Vend Reviews

Pros

The ease in setting up an online store and having the actual inventory be available is amazing. Being able to set if you want items available online or not is a plus, as being able to set a product with unlimited inventory so that it is still available to order online, even if you physically sell out of the item. This is great for quick to order in products.

Cons

It would be nice to have better integration between my POS system on the iPad, so that I could use a receipt printer and auto-cash drawer without using a PC setup.

Pros

I LOVE the fact that I can see a photo of the product, since my DIY store is very visually based. I like that it is so easy to add or delete users. This helps when I have staff change and I have to take off employees to add new ones.
I am a very organized person, so the folders really help, along with the color coding of each folder as well.

Cons

I would really like to have more features for the Admin position. I would like to be able to customize the features for what an Admin position would be. I want my manager to be able to add products and be able to do inventory. Also it would be really nice to be able to void out a transaction that has been closed if a mistake was done, but it seems like I have to refund the items first. Sometimes, customers just decide they don't want to do a project after we have done the transaction. It's rare, but it happens.

Pros

Easy to use, has lots of functions that other software doesn't come with out of the box. A great start to get your business going. It looks clean and the UI is the nicest looking one so far we've seen. They have a free front display app for a second ipad so you can have a customer facing screen.

Cons

Lacking crucial functions to actually run a business. No real reporting, often system goes down. The system lacks any mass editing features unless you export the database into csv and re import it. Not efficient if you need to adjust tags in large batches because the exported CSV file, all the tags are in a single cell.

The system lacks stability, we have been using this system for more than a year and it's been going down on crucial moments. Right now the system is slow to sync to Vend server causing sales screen and transaction not to be processed. This has costed us many sales specially at crucial times.

Their customer service is great, nice and friendly but virtually useless. Not once has any of our issues been resolved. It was either an issue that resolved itself over time I guess they fixed it on their back end or we have learned to just live with it.

You have to pay for individual cashiers. So if we were to want to do an event and have an additional cashier it would cost a lot more than what it's worth to have an additional cashier.

Reporting is very basic. If you need numbers that for example compare data points of last week's sales vs this weeks sales by day vs by hour to know which day of the week is your strong day and which hour of the day is your peak you can't do it. Unless you do everyone stat as an individual data pull then you can get the stats but there is no clean visual display to arrange the data neatly so more work is to be done.

Very simple reporting such as what do we have in our inventory of type A vs Type B to know what we're lacking in inventory is a many step process to pull which results in more work.

Pros

I like that you can do everything on Excel as I have very good knowledge of excel and CSV file format. As I upload files nearly every day, as our shoes change daily.
Works with Sku well.

Cons

Pricey. Someone who does not know excel well he is in trouble unless he sells the same products forever. No manual provided so no employees cannot look up something they have never done before. Adding products takes for ever as you have click edit to do it. Loss prevention if you add someone on manager role, he or she can steal cash after a sale and receipt given to customer as they can undo cash transaction with no record. I lost several 100 dollars before I discovered this on camera. So now all my employees are cashiers only.

Pros

What I like about vend its is well designed user interface. But perhaps the most important is the ease of use, you can get the gist of it in about 20 minutes, and for more complex tasks it still would not take long to learn

Cons

I guess it's that for more detailed accounting id have to connect it to another software. so for example i have other expenses like utilities dont figure in the vend reporting, so the GP figures for instance are not fully accurate.

Pros

For our retail clothing business, we have been using Vend POS in our shop to manage inventory and run in-store sales. The integrations we rely on are Shopify for e-commerce as well as Xero for accounting. Vend POS has been a generally pleasant experience and they have improved the web-based POS platform tremendously over the course of the past five years and continue to do so. The Vend Register iPad app allows for simple commerce with an integrated credit card processor solution. The Vend web-based UI allows us to add and manage inventory with relative ease. Vend is a flexible POS solution that is used by foodservice, construction, and all kkinds of industries. Their variant setup is flexible enough to handle different types of products. The reporting suite is fantastic and allows us to analyze actionable data to make good decisions.

Cons

There have been various bugs, issues, and UI inconveniences over the years. Generally customer support is very responsive to tickets we create however it is usually a long turnaround to actually address any software improvements we have asked to be made.

Pros

This is the most bulletproof POS for the money. Everything that works, works better than other platforms.

Cons

They kept raining the price of the pos until they were sold to Lightspeed. Lightspeed is making changes so quickly that their own documentation is pretty worthless. Vendors they work with will call you with sales calls.

I also don't like the continued removal of features (sorting by qty, eccomerce, sales ledger)

Pros

It integrates the online and retail inventory at the same time. Like the basic website template and all that you can do to make it look like a real website with other information besides a shopping cart!

Cons

Does not support coupon codes! Thought about leaving Vend POS several times because of this problem.

Pros

The system is very easy to learn, the report capability is what we like the most, having the ability to run report to analyze the sales and patterns, is very helpful in planning , buying inventory, since it is capable to also hold inventory, to send emails to alert when inventory is low, is amazing, we love the system for our small store.

Cons

Not much, we had some issues in the beginning with credit card connectivity, but not for any of the system fault, it was the way our store is set up with our internet, once all that got squared away, the system worked perfect.

Pros

Vend has a very versatile and flexible workflow, with lots of features and options to work for most any retail scenario your business may face.

Cons

With all the features and options, many of them are tucked away in submenus, and therefore provides a steep learning curve if you lack someone to tutor you.

Pros

It is easy to use how ever with a very limited functionality offered.

Cons

We subscribed to vend approximately a year ago when we had 2 shops and not very many sku, the system worked great and although few issues for which customer service was never really helpful we were able to manage and circumvent.   The issues started to build when our shops and sku started to increase, it was at this point we started to use there import and export functionality to mass upload data. Unknown to us at that time we started to see huge inventory issues within shops, from stock figures constantly being wrong to stock transfers always being incorrect. Upon investigation we found bugs when uploading re order level and qty, the system would automatically delete and add stock, we reported this issue to vend 6 months ago, they then came back to us with a solution   “ to manually edit 2000 sku across 20 stores whilst they resolve the issue”  It has now been 6 months vend has still not resolved the issue, there is no way we can manage to edit as per there solution needless to say we have had to build a complete off line solution to manage our inventory which is a core feature for why we purchased vend in the first place.  We are now urgently looking for alternatives as this has impeded our growth caused customers to walk away due to non stock items and will cause us a huge cost in technology change across 20 stores . I strongly recommend anyone taking vend to test the system robustly, above is just one of many unresolved issues 20 stores .

Pros

It's easy to set up, easy to use and intuitive (even for some of my more tech-challenged staff), and perfect for a small-to-medium retail operation. It handles multiple outlets easily, as well as our wholesale business, and we're about to begin using the Vend eCommerce platform for our online store. And the price is very reasonable, which is one of the reasons it's such a good solution for a smaller business.

Cons

It can be difficult to find hardware that works with Vend. For example, we purchased the label maker that Vend recommends, and it was cheap and awful and broke twice before we decided to use something better. Unfortunately, Vend doesn't talk to that label printer, so our IT genius created a workaround that gets the job done. There are also some functions that Vend doesn't have yet (a single report that shows sales AND current inventory on one screen, for example, and better reporting for sales tax purposes) but we've always been able to work around these gaps, and Vend seems to be constantly updating and adding functionality.

Pros

Works, up and running 97% of the time as needed. I am a small seasonal retail business. Being charged for each register AND each location. I place my account on ICE during the "off" season. To get into the account and look at any reporting for future orders, etc you must continue to pay the normal fee for all registers and locations. Even if you need 1 report that would take 90 seconds to generate you will be charged the entire month which my account cost me $1,650 per month. This is the reason why I placed my account on ICE during the off season. Everyone you will come in contact with within Vend is LESS than forgiving and they are after every penny they can squeeze out of you... I WAS a customer with Vend for 5 years... They made plenty off me, and now I can't get a simple report so I can order the items needed for the next season... Switched to Square and now it only costs me $60 per month, huge savings!

Cons

Always having to send an email for questions/help and sometimes it takes DAYS to get a response.

Pros

The inventory management setup has been great--I can edit individual items on the go, or download and edit larger portions of my inventory through a spreadsheet if needed. Having photos of my items has been helpful to me and my staff. Also, being able to track customers' info, credit, and loyalty has been beneficial to tailoring their shopping experience.

Cons

It's not very easy to reach someone via phone, but there are help tutorials made up and available online, and I can also submit a help ticket when needed.

Pros

I can't recall a business impacting technical problems with the system. It worked flawlessly for us.
Support was quite efficient although remote (NZ). It is very easy to implement and operate and works from everywhere.

Cons

Specifically weak in the domain of Layby sales. Can't get a good report on how much sales are pending delivery, length of layby sales (alerts on long pending sales), closure of layby sales are only showing on the day they were originally booked without ad hoc indication. Also missing push reports. We'd love to have a daily report pushed to management by email.

Pros

Reporting features
Product variants
Dashboard
Self Generating SKU
Layby methods
Customer accounts
I love the gift card concept !

Cons

Error Sales

Rigidity in creating new users

Wish the register had a options to limit use more for newer employees not to view all the sales history and to be able to open and close. I think that's more of the store manager's responsibility than everyone being able to do so.

Pros

Very Easy to use. I like that you can run your inventory of your store though it and that you can add frequent customers that come by the store. When they come in and buy something they can get loyalty points which can go towards one of their purchases. I also like the on account tab - this is very handy especially for us since we live in such a small town and everyone knows everyone.

Cons

I don't like how the system just decides that we are not gonna listen to what you say. For example if something is on sale say for $2.99 and it was $3.99 sometimes it won't change the price. This is very frusterating so you have to watch extra carefully with sale items.

Pros

This POS system is easy to use and easy to teach new employees. I love being able to access it from anywhere and being able to get information I need for planning and ordering.

Cons

None as of yet. We have been happy. We have had no real issues and anything that has come up has been easily solved.

Pros

This software is very user friendly, and makes it extremely easy to enter in new products and keep track of said products.

Cons

A fair amount of bugs pop up regarding the new product and stock control sections of the program. There could also be ways to further refine the stock control portion, like making scanned items organize themselves by a specific attribute automatically.

Cons

I have had this system for two years and use the website feature they offer. Three month ago they did a update that caused my website to not sinc with my inventory. I pay for the highest level of support you can get with this company and I can not get a phone call through to them, I can not get a response back from a Manager, my special tech people working on this after three months still do not know what the problem is. I have had to turn my website off three weeks ago and have asked for them to do a manual sync and it still has NOT been done. I am loosing money everyday from not having a website available. It is helpless....

Pros

It is very straight forward to use, it is very intuitive, all the functions are clearly named and easy to find. There is a support function incorporated within the website which is useful but the customer service is absolutely amazing: when I've had a query, I've always had an answer within the hour. At the beginning, the team spends the time to explain to you all the functions and there's no shaming for asking 'stupid' questions.

Cons

To be honest, in a year and a half, I haven't found yet anything I dislike about Vend.

Pros

It was easy to set up the system. It works with our website thru Shopify app. The system is user friendly for the staff, so learning curve is brief.

Cons

Not good for tipped services, did not have untaxable sales calculation for first year i used it, does not sync well with QBO, delay in customer service response time.

Pros

Vend is an excellent and fail-safe POS for small businesses. While data entry and inventory search functionality is generally a breeze, depending on the nature of your business or inventory, you may run into difficulties keeping categories of products isolated from one another. Stock orders are a breeze and staff is very helpful.

Cons

I only wish the interface was a little more malleable and user customizable as it seems that it's slowly being tailored to best suit its most standard applications, rather than oriented towards creative retail pursuits with singular demands.

Pros

There really was no learning curve. Super easy to put in new products and very easy for my salesmen to use.

Cons

Few things that I would like to see: better functions to help organize clients and give my salesmen tasks to contact people. Also, I would like for there to be a way to force entry of the clients name on each sale. (probably just need people who do what they are supposed to do....). Customer service is not accesible by phone and this is sometimes difficult.

Pros

Vend has the ability to do almost anything, it just is not intitutive in many ways. Vends inventory entry method worked well. They gave a discount for paying ahead.

Cons

Their Layby program(Lay a way)it just was not good. We asked for help and did not get it. Also it would lose sales tickets from time to time. Also the drawer check out did not give all the info you would expect. There were many ways to make things happen and that would confuse people as to how to do something. I think it is good software but just did not fit us as we were at odds with it many days. We never did get it to interface with Quick Books online.