Shopify Heralds Return to Offline Retail With ‘POS Go’

Shopify has unveiled POS Go, a point-of-sale (POS) hardware solution that lets merchants transact sales “from counter to curb.”

“With POS Go, merchants can close the sale anywhere, while viewing detailed product information, customer notes and purchase history to level up the in-store experience,” the eCommerce company said in a news release Tuesday (Sept. 27).

According to Shopify, POS Go comes with a built-in barcode scanner that allows merchants to start checkouts anywhere in their stores. They can also accept tap, swipe and chip card payments, and view sales, analytics and inventory on POS Go from every channel.

“Retail is evolving quickly, and merchants need flexible solutions to help them succeed,” said Shopify Vice President of Product Arpan Podduturi in the release. “More than ever, brick-and-mortar retailers need technology that keeps them nimble. Offline retail is all the way back, and we’re investing heavily in hardware that’s fit for the fastest-growing, most innovative retailers in the world.”

While offline retail may be back, many of the online features that flourished during the pandemic — curbside pickup and buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) — are still going strong, as PYMNTS research has found.

Read more: Curbside and in-Store Pickup Rewrite Rules for Shopping, Payments

“The 2022 Global Digital Shopping Playbook: U.S. Edition,” a PYMNTS and Cybersource collaboration, found that 11% of U.S. consumers who purchased online received their most recent eCommerce purchases at curbside, while 47% of consumers using BOPIS purchased additional products while at the store.

Earlier this month, Shopify warned its merchants against using Amazon’s Buy with Prime, saying that installing it will hinder Shopify’s ability to guard against fraud and customer data theft.

See more: Shopify Pressures Merchants to Ditch Buy With Prime

“You have a code snippet on your storefront that violates Shopify’s Terms of Service. This script removes Shopify’s ability to protect your store against fraudulent orders, could steal customer data and may cause customers to be charged the wrong amount,” the message said.

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