Getting ready for retail. Setting up Shopify POS.

If you're already selling online with Shopify or just getting started with Shopify, then getting set up with Shopify POS (Point of Sale) couldn't be easier! We'll break it down into a few simple steps in this guide.

Setup

Your products might look something like this.

When the product has a single Inventory Location, in this case just called "Default Location". This is the location that Shopify will use to track inventory levels for this product.

The product is also active and published on the Online Store sales channel. This means that the product is available to purchase online.

Locations

To get started with POS, you could use that existing location if you sell online and in store from the same place.

However, if you sell online and in store from different places, want to seperate your inventory or have multiple stores then you will need to create one or more new locations.

Create a new location

To create a new location, head to the Location setting page in Shopify.

Here you can add a new location that represents your store.

Important to note that the Location names can be displayed to customers if you are fulfilling from that location whether online orders or retail orders.

Here you can also decide if you want to fulfill online orders from this location or not. If you want to only use the inventory at this location for your retail operations, then you will not want to fulfill online orders from the location for example.

Advanced Store Setup

If you have a large retail store, more complex operations, or back of house storage at your retail store. You might want to create multiple locations to represent different areas of your store.

We would advise starting with front of house and back of house. This will allow you to seperate your inventory and also allow you to use the Shopify POS app to sell from the front of house location. It also keeps the setup simple, which you can always add more locations as you need in the future.

Products

Inventory Locations

You will then be able to add the location on your products, here you can also manage the locations where the product is available.

You can also now set inventory or stock at each location independantly, so if you have units in your "Default Location" and not your retail store you can set that in Shopify.

Selling products on POS

To start selling your products on Shopify POS you simply edit the sales channels that a product is avaliable on.

You can do this in the Publishing section on a product. Manage Sales Channels and tick the Shopify POS option. This will make the product live on your Shopify POS devices.

You can also do this across many products using the Shopify Bulk Editor, by clicking Add Sales Channel.

POS

You will notice the Shopify POS Sales Channel on the menu in Shopify. Here you can go through the Shopify quickstart guide to set up the POS Devices and Staff members.

It will also guide you through downloading the Shopify POS App on your Apple or Android devices.

Inventory and Stock

Once you're setup with Shopify POS and configured your products, you'll want to start adding your retail inventory and stock.

The best way to do this and ensure you've got accurate stock levels is with our Pimsical Stock Take app. This will let you scan each product into your store, ensuring you know exactly what products you have and your customers can be certain of your stock and getting the products they want.

Contact Us

Got any questions about getting ready for retail with Shopify? Get in touch, we would love to chat!