Split payments, or split tender transactions, allow customers to settle a single transaction using multiple payment methods.

For example, your buyer can use a digital wallet and a gift card to split payments online. If they’re in-store, they may opt for cash and bank transfers. This payment method is also not limited to a single buyer. A group of friends who want to split a restaurant bill or pay for their items separately can choose a split tender transaction. A business can also use a split tender to spread their invoices across multiple payments.

Split tender transactions have become much more popular in the last few years. In fact, according to a recent survey, 60% of consumers prefer to pay for their purchases using multiple payment methods. The same survey also reports that about 64% of high-income individuals prefer to pay for their purchases using installment plans. Meanwhile, more than half of millennials use credit cards when buying something expensive, while Gen Z prefers BNPL.

Amazon is among the online stores that allow split payment. Buyers can pay for their orders using a credit or debit card or an Amazon.com gift card. However, Amazon doesn’t accept two credit or debit cards at the same time. This means customers can’t split credit card payments. Other big retailers like Target, BestBuy, and Walmart also have the same policy. So, if you’re wondering how to pay with multiple cards online, you can combine a credit card and a debit card in one transaction.

There are many split tender options available nowadays, such as:

• Credit cards and debit cards: Card payment is one of the most popular forms of split tender transaction. However, as we’ve mentioned above, many retailers don’t allow customers to combine multiple credit or debit cards to pay for a single order.
• Gift cards or store credits: Many stores allow customers to combine one credit or debit card with gift cards or store credits. This is particularly useful for those using gift cards with partial balances.
• Bank transfers: This is a great option for those paying for larger purchases or when transactions happen between individuals and businesses.
• Digital wallets (or mobile wallets): Customers can split their bill by paying with different apps (such as ApplePay, PayPal, or Venmo). This option is especially popular for larger groups. According to Forbes, almost half of U.S. adults use payment apps to share their bills at restaurants, supermarkets, and other retailers.
• BNPL: Using Klarna, Sezzle, or Afterpay, customers can opt for installment payments, particularly for larger purchases. If you’re looking for a BNPL with no credit check, Splitit is one of the best options.
• Cash: While digital payment options grow in popularity, cash continues to be a method of choice for many consumers when shopping in physical stores.

The split tender payment process usually goes through 5 steps:

1. Checkout

When ready to checkout, the buyers are directed to the payment portal, where they can combine several methods to pay their bills. Some retailers use split tender software to handle this request automatically in their online or physical stores. If the retailers don’t have this feature, buyers need to talk with the cashier or customer service to discuss split tender options.

2. Decide on the payment method

Customers can decide how much they want to pay with each available method. For example, a group of friends who have to pay $600 can divide the bill evenly and use their preferred payment method to cover their part. If it’s a single buyer, they might want to use a credit card to pay for one-third of their order and settle the rest with a gift voucher.

3. Verify payment

After the customers have confirmed their payment details, the payment gateway goes through a verification process to assess the availability of funds or credit limits. Most banks will require card verification if the customers opt for card payment. If one of the payment methods fails, the order might not go through. The payment portal will prompt the customers to adjust the split or use a different option.

4. Complete transaction

Once the customers successfully pay for their purchase, they’ll receive either digital or physical receipts as confirmation. This usually contains information about the items the buyers have paid for, the total amount, how much each payment method covers, the date and time of the transaction, and so on.

5. Settle the payment

This step only applies to online purchases. After the payment comes through, the retailers need to settle the invoices with the financial institutions linked to the customers’ payment methods. This means the financial institutions will transfer money from the customer’s account to the retailers’ accounts.

Split tender transactions can benefit both the customers and the business in various ways. At the same time, you should be aware of several disadvantages to this payment method. Let’s explore the benefits and drawbacks.

References:

• 56% of U.S. online buyers are inclined to buy more if they have more payment options.
• 93% of U.K. people cancelled up to ten shopping carts because their preferred payment method wasn’t available.
• 70% of consumers would buy from stores that offer their preferred payment methods.
• 28% of retailers see the high investment cost as a challenge.
• 74% of consumers choose split payments to manage their budgets better.

1. Research and select a solution

There are many split payment service providers out there and it can be overwhelming to choose the right one. Aside from cost, the payment processor you choose should be able to support many different payment methods. It also needs to be flexible in configuring payment options to meet the needs of both your customers and your business.

Additionally, you also need to find a suitable POS (point of sale) software that can integrate with your payment gateway to support split tender payments in your store. If you have an eCommerce business, you can choose options like Magestore’s POS with POS for Magento and POS for Shopify to make checkout easier and faster in your physical stores. Magestore also offers integration with various payment terminals to help you easily implement split tender payments in an offline store.

Here are some examples of split payment service providers you can consider:

• Stripe: If WordPress is hosting your store, Stripe’s Split Payment Plugin allows you to connect directly with your WordPress to process payment.
• GoCardless: You have access to a wider range of payment methods. You also can offer Direct Debit payment, which means your customers can pay with funds taken directly from their bank accounts.
• Payrails: If you have stores in multiple countries, Payrails offers customizable SDKs (Software Development Kits) to localize your checkout process.
• Adyen: Adyen allows you to automatically implement your billing logic for every transaction, like deducting commission and transaction fees. This means you don’t need to give the payment gateway split instructions for each order.
• Square: You can implement split tender directly via Square’s POS app or its virtual terminal on your online Square Dashboard. Aside from manual splitting, you can use the Smart Split function to automatically divide the transaction into smaller portions.

Further reading:

• 7 POS to integrate with Stripe
• 7 POS to complement Adyen terminal
• 8 Square POS integration

2. Integrate with your retail system

If you have an eCommerce platform, make sure to integrate the split payment system with your Address Verification Services (AVS) so you can verify billing addresses. In an offline store, you also need to consider how the system works with your existing software and hardware infrastructure.

3. Set up payment options

In your checkout process, you’ll need to specify the payment methods you’re supporting, which payment plans you can offer (such as installment or deferred), and other aspects based on your customers’ and business needs. Make sure to align between your online and offline stores to create a consistent shopping experience for your customers.

4. Design user interface (for eCommerce)

Work with UI designers to create a checkout page with instructions on how customers can split their payments. Your checkout page needs to have:

Clear, easy-to-follow information: Use straightforward language and visual cues. Make sure to highlight any limitations, restrictions, or important information.
Security indicators: Use trust badges, security seals, or SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to show customers your platform is secure and encrypted.
Mobile optimization: Use responsive design to accommodate customers who shop on smartphones or tablets. Choose simple designs that can be adapted to smaller screens.
Split tender customization: Allow your customers to customize how they pay for their purchases — for example, dividing the total amount into equal or unequal amounts or selecting installment plans.

5. Train your staff (for offline stores)

Help your staff understand how to use the POS system to process split tender transactions. You’ll also need to conduct training on when and how to offer customers this option, how to deal with complaints and technical issues, handle different payment methods, and process refunds.

6. Test and optimize

Before the official launch, remember to test your payment system first to identify and resolve any issues. As you roll it out, it’s important to keep improving your system based on customers’ and employees’ feedback.

You can process split payments for in-store purchase with Magestore POS effortlessly. Or you can allow customers to buy online and pay at the store with this payment option to increase sales. Let’s see how to process split transactions on Magestore point of sale.

Here’s the main flow:

• Cashier opens a session and check out orders as usual: Log into POS > Checkout > Add Products to Cart
• Cashier clicks on the payment button that has the checkout price.
• Add Discount and Shipping information if needed

Check out orders with discount and gift card on Magestore POS

We’ll discuss some of the most popular scenarios you may encounter daily in the following.

Case 1: Your customers want to pay with different payment methods for 1 order.

Your staff can choose and fill out the amount of money for each kind of payment method the customer would like to split.

The shopping cart is $304 in total. The customer wants to pay $100 in cash and the remaining amount of $204 with credit card.

• Staff enters $100 for cash and Mark as Partial and $204 for credit card payment.
• Click Complete Order and print Receipt

Split payments with cash and credit card on Magestore POS

Case 2: Your customers want to pay for the order partially now and pay in full later.

• Your staff can choose a payment method and fill out the amount of money the customer would like to pay, then click on Mark as Partial.
• Click Complete Order and print Receipt. The order status will be Processing and Partially Paid.
• When the customer comes back and completes payment, the staff clicks on Take Payment and completes the order.

Customers pay partially now and fully later.

In this article, you’ve learned what split payments mean, how they work, and how to implement them in offline and online stores. Split tender transactions are a great option to offer more flexibility and convenience, build better relationships with your customers, and increase sales. To successfully implement this, you’ll need to make sure you can create a smooth payment experience for your customers and that your staff or platform can handle split tender.

Further reading:

• How retailers can process payments in-store
• Top 5 retail payment solutions

1. Is split payment safe?

Split payment is safe when retailers and payment processors apply advanced security measures such as encryption protocols and secure payment gateways and comply with industry standards like PCI DSS Level 1. Most payment processors also have fraud detection and prevention systems to monitor suspicious activities in real time, verify payment details, and enforce additional authentication for high-risk transactions.

2. What does P2P payment mean?

P2P (peer-to-peer) payment is a way to send money directly to another person digitally. Popular P2P systems include PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, and Cash App. These platforms allow users to instantly transfer and receive money from their mobile devices using bank accounts, checking accounts, or credit or debit cards.

3. What does split amount mean?

Split amount means dividing the total purchase amount into smaller portions. Customers might want to split an amount when they want to pay using multiple payment methods, or different people want to pay for their own parts of the bill. These portions can be divided evenly or unevenly.

4. What are the differences between split payments, layaway, installment payment(s), deferred payments, and partial payments?

• Split payment refers to the process of settling a single transaction using multiple payment methods (e.g., cash, credit cards, debit cards, gift vouchers, bank transfers, etc.).
• Layaway is a payment option where customers pay a deposit to reserve an item and complete the rest of the purchase over time through installments. Unlike split tender, the customers only receive the items when they make all of the payments.
• Installment payment(s) is a way for customers to pay for their purchases in small portions over a fixed period. Customers can choose installments as a split tender payment option.
• Deferred payment lets customers buy right away and pay for their purchase later, usually in several installments and without interest. Unlike split tender transaction, which allows payment from multiple options, customers usually make deferred payments with one method.
• Partial payments mean paying less than the total amount of the bill. Customers or businesses would pay parts of the amount due and settle the rest when they receive their order. Unlike layaway, this method doesn’t involve making a series of payments.

5. How does a split payment gateway work?

A split payment gateway allows customers to pay for one transaction using multiple options. At checkout, customers choose how much they want to pay using their preferred payment methods. The gateway will then process the payment, draw the funds from each financial institution, and deposit them into the retailer’s account. The customers receive confirmation when this process is completed.

Magestore POS has long been a prominent name among 10,000+ retailers of different sizes and types because of its robust functionality, extensive partnerships, dedicated support, and nonstop improvements.

The strength of Magestore POS lies in its ability to create and process orders in less than 1 minute, thus facilitating fast checkout. Additionally, Magestore POS can work with many POS terminals supporting Web Application technology to accept and process different payment methods. The POS allows your customers to make payments using cash, debit cards, credit cards, split payment, layaway, buy now pay later, reward points, store credits, gift cards, and more.

Magestore POS also supplies self-checkout service and a customer-facing display mode for quick checkout. Square payment integration becomes easier as the POS can work seamlessly with 3rd-party services to provide buyers with a top-notch shopping experience.

Besides features for handling payments, Magestore POS has powerful tools to help you manage inventory across channels and locations, sync different types of data like customers, orders, and products in real time, and support omnichannel fulfillment options and omnichannel loyalty programs. All of these functions contribute to making your business operations run effectively at optimized costs.

To get an overview of what Magestore POS has, take a look at its key features below.

Key features

• Accept a wide range of payment methods like cash, debit cards, credit cards, reward points, store credits, gift cards, split payment, layaway, buy now pay later, etc.
• Create orders in seconds to facilitate fast checkout
• Provide customer-facing display mode and self-checkout services
• Monitor employee working time and performance
• Support omnichannel fulfillment options like store pick-up
• Assist loyalty programs like reward points, store credits, and gift cards
• Support cross-channel and cross-location inventory management
• Sync customers, orders, and products across channels
• Generate diverse types of detailed reports in real time for business insights
• A web-based app that can work on any device and in offline mode
• Support refunds, returns, exchanges
• Work with different types of POS hardware
• Easy to scale and customize to your changing needs
• Integrate with 3rd-party services providers, including payments like Square, ERP (NetSuite, SAP), marketplaces (Amazon, eBay, Etsy), shipment (ShipStation, FedEx), marketplaces (Amazon, eBay, Etsy), accounting (Xero, QuickBooks)

Having numerous payment methods in a POS system produces many significant advantages. With many payment options available, buyers can choose the method that they find most secure, convenient, and affordable, encouraging them to proceed with their purchases. This not only helps you provide greater convenience and flexibility for your customers but also avoids losing sales, thus increasing your revenues.

Most buyers tend to make a purchase where they can pay the way they want. By giving customers many payment choices, sellers can satisfy them, and win their trust and preferences, thereby boosting their repeat purchases. These considerable benefits make it worthwhile for you to consider offering multiple payment methods to stay competitive in any given industry.

Using Square payment with Magestore POS facilitates many types of payments, including the ones listed below.

• Credit cards
• Cash
• Partial payments
• Split payments
• Contactless payments
• Store credits
• Layaway
• Online payments
• Buy now, pay later

Many consumers tend to give up their purchases due to the long checkout process and the unavailability of their preferred payment methods. As a result, it’s vital to have a POS system that supports a variety of payment options and integrates smoothly with a reliable payment processor like Square. With these two systems in place, you can accept and handle payments quickly, easily, and securely in diverse ways, thus offering your customers an uninterrupted checkout experience.

Besides the above benefits, integrating Square payment with Magestore POS also helps you reduce costs and improve operational efficiency considerably.

Regarding costs, Magestore POS and Square payment integration help you save a bundle as the POS doesn’t charge any transaction fees. Besides the upfront costs, merchants who use Magestore POS and Square to process payments have to pay Square’s transaction fees only. This is highly economical in the long run, especially for businesses with steadily increasing numbers of sales or having expansion plans in the future.

As one of Square’s partners, Magestore POS can work seamlessly with Square to provide customers with a fast, safe, and secure checkout experience. In addition to accelerating order processing, the smooth Square payment integration also enables you to effectively use the POS system to run and manage your business.

Whether you’re selling online or in-store, customers are always at the heart of your business. Consequently, providing them with a convenient, easy, and fast shopping experience is one of the key factors in sales increase. At the checkout stage, offering your customers the convenience and flexibility they expect is undoubtedly beneficial.

Integrating Square payment with Magestore POS is a useful way to speed up order processing. The integration enables you to accept payments fast, easily, and securely using numerous methods while saving you a considerable amount of fees. It’s time to improve the checkout process and reap the fruit now!

Verifone is a U.S. multinational corporation that provides end-to-end payment solutions for businesses of various sizes and industries, from small retail stores to large banking institutions. To date, Verifone has customers from more than 165 countries worldwide and processes over 12 billion transactions each year with transaction values estimated at 500 billion through their gateways, which indicates Verifone’s extensive reach at the global scale.

Considering themselves payment gateway architecture, Verifone relentlessly innovates to offer their customers modern and updated payment services. Verifone enables merchants to accept and process online, offline, and omnichannel payments using both local and global methods in a fast, seamless, and secure way. What characterizes Verifone is their suite of value-added tools and unified commerce solutions that allow businesses to manage payment devices, centralize cross-channel payment data in a single dashboard, and generate reports on customers’ transactions to identify spending habits and trends for business decision-making.

Understanding Verifone terminals and POS software thoroughly is helpful for you to choose the best fit for your business.

Verifone terminals

Verifone has a wide selection of payment terminals readily integrated with their POS software. However, Verifone POS has fewer functions in comparison with other standalone software in the market. Its main function is to accept and process payments only. Besides, the software is exclusively compatible with Verifone card terminals, making it more difficult for users to use on 3rd-party devices, customize, and add more features to meet changing business requirements for rapid growth and expansion.

As Verifone payment terminals lack the features required to run your daily operations productively, you had better examine your business needs cautiously and consider whether you need a POS compatible with Verifone terminal for more complete functionality.

POS software

A comprehensive POS software, on the other hand, gives you a host of tools to monitor your entire business operations effectively. In addition to connecting with different POS hardware like barcode scanners, POS terminals, and card registers to process payments, POS software allows business owners to track and manage inventory, employees, and orders and sync crucial business data across channels in real time, thus delivering a complete view of your business situations.

To get a clearer view of the differences between Verifone terminals and POS software, take a look at the table below.

Verifone offers different types of payment card terminals to accommodate diverse business needs, from mobile credit card machines to portable card terminals. Integrating your preferred POS software with these terminals harnesses the strength of both systems for business management and customer satisfaction.

The POS and payment terminal integration accepts and processes a wide variety of payment methods like contactless and mobile payments with high speed and security, thus giving your customers greater freedom to choose how they want to pay. In addition, you also get many tools to help run and manage your daily business activities, including:

• Manage your inventory across channels and locations like stock movement and purchase orders
• Keep your key business data consistent across online stores and physical locations
• Build customer relationship and loyalty programs
• Track and manage employees to improve productivity
• Offer your customers buy online, pick up in store, and other order fulfillment options

To integrate with Verifone payment terminals and facilitate comprehensive control of your business operations, POS software should have some key features as follows.

POS compatibility

Your chosen in-store POS should be compatible with the Verifone payment machine for smooth payments without unexpected conflicts and errors. Besides, it should work properly with other apps for more features, including some as below.

• Payments: Square, Stripe, Adyen, etc.
• Accounting: QuickBooks, Sage, Xero, etc.
• CRM: Salesforce, Zoho, Hubspot, etc.
• ERP: NetSuite, SAP, Dynamics 365, etc.
• Marketplaces: Amazon, eBay, Etsy

Inventory management

The POS must be able to help you manage inventory effectively across sales channels and locations by performing the following tasks.

• Update inventory levels across channels and stores
• Transfer stocks between locations
• Adjust inventory quantity
• Manage stocks with barcodes
• Deliver low-stock alerts
• Create and manage purchase orders

Real-time data syncs

Most businesses sell their products on many online and offline channels, so the POS should sync critical metrics in real time to ensure data consistency between channels, including:

• Sync customers
• Sync products
• Sync orders

Customer loyalty

An ideal POS for Verifone payment terminal is the one that can help you foster relationships with your customers by:

• Collect customers’ information
• Build and sync customer profiles across channels
• Run and manage loyalty programs like loyalty points, store credits, and gift cards

Analytics reporting tools

To assess your business correctly and adapt accordingly, you need access to varied types of reports. Therefore, the POS software should deliver and update in real time some major reports on:

• Sales: daily, weekly, and monthly sales; sales by products, brands, suppliers, etc.
• Employees: sales performance of each employee, working hours, commissions
• Inventory: on-hand stocks, stock movement, incoming, etc.

Below we compare the 7 best Verifone POS in terms of key features, pricing, pros, and cons. These POS solutions are arranged in the ascending order of pricing.

1.Magestore POS: Best for fast-growing startups, medium, and large omnichannel retailers

The high compatibility of Magestore Magento POS with 3rd-party solutions is what makes it gain great credibility with international merchants. The POS can connect well with many payment service providers and POS hardware, including Verifone payment terminals, to deliver a diverse, quick, and secure checkout experience for customers.

This Verifone POS software also has quite a few well-developed tools available for you to operate your business easily and successfully. With Magestore POS for Magento 2, you can take full control of your inventory no matter how many stores you have online or offline, from tracking stock movements to managing purchase orders.

Besides, syncing key business data like customers, orders, and products across channels and locations in real time also eliminates the risk of data inconsistency. Other features of the Magestore Verifone POS system like fast order creation and processing, loyalty program, self-checkout services, and more all contribute to giving your customers a high-quality shopping experience.

Another remarkable Magestore’s POS software is Shopify POS specifically crafted for Shopify merchants. Seamlessly integrating with Shopify, the POS facilitates effective inventory management and omnichannel loyalty programs. Magestore Shopify POS can also work on both desktops and tablets for greater flexibility, assist employee management, refunds, and fast checkout.

Key features

• Support various payment methods such as cash, debit cards, credit cards, split payment, layaway, buy now pay later, reward points, store credits, gift cards, etc.
• Run on any device and can work without the Internet connection
• Accelerate checkout with order generation and processing in seconds, self checkout services, and customer facing display mode
• Sync products, customers, and orders from multiple channels in real time
• Support multi-location and cross-channel inventory management
• Assist refunds, returns, exchanges
• Create and manage purchase orders from a single dashboard
• Supervise employee working schedules and sales performance: permission login, working shifts, recording salespeople’s names on receipts, etc.
• Offer store pickup and other omnichannel order fulfillment options
• Support omnichannel loyalty programs including reward points, store credits, gift cards
• Work with various POS hardware
• Generate real-time reports for detailed business insights
• Easy to customize and scale to your changing needs
• Integrate with 3rd-party services providers, including shipment (ShipStation, FedEx), ERP (NetSuite, SAP), payments (Worldpay, Adyen, Square, Stripe,), accounting (Xero, QuickBooks), marketplaces (Amazon, eBay, Etsy)

Pricing

Magento POS: Custom pricing based on your business complexity, the number of stores, and expected levels of support and services. You’ll only pay once for the POS license.

Shopify POS has 2 pricing options:

• Lite plan: $ 15 per month for 1 location
• Standard plan: $50 per month per location

You’ll have a 30-day free trial before purchase.

Pros and cons

 

2.Lavu POS: Best for small restaurants, cafes, and bars

Coming equipped with ample functionality specifically developed for restaurants, Lavu POS is one of many Verifone POS systems that can help you streamline your operations while ensuring smooth integration with Verifone credit card terminals. Lavu POS enables you to deliver your customers best-in-class services with self-ordering kiosks, online ordering, and QR code payments. Using the POS also lets you give cash discounts to the customers who pay in cash and encourage customers to create their profiles to save their favorites for future reordering and loyalty points.

Key features

• Support self-ordering kiosks, online ordering, and QR code payments
• Sync online and offline order data into one single system
• Provide kitchen display systems for sending orders to kitchens
• Offer dual pricing that gives customers discounts when they pay in cash
• Track inventory by adjusting stock levels subject to online and on-site orders
• Enable customers to create their profiles for future orders and loyalty points
• Supply in-house invoice management and payment processing services
• Integrate with external services and apps like delivery and order management

Pricing

You need to contact the Lavu team to get a quote.

Pros and cons

3.Epos Now: Best for small retailers and restaurants

Regarded by many as the best POS system for convenience stores, beauty salons, pharmacies, and other hospitality businesses, Epos Now is highly compatible with a range of POS devices and payment providers to accept multiple payment types. Besides the integration capability, the POS assists in multichannel inventory management with features like automatic purchase orders and barcode management. What’s more, you can track orders across online and offline stores, sync customer profiles, and enable them to redeem loyalty points obtained online right in store.

Highlight features

• Manage employees and inventory across sites and channels in one place
• Accept different payment types, including Google Pay, Apple Pay
• Monitor orders across online and offline stores
• Support click and collect, loyalty programs, and promotions
• Sync customer profiles and loyalty points between channels
• Allow redeeming loyalty points that customers gain online right in stores
• Support barcode management and automatic purchase orders
• Let users search inventory by size, color, brand, or other product features
• Enable users to create, edit, and bundle items
• Create different kinds of reports for real-time insights
• Integrate seamlessly with eCommerce platforms, 3rd-party payment processors, and more
• Provide many industry-specific features for hospitality businesses like monitoring floor plans in real time and automated ordering

Pricing

Epos Now offers a complete POS solution with a price starting from $349. The solution includes POS software, built-in printers, card machines, and payment terminals. You can contact the Epos Now team to get detailed pricing.

Pros and cons

You may also like: Magestore vs Epos Now comparison.

4.RetailEdge POS: Best for multi-store retailers

RetailEdge is a multi-store POS software that integrates well with the majority of hardware in the market, including Verifone payment devices, and any payment processors of your choice to give your customers many safe and secure payment options.

Mainly focusing on retail businesses, the POS has a list of noticeable features to ease retailing management. It can keep customer, inventory, sales, and loyalty data aligned between physical locations for a consistent and centralized view. What’s more, RetailEdge helps you supervise stock transfers and track inventory levels to automatically create purchase orders. The POS also supports layaway orders, email receipts, split payments, and many loyalty programs to satisfy your customers and generate more sales.

Key features

• Accept numerous payment methods, including contactless payments
• Work with a variety of POS equipment
• Let users manage inventory across locations through stock transfers
• Track stock levels to create purchase orders automatically
• Support time-based discounts, store credits, gift cards, and more
• Track sales performance by departments, items, and vendors
• Support multiple sales screens, split payments, and email receipts
• Supply sales data like layaways, saved sales, daily totals, and gift certificates
• Sync inventory, customers, sales, and loyalty information across locations
• Provide mobile POS that can work without the Internet connection
• Integrate with external services like eCommerce platforms, payment processors

Pricing

RetailEdge POS costs $495 and this is a one-time price. Besides, if you need support, you can choose one support plan from the ones listed below.

• Bronze plan: Free
• Silver plan: $5.00/workstation/month
• Gold plan: $45/month/location

Pros and cons

5.KORONA POS: Best for small retailers of different types

As a good complement to the Verifone terminals, KORONA POS boasts many features to help you monitor your business effectively in addition to payment acceptance and processing. This Verifone point of sale system informs you of inventory situations with low-stock, overstock, and out-of-stock notifications, provides auto ordering features, and allows you to import inventory databases for new locations quickly and effortlessly. With this POS, you can also reward your customers with storewide loyalty programs or run discounts for multiple locations.

 

Key features

• Accept popular payment options like credit, debit cards, and contactless payments
• Consolidate inventory across locations in one place
• Provide low-stock, overstock, and out-of-stock notifications
• Support auto ordering and inventory database import for new locations
• Gather customer data and offer loyalty programs and promotions
• Allow running promotions and discounts between multiple locations
• Support refunding customers with store credits or money
• Manage employees with time lock and access setting features
• Integrate with 3rd-party accounting, CRM, and loyalty software
• Supply many reports to get insights into customers’ behaviors, revenues, and more

Pricing

KORONA POS has the pricing plans as below.

• KORONA POS Core: $59/ month for standard business operations
• KORONA POS Retail: $69/ month for businesses that need more automation and inventory management.

Pros and cons

6.TouchBistro POS: Best for small and medium restaurants

Managing restaurants becomes much less challenging with TouchBistro POS. This POS lets users centrally manage all menus in one place, take tableside orders, split payments, and boost upselling. With TouchBistro, you can create proper floor plans, allow table transferring without disrupting your services, and manage your venue capacity to maximize revenues. In addition, TouchBistro works well with Verifone POS machines, along with other terminals, to offer many payment choices for customers.

 

 

Highlight features

• Support designing floor plans, transferring tables, and managing venue capacity
• Accept many payment methods including cash and digital wallet payments
• Enable users to create and manage all menus in one place
• Sync menu changes to online ordering and in-venue menus
• Allow users to fulfill special requests with easy-to-use modifiers
• Integrate with kitchen hardware for order routing
• Schedule menus to change subject to times of days and seasons
• Provide many thorough reports on sales, employees, and more
• Support tableside ordering, upselling, and bill splitting
• Track employee activities, working hours, and sales performance
• Integrate with numerous 3rd-party services like accounting, payment

Pricing

TouchBistro costs from $69 per month. You should contact the team to get pricing details.

Pros and cons

7.Lightspeed Retail POS: Best for small and medium omnichannel retailers

Being compatible with plenty of hardware, Lightspeed Retail POS is a good option for multi-store businesses who want to employ Verifone terminals for handling payments. The POS possesses many features to help merchants centralize store, inventory, supplier, and sales management.

In particular, this Verifone point of sale allows you to track stock levels and order new inventory right from the POS with built-in purchase orders, identify inventory using unique serial numbers, and sync product information from suppliers to the POS easily. Besides, Lightspeed Retail also collects customer data to automatically create segments for marketing and generates customizable reports for business insights.

Key features

• Support many payment types like cards and digital wallets
• Manage inventory, sales, and customers across stores and channels
• Allow ordering new stocks from the POS with built-in purchase orders
• Add loads of product data from suppliers easily with B2B Catalog
• Facilitate changing prices for products in bulk across channels
• Track customers’ purchase history and interactions for automatic segmentations
• Support selling products on online marketplaces and social media platforms
• Offer omnichannel loyalty programs
• Generate customizable reports with real-time updates
• Integrate with 3rd-party ERP systems, accounting software, and more

Pricing

Lightspeed Retail POS costs vary subject to your region, location, and register quantity. Generally, the POS has 4 pricing plans, each of which includes the base plan cost, fees for additional locations, and registers.
For instance, if you’re in the U.S. and have 2 locations and 2 registers, then the detailed pricing is as follows.

• Lean: $138/ month if you pay annually and $178/ month if you pay monthly
• Standard: $238/ month if you pay annually and $298/ month if you pay monthly
• Advanced: $398/ month if you pay annually and $538/ month if you pay monthly
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Pros and cons

>> You may also like: Magestore vs Lightspeed POS.

 

 

Besides the compatibility with Verifone POS terminals, there are no one-size-fits-all criteria to determine the best Verifone POS. Generally, which one is the ideal solution depends primarily on your business needs and budget. While the POS must have enough features to help you manage your day-to-day operations with ease, purchasing and utilizing it for your business had better not exceed your financial capacity. The chosen POS should also be customizable and scalable to meet the ever-changing requirements in today’s increasingly competitive market landscapes.

Therefore, it’s necessary to define clearly your business situations, goals, and expenditures before making decisions. Let’s take an example: an omnichannel retailer with a network of online and offline stores or a small restaurateurs often chooses Magestore for their business, but a larger restaurant will prefer TouchBistro or Lavu POS for their use cases.

What is POS integration?

POS integration is the connection between POS software and 3rd-party business services and tools to enhance POS functionality and facilitate data synchronization between those systems.

What is an integrated POS terminal?

An integrated POS terminal connects smoothly with POS software to accept and process payments fast, efficiently, and securely. This connection syncs transaction data between the POS system and the terminal.

Is Verifone a POS system?

No, Verifone is not a complete POS system. It provides payment-related services and products like online credit card terminals, POS terminals, fraud protection solutions, and more.

How to connect payment processing services with your POS system?

To integrate payment processing with your POS system, you need to choose a payment service provider compatible with your existing POS system. Then you should follow the guidelines of your POS or resort to their support team to integrate the payment processing with your POS.

How much does Verifone charge per transaction?

Verifone’s transaction fees depend on your country and transaction volumes. For example, the fees for the U.K. and EEA regions are 0.3 – 1.2%. You can contact the Verifone sales team for custom pricing based on your transaction quantity.

What merchants use Verifone?

Verifone serves merchants across multiple industries like financial services, banking, retail, and information technology. Some Verifone customers are CSS Corp, Tesco, and Zara.

Yes. Paypal has its own POS systems to offer their customers.
Previously, PayPal Here POS, including a free app and PayPal POS card readers, offered by PayPal allows merchants to process online and in-person payments with smartphones or tablets. As of 2021, PayPal Here point of sale yields to PayPal Zettle, a more upgraded POS system with more features. PayPal states that Paypal Here is officially discontinued from Sept 30, 2023, and recommends using the PayPal Zettle POS app, which also comes with its own PayPal POS devices, to continue accepting payments, tracking sales, and managing inventory.

PayPal Zettle is not only a PayPal iPad POS but also runs well on Android smartphones or tablets, thus allowing merchants to accept numerous in-person payments via their PayPal account anywhere and oversee all of their payments from different sales channels in one place. Besides, this PayPal business POS also brings small business owners other basic features for inventory and staff management, as well as sales reporting.

However, what PayPal Zettle offers is not enough to meet the requirements of a business with more complex operations. Medium and large sellers demand more advanced POS functions to help them manage their businesses effectively like multi-store inventory control, loyalty programs, omnichannel order fulfillment, and offline mode. In this circumstance, a wise choice is to switch to another POS system that can provide merchants with the necessary features while still integrating smoothly with PayPal to handle customer payments.

The core features of PayPal Zettle are as follows.

Key features

• Accept contactless payments and in-person cards using PayPal POS equipment
• Provide digital and paper receipts
• Apply discounts and add multiple products for fast checkout
• Add products with information like prices, photos, descriptions, and barcodes
• Organize products into lists or groups for easy management
• Allow importing products in bulk from spreadsheets
• Track and update stock levels automatically and set restock alerts
• Manage employee schedules, working shifts, and performance
• Monitor sales and refunds for different payment methods in one place
• Generate customizable detailed reports for business insights
• Can integrate with some 3rd-party apps and systems

Pros and cons

PayPal transaction fees

Though the PayPal Zettle app is free, you’ll have to pay a considerable amount of the PayPal POS fees, including the transaction costs detailed as below.

• Card-present transactions: 2.29% + $0.09 per transaction
• Manual card entry transactions: 3.49% + $0.09 per transaction
• QR code transactions: 2.29% + $0.09 per transaction
• Invoicing (PayPal payments): 3.49% + $0.49 per transaction
• Invoicing (cards and alternative payment methods): 2.99% + $0.49 per transaction

With basic functionality, PayPal Zettle is more suitable for small businesses that only need to accept payments or manage employees and inventory at basic levels. For medium and large businesses with more complex operations, 5 following PayPal POS might be a good replacement.
These POS are put in ascending order of pricing. Let’s take a look!

1. Magestore POS: Best for medium and large Magento retailers

In the first place is Magestore Magento POS, a POS system that has both advanced features and integration capabilities to satisfy your ever-changing business demands.

The POS may take many users by surprise with its great customizability and ability to integrate seamlessly with a variety of 3rd-party services. Besides connecting well with other systems like ERP, accounting, and marketplaces, Magestore POS makes PayPal POS integration a breeze. As a result, it can be said that the POS functionality expands in line with your business growth.

In addition, this POS with PayPal integration offers more than just the essentials, making it a good fit for medium and large businesses. It can help you keep inventory, customers, and orders consistent between your POS system and online stores, support omnichannel order fulfillment like click and collect, manage inventory from different channels and locations, and provide loyalty programs to encourage repeat purchases.

Highlight features

• Create and process orders in no more than 1 minute
• Real-time customer, order, and product data sync between channels
• Manage inventory across channels and locations
• Accept numerous payment methods like cash, credit and debit cards, partial payment, split payment, layaway
• Support refunds, returns, exchanges
• Offer omnichannel order fulfillment options like store pickup, buy in store ship to home
• Provide customer loyalty programs with reward points, store credits, gift cards
• Manage employee schedules, working shifts, and performance
• Manage products, stocks, and inventory with barcodes and bin system
• Compatible with a range of PayPal POS hardware
• Generate real-time detailed reports
• Integrate smoothly with a host of 3rd-party services, including ERP (NetSuite, SAP), accounting (Xero, QuickBooks), marketplaces (Amazon, eBay, Etsy), shipment (ShipStation, FedEx), payments (PayPal, Adyen, Stripe, Square)
• Work well in offline mode and popular devices
• Scalable and customizable to your changing demands

Pricing

Magestore charges fees depending on your business complexity, store numbers, and the support and service levels you want. To get accurate pricing for your business, you can contact Magestore.

What outperforms PayPal Zettle POS?

• Have many advanced features for complex business operations: multi-store inventory management, omnichannel loyalty programs
• Pay once for POS license and add unlimited accounts, users, and devices with no extra fees
• Charge no transaction fees
• Easy to scale and customize to unique business requirements
• Can integrate with various 3rd-party services
• Expert consultation and support tailored for each business

2. Erply POS: Best for small businesses and retailers

In addition to the capability to integrate with PayPal, Erply POS has many functions to help merchants streamline their business operations and deliver ultimate services to their customers. This PayPal POS system allows you to manage and search for products across locations, offer partial or full returns for any purchase, and view recent sales data. With Erply POS, you can let your customers buy online and pick up in store, thus giving them more flexibility and convenience.

Key features

• Sync all transaction data in real time
• Oversee cash flow with reports
• Track employees’ working hours with built-in time clock
• Support customizing and managing many layaway orders
• Support buying online, picking up in store, and managing in-store pickup orders
• Allow quick access to recent sales and views on sales of each or all stores
• Let users quickly find product data and stock levels from different locations
• Provide customizable quick select keys for faster product selection
• Allow returns in part or in full on any purchase
• Manage store opening and closing across locations
• Can integrate with 3rd-party services like PayPal
• Support loyalty and reward programs, and promotions

Pricing

Small shops without inventory can use Erply POS for free, with access to 1 user account and 1 point of sale terminal. On the other hand, large enterprises or franchises can contact Erply for PayPal POS pricing details. Besides, there are other plans as below.

• Inventory for eCommerce: $59/month if paying monthly, $39/month if paying yearly for 2 user accounts, 1 warehouse license
• Inventory and retail POS: $79/month if paying monthly, $69/month if paying yearly for 2 user accounts, 1 POS with inventory license

What outperforms PayPal Zettle POS?

• Omnichannel features like buying online, picking up in store
• Multi-location product search
• Offer loyalty and reward programs, and promotions

3. Shopify POS: Best for Shopify merchants

Owning many useful functions, Shopify POS has become the favorite of many Shopify merchants. The POS also works well with other 3rd-party services, including PayPal, to enhance its functionality.

As a good match for sellers with Shopify stores, this PayPal point of sale system syncs order, customer, and inventory data across locations and channels, ensuring a unified view of key business metrics. Moreover, the POS facilitates many omnichannel selling options, including local pickup, buying in store, and shipping to customers. It also helps manage inventory, generate demand forecasts, and create purchase orders.

Key features

• Accept popular types of payments, including gift cards and contactless payments
• Facilitate omnichannel selling, like buying online, returning in store
• Track stock levels and forecast demands to suggest purchase orders
• Create transfer requests and track inventory movement between locations
• Oversee employee performance and permissions from one place
• Support discount codes, custom SMS or email receipts, and order notes
• Sync inventory, orders, customers across locations and channels
• Enrich customer profiles and provide them with loyalty programs
• Generate different types of reports on daily sales, cash flows, and more
• Can integrate with 3rd-party apps, including PayPal

Pricing

Below are the pricing details of Shopify POS.

• Sell in person:
  • Starter plan: $5/ month for 1 POS login and limited online store
  • Retail plan: $89/ month if you pay monthly and $79/ month if you pay yearly for unlimited POS logins and limited online store
• Sell everywhere:
  • Basic plan: $25/ month + $89/ month for each POS Pro location for unlimited POS logins and full-featured online store
  • Shopify plan: $65/ month + $89/ month for each POS Pro location for 5 additional staff accounts, unlimited POS logins, and full-featured online store.
  • Advanced plan: $399/ month + $89/ month for each POS Pro location for 15 additional staff accounts, unlimited POS logins, and full-featured online store.

What outperforms PayPal Zettle POS?

• More advanced features for inventory, employee, and customer management
• Support omnichannel fulfillment options like buying online, and returning in store
• Provide different plans for different needs

4. Hike POS: Best for growing retailers

Hike POS is a PayPal POS software that gives you the power to manage many aspects of your retailing regardless of where you’re selling your products, online or in store. One of its most noticeable features is inventory management which assists you in managing inventory and purchase orders, tracking stock levels, and transferring inventory between stores.

Additionally, the POS syncs order, product, and customer data across sales channels, and supports bulk product import. Extending the functionality of this PayPal POS is feasible as it works well with many 3rd-party service providers like Square, PayPal, and Worldpay.

Key features

• Can work in offline mode and on many devices like iPad, PC, Mac
• Integrate with many payment providers, including PayPal, Square
• Support many payment methods like contactless payments, and loyalty points
• Allow importing and exporting products in bulk
• Manage inventory and purchase orders
• Track stock levels and inventory transfer between stores
• Sync orders, products, and customers across sales channels
• Support refunds using the original payment method of customers
• Enable importing customer data in bulk from CSV files
• Track customers’ purchase history and offer loyalty rewards programs
• Deliver reports on sales and transactions with powerful analytics

Pricing

Hike PayPal point of sale charges fees based on your region, the number of locations and registers. Below are the fees for 1 location and 1 register in the U.S.

• Essential plan: $59/ month if paid yearly and $69/ month if paid monthly. The Essential plan doesn’t support integration with eCommerce platforms, marketplaces, customer loyalty programs, etc.
• Plus plan: $99/ month if paid yearly and $119/ month if paid monthly
• Enterprise plan: Custom pricing

What outperforms PayPal Zettle POS?

• More inventory management features, including managing purchase orders and tracking stock movement between stores
• Cross-channel order, product, and customer data sync
• Work in offline mode

5. Quid POS Smart Vendor: Best for small retailers and service providers

Quid POS Smart Vendor is a cloud-based PayPal point of sale that runs on Android devices and web browsers. The strength of Quid POS lies in its range of helpful tools that enable you to manage your inventory by categories, track the entire inventory movement, from purchase orders to sales, and generate detailed inventory reporting. What’s more, you can access currency converter registers from mobile devices or computers to accelerate order processing. Quid POS also connects with PayPal to offer your customers their preferred payment methods.

Key features

• Provide multiple cashier views with customizable options
• Offer currency converter registers accessible from mobile devices or computers
• Offer a category builder to manage products by types
• Track inventory flows, from purchase orders to sales
• Supply inventory import tool and detailed inventory reporting
• Allow giving permission to different staff roles
• Assist in maintaining relationships with customers via emailing invoices, or adding sales to the customer database
• Provide many addons for more features, including Team Member, Online Store
• Integrate with multiple payment processors, including PayPal, Stripe, and Square

Pricing

This PayPal POS app charges you $250/ month if you pay yearly and $299/ month if you pay monthly. Besides, Quid POS Smart Vendor has 4 addons with the prices as below.

• Online store: $19/ month if paid annually and $23/ month if paid monthly
• Team members: $1/ member if paid annually and $2/ member if paid monthly
• Link registers: $19/ month if paid annually and $23/ month if paid monthly
• Reservations: $10/ month if paid annually and $12/ month if paid monthly

What outperforms PayPal Zettle POS?

• Offer addons for more advanced features
• Have many tools for advanced inventory management like tracking purchase orders, inventory reporting
• Provide a cloud-based currency converter register for faster checkouts

Which one is the best PayPal POS is up to what POS features your business needs to operate effectively and how much you’re willing to invest in a PayPal POS solution. Besides the capability to integrate well with PayPal payment, the best POS should possess enough functions to run your business smoothly without creating financial burdens.

For example, while small stores with tight budgets can find PayPal Zettle POS an appropriate system, larger businesses that sell both online and offline or have multiple retail stores, tend to choose other PayPal point of sale apps like Magestore or Erply POS to accommodate their business needs.

What is a POS in PayPal?

A POS in PayPal, or a PayPal POS, refers to a point of sale system that can connect seamlessly with the PayPal payment service provider to accept and process payments.

Can you use PayPal as a POS system?

No, PayPal is an online payment system, so you can’t use it as a POS system. However, PayPal offers PayPal Zettle, a free PayPal mobile POS app to process payments, available for your use.

Does PayPal Zettle charge a fee?

No, PayPal Zettle doesn’t charge monthly fees for its POS app. Nevertheless, you need to buy PayPal POS readers and pay PayPal point of sale credit card processing fees for each transaction. For example, each card-present transaction often costs 2.29% + $0.09.

How does PayPal Zettle differ from PayPal Here?

PayPal Zettle has more features than PayPal Here. In particular, PayPal Zettle supports employee accounts, customizing receipts, and integration with other 3rd-party apps like QuickBooks, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Shopify.
Besides, the PayPal point of sale readers of Zettle are faster and more secure than those of PayPal Here.

Fulfillment costs are the sum of all expenses for receiving merchandise, storing inventory, processing, and shipping orders. The costs also involve fees for handling returns and exchanges. If you employ a 3rd-party logistics service provider (3PL), you’ll get the fulfillment prices which include onboarding and account management fees.

Fulfillment costs vary by order numbers, product types, packing materials, fulfillment locations, and shipping costs. The costs can change based on whether you do self-fulfillment or entrust another company with the tasks.

A fulfillment cost comprises different components. To help you get a clearer view of how much you might have to pay for processing orders, here we break down the costs for 2 major fulfillment strategies: doing self-fulfillment and using a 3rd-party logistics provider. 

In-house fulfillment costs

Below are the fees incurred if you execute fulfillment in house.

Inbound shipping costs

Transporting goods from your suppliers to your fulfillment locations is an expense you should take into account. Inbound shipping fee depends on whether your stock is shipped via air, sea, or freight with any import-export taxes.

Inventory storage costs

Another substantial order fulfillment cost is the storage fees. Businesses that do self-fulfillment often make use of their available store space to stock inventory. However, when the demands increase and entail the need to stock more products, retailers need to rent a storage unit or warehouse whose costs rely on the preferred locations and spatial needs.

Labor costs

If you can’t dedicate much of your time to fulfilling orders in house, you might need to hire extra staff to help you manage merchandise, track, and fulfill orders. Depending on the scale of your operation and the quantity of products you’re selling, this labor can present a significant expense.

Packaging costs

Your packing needs and product types determine the cost of packaging. Packing small and lightweight goods won’t cost much. On the contrary, large or fragile items in need of more specialty or customized packaging will drive up the order fulfillment cost.

Outbound shipping costs

Shipping costs constitute the largest share of fulfillment costs. The type of products you sell, the package size, weight, distance to destination, and delivery speed can decide how much you need to pay. You can deliver orders yourself or forward this part to a shipping service provider.

Software and tools

To streamline your in-house fulfillment operations, you need to invest in appropriate software systems and tools that can automate many repetitive tasks and reduce errors. For example, an inventory management system will help you manage inventory in real time while order management enables you to oversee all order fulfillment processes.

3PL fulfillment fee

3PL fulfillment pricing varies by providers, order volumes, pricing models, and other additional services. Normally, the outsourced fulfillment costs often consist of the following.

Onboarding costs

To start using a 3rd-party fulfillment service, you may need to pay an amount of onboarding fee. The 3PL will set up your account and integrate their technologies with your systems to track and fulfill orders. This initial setup fee is often a one-time payment or charged based on your business type, order quantity, or inventory categories.

Inbound shipping costs

Inbound shipping is an incurred cost for shipping products from your warehouses or suppliers to the 3PL’s fulfillment centers, which depends on whether the suppliers transport your goods by air, sea, or freight.

Receiving costs

You also have to pay receiving costs for 3PLs to process your inventory shipped to their facility. 3PL providers will receive, inspect your merchandise for damages, check the quantity, and scan your products to their inventory software before storing. Most of these fulfillment fees get charged by the hour, per item, or per unit.

Inventory storage costs

The storage expenses are often calculated based on the space your products occupy. If your products need special storage techniques or equipment like refrigeration or longer-term storage, you’re supposed to pay extra fees. 3PL companies can charge fees per pallet or based on the total area your inventory takes up.

Pick and pack fees

Once 3PLs receive your customers’ orders, their staff will collect the items from their storage locations, and pack them for shipment. Some fulfillment companies charge per item while others may offer bulk rates.

Box and packaging fees

3PL providers package your products safely and appropriately using items like shipping labels, tape, and boxes. 3PL companies often set the fees for packaging materials based on the dimensions and weight of the package. Custom-branded packaging materials also cost more than standard packaging offered by the provider.

Custom labeling and order insert fees

Another cost of fulfillment services is for inserting additional documents such as promotional brochures into each package. Besides, if you want some customizations for your orders like gift wrapping, you’ll need to pay higher fees.

Kitting fees

Order fulfillment pricing also includes the fees for bundling many products to sell or attaching free items to each order. You also have to bear this cost if 3PLs assemble items before shipment. The cost can be charged per hour or by the item.

Outbound shipping costs

The fees for shipping orders to your customers are an indispensable part of any eCommerce fulfillment pricing. The outbound shipping cost varies based on the size and weight of the package, the shipping speed, such as two-day delivery, freight or air, and other factors. Many 3PLs help save a great deal as they can get bulk discounts from shipping carriers.

Returns processing and restocking fees

Processing returns adds another fee to the total fulfillment center pricing. A 3PL company can assist you in handling return requests. The service providers examine the returned items for damage and decide whether to restock or dispose of the item.

Account management costs

Account management fees are another component of fulfillment center costs as 3PL assists your business with overall operations and account management. This expense covers the administrative costs of managing your account, including handling customer service calls and other incidentals.

Comparison of 3PL order fulfillment pricing models

Each 3PL comes with their own fulfillment services pricing. The table below displays the most common pricing models used by the service providers.

There are 3 common methods to calculate the fulfillment fee for your business, including cost per order, cost per box, and cost as a percentage of sales. All of these measurements use total order expenses to estimate the cost. The total order expenses are the sum of all the fees you have to pay for order fulfillment in a given period of time.

If you outsource the fulfillment, you should refer to your preferred 3PL companies and use their fulfillment rates for more accurate calculations. Some 3PLs provide their fulfillment cost calculator to help with the fee estimations.
For your convenience, we’ve summarized the costs of 3PL fulfillment and self-fulfillment as below.

Cost per order

Cost per order is one of the most common ways to measure how much you spend on every order. To get the average fulfillment cost per order, you need to collect data on total order expenses and order volume in a given period of time, and then apply this formula.

Cost per order = total order expenses/ total orders received

Cost per box

You can examine fulfillment spending in a more detailed way with cost per box. After collecting the order expenses and the number of boxes in a specific time frame, you can use the following formula to get the cost per box. This method is extremely useful for businesses that dispatch orders with multiple boxes at once.

Cost per box = total order expenses/ total boxes sent

Cost as a percentage of sales

Cost as a percentage of sales gives you a look into how much of total revenues fulfillment costs account for. The fulfillment expenses vary considerably by your business size and net sales over a specific period. The fulfillment cost as a percentage of sales can be calculated by using the below formula.

Cost as a percentage of sales = (total order expenses/ net sales) x 100

Minimizing fulfillment costs is critical to your business regardless of your fulfillment strategies. To find out what works for your retailing, let’s look at the below recommendations for fulfillment cost savings.

Cut down self-fulfillment costs

The main principle for cutting down on self-fulfillment costs is minimizing errors and improving fulfillment efficiency.

It’s critical to employ cutting-edge technologies that assist you in managing inventory and orders effectively. In this way, you can track inventory for timely restocks, and reduce the number of errors and inaccuracies during the fulfillment process, which can dissatisfy your customers and generate extra expenses for handling. Suitable software and tools also automate many processes, thus lowering labor costs.

To boost fulfillment efficiency, you’d better train your staff to effectively perform different fulfillment tasks, from overseeing products to picking, packing, and shipping. In addition, the storage facility layout should ease fulfillment activities like picking and packing orders and other internal processes, which can help decrease pick and pack fulfillment costs.

Offering your customers omnichannel fulfillment options like click and collect or curbside pickup is a feasible way to save fulfillment expenses. For example, allowing your customers to pick up their orders in store eliminates the delivery costs. Moreover, with store pickup, your customers can choose a preferred time to collect their items, thus increasing their satisfaction with your business.

4 Factors to consider to choose 3PL fulfillment for lower costs

If you want to partner with a 3PL to process orders, consider the following factors to choose the most suitable one.

Software integration

You should check whether a 3PL’s technologies easily integrate with your existing systems, including order and inventory management, online marketplaces, and other systems. The easy and smooth integration removes technology conflicts and facilitates the synchronization of order and inventory data across systems. Therefore, 3PL companies can ensure on-time and accurate order delivery and keep you informed of inventory levels, which potentially saves you a significant amount of money that might be needed to handle order delays and errors.

It’s also worth looking at the scalability of the 3PLs’ systems. A scalable system can adapt to the rising demands and future business growth, thus helping save the time and costs spent on finding a new 3PL partner.

Strategic location

Choosing a 3rd-party provider with locations strategically placed near your target customers brings down the total fulfillment expense. With fulfillment centers close to the shipping destinations, 3PL companies shorten the distance your products need to reach your customers. As a result, the delivery speed increases, and the transportation costs diminish.

Besides, if your business covers a wide area or plans to expand in the future, it’s beneficial to opt for a 3PL with an extensive network of distribution centers or warehouses. Not only does it help decrease shipping time and expenses but also minimizes the potential costs for establishing a partnership with a new service provider.

Industry expertise

A 3PL with insights and expertise in your business industry can provide excellent services and additional cost savings. These service providers accumulate both knowledge and hands-on experience in your industry, so they have a good grasp of the best practices, opportunities, and challenges your business faces regarding fulfilling customer orders. On that basis, they can help deal with the difficulties effectively and accommodate to market changes and trends.

In addition, 3PLs with deep industry expertise know very well how to store, pick, pack, and ship your products optimally and properly to avoid damages to the maximum and minimize fulfillment fees.

Negotiating power

What makes a 3PL a good choice for your business is their relationships with numerous shipping carriers. If you want to keep your fulfillment costs down even when the order quantity mounts, it’s best to look for a service provider that can negotiate favorable rates for shipping like volume discounts. Besides, a 3PL partnering with numerous shipping services also gives you more freedom to pick the most suitable and cost-effective delivery options to optimize fulfillment costs.

Fulfilling orders in house is a good way to help retailers save costs in the face of market ups and downs. With a good understanding of the challenges and difficulties facing retailers, Magestore develops an array of solutions to optimize in-house fulfillment operations for efficiency and accuracy, thus enabling considerable cost savings.

Magestore offers a retail management PWA that puts complete control of order fulfillment activities into your hands with many noticeable features.

• Centralize online and offline orders in a single system
• Check stocks across locations to effectively route orders for fulfillment
• Sync inventory and orders between the back office, eCommerce website, marketplaces, and POS in real time
• Track stock levels and supervise the whole process of inventory movement
• Inform stock replenishment by setting up a low-stock threshold
• Forecast demands to create purchase orders
• Accelerate order processing with a simple pick-pack-ship workflow
• Integrate well with 3rd-party shipping carriers like UPS, USPS, FedEx, and DHL

Using Magestore POS at your offline stores allows you to offer your customers more fulfillment options with store pickup, shipping from store, buying in store and shipping to home, or buying online and paying in-store. All order data will be synced and centralized in one system for your easy tracking. Magestore’s solutions also support dropshipping and return management.

The best way to know how Magestore can simplify your self-fulfillment operations, discuss with our experts now to devise the best solution to your business requirements.

What is the fulfillment expense ratio?

The fulfillment expense ratio, also known as the fulfillment costs as a percentage of sales, indicates the proportion of net sales that the fulfillment costs make up. This metric shows you how much of your revenue you spend on fulfilling orders to make suitable adjustments. You can use the following formula to calculate the fulfillment expense ratio:

Cost as a percentage of sales = (total order expenses/ net sales) x 100

How much do fulfillment services cost?

Fulfillment center pricing varies by company. Fulfillment service providers charge different rates for receiving products, storing inventory, picking, packing, shipping, and handling returns. The actual expenses depend on some factors, including the inventory types and levels, order volumes, and order processing speed.

What is a fulfillment and service fee?

Fulfillment and service fees are charges and expenses you pay to 3rd-party logistics companies so they can take care of order fulfillment activities on your behalf. This fee often includes receiving, storing, picking, packing, and shipping costs.

eCommerce fulfillment services refer to a type of service offered by a 3rd-party company to fulfill online orders on behalf of an eCommerce merchant. The top eCommerce fulfillment companies help online retailers manage the entire order processing and supply chain. It often encompasses managing inventory, picking and packing the items, shipping them to the end customers, and handling returns.

Fulfillment by Amazon, Shopify Fulfillment Network, ShipMonk are some of the popular service providers. And we’ll talk about them in detail in the following part.

An online business owner can choose whether to fulfill eCommerce orders in-house or hand over the fulfillment to a 3rd-party service provider. Each fulfillment strategy can yield distinct benefits that suit different business requirements.

Self-fulfillment utilizes in-house facilities, labor, and technology. It’s easy to implement and cost-saving as retailers process orders themselves. In-house eCommerce fulfillment gives sellers complete control over the fulfillment process, packages, branding, and customer services.

Forwarding fulfillment to a 3rd-party logistics company enables online retailers to harness their facilities, technology, and expertise to fulfill orders. These fulfillment services for eCommerce reduce operating costs, accelerate delivery speed, simplify retail operations, and scale up with the business growth.

Opting for an appropriate fulfillment solution requires the assessment of certain aspects of your business. Take into consideration the following factors to decide whether you should fulfill orders yourself using self-fulfillment software or cooperate with a fulfillment service provider.

Order volume

The number of orders plays a key role in choosing your go-to fulfillment solution. Startups or businesses with low order volumes can fulfill orders in-house to minimize additional costs.

However, when sales increase to the points that exceed your ability to handle orders internally, you can risk processing orders inaccurately and slowly. Therefore, businesses with rapidly growing sales or large order quantities might consider employing one of the best eCommerce fulfillment services for efficiency, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness.

Customer locations

Considering where the majority of your customers place orders is worthwhile. If your customer base is in areas far away from your business facilities, using 3rd-party fulfillment services will help reach your customers quickly without huge costs.

The network of eCommerce fulfillment centers and warehouses enables the service providers to transport products from the locations closest to the customers. In this way, you can shorten the delivery time while keeping the costs down, thus satisfying customers.

Product types

The type of support you require from an eCommerce fulfillment solution provider depends on what kind of product you sell. Some products need simple packaging while others may demand more special handling techniques and storage. Besides, the product characteristics also affect shipping costs.

For example, if you’re selling heavy and bulky items, switching to a fulfillment service may be beneficial. The fulfillment company can help you handle the item properly with secure packaging materials and lower shipping costs as they can get discounts for bulk shipping.

Sales channels

Selling on many channels like eCommerce platforms, websites, or social media has become a norm to attract more customers and boost sales. If this is your case, you should consider choosing a fulfillment service provider to help you fulfill your omnichannel orders.

Oftentimes, these eCommerce order fulfillment services can assist you in meeting different expectations and requirements about delivery speed, cost, and more to satisfy customers. Otherwise, if your revenue comes from one channel only, it’ll be enough to fulfill orders yourself with the support from suitable software.

If you choose in-house fulfillment after reviewing your business context, you’ll need workable software to automate and simplify the process. We’ve singled out the best solutions for self-fulfillment by consulting our experts, looking into the key features, and customer reviews about each solution.

1. Magestore Order Fulfillment: Best for Magento small and medium omnichannel merchants

As one of the best eCommerce fulfillment solutions for Magento (now Adobe Commerce), the Magestore Order Fulfillment module facilitates cross-channel order management and efficient order processing. The software allows sellers to deliver fulfillment requests to different warehouses when there’s a sale and recommends the best warehouses to fulfill the orders. With Magestore Order Management, you can also supervise the full order fulfillment process from a single place.

Magestore’s eCommerce order fulfillment software speeds up your fulfillment work with 2-step barcode scanning which ensures you pick the correct items quickly. Besides, you can assign different tasks of the fulfillment process to different employees to reduce processing time and increase accuracy.

Highlight features

• Automate order processing with 5 steps: Verify, Fulfill, Pick, Pack, and Deliver
• Manage orders across online and offline channels and update inventory status in real time
• Manage order fulfillment from a centralized system
• Provide a quick view of sales orders with 6 types of visual charts: Orders by status, Orders by day, Orders by carriers, Verified orders by day, Picked request by day, and Packed request by day
• Check inventory from different warehouses to route order fulfillment efficiently
• Support 2-step barcode scanning to ensure order accuracy and speed
• Assist order fulfillment from multiple warehouses
• Manage and locate orders by batch, status, and customized tags
• Optimize the fulfillment process with 4 insightful reports, including Fulfillment by staff, Fulfillment by staff (Daily), Fulfillment by warehouse, Fulfillment by warehouse (Daily)
• Allow assigning each order processing step to each staff for easier tracking staff performance
• Handle product returns and exchanges and allow customers to oversee the whole process
• Seamlessly work with various shipping carriers to provide more shipping choices for your customers

Pricing

Magestore Order Management software comes with custom pricing. Contact the Magestore team to get a quote based on your business needs and states.

2. Zoho Inventory: Best for small online businesses

Zoho Inventory comes with many features that help business owners optimize their eCommerce order fulfillment. This eCommerce fulfillment system supports creating packing slips and shipping labels with ease, at the same time finding real-time shipping costs for each shipment. What’s more, sellers can also consolidate all unfulfilled orders from the same customers into a package for convenient shipping.

With Zoho Inventory, online merchants can track packages after shipping and keep customers updated. There’s also no difficulty in watching the stock quantities across sales channels, setting reorder levels, reminders, and preferred vendors to timely re-stock.

Highlight features

• Manage multichannel orders in a single platform
• Allow users to easily and quickly create packing slips and shipping labels
• Find real-time shipping expenses for each package
• Track packages after shipping and deliver real-time updates to customers
• Support dropshipping in case of stockouts
• Enable merging all unfulfilled orders of a customer for single shipping
• Automatically keep inventory levels consistent through sales channels
• Track products through different stages with serial numbers
• Enable setting re-order levels, notifying, and choosing vendors for replenishment
• Support bundling items to sell as a single unit
• Keep close tabs on batches and expiration dates of products
• Integrate with many shipping carriers

Pricing

The prices of Zoho Inventory are charged per organization per month with 4 following plans.

3. Linnworks: Best for small and medium online businesses

Linnworks removes much of your manual work by automating many order eCommerce fulfillment processes. Besides centralized management of orders, Linnworks automatically routes orders for efficient fulfillment and compares shipping carriers to define the cheapest services for orders.

This eCommerce fulfillment software keeps you informed of stock levels across sales channels, warehouses, and bin locations in real time. If you’re using fulfillment services, Linnworks enables you to track inventory at their fulfillment centers for timely stock replenishment.

Highlight features

• Manage inventory from bin locations and warehouses in real time
• Manage orders from numerous sales channels in a single place
• Allow creating and editing any orders on the same page
• Attach tags to orders for easy and fast identification
• Automatically allocate orders to the right batches for shipping
• Support tracking inventory levels at 3PL fulfillment centers and demand forecast
• Use rules to route orders to optimize the order fulfillment process
• Compare shipping costs among carriers to find the cheapest service for orders
• Generate complete reports on key business metrics

Pricing

Linnworks hasn’t published the prices yet.

4. ShipBob: Best for startups or small businesses

ShipBob, a global eCommerce fulfillment platform, offers comprehensive fulfillment software for online merchants that perform in-house fulfillment or use the services of a 3rd-party service provider. The software enables users to set up reorder points and distribute the inventory between ShipBob’s fulfillment centers based on historical data. With ShipBob’s software, you can automate the returns process and keep track of all return information.

The software can integrate with different eCommerce platforms to streamline the order fulfillment process. The detailed reports delivered by the software, which provide pivotal data like sales on each channel, expenses, and demand forecast, give you insights to make informed decisions for business improvements.

Highlight features

• Track inventory levels, and notify when the stocks run low for replenishment
• Support stock allocation between warehouses based on historical order data
• Oversee orders from purchasing to delivery
• Filter orders using the tracking number, order type, order date, and more
• Provide detailed reporting to make business decisions
• Automate the returns process and allow users to track all returns
• Integrate with different eCommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce

Pricing

You need to contact ShipBob for pricing details.

If you’re looking for a 3rd-party service provider to help you fulfill online orders, take a look at the best eCommerce fulfillment solutions below.

1. Shopify Fulfillment Network: Best for large Shopify businesses with high sales volumes

Shopify Fulfillment Network owns many eCommerce fulfillment warehouses that ensure your customers get products as soon as possible. Partnering with many major shipping carriers, Shopify Fulfillment Networks can help you deliver items to customers within 2 days at affordable costs. The services can fulfill orders from multiple sales channels and deal with order surges during peak seasons. Besides, it allows custom packing slips with your own logos or discount codes.

When it comes to business growth, Shopify Fulfillment Network is willing to give you practical advice on logistics and shipping. It also helps track your inventory in real time and handle returns effectively.

Highlight services

• Support fast and affordable delivery with their wide fulfillment center network
• Ship inventory from overseas to Shopify’s fulfillment centers
• Provide experts’ advice on logistics and shipping for business growth
• Deliver packaged and labeled stocks directly to one location within the network
• Fulfill orders across sales channels integrated with Shopify stores
• Handle flash sale fulfillment during peak periods quickly
• Support order fulfillment for subscription business
• Offer custom packing slips with logos or discount codes
• Support real-time inventory tracking and dynamic routing
• Assist fast and seamless returns with return rules

Pricing

Shopify Fulfillment Network charges a single fee per unit for fulfillment.

• Set-up fees: Free
• Receiving, picking, and packing fees: Included in a single fulfillment price per unit
• Storage fees:
  • 6-month free storage
  • $2.25/ cubic foot storage for products not sold within 6 months
  • Storage costs are calculated daily.

2. ShipNetwork: Best for large businesses with high order volumes

With fulfillment centers for eCommerce in strategic locations across the U.S., ShipNetwork offers 1-day fulfillment and 1–2 day ground shipping within the U.S. without increasing costs. The service provider also guarantees 100% of order accuracy thanks to their 3-point inspection process.

In addition, using the services by ShipNetwork lets you give customized experiences to your subscription customers with custom packing and delivery. ShipNetwork also has temperature-controlled fulfillment centers in the U.S. to serve some special product types.

Highlight services

• Guarantee 100% order accuracy with 3-point inspection
• Support 1-day delivery and 1–2 day U.S. ground delivery
• Offer sellers multiple shipping options with different costs and time
• Simplify the return process, manage, and handle returns efficiently
• Assist subscription fulfillment services with custom packing and delivery
• Bundle different items into a single unit for shipping
• Supply temperature-controlled order fulfillment centers in the U.S.
• Support lot tracking to manage and fulfill products by expiration dates

Pricing

You need to contact ShipNetwork for pricing details.

3. Fulfillment by Amazon: Best for online businesses selling on Amazon

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) offers you a comprehensive solution to storing, picking, packing, shipping, and answering your customers’ queries. Amazon has numerous warehouses worldwide, which helps expand your business reach to customers around the globe. Using Fulfillment by Amazon enables you to provide your customers with Amazon Prime two-day delivery free of charge.

In addition, Amazon develops many tools to manage your inventory effectively, from stock optimization to replenishments based on demand forecast, sales history, seasonality, and your own inputs. This eCommerce fulfillment solution provider also allows you to deliver all of your inventory to a single fulfillment center, then they’ll help you distribute the inventory for different locations when there’s a shipment.

If you sell products off Amazon sales channels but still want to fulfill with Amazon warehouses, you can consider their Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) solution.

Highlight services

• Extensive fulfillment network around the world
• Provide many incentives to start using FBA like free shipping and returns
• Offer tools for managing excess inventory and tracking inventory age
• Restock inventory based on sales history, demand forecast, and seasonality
• Support fulfillment across different eCommerce sales channels
• Track orders after shipping until received by customers
• Handle customer inquiries and returns for products
• Offer the inventory placement service that allows sending all stocks to one fulfillment center
• Integrate with multiple eCommerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce

Pricing

FBA charges fulfillment costs for each unit, including picking, packing, shipping, handling, customer service, and product returns. The costs are calculated based on the weights and dimensions of the products.

• Set-up fees: Free
• Receiving fees: Not published
• Monthly storage fees:
  • For non-dangerous goods:

• • For dangerous goods:

Some sellers have to pay storage utilization fees besides the above base monthly costs.

• Picking and packing fees: Included in the fulfillment costs of each unit. We recommend you check it carefully to fully understand the pricing.

4. ShipMonk: Best for fast-growing online businesses

Considered one of the best fulfillment companies for fast-growing businesses, ShipMonk brings customers top-notch fulfillment services that can scale in conjunction with their growth. ShipMonk combines their best eCommerce warehouses, equipped with state-of-the-art technologies, and powerful software to support rapid fulfillment to customers while ensuring high-quality standards and cost savings.

ShipMonk speeds up picking orders with their automated mobile robots and automatically sorting packages for faster carrier pickups. It’s also customizable and adaptable enough to keep up with the rapid expansion of your business.

Highlight services

• Can fulfill 10o,000+ orders a day and support shipping to 200+ countries
• Enable cost-effective shipping with ShipMonk’s Virtual Carrier Network
• Support inventory management, including stock level forecast or bundle creation
• Offer customizable packaging to help deliver a unique unboxing experience
• Provide many options for reverse logistics to control costs like returning to stock, donating, disposing, reworking, and returning to vendors
• Automatically route your inventory to optimal storage areas
• Let users record, track, and address claims on the claims portal
• Integrate with many eCommerce platforms

Pricing

• Set-up fees: Free
• Receiving fees: Contact for a quote
• Monthly storage fees:

• Picking and packing fees: The actual amount you have to pay depends on the monthly number of orders that needs fulfilling.

For example, the picking fees for 3 levels of monthly order quantity are as follows.

table

Refer to their pricing plan to estimate how much you need to pay based on the actual order volume of your business each month.

5. Red Stag Fulfillment: Best for new sellers with special packing or handling needs

Red Stag Fulfillment is a company that provides eCommerce fulfillment services USA. Founded by eCommerce operators who understand clearly what online stores need to drive brand loyalty, Red Stag Fulfillment makes solid pledges for inventory and order accuracy. The company promises to minimize stock loss and damages, and give you complete visibility into inventory during each phase. On top of that, Red Stag Fulfillment also offers same-day eCommerce order fulfillment services so that your customers can receive their items as fast as possible.

Highlight services

• Support order, inventory, and warehousing monitoring
• Reduce a considerable amount of inventory loss or damage by minimizing supplier errors, receiving errors, employee theft, improper handling, and expired stocks
• Consolidate as many items as possible into a package to lower shipping costs
• Provide same-day eCommerce shipping and fulfillment
• Deliver real-time and mobile reports on fulfillment operations
• Monitor return processes and handle return requirements in no more than 2 days
• Support custom packaging to protect items from damages

Pricing

Red Stag fulfillment pricing is as follows.

• Set-up fees: Free
• Receiving fees: $14.25/pallet or $6/non-pallet package
• Monthly storage fees: $0.75 per cubic foot, based on the daily inventory average for items stored no more than 180 days
• Picking and packing fees: $1.80 – $2.25 per package, and $0.32 per item after the first item in each order

Geared towards Magento merchants, Magestore Order Fulfillment possesses many outstanding features to assist SME business owners in dealing with a high quantity of orders smoothly and accurately. With multiple charts and insightful reports, retailers can optimize order fulfillment operations, thus delivering the best eCommerce fulfillment experience to customers.

As fulfillment is an inseparable process of retail operations, retailers should streamline the whole operations to get the optimal performance and complete view of business performance. A good way to simplify retail operations is using a full-fledged Magestore Retail Management PWA, which includes inventory, procurement, reporting, and also the Magestore Order Fulfillment modules.

Let’s talk to our experts to get straight to your business pain points and find out the best eCommerce fulfillment solutions for your retail business now.

1. What are the fulfillment strategies for eCommerce?

The fulfillment strategies for eCommerce refer to the methods employed to manage the process of receiving online orders from customers, preparing orders, and delivering products to them as fast as possible.

2. What does a fulfillment company do?

A fulfillment company is a 3rd-party organization that helps business owners fulfill their customer orders, which often includes managing inventory, picking and packing items, shipping products, and handling returns.

3. Is outsourced fulfillment right for you?

It depends on the number of order volumes, product types, customer locations, and other factors. To decide whether outsourced fulfillment is a good fit, retailers should consider different aspects of their business carefully. Please refer back to the section—What to consider before opting for an eCommerce fulfillment solution—we’ve discussed previously.

Every day, hundreds or thousands of inventory activities may happen in a business. They create an increase or decrease in the quantity of products.

Let’s explore eleven operations that can create a change of quantity in stock.

1. Deliver items ordered from both website and POS to customers 
2. Return items after customer’s refund or exchange
3. Purchase items from suppliers 
4. Return items to suppliers
5. Dropshipping
6. Transfer items between warehouses
7. Adjust inventory 
8. Stocktaking
9. Delete items in the product catalog
10. Import product list including quantity as master data for the first time using the system
11. Changes in the warehouse structure

To run a business efficiently, merchants nowadays need to utilize technology such as websites, POS system, inventory, or an ERP system. However, no system is perfect, and there’s no guarantee that everything will run smoothly at all times. 

In particular, in inventory systems that record a lot of transactions every day, the differences between theories and real quantity can happen in any period. 

Human error or system issues are where the differences can come from. For example, your staff is unfamiliar with the system, so they record the wrong quantity when receiving items from the supplier. 

Your system upgrade can also result in conflicts and data differences.

Let’s find out some inventory management pains that merchants can face: 

• The system doesn’t record a decrease in quantity although items have been shipped to customers or record an incorrect number.
• The system doesn’t record an increase in quantity although items have been returned to warehouses.
• The quantity doesn’t change after an inventory adjustment or transfer.
• The order is not synchronized to the admin backend.

To help merchants relieve headaches of stock discrepancies, Magestore has released the stock movement report feature on the POS system as well as retail management software.

The report will save and display all information about the stock movement by item in a grid for easy tracking.

Let’s see how it looks!

Inventory movement report in Magento backend

(Inventory movement report on Magestore POS system) 

• Date: Day, month, year, and hour your business create changes of quantity
• Status: It shows Completed if there is no error in the stock change update. In contrast, it shows Failed.
• Product info: Names and codes (such as SKUs) of items that increase or decrease in quantity
• Action: Activities or reason that results in the changes of quantity such as ship to customers or transfer between warehouses
• Source: Location that has the changes of quantity
• Old quantity: Quantity on hand before the changes
• New quantity: Quantity on hand after the changes
• Change of quantity: Quantity of stock moved into or out of the location. For example, if you ship 2 items to a customer, it means that the quantity decreases by 2. The report then will show -2. In contrast, if you receive 3 more items from the supplier, you can see +3 in this column. 
• Action details: The reference that results in stock changes. Admin can click the link to go to the reference such as a purchase order, a sales order, an inventory adjustment, etc.
• User: The person in charge of tasks that created the quantity change.

Magestore inventory movement report includes the following information:

Besides viewing the report, you may want to export it in CSV or Excel for later reference or sending to others.

(Merchants can export inventory movement report CSV file on Magestore POS system) 

Last but not least, merchants can check the list of error orders in a centralized view and proceed to correct inventory data.

(Merchants can check the list of error orders on Magestore POS system) 

Inventory movement history on PWA

The inventory movement report is also available on our Retail Management PWA. With it, store managers can keep track of inventory transactions in their location.

For more details, check out our detailed article on managing inventory on a Magento PWA.

You may invest in a big website, POS system, or a huge inventory system with multiple warehouses and forecasting. However, it still lacks an overview of how each item moves in and out. 

The inventory movement report offers a place to detect issues and find the solution to solve them. 

If you’re interested in implementing a movement report that gives you peace of mind, don’t hesitate to contact us now.

Besides cash, there are many different kinds of payment options that you can provide for your customers. We just pick the 3 most popular payment methods that your retail is probably using or might be using in the future. These most used payment options are:

• Credit/Debit cards
• E-wallets
• Loyalty payments

Credit/Debit cards

Almost 80% of today’s consumers prefer credit card payment over cash. Not only can your business apply this payment on the eCommerce store, but you can also integrate with POS terminals to let customers swipe their cards at the offline checkout. The payment information will be recorded into your POS system for further tracking or reporting purposes.

Besides, when a customer sees a business displaying payment credit card logos like ATM, Visa, MasterCard,…, they tend to feel a certain sense of trust for your business.

Virtual wallets

Virtual wallets have become one of the most important forms of money transfer mechanisms. The way money transfers from virtual wallets is so seamless that lets you and also customers save a lot of time and energy. These wallets are emerging in every corner of the world, from small markets to big malls, from petrol pumps to most Government operated offices. 

Thanks to e-wallets, transferring money becomes instant and hassle-free using the most secure technology to prevent your money at the risk of theft. Customers just need to carry their phone with any virtual wallet app and then scan the QR codes at your store to proceed with the payment.

Loyalty payments

Merchants can benefit from a payment-based loyalty program such as points, cashback, vouchers, and gift cards, and targeted offers that can be applied in combination or independently. It brings a more personalized loyalty experience to your customers and increases sales gradually.

To apply these rewards to both online and offline stores, you need to create your own personalized omnichannel loyalty program through a centralized platform. It should be seamlessly integrated into your existing payment processes, giving you access to transaction and customer loyalty data in real-time.

After you get multiple payment options at your store, it always comes down to ‘mix’ those payments to fulfill a variety of customer requests.

Let’s take one example.

Regular customers come to your store and run out of cash to pay for the orders. They want to pay by credit card plus the remaining points in the customer loyalty account balance. If your store accepts both credit cards and loyalty points separately, it’d be easier for the customers to check out by both payment methods in one order.

This situation happens all the time. The more payment options you provide, the more payment mixes you need to include in your system. Let’s dig out into some popular split payments and how it works:

Combine credit cards and points in one order

Many retail stores or big brands accept this type of payment mix to bring flexibility toward the customer experience. Customers can enjoy more savings while merchants process more sales. You can apply it to your business workflow on the website or at the point of sale. Both channels must run in sync with each other by having one centralized system to manage customer accounts.

On the website, the business needs to design a workflow in which customers can:

• sign in their account
• create orders
• checkout with both credit card numbers and redeem points

Combine credit cards and points in one order

Many retail stores or big brands accept this type of payment mix to bring flexibility toward the customer experience. Customers can enjoy more savings while merchants process more sales. You can apply it to your business workflow on the website or at the point of sale. Both channels must run in sync with each other by having one centralized system to manage customer accounts.

On the website, the business needs to design a workflow in which customers can:

• sign in their account
• create orders
• checkout with both credit card numbers and redeem points

At your offline store, the staff needs to use the POS to find customer information and their accounts. Then the staff continues to swipe the card and redeem points to complete the transaction.

Combine cash and points in one order

This payment mix can only happen at physical stores. Similar to the credit card and points payment mix, staff can take money from the customer, enter the cash amount into the POS system, while asking the customer info to redeem the points.

One important note, your POS system needs to have options to enter a cash amount at the checkout. With that, you can check the order payment later and run reports precisely.

Nowadays, many POS systems in the market can make this process work out for you. Besides, some other payment mixes can work the same, such as cash and credit cards, cash and gift cards, etc.

Merchants need to observe how the customers are paying for orders. Also, don’t forget to update new payment technology or new payment providers as they can release new options at any time. That way, you will know the most suitable payment methods you should provide for your customers to dominate the local or international market.

Providing single or multiple payment options cannot come true if you don’t have a suitable system to back you up. Hopefully, you can get some ideas from what we’ve shared in this article and start researching the system that fits with your business.

If you’re a Magento merchant looking to add more payment methods into your business, you can book a free consultation with our retail experts to save time. We’ll work together to build a tailor-made payment solution for your business.

Awaiting fulfillment means the seller has confirmed the order and its associated payment. The order is now sent to fulfillment staff, who will pick and pack the listed items into packages. After this step, the package will be handed to a delivery service provider. It is assigned a tracking number, which buyers use to monitor their orders.

Let us examine an awaiting fulfillment example to understand the workflow better.

If a customer orders from a large retailer and the order tracking dashboard says awaiting fulfillment, their order has been successfully paid for and noted. Afterward, the retailer’s fulfillment team will pick out the items listed on the invoice, and prepare packages appropriate for shipment.

If the retailer is of a smaller scale (like a start-up project), one person may handle all fulfillment duties. In the case of a custom product, if it’s awaiting fulfillment, the item is being customized by the seller. 

Typically, awaiting fulfillment status lasts for 48 to 72 hours. Buyers can expect a notification or an email stating that the fulfillment is complete and the items have been shipped.

In addition, the merchant will likely send the order ID and tracking information. With these details, you can check the shipment status from your computer or mobile device. 

However, remember that order awaiting fulfillment time can take longer than this estimation. Disruptions and delays can happen quite often, and the issue may come from the merchant or what occurs is out of their control. 

Why should retailers care about awaiting fulfillment?

Understanding order awaiting fulfillment and other order statuses in the retail fulfillment pipeline is vital for retailers. The information helps retailers gain a general view of logistic processes. They will also achieve better order management. This knowledge will be the key to solving hiccups caused by disruptions such as wars, natural disasters, and accidents.

Furthermore, it enables them to provide timely support for buyers, improve overall experience, and earn good reviews. Buyers can ask many urgent questions like:

• When will my order arrive?
• My order is awaiting fulfillment. What does it mean?
• How can I check if there’s an issue with my order?

Understanding the term helps the merchant address customer concerns instantly. 

What happens after awaiting fulfillment?

When the fulfillment process is complete, the order is packed, assigned a shipment number, and ready to be picked up and shipped to the buyer. Buyers will receive a notification and see the status changing from awaiting fulfillment to awaiting shipment. 

However, delayed shipping can occur due to a myriad of reasons such as logistics disruptions and the increased workload of peak seasons. In this case, the status “awaiting fulfillment” can remain unchanged for longer than usual. 

In the order processing pipeline, apart from orders awaiting fulfillment, there are many status updates that you may have not yet fully understood. We have gathered relevant order statuses in the list below.

Pending

If an order is pending, it means the checkout process is incomplete. On some eCommerce platforms, the word “Incomplete” may be used, though the meaning is still the same. 

You have a few days to complete the transaction, usually up to 7 business days. However, the time allowed for pending varies greatly, and some sites may allow just 5-10 minutes. If a buyer fails to finish the payment process after that deadline, the order is canceled. The buyer needs to start from scratch if they still wish to place the order. 

Pending fulfillment

If the order status reads “pending fulfillment”, it usually means you are one step closer to seeing the package arriving at your front door. Compared to awaiting fulfillment, pending fulfillment indicates that the fulfillment process has started but is not yet finished. Your order is now being packed and labeled.

Pending fulfillment is placed after awaiting fulfillment and before the shipment step. However, since pending fulfillment and awaiting fulfillment share a lot of similarities in their meanings, some platforms may use them to indicate the same order status. 

Processing order

After an order is noted, the status will appear as “processing order”. It means that the merchant is in the process of picking, packing, and preparing your order for shipment.

An order’s processing time can range from a few hours to several days, depending on the merchant. The ideal time is no more than 3 business days. For example, if the seller has the item in stock, they can process the order instantly. If the product has to be transferred from somewhere else, it certainly will take longer. The type of product is also a decisive factor. Customized products can take up to several weeks to be made, significantly increasing the processing period. 

Awaiting shipment

You may notice that your order is at a phase called awaiting shipment, meaning the purchased item is ready to be dispatched and the merchant is waiting for the courier to pick it up. Couriers are usually employed by small businesses without dedicated employees for this task. For large-scale retailers with in-house delivery teams, “awaiting shipment” may signify that the item has been handed to them and is ready for shipping.

“Awaiting shipment” sometimes can be displayed as “shipment awaiting pickup”. Moreover, “awaiting shipment” and “awaiting delivery” can be used interchangeably since they share a similar meaning. 

One may wonder: How long does awaiting shipment or awaiting delivery take? Although it typically takes 1-2 days for the courier to pick up your order, during peak seasons, it is not uncommon for this status to remain unchanged for several days. This is similar to the duration of awaiting fulfillment.

Many people feel negative about the “awaiting fulfillment” phase, assuming their orders are arriving later than they expect. However, the status does not necessarily indicate a late delivery or delayed processing. Your case may fall into one of the following scenarios.

Your order has been received and acknowledged by the seller

The seller has noted this but has not yet started preparing and packing your order. Due to the possibility of a high number of orders, it may take a while for this to happen and for your order status to change. 

There is a delay in the fulfillment process

This may happen if the status does not change within a few days. The items you requested may be out of stock for now, so the merchant must wait for them to be shipped from another warehouse. 

Another solution to an out-of-stock item is putting it on the backorder. Unlike pre-order, backorder is an item that is temporarily unavailable but is guaranteed by the seller to be delivered within a timeframe. 

If you are buying a backorder, it makes sense that the awaiting fulfillment phase can last for days and even weeks.

You have requested a customized product

A customized product needs additional production efforts from the seller before it can be shipped to you. In this case, buyers may have to wait for months before they can see the order status switching from awaiting fulfillment to something else.

Your order is affected by external factors

Your order may have been affected by other external factors, which caused the logistic teams to be unable to proceed.

For example, during COVID-19, work safety restrictions were imposed on facilities worldwide, leading to a significant slowdown in picking and packing. As a result, the fulfillment time experienced a dramatic increase.

So how can your business improve the fulfillment process? 

Undoubtedly, enhancing the process plays an essential role in their profitability. The faster and more efficiently a retailer can fulfill customer orders, the more reliable they appear. Consequently, they gain more revenue from the growing number of satisfied buyers.

In the fiercely competitive retail landscape, providing excellent customer service is a key differentiator. Customers can easily reach out to your competitors if your service is unsatisfactory and the loss is yours to take. 

We have compiled a comprehensive list of actions that can measurably raise the quality and efficiency of your fulfillment process.

Sync data across fulfillment-related systems

For retail businesses, the order fulfillment pipeline can involve more than one system, which is common for those of medium and large scale. The process is even more complex with the addition of third-party service providers such as logistics companies. 

Cross-system data synchronization ensures a streamlined workflow. It allows participants in the order fulfillment process to stay informed and eliminates bottlenecks. If an issue occurs, all stakeholders can quickly figure out how to solve it and avoid downtime. 

Choose a suitable location for your warehouse

Retailers should place their inventory near where their target customers are. It should be also close to where order fulfillment is performed. The proximity helps them save transportation costs, which can be a significant figure, and decrease wait time for buyers. As a result, the items awaiting fulfillment will not pile up in warehouses and take up resources.    

Maintain traceability of the fulfillment process

Customers are eager about their orders and want to know when they receive the package. Thanks to visibility into the order fulfillment process, customer service staff and managers can quickly locate the order and answer customer inquiries. 

Make sure the inventory is always accurate 

Accurate and real-time inventory reports allow retailers to start working as soon as they receive an order. Moreover, they can truthfully report to customers if the product is unavailable or when they expect a delay. That is why keeping track of inventory is beneficial for overall supply chain management.

Plan for fluctuations in demand

Retailers need to have a clear idea of upcoming changes in customer demand. In the holiday season, shopping demand can skyrocket. Forecasting helps retailers avoid facing an overwhelming number of orders awaiting fulfillment. Conversely, accurate demand forecasting means they will not overstock their inventories when the market is less busy. 

Keep the workflow simple

While maintaining an adequate level of monitor and control, retailers should keep the management hierarchy as simple as possible. Consider combining or removing steps, and make sure the number and complexity of decisions and actions are minimal. This practice saves your time and effort and also reduces fulfillment errors.