As a grocer, time is your most precious resource.
Most of it should be spent connecting with shoppers and providing exceptional customer service — but unfortunately, it’s easy to get bogged down by tedious manual tasks like tracking inventory and managing promotions.
That’s where grocery software comes in. This tool does the heavy lifting, giving you more time to grow your business.
In this blog, we’ll explore everything you need to know about grocery software, including what it is, what it does, and our five favorite options.
Grocery point of sale (POS) software is an all-in-one solution designed to help you tackle the challenges of running a grocery store. Here are just a few ways you and your customers will benefit from adopting this powerful tool:
So, how does your POS software make all this possible? Let’s look at eight specific features to look for in a grocery-specific POS solution.
When you think of a POS system, you’re probably picturing a checkout line. That’s because the main role of grocery POS software is to facilitate the checkout process.
Your software should include integrated payment processing that you and your customers can trust. It should be fast, secure, and flexible, allowing you to accept cash, cards, and contactless payment options.
Struggling with long checkout lines? Look for grocery software with self-checkout functionality.
Offering self-checkout can help you appeal to tech-savvy customers and tackle rush hours, letting your cashiers serve multiple shoppers at once.
Even if you don’t need self-checkout right now, we recommend choosing software with this capability to keep up with your store as it grows.
Inventory management is one of your toughest challenges as a grocer. If you frequently run out of your customers’ favorite products, you’ll lose their trust and miss sales. If you overstock your shelves and coolers, you’ll have a spoilage problem on your hands.
Luckily, your grocery software can help you avoid these pitfalls.
It tracks your stock levels in real time, giving you the data you need to discount perishables before they expire and replenish your bestsellers before a stockout strikes.
Want to manage your grocery store’s inventory like a pro? Then you need software with automation features.
Your software should detect when a product’s stock count drops below a certain threshold, then automatically generate a purchase order to replace it — eliminating a manual step and preventing stockouts!
Some grocery software solutions can even integrate with your wholesaler’s catalog, making importing products, updating costs and pricing, and creating purchase orders a breeze.
Customer retention is one of the most important ingredients for grocery store success, and the right software can help you improve this crucial key performance indicator (KPI).
Look for a solution that includes a built-in customer loyalty program. This feature lets you customize and manage a rewards program for your grocery store, giving customers the opportunity to earn points and unlock exclusive discounts and perks. The more they spend, the more they’ll save.
Launching a loyalty program also gives you more access to your most valuable customers. You can keep a close eye on their favorite products and shopping habits, and even log their contact information to send them email and SMS marketing messages.
Regular discounts and promotions are critical for attracting new customers, encouraging shoppers to add more items to their carts, and increasing inventory turnover.
Relying on your cashiers to memorize your promotion schedule and manually enter discounts at the checkout counter is stressful for them and your customers — which is why you should choose grocery software with promotion management.
With this feature, you can schedule promotions in advance and ensure they’re automatically applied to the right products during checkout. Plus, using your POS system to handle promotions makes it easier to review the results, helping you understand which discounts are worth offering.
As a grocer, your job is to make tough decisions about your open hours, product selection, pricing, and more. Fortunately, you can rely on your grocery software to guide you.
Your software constantly collects data on everything happening in your store and breaks this information down into easy-to-read reports. These reports can help you identify your peak sales times, most popular products, underperforming items, profit margins, seasonal shifts in customer shopping habits, and more.
These insights take the guesswork out of running your grocery store, empowering you to make informed decisions to meet your customers’ needs and grow your business.
The online grocery market has more than doubled in recent years, and grocery software with e-commerce integration can help you take advantage of this boom.
Look for a solution that connects seamlessly with an online grocery platform to help you build an online storefront, list products for sale, and manage orders. This integration also makes it easier to track your inventory and sales shifts across your in-store and online operations, keeping all your data in one convenient place.
Related Read: 4 Online Grocery Shopping Trends To Watch in 2025
Now it’s time to find a grocery software solution that checks all the right boxes.
Diving into the world of POS software providers can be intimidating, so we’ve done the hard work for you and curated this list of the top five options:
Above all, look for a provider that meets your grocery store’s unique needs — whether you’re looking for advanced features, stellar support, or affordable pricing.
Ready to see how the right software can transform your grocery store? We’ll show you!
IT Retail has everything you need to launch, manage, and grow your business — including perishable inventory management tools, time-saving automations, sales-boosting marketing features, insightful reporting, and more.
Schedule your live, personalized demo of IT Retail to see these features in action.