WHO IS SHOPKEEP A GOOD FIT FOR?

• Retail stores (clothing, wine, specialty retail, etc.)
• Quick service restaurants

PRICE

ShopKeep charges a monthly or annual fee per iPad which includes 24/7 customer care through email. The annual subscriptions offer a considerable savings over the month to month plans.

• Paid Monthly
  • Per iPad: $69/month*
• Paid Annually
  • Per iPad: $49/month ($588 annually)*

* Discounts may be offered for multiple registers

FRONT OF THE HOUSE

ShopKeep’s iPad app is well designed and intended to be used by anyone, no prior experience necessary. Upon entering their four digit code, staff are brought right to the order screen, we’ve included a screenshot below. From here, retail stores will prefer to scan barcodes while others may want to browse through the categories of items to start adding items to a check. For fast ordering, ShopKeep allows the user to search for an item by name which is really helpful for stores with large inventories and no barcodes. Shortcuts can also be set for categories of items that are used most frequently so they can be accessed quickly.

While processing transactions, employees can quickly apply custom discounts, make orders tax exempt, split tender, and attach customers to orders.

Management can set up predefined discounts that may still require a manager passcode to apply. Predefined discounts allow management to track promotions separately and run reports on how many customers redeemed an offer, how much that cost your business and the revenue brought in as a result of the promotion. That’s really powerful stuff.

ShopKeep’s customer tracking allows users to store a customer’s name, email, phone, address and any special notes associated with them. New customers can be created from the checkout screen or uploaded via the Back Office. The real value is in the customer reporting the management app provides, more on that later.

Cash drawer management is a must for all businesses and ShopKeep tracks all the cash that comes in and leaves the drawer. The end of day report will report on all the cash that came in from customers or other ‘pay ins’ and all the cash that was paid out as tips, safe drops or payments to vendors.

Quick service/counter top restaurant owners will find modifier support, raw goods tracking, ability to save open tickets, splitting and merging checks and the customizable menu layout to be very helpful.

MANAGEMENT

Back Office is ShopKeep’s online app for owners and managers and can be accessed from any computer, tablet or smartphone. There’s a lot to it so we’ll cover the most relevant features to give you a feel for its capabilities.

The two most important features are the inventory management and reporting; ShopKeep does well in both.

ShopKeep offers matrix inventory and ‘raw goods’ tracking to meet the needs of retailers and food-service businesses. Matrix inventory allows ‘variants’ of items which helps cut down the number of items in inventory. For example, a sweater with five colors and three sizes can be one item with fifteen variants.

Raw goods tracking stores the ingredients of every item on the menu and track them separately, giving granular control of costing and ensuring that necessary ingredients are never low.

ShopKeep’s reporting is top notch. Most of the reports are customizable and allow the user to drill down by item, category, department and other variables. This makes it really easy to get the information that’s relevant for each business since every business has unique needs. While offering strong reporting on sales, the user also have access to data on customers. At a glance, ShopKeep can report on the breakdown between new and returning customers, the average spend, and the frequency of visits by top customers. All reports can be exported to CSV files.

Staff management makes it easy to manage employees, give them the appropriate permissions, and track their hours. Each employee can clock in/out from the iPad and their hours can be reported at the end of the pay period. Each employee’s passcode is also linked to their respective responsibilities and can limit or allow access to certain functionality (ex. Only managers being able to apply discounts).

Business owners can customize the system to fit their needs. For example, the checkout process can be modified to include or exclude tipping and signature on screen.

HARDAWARE

ShopKeep works with several popular brands so hardware selection is a breeze.

ShopKeep supports the Star TSP100 (thermal printer) and the SP700 (impact printer) and the Epson TM-T20 (thermal printer).

Like most iPad POS systems, ShopKeep will work with any cash drawer compatible with the printers it supports.

ShopKeep has partnered with Ingenico and Magtek for credit card readers. The sales team recommends the Ingenico iPP320, an Ethernet based card reader, or the Magtek iDynamo which plugs in directly to the iPad. The Ingenico iCMP Bluetooth is a great option for businesses that like mobility but keep in mind that Bluetooth connectivity will never be as good as a wired connection.

ShopKeep offers a one year warranty on most hardware purchased directly from them and free returns and exchanges within the first thirty days.

SETUP

ShopKeep makes it easy to upload inventory into the ShopKeep Back Office via a CSV file. They have detailed instructions on their website which help users along each step of the way. Inventory upload happens through the ShopKeep Back Office and can be done from anywhere. Once you make a change in the Back Office the change can easily be propagated to the iPads by downloading the latest data from the Back Office.

SUPPORT

The ShopKeep Team offers 24/7 phone and email support. ShopKeep’s phone support is a fairly new offering.  We will continue to provide further updates about it based on feedback from more customers.

ShopKeep has two levels of 24/7 customer care. All customers receive email and chat support while having the option to pay an extra $29 for 24/7 phone support. Troubleshooting more complex issues in a timely manner over chat and email can be tough, so we highly recommend paying the additional fee for phone support .

CONCLUSION

ShopKeep is one of the leading providers of point of sale systems to retail shops and quick service restaurants. They have a solid offering that has been serving small businesses for almost ten years. ShopKeep’s user friendly interface and good set of base features make it a great fit for new businesses, especially for owners with limited point of sale experience.