Shopify POS in the UK: Hardware, Fees and Who It Suits

Shopify POS lets a retailer sell online and face to face from the same Shopify system. A product sold in your shop reduces the same stock record your website uses, a customer who buys online is the same customer at the till, and orders, payments, returns and inventory all land in one Shopify admin instead of being split between an ecommerce platform and a separate retail system. The costs are easy to misunderstand, though, so this guide sets out the real UK figures.

POS Lite comes with Shopify's paid plans, from £19 a month billed yearly on Basic; a compatible phone can take contactless payments with Tap to Pay, or you can buy a £59 WisePad 3 reader; and POS Pro adds advanced retail tools for £69 per location a month. We cover hardware, fees, stock syncing, who it suits, setup and offline use. Disclosure: Why Matters is a Shopify agency and Shopify Select partner, so we have included the limitations and costs alongside the advantages. Prices were checked on 1 October 2026.

Key Takeaways

• Shopify POS connects in person sales with the same products, customers, orders and stock your online store uses, on iOS and Android.
• POS Lite is included with paid plans from £19 a month billed yearly; POS Pro costs £69 a month per location, or £52 on a current 12 month offer for eligible new Pro merchants.
• You do not have to buy hardware: Tap to Pay works on compatible phones, and a WisePad 3 reader costs £59, while a full counter setup costs about £947 before the tablet.
• UK in person card fees are 1.7% on Basic, 1.6% on Grow and 1.5% on Advanced, with no fixed pence charge.
• Most of our clients who moved to Shopify POS report that stock mismatches between their shops and website stopped, because both use one stock record.
• Lite suits markets, pop ups and simple shops; Pro earns its fee with several staff, high footfall, stock counts, transfers and returns across branches.

Quick Answer

Shopify POS is Shopify's in person selling system, connecting shop sales with the products, orders, customers and stock in your Shopify account. For a small UK shop, POS Lite comes with Shopify Basic at £19 a month billed annually, in person card payments cost 1.7% with no fixed fee, and you can take contactless payments on a compatible phone or buy a £59 WisePad 3. POS Pro adds staff, stock, customer and omnichannel tools for £69 a month per location. Its biggest benefit is shared stock: most of our clients who moved to it found their shop and website stock stopped disagreeing.

Table of Contents

• What Is Shopify POS?
• What Is the Difference Between POS Lite and POS Pro?
• What Hardware Do You Need, and What Does It Cost?
• What Are Shopify's In Person Card Fees?
• Work Out Your Shopify POS Costs
• How Does Stock Sync Between Your Shop and Website?
• Who Does Shopify POS Suit, and Who Does It Not?
• How Do You Set Up Shopify POS?
• Does Shopify POS Work Offline?
• Why Matters Perspective
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Final Thoughts
• Related Articles

What Is Shopify POS?

Shopify POS is Shopify's point of sale app for iOS and Android: you build a basket in person, take payment and the order is recorded in Shopify. What matters is behind the till, because the shop shares the same products, variants, customers, gift cards, orders, discounts, stock and payment reports as the rest of your Shopify account. A clothing brand selling the same jumper online, in a Brighton shop and at a Christmas pop up does not need it in three systems; each location holds its own quantity, and every sale adjusts the right one.

In person purchases can also join the customer's Shopify profile, which helps when someone buys online and later shops in store, wants staff to see past orders, joins your list at the till or returns something bought elsewhere, and POS Pro adds richer profiles and lifetime value insights. You do not need an active website to use the till, and you can create your store from the POS app, but you still pay for a Shopify plan, because POS Lite is part of that subscription rather than a free standalone till.

What Is the Difference Between POS Lite and POS Pro?

Both levels take payments; the difference appears when retail gets operationally complex. Shopify's POS pricing describes Lite as casual in person selling and Pro as an extra subscription activated per location:

Lite is usually enough for markets, occasional pop ups, one or two people taking payments, a low footfall showroom, or a business that mainly wants shop sales to reduce Shopify stock while managing inventory centrally; having a physical address is not a reason to buy Pro. Pro starts to pay when you have several staff, managers and juniors with different permissions, multiple shops, heavy transaction volume, regular stock counts, stock moving between branches or customers returning items to different shops, and Shopify itself recommends Pro for high footfall, several staff tiers or large catalogues. The exact features can also depend on your Shopify plan, such as staff access on Basic compared with Grow and Advanced.

Staff management is one of the biggest differences: POS Pro lets you create till only staff without Shopify admin access, with roles controlling returns, discounts, cash tracking and order management, and restrict them to particular shops. Pro also adds scheduled stock counts, where a manager assigns a count, staff scan the stock and the manager reviews the results before inventory changes, with an audit trail of who counted what. Pro costs £69 a month per location on top of your plan, so three shops cost £207 and ten £690, while Shopify's current offer for merchants new to Pro is £52 per location a month on a 12 month term, a 25% discount with hardware and migration incentives, subject to eligibility. Pro users also get inbound phone support from Shopify, as our guide to contacting Shopify Support explains.

What Hardware Do You Need, and What Does It Cost?

You can make the till as simple or elaborate as you need, from a phone at a market stall to a full counter. Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android works on every Shopify plan in the UK, lets a compatible phone take contactless cards and wallets at your normal in person rate and needs Shopify Payments and an internet connection, so the cheapest setup is a phone you already own, with no hardware cost at all. The trade off is that Tap to Pay is contactless only, and a physical reader suits a permanent till better. Shopify's UK hardware store prices are:

You need none of this by default. A phone with Tap to Pay on Basic costs £228 in Shopify fees for the year plus card fees; adding a WisePad 3 makes it £287; and a conventional counter with a POS Terminal, tablet stand, wired scanner, receipt printer, cash drawer and POS Hub costs £947 in hardware before the tablet, though a cashless shop could drop the drawer and printer. The £323 Victa Mobile makes most sense on a large shop floor, where staff serve and take payment away from a fixed till.

What Are Shopify's In Person Card Fees?

Standard UK in person rates depend on your plan and carry no fixed pence charge, unlike Shopify's online rates, which add 25p:

The gap between Basic and Advanced is 10p on a £50 sale, or £60 a month on £30,000 of card sales (£510 against £450), which matters at volume but does not justify paying £240 a month more for Advanced on its own. Choose the plan on the whole business, including online revenue, staff accounts, reporting and shipping; see our guides to Shopify Payments in the UK and Shopify pricing.

Work Out Your Shopify POS Costs

Put in your in person and online sales and the calculator totals the plan, the in person and online card fees and POS Pro for each plan, so you can see what a shop really costs on Shopify each month and which plan comes out cheapest.

How Does Stock Sync Between Your Shop and Website?

This is the strongest reason to choose Shopify POS if Shopify already runs your website: you are not syncing two stock databases through a connector, because both channels use Shopify inventory across your shops, online store and other active sales channels. Stock is held by location, so if the warehouse has 80 units, Brighton 10 and London 15, a Brighton sale takes Brighton to nine while the others stay separate. That is why most of our clients who moved to Shopify POS report that the stock mismatches between their shops and their website stopped.

Each device must be assigned to the right location, which Shopify uses to reduce the right stock, apply taxes and attribute orders. POS shows Available, Committed, Unavailable and Incoming quantities and warns staff before selling something with little or no stock, although staff can override the warning, so software cannot stop deliberate overselling. Transfers track stock moving between warehouse and shops rather than pretending it has arrived, and on Pro, staff can scan and send or receive transfers in the app once they are created in admin.

Older guides lean on Stocky, but Shopify removed it from the App Store in February 2026 and it stopped working after 31 August 2026, so judge Shopify's current native inventory tools instead. If the same products also sell independently on Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Faire or TikTok, you may still need a specialist stock sync app; see our guide to the best Shopify inventory management apps.

Who Does Shopify POS Suit, and Who Does It Not?

Shopify POS fits best when your shop and website need to behave as one business: a Shopify brand opening its first shop, which avoids adding and syncing a separate EPOS; markets and pop ups, where a phone, the app and mobile data are enough; a showroom where people see products before ordering, especially with Pro's omnichannel tools; and several shops plus one ecommerce operation, where Pro's staff roles, counts, transfers, returns across branches and reporting all come into play.

It is a weaker fit for restaurant first businesses, which may need table plans, kitchen displays, courses, tabs, tipping and ingredient recipes from a specialist hospitality POS, although a café selling lots of merchandise online is a different case. It also makes less sense for a shop that does not sell online, has no plans to and has simple needs, where you should compare dedicated POS providers on total cost. And while Shopify POS can suit busy retail, Lite may not: many staff, manager permissions, frequent returns, regular counts and high footfall soon create friction that Pro solves. Whatever you choose, trial the real workflow, including peak checkout, returns, exchanges, cash, receipts, scanning, stock receiving, staff logins and an internet outage.

How Do You Set Up Shopify POS?

We set Shopify POS up in this order:

1. Create your locations: shops, pop ups and warehouses, with the right stock at each; Basic, Grow and Advanced support up to ten.
2. Choose Lite or Pro per location: for example, Pro for the high street shop and Lite for a Christmas pop up.
3. Configure staff: who needs admin, who only needs the till, and who can refund, discount, handle cash or move stock.
4. Choose hardware for the workflow: phone, Tap to Pay, WisePad, Terminal, Victa, scanner, printer or drawer, buying only what the shop needs.
5. Set up Shopify Payments: confirm payout account, business details and payment methods, then connect your reader or switch on Tap to Pay.
6. Decide on receipts: printed, email or SMS; a mostly cashless shop may not need a printer at every till.
7. Check stock by location: compare warehouse, shop, POS and website quantities for real products before opening day.
8. Run a full test sale: check payment, receipt, order, stock, customer profile and reports, then test a refund, an exchange on Pro, cash, a discount and offline mode before training the team.

Does Shopify POS Work Offline?

Partly. Every Shopify POS user can take cash and manual payments offline, and offline card payments work once enabled on compatible hardware such as the WisePad 3, POS Terminal and Verifone Victa, with the card captured when the device reconnects. While offline, though, POS cannot sync orders and stock with admin, process returns, exchanges or voids, complete ship to customer or click and collect orders, or use automatic and code discounts, although manual discounts still work, and everything should sync when the connection returns.

Offline card payments carry extra risk because the money is not captured until you reconnect, so a declined card becomes your loss: set sensible offline limits and train staff on when to use the feature. For a permanent shop, plan for reliable broadband, backup Wi Fi or mobile data and a tested offline procedure, rather than treating offline mode as a normal way to trade.

Why Matters Perspective

The best reason to choose Shopify POS is not the card reader, because plenty of systems take contactless payments. It is that your shop and Shopify store become one commerce system: customers can check stock online before visiting, buy in store after browsing online, return an online order to a shop or have another size sent from another location, and staff can add them to your customer list at the till. Operationally, you no longer have one spreadsheet saying five units are in the shop and an ecommerce system saying seven, which is exactly what most of our clients tell us changed after the move.

Shared stock is not automatically accurate stock, though: correct locations, disciplined goods in, recorded transfers, regular counts, staff training and clear returns still matter, and no POS can fix branches moving stock without recording it. We would start with Lite and pay for Pro only when you can name the workflow that needs it, such as till staff without admin access, returns at any branch, proper stock counts or receiving transfers on the shop floor, and design the hardware around the shop: a phone for a pop up, a tablet, scanner and terminal for a fashion shop, or Victa handhelds for a large floor. Our Shopify developers set up and support POS alongside the online store.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Shopify POS free?

POS Lite is included with paid Shopify plans rather than being a free standalone till. Shopify Basic costs £19 a month billed yearly or £25 monthly, and POS Pro is an extra £69 a month per location.

What is the difference between POS Lite and POS Pro?

Lite handles in person selling, simple customer profiles and Shopify stock syncing. Pro adds staff roles, till only staff, richer customer profiles, scheduled stock counts, transfers in the app, returns at any location and retail reporting.

How much is the Shopify card reader in the UK?

The WisePad 3 costs £59 from Shopify's UK hardware store, the countertop POS Terminal £239 and the Verifone Victa Mobile handheld £323. With Tap to Pay on a compatible phone, you can take contactless payments with no reader.

What are Shopify's in person card fees?

Standard UK in person rates are 1.7% on Basic, 1.6% on Grow and 1.5% on Advanced, with no fixed pence charge, so a £50 sale costs 85p, 80p or 75p.

Can I use Shopify POS without an online store?

Yes. You can sign up from the POS app and use Shopify mainly for in person retail, but you still need a paid Shopify plan after any trial, because POS Lite comes as part of that subscription.

Does Shopify POS stop stock mismatches?

It removes the cause, because shop and website share one Shopify stock record. Most Why Matters clients who moved to Shopify POS report that stock mismatches between their shops and website stopped.

Does Shopify POS work offline?

Partly. Cash and manual payments work offline, and card payments can too with compatible hardware once enabled, but stock syncing, returns, exchanges, discount codes and click and collect need a connection.

Final Thoughts

For a small UK Shopify retailer, POS need not be expensive: Shopify Basic at £19 a month billed yearly, POS Lite included, Tap to Pay on a phone you already own and a 1.7% card fee is enough for many market stalls, pop ups, showrooms and small single shops, and a £59 WisePad 3 adds a dedicated reader. Move to POS Pro at £69 a location when retail gets demanding, with till only staff, permissions, returns across branches, controlled stock counts, transfers, richer customer data and retail reporting.

Budget hardware around the real shop: a phone can be a till, and a full counter can cost close to £1,000 before the tablet, and neither is better in itself. The right setup is the one that lets staff sell quickly while keeping customers, orders and stock accurate across your shop and website. If you need help configuring Shopify POS, retail integrations or custom functionality around your online store, see our Shopify developers page.

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• Best Shopify Inventory Management Apps by Problem
• Shopify Payments UK: Fees, Payouts and How It Works
• Shopify Pricing UK: Plans, Fees and What You Will Really Pay
• Best Shopify Payment Gateways for UK Stores
• How to Contact Shopify Support, and When to Call a Partner
• Shopify B2B: How Wholesale Selling Works on Shopify
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