EPOS: Which Epos is right for my Magento?
Magento is probably the most powerful, and certainly one of the most popular e-commerce platforms. But with click-and-mortar becoming a more and more common strategy, e-commerce businesses now frequently double up as high street forces. Smoothly integrating both distribution channels is not without logistical and technological challenges. Fortunately, several software vendors have developed their own Magento Epos product, so that in-store operations can be added to the general customer experience. Which are these products, and what are they worth?
Magento, a popular e-commerce platform
Magento is one of the most popular and powerful e-commerce platforms, powering online sales management for small and large businesses.
About Magento
Magento was first released in 2008 as an open-source ecommerce platform written in the PHP computing language. Magento basically allow its users to run any e-commerce operation from their website, from stock management to product description and display, and including payment processing and delivery options. As Magento quickly became a popular platform, it attracted interest from major internet players, and in 2011, eBay took over 49% shares of the company, before buying the other 51% only four months later.
After several developments, Magento 2.0 was released in November 2015.
Basic features
Without getting a Magento Epos software, users can choose between two basic Magento packages, which are already quite complete enough for running simple e-commerce operations:
- Magento community edition is the free package, completely free and largely customisable, but without professional support - users can rely on community support though;
- Magento Enterprise Edition is a paid product with an endless list of options. An Enterprise Edition for Fashion is published, which has become the most popular e-commerce platform for this industry.
Popular Magento Epos systems
Several software developers have published their own Magento Epos systems, presented as add-on modules - they need a clean Magento installation to work. Features and prices greatly vary from one to another. Here are the most noteworthy Magento Epos modules.
Vend Magento Epos
This system allowsuser to process orders everywhere in the store - even if there is no fixed cash desk. Sales by cash, card, PayPal, refunds, discounts, printed receipts, barcode reading, gift receipts, voucher redemption, tablets, mobile, offline mode, multiple outlet support are all supported. But in order to liaise with Magento, users have to pay £33 per month for the Vortex connector, on top of the basic £46 fee.
MicroBiz
Designed for Magento from its orgin, MicroBiz offers all the features of Vend - minus the offline mode. The software suite costs £25 per month.
Magestore
This a basic Magento Epos with a simple page for in-store checkout and sales management. Offline mode is not supported either. Contrary to all other software products listed here, Magestore does not rely on a monthly payment plan basis, but on a one-off sale, starting at £299 if it is to run on a Magento Community Edition, or £599 with a Magento Enterprise Edition.
Ebizmarts
Ebizmarts is a fully customisable Magento Epos supporting most features of a modern Epos - including the offline mode. The only limitation is that... it only runs on tablet PCs. This makes it a great mobile Epos system though, for professionals who are always on the go.
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