In this post, we explore some of the fundamental differences between using FooSales POS for WooCommerce and Shopify POS.
Shopify is an eCommerce platform that allows individuals and businesses to create, customize, and manage online stores without requiring technical expertise. Shopify POS (Point of Sale) is a significant part of what makes Shopify appealing for many retailers. It lets merchants connect their online and in-person sales, creating a seamless experience. In fact, well over 100,000 businesses use Shopify POS to sync everything from inventory to transactions across their stores.
WooCommerce is a popular open-source platform that powers 9.2% of all websites on the internet. It offers incredible flexibility and customization and is powered by a massive ecosystem. While WooCommerce offers mobile phone apps and its own payments solution, it does not currently offer an official POS. That’s where FooSales comes in.
FooSales was built just for WooCommerce and works similarly to Shopify POS. It’s not a separate system, but rather an extension of your existing WooCommerce store. It allows you to handle in-person sales, orders, inventory, customers, taxes, and more—all with the same ease Shopify POS offers. Plus, you can run it on iOS, Android, or desktop, making it a solid choice for any WooCommerce store looking for that perfect online-offline connection.
How Does FooSales Work?
Just like Shopify and Shopify POS, you log in to the FooSales apps using your standard WordPress login credentials. The FooSales apps then connect securely to your WooCommerce store and use your existing products, variations, stock, customer data, and tax rates in real time. This eliminates the need for clumsy catalog syncing or complex system installations.
This dynamic architecture adapts seamlessly to environments ranging from popup stands and restaurants to retail stores and football stadiums. To get started, sign up for a free trial, install the FooSales connector plugin, and start selling using the FooSales apps!
Let’s Take a Look at Some of the Parallels Between Shopify POS and FooSales
From both a feature and architecture perspective, FooSales and Shopify POS are very similar. Let’s look at some of the similarities:
| POS Feature | FooSales POS | Shopify POS |
|---|---|---|
| Desktop | Yes | No |
| iPad App | Yes | Yes |
| Android Tablet App | Yes | Yes |
| Card reader Integrations | Square™ Payments Stripe™ Payments |
Shopify Payments |
| Inventory Management | Yes | Yes |
| Receipt printer and cash draw support | Yes | Yes |
| Print Receipts | Yes | Yes |
| Email Receipts | Yes | Yes |
| Invoicing | Yes | Yes |
| Full Refunds | Yes | Yes |
| Partial Refunds | Yes | Yes |
| Tax Integration | Yes | Yes |
| Split Payments | Yes | Yes |
| Backorders | Yes | Yes |
| Coupons | Yes | Yes |
| Discounts | Yes | Yes |
| Reporting | Integration with WooCommerce Order Analytics | In-depth reporting with paid plans |
| Variation Support | Yes | Limited |
| Order Alerts | Yes | Limited |
| Pickups | Yes | Supported |
| Deliveries | Yes | Supported |
| Customer Management | Yes | Yes |
| Payment Processing | Square™ Payments and Stripe™ Payments | Shopify Payments |
| Employee Accounts | Yes | Limited without premium plan |
| Multi-Language Support | Yes | Limited |
| Currency Support | Yes | Yes |
| Offline Mode | Yes (iPad, Android and Web) | Available on Shopify POS Pro |
| Barcode Scanning | Yes | Yes |
| Custom units of measurement | Yes | Available through third-party applications |
| Decimal Stock Quantities | Yes | No |
| Order Status / Fulfilment | Yes | Yes |
| Events and Ticketing integraation | Yes | Yes |
| Darkmode | Yes | Yes |
Why Choose WooCommerce over Shopify?
While both Shopify and WooCommerce are popular platforms for e-commerce, WooCommerce brings a few unique advantages to the table:
- Full Customization: WooCommerce is open-source, meaning you have full control over every part of your store. You can tailor every aspect of the design, features, and even functionality to fit your brand’s exact needs. Shopify, on the other hand, as a hosted platform, has limitations on customization.
- Lower Costs and Flexible Pricing: WooCommerce allows you to set up your store with just the cost of a domain and hosting, along with optional paid extensions. With Shopify, you’ll have monthly subscription fees and potential extra costs for premium themes and apps, which can add up over time.
- Greater Control over Data: WooCommerce stores are hosted on your own server, so you own and control all your data. Shopify, however, hosts all stores on its own servers, which means you rely on Shopify for data storage and access.
- Extensive Plugin Ecosystem: WooCommerce has a vast library of plugins for everything from SEO to analytics and beyond. While Shopify also has an app marketplace, WooCommerce offers more in-depth customization options with plugins that can be tailored for niche needs.
- SEO Flexibility: WooCommerce, running on WordPress, gives you more control over SEO, which is essential for organic growth. With WordPress’s SEO capabilities, you can optimize for search engines more effectively compared to Shopify, which has some SEO limitations.
In short, WooCommerce offers more flexibility, control, and cost-efficiency, making it a powerful choice for those who want a fully customizable and scalable e-commerce solution. Shopify may have the advantage of simplicity and a strong POS system, but with FooSales, WooCommerce now has an equally robust POS solution tailored to WooCommerce users. You can read more about the differences between WooCommerce and Shopify here and here.
Final Thoughts
If you’re a WooCommerce store owner seeking a fully integrated POS system, FooSales brings everything you need. From syncing inventory to handling in-store payments, FooSales is, without a doubt, the “Shopify POS” of WooCommerce—tailored to meet WooCommerce’s unique needs and designed to scale with any retail business. To get started, sign up for a free trial, install the FooSales connector plugin, and start selling using the FooSales apps!
