StoreHub Review: 8 Pros & 3 Cons of StoreHub

 

 

There are POS systems that suck the life out of your business, and POS systems that helps your business so much you never knew how you got by without it.

 

StoreHub fortunately, falls into the latter category.

 

 

Before we dive into our review for StoreHub’s POS system, let’s have a little peep into their history.

 

StoreHub: Truly Malaysians, Born & Bred

 

 

Founded in 2013 on our very own Malaysian soil, StoreHub’s strong business values and well thought out POS functionalities have helped them gain popularity pretty quickly among many businesses in the region, boasting over 8,000 new clients in the retail, services and F&B sectors.

 

Currently, they’ve set up offices in Kuala Lumpur and Penang, but they’ve got presence in over 15 countries around the globe, all in just 7 short years of being in business.

 

Looking at the impressive list of achievements they’ve managed since their conception, it’s pretty obvious that StoreHub is serious about their business, but how does their POS system actually perform in real-world situations?

 

We took the trouble to have a look at StoreHub’s POS features and get our grubby hands nice and deep into their system, just so we can give you an in-depth look at how they can benefit your business.

 

 

8 Reasons Why StoreHub Is Great For Business

 

1. Next Level User Experience

 

Business owners used to lose so much time training their new staff on the basics of using their complicated POS systems.

 

It also irritates customers when the new staff forgets how to use it and has to call someone for help, because it really can get irritating when you’re standing in line waiting to pay… and you can’t.

 

Don’t even get me started about what a buggy mess old POS systems can be. If you don’t key in the details in a specific sequence, the system will most likely freeze and you’d have to yell for Kumar from the kitchen to help.

 

StoreHub’s POS system is a polished, heaven-sent piece of software, made with the user’s convenience and mental well-being in mind (frustration due to crappy POS designs is a real thing, okay).

 

 

They seem to have taken a page out of iOS’s UI, making everything as intuitive as possible. We honestly feel that someone with no experience in operating a POS system would have no issues learning how to do this with StoreHub’s UI in less than an hour.

 

Buttons are logically placed, highlighted well with fonts that stand out, so that as long as you can read, you’ll know what to press.

 

Menus are easy to customize, with preset options to take down special requests from fussy customers. If you somehow encounter customers with requests that aren’t in the presets, there’s a space to manually key in their order.

 

We think that StoreHub’s UI is one of the best POS UIs we’ve ever come across, granted we haven’t seen what the western world has done with their POS UIs yet. (Boss let’s go to New York to review POS systems!)

 

 

2. Convenient Multichannel POS Hub

 

What makes StoreHub unique is that it isn’t just a POS system.

 

It is a cloud-based ecosystem, where their POS system works together with their e-Commerce platform and CRM program, which allows offline businesses to seamlessly transition to the digital world and easily track all their goods and merchandise via the BackOffice.

 

Users can easily start e-Commerce businesses without worrying about inventory control.

 

If a business owner has 10 apples to be sold between his/her offline and e-Commerce business: the BackOffice will automatically update the POS every time a sale is made online, so that the offline store knows to reserve one apple to be shipped off, avoiding any sort of confusion or inventory mix-ups.

 

You’ll get to check your sales data remotely from wherever you are, and it’s stored forever in the cloud. If you want to emulate what you did in a certain record breaking month, you can instantly pull up that data to analyze to see if you can replicate your success.

 

 

 

 

3. Easy-to-use E-Commerce Capabilities

 

You can easily build an online store when you open an account with StoreHub.

 

The site builder is really easy to use, but themes and functionality are slightly less comprehensive compared to actual e-Commerce site builders like Shopify or Wix.

 

Nevertheless, all the basic e-Commerce capabilities are available. So, if you prefer to have all your e-Commerce and offline business accounts under one roof for a seamless experience, you can do so with StoreHub.

 

You can then track your accounts and sales data easily between your offline and online stores!

 

As of the time of this writing, we don’t think any other POS providers have this implemented into their service. Hats off to StoreHub for thinking of everything!

 

 

4. Next Level Employee Management Capabilities

 

Gone are the days where you need to purchase a separate clock-in system to track your employees.

 

StoreHub’s POS system takes advantage of modern computing functionalities which allows you to manage employee attendance, track timesheets, monitor employee performance, activity logs, and sales – all with just one system.

 

As a matter of fact, you’ll be able to save cost with this feature alone.

 

Did I mention that you’ll also be able to track all this remotely?

 

 

You can be sipping mojitos in Mexico while making sure your employees are all there holding down the fort. See one of them underperforming? Send them a stern text immediately.

 

They’ll never know that you’re not even in town.

 

 

5. Making Customers Feel Like Kings

 

One of the best parts of StoreHub’s POS is the customer categorization feature.

 

It doesn’t just make your life easier, it’ll make your customers feel special too, prompting them to make return visits to your store.

 

This feature allows you to store customer details into the POS, so the next time they visit, you just have to key in their name and you’ll be able to see their usual orders of food and drink.

 

You’ll be able to give them the ‘ol nod and wink with a “the usual, Mr. Chan?”, making them feel like the VIPs they deserve to be.

 

Better yet, you can assign automatic discounts to certain orders. This way, they don’t lose their privileged treatment when new staff doesn’t know who they are, and you get to look like you trained your staff really well.

 

Win-win situation, don’t you think?

 

 

6. Amazing loyalty program integrations

 

Storytime!

 

I dislike it when I go out with my wife and she walks into a particular beauty pharmacy which shall remain unnamed (it rhymes with Godsons).

 

Don’t get me wrong, I love spending time with her, but every time she goes into this particular franchised retail outlet, I spend a whole lotta time just standing around, twiddling my thumbs waiting for her to collect points at the point collection station.

 

First, she has to stand in line with a million other women. Then she needs to slowly key in her details and scan her receipt.

 

Made a mistake? Too bad, start all over again.

 

The worst offender of it all is that this outlet doesn’t provide Husband Chairs(™) for me to rest my tired feet.

 

The good folk at StoreHub probably realized this was an issue, and seized the opportunity to provide a solution to this pain point.

 

Their Beep CRM system is great. All the customer has to do is scan the QR code on the receipt. The business gets their data, and the customer gets their cashback via Beep.

 

No more standing in line, no more waiting, no more keying in data.

 

It’s a win-win situation without the waiting time.

 

 

 

7. Affordable Customizable Hardware

 

POS hardware used to be one of the most expensive things you had to invest into a small business.

 

With StoreHub’s bundles, you need no longer put aside a small fortune for POS hardware anymore.

 

As a matter of fact, as long as you have your own iPad and a printer that is compatible with their system, you can download StoreHub’s POS software and use it with your printer, which means you may not even need to spend money on additional hardware.

 

That being said, it is still advisable to purchase StoreHub’s iPad bundles to avoid potential annoying inconveniences. After all, hardware compatibility is always tricky and it’s best to go with their recommended setups.

 

The bundles allow you to print receipts, kitchen slips, and is able to support multiple iPads (especially useful in the F&B industry). More information regarding the bundles, below!

 

 

Depending on the bundle you choose, you’ll have the option of bringing the iPad with you to take orders (best for cafes & restaurants) or having a front-facing screen so your customers can see what they’re paying for (suitable for retail small businesses).

 

 

 

8. Cloud tech perks

 

This is a given since StoreHub is a cloud-based service, but we absolutely love, love, love the fact that every sale, every report, every log is immediately synced with the cloud.

 

We don’t have to worry about automatic backups failing, we don’t have to bother with manual backups. It’s all immediately stored in the cloud, available for us to retrieve when we need it.

 

Of course, the downside to this is that if we accidentally delete the data that’s stored there, it’s gone for good but this is more of a user problem than anything else.

 

So don’t be that guy. Don’t accidentally delete your data.

 

 

What We Didn’t Like About StoreHub

 

What kind of a review site would we be if we didn’t provide our dear readers with a list of cons to go with the pros?

 

As much as we like StoreHub awesome POS system, there were some things we had some issues with that you guys should be aware of too, so you can make a fair purchase decision.

 

1. No Profit & Loss Function

 

We were a little disappointed that StoreHub’s POS didn’t come with a profit & loss reporting function.

 

We don’t know why StoreHub hasn’t come up with a solution for this yet. It’s definitely a pain point, and if StoreHub can provide a solution for this, it’ll give most business owners no reason to not use their service.

 

However, the POS system is integrated with accounting softwares like SQL and Quickbook. The user just has to export the sales data through the dashboard, and import it into their desired accounting system.

 

It’s a troublesome workaround, but at least there is a solution.

 

 

2. No 24/7 Support

 

I don’t know if it’s too much to ask for 24/7 support, especially from a POS service provider. Most shops don’t open past 1030pm, but there are some outlets that operate 24/7 (retail outlets in KLIA come to mind).

 

So we weren’t all that happy to learn that StoreHub doesn’t provide 24/7 support, but they do have 365-day, 830am – 1030pm support.

 

We’re used to online services that offer round-the-clock support so we feel that StoreHub should do this as well, but we completely understand why they don’t.

 

Anyway, on the bright side, their support team is excellent.

 

We reached out to them to test their response, and it’s almost always immediate.

 

They’ll communicate with you in English, Chinese, and Malay, and they’re well trained enough to answer any questions or problems we had for them.

 

 

3. Can’t Migrate Current E-Commerce store

 

The biggest offender of them all is the fact that StoreHub either does not or cannot facilitate the migration of your current e-Commerce store into their ecosystem.

 

You’ll have to either build a new online store with StoreHub, or you’ll need to keep your e-Commerce business and brick & mortar store separated.

 

This wouldn’t be a problem for business owners who own offline stores and want to bring their business into the online space, but for people who started their businesses online, this might put them off StoreHub.

 

 

StoreHub Plans & Features: Overview

 

StoreHub has cleverly come up with a plan for everyone, from new, small businesses to retail giants looking for a cloud POS solution. All of their plans don’t limit the amount of users, so you can have as many staff log on as you want.

 

 

Personally, we feel that the Starter plan is more than sufficient for new small business owners, but if you can afford it, you’ll find yourself better off with the Advanced plan.

 

It provides you with useful functionalities which aren’t available in the Starter plan, such as:

 

 

I think it’s important to note that even with the Advanced plan, you’re given the option to have multiple outlets, BUT you’ll need to pay an additional RM149 per outlet.

 

It’s a little pricey, but think of it as operational costs. Afterall, StoreHub uses that RM149 for each outlet’s additional server space needed.

 

Also, I think it’s worth noting that you’ll need to pay RM49 for each additional iPad you need per store.

 

 

 

StoreHub Hardware Bundle: Overview

 

You have 3 different bundles to pick from, depending on your outlet’s needs.

 

Standard iPad Bundle

 

 

Android Bundle

 

 

Mobile iPad Bundle

 

 

If you can’t decide which hardware bundle you need, we would say to play it safe and go with the Standard iPad Bundle. It has everything you need, and it’ll serve most purposes.

 

The Android Bundle with the front-facing display is the cheapest of the lot, but you’ll need to spring a little for the cash drawer as it doesn’t come with one.

 

The Mobile iPad Bundle is fantastic for roadshows and events, because of its small size and all-in-one mPOP system. Only thing is, it’s the most expensive bundle of the lot, and I honestly don’t see much use for it unless you run a food truck.

 

If you know what you’re doing, or if you’re operating on a budget, you can use your own iPad and purchase their hardware ala-carte.

 

 

Verdict: What Do We Think About StoreHub?

 

StoreHub is the best POS system we’ve had the pleasure of reviewing so far.

 

You know they mean business when they hire a team from China just to come up with their slick, user-friendly UI, which we must say is an absolute dream to use.

 

They’ve had the foresight to come up with an ecosystem to help regular brick and mortar businesses into the digital world, which is something unique to them.

 

The POS itself makes managing employees easy, generates comprehensive reports instantly and quite frankly allows us to automate a lot of work that we’d have to otherwise do manually.

 

You’ll also get a ton of other quality-of-life features, such as menu customization, built-in loyalty programs, stock management, right off the POS.

 

Its cloud functionalities are also game-changing. If you’re always on the run, or if you have multiple outlets, it saves you so much time to be able to check how each outlet is doing remotely. The best part of it all is that we don’t have to worry about backing up data, as BackOffice data is always synced with the cloud.

 

The option to straight-up pick your own hardware is cool if you’re on a budget, but you gotta get hardware that’s supported by the system to avoid any sort of compatibility issues.

 

The only real problem we have with them is that there is no possible way to bring your existing e-Commerce store onto StoreHub’s ecosystem. We can build another online store with StoreHub and reroute traffic from our existing domain to the new one, but it’s a troublesome process that we’d much rather avoid if possible.

 

As of right now, we absolutely love their service. StoreHub gets a two thumbs-up from us!