Shift4Shop vs Lightspeed Retail: Which is a better fit?

Kelly: Hi, my name is Kelly. I'm an e-commerce manager for miniaturestuffandthings.com. I've used Shift4Shop for multiple websites, and I give them a three out of five star rating. Originally, we were using Yahoo stores. I didn't care for the interface. The charges that they charged per transaction. I had considered using Shopify at the time. They were just starting out. Again, their prices were a lot higher. They didn't offer quite the features. They did not give backend access through FTP, which was important at the time, which coming from Yahoo, I at least had that option, so I was looking for something that gave that ability. They offer a lot of built-in features, things that are add-ons or apps for other e-commerce sites. Things like abandoned cart emails, connecting to eBay and Amazon right out of the box, being able to upload images through FTP, even exporting and importing easily your whole entire website products information right through an FTP at the time when I first joined. They no longer really offer FTP service, but that was a big draw for why I went with them. Getting started was super easy. It was just basically sign up and give them a payment option. When I signed up, they offered basically a free e-commerce site if you use the Shift4 payment option processor. That was a huge benefit. Again, that has since gone away. They have a minimum monthly amount that you have to process. I think it's 500, which is astronomical for someone just starting out, but getting started on them, super easy. It's really easy to navigate web facing backend, so you don't have to use FTP, which I was used to doing. So everything, image uploads, product uploads, everything is right there in a very easy to use format, easy to find, and a decent help section for finding how you need to do stuff, which is great. The knowledge base was created pre Shift4Shop when they were still 3dcart, but it is still applicable because most of what 3dcart is Shift4Shop is, so very easy to use and navigate. Customer service is there for your help. It is a little spotty, but other than that, getting started, it's pretty easy. Basically if you're going to use Shift4Shop, make sure you log in regularly, even when you're first onboarding and probably just getting your products ready. If you don't, they will shut your store down, which is what happened to me and why they only got a three star rating. I was doing it part-time at the time, setting up the store, I was grandfathered into that free website with using their payment processor, but they changed their minimum for that. They basically, I think, wanted to get me into a paid level, which their fees are not a lot, but when you're first setting up and not using the site on a daily basis, trying to get your marketing ready, your images and all that, I highly recommend making sure you have product descriptions, images, everything ready to go, and that you're in that backend regularly. Otherwise, they may pull a trick like they did with me and cancel your site on you, and then you have to fight with them to get it back.

Steve J.: Hi, I'm Steve. I'm a business owner, and I give Lightspeed Retail five out of five stars. For more reviews, click below. Before our Lightspeed Retail, we had EMSI, which didn't work for us, because we were looking for a cloud-based solution, something that was a little bit more flexible that we could take offsite and use easier. Lightspeed fills that need very well. For us, Lightspeed offers the flexibility of working offsite or onsite. It offers 24-hour tech support, and it's constantly adding new features and responding to suggestions from its customer base. The onboarding process for Lightspeed was easy, straight ahead. As long as you're familiar with exporting documents through an Excel sheet, you can upload them right there and into your new system. If you're considering Lightspeed Retail, make sure that all your data is organized and effective. That way you can make an easier transition into the new system.