A retail POS succeeds or fails on inventory. Try receiving a case of fleece in four colors and five sizes. If the system makes you create twenty separate items, or can't tell you that medium navy sold out on Tuesday, you'll go back to keeping inventory on a spreadsheet within a month.
Test inventory first, then look at everything else.
Inventory: what to test before you buy
- Variants. Can you create one item with size, color and style options, and still see stock for each one?
- Receiving. Can you scan in a shipment against a purchase order instead of typing quantities by hand?
- Low-stock alerts that trigger at a number you set.
- Cost and margin. Does the system know what you paid, so reports can show margin by category and not just sales?
- Slow movers. Can you pull a list of what hasn't sold in 90 days without exporting a spreadsheet?
If a system was built for restaurants and has inventory added on, these are the tests where it shows.
Checkout speed
Next comes the counter. Scan a barcode, search by name or SKU, take the card, print or email the receipt. On a busy Saturday, a clunky checkout costs you sales.
Our Retail kit is $2,300. It comes with a 15.6" station with a customer-facing display, receipt printer, cash drawer, pin pad, barcode scanner and a monitored UniFi gateway. Grocery and hardware stores can add a high-volume scanner ($600) or a scale ($800).
What's different for a store in Alaska
Freight. A national provider that assumes you can drive to a store for a replacement terminal hasn't priced in Alaska freight. We keep spares in Anchorage. With hardware care ($15 a month for the whole kit), a replacement goes out on a same-day flight before you send the broken unit back.
Seasons. Many stores in Skagway or Seward run hard for a few months and close for the rest. Winter Freeze bills software for the seven months you're open and pauses it for five.
Connectivity. Ask every vendor what happens to a sale when the internet drops. Our pin pads keep taking cards offline, and we monitor the network on every install.
Our pricing
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Retail kit | $2,300 |
| Software | $99 / $199 / $299 a month per location |
| Hardware care | $15 a month or $150 a year, whole kit |
| Contract | None, month to month |
| Install and training | Included |
Processing is interchange plus 0.30% and 10¢. You can also choose cash discount, where card-paying customers see a 3.99% service fee, hardware is half price and the first year of software is free.
Questions to ask any provider, including us
- If I pay cash for the hardware, what does it cost?
- Is there an early-termination fee?
- Can I pause billing when I'm closed?
- What happens to my data if I leave?
- Is installation included, or billed by the hour?
Our answers are on the pricing page, or call (907) 290-8555.
Want a straight answer for your counter?
Prices are on the page, and a person in Anchorage answers the phone. (907) 290-8555.
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