Online-commerce company Shopify Inc. has made its Shopify POS app free for its merchants and introduced an iPhone version of the payments service, the company recently announced.
The app, which launched in 2013, includes a card reader. The new app replaces the Accept Payment option in Shopify Mobile, the Ottawa, Ontario-based company’s store-management app.
All Shopify merchants, which number more than 150,000, can use Shopify POS at no extra charge. Payment-processing fees, however, still apply and are handled through Shopify Payments. Processing fees range from 2.15% to 2.7% per transaction depending on the plan.
“We want to help our merchants easily sell anywhere they want, whether that’s online, at a farmers market, craft fair, pop-up store,” Carson Brown, Shopify product manager, tells Digital Transactions News in an email. “The options are limitless.”
Merchants needing more advanced POS features can opt for the $40-per-month Retail Package add-on, which includes individual log-ins, and support for barcode scanners, cash registers and receipt printers.
The impetus behind Shopify POS is to enable merchants to make sales whether online or face-to-face with a consumer. “We created Shopify POS to bridge the gap between online and offline selling,” Brown says.
In Canada, Shopify POS accepts Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc. and American Express Co.-branded cards. In the United States, merchants also can accept JCB, Discover and Diners Club cards with the app, Brown says.