Retail on Shopify is not a second system. It is the same catalogue, the same customers and the same inventory, with a till attached — which is exactly why it goes wrong when a store treats the shop floor and the website as separate businesses that occasionally exchange spreadsheets.
What follows is the short list: Shopify POS and what POS Pro actually unlocks, the three apps that matter around it, and the storefront work that makes one catalogue serve both counters.
Summary
- Shopify POS — the till. POS Pro adds the features a real shop needs.
- Stocky — purchase orders, transfers and stocktakes, free with POS Pro.
- Zapiet Pickup & Delivery — scheduled pickup and local delivery.
- Marketplace Connect — one catalogue out to marketplaces, free from Shopify.
1. Shopify POS, and whether you need Pro
Shopify POS is included with every plan in its Lite form: take payments on a phone or tablet, with the catalogue and customers from the same store. POS Pro, priced per location per month, is where retail becomes workable — smart grid and custom tiles, staff roles and permissions, unlimited registers, ship-to-customer from the shop floor, buy-online-pickup-in-store workflows, local inventory transfers, in-store analytics and Stocky for purchasing.
The test is simple: if one location saves an hour a week on transfers, stocktakes and returns, Pro pays for itself. Below that — a market stall, a pop-up, an occasional event — Lite is enough.
2. Stocky
Stocky comes with POS Pro and handles the buying side: purchase orders to suppliers, receiving, transfers between locations, stocktakes with a scanner, and demand suggestions from sales history. It is not a forecasting platform — for that, see the inventory management apps comparison — but for a two-to-five location retailer it removes the spreadsheet.
3. Zapiet Pickup & Delivery
Shopify has local pickup and local delivery natively, and for one location with simple hours that is enough. Zapiet is for anything with a schedule: pickup windows and lead times per location, blackout dates, delivery zones by postcode or radius, a date and time picker in the cart, and the chosen slot printed on the order so staff know what to prepare and when.
The app supplies the mechanics; the conversion comes from the storefront. The choice between pickup and delivery belongs on the product page, not three steps into the cart, and the store’s availability has to be visible before the customer commits — theme work, covered in our Shopify for retail stores service.
4. Marketplace Connect
Shopify Marketplace Connect pushes the same catalogue to Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Etsy and Target Plus and brings orders back, free. For a retailer whose third channel is a marketplace, it keeps one stock number across all of them — which is the entire point of running retail on Shopify in the first place.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Job | Cost | Needs POS Pro | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify POS Lite | Take payments anywhere | Included | — | Pop-ups, markets, events |
| Shopify POS Pro | Run a shop properly | Per location / month | — | Any permanent location |
| Stocky | POs, transfers, stocktakes | Free with Pro | Yes | Buying and counting stock |
| Zapiet | Scheduled pickup and delivery | Monthly by locations | No | Click and collect with windows |
| Marketplace Connect | Marketplace listings and orders | Free | No | Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Walmart |
The storefront side of retail
Most of what makes omnichannel work is not in the POS:
- Location pages that are real pages. Address, hours, services, staff, directions, and the products that location actually stocks. They are also local SEO assets — the thing every “near me” search rewards.
- Stock visibility by location on the product page: “in stock in Bellevue” converts a browse into a visit.
- Pickup as a first-class choice, offered at the product page, not discovered at checkout.
- One customer record. The person who buys in store and online is one customer with one history — which is what makes the retention programme work rather than two disconnected lists.
- Gift cards and loyalty across both, so the card bought online is redeemable at the counter.
CocoLash sells at the counter and on the site from one catalogue through POS, which is why a price change or a policy update happens once. On a multi-location group the same principle scales into the booking and membership systems — that is the architecture behind the Gene Juarez build, where thirteen locations share one storefront and one customer profile.
When retail needs Plus
Standard Shopify with POS Pro runs most retail businesses. Shopify Plus earns its fee when you need B2B for trade customers on the same store, checkout extensibility for financing or member pricing, Functions for complex promotions across channels, or the API limits that a large multi-location operation hits. The Plus vs Advanced comparison has the full list, and the pricing calculator will size a retail build for you.
FAQ
Is Shopify POS Pro worth it?
If you have a physical location, usually yes: it unlocks smart grid, staff permissions and roles, unlimited registers, ship-to-customer and buy-online-pickup-in-store workflows, local inventory transfers, and Stocky for purchasing. It is priced per location per month, so the test is whether one location’s time savings cover it.
How do I offer click and collect on Shopify?
Shopify has local pickup and local delivery natively, which is enough for a single location with simple hours. For scheduling — pickup windows, lead times, blackout dates, delivery zones by postcode — Zapiet Pickup & Delivery is the app, and the cart needs theme work so the choice is obvious.
Can Shopify handle multiple store locations?
Yes. Inventory is tracked per location with priority rules for fulfilment, POS assigns staff and registers per location, and the storefront can show per-location availability. What needs building is the customer-facing part: location pages, stock visibility and the pickup choice on the product page.
How do retail and online inventory stay in sync?
They are the same inventory in Shopify — one catalogue, one stock number per location. Problems come from things outside Shopify: a legacy till system, a marketplace, or a supplier feed. That is an integration question, not a POS one.
