The importance of point-of-sale (POS) systems for F&B businesses in Singapore cannot be overstated. These systems play a crucial role in streamlining the order-taking process to facilitate efficient transactions, and contribute to improving customer service with features such as order management and table availability checks.
POS systems also help F&B businesses like yours manage inventory and track ingredient usage, which helps minimise costs and avoid stockouts at the most critical times. Because of this, the choice of which POS system to implement for your business is an crucial decision to make.
To help you with this consideration, we’ve put together a list of POS systems that have proven popular with F&B businesses in Singapore like yours, and achieved high ratings on review sites such as Capterra and G2.
In addition, we've also sourced some insights from an expert in POS systems, to advise you on what you should consider when choosing a POS system for your business.
What Goes Into Choosing The Right POS System For Your Business?
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When it comes to choosing the right POS system for your F&B business, you need to consider several factors.
But what would these factors be? To find out, we spoke to Marc Chang, Vice-President of Sales & Business Development at Eleos Web Pte Ltd, and an expert on POS systems for many years. From this, we gleaned some of his expert insights on the critical features that you should look out for, when you're thinking about implementing a POS system for your business.
Here are some of his insights;
"Inventory matters, and knowing which stock is in store and which ones need to be replenished is important.
You will not be a small retail store forever. As you grow, you need a robust retail system that is scalable. Always be ready to cope with the growth and the evolving demands of the retail industry in general."
Marc Chang
VP, Sales and Development
Eleos Web Pte Ltd
By carefully considering the above, you'll have a firm foundation from which to make the right choice of POS system to optimise the sales and operations of your F&B business.
Standard POS Systems Most Popular With F&B Businesses
1. OctopusPOS
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Overview of Octopus POS; Source: Octopus Retail Management
What Is It?
An advanced SaaS-based POS system, OctoposPOS makes it possible for businesses to serve their customers wherever they are in the store, and carry out a range of essential services such as processing payments, tracking sales and checking inventory. Since it also works offline, you don't have to be connected to the Internet to use OctopusPOS either.
What Is It Best Known For?
Octopus POS is designed as an omni-channel retail management solution from the ground up, which enables users to drive omnichannel sales and customer engagement.
It can also be further customised for F&B businesses, with a Food POS that provides menu management and kitchen display features.
How Does It Review?
Octopus POS scores 3.3 stars on Stackupp.
What Type Of Business Is It Best Suited For?
Octopus POS is designed for the sales and customer engagement needs of retail and restaurant businesses in particular.
2. Square Point Of Sale
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Faster Order Entry With Square Point of Sale; Source: Block, Inc. Square Capital, LLC
What Is It?
Used by more than 2 million small businesses around the world, Square Point of Sale offers every feature you’d need from a POS system to make running your business easier.
What Is It Best Known For?
Square POS comes with built-in sales and inventory reports that give you visibility into the sales performance of your business. It is also free to use, and you only pay a processing rate for each payment transaction you make.
How Does It Review?
Square scores:
What Type Of Business Is It Best Suited For?
Small businesses with a relatively low volume of transactions, across a wide range of industries such as retail and F&B.
3. Clover
How Clover’s restaurant management system can value-add your business; Source: Clover
What Is It?
Designed as an all-in-one solution, Clover combines the functions of a cash register, card payment terminal, and POS system into an integrated suite of products, making it easier and faster than ever to run your business.
What Is It Best Known For?
Clover supports both countertop and mobile POS terminals, and also comes with a robust App Market that offers more than 300 apps to help you further customise your POS system to your business needs.
How Does It Review?
Clover scores:
What Type Of Business Is It Best Suited For?
Clover is suited for SMEs, including but not limited to quick-service and full-service restaurants, boutique retailers, and service businesses that require an easy-to-use payment process.
4. Helcim
Overview of Helcim Point-of-Sale features; Source: Helcim
What Is It?
A payment solution designed to help businesses accept credit cards with ease at affordable prices, Helcim transforms your tablets, smartphones and desktops into the POS system with a full set of features.
What Is It Best Known For?
Helcim is designed to be easy to sign up for, giving you quick and easy access to the payment tools you need. It also comes with third-party integrations for accounting, online shopping and billing.
How Does It Review?
Helcim scores:
What Type Of Business Is It Best Suited For?
Helcim is ideal for sole proprietors such as dentists, lawyers and accountants, or SMEs such as restaurants, wholesalers, and online retailers.
The Most Popular POS Systems Designed For The F&B Industry
1. TouchBistro
Introducing TouchBistro Restaurant POS System; Source: TouchBistro
What Is It?
An all-in-one, cloud-based POS and restaurant management system, TouchBistro helps restauranteurs streamline and simplify their operations. Designed exclusively with restaurants in mind, TouchBistro powers more than 29,000 restaurants in over 100 countries today.
What Is It Best Known For?
TouchBistro provides front of house (POS, payments, customer-facing displays), back of house (kitchen display system, profit management), and guest engagement (loyalty programmes, online ordering, reservations) features all in one platform.
How Does It Review?
TouchBistro scores:
What Type Of Business Is It Best Suited For?
TouchBistro is perfect for restaurants of any size which are looking to lower costs, increase efficiency, and enhance their overall customer experience.
2. Toast
Discover How Toast Works; Source: Toast, Inc.
What Is It?
An all-in-one POS and restaurant management platform, Toast is another solution that’s built specifically to meet the specific business needs of restaurants. It is used by more than 99,000 restaurants around the world today to improve efficiency and dramatically cut costs.
What Is It Best Known For?
Toast comes with many restaurant-specific features such as table-side service and menu management, amongst others.
How Does It Review?
Toast scores:
What Type Of Business Is It Best Suited For?
Toast is designed specifically to meet the unique business needs of food service providers, as opposed to other POS systems which are more general-purpose in nature.
3. Sapaad
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Streamline your kitchen's workflow from order placement to fulfilment; Source: Sapaad Pte Ltd
What Is It?
Designed specifically for restaurants, Sapaad is a cloud-based POS and restaurant management system. It comes with a comprehensive suite of features such as order processing, inventory control, and customer engagement.
What Is It Best Known For?
Sapaad has partnered with some of the top food ordering and delivery services in Singapore such as Deliveroo, UberEats, Talabat, Lalamove, and others. This makes it an ideal choice for restaurants where deliveries are a large part of its business model.
It also offers a 14 day free trial, so you can test how well Sapaad works for your business for free during this time period.
How Does It Review?
Sapaad scores:
What Type Of Business Is It Best Suited For?
Sapaad can meet the business needs of restaurants, cafes, and fast food chains of all sizes – from small concepts to multi-chain and franchise models.
4. Lightspeed Restaurant (formerly Upserve)
Overview of Lightspeed Restaurant platform's features; Source: Lightspeed HQ
What Is It?
Originally called Upserve, Lightspeed Restaurant is a one-stop restaurant platform that helps restaurant owners simplify, scale and provide exceptional customer experiences.
What Is It Best Known For?
Lightspeed Restaurant can connect with your back office operations, and provide advanced insights with detailed reports in minutes to help you identify best-selling menu items, and use online ordering and delivery to serve your customers wherever they are.
How Does It Review?
Lightspeed Restaurant scores:
What Type Of Business Is It Best Suited For?
Lightspeed Restaurant is suitable for restaurants which have online orders and deliveries comprising a significant portion of their business model.
Choose The Right POS System To Optimise Sales And Operations In Your F&B Business
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Choosing the right point-of-sale (POS) system is key to the success of your F&B business. POS systems designed for the F&B industry, such as TouchBistro, Toast, Sapaad, and Lightspeed Restaurant, offer specific features tailored to the unique needs of restaurants, cafes, and fast food chains.
On the other hand, general-purpose POS systems like Octopus POS, Square Point of Sale, Clover, and Helcim can be customized to meet the sales and customer engagement needs of both retail and restaurant businesses.
The right choice of POS system for your F&B business ultimately comes down to the specific business needs you face, and which of these solutions are best suited to help you resolve them.
At AFON, we can help advise you on what you should look for in a POS system, and help you determine which one best fits your business needs. If you'd like to schedule a consultation with us, do drop us a note here and we'll get back to you, or give us a call at +65 6323 0901 today!
