Adam and I returned from three days of chocolate sampling, merchant mingling, and ShopKeep demoing at The Philadelphia National Candy, Gift & Gourmet Show with severe bellyaches – but a better understanding of the candy makers and confectioners we’d like to make our customers.

The specialty retailers we met had more than a common ‘product category’ in common, these people shared an incredible commitment to the businesses they, and often their families, had built.

Despite taking immense pride in their work, we kept hearing that running a store often means being tethered to the store. We heard about vacations never taken, missed graduations, and sports games not attended. Adam and I ended up speaking not only to plenty of dedicated candy merchants, but to their children and grandchildren.

The kids had come for free candy and the adults for candy vendors, but all generations stopped by the candy-less ShopKeep POS booth with its intriguingly sized iPad register and sign advertising ‘The simplest way to make smarter business decisions.’  The draw was our iPad point of sale system that’s built to enable a merchant to manage their store – without being physically chained to it.

Visitors to our booth were especially enthusiastic about our updated Dashboard App.  They loved the ability to see not only real-time sales data from their phone, but to instantly view a sales report for the previous day.

Empowering and liberating entrepreneurs are fundamental principles at ShopKeep POS. Understanding both our merchants’ business needs and their non-business priorities enables ShopKeep’s iPad software to give merchants the information they need and the freedom they deserve – a proposition that’s even sweeter than candy!

Paul Nugent

Paul Nugent

Paul Nugent is a small business advocate who uses his background in the startup space, along with his POS system expertise, to allow small business owners to make informed decisions within their specific budgets.