ShopKeep is a full point-of-sale system using an iPad instead of a cash register. The ShopKeep app is free, but it does require a monthly charge. With ShopKeep, you’ll be able to ring up customers on a screen customized for your products, print a paper receipt, open the cash drawer for change, take credit cards (with the iDynamo device and service), manage inventory, update pricing, and have real-time access to sales numbers from the web. You can even keep ringing sales when the internet is down; data will sync as soon as the internet is available again. ShopKeep is ideal for coffee shops, bakeries, mall kiosks, and the system works for a single or multiple stores/locations. With the hardware, an iPad, and the monthly subscription, these shops will have a full POS system at a fraction of the cost of more traditional POS systems. The ShopKeep website offers a variety of hardware stands, cash drawers, and receipt printers to complete your setup.
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The Shopkeep site crashed my copy of Firefox twice. Please beware
Thanks
..wiley
This seems like an intrinsically bad idea to me. Commercial POS systems have a degree of hardening applied to them…they are engineered to be more resistant to dirt, moisture and spillage than your typical everyday computer, and have touch screens that don’t care if they get a bit dirty. Additionally, they aren’t anything that would appeal to most thieves; they don’t look like something that would be useful to have at home. An iPad, on the other hand, has none of these features…and is at or near the top of the list for “steal me” objects, I would say. This is not the kind of thing you want on a shop or restaurant countertop.
@Rob This is just a news item, and I am not advocating this product nor do I have any hands-on experience with it. However, ShopKeep offers enclosures for the iPad that are affixed to the countertop and connected to the cash drawer and printer. Of course, it can still be stolen, but it won’t be as easy as picking it up and dashing out the door.
My favorite coffee shop is run by an iPad. The point-of-sale, cash drawer, card reader, etc., takes up about 1/4 of the space that the old conglomeration did. And once a week there is an iPad group that meets in the back room. Sweet!
I can also see this being useful for people who sell at craft fairs: It’s portable, allows credit cards, and will print nice receipts. Plus it reuses something they may already have as it’s primary component.
PCI compliance will be an issue here. In the UK and Europe we don’t swipe cards any more either, its all about chip and PIN! As it will be in the States very soon!
how many shop owners do you know that take their register home with them at night? this looks like you could pack it up and take it home at the end of the night!
iPads are actually ideal for retail environments. They don’t have a fan, are sealed and have up to around 10 hours of battery life. They can be secured to the counter – we offer hardware to mount the iPad on our website at http://www.shopkeep.com.
The feedback we’ve gotten from our merchants has been very positive due to the ease of use of the system and the low cost.
Wiley – We went over our website with Firefox and can’t replicate the problem you were experiencing. If you wouldn’t mind contacting us through our 800 number (800) 820-9814 we’d love to know which page you were on when the crashes happened. Thanks!
I am starting on a very limited budget. Do you have used or refurbs. Even know someone that is closing. Hate to ask but I do love tech. Lol. Just can’t always afford
My company brought this Ipod Pos system into our stores starting around three months ago and I have to say they have absolutely bombed. I have a couple of younger female sales people that like them but everyone else, which is nine tenths of the store despises them.
We have to add names, phone numbers, home addresses, email addresses, etc…. to every new purchase. Try doing that twenty times a day with a key pad the size of a silver dollar.
If your eyes aren’t twenty twenty then be prepared to buy a lot of aspirin.
Maybe the full size pad wouid be better but it seems this is marketed as a small and easyily portable solution.
My company is literally threatening people with being fired if they don’t do a high percentage of their sales on this thing, I suspect the spent a fair chunk of change on this system so someones butt is on the line.
Sorry apple, better luck with something else…
@Dave, It’s not the equipment it is the one size fits all software. I can serve your company with a custom system that the majority will use and like. Custom made to flow with your operation and using the buttons and features you need and want, not trying to include what another company may need will allow for room to have larger text for the eyes.
If food and drink are present get the systems that are made for that environment. In the long run it will cost your less.
IT seems like there are so many iPad POS systems out there these days. That said I dont think Shopkeep is the one. As other people have said it crashes quite often. Also there isnt a ton you can do with it. If you want to make reports this one offers very limited options.
I picked up Revel Systems. They have great support and have all the “buzzwords”. They are PCI compliant and offer real time management from anywhere you can take an iPhone. Anybody working in a business should be smart enough to know how to do some research for POS systems. Keep looking for whats right for you and not who gets the most blurbs posted.
We’re on a beta test of a new uk iPad POS system called iPos. A lot of the above gripes were mentioned by the guys in charge of this new software. We’re using it in a bar/restaurant with remote kitchen printer and it’s great. Never crashed, fast, big buttons, works offline and so on. Worth a look.