2017 Review of Cumulus Retail by CAM Commerce

Cumulus Retail from CAM Commerce is an SaaS delivered point of sale system ideally suited for small to mid-sized retail businesses. With a long list of features included in the system, as well as the availability of three product versions, Cumulus offers an amazing array of features and functionality at a very affordable price. POS, E-Commerce, and Inventory mobile apps are available as well.

From the Sept. 2017 reviews of Point-of-Sale systems.

Cumulus Retail contains a Getting Started Wizard to guide new users through the product setup. The System Configuration option allows users to set up the system to suit their needs. Users can also add frequently sold items to the Quick-Select Item Menu, making it easy to process sales for these items. Users can quickly search for products based on keywords, descriptions, or style, and authorized users can easily update pricing levels for each line item entered. Both products and customers can be added on the fly, and users can easily search for a particular customer during a sales transaction.

Cumulus Retail supports multiple registers per store, and also supports multi-store tracking, with users able to track both sales and inventory levels for each location.

Cumulus Retail accepts a variety of tender types, including cash, checks, credit and debit cards, layaways, Apple Pay, and Gift Cards. Users can also set up customized payment methods and tenders as desired. Cumulus Retail also handles multiple transaction types including returns, price checks, hold and recall hold, email receipts, special orders, bulk pricing changes for products, inter-store product transfers, accounts receivable management, and the ability to manage vendors and create purchase orders. Users can choose to enter a product code or scan an item when processing a sale. The product also offers excellent customer management capability, with users able to easily import customer data from another application. Users can also create multiple customer categories and customer types to better manage customer activity. Club membership capability is also supported in Cumulus Retail, with retailers able to also accumulated points that customers have earned. Club membership and points and rewards tracking is only available in the Premier version of Cumulus Retail.

Cumulus Retail offers both product and inventory management capability, with users able to import products from a vendor catalog, assign product and department levels to each product and create product templates that expedite product entry. The Inventory Management feature allows users to easily create inventory adjustments, track inventory movement in real time, create an auto-replenishment for products based on preset product levels, and track inventory by serial number if desired.

Cumulus Retail offers excellent reporting capabilities, with users able to access pre-defined reports or access the Report Designer function to create custom reports. Reports are available in four groups; Inventory reports, Customer reports, Employee reports, and Sales reports. Sales reports include Merchandise Sold, Return Sales, and Sales versus Returns. Users can also track inventory levels with reports such as the Inventory History Report, Inventory Sales, Inventory Summary, and Year Over Year Sales. Customer Purchase History reports are available as well. The Custom Report Designer offers retailers the option to create their own custom reports. Reporting options can vary, based on the version of Cumulus Retail being used.

The product also integrates with standard point of sale hardware such as barcode scanners, cash drawers, monitors, and receipt printers. Cumulus Retail also offers integrated shipping options with UPS, FedEx and USPS.

Designed to integrate seamlessly with Cumulus Retail, the optional iCumulus E-Commerce add-on module is available in two versions. iCumulus offers professional design and layout options, an embedded video option, and basic reporting options. The Premier version of iCumulus also offers integration with Amazon, Fulfillment by Amazon, Walmart Marketplace and eBay at an additional cost. It also offers Cross-Platform capability, so customers can purchase a product online and return it in-store, if desired. Integration with PayPal is available, and various social media integration options are available as well.

All versions of Cumulus Retail offer the Getting Started Wizard, which guides new users through the entire setup process. The Standard version of Cumulus Retail offers Live Chat and email support, and both the Advanced and Premier versions offer phone support. Support is available during regular business hours, with extended support hours available on both Saturday and Sunday.

Ideal for small to mid-sized retailers with a strong online presence, Cumulus Retail’s Standard version is $75.00 per store and includes one user. The Advanced version is $125.00 per store with three users, and the Premier version is $199.00 per store and three users. iCumulus E-Commerce is available in Advanced and Premier versions, starting at $129.00 per month.

2017 Rating – 5 Stars