--- title: "Lightspeed Retail Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra" description: "Is Lightspeed Retail the right Retail POS System solution for you? Explore 976 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice." source_url: "https://www.capterra.com/p/120491/Lightspeed-Retail/reviews/" page_type: "reviews" language: "en" publication_date: "2026-10-19" --- Lightspeed Retail 4 (976) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/120491/Lightspeed-Retail/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated October 19th, 2026 # Reviews of Lightspeed Retail Ease of use 4.1 Customer Service 3.9 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews CT Carleton T AdminRetail, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “The main reason I signed up for Lightspeed Retail was so that I could keep my e-commerce website's stock properly synced up with my in-store retail stock.“ December 7, 2024 ES Elissa S OwnerRetail, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “It is embarrassing to have to punch customers' cc numbers in manually because you cannot obtain a functioning credit card machine.“ October 22, 2025 ED Erin D Owner OperatorHospitality, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Our new system is easier for staff, more transparent on the backend, and supported by a team that actually communicates and follows through. If you’re unhappy with Lightspeed, trust me, you’re not stuck.“ July 20, 2025 ES Elissa S OwnerRetail, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “In addition, I just received an email that the cost of the service will be increasing by $40/month, making it more expensive than most retail POS subscriptions.“ October 22, 2025 AB Amile B AdministratorHospitality, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “It helps to give you a better view and analysis of your sales reports.“ March 5, 2025 GF Giuliana F co ownerRetail, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: Less than 6 months. “Then, on \[sensitive content hidden\], I received an unexpected invoice for an additional $930. When I contacted the billing department, I was told this was a fee for not using Lightspeed's credit card processing.“ September 28, 2025 AB Amile B AdministratorHospitality, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “I like the inventory tracking and categorising your products.“ March 5, 2025 JW Jeff W CEOHospitality, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “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.“ August 15, 2024 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 976 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Jessica F. Owner Retail Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Best POS for small businesses" September 4, 2019 5.0 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. Alternatives considered [Square Point of Sale](https://www.capterra.com/p/275802/Square-Point-of-Sale/)[Shopify POS](https://www.capterra.com/p/205337/Shopify-POS/)[Revel Systems](https://www.capterra.com/p/135040/Revel-iPad-POS/) Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail Best integration of inventory, ease of use, I liked all the different standard things the system had like inventory POs, employees, special orders, and more. Switched from [Square Point of Sale](https://www.capterra.com/p/275802/Square-Point-of-Sale/)[Shopify POS](https://www.capterra.com/p/205337/Shopify-POS/)[Revel Systems](https://www.capterra.com/p/135040/Revel-iPad-POS/) Clover wouldn't allow me to do a website. Lightspeed integrates inventory on the brick and mortar and ecommerce sides. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Freelancer Telecommunications Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "The Point of Sale solution" January 7, 2021 4.0 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. Alternatives considered [QuickBooks Enterprise](https://www.capterra.com/p/174984/QuickBooks-Enterprise/) Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail We were after functionalities that Lightspeed can provide. Although both of them are similar, the interface is more user-friendly compared to Quickbooks. And that is important for us, since learning a new tool can be taxing with the time you need to spend navigating and learning it from the inside and out. Review Source MC Matt C. Pres Sporting Goods Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Extortion!!!" December 19, 2024 1.0 Horrible interactions when you're lucky enough to get a human involved - which is typically only on the sales side of the business. 3 months to get a response from the tech side (I wish I was exaggerating). Pros Fairly functional, but they'll make changes with no regard to how it affects your operation, putting your register & receiving department in turmoil at the worst times. Cons Extortion! A sudden "policy change" and now we're getting a additional $400 per month charge on top of our subscription fee until we switch to their merchant card service. \`Wonder why it's so hard to leave a review for Lightspeed? I had an issue with the POS service - it took 3 months just to get a response! Use ANY other POS service! Alternatives considered [Odoo](https://www.capterra.com/p/135618/Odoo/) Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail We're planning to drop Lightspeed ASAP. They make it very difficult, leveraging your data against you to keep you and up the charges at will. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Sr. Analyst Hospital & Health Care Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best POS System in the Business" May 1, 2020 5.0 We had two separate Retail POS systems in our organization. One was so antiquated it had to be replaced and the second one was experiencing issues everyday and the support was lousy. We purchased LightSpeed. I had the Retail Operators go through the setup videos and make decisions on how they wanted to setup the system based on the videos. Then, when the Operators completed their training, I had them configure LightSpeed themselves based on what they learned and the decisions they made. We then entered the inventory and the rest is history. I would recommend LightSpeed to anyone looking for a retail POS no matter what size. Pros I have installed numerous POS systems in my 30+ years of experience. LightSpeed is by far the most comprehensive system, yet easiest system to implement and use. There support mechanism is second to none. If you look your question up in help, there will be documentation to answer your question, and chances are there is a video that walks you step by step through the solution. If you feel like you want to get live help, there chat mechanism is one of the best, better yet, the support people on the chat are the most patient and knowledgeable support people in the business. Simply the best. Cons I don't have any comments for this section Alternatives considered [Bindo POS](https://www.capterra.com/p/143814/Bindo-POS/) Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail Price and product Switched from [Bindo POS](https://www.capterra.com/p/143814/Bindo-POS/) Previous system just was not capable of doing what we purchased it to do. Review Source Rosaline L. Restaurant manager Food & Beverages Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Most complete and easy POS" September 2, 2020 5.0 Very easy to use Pros It is easy to use as you can search for the individual items and put items in categories. It also enable us to put in modifier on each item with additional price too Cons Very expensive compared to other POS. Only if the report format can be modified to be a little bit more simpler Alternatives considered [Moka](https://www.capterra.com/p/199872/Moka/) Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail It has more usable function, example: in moka you cannot make sub recipes whilst in lightspeed i can. So we do not need to reinput every single sauce ingredients on different dishes that use the same sauce Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Director Retail Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Not compatible with existing WooCommerce / Terrible Customer Service" October 13, 2023 1.0 A true business interruption costing us significant time and money! Pros It was so dumbed down that anyone could use it, sadly this also makes it vulnerable to security breaches and theft Cons Almost everything, from being totally mislead in the sales process, squeezed into their processing, ignored and dismissed on support tickets. Terrible service overall. Alternatives considered [Square Point of Sale](https://www.capterra.com/p/275802/Square-Point-of-Sale/)[Clover](https://www.capterra.com/p/226864/Clover/)[KORONA POS](https://www.capterra.com/p/142520/KORONA/)[Hike](https://www.capterra.com/p/145383/Hike-Point-of-Sale/) Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail The salesman was relentless and lied to me about it's capabilities even with detail Q&A. I was mislead by their white papers and sales process only to be dropped like a hot potato and bounced from department to department with no resolution or solutions. They refuse to escalate anything to a management member. Review Source Response from Lightspeed October 19, 2023 Hi, We would like to sincerely apologize for your recent experience with Lightspeed. It is our utmost priority to provide products and services that allow our customers to focus on running their businesses with ease. We value all feedback and would like to learn more about your specific experience, to have the opportunity to address your needs and concerns. As we are unable to identify your account within our records, please feel free to contact our Customer Success team should you wish to provide further feedback. You may reach us via email at engage@lightspeedhq.com. VR Verified Reviewer Owner Tobacco Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Do not use Lightspeed for easy use" November 22, 2022 3.0 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, Alternatives considered [Square Point of Sale](https://www.capterra.com/p/275802/Square-Point-of-Sale/)[Cloverleaf](https://www.capterra.com/p/232657/Cloverleaf/) Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail Because the other ones would not take CBD sales Switched from [QuickBooks Enterprise](https://www.capterra.com/p/174984/QuickBooks-Enterprise/) I wanted a more user friendly POS, smaller, more easily accessible Review Source Response from Lightspeed November 30, 2022 Hello, Thank you for your feedback. It is our utmost priority to provide a product and service that allows our customers to focus on running their businesses with ease. We are sorry to hear you were less than satisfied. As we are unable to identify your account within our records, please feel free to contact our Customer Success team should you wish to provide further feedback. You may reach us at NoAM Toll-Free: +1 844 365-2868. Thank you, Lightspeed Commerce LF Lena F. CEO Retail Used the software for: I used a free trial ### "The WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE" June 9, 2022 1.0 If your thinking of using Lightspeed, skip the hours of frustration and go straight to Square or Shopify. The customer service is the worst I’ve ever encountered, and I work in customer service. The sales rep I was assigned was dishonest, unresponsive and incompetent. I literally spent hours trying to make things work. I asked on numerous occasions to be sent to someone else and the company could not seem to do it. I asked to speak to his manager, and was referred back to him. It was the most bizarre and frustrating experience I’ve had in 13 years as a retailer. Pros I liked the idea of all the integrations Cons Terrible customer support. There was no way for me to really evaluate the functionality of the software bc of this Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail I didn’t. In the end I abandoned the idea after weeks of trying to make it work and switched to Square. Switched from [Shopify](https://www.capterra.com/p/83891/Shopify/) I thought the more sophisticated inventory management would be helpful Review Source Response from Lightspeed June 10, 2022 Hi Lena, Thank you for your feedback. We are sorry to hear that you were less than satisfied with your recent experience with Lightspeed. It is our utmost priority to provide a product and service that allows our customers to focus on running their businesses with ease. Someone will be reaching out to you once more to discuss your request further and next steps. Thank you for your understanding. Thank you, Lightspeed Commerce Nerissa L. Managing Owner/ Store Manager Retail Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Great for Retail" September 29, 2022 5.0 Pros We have been using Lightspeed for our retail firearm business and this has been very helpful for us in monitoring our sales and inventory. This is great for small businesses like us and priced reasonably. Cons None that i can think of. Lightspeed has been great for our business. Alternatives considered [Square Point of Sale](https://www.capterra.com/p/275802/Square-Point-of-Sale/) Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail Better in inventory management, control and audit for Lightspeed Switched from [Square Point of Sale](https://www.capterra.com/p/275802/Square-Point-of-Sale/) Better in inventory management, control and audit for Lightspeed Review Source VC Veronika C. Owner Restaurants Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "POS for New Restaurant Owners" November 5, 2019 5.0 Never had a system this advanced before. I keep trying to implement more features to benefit the daily running of our restaurant. Pros Easy to use and set-up. Customer support is great. You are always talking to a real person and they always answer your questions or solve your problems. Cons There have been a few bugs every now and again. I would have liked some more one on one time when setting up our system. Alternatives considered [Lavu](https://www.capterra.com/p/118828/Lavu/)[TouchBistro](https://www.capterra.com/p/140677/TouchBistro/)[Oracle Primavera Cloud](https://www.capterra.com/p/145503/Oracle-Primavera/) Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail The weren't pushy. They let us decide. There was always someone there to talk to. Webinars were great! Review Source EC Elizabeth C. General Manager Recreational Facilities and Services Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Fantastic product for any retail business. Excellent value." June 6, 2022 5.0 Overall, I think Lightspeed Retail is an excellent product and very simple for most any retail operation. I highly recommend it to colleagues for their POS/Inventory/eCom solutions. Pros Creating items and managing retail is very easy through Lightspeed Retail. The reporting features allow you to make great decisions for your business based on accurate data. Anytime I need help with something or am unsure as to how to do something regarding any feature of Lightspeed Retail, support is only a click away through the helpful chat feature. They are almost always immediate to respond and always kind and patient with any question. Cons Understanding how retail communicates with eCom is a little intimidating at first and simply took a minute to wrap my head around how it links together. Discounting could be a little more straight forward too but overall ok. Alternatives considered [GolfNow for Business](https://www.capterra.com/p/177599/GolfNow-for-Business/)[GolfNow Premier](https://www.capterra.com/p/153647/IBS-CLUB/) Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail Lightspeed offered everything we need as a whole for our golf operation including tee sheet management, retail, website, marketing, and more. Review Source JB Josh B. Owner Retail Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "The Absolute Worst" March 9, 2021 1.0 We’ve been in business for 5 years now (and been in the small business world for another 15). Our experience with Lightspeed is single handedly the worst experience we have ever had with any vendor, rep, or supplier. And it’s not even close. I honestly don’t even know where to start. From the over promising and under delivering on the actual integration and battling back and forth for over a month on trying to get the setup right to deciding to break our contract based on all their broken promises and waiting over a month to have someone call and talk to me about what my cancel/return options were on our existing contract. I/we are the most mellow and chill people and company on the face of the planet and I have shaked with anger 3-4 times over this whole process. As I’m writing this I’m having the sales rep (who has promised me for 27 days that a manager would call to discuss my frustrations and give me options for officially canceling our contract) is emailing me and telling me to wait 1 more day. Which he has now said 5 days in a row. I just need to talk to someone besides him, a manager, a tier higher, anybody. I’m not even expecting to get a working resolution with who I talk to. I just can’t even start with the baseline of talking to someone other than my sales rep and at day 27, I’m tired of waiting. Thus this review. Pros Nothing In theory, the reporting In theory, the inventory management Cons Over promised Under delivered Zero communication Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail So after months of that, we request to cancel our contract. That’s hard enough knowing the hundreds of hours and contract labor we lost out on. In addition to whatever fees I’m still going to be on the hook for with Lightspeed. But it’s insane that it’s been 27 days and I still can’t get anyone to call me back. Just emails from our “sales” guy saying 1 more day, 1 more day, 1 more day. Horrible company. I’d say it was a scam if there weren’t at least some positive reviews out there. This is the first negative review I’ve left in a decade as if I have a problem with a restaurant or business, I always call and ask to talk to a manager or owner and explain whatever the pressure point was. Which I rarely do. If I have a bad experience in either of those places, I just chalk it up to someone having a bad day and try to give them a bit of grace and patience as I’m a small business owner and understand how hard it is to hit customer’s expectations. But this is beyond the norm. And I’ve reached out multiple times to Lightspeed to give them the opportunity to hear our pressure points and make things right. I can’t even get that most basic of requests. Do not use. Switched from [Square Point of Sale](https://www.capterra.com/p/275802/Square-Point-of-Sale/) This decision has cost my small business over $10,000. Which we don’t have under the best of times, let alone during COVID. But we made the decision to switch from our existing system to Lightspeed in an effort to better adapt to a changing retail world due to the crazy year that was 2020. We spent months and hours upon hours on phone calls, video chats, and conference calls making sure we had a clear understanding of the transition and integration process. Their sales team are basically con men. Promising that there will no hiccups and if there are, their team will be standing by with white gloves to help set things right. Hahaha. The sales team doesn’t know what the service team is doing and vice versa. We clearly asked multiple questions about how to connect the system to our existing website and migrating 5,000+ SKUs into their system and the sales person told us no problems that they do it 20 times a day. We weren’t even migrating from some obscure system. Square (for our brick and mortar) and WooCommerce (for online). It took thousands of dollars in additional plugins, services, and contract labor to help me get in the ballpark of figuring it out but at the end of the day, it still didn’t work the way it was originally promised by the sales team. Which we have in written emails and confirmed in multiple calls. Even better, calling and trying to talk to someone else beyond our sales team just ends in the same frustration. Review Source Response from Lightspeed March 26, 2021 Hi Josh, Thank you for your feedback. It is our utmost priority to provide a product and service that allows our customers to focus on running their businesses with ease. We are sorry to hear you were less than satisfied. We see that our Customer Success team have already reached out, they will continue working with you to address your concerns. Thank you, Lightspeed POS RA Ryan A. Retail Business Owner Retail Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "They over promise and under deliver" August 21, 2022 3.0 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. Alternatives considered [Epos Now](https://www.capterra.com/p/152638/Epos-Now/)[Square Point of Sale](https://www.capterra.com/p/275802/Square-Point-of-Sale/)[Shopify](https://www.capterra.com/p/83891/Shopify/) Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail Looked like the total package. I was wrong. They lacked the customer support touch. I don’t know how this company will continue to grow. Review Source Response from Lightspeed August 24, 2022 Hi Ryan, We would like to sincerely apologize for your recent experience with Lightspeed. It is our utmost priority to provide products and services that allow our customers to focus on running their businesses with ease. We value all feedback and would like to learn more about your specific experience, to have the opportunity to address your needs and concerns. As we are unable to identify your account within our records, please feel free to contact our Customer Success team should you wish to provide further feedback. You may reach us via email at engage@lightspeedhq.com. Thank you, Lightspeed Commerce CE Cody E. Store Manager Retail Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Thank you Lightspeed" November 24, 2024 5.0 Super simple and easy for my consumers transactions. Pros the amazing POS and Inventory management offered from Lightspeed. Cons That we didnt start using Lightspeed earlier. Review Source JA James A. owner Retail Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Take Your Money Elsewhere...Total Fail and Misleading Sales" May 9, 2024 1.0 Lied to so I would purchase $500 in hardware. Then was ghosted when I cancelled and wanted to return hardware. Spent two months trying to make it functional. Finally gave up. Cancelled subscription and then could not get a call back for hardware return. Was told a lot of inaccurate information at sales, just to be told at implementation it would not do those things that were promised. Pros Nothing. Wasted my time and energy with false promises of functionality. Total fail. Terrible experience Cons Questions I asked at demo: Does it include integrations with Woo and Amazon? Told it did. It does not! Demands additional software to integrate with Woo, Amazon, and Shipstation. Where is support? Told North America. It is not. 4-6 days to get email response. Phone support has no answers, creates email chain. Review Source Response from Lightspeed May 15, 2024 Hi James, Thank you for sharing your concerns. We apologize for any frustration you experienced with our product and services. Your feedback on integrations and support response times is invaluable, and we're committed to improving in these areas. If you're open to it, we'd appreciate the chance to discuss this further. Unfortunately, we are unable to locate your account within our records based on the information provided in your review. Please reach out to your Account Manager directly so we can find ways to assist you better. Thank you in advance for your time. The Lightspeed Team VR Verified Reviewer Owner | Webmaster | SysAdmin | Research & Development Apparel & Fashion Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Solid eCommerce Platform" September 3, 2020 5.0 I currently use both Lightspeed eCom & Retail (Omni-channel). This helps our retail store and online store stay synced and makes life easier for employees. Now, all POS sales and eCom sales are in one platform that is easy to use for our employees. If a customer purchases an item in our retail store, ecommerce inventory stays updated. Pros I really like that I am able to customize our website and integrate third party apps & APIs easily. And the customer service, the customer service is top notch! Through migration and implementation, the Lightspeed team was right there. At a moment's notice, I can chat with the team or give them a call. Although I may be a one-woman tech team, I have help! It's such a blessing to have a support team for our business. It has been easy to integrate all of our business critical resources and provide a more unified experience for our employees. Employees can access customer data, order data, shipping data, marketing data and product data in one platform. I've been able to customize our store template to our specific business needs and design requirements. It's been a developer's dream. Cons My main dislike is that I don't have FTP access to my files on LS servers. This would be extremely helpful to optimize our images as needed. I also would like to upload customer data myself. At this time, to upload customer data in bulk, I have to send the data to Lightspeed for import. More options for discounts and coupons would be helpful - BOGO, Buy 2 Get One, or FREE Shipping codes based on domestic addresses only (not international). Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail I was already using Lightspeed Retail so the integration was easy! Switched from [Volusion](https://www.capterra.com/p/32398/Volusion-eCommerce/) Our previous vendor had a data breach. Review Source LP Laurel P. Owner Retail Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Not suited for small businesses, Big Box Store Perfect!" February 2, 2021 3.0 Frustrating. Doosync - the migration company, by the way was awesome! Pros I think it makes accepting online sales easy but that's about it for me. Cons I didn't realize how much I LOVED Lightspeed On-Site until we switched to Retail. We were recommended to move to Lightspeed Retail because On-Site is old technology, however this program is way inferior for small businesses. Once we were contacted to move to Retail coincidentally our On-Site started having issues like our subscription wasn't renewed and our e-Com store was turned off randomly. Not really knowing what was going on... it made sense to change to the cloud based program they were really encouraging us to move to. Now that we have gone live I realize this program is not as complex regarding small businesses, and offers very little customizations for our personal style. I was told the Analytics feature for $1000 would give me the options I need to customize the program to our business such as implementing sales targets our staff could see and a customizable dashboard.... don't think it can. It really just gives you more reports than a one brick & mortar plus online store needs. It's not relevant. Also....we thought moving to retail with our physical and eCom store would run smoother and that gift cards would work between both platforms. Again... not the case. Gift cards are not available online nor can in store cards be used online without a lot of effort in making that happen. I think if you owned multiple stores that just reordered the same inventory and didn't care about labels or gift cards this would be the perfect system for you! Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail Because we had an online store with Lightspeed e-Com and OnSite we thought the transition would be really easy. We also thought gift cards would be simplified and an online option by having them under the same program, so it just made sense. Now that we've migrated we now know Gift Cards are still not an e-Com option... we've had nothing but problems with the Zebra printer... frustrated with the fact you cannot alter the very generic labels for products and we've had hassles trying to get our cash drawer that worked before to work now. Had I known then what I know now I would have shopped around. Review Source Response from Lightspeed February 18, 2021 Hi Laurel, Thank you for your feedback. We are sorry to hear you are not satisfied with the recent switch from OnSite to Retail. We see that you have been in touch with our Customer Engagement team and we encourage you to continue working with them. Thank you, Lightspeed POS KT Kyla T. Owner Retail Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Lightspeed Retail - User Friendly & Great Customer Service" June 25, 2024 5.0 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. Alternatives considered [Square Point of Sale](https://www.capterra.com/p/275802/Square-Point-of-Sale/) Review Source Brett T. Owner Automotive Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Lightspeed doesn't put their customers first" July 10, 2017 1.0 Pros Nice user interface. Good features for a shop that does service work. Cloud-based software makes it easy and convenient. Cons Our bike shop has been using Lightspeed for 5 years now, first with their Mac based software, and then with their cloud based software (Lightspeed Retail). There are many great things about the software, but on the whole I would not recommend a small business owner to hitch their cart to this company. There are significant bugs, inventory control is a disaster, but worst of all, fundamentally Lightspeed does not care about their customers. What Lightspeed cares about is their roadmap which in most cases doesn't deal with fundemental issues that their customers have been bringing up for years - if you have any doubt on this, look at their "ideas" page where top voted on features and requests have sat dormant for years. My frustration has boiled over due to an issue with the way their inventory system works, and the way their customer service team has responded to my pleading that they at least give me an ETA on a fix. Here's the backstory: Lightspeed does a very peculiar thing which is that it will auto-add inventory if a product is sold but does not exist in inventory. Not only this, but Lightspeed will auto-check-in inventory off of POs if a product is sold. Now this in and of itself is a disaster as far as accountability is concerned: how is one supposed to track POs when product mysteriously gets checked in! But the worst part is that there is a bug in their system which will auto-check-in product off of POs if product is put into a work order. Doesn't matter if said product is sold or not, it will check-in the product regardless, causing a nightmare scenario where we are trying to figure out what POs have truly been received, and which POs Lightspeed has decided to receive automatically. I brought this issue up for the first time around 6 months ago, and never got any solid response on a fix. I contacted support in April again. After a lot of back and forth about whether this was a real problem (like I love spending time contacting support) the support tech Derrick agreed that this was an issue. I asked for an ETA. No ETA was available. I followed up a month later in May. Still no ETA, but Derrick assured me this was a priority, but also assured my significant problem that is causing myself and my staff time and frustration and vigilance and additional systems and workflows to remedy is "an extreme edge case scenario so I'm curious about how it could be causing you significant workflow issues." So now we are in July. This supposedly "high priority" "extreme edge case" bug is still not fixed. No ETA. No communication. Since we started experiencing this issue Lightspeed has stuck an e-commerce link in the middle of the navigation bar and continued to work on integrating their e-commerece into every other cranny of the software, even if you don't use their e-commerce. They've added a new feature called Analytics which costs additional monthly fees. Their API is still slow and unsupported. Their App marketplace is effectively a Potemkin village of fake apps with no real syncing with the silo that is Lightspeed. The promises of a cloud based POS are so great, but Lightspeed does not deliver. If you are looking to invest time and energy in a retail POS platform, I would strongly encourage you to look elsewhere. Lightspeed looks very slick on the surface, and it is quite good in many ways, but the underlying company culture does not put their customers first. Review Source MK Marina K. Owner Building Materials Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Not Able to Customize Anything" December 14, 2021 1.0 We are a small retail store with three locations that does mostly local sales and some online sales. We manufacture some of our own products as well as re-sell other products. We also do a lot of large custom orders. We explained in detail to our sales person what kind of business we were and what our needs were for the system, including the type of work orders/invoices we needed to be able to format for our employees and customers. We were promised that all the forms and reports were totally customizable and it would be no problem. This is not the case at all! The work order forms and invoices can barely be customized and the only way you can customize it is if you know script or how to write in code. We've called customer support and they have offered no help on how we can customize it to fit our needs or even offer some outside resources that we would be glad to pay for. All we've gotten is "sorry, we can't help. if you want to request for this feature in the future, they may or may not add it." We were fully expecting and promised to be able to format our work orders and reports from the start, but now we can't every run our business out of this system. Total waste of money! Pros \- The retail POS side works fine - e-Commerce side works fine Cons \- Very complicated to customize any forms or reports for your business or not able to customize at all - Lack of customer support - Sales person overpromised on what system was capable of regarding our small business needs that were explained beforehand Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail We were promised by salesperson that the system could meet our retail store/ecommerce needs and our needs as a service/manufacturing company. Review Source Response from Lightspeed December 30, 2021 Hi Marina, Thank you for your feedback. We are sorry to hear that you were less than satisfied with your recent experience with Lightspeed. It is our utmost priority to provide a product and service that allows our customers to focus on running their businesses with ease. Someone will be reaching out to you once more to discuss your request further and next steps. Thank you for your understanding. Thank you, Lightspeed Commerce BC Brian C. Owner Retail Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Terrible Service, Outdated Product " February 23, 2024 1.0 We bought a business that used Lightspeed. On 12/22/23 the previous owner submitted a ticket and sent her rep an email, telling LS that they needed to transfer ownership to us. We were sent paperwork and filled it out immediately as we were closing on 1/1/24. Rep said everything was fine. In 1/2/24 everything was still in previous owners name. I called, gave up after 4 times of waiting for over 20 minutes, put in tickets and emailed our rep. Nothing. A few days and a plethora of calls, emails and online messages later, someone told me the rep gave us the wrong paperwork to fill out. We had to start over. This wasn’t done until 1/16/24, 16 days after we bought the business. But it gets worse! For all that time, all sales went to the previous owners acccount (she still had LS at another business) and all money from sales went to her bank. Again, call after call, ticket after ticket, nothing. Finally after over a month, the previous owner was nice enough to write me a check for the payments she received in error, but to this day, LS still hasn’t figured out how to get the sales that went into the previous owners account, to mine. Almost 60 days! I missed paying my state sales tax because I don’t know how much sales we had. Then to top it all off, I worked on our ecom/website for hundreds of hours. Added just under 4,000 products and descriptions and pictures. We own a retail Christmas store. I’d put a stuffed animal under “Plush” on the website. The next day I’d look and that listing would now be under Christmas Lights. Again to tech support. Turns out there was a syncing issue and they had to delete everything I had done. I have to start over. Redo just under 4,000 products. Put them in the correct categories. Hundreds of hours of more work. They didn’t even apologize. They don’t care.To this day, 2/22/24, the account still shows in the old owners, company name. More tickets, more of nothing getting done. More frustration. Please, please stay away from this company. They are truly horrible. Pros Inventory management was easy. The retail system is fairly easy, but the api from retail to ecom is one way, which is a major flaw. Cons Their ecom is terrible. Only thing worse than their ecom is their customer service. You can’t call anyone. Tickets take weeks to get worked. Only option is online chat. Try explaining a complex situation in a chat. Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail We purchased the business and it already had Lightspeed. Review Source Response from Lightspeed February 27, 2024 Hi Brian, We sincerely apologize for any challenges you've faced while using Lightspeed. Your satisfaction is paramount to us, and we are fully committed to promptly resolving your concerns. In light of your recent experience, our Management team reached out last week to provide further assistance and help remove any blockers you that you are experiencing. We appreciate your patience as we diligently work to address your issues. Best regards, The Lightspeed Team VR Verified Reviewer Owner Retail Used the software for: 2+ years ### "A great system overall " January 14, 2021 5.0 Pros The ease of use for my staff is great. We also love the ability to add purchase orders and receive them with ease. Our old system did not have this. I also like that it has great inventory management. We just did a recent inventory count and that went so much easier than in years past. Also, the reporting is overall very good. It gives you a good insight into your data. Cons The Ecom side could use a lot of work. I would love to see a better way to do discounts and markdowns. The way it is set up now is very complicated and makes it a lot harder for us retailers to use. For the retail side, I would love to see a green light button on both the email receipt and email purchase order side. Sometimes I click send email but I can't remember if I actually hit send. A Green/red light would be helpful. Lastly, I would love to see a feature that incorporates a discount on items when receiving a purchase order. Currently, there is a box to input the % discount of $ off but it does not get incorporated into the product cost. Alternatives considered [Genius](https://www.capterra.com/p/195074/Genius/)[Shopify POS](https://www.capterra.com/p/205337/Shopify-POS/) Review Source HG Helena G. CEO Retail Used the software for: 2+ years ### "No upgrades since 2015 with their R-Series POS. " October 10, 2023 1.0 It's been a struggle. I didn't want to take the time and effort to switch but after they charged me $650 per location with out notice...I'm OUT! Pros Can hold a large inventory amount...we have 3000+ products Cons They never seemed to upgrade there system. Its been the same for 8 years!!! Review Source Response from Lightspeed October 19, 2023 Hi Helena, We would like to sincerely apologize for your recent experience with Lightspeed. It is our utmost priority to provide products and services that allow our customers to focus on running their businesses with ease. We value all feedback and would like to learn more about your specific experience, to have the opportunity to address your needs and concerns. As we are unable to identify your account within our records, please feel free to contact our Customer Success team should you wish to provide further feedback. You may reach us via email at engage@lightspeedhq.com. CJ Carole J. owner Retail Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Lightspeed issues" December 30, 2019 4.0 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!!!!!! Alternatives considered [Clover](https://www.capterra.com/p/226864/Clover/)[Shopify](https://www.capterra.com/p/83891/Shopify/) Reason for choosing Lightspeed Retail 5 years ago it was the best option. Review Source AP Ann P. Owner Retail Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "The Honest Truth about Lightspeed" July 17, 2015 2.0 Pros In my application the thing I like best is the ability to import new items into my system directly from the distributor's catalog, as long as the catalogs are up to date. The master order is good for basic inventory items once you have reorder point set up. I need a web based system and this one is. Cons Sorry to say my list is very long for this one. 1. You can not return anything to a vendor....they say they are working on an update so this won't be an issue anymore, however this change has been recommended by users for a very long time and they are just now working on it. 2. If you go to sell something and the system does not see enough in stock, it will magically add enough to your inventory to complete the sale. This does wonders for the accounting side! I don't understand why they will not let you go into negative inventory, but it doesn't. 3. If you sell an item as an each, but buy it as a case, the reorder/master order will not work correctly. For example I buy a case of 200 treats and sell them as an each. If I set my reorder for 1 case when I have 0 cases, I will end up with 200 new in stock and up to 199 from the last case. If I set my reorder point to be 50 (each), and my stock falls to 45 I will now get 5 cases, instead of just 1. This is for anything you buy as a case and sell as an each. 4. Reports...There are a few reports that I need my employees to have access to, but there are many reports I do not want them to have access to. The problem with the software is, it is all or nothing for reports. I can not set it up so they can see the ones that need, without giving them access to ones they should not be seeing. 5. Printing price tags is the biggest headache for me. It is way too long to try to explain, just know if you want to print price tags before you finalize an order this is not the program for you! 6. If there system is down, you are dead in the water. Since April 17th till today July 17th I have experienced 6 outages that ranged from 5 minutes to an hour. Yes that is when customers walk out the door. I am paying for this service and they are costing me money. 7. Random dislikes... No spot for check numbers. Anytime the cash drawer is opened a receipt is printed, and every time a receipt is printed the cash drawer open...even for debit transactions, it will also print 2 copies of every credit card receipt, I have numerous customers that do not want the receipt, so I am just wasting paper. There is no auto fill for customer names or items. There is no warning of duplicate UPC's or Customer names. There is no customer loyalty program or rewards program in the system, I have to pay an outside company in order to give my customers a rewards program. 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