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What Is Lightspeed Retail?

Future-proof your business with Lightspeed Retail and its features like contactless payments, omnichannel loyalty & advanced eCommerce solution. Lightspeed Retail simplifies the way you serve customers and manage all your store locations. Manage your inventory, keep tabs on your sales, manage your employees, process payments and create unforgettable shopping experiences that keep customers coming back again and again all from your iPad.

Who Uses Lightspeed Retail?

Lightspeed's functionalities are aligned with retailers' and restaurateurs' priorities. It simplifies day-to-day tasks so you're free to focus on what matters: business growth and customer experience

Lightspeed Retail Software - Lightspeed Retail book appointment
Lightspeed Retail Software - Lightspeed Retail stock levels
Lightspeed Retail Software - Lightspeed Retail search products

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Lightspeed Retail

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Reviews of Lightspeed Retail

Average score

Overall
4.0
Ease of Use
4.1
Customer Service
4.0
Features
4.0
Value for Money
3.9

Reviews by company size (employees)

  • <50
  • 51-200
  • 201-1,000
  • >1,001
Zondre
Zondre
General Manager in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Retail, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Great integrated system

5.0 6 years ago

Comments: Lightspeed has been great. We have been using it for over a year and it has met my expectations. Whenever I request help, which isn't that often anymore they are quick to respond.

Pros:

The best feature of LIghtspeed is the analytics package. As a senior manager you can spend a lot of time calculating your performance manually in excel. But the Analytics package takes care of all of that. It's easy to see the performance of your inventory, employees and marketing at any time. There are also a lot of apps that work with Lightspeed that make it the most functional POS system I've used. The fact that the ecommerce is integrated as well makes it a great fully integrated system. You could pay a lot more to piece together all the of the systems you need. Or you could spend a huge amount of money creating a custom system.

Cons:

There are some small idiosyncrasies like not adjusting sync times for your local time zone. So, yesterday is never accurate you have to wait for the next days sync to get have accurate information. I would also like to be able to have our time management app sync employee time to Lightspeed so we don't have to enter it manually. I've given up on tracking employee hourly performance for this reason. Or if they offered a better time clock management natively that would help. I'd also like them to include the previous year comparisons in their dashboard. And, I'd like to look at seasonal performance rather than just month to month and week to week.

anna
CEO in US
Retail, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source
Source: SoftwareAdvice

Over promise, under deliver

4.0 11 months ago

Comments: Overall, I have had a really negative experience with Lightspeed. Their account managers are not helpful and rarely answer. The company is focused on sales and add ons and not improving the product or ensuring the system does what retailers want / need

Pros:

Lightspeed has the basics complete. Matrixes, easy sku set up and fairly intuitive POS.

Cons:

The customer service is terrible. The team is constantly selling new add ons that don't work and then no one every responds. Overall, I have felt the system does not do what they say it does. For example, we were sold on a shopify integration, which is not true. We were also sold that their reporting is great. It is not only terrible, but you have to pay a lot more for any reports that give you actual information (like inventory valuations).

Lightspeed Response

11 months ago

Hi Anna, We would like to sincerely apologize for your recent experience with Lightspeed. It is our utmost priority to provide a product and service that allows our customers to focus on running their businesses with ease. We value our customers’ feedback, and would like to learn more about your specific experience, to have the opportunity to address your needs and concerns. As we are unable to identify your account within our records, please feel free to contact our Customer Success team should you wish to provide further feedback. You may reach us via email at <[email protected]>. Thank you,

Sean
CEO in US
Retail, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Not The Same Company It Once Was

3.0 9 months ago

Comments: We loved Lightspeed and advocated for them in the beginning. The disappointment in their customer service and the system breakages and downtime was devastating to our business. The customer service we received when their system was crashing was the worst customers service I have experienced in any industry. They denied system crashes or feature breakages, for days before acknowledging them. We tolerated alot from them because they used to be so good! But, it started to cost us a lot of lost sales, and when they couldn't process credit cards for days, that was the end...

Pros:

Good foundation. Simple to use POS with valuable connected integrations.

Cons:

Customer service used to be outstanding. In a few short years, it provided some of the worst customers service I have experience in any industry. I can confidently saw even our basic employees/user understood the system better than ANY of the customer service reps from Lightspeed.

Lightspeed Response

9 months ago

Hi Sean, We would like to sincerely apologize for your recent experience with Lightspeed. We understand how crucial it is to provide timely and effective support, and we deeply regret hearing that we have fallen short of your expectations. Your feedback is invaluable to us, and we're committed to addressing these issues to improve our services moving forward. We are unfortunately unable to locate your account within our records. If you wish to discuss your concerns in more detail, we kindly ask you to contact your Account Manager for further assistance. If you require immediate technical support, please don't hesitate to reach out to our Support Team. Thank you for your time and patience. The Lightspeed Team

Cody
Store Manager in US
Retail, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Thank you Lightspeed

5.0 3 months ago

Comments: Super simple and easy for my consumers transactions.

Pros:

the amazing POS and Inventory management offered from Lightspeed.

Cons:

That we didnt start using Lightspeed earlier.

Railan
Manager in US
Sporting Goods, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Lightspeed for Small Business

5.0 last year

Comments: Our overall experience has been very good - I have much more control over inventory, discounts, more robust reporting, and human error estimated.

Pros:

Inventory, POS, Reports, and discount features are all easy to configure and use.

Cons:

When completing an End of Year inventory count, you must submit the entire count before seeing the total cost of products counted.

Lightspeed Response

last year

Hi Railan, Thank you for sharing your experience! We're glad to hear that Lightspeed has provided you with easy-to-use features for inventory, POS, reports, and discounts. The Lightspeed Team

Reza
Owner in Canada
Retail, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source
Source: SoftwareAdvice

Worst pos system

2.0 last year

Comments: Not recommended, and I will cancel subscription, also , they force to use their payment process other wise would charge you which is not fair

Pros:

Help desk , they answer soon but for my case couldn’t help at all , just referred to higher level with no result

Cons:

Inventory management , huge inventory deduction with no reason

Chris
Owner in US
Retail, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source
Source: SoftwareAdvice

Stay away!

1.0 last year

Comments: Horrible! Costly! Nightmare!
Business killer! Profit Stealer!

Pros:

When it was Shopkeep. It has only gotten worse with every update.

Cons:

They buy out the competition and change the system to a new hybrid version every other year.

Kyla
Owner in Canada
Retail, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Lightspeed Retail - User Friendly & Great Customer Service

5.0 8 months ago

Comments: The cost is a bit high in comparison to other retail POS systems. I may have considered an alternate provider based on the cost alone, but we wanted to get our store opened right away, and Lightspeed came very highly rated.
Over and above customer service is so very important, and this alone keeps us on-line. I would recommend Lightspeed to any new user considering them.

Pros:

I enjoy using Lightspeed. The features are easy to navigate, learn and train. There is a newsletter that alerts us to new features and interests. We were offered a significant start up discount for the first year, and the terminal was free. Once we set up the system, it has been clear sailing. Any time we have had a question, on-line customer service has been wonderful! We have never not had an issue unresolved. Lightspeed offers capital advances after a certain period of time, based on sales. This could be useful to help with additional expenses as they come along.

Cons:

I do not love the monthly fees now that our yearly discounted rate has come to an end. That is really the only thing I dislike about the entire system. I do wish that Lightspeed would partner up with Faire, the wholesale platform we often use, to integrate the inventory and invoicing.

Jeff
CEO in Australia
Hospitality, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source
Source: SoftwareAdvice

Customer Review

2.0 6 months ago

Comments: Overall I have spend way more time on the help desk waiting the 24-48 hours for technical support and I have had to invest more money and time into additional products I didnt expect. Overall the experience has been a mixed bag, but the latest integrations issues has left a really bad taste in my mouth.

Pros:

The fact it could do the basics well. i.e. take payment of an order.

Cons:

The integration issues, added costs of including so many additional applications and the delayed payment over the weekend, where lightspeed invoices did not match bank account inputs due to when the eftpos fee is attributed. This adds a lot of manual effort when reconciling.

Angelica
Sales Assistant in UK
Retail, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Lightspeed Retail

4.0 3 months ago

Pros:

User-friendly and makes it easy to manage inventory, process sales, and check stock quickly. Helps speed up transactions and reduce errors. The system’s ability to handle multiple payment methods is also a big plus.

Cons:

The system can sometimes be slow, especially during busy times, which can frustrate customers. There’s also a bit of a learning curve when it comes to using some of the more advanced features.

Cynthia
Owner in US
Retail, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source
Source: SoftwareAdvice

Alternatives Considered:

Disappointed in their business practices and how they stand behind what their employees sell you.

2.0 2 years ago

Comments: I'm still disappointed and now looking for another POS system. I fear Lightspeed will come up with more charges as I go along this year. If my employee sold a customer a product at a certain price, I would at least honor that for 1 year. Especially since I had been using that product for 4 months. Changing POS systems is very stressful and any company that does not stand behind what they sell, well, can you trust them?

Pros:

Accuracy is very important and when I run a report or look at inventory it is correct.

Cons:

The sales person told me I would have reports and I did for about 4 months, I was then locked out of the reports and could not pay my suppliers. I had to pay more money per month based on their employees mistake. I went with Lightspeed based on the monthly price. It is not completely what I needed for my store but the price was within my budget. Now I have to pay hundreds more per year so I can run one report to pay my suppliers. Be warned they do not stand behind their employees promises.

Lightspeed Response

2 years ago

Hi, We would like to sincerely apologize for your recent experience, and we are sorry to hear you were less than satisfied with the services received. It is our utmost priority to provide products and services that allow our customers to focus on running their businesses with ease. If ever you would like to provide more feedback, please don't hesitate to reach our Customer Success Team via email at [email protected]. Thank you, Lightspeed Commerce

melana
server in Canada
Food & Beverages, 501–1,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

light speed review

5.0 last year

Comments: very good, easy to use, learn and very quick to take guests orders, course meals, and send to Kitchen. our restaurant menu is always changing so its easy to add and remove items

Pros:

its easy to use and train other servers on, you can colour coordinate and organize items how ever you'd like with drop down tabs

Cons:

nothing it worked great for us. I would recommend to anyone

Lightspeed Response

12 months ago

Hi Melana, Thank you for taking the time to share your review! We're thrilled to hear that Lightspeed has been easy to use, train others on, and customize according to your restaurant's needs. If you ever need further assistance or have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out. Best, The Lightspeed Team

Jeff
Director in Australia
Retail, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source
Source: SoftwareAdvice

Dissatisfied with customer service

3.0 last year

Comments: Very poor Customer Service! Calls not returned, you're pretty much forced to use Lightspeed payments otherwise you have to pay a monthly fee which is ridiculous! Lightspeed fees are way to high compared to other providers and no facility to pass fees onto customers yet.

Pros:

Deffinelty not the customer service. Very poor.

Cons:

Definitely the customer service was the worst. Basically forced to use Lightspeed payments otherwise high monthly fee. Can't pass on bank fees to customers still! Extremely poor customer service. Been trying to speak with someone for Months.

Elisa
Owner/manager in Australia
Food & Beverages, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source
Source: SoftwareAdvice

Do not go with lightspeed

1.0 last year

Comments: Bad experience like really bad ! Theyre everything but competent

Pros:

The first contact was great but then when you take the cheapest plan they don't help you after it and almost try to make it harder, this app its a joke

Cons:

Impossible to call them, texted them like everyday all day to resolve problems, I could open for my first service because of them also havent got my money back after 2 weeks, they lost my documents and pretend to never have it, be ready to talk to 60 différents peoples, go with square really !

Lightspeed Response

last year

Hi Elisa, We would like to sincerely apologize for your recent experience with Lightspeed. It is our utmost priority to provide products and services that allow our customers to focus on running their businesses with ease. We value all feedback and would like to learn more about your specific experience, to have the opportunity to address your needs and concerns. As we are unable to identify your account within our records, please feel free to contact our Customer Success team should you wish to provide further feedback. You may reach us via email at [email protected]. Thank you, Lightspeed Commerce

Fabrizio
Director in Switzerland
Food & Beverages, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source
Source: SoftwareAdvice

Customer support non existent

1.0 last year

Comments: Mediocre as it lack the attention to the customer which is the most important for developing a relationship

Pros:

Poor, poor and nothing less than poor customer support. You are on your own.

Cons:

Functionality of the system and the look of the product on the pos

Lightspeed Response

last year

Hi Fabrizio, We would like to sincerely apologize for your recent experience with Lightspeed. We value our customers’ feedback, and would like to learn more about your specific experience, to have the opportunity to address your needs and concerns. As we are unable to identify your account within our records, please feel free to contact our Customer Success team should you wish to provide further feedback. You may reach us via email at <[email protected]>. Thank you, The Lightspeed Team

Baruch
President in US
Restaurants, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source
Source: SoftwareAdvice

Worse customer service

1.0 last year

Comments: Absolutely awful
In my 20 years in business, I have never met a worse company

Pros:

I am a credit card processor that recommended Lightspeed to my clients None of my clients are able to get custom service It’s so bad that I personally been trying to email light speed and call for the last 5 days The only response I got is “how can we help” Once I wrote what I needed , no one ever got back to me I’m going to recommend to all my clients to leave lighspeed I’m even going to buy them new pos systems just not to deal with lighspeed anymore Non of my retail or restaurants were able to get customer service I’m writing this review to help other in their pos decision Please save yourself a lot of headache and not to use this POS system I have nothing to gain by telling you this

Cons:

Customer Service is beyond horrible I’ve been calling them and emailing them with no success

Ekin
Operations Specialist in Türkiye
Wholesale, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Solid system for retail

4.0 last year

Comments: It is capable software system can handle your small retail shop with ease. inventory management, barcoding, point of sale, price tracking, reports etc all work well. It is bit hard to reach for customer service and lots of training required.

Pros:

Software is intact, does not give random errors. you can count on

Cons:

it is a bit hard to settle if you have an inventory at some other software. it would be better to have more sync options.

jesse
owner in US
Retail, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source
Source: SoftwareAdvice

Dont use their payment system

3.0 2 years ago

Pros:

[sensitive content hidden] i know, better than [sensitive content hidden] i dont know

Cons:

frustrating to utilize. lots of data to enter, once you start using it, it's hard to break away. they always blame the other guy when problems arise with integrations

Brandy
Owner in US
Apparel & Fashion, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source
Source: SoftwareAdvice

Horrible Horrible Horrible

1.0 2 years ago

Comments: Horrible! I had to set it up on my own because I paid for the top option so that I would have the help with transitioning. I was given an appointment 2 weeks after I was to start using it and I would be charged again for a full month and still not be able to use the system. I didn't like that it was web based if I didn't have an iPad and I was told that using my computer was just as easy, which I disagree. I wanted to return my product which I was given a return ticket for. I returned the product in NEW condition in the same packaging that it was sent to me in. I have been reaching out to my sales rep because trying to reach anyone at the company is like pulling teeth. He takes 2-3 days to respond to me and the tells me that I would not be receiving my money back because the product is damaged. I cant get them to prove any damage and they haven't returned the product which I technically own. And now of course my sales rep Simon tells me that his manager is conveniently out of the office until next Monday and wont be able to do anything until then. I have since disputed the charges on my credit card because I feel that is the only way I'm going to recoup my money. My next step is that I will be filing a complaint with the BBB. Communication is terrible and so is customer service. DO NOT USE

Pros:

Nothing. Absolutely nothing!!!!! Never used it

Cons:

Wasn't POS based. Was web based and I apparently didn't understand that

David
Owner in Australia
Business Supplies & Equipment, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source
Source: SoftwareAdvice

Run! Don't go with this company

2.0 2 years ago

Comments: RUN FAST AND DONT LOOK BACK! Since Vend and Lightspeed merged they have become so arrogant. If I knew what I know now I would never go with Vend/Lightspeed. For the same features you can get systems out their at half price or less. I ended up having to pay for advanced plan to use e-commerce and inventory report which us $279aud per month. They just launched new payment method and are forcing me into using it or I will be charged extra transaction fee for staying with my existing provider. They are straight out rude and arrogant. If I wanted all in one system (which you will be even more trapped) I would have gone with Square from the beginning.

Pros:

Nothing. To start with when it was still Vend you can call customer Service and it gets through in 5 minutes . These days you'll be lucky to get through in 15 minutes.

Cons:

Everything. Full of lies. Too many changes and extra charges all the time. Be very careful with their sweet offers, they only to trap you in.

Lynda
Owner in Australia
Retail, Self Employed
Used the Software for: Free Trial
Reviewer Source

So far so good. I like it.

5.0 last year

Pros:

Ease of use and easy to track sales. Payment processing is good.

Cons:

Nothing of great concern. Good for high sales

george
Sales in US
Retail, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source
Source: SoftwareAdvice

Nonintuitive and lack of customer support

1.0 2 years ago

Comments: It is a nonintuitive program that bogs down our time for a sale.Customer support is nonexistent. When using the chat, we are only passed along articles that have nothing to do with the questions and or concerns we have. We can not get a human on the phone or any email response.

Pros:

nothing, absolutely nothing. The company gives us zero confidence.

Cons:

every part of it as well as the lack of customer service

Lightspeed Response

2 years ago

Hi, We would like to sincerely apologize for your recent experience, and we are sorry to hear you were less than satisfied with the services received. It is our utmost priority to provide products and services that allow our customers to focus on running their businesses with ease. If ever you would like to provide more feedback, please don't hesitate to reach our Customer Success Team via email at [email protected]. Thank you, Lightspeed Commerce

Douglas
President in US
Furniture, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source
Source: SoftwareAdvice

What customer support?

4.0 2 years ago

Comments: It is not a user friendly system.

Pros:

There isn't much I like about the systems ease of use.

Cons:

It is impossible to speak to any customer service representatives. All they do as an attempt for customer service is to send you articles to read which have nothing to do with the issue you are having.

Emma
Director in Australia
Design, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source
Source: SoftwareAdvice

Waste of time for e-comm / multi channel businesses

1.0 2 years ago

Pros:

Nothing at all, if I could leave 0 reviews I would. Total waste of time if you have an e-commerce business that needs POS integration.

Cons:

Avoid! Representatives promise the world and the software does not deliver. Charged us for the full contract term up front and are refusing to apply refund even though we cooled off within 24 hours of sign up - once we realised what had been promised was not at all functional. Don’t waste your time or money.

Lightspeed Response

2 years ago

Hello Emma, Thank you for your feedback, it is truly valued and we would be grateful to have the opportunity to address your needs and concerns. As we are unable to identify your account within our records, please feel free to contact our Customer Success Team should you wish to provide further feedback. You may reach us via email at [email protected]. Thank you, Lightspeed Commerce

Fabio
IT Manager in Netherlands
Textiles, 201–500 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Good Retail POS solution

4.0 2 years ago

Pros:

Integration with external services, ease of use

Cons:

User interface / experience could be improved