Integrated CRM

Heartland Retail includes built in Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Through the use of as many custom fields as you need, you can build up comprehensive data sets on all of your customers. This can help you finely tune your marketing and gives you the ability to treat every customer as a recognized individual.

Purchasing Features

Heartland Retail excels with the back-office side of retail operations, and is well-suited to businesses with multiple stores, suppliers, and warehouses. There are features to handle everything from orders to returns to barcode labelling. As the system is cloud-based, real-time information is available from anywhere.

Strong Reporting and Analytics

One area where Heartland Retail already has a very strong reputation is in reporting and analytics. Reports work in real-time, are highly customizable, and also easy to export in your desired format. Do note, however, that while there are strong reporting features in “Plus,” analytics only comes with “Professional” or the custom enterprise plans.

Open API

Heartland Retail offers a rich range of software integrations. Better still, unlike many competitor systems, it goes further with a fully open API. For the non-technical, this means it’s possible for developers to hook into the system and its live data, allowing custom tools and integrations to be built. This functionality is only available with the enterprise version.

Integrations & Add-Ons

Integration is a real strong point for Heartland Retail. There’s an extensive list of compatible applications, covering big names such as Shopify, Magento, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp. Many integrations are free but some come with an extra price tag.
There is also, of course, the open API. This facilitates custom integrations with other products and even bespoke in-house software.

Hardware Requirements

While some POS providers offer hardware as part of the deal or preset bundles of third-party-kit, Heartland Retail takes a different approach. In fact, within the support pages, the company makes clear that it is a “software company, not a hardware company.”

The software solution is cloud-based so you can access it with any operating system via a browser. The app itself is iPad-based.

When it comes to things like cash drawers and receipt printers, the solution is – at least in theory – “hardware agnostic.” This means you should be able to integrate most standard-issue POS hardware. Furthermore, Heartland Retail recommends some specific devices and links out to a partner hardware supplier as a recommended source.

For the avoidance of doubt, it’s wise to check compatibility with specific items prior to purchase.

Flexible Payment Options

If you use Heartland Retail, you have a host of ways to deal with customer payments. You can keep everything simple and use Heartland Payments, a processing option from another arm of the same company. Alternatively, you can use the system’s many integrations to connect to the payment provider(s) of your choice or those you already use.