-pack-ship process. It helps you analyze the current warehouse layout and calculate key metrics like order cycle time. You can then determine bottlenecks and optimize your warehousing process.
• Merchandising management: identifies which items are best sellers, their lead time, turnover rates, etc. It helps you decide how much stock to keep, where to place them in the store, and the best pricing to maximize profits.
  Business intelligence: the best software can assist you in making decisions, thanks to its data synchronization and forecasting tools to identify patterns.

Here are our shortlisted candidates for the best store management software:

#1. Magestore RMS

Magestore RMS is among the top retail management solutions for Magento retailers. It offers full functionalities to operate your stores smoothly, including inventory, POS, vendor management, customer management, and more. Since being native to Magento, Magestore inherits all Magento powers and works perfectly with a wide list of integrations to help you build a complete and tailored system to your needs.

This PWA-empowered software allows you to control your stores from a separate frontend from any device like desktops, smartphones, and tablets. You don’t need to log in to the Magento backend, thus saving you time and maintaining the stable loading speed of your website.

Outstanding features:

Inventory management: controls your stock count and locations across warehouses and stores in real time.

• Synchronize inventory data with your Magento website, POS, and back office automatically
• Organize items into bins and pallets for easy management and transfers
• Count, adjust inventory, track inventory quantity, location, and movement from purchasing to sales
• Forecast inventory demand and alert low-running stock

Vendor management: manages suppliers and purchasing in one place to ensure you always have enough stock to sell.

• Set up product low-stock threshold based on past sales performance to inform you when to reorder from suppliers
• Generate purchase orders directly from the demand forecast
• Assign unit of measurement for stock and purchase items
• Monitor your supplier performance and all purchasing activities in real time

Order management: automates order processing with fewer errors and time.

• Centralize all order data across online and offline channels in real time
• Check stock availability in different warehouses to choose the most efficient one for order fulfillment
• Simplify the pick–pack–ship workflow to handle orders faster
• Select Magento default shipping partners (UPS, USPS, DHL, and FedEx) or integrate with your 3rd-party shipping carriers

Pros and cons:

Pricing:

Depending on your business needs, Magestore will design a customized solution with functions and integrations that fits your requirement. Therefore, the pricing also varies for different clients.

You only need to pay once and own the software with unlimited user accounts and devices.

#2. Netsuite

Netsuite was acquired by Oracle Corporation in 2016 and it has been one of the top ERP software in the world. Its software for retail shop is an all-in-one solution that combines POS, eCommerce, inventory, order management, and the entire supply chain management. These functionalities make it ideal for connecting digital and physical stores and delivering an omnichannel experience for customers.

Netsuite is best for big global companies to enhance their entire store management processes and make data-driven decisions. With a full spectrum view into products, inventory, customers, and orders across all channels, you can understand and engage with customers to deliver a personalized shopping experience to drive more sales and boost loyalty.

Outstanding features:

• Manage your supply chain processes from purchasing, warehousing, order fulfillment, and outbound logistics with ease
• Omnichannel sales: customers can buy from anywhere and fulfill orders from the nearest warehouse locations
• Sync all data of sales, products, customers, and finance to avoid discrepancies, unlike using multiple systems
• Automate the invoicing and payment process
• Intuitive dashboards with logical hierarchies
• In-store POS to handle transactions and gain insights from customers
• CRM and marketing to collect data on customer behaviors and purchases to create customer profiles
• Asset management and financial management system
• Real-time BI: make informed, data-driven decisions

Pros and cons:

Pricing:

The price can differ based on the number of modules you need, your revenue scale, business size, and special requirements. You can contact Oracle sales reps for a consultation and a custom quote.

#3. Lightspeed Retail

Another best shop management software is Lightspeed, a renowned cloud-based POS system owned by Lightspeed Commerce Inc. It’s designed for any business type and industry that needs an easy-to-use RMS solution.

Lightspeed offers impressive stock management, ordering, quoting, reporting, and analytics features. Users can access the software anywhere to manage their stores and serve customers with robust features and plenty of integrations. The software works best for small retail shops who operate both online and offline.

Outstanding features:

• Powerful inventory management and item tracking functionalities
• Ability to manage a network of multiple stores seamlessly in an intuitive interface
• Sync all eCommerce and in-store inventory data
• Track stock movement across stores and warehouses with barcode scanning
• Real-time low stock alerts and create purchase orders for you
• Product management features: assign serial numbers, change prices in bulk
• Track all orders and customer data across channels
• Custom reports and analytics features that give you insights and improvement ideas

Pros and cons:

Pricing:

Lightspeed offers 3 packages and 1 custom option for different business scales and needs:

• Lean: $89 ($69 if billed annually). The plan includes basic features and Lightspeed payment integrations.
• Standard: $149 ($119 if billed annually) to get accounting and eCommerce integrations
• Advanced: $269 ($199 if billed annually) to unlock more omnichannel features like loyalty programs, syncing marketing campaigns, and in-depth analytics tools.

Read more: Compare Lightspeed POS and Magestore POS

Epos Now is a tech company that provides store management functionality for SME businesses. It assists you with customer, inventory, and retail accounting management.

Epos supports retailers in various industries, such as apparel, home décor, furniture, sports products, grocery stores, and many more. The software allows you to easily manage your stock, customers, order fulfillment, and staff. You can add various eCommerce integrations, apply different payment methods for customer convenience, and enjoy a complete POS solution.

Outstanding features:

Inventory management:

• Control and update stock level across all locations and sales channels
• Create purchase orders automatically when your stock reaches a certain threshold
• Track stock transfers between stores and warehouses
• Make bulk edits for products

Sales functions:

• Generate, edit, and print barcodes for your products
• Create flexible promotions for specific dates and locations
• Integrate with your eCommerce store to display accurate product availability
• Set credit limits to normal customers via “Pay on account” feature

Reporting:

• Customize the dashboard to display the most important metrics to you
• Monitor the sales performance of all stores and channels in real time
• Create custom reports on sales, products, and employee KPIs

Pros and cons:

Pricing:

Epos Now offers custom quotes that start at $99. You can contact Epos Now for more details.

Read more: Compare EPOS Now and Magestore POS

#5. Square for Retail

Square for Retail is owned by Block, Inc. (formerly Square, Inc.). It’s ideal for eCommerce businesses with powerful shop management and payment processing features. It also works for retail stores, restaurants, coffee shops, health and fitness shops, and other professional service providers.

The software offers a competitive transaction fee suitable for startups that have limited capital resources in the initial stage. As your business grows with more transactions, the fees will gradually increase. You’d pay less when you have low sales volumes.

As one of the top shop management systems, Square covers all features you need to get started selling, including inventory control, CRM, payment processing, and reporting tools. Therefore, it’s considered the best software for small retail businesses.

Outstanding features:

Inventory management

• Tag, track, and count products in multiple locations
• Low-stock alerts and PO generation to avoid stockouts
• Barcode scanning to search products and monitor movement
• Monitor SKUs with linked data on sales receipts
• Smart stock forecasting

Vendor management

• Payment processing
• Process different types of payment like cash, debit cards, credit cards, gift cards, and mobile payment like Apple Pay and Android Pay
• Encrypted customer payment data for security
• Generate customized digital receipts
• Ability to split the bill between different methods, such as splitting between a credit card and cash
• Integrate with the accounting software to track deposits
• Chargeback protection: if a customer disputes a charge and Square determines it’s valid, the chargeback cost will be reimbursed.

Customer management

• Create, manage, and monitor customer loyalty programs
• Track all customer data on behaviors and past purchases
• Employee management
• Assign roles and permissions to your employees
• View the sales performance by employees in a report

Pros and cons:

Pricing:

Below is Square’s pricing:

• Free: the most basic package for startups and small online companies
• Plus: $60/ month suitable for growing businesses
• Premium: custom quoted for retailers who want a customized solution designed for their needs.

Regarding the transaction processing rate, Square charges a minimum of 2.5% + 10¢ for in-person payments and applies 2.9% + 30¢ for online payments.

After accessing the 5 best shop management software, you can have an overview look at each one’s pros and cons. Depending on your business nature and needs, you can select the system with features and price that works best for you.

If you sell with the Magento platform and want a customized solution, Magestore would be the right choice. To get more information on our retail stores management system, get a consultation with the Magestore team below.