Best Fit: Vend is a great fit for the modern retailer that desires an intuitive product that can be used with a variety of applications and is cloud accessible.
Product Strengths
- Online system makes it easy to get started
- Direct integration with many ecommerce shopping carts
- Attractive pricing model
- Can easily upgrade to higher packages
Potential Weaknesses
- Basic reporting capabilities
- Less granular inventory capabilities
Designed to work on iPad, Mac or PC, Vend allows users to work both on and offline, and works as well with a single retail location as it does with dozens of locations. Designed to be implemented quickly, Vend offers users the new face of the POS industry.
From the 2016 Reviews of Point-of-Sale Systems.
BASIC SYSTEM FUNCTIONS: 4.75 Stars
Vend is designed for quick system setup, so new users are quickly given access to the Vend dashboard, where they are presented with a Getting Started menu, that provides assistance is making a sale, editing payment types, adding sales tax, adding products, adding customers, and exploring additional Vend add-on products. The toggle feature on the homepage, allows users to enter one of the three main areas of the program; Vend, which is where reporting and business management functionality resides, Register, for in-store sales, and e-Commerce, for processing online sales. Vend users four categories of functionality; Sell, which includes Point of Sale, eCommerce, Sales Operations, Payments & Gift Cards, Hardware, and Offline functionality.
The Manage function offers users the ability to manage Products, Inventory, Orders, Customers, Loyalty, and Users. Reporting offers users Build Your Own Reports, Sales Reports, Inventory Reports, Mobile Retail Dashboard, End of Day Reporting, and Sales Targets, and finally, grow offers retails the opportunity to Expand, Change Plans, Manage Multi-Outlets, Centralized Data, Add-Ons, and Go Worldwide.
Vend is available in four versions; Free, for very small retail businesses, Starter, Advanced, and Multi-Outlet, with each version offering expanded features and functionality. Managers can create user accounts for each employee with permission levels attached. Managers can also create daily, weekly, and monthly targets for sales people, with the system tracking those totals to measure performance. Using the iPad app, users can easily create a custom user interface by setting up Quick Keys for popular products. Quick Keys can be repositioned or recolored or renamed as the user desires.
Vend can easily support multiple stores, and with the Multi-Outlet version of Vend also offering support for unlimited products, customers, and users, and users can easily search for products or customers by clicking on a search field to bring up a list of items. Layaways and orders can be processed from the point of sale application, and users can also easily handle refunds and returns and even split payment types for a single sales transaction. Users can easily create an online store in minutes with the integrated e-Commerce app, and order management functionality ensures that inventory levels get and remain adequately stocked. Vend also supports a Central Product Catalog, with all products synched across all sales channels for more accurate sales reports and inventory counts.
SPECIALIZED FEATURES/SERVICES: 4.5 Stars
Vend is designed to work with iPads, Mac, and PC’s, so touch screen technology is front and center. The Vend e-Commerce module is available with the Advanced and Multi-Outlet versions of the product, and allows users to quickly build a web store to integrate with a brick and mortar location. Users can choose from a variety of themes and designs, with the ability to customize the site even further using HTML.
Vend easily accepts all payment types, including standard types like cash, checks, credit and debit cards, as well as custom payment types, including PayPal and Apple Pay. Users can also choose to offer customers gift cards for use in store or online, and customers can split payment types for any sales transaction.
Users can choose to track as little or as much customer detail as desired, with users able to enter new customers during any sales transaction. Customer profiles are easily maintained, with users able to view the purchase history, loyalty, and account balances of all customers at any time. Users can also opt to import an existing customer list into Vend if desired. Vend Loyalty allows retailers to offer loyalty cards to customers that will track all purchases, with sales staff able to view any current loyalty or rewards balances during the sales process.
TRACKING/REPORTING: 4.25 Stars
Vend offers users reporting options in numerous categories; Retail Dashboard, Sales Reports, Inventory Reports, Payment Reports, Register Closures, and Gift Card Reports. All reports are processed in real time, with the ability to add specific measures and report filters. Sales reports can easily identify best and worst selling products, and the Product Performance report provides managers with inventory movement levels for all products at all locations.
Users can also track data such as Discount percentage, or Return percentage, and the Sales Summary provides a great snapshot of vital data such as Revenue, Cost of Goods, Gross Profit, Margin, and Tax for sales on each day. One of the best features found in Vend is the Retail Dashboard, which tracks sales performance by day, week, or month, and includes revenue totals, sales counts, customer counts, gross profit, and discounts. A built-in cash management function allows view all system changes on every shift.
INTEGRATION/IMPORT/EXPORT: 4.75 Stars
Vend offers complete point of sale and business management functionality, with users able to utilize additional add-on products at any time. Vend also integrates with a variety of third party applications such as Xero or QuickBooks Online Accounting, as well as Deputy, which handles staff schedules.
The MailSync features allows users to easily email customers with special offers or sales incentives, and the Multi-Channel add-on allows users to optimize inventory across a variety of sales channels including Amazon and eBay. Users can easily import data from other applications into Vend, and can export reports and other data into CSV format directly from the report processing screen. Vend has a list of recommended hardware on their website, or users can choose to purchase a hardware bundle designed specifically for Mac’s, PC’s, and iPads, with each bundle different with each bundle containing a receipt printer, cash drawer, and cable.
HELP/SUPPORT: 4.5 Stars
Vend offers news users a wide variety of tools designed to make system setup and implementation easy. Resources such as retail guides, insights and trends, webinars, videos, and articles are available, and Vend U offers free access to training, videos, and interactive courses. Vend also offers 24/7 globally, with support centers located in the U.S., Canada, Australia, U.K., and New Zealand. Support is available through live chat or email, or users can purchase priority phone support for an additional cost.
SUMMARY & PRICING
It’s always nice to find a product that is well-designed, easily navigated, and contains a wealth of features for a very affordable price, which is exactly what Vend has been able to accomplish. Vend is available in four editions. A Free edition includes support for a single store location, 10 active products, one user, and community support. The Starter version costs $59.00 a month, and includes support for 500 active products, unlimited customers, unlimited users, and 24/7 email support. Advanced costs $85.00 a month and includes support for unlimited products, unlimited customers, unlimited users, and 24/7 email support. The Multi-Outlet version is $169.00 per month and includes unlimited products, unlimited customers, unlimited users, 24/7 email support along with priority phone support.
2016 Overall Rating: 4.5 Stars
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Tags: Accounting, Small Business, Technology
