What is Vend POS?

What is Vend POS?

 

Vend is a cloud-based, electronic point of sale (EPOS) for retailers of all sizes. It costs a monthly or annual subscription per till, which includes the software licence, automatic updates and customer service.

 

The inventory features are particularly strong, with integrated vendor management for stock supply orders. POS functions and the checkout interface look familiar to experienced shop workers, but are equally user-friendly for everyone.

 

The EPOS system in Brighton is compatible with iPad, PC and Mac and requires an internet connection to work perfectly, although core features are available offline.

 

Pricing

 

As with many other POS systems, Vend is subscription-based where you pay a price per till using the software. The Lite plan costs £49 + VAT per month on an annual billing basis, or £59 + VAT if paying monthly, for each iPad, PC or Mac licence. This is for a single checkout point, good selection of features and monthly turnover of up to £15k.

Subscription Pay-monthly* Pay-yearly*

Lite plan incl. 1 till

(<£15k turnover/mo, 1 outlet) £59/mo £588 upfront (£49/mo)

Pro plan incl. 1 till

(unlimited turnover & outlets) £89/mo £828 upfront (£69/mo)

Per extra till

(any plan) £49/mo £468 upfront (£39/mo)

 

*Pricing excludes VAT.

 

If you exceed a £15k monthly turnover for more than three months in a year, you will need to upgrade to the Pro plan that costs £69 + VAT a month on an annual plan or £89 + VAT if paying monthly. This includes advanced features suitable for more established retail shops, and you’re allowed to have an unlimited turnover.

 

Each plan includes a licence for one register (i.e. iPad, PC, Mac). If you need to use Vend POS on more registers, it costs £39 + VAT/month per extra device if paying annually, or £49 + VAT/month if paying on a monthly basis.

 

Bigger businesses and franchises can opt for an Enterprise package at a custom price to be agreed on with Vend, which includes a dedicated Account Manager and customised onboarding. Apart from that, it has all the same features as the Pro plan.

 

We recommend trying their 30-day free trial first, which should give you a feel for the software before committing to anything.

 

The above costs only apply to the POS software, so hardware is an extra cost. You can use an existing PC, Mac or iPad for the POS interface or buy new equipment. Also consider whether you need a cash drawer, receipt printer, barcode scanner or other accessories. A customer-facing display app is complimentary for Vend users.

Till assistant smiling with product behind counter

 

Vend can be used on PC as well as Mac or iPad, making it versatile for small to large businesses.

 

Ease of use and room for improvement

 

Vend’s POS app is generally user-friendly. We tested it on iPad and it didn’t fail while using with a stable internet connection.

 

A big plus is the ability to access the dashboard (for management and more advanced features) directly in the app. This is not a given in tablet EPOS, which you’ll often find can only access shop-floor-related functions, unless you log in to the dashboard in a browser window on the tablet.

 

Image: Mobile Transaction

Vend POS app main side menu

 

Main side menu in Vend iPad app.

 

With Vend, some features are still only accessible in a browser, but most admin settings can be used in the app. A slight downside to the in-app dashboard is that it’s a bit slow to load, unlike the app-native checkout features.

 

Image: Mobile Transaction

Vend product settings

 

Vend dashboard settings menu which is separate from the day-to-day sales functions.

 

While generally intuitive to understand the different settings and functionality upon first use, certain features were not easy to find, such as where to customise receipts (under “Outlets and Registers” in Setup settings).

 

On an iPad Pro 10.5″, there were some responsiveness issues in the dashboard functions as well, e.g. scrolling didn’t work at first touch on some pages. Printing a test receipt from the dashboard is not possible either – a small, but annoying, thing.

 

If you delve into the help section through the dashboard in the app and browse multiple pages, there’s no home button to return to the main dashboard page at one click. You have to repeatedly tap the back button until you’re back to dashboard settings.

 

So in our experience, most issues were related to admin features and help pages, while the day-to-day POS features were fine.