Thursday, March 13, 2014

Review of Bindo Point Of Sale

Update November 9th, 2014. I can confirm that Bindo, Clover, and Silver have now added the following:

Bindo POS: basic invoicing and quoting functions

First Data Clover (still restricted to using First Data for merchant services): Item attributes, modifiers and barcode label printing.

NCR Silver: Barcode label printing and QuickBooks Accounting interface.

Note that some of the added features may require paying an additional fee and/or using third party software.

I have mentioned in several posts that tablet and smartphone based point of sale systems tend to not include all the functions that a computer-based point of sale software solution can offer. Tablet and smartphone point of sale solutions like NCR Silver and Clover don't offer some key functions like purchasing and receiving, tracking cost, time clocks, printing barcode labels, and item level attributes for style, size, and color.

I had the opportunity to take an in depth look at Bindo Point of Sale (Bindo POS) for iOS devices and this solution is light years ahead of Clover and NCR Silver. In addition to handling purchasing, item attributes for style, size and color, time clock, gift cards, customer loyalty program, printing barcode labels, and other common point of sale functions, Bindo POS also offers 3 key things that should make you take a look at Bindo POS:
  1. Flexible Merchant Services – One of my big issues with point of sale solutions like Clover, HarborTouch, and QuickBooks POS is that these companies force you to use one specific company for merchant services (aka debit and credit processing service). I have personally seen the rates that some of these customers are paying and they run about ½% higher than normal which translates to easily $5000 to $20000 in additional fees. Bindo POS allows you to pick and choose the merchant services company that can offer you the lowest rates.
  2. EMV – Even with EMV coming up next year, I still get a lot of blank stares when I ask companies how they plan to become EMV compliant. Not so with Bindo POS. Testing is already in progress to offer EMV compliant hardware.
  3. Online Marketplace – Offering your products online is a “must have” in todays era of specialty retailing. Having the time and energy to maintain an online store is tough for most retailers and many point of sale solutions require you to maintain two separate inventories (online and in-store) or only sync the online and in-store inventories a few times per day. Not so with Bindo POS. Bindo POS offers a complete and very easy to manage online marketplace to display and sell your products over the Internet.
I was also impressed how the leadership at Bindo POS has taken the time to develop a point of sale solution based on input from actual retailers.


With a free 30 day free trial offer and monthly pricing starting at $79, Bindo POS will be giving both
traditional and tablet/smartphone based point of sale systems a run for their money. More reviews on Bindo POS can be found here: https://bindopos.com/reviews

You can learn more about Bindo POS by visiting their website at www.bindopos.com or by calling 1-800-MY-BINDO (1-800-692-4636).

Are you in the US and in need of no cost retail point of sale advice? I'm happy to help and can be reached on my cell at 208-340-5632 (mountain time) or via email at kevinantosh@gmail.com.

4 comments:

  1. Nice review - I know of several stores that have considered Bindo. Only comment is that they wish that Bindo offered some sort of link to accounting software like QuickBooks.

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  2. Bindo is currently working on direct QuickBooks integration, but they have a report that has been bridging the gap between their POS and accounting software in the mean time...the report has been working pretty well for us on QB

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  3. Kevin, great information regarding the functionality of the Bindo system, as this is obviously your preferred Tablet based POS. Most everything that you have written with regards to Clover specifically is accurate, but I would be interested to know if you have had the opportunity to research Clover POS and it's functionality. You can find information at www.help.clover.com. I think you will find that some of the functionality you state that it does not have, actually exists. Specically, tracking cost, time clocks, printing barcode labels, and item level attributes for style, size, and color. It's also has several different loyalty apps available that are available at additional cost. It's definitely more than a glorified upgrade to a cash register that is constantly being upgraded. Thanks again for your opinion of the available POS in the market as I find it more informative than most blogs I read. Regards


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    1. Thanks for taking the time to comment and share feedback. Business owners that contact me also let me know what point of sale system they ultimately decide to purchase and, even with some of the new features added to Clover, these owners have told me that they have been avoiding Clover due to being "locked in" or "forced" to use First Data for merchant services. Again - thanks for taking the time to share some of the new features within Clover - it is very much appreciated!

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