Ads for POS systems tend to focus on the customer experience: fast checkout, easy payments, and sleek touchscreens. And while that’s important, it’s not everything.
For most grocery stores and supermarkets, the point of sale (POS) back office is what truly makes or breaks a system.
Grocery store back office software is used to set up and organize inventory, manage vendors, configure payments and taxes, view reports, and much more. Because grocery stores have unique requirements like perishable inventory, homemade items, and thousands of SKUs, many generic POS systems fall flat or require expensive add-ons or workarounds to work as needed.
In this article, we’ll help you pick the best grocery POS back office for your business, including:
Let’s dive in.
Finding the best POS back office can be confusing because, at least on the surface, many solutions do the same things. Here are some specific features to look out for in a grocery store back office:
| Feature | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Inventory management | Beyond basic inventory tracking, grocery store inventory management software allows you to manage an unlimited number of SKUs, set up custom products, tie inventory to specific vendors, and track expiration dates. |
| Weight-based sales | Many general retail POS systems don't natively support weight-based sales. Ensure your system integrates with deli scales, prints custom labels and embedded barcodes, and sets weight-based pricing. |
| Invoicing and vendor management | Invoicing and reorders can be a huge time sink. Grocery back-office software speeds things up with integrated purchase orders (POs), AI-powered invoice scanning, and intelligent reordering. |
| Pricing and promotions | Many grocery stores are slow to adjust prices or run promotions because it's a pain to do. Use systems that let you make bulk pricing updates, suggest pricing based on target margin, and set up quick promotional pricing that automatically applies at checkout. |
| Employee management | It's important to use POS software that lets you quickly onboard new employees and set role-based access so they can only see and use the features they need. |
| Detailed reports | To stay competitive and make positive changes, you need an honest view of store performance. Any back office should have daily sales reports, but grocery back-office tools usually include spoilage reports, department sales, vendor reports, and other detailed reports. |
At IT Retail, we’ve spent over 30 years developing software specifically for independent grocers and supermarkets — but while we’d love to say we’re a perfect fit for everyone, that’s not always the case.
Regardless, upgrading your back office is one of the best investments a small grocery store can make.
Here are our top picks for grocery POS back-office systems.
At number one is our comprehensive grocery store system. Our back office is built for grocery stores and includes perishable inventory tracking, a wide range of hardware integrations, intelligent pricing controls, and other industry-specific features.
Standout features:
Pricing
We offer flexible pricing based on your needs, starting as low as $49/month.
Vori is a growing provider in the grocery space, thanks in no small part to its smart features for pricing and inventory control.
Standout features:
Pricing
Vori does not list pricing, but offers custom quotes on their website.
Markt POS is another solution that caters to specialty markets and small grocery stores. With advanced inventory tracking, robust e-commerce integrations, wide hardware support, and AI-powered features, Markt offers a lot of power at a good price point.
Standout features:
Pricing
Markt POS offers several pricing tiers for their software, with the lowest tier starting at $49/month.
Square is a popular and affordable POS option for many small businesses. Square’s back-office software is basic, but functional, and might be a good fit if you operate a small store with mostly standard UPCs.
Standout features:
Pricing: Square Plus starts at $49/month per location, but they also have free plans.
ECRS (CATAPULT POS) is a highly scalable solution built for multilocation grocery stores and large operations. In addition to standard inventory tracking and pricing features, they also include advanced payment types, automated reordering, and other next-gen features.
Standout features:
Pricing
ECRS offers custom pricing on their website.
Now that you have an idea of what’s out there, how do you actually go about choosing?
First things first: Take your time. Over half of businesses report that they’ve regretted a software decision because they rushed into it or didn’t do their research. You’ll use your POS back office every day — make sure it’s a good fit.
Here are some tips on finding the right back office solution for your business.
| Evaluation tip | What to consider |
|---|---|
| Book multiple demos | Set up demos with multiple providers and have some pain points and scenarios ready to ask about (e.g., "Show me how to receive an invoice and update pricing"). This way, you can see how the system performs in a situation you recognize. |
| Check your budget | Compare monthly POS payments (both hardware and software), keeping in mind the potential time and money you'll save on using an upgraded system (e.g., less time spent on updating stock or looking up items at checkout). |
| Look at onboarding and support | See what technical and onboarding support is included. Is it chat only or can you call someone? Are you assigned an onboarding specialist to help you set up your inventory, or are you left on your own? Understand what's included before making the switch. |
| Look for cloud-based systems | See if the system must be used in store or if you can make updates off-site. Cloud-based systems usually provide more flexibility by letting you manage the store from any connected device. |
| Ensure it's easy to use | Choose a system that's intuitive and easy to use. Any new system comes with a bit of a learning curve, but you should feel excited to use the new POS back office, not dreading it. |
Upgrading your POS back-office system might be intimidating, but it’s an investment that quickly pays for itself.
Using back-office software that’s actually built for grocers significantly reduces the time and effort spent on updating inventory, creating purchase orders, onboarding new employees, and setting up an online store.
At IT Retail, we work exclusively with independent grocers to give them the solutions they need to stay ahead of the competition. Schedule a custom demo today to see how our back-office solutions help businesses like yours get more done and grow.