If you want to attract and maintain customers, you need to keep your business fresh — especially if you work in an industry as large as grocery.
The best way to stay sustainable is to find your niche. And if you’ve decided to open a natural food store and cafe, you understand the importance of finding the right business tools to support your unique needs — including a quality point of sale (POS) system.
Get ready to take your natural food store and cafe to the next level with our top five POS picks.
Clover is a comprehensive point of sale system serving a wide variety of industries, from generic retail to full-service dining. If you want to focus on the cafe side of your business, this POS has got you covered.
Clover lets you customize menu items to help you keep track of the unique, fresh foods you stock, and online ordering makes it easy for customers to place an order for in-store pickup. And with the ability to modify orders (like a nut milk substitution), you can guarantee your customers are getting exactly what they want.
The system also allows you to send orders straight from the POS to your kitchen, streamlining operations on both sides of your store.
“I like all the app options, and how everything is right on the register and connects to each other. I love how quick the operating system is; for example, when using it as a register, orders can be taken very quickly.”
Markt POS is a grocery-specific POS solution, designed by multi-generational grocers, so you can trust that its features cater to the needs of a natural food store and cafe. With industry-specific inventory management and reporting features, it’s a solid contender for “best pick.”
When it comes to grocery inventory, this POS simplifies ordering and receiving, and generates grocery-specific shrink reports — especially important in an industry full of perishable products. Scale integration makes it easy to ring up random-weight items like meat and produce.
You can also amp up operations on the cafe side of your business with Markt POS’ quick-service restaurant features — modify orders, and even allow customers to place orders online to pick up in-store.
"We've grown to have four stores, and we're really happy with Markt POS. When we opened our third location we decided to go with Markt POS because we thought it would be better for us, and a better suit for the company.”
ECRS’ Catapult is an all-in-one point of sale system with a back office geared toward grocers, so it’s a solid option for natural food store and cafe owners. It has high-quality inventory, employee, and customer relationship management features.
If you’re focusing your efforts on the grocery store side of your business, Catapult offers great support. Its back office has features that are perfect for the grocery industry, including a native scale integration — so you can accurately weigh, price, and sell your goods directly from the POS.
Catapult stands out with its multilingual interface, meaning you can display transaction information in English, French, Spanish, and Russian — opening up your customer base.
“ECRS provides a complete solutions suite – POS, back office management, inventory management, supplier integration – meaning, I could have everything needed to automate the store, and any future stores, with one system.”
POS Nation for Grocery is a turnkey point of sale solution with features designed specifically for grocery stores, making it a great choice for your natural food store and cafe. It includes solid marketing and employee management features, along with grocery-specific inventory features — so you’re fully equipped if you want to stay small or scale your business.
POS Nation stands out in inventory management. Shrink reporting capabilities ensure that your inventory is up to date, and that you’re offering your customers the freshest products. Scale integrations mean you can easily weigh and price bulk and random-weight items, like grains and produce.
Quick service capabilities allow you to take your customers’ cafe orders accurately and efficiently — and when you’ve established a relationship with your regulars, you can implement customer loyalty programs to encourage repeat business.
“I love this software!!! The best POS system I've ever used. It's so easy to process orders and manage sales.”
IT Retail is a POS system designed by grocers, for grocers — and with industry-specific features, it’s the perfect point of sale solution for natural food store and cafe owners. It has everything you need to run both the shop and cafe sides of your business.
Customizable hotkeys and inventory lists allow you to stock the unique products natural food stores typically carry, so you can add even small-batch and locally-sourced items — and deli and scanner scale integrations ensure that they’re priced just right. Plus, shrink reports guarantee that your products are always fresh, all the time.
IT Retail’s point of sale system also boasts quick service restaurant features, with modifiers that let you cater to your customers’ needs. If a buyer wants to hold the cheese on their black bean burger, this POS can handle the transaction — and online ordering capabilities mean they can place their order online and pick up on the go. You also have the option to set up a full online webstore, delivery included.
“IT Retail is a comprehensive POS system that allows me to efficiently serve my customers in the front end while providing me the tools and information to effectively run my business in the back office. IT Retail’s staff have been easy to work with and very accommodating.”
Choosing the right point of sale solution for your business can seem overwhelming — that’s why we’ve rounded up the top picks that cater to your industry.
From inventory and employee management, to quick service restaurant features, you don’t have to settle for anything less than the best for your natural food store and cafe.
Ready to get started? Check out our Build and Price tool to receive your custom quote, or schedule a demo with one of our IT Retail specialists today!