Hey there. Welcome to the ShopKeep blog.

If you’ve found your way to this article, the chances are you’ve got a local business (or in the process of opening one), and you’re looking for the best way to make payments, track your business metrics, manage your inventory, and turn yourself into a small business ninja.

If this sounds like you, then you’ve come to the right place. ShopKeep offers an industry-leading point of sale software — that previously cost $10,000 or more — for the price of your daily cup of joe (or tea leaves if that’s more your thing). That’s a discount even the most frugal of business owners can get on board with.

And speaking of getting on board, ShopKeep is used by 24,000 amazing independent business owners in North America, and while we have love for every one of them, they’ve shown us some love too.

We LOVE our new ShopKeep POS system! After 9 years with an ok but antiquated POS system, we researched everything (literally) that is out there – for several weeks (months) to find a system that would meet our list of 22 requirements (somewhat quirky needs for a unique business model). ShopKeep was the only one that fulfilled virtually every requirement! – Carole, In-Tea

In fact, customers have shown us so much love that we have a five-star rating on acclaimed review website Trustpilot, and we rank #1 in the cash register and POS terminal category.

Besides love, here are 10 more awesome reasons to choose ShopKeep.

1. It Just Works

Building a business has been likened to jumping out of an airplane and assembling the parachute on the way down. There’s a lot that can and will go wrong. So, when you’re choosing your point of sale system, you need something that’s 100% reliable. ShopKeep just works. No fuss. Unlike this:

2. It’s Good To Talk: 24/7 Customer Care

You need a company that is there to pick up the phone 24/7 – without exception. That’s our guarantee. If you want help building your inventory lists at 3 am on a Wednesday, you can just give us a call. If you want help creating great sales reports on Saturday at 2 am, you should probably be out having fun but, y’know, you can still call us too and we can cheers to entrepreneurship.

ShopKeep cheers 10 epic reasons

3. We’re Growing With You

The ShopKeep system already comes packed with goodies, including sophisticated tools for sales reporting, inventory management, employee management, CRM, and more. But the really great news is as our customers grow, so do we.

From a small start-up in the city that never sleeps to offices in Portland, Oregon, and Belfast, Northern Ireland, we’ve strategically expanded to be agiler which results in better service for our customers. In fact, we’ve recently elevated our app release cadence from once a month to every two weeks without compromising quality.

So, what does that mean for our customers? It means that we can push out app updates and improvements to our software at a much faster pace — resulting in a better product and user experience.

shopkeep staff

After looking at multiple POS systems for use with an iPad, I decided on ShopKeep. ShopKeep continually delivers outstanding performance by offering phenomenal Customer Service, always improving their reporting capabilities, and continuously looking ahead at how and what to offer their customers in order to provide them with optimal information. – Jennifer, Steamin’ Hot Coffee

4. We’re on a Mission to Take Back Main Street

ShopKeep was founded by a business owner who understood first-hand, the challenges of running a retail business in New York City — a ‘Main Street’ like no other. When the servers for his Windows-based POS system crashed and crippled his store, that was the turning point. He knew there had to be a smarter, more reliable solution for small business owners like him and set out to build ShopKeep with that in mind.

Now, in our 10th year of operation, 24,000 businesses have joined us in our mission to empower independent business owners to dream big and fight smart. While we’ve grown as a company over the last decade, if it weren’t for our customers we wouldn’t be where we are today. Our customers continue to be a significant influence on the evolution of ShopKeep.

For those existing customer that have stumbled across this post, we want to say — thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And for those that aren’t yet customers and still vetting POS systems, we invite you to join us on our journey because this is just the beginning.

ShopKeep employees 10 epic reasons

5. We’re founded by a Business Owner, Just Like You

ShopKeep was founded by an experienced small business owner, who has been there and done that in the world of business. He established a tech startup called InternetCash before setting up a wine store, a cafe, and a grocery business that grew to employ over 70 people and turn over millions of dollars in Brooklyn, New York. Now he’s tasked with making sure ShopKeep fulfills its mission of helping business owners succeed.

The impressive thing about our founder is that he’s not some crazy tech billionaire. He’s just an average guy with a passion for helping small business owners dream big and fight smart. Not only is he a nice guy who’s just good at starting businesses. I mean, he used to have a fishmonger in his grocery. Bad people don’t mong fish. They just don’t. He’s basically like a cross between a Walton and Warren Buffet. That’s the kind of guy you want to do business with.

Ok, so by now you’re probably thinking, ‘wow – ShopKeep is awesome. I don’t even need 5 more reasons to sign up’. Well, if that’s the case, you’re in luck! Just click here to get started on your ShopKeep journey with a free quote.

Still not convinced? Fear not. Scroll on down for more excellent reasons to choose ShopKeep.

6. ‘My Point of Sale Looks Stunning …’

… said nobody ever. That is, until ShopKeep came along. Before ShopKeep, this is what point of sale used to look like:

I know what you’re thinking…beautiful right?! Hmmmm…. maybe not.  And this isn’t even the worst one.

At ShopKeep, we’ve worked hard to create something that is beautiful and functional. It does what it needs to do and it looks good in the process.

shopkeep terminal

7. ShopKeep is to simple, a Child Can use It

No, seriously. This is a 10-year-old child using ShopKeep at her father’s ice cream shop in Burnaby, BC. You can check out the case study here.

child with shopkeep terminal

At ShopKeep, we pride ourselves on providing an intuitive, simple, easy-to-use, can’t go wrong, easy-peasy, idiot-proof system. Now, that’s a lot of words that basically mean the same thing to emphasize the fact that our system is really simple to use. If there were a simplicity superpower, we’d have it, we’d call ourselves The Super ShopKeepers, and we’d use the power only for good.

Still not convinced on how easy it is to use? See what Ron from Glenburn Soda Fountain has to say.

This system is incredibly easy to use. This was my first retail experience, and I got the hang of it in no time. In fact, my nine-year-old daughter has started helping out in the store from time-to-time, and she got it quicker than I did!” – Ron, Glenburn Soda Fountain

8. You’ll Make Smarter Business Decisions

Running your own business often means being confronted by a lot of difficult questions. What should we sell? How much should we charge? How much stock should we order? How many employees should we hire? How big of a discount should we offer? That’s a lot of answers to find on your own – and it can often seem like you’re ‘going with your gut’ a little more than you’d like. Wouldn’t you want reliable data with actual numbers that can back up those gut feelings – or prove them wrong?

The good news is that’s precisely what you get ShopKeep. We give you the quality data you need to make smart business decisions. Working with our software is like having a team of data geeks in your pocket… and you know what? At ShopKeep, we have all the best geeks.

There are two types of geeks in the world. Those who ‘like’ spreadsheets and those who actually love data with the passion and fire of ten thousand burning suns. We hire the second type – and put them to work for you.

The single quality that defines all successful business people is that they don’t just find answers, they find better answers every single day. And you know how they do it? With quality data. Now you can too.

9. We Always Take Security Seriously

Given all the high profile data breaches in recent years (both point of sale payment systems and personal data systems like Equifax), you’d be forgiven for thinking that stealing credit card details was a simple job. However, it’s a complex task.

Luckily, when you join Team ShopKeep, you can trust that you’re using some of the most sophisticated payment security protocols on the market today. We are PCI compliant and deploy point-to-point encryption (P2PE) standard on all credit card readers that secure your customers’ payment details before they ever hit your operating system.

10. Running a Successful Business is Hard. With ShopKeep, it gets a lot Easier

The statistics about opening and running a successful business can be sobering. The failure rate for new businesses is worryingly high – and even if you’ve been in business for years, the year-over-year growth rates don’t exactly set investors pulses raising.

That is unless you’re using ShopKeep. ShopKeep’s merchants experienced an average sales growth rate that is 5.5 percent higher than the national average in same-store sales year-over-year from 2016 to 2017.

What does that mean, exactly? It says that small businesses that use ShopKeep are growing at a faster rate than the national average.

So what are you waiting for? Come on in! Give our dedicated Point of Sale Specialist team a call and find out how ShopKeep can help your business.

Nicole Walters

Nicole Walters

As Content Writer at ShopKeep, a leading iPad Point of Sale System, Nicole Walters leverages her background in communications and her extensive experience in the payment and POS industry to create valuable content that addresses real problems and solutions for small business owners.