A Vend POS Review (2023): Is It The Best Point of Sale Solution?

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If you’re looking for a point of sale solution, then consider Vend POS. Check out our Vend POS review to learn everything you need to know about this software!

Are you an ecommerce store owner, looking to set up a traditional brick and mortar store? Or, are you looking for a better POS system than the one you already have?

If so, Vend POS might be the perfect solution for you. After all, 20,000 other sellers seem to be satisfied with their service! Throughout this review, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about this software so you can make an informed decision as to whether it’ll complement your business.

Let’s dive in!

What is Vend POS?

Almost two decades ago, Vend first launched in 2010- back then it was nothing short of groundbreaking. They were one of the first companies offering business owners a robust POS system operating entirely via the cloud.

This was preferable for entrepreneurs because it meant many of the days to day running of the company could function even without an internet connection.

Since then, Vend’s continued to offer top-notch service to its users. They’re continuously updating their products and filling any holes that appear in their POS solution.

๐Ÿ‘‰  Since Vend’s official launch, they’ve introduced a plethora of fresh features including:

  • An extensive inventory management system,
  • The option of using and syncing several online sales channels
  • Tons of integrations with third-party apps and software

More on these later!

Vend POS Features

vend pos features

Choose between a web-based or an iPad-based POS: You can use Vend’s POS solution with either your iPad, Mac, or Windows PC (or a combination of all three). Vend syncs your data using cloud-based technology. So, you can access your POS either through one device or several.  With the iPad app, selling on the go is a breeze. You can save swipes, keypad taps, and touches — all of which help speed up the completion of customer transactions.

Train staff quickly: Vend is nothing short of intuitive, which makes training your staff easy. Within minutes your team should be able to get themselves up and running.

Discounts and notes: With Vend POS, you can add discounts and notes to specific items or an entire line. These changes are also reflected in your customer receipts.

Returns and refunds: Processing customer refunds and returns are simple. You can either provide shoppers with in-store credit or a gift card. Alternatively, give customers money back via their original method of payment.

Cash management: Managing your cash has never been more simplistic. With Vend POS, you can track each and every one of your cash movements. From curating a cash float to closing your register, you can use Vend’s cash management tools to reduce crash-related errors and limit discrepancies. You can even print a record of your daily totals, add any relevant notes, and check totals by payment type — how useful is that?!

Parked sales: How often do your customers forget to pick something up and then go running back onto the shop floors to find an item? If that happens a lot in your store, you’ll be pleased to hear you can easily ‘park’ customer purchases and then later retrieve them when they’re ready to complete the transaction. In the meanwhile, you can serve other customers — so everyone wins!

Vend: Inventory-Specific Features

Barcodes and labels: You can either import existing barcodes or create and print new ones. Both of these processes are pretty straightforward. Within minutes you can add products to sales, purchase orders, and do a stock-take.

A central product catalog: Vend gives you access to a central product catalog. Here you can sync your products across all your sales channels — which saves time you’d otherwise have spent manually entering data!

Customize your tax rates: You can easily manage and customize your tax rates, so you can ensure you’ve set the correct rate for all the cities, countries, and states you’re operating in.

Inventory counts: You can choose to complete either a full or partial inventory count. Best of all, you can perform multiple counts at the same time, which is fabulous for speeding up what’s usually a pretty tedious process.

Stock transfers: This feature empowers you to transfer items from one location to another (and fast!). In addition to this, you can also check product levels across all your stores  — so you’ll never be caught short!

Duplicate products: You can promptly duplicate products (and their variants). This comes in handy if you’re selling a new product which subtly differs to a product you’re already selling. As such, you should be able to add a new product to your line within minutes!

Vend’s Reporting Features

Customized reports: Vend makes it simple to create your own reports, so you can quickly analyze your store metrics.  This info should give you a better idea of how your staff, products lines, and your shop are generally performing. You can even create sales reports specific to your: products, brands, suppliers, tags, etc. This is useful if you and your marketing team want to identify trends. After all, you should always use your sales figures to fuel your merchandise, customer service, and marketing strategies.

Employee performance: Vend gives you the tools you need to set daily, weekly, and/or monthly sales targets for each of your team members. Once Vend’s compiled this data together, you’ll be able to see at a glance how your staff’s performing.

Export your reports: With just a few clicks, you can export all your reports and open them as spreadsheets. This is great for analyzing your store’s progress…or for providing your accountant with this month’s figures (yawn!)

How Does Vend POS Work?

It doesn’t matter whether you have one brick and mortar store or 20. You can use Vend’s POS system to take payments from in-person customers, all from the convenience of your iPad, Mac or PC.

You can access this solution anytime, from anywhere because as we’ve already said, it runs using a cloud- even offline!

‘How’s that possible?!’ we hear you cry.

Well, Vend’s program works within an HTML5 compatible web browser (or the HTML5 iPad app depending on the device you’re using). So, if you can’t connect to the internet, the cache takes over and does the job offline. Not to worry, all your sales data will automatically re-sync when you eventually re-establish an internet connection.

Vend POS - home

The Benefits of Using Vend POS

One of the things we love about Vend is that you can choose from a long list of integrated payment gateways. Unlike other POS systems, you’re not forced into using their preferred payment gateway. This helps to ensure you always have the option of enjoying the best market rates.

Vend provides a whole host of payment partners you can connect with. They pride themselves on the relationships they’ve developed with various payment gateways. As such, Vend’s customers can be confident they’ll enjoy seamless integrations.

Not to mention, the setup process is incredibly quick and relatively easy. Plus, if you run into trouble getting up and running, you can refer to some of the resources Vend’s published online. These are amazing for guiding you through the setup process.

Alternatively, you can register Vend’s POS system directly to your bank- which you should note, is a very popular option amongst Vend’s users.

You can also sync your card reader with Vend. This is an absolute godsend. When you do this, the margin for human error massively decreases because there’s no longer a need for manual entries!

Vend POS - features

A Few Other Advantages of Vend POS

For your ease, I’ve taken the liberty of bullet-pointing the rest of Vend’s benefits so that you can scan through them quickly:

  • Get swiftly paid: You can expect to receive payments from your customers in as little as two working days.
  • Accept any payment type: Business owners can accept all major credit and debit cards (Visa, MasterCard, and American Express), cash, gift cards, layby, split payments, store credit, and account payments. When it comes to taking card payments it doesn’t matter whether your customers prefer to swipe, use contactless, or traditionally punch their PIN- shoppers can pay however they most feel comfortable. This even extends to using other contactless technologies, like Android Pay, NFC, and Apple Pay. In addition to all that, you can also offer a ‘buy now pay later’ option to your customers.
  • You don’t need any hardware (to get going): There’s no need to worry about purchasing equipment, (to begin with). First things first, sign yourself up to one of Vend’s payment partners. From there, theyโ€™ll send you all the hardware you need.
  • They integrate online and offline payments: It doesn’t matter whether you want to take in-person payments or take a transaction over the web- either way, Vend provides a system that integrates both.
  • Enjoy business and productivity apps: Whether you need help scheduling your employee’s shifts or keeping up with your accounts, there’s an app on Vend’s marketplace that’s bound to help. Vend’s continually expanding the plugins available to you. So if they don’t have what you want yet, they probably will in the future.
  • Keep on top of your accounts: You can sync your store with accounting software like Xero or QuickBooks Online. If you already have accounts with either of these pieces of software, these integrations are really handy. Both programs are intuitive, and with just a few clicks, you can automatically sync your daily sales totals, account sales, and payment totals- how awesome is that?!
  • Search quickly for products and customers: If you’re looking for a specific product, use the search bar or the barcode scanner, and you’ll find it with ease. Similarly, you can quickly locate your customer’s details by searching for their name and/or telephone number.
  • Customize customers receipts: You can give customers personalized receipts including instructions on how to care for the product(s), a coupon code, your logo, your website URL, etc.  You can also choose whether to email or print your receipt (emailing receipts is a wonderful way to build your e-mail list)
  • Free trial: Customers can enjoy a free trial before handing over their hard-earned cash. This includes a nifty self-guided tour which walks you through the process of adding products, creating customer profiles, setting tax rates, customizing the register’s quick keys, etc. On the whole, the system’s pretty self-explanatory, and the trial serves to highlight this fact.
  • User accounts: If you’re starting to build a team of staff, you’ll be pleased to hear you can create different user accounts where you can list the different permissions each worker’s entitled to. This works wonders for keeping your customer’s sensitive info safe. It also serves to monitor the performance of your employees and provides a simple way of boosting the accountability of your staff.
Vend POS - sales

Vend’s Best Apps

As we’ve just said, there are plenty of fabulous third-party apps and integrations Vend users can make the most of, including:

MailSync

With the help of MailSync, you can automatically sync your Vend customer database with your e-mail list. This is one of the simplest ways for a business owner to keep in contact with their following and to build a rapport with potential customers.

This same plugin also enables entrepreneurs to store and monitor customer data, such as:

  • Name,
  • Email address,
  • Purchasing history,
  • Loyalty credit balance,

With this kind of info, you can personalize your marketing strategy, and as you start doing this, you’re sure to see a rise in conversion rates!
MailSync is incredibly easy to set up and to connect with the following tools:

Deputy

The Deputy plugin enables users to easily:

  • Schedule shifts
  • Assign group and individual tasks, send announcements, messages, and set task lists
  • Monitor the performance of your employees
  • Track the hours worked by staff (when they clocked in and out) by creating and using time sheets
  • Monitor the performance of your business on a day by day basis

Effectively, Deputy’s excellent for helping business owners manage their staff.

Stitch Labs

Most online sellers use several sales channels. This is where Stitch Labs comes into its own. You can sync your Vend profile to connect with all of the following:

Just to name a few!

With this third-party integration, you’ll get a better feel for which of your products are most popular. Stitch Labs also provides one central place where you can manage the entirety of your inventory.  From monitoring stock levels to handling orders, Switch Labs does it all!

Rest assured, everything is synced between your Vend and Stitch Labs accounts in real-time- so there shouldn’t be any confusion.

You can also get all of the following reports:

  • Sales,
  • Profits,
  • KPI,

As we’ve said time and again, knowledge is power. The more data you have to hand, the better positioned you are to grow your business.

Unleashed

If you need further help managing your stock, the ‘Unleashed’ app’s worth using. This is especially handy for smaller to medium-sized businesses who need access to sophisticated warehouse and supply chain management features.

Vend POS - description

What Do Customers Love Most About Vend?

Customers love that they can access their POS solution, anywhere, and at any time. The beauty of any cloud-based software is that you’re not restricted by location. It doesn’t matter where you go; you have everything you need to manage and monitor your business.

Also, if you have any coding or web development skills, you’ll be pleased to hear you can use Vend‘s API to create your own custom extensions. That way you can craft a POS system that works exactly how you need it to (or you can hire a web developer to do it for you!)

Moreover, if you get stuck, Vend’s customer service is literally award-winning. They’re proud to say they’ve won the Customer Service prize at the Stevie Awards as many as four times! They’ve deliberately compiled a support team of workers with retail backgrounds.

This is one of the many reasons why their staff can understand and tackle the challenges you’re facing with clarity and professionalism. With over 200 support staff, there are professionals dotted all over the world, in several different time zones- just ready and waiting to handle your query.

๐Ÿ‘‰ Their primary support hubs are located in:

  • Auckland,
  • Toronto,
  • London,
  • Melbourne,

So, you can be sure someone’s on hand to help you out!

Vend POS - homepage

More Info on the Vend POS Hardware

With the correct hardware, you can enjoy their flashy customer facing display. This is fabulous for building brand loyalty.

All you have to do is pair the Vend Display and the Vend Register iPad app together, and voila- you can handle customers at the point of check out with greater transparency.

They’ll see preciscely what you’re processing, which not only fills customers with confidence, it also provides a fabulous talking point!

Plus, when you combine customer profiles with Quick Keys, you can create and use personalized buttons to process your customer’s favorite products. This works wonders for speeding up the checkout process and for making the consumer feel special- win-win!

๐Ÿ‘‰ Alongside standalone equipment, Vend offers three all-in-one POS bundles:

  • The Mac Bundle
  • The PC Bundle
  • The iPad Bundle

That way they can opt for a package that best suits the equipment you have to hand.

The Disadvantages to Using Vend

As with any other POS system on the market, Vend could benefit from a few improvements. One of the re-occurring complaints on review forums is that Vend suffers from minor glitches and slow servers. Some other users have also said they’d like to see a sturdier set of features.

A classic example of this is the request for customer display that’s compatible with other hardware other than just an iPad. Who knows, perhaps in time Vend will implement this update?

Vend POS Pricing

Vend POS pricing

Vend POS has three pricing packages, so hopefully, there’s one to suit your budget.

The Vend Lite Package

The Vend Lite bundle is best for smaller, more basic retail operations. This is the cheapest package, coming in at $99 per month (when you pay annually). Alternatively, you can pay $119 a month.

This will entitle you to a POS system for one outlet, working alongside one cash register. However, there is a turnover limit of $20,000 per month; if you exceed this amount three times in the space of a year, you’ll have to upgrade your payment plan.

๐Ÿ‘‰ You’ll also enjoy all of the following features:

  • Basic store management tools
  • An easy-to-use point of sale system
  • An inventory management feature that works in real time.
  • Outstanding around the clock customer support (both over the telephone and online).
  • Small business reporting
  • The Xero accounting add-on

The Vend Pro Bundle

Alternatively, the Vend Pro bundle is best suited to stores looking to expand and shops selling from more than one location. As you may well have expected, the Pro bundle falls under the next price bracket.

This will set you back $129 per month when you pay annually. Alternatively, you’ll be billed $159 each month.

The Pro package entitles you to everything listed in the Lite package in addition to:

  • No caps on your turnover!
  • Access to the entire platform
  • Advanced reporting
  • Advanced analytics
  • More sophisticated promotions and gift cards
  • Access to all plugins
  • Access and integration with all E-commerce channels
  • API Access
  • Retail management for handling numerous channels.

The Vend Enterprise Package

If you’re managing large stores in numerous locations, you’ll need the Vend Enterprise package. However, you’ll have to contact Vend directly and get a quote. This requires a tailor-made package to suit your business needs.

However, you will be able to run and manage the POS solution from six or more outlets, use one cash register, and enjoy an unlimited turnover- that’s in addition to everything offered in the pro plan, plus, a dedicated accounts manager.

Vend Customer Support

As we’ve already said, one of the best things about Vend is their high-quality customer support. You can get in touch with them 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So, it doesn’t matter when an issue arises, you should be able to get the help you need.

We’ve noticed loads of Vend‘s customers have reported that Vend’s incredibly quick at responding to queries and that they always provide informative and actionable solutions – no matter what support channel you use.

This is probably because the majority of Vend’s customer support agents boast retail backgrounds. As such, they’re familiar with the challenges you’re facing and are fully prepared to deal with them.

You can contact Vend via email or over the phone. If your preferred method of communication is the telephone, then consider opting a higher priced plan, as these come with priority phone support.

You can also reach out to Vend via social media. They’re active on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.  On these platforms, Vend aims to keep you updated on all their latest news from HQ, as well as info on all their upgrades and features. In addition to all that, Vend’s also happy to provide answers to any and all of your questions through social media.

Vend Self-Help

Alternatively, if you’d prefer to find answers out for yourself, head over to Vend’s help center. This is free for all of Vend’s customers. Over there, you’ll find a whole host of how-to articles, set-up guides, video tutorials, training, and other tips and tricks to help you run your business.

More Info on Vend’s POS Hardware

If you’re using either a Mac or PC to connect with Vend, you’ll be happy to hear you can integrate with virtually any ‘industry-standard’ receipt printer, cash drawer, and/or barcode scanner.  So, if you already have your own POS hardware, there’s a good chance you won’t have to abandon it just to use Vend.

For your convenience we’ve listed some of the pieces of hardware that Vend supports for Windows, Mac, and iPad devices:

๐Ÿ‘‰ Here are a few of the Vend-compliant receipt printers you can use with a Windows PC:

  • Star TSP 100 (143) LAN
  • Epson TM-T88V
  • Star EMEA TSP 143IIIU (USB)
  • Star TSP 100 USB
  • Epson TM-T82II (Ethernet)
  • Epson TM-T82II (USB)

๐Ÿ‘‰ Mac supports the following receipt printers:

  • Epson TM-T82II (Ethernet)
  • Epson TM-T82II (USB)
  • Star EMEA TSP 143IIIU (USB)
  • Star mC-Print 2 (3)
  • Star TSP 100 (143) LAN
  • Epson TM-T88V
  • Star 650II BTI (Bluetooth)
  • Star TSP 100 USB

๐Ÿ‘‰ iPad is compatible with the below receipt printers:

  • Epson TM-T82II (Ethernet)
  • Star mC Print 2 (3)
  • Star TSP 100 (143) LAN
  • Epson TM-T88V
  • Star 650II BTI (Bluetooth)
  • Star SM-S230i (Bluetooth)
  • Star mPOP (Bluetooth)

Also…

If you want to use a cash drawer, check whether your receipt printer has an RJ12 port.

Fun Fact: Plugging an RJ12 cable into a receipt printer and connecting it to your cash drawer, prompts the drawer to open once you’ve printed a customer receipt – making the process a little smoother!

Plus, if you’re going to use a receipt printer that’s compatible with either a Windows or Mac device, you’ll need to ensure you have the latest drivers. Otherwise, things might not run as fluidly you need them to!

๐Ÿ’ก Most important of all: Vend DOES NOT support serial or parallel adapted to USB printers – so if you only have these kinds of machines you’ll need to shell out for one that’s actually compatible with Vend POS.

Vend Barcode Scanners

Vend is compatible with both of these  Windows-supported barcode scanners:

  •  Honeywell 1450G USB
  • Socket Mobile 7Ci/7Qi or S700/S740 (For Bluetooth compatible PC’s only)

Whereas, for Macs, you can use:

  • Honeywell 1450G USB
  • Socket Mobile 7Ci or 7Qi
  • Motorola CS3000

Or, if you’re using an iPad, the Socket Mobile 7Ci/7Qi or S700/S740 should work!

Vend Cash Drawers

Vend supports three Cash Drawers:

  • The Star SMD2-1214
  • The Star SMD2-1317.
  • The Star mPOP (Bluetooth) for iPad (technically, this is a receipt printer and a cash drawer combined).

๐Ÿ’ก You should note: You can connect any of these cash drawers to your receipt printer via an RJ12 cable.

Vend Barcode Labels

To make things easier for you, Vend comes with a built-in barcode generator. This converts your SKU codes into barcodes. Then, with this info, Vend is able to print label sheets.

Alternatively, if you want to use a barcode printer that’s compatible with Vend, you can’t go wrong with the Dymo 450 Turbo. This machine is available for both Windows and Mac devices. All you have to do is wire up the barcode printer to your PC using a USB cable — then voila, you’re good to go!

Who Should Use Vend POS?

If you’re running a store in one or more of the following niches, you’ll be able to make good use of Vend POS:

  • Fashion, Shoes, and Apparel
  • Homeware and Gift
  • Sports and Outdoors
  • Jewelry
  • Health and Beauty
  • Toys and Hobbies

As you can see, the benefits of Vend can be harnessed by almost any industry, and as we’ve already alluded to, businesses of all shapes and sizes. There aren’t any limits as to how many stores you can register with your company. This makes it just as appropriate for boutique stores as it is for larger corporations. You can also scale your brand using Vend, so it doesn’t matter what stage your business is at, you can make use of this POS system.

However, this might not ring true if you’re managing a cafe or restaurant. Vend doesn’t provide a feature for inserting item modifiers, table management, or tipping.

You should note: If you want to use Vend, you’ll need access to Google Chrome in addition to hardware that runs on at least Windows 7 or Mac OS X 10.5- that’s all you need to hit the ground running!

Last but not least, Vend‘s excellent for brand’s yearning to grow.  This software is relatively cost-effective and quick to scale. You can set up, begin selling, and add all the following in just a matter of clicks:

  • New staff members,
  • Cash registers,
  • Digital sales channels
  • Physical locations in just one click.

Have you got any experience using Vend POS? If so, we want to hear all about it in the comments box below- the good, the bad, and the ugly. Let’s kickstart this convo!

Rosie Greaves

Rosie Greaves is a professional content strategist who specializes in all things digital marketing, B2B, and lifestyle. She has over three years of experience crafting high-quality content. Check out her website Blog with Rosie for more information.

Comments 4 Responses

  1. James says:

    Vend is a great solution for smaller stores that don’t have their products/pricing change often. For stores with 500+ products, you will have a really hard time keeping products up to date via spreadsheet imports. If you have spreadsheets lists that you update and import with changes, you wont be able to do this. You will need to sort the products you want to update, export them and get a product id for each product to re-import updates. It makes simple tasks such as updating pricing, stock levels or product names very time consuming. You will be left scratching your head as to why a simple task is so convoluted.

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Thanks for sharing James!

  2. George Mattingly says:

    Nice Review Rosie – if only it were true.
    1. VEND claims to be able to print label sheets – but in reality – not so much. You’re stuck to using the Dymo 450 Turbo label printer – which uses expensive labels and has a nasty habit of jamming.
    2. Four times since May 12th this year, VEND has had problems processing integrated payments with WorldPay, leaving merchants literally “holding the bag”. Seems that VEND’s software change assurance is lacking.
    You are correct that VEND is often slow – since they run on AWS that means that they aren’t buying enough virtual server capacity from AWS. A easy problem to fix – but it does cost money.

    As a merchant who uses the system everyday, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

    1. Bogdan Rancea says:

      Thanks for Sharing your experience George!

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