MarTech Minute: Shopify releases new POS features geared toward SMBs

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POINT TAKEN. Shopify has updated its point-of-sale (POS) solution with new capabilities designed to help SMBs that have been forced to adapt to entirely new business models in light of current economic conditions. The newly updated POS comes with at least eight new features, including a simplified omnichannel management platform that integrates offline and online orders and payments into one single customer experience. The new Shopify POS also allows retailers to manage inventory across physical locations so that they can move products as needed, along with broadened app integrations, more insights and mobile check-out capabilities for curb-side pick-ups.

Why we care: Shopify has been on a tear recently. Last week it launched the consumer shopping app Shop and, two weeks before that, made its email product available globally. Its new updated POS platform is a boon for the smaller merchants on the platform. Many of these retailers had zero plans to broaden — or, in some cases, even launch — omnichannel capabilities at the start of this year. (Shopify reports a 10-fold increase in the number of retail stores offering local delivery or BOPIS services during a two-week period last month.) With this latest release, Shopify is heeding the call and positioning itself to be the ecommerce solution for merchants of all sizes.

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