10 Retail Management Software for 2023

The retail world has changed drastically over the past few decades. Just over 20 years ago, retail was completely dominated by brick-and-mortar stores, and e-commerce, along with retail management software, were barely a blip on the radar.

Fast forward to 2021, and technology has integrated itself into every aspect of retail, from scheduling to employee management to inventory and beyond. These days, any retailer that wants to stay competitive needs to have the right tools to ensure they’re operating efficiently.

Here, we’ll cover 10 of the best retail management software options and retail management systems so that you can outfit your store with the cream of the crop.

What is Retail Management Software?

Retail management software is a broad term that refers to software applications that help facilitate and automate various retail processes, such as employee scheduling, inventory management, online store development, and more.

Many of these tools provide automation features so that retailers can take a more hands-off approach to their day-to-day work and put some of their more menial tasks on autopilot.

The end result is that retail store management software, when used effectively, helps increase revenue, reduces human error, improves efficiency, and ultimately leads to a more pleasant retail experience for managers, employees, and customers alike.

We’ve divided our list of top retail software solutions into 10 categories that cover the spectrum of retail needs:

1. Employee scheduling
2. Accounting
3. Payroll
4. Inventory management
5. Point-of-sale (POS)
6. HR & Recruitment
7. Price tracking
8. Marketing
9. CRM
10. E-commerce platforms

Each of these categories serves a different but vital purpose in the retail pipeline. Retailers should evaluate their most pressing needs and prioritize their software investments accordingly.

Our 10 Best Retail Management Software Picks

Let’s jump right into our top retail management software picks.

1. Employee Scheduling — ZoomShift

ZoomShift is an app that helps businesses stay efficient with their employee scheduling. Unlike traditional scheduling solutions, such as paper and pencil or spreadsheets, ZoomShift automatically updates any changes to the schedule in real-time so that all team members can stay on the same page, which helps reduce employee errors and missed shifts.

Employees can also take more control over their schedules using the shift swap feature, which allows employees to easily find team members to cover for them when needed. Manager approval and involvement is optional, so they can focus on other more pressing tasks.

Key Features:

• Drag-and-drop schedules
• Updates in real-time
• Send updates via text, push notifications, and email
• Automatically track hours and sync them to your payroll.
• Shift swap features
• PTO balance tracking
• Mobile and web apps

Pricing:

• Starter: $2 per active team member/month for:
  • Employee scheduling
  • Timesheets and time clock
  • Payroll reports
  • And more
• Premium: $4 per active team member/month for everything in Starter plus:
  • Overtime warnings
  • GPS time clock
  • Shift rules
  • And more
• Enterprise: Custom pricing for everything in Premium plus:
  • Priority support
  • White-labeling
  • API access
  • Subaccount management

2. Accounting Software — Zoho Books

Zoho Books is an online accounting software tool that’s designed to help businesses with end-to-end accounting, tax compliance, time tracking, banking, and more. It automatically calculates tax on taxable transactions and maintains a record of all previous tax payments, creates 1099 and sales tax reports, facilitates estimates and invoicing, and more.

Key Features:

• Customized invoices
• Create quotes and estimates
• Track expenses
• Inventory monitoring
• Bill-tracking
• Send and confirm sales orders
• Mobile app
• Accept online payments
• Record, categorize, and reconcile bank transactions

Pricing:

• Free: Available only for businesses with less than $50K revenue per month. Includes:
  • Licensing for 1 user and 1 accountant
  • Expenses and mileage tracking
  • Client portal
  • Recurring invoices
• Standard: $15 per organization/month. Includes:
  • Everything in Free
  • Invite 3 users
  • Invoice management
  • Transaction locking
  • Sales tax tracking
  • Custom views and fields
• Professional: $40 per organization/month. Includes:
  • Everything in Standard
  • Invite 5 users
  • Sales approval
  • Purchase orders
  • Currency adjustments
• Premium: $60 per organization/month. Includes:
  • Everything in Professional
  • Vendor portal
  • Custom domain
  • Webhooks
  • Custom reports

3. Payroll Software — Gusto

Gusto is a software solution for payroll, HR, and benefits management. In addition, it provides tools for time tracking, hiring, and onboarding. Overall, Gusto aims to make payroll management easier for businesses, especially in these difficult times.

Key Features:

• Payroll management
• Time tracking, PTO, and other time tools
• Benefits management
• Access to HR experts
• Hiring and onboarding tools
• Gusto wallet (a tool that employees can use for saving and spending)

Pricing:

• Core: $39/month base price plus $6 per person/month. Includes:
  • Full-service payroll
  • 2-day direct deposit
  • Health insurance administration
• Complete: $39/month base price plus $12 per person/month. Includes:
  • Everything in Core
  • Time tracking
  • Permissions
  • Project tracking and workforce costing
• Concierge: $149/month base price plus $12 per person/month. Includes:
  • Everything in Complete
  • Dedicated support
  • Certified HR pros
• Contractor: $0/month base price plus $6 per person/month. Designed for businesses that have not hired employees, only contractors. Includes:
  • Unlimited contractor payments
  • Contractor self-service
  • Form 1099 creation and filings

4. Inventory Management Software — EZOfficeInventory

EZOfficeInventory is designed to help businesses track their equipment and inventory from anywhere. It’s trusted by major companies including Intel, CNN, Amazon, and more.

Key Features:

• Operational workflow
• Asset lifecycle tracking
• Print barcode, RFID, and QR code labels, tag your products, scan them with the app
• Custom user roles
• Reporting and analytics

Pricing:

• Essential: From $40/month for up to 250 items to $610/month for up to 14,750 items. Custom pricing for item counts beyond that. Yearly discounts available. Includes:
  • Asset tracking
  • Alerts
  • Maintenance
  • Reservations
  • Basic reporting
• Advanced: From $52/month for up to 250 to $964/month for up to 14,750 items. Custom pricing for item counts beyond that. Yearly discounts available. Includes:
  • Everything in Essential
  • Carts
  • Purchase orders
  • Advanced reporting
  • Scheduled services
• Premium: From $60/month for up to 250 items to $1,200/month for up to 14,750 items. Custom pricing for item counts beyond that. Yearly discounts available. Includes:
  • Everything in Advanced
  • Custom substates
  • SSO and Google Workspace integration
  • Advanced access control and custom roles
• Enterprise: Custom pricing only. Includes:
  • Custom security
  • Custom integrations
  • Custom terms of service
  • Option for global private cloud
  • Account manager

5. Point-of-Sale Software — Square

Square is a leading point-of-sale software that allows businesses to process payments both in-person and online.

Key Features:

• Accepts major credit cards, Apple pay, gift cards, Google pay, and more
• Refund processing
• Encrypted payments, PCI compliance, and fraud monitoring
• Integrated hardware
• Order manager for third-party pickup orders
• Receipts
• Automatic discounts
• Online ordering

Pricing:

• 2.6% + $0.10 per sale

6. HR and Recruitment Software — BambooHR

BambooHR aims to help businesses save time on administrative tasks, get new hires up to speed quickly, and ultimately spend more time serving customers.

Key Features:

• BambooHR Performance Management allows employees and managers to collaborate and set goals
• Payroll administration
• Mobile app
• BambooHR Applicant Tracking System

Pricing:

• Essentials: Custom pricing. Includes:
  • Employee records
  • Benefit tracking
  • Time-off management
  • Applicant tracking system
  • Audit trail
  • And more
• Advantage: Custom pricing. Includes:
  • Everything in Essentials
  • Telephone support
  • Advanced reporting
  • Onboarding and offboarding
  • Training tracking
  • And more

7. Price Tracking — Prisync

Prisync is a software tool that allows businesses to monitor competitors’ prices. This helps companies keep an eye on where their product’s prices stand in the market as a whole.

Key Features:

• Bots that are hard to detect
• Support
• Distributed technology
• Batch data importing
• Product variance price tracking
• Monitor stock availability

Pricing:

• Professional: $59/month. Includes:
  • Track up to 100 products
  • Unlimited competitors
  • Price updates four times per day
  • Advanced filtering
  • Stock availability monitoring
  • Price position comparison
• Premium: $129/month. Includes:
  • Track up to 1,000 products
  • Marketplace price tracking
  • Pricing analytics
  • API access
• Platinum: $229/month. Includes:
  • Track up to 5,000 products
  • Price history
  • Advanced mail reports
  • Instant price change notification
  • Advanced pricing analytics

8. Marketing Software — Emarsys

Emarsys is an omnichannel customer engagement platform that leverages AI marketing, personalization, automation, and more to drive profits for your business. The cutting-edge tools integrated into Emarsys’s feature set can engage customers in deeper ways than many standard marketing methods can.

Key Features:

• AI Marketing
• Loyalty programs
• Analytics
• Automation
• Personalization

Pricing:

• Available upon request.

9. CRM — Vend

Vend is a broad retail management software solution that includes point-of-sale, inventory management, and more. Its CRM, however, stands out because of its powerful integration with its point-of-sale features, easy setup, and loyalty program features.

Key Features:

• Add new customers at point-of-sale
• Create customer profiles
• Import customer lists via CSV
• Utilize gift cards
• Central database management
• Store credit issuance
• Segment your customer base

Pricing:

• Lite: $99/month billed annually or $119/month billed monthly. Includes:
  • Licensing for 1 location
  • Up to $20K monthly turnover
  • 0% transaction fees
  • Gift cards and promotions
  • Cloud backup
  • Real-time inventory management
  • Support
• Pro: $129/month billed annually or $159/month billed monthly. Includes:
  • Everything in Lite
  • Licensing for multiple locations
  • Unlimited turnover
  • API access
  • Multi-outlets retail management
  • Apps and e-commerce channels
  • Unlimited products and users
• Enterprise: Custom pricing. Includes:
  • Everything in Pro
  • Premium API access
  • Dedicated account manager
  • Customized onboarding

10. Ecommerce Platform — Shopify

Shopify is one of the most well-known ecommerce platforms. Over the past few years, it has risen in popularity due to the fact that it makes setting up an online store easy and pain-free, no coding knowledge required.

Key Features:

• Easy-to-use online store builder
• Point-of-sale
• Digital marketing
• Analytics
• Sales integration with TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and more

Pricing:

• Basic Shopify: $29/month. Includes:
  • Online store
  • Unlimited products
  • 2 staff accounts
  • Up to 4 inventory locations
• Shopify: $79/month. Includes:
  • Everything in Basic Shopify
  • 5 staff accounts
  • Up to 5 inventory locations
  • International domains/pricing
• Advanced Shopify: $299/month. Includes:
  • Everything in Shopify
  • 15 staff accounts
  • Up to 8 inventory locations

Key Takeaways

The retail world is a tough one to navigate, to say the least. It can be hard enough to manage the day-to-day tasks of running an enterprise. You’ll save both time and energy if you have the right tools in place to help automate your management processes so that you can focus on your customers and improve your business.

JD Spinoza

JD enjoys teaching people how to use ZoomShift to save time spent on scheduling. He’s curious, likes learning new things everyday and playing the guitar (although it’s a work in progress).