Grocery and Market

Top 6 Point of Sale Systems for Grocery Stores in 2025

Jan 28, 2025 • 5 min read

Are long checkout lines, costly spoilage, or missed marketing opportunities holding your business back?

There’s good news: The right point of sale system can solve these problems and propel your grocery store to its full potential.

But with so many point of sale systems for grocery stores on the market, finding one that meets your unique needs is no easy feat.

That’s why we’ve done the hard work for you and created this list of the top six options. Keep reading to explore their top features, pricing, and reviews.

Want to skip straight to the good stuff? Here are the providers we recommend:

Square: Best for New Grocery Stores
Toast: Best for Grocerants
National Retail Solutions (NRS): Best for Small Budgets
ECRS’ CATAPULT: Best for Automation
Lightspeed: Best for Expanding Grocery Stores
IT Retail: Best Overall

Grocery Store Point of Sale Systems 101

Before diving into our grocery POS recommendations, let’s cover the basics.

Modern grocery store POS systems do more than process sales transactions. They can:

Shorten checkout lines with features like self-checkout and customizable hotkeys
Track inventory levels to prevent stockouts and spoilage
Help you attract and retain customers through promotions and marketing campaigns
Give you valuable insights about your customers’ shopping habits

Before searching for a new point of sale system for your grocery store, take stock of your current problems and the features you need to solve them. For example, if you’re losing money to waste in your deli and butcher departments, look for a POS system with weight-based, perishable inventory tracking.

Along with the right features, we recommend looking for a provider that offers 24/7 support at no additional cost. That way, you’ll have unlimited opportunities to ask questions, learn about your new POS system, and make the most of its features.

The Best Point of Sale Systems for Grocery Stores

Now that you know why you need a point of sale system for your grocery store, let’s explore your options. Here are the top six grocery POS solutions on the market — plus their best features, pricing, and reviews.

1. Square: Best for New Grocery Stores

Square is a popular choice among retailers in all industries — and it’s easy to see why. Their simple software and sleek hardware are easy to use, making Square an excellent introduction to the intimidating world of point of sale systems.

Here’s what we like about Square for grocery stores.

Intuitive: Square’s hardware and software are extremely user-friendly. You’ll save time on training your staff and can get started with the system immediately.
Scalable: Square offers scalable pricing options to grow with your business. You can start with a basic card reader and invest in a full POS terminal later.
Integration-friendly: Square’s app marketplace makes it easy to use add-on tools for accounting, scheduling, and more.

The main downside to Square is that it isn’t specifically designed for grocery stores. You’ll miss out on built-in features like perishable inventory management or weight-based meat and cheese sales.

Pricing: Square offers a free tier for POS beginners, but their most popular plan for established businesses costs $89/month.

Reviews: Square has a 4.3-star rating on Trustpilot.

2. Toast: Best for Grocerants

Do you offer fresh, made-to-order meals alongside traditional staples? Then Toast might be a good fit for your business.

This grocerant-focused provider offers features designed to help you run a successful retail store and restaurant.

Here are a few of our favorite Toast features for grocery stores.

Mobile inventory: Toast’s SmartScan feature lets you perform quick inventory counts using your phone.
Quick-service restaurant functionality: Toast includes all the features you need for traditional retail plus restaurant-specific features like order management and modifiers.
Online ordering: Offer convenient pickup options for your customers, whether they’re picking up a made-to-order sandwich or an off-the-shelf snack.

Toast’s main focus is on restaurants and grocerants, so it might not be the best option for traditional grocery stores and supermarkets.

Pricing: Toast offers a free option for new businesses, but their most popular pricing plan starts at $69/month.

Reviews: Toast has a 3.3-star rating on Trustpilot.

3. National Retail Solutions (NRS): Best for Small Budgets

Next is National Retail Solutions (NRS), a provider catering to retailers in all industries.

We’ve included NRS because their system strikes the right balance between simplicity and power. They offer a standard hardware and software package to meet most retailers’ needs, taking the guesswork out of investing in a new POS solution.

Let’s look at what makes NRS a solid option for grocery stores.

Cloud-based software: You can check your store’s inventory levels and sales records from anywhere, at any time.
eWIC integration: NRS’ software lets you accept EBT, SNAP, and eWIC payments.
Age verification: NRS includes built-in age verification, which is a must-have if your grocery store sells wine and beer.

While NRS’ standard package is an affordable way to enjoy basic POS features, be aware that their add-on features like advanced inventory management and customer loyalty can add up.

Pricing: NRS’ base subscriptions range from $19.95 to $44.95/month.

Reviews: NRS has a 4.6-star rating on Trustpilot.

4. ECRS’ CATAPULT: Best for Automation

Feeling bogged down by old-school manual tasks? CATAPULT, a grocery store point of sale system designed by ECRS, might be able to help.

CATAPULT is designed to automate your grocery store’s day to day operations and save you time. Here’s how.

Automated marketing: CATAPULT’s LoyaltyBot sends personalized coupons to your most loyal shoppers to increase your sales.
Automated inventory: CATAPULT monitors your inventory levels, forecasts demands, and creates purchase orders to replenish your stock when needed.
Reporting dashboard: CATAPULT displays a real-time dashboard of your key performance indicators to help you understand your store’s performance each day.

Some reviewers mention that CATAPULT isn’t the easiest to navigate, so it might not be the best fit for business owners who are less tech-savvy.

Pricing: ECRS doesn’t publish pricing information on their website, so reach out to their team for a quote.

Reviews: ECRS has a 4.4-star rating on G2.

5. Lightspeed: Best for Expanding Grocery Stores

Lightspeed is a growth-focused option for tech-savvy business owners. Their powerful software is designed to help you manage multiple locations and sell products online.

Here’s what we like about Lightspeed for grocery stores.

Built-in e-commerce: Lightspeed offers a fully integrated e-commerce platform to help you launch your website and sell groceries online.
iPad functionality: Lightspeed’s software runs on an iPad, making it easy to manage your grocery store on the go.
Multi-location management: Lightspeed consolidates your inventory and sales records across multiple brick-and-mortar locations and your e-commerce store.

However, Lightspeed isn’t specifically designed for grocery stores, so you’ll have to pay extra for fees like deli scale integration and EBT payment processing.

Pricing: Lightspeed’s pricing options range from $109 to $339/month.

Reviews: Lightspeed has a 4.1-star rating on Trustpilot.

6. IT Retail: Best Overall

Our favorite point of sale system for grocery stores is IT Retail. For over 25 years, grocers like you have relied on IT Retail to keep their stores running smoothly.

Let’s look at how IT Retail can take your grocery store to the next level.

Grocery-specific inventory management: With IT Retail, you can track stock levels in real time, manage weight-based sales, and leverage automation to keep your shelves perfectly stocked.
Marketing: IT Retail’s built-in customer loyalty program, flexible promotion options, and seamless e-commerce integration make it easy to win over customers.
Advanced reporting: IT Retail’s best-in-class reporting suite gives you valuable insights about your sales trends, product performance, and customer shopping habits.

Plus, our team of grocery industry experts is available 24/7 to support you.

Pricing: We offer custom pricing solutions to meet every grocer’s needs and budget, so check out our build and price tool.

Reviews: We have a 4.6-star rating on Capterra.