Introducing New Retail Features and the Shopify Tap & Chip Reader

The much-hyped “retail apocalypse” is just that—hype. You’ve seen the headlines of major brands shutting their doors, but that doesn’t signal the end of retail stores. On the contrary: Data shows retail is thriving. The National Retail Federation reported that for every retail store that closed in 2017 in the U.S., another 2.7 new stores opened. Selling in-person is an opportunity for you to connect with customers and grow your business, and more merchants are realizing that. In the last year, 70,000 merchants used the Shopify platform to sell in-person, and that number continues to grow. But as you can likely attest, juggling multiple sales channels, both online and in-person, can admittedly create some challenges. That’s where Shopify can help. We’re building a powerful commerce platform to help you sell seamlessly across many channels, including in-person. We’re proud to announce a lineup of new Shopify POS hardware and features, rolling out this summer, to help merchants deliver standout experiences no matter where their customers decide to buy.

The much-hyped “retail apocalypse” is just that—hype. You’ve seen the headlines of major brands shutting their doors, but that doesn’t signal the end of retail stores.

On the contrary: Data shows retail is thriving. The National Retail Federation reported that for every retail store that closed in 2017 in the U.S., another 2.7 new stores opened. Selling in-person is an opportunity for you to connect with customers and grow your business, and more merchants are realizing that. In the last year, 70,000 merchants used the Shopify platform to sell in-person, and that number continues to grow.

But as you can likely attest, juggling multiple sales channels, both online and in-person, can admittedly create some challenges. That’s where Shopify can help. We’re building a powerful commerce platform to help you sell seamlessly across many channels, including in-person.

We’re proud to announce a lineup of new Shopify POS hardware and features, rolling out this summer and fall, to help merchants deliver standout experiences no matter where their customers decide to buy.

New Shopify Tap & Chip Reader

We envision a future where commerce happens everywhere. And while that opens up many big opportunities for retailers, these sales experiences will also continue to become more personal, curated, and human.

That’s why we’re announcing the new Shopify Tap & Chip Reader, coming fall of 2018 for U.S.-based merchants. Shopify’s reader accepts contactless ‘tap’ payments including Apple Pay and Google Pay, and chip-enabled credit cards. It also provides merchants with a secure, faster way to accept payments so they can focus on building personal connections with their customers.

We want you to focus on conversations, not credit cards, and to be ready for all the ways your customers want to pay, including customers want to pay, including mobile payments.

Creating a frictionless checkout experience

 

 

We built our new Tap & Chip Reader with you in mind—from the sleek design to its enhanced performance.

Made from premium materials, the new reader is lightweight and built to last. The rounded shape fits easily in the palm of your hand, and the week-long battery life means you can skip the daily charges. We gave special attention to making sure the chip card slot and tap interface is obvious and easy for customers to use. PCI and EMV chip technology also protects you and your customers when they pay with chip cards.

The Tap & Chip Reader’s wireless design lets you take sales on-the-spot from anywhere in your store. Anticipate your customer’s preferred ways to pay with support for contactless payments from credit cards and mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, or process chip cards in just seconds.

And with our new Tap & Chip Reader Dock, you can create a dedicated countertop checkout point. The dock transforms the payment setup to become more customer-facing, so your shoppers feel in control of their experience throughout.

Stay connected to your business anywhere, anytime

The new Tap & Chip Reader syncs with Shopify POS so you can get paid and manage products and inventory all in one place.

However you choose to sell, Shopify has you covered.

Learn more about the Tap & Chip Reader

New Shopify retail features

Manage inventory across multiple locations

As your business grows, the seemingly simple task of managing inventory across multiple locations becomes more difficult. To help you successfully sell everywhere, we’ve created a better way to manage inventory across all your sales channels: Locations.

With Locations, available this summer, you’ll be able to easily add, update, and track your inventory at every place you stock products or fulfill orders from, including retail stores. You’ll benefit from integrating non-traditional retail locations as well, such as apps that fulfill on your behalf, inventory in your basement, or even a warehouse.

Using the Shopify mobile app, you can also easily update and track inventory quantities across all your locations, saving you valuable time.

Accept returns and exchanges from Shopify POS

Starting this summer, Returns and Exchanges for Shopify POS will let you take online returns in-person. Customers don’t need to worry about return labels or pay expensive shipping fees to return an item they purchased online. This means you can provide customers with a better return experience than many major national retailers.

This update makes returns and exchanges smoother on the back-end as well. You’ll get improved end-of-day reporting—no more figuring out what refunds were actually the results of an exchange. No more keeping track of things with pen and paper.

You also gain new chances to turn exchanges into upselling opportunities. Exchanges through Shopify POS allow retailers to carry forward a balance from a customer’s previous purchase. So if a customer wants to exchange a $20 T-shirt for $30 sweater, you don’t need to refund the entire purchase. Instead, you can carry forward that original $20 payment and process the $10 difference as an upsell payment.

Tipping for Shopify POS

Whether you're selling coffee at your bookshop or offering spa services at your health and beauty store, retailers can enable tipping on Shopify POS starting this summer.

Tipping for Shopify POS, one of our most requested features, lets customers offer immediate and tangible feedback on their visit. It’s easier for customers to recognize and reward a positive experience with your business—which builds loyalty, too.

Download Shopify POS

Customer View for Shopify POS

To make checkout even more personal, we’re releasing a new app later this year: Customer View for Shopify POS.

With the app, retailers can set up a secondary mobile or tablet device that faces customers during checkout and provides them with a clear view of their products, prices, tipping options, and receipt options.

Working with Shopify POS, Customer View provides more transparency for your customers during their checkout process, which helps eliminate mistakes that could shake their confidence in your brand. Plus, it ensures customers feel more in control of their own shopping experiences.

The Customer View app also offers customization options to reflect your branding, including the ability to use your own logo and colors and to save your social media channel info as a screensaver. Plus, it helps retailers comply with U.S. state laws mandating pricing info and customer-facing displays as part of checkout.

Provide a seamless experience online and in-person

Our mission at Shopify is to equip you with everything you need to make multi-channel retail a reality.

Shopify’s new point-of-sale updates are designed to help retailers spend more time building real relationships and engaging customers in ways that will ultimately lead to more sales.