Selling in person with Shopify can mean a shop, a market stall, a pop-up or a showroom with a till next to your online store. The software is Shopify POS, and the hardware is a card reader and perhaps a scanner and a receipt printer. The setup is quick when you know the order of the steps. It goes wrong when staff access, extra paid features or local rules are left until opening day.
This checklist is for store owners who are adding in-person sales. I read Shopify's POS setup, subscription and staff pages on 11 November 2026. Those pages show no dates, and features differ by country, so check each one in your own admin.
What every paid plan includes, and what POS Pro adds
Shopify's subscription page says the basic in-person features come with every paid plan at no extra cost. It lists the Shopify Payments hardware integration in supported countries, other hardware, a customisable smart grid, customer profiles, inventory and order visibility across locations, email and SMS receipts, standard printed receipts, basic discounts, gift cards, offline cash payments, cash tracking, refunds and basic inventory adjustments.
Shopify POS Pro is an optional add-on, billed for each location. The page does not state its price, so look at your own admin before you plan costs. According to the page, Pro adds:
- retail staff permissions and management, and unlimited POS-only staff;
- inventory tracking and adjusting, and receiving and fulfilling transfers;
- multiple printed receipt copies;
- ways to sell across channels: ship to home, ship and carry out, pickup in store and local delivery;
- automatic discounts, order cancellations, exchanges, and saved and emailed carts;
- daily sales reports and in-app analytics;
- a two year hardware warranty, where the base plan gives one year.
You can add Pro to specific locations only. Billing is on its own 30-day cycle, separate from your plan. Most plans can pick monthly or annual billing, while Plus is on the 30-day cycle only. To switch, go to Sales channels, Point of Sale, Settings and then the POS Pro subscription. You can change up to 250 locations at once. Moving Pro from one location to another needs Shopify Support.
A practical rule: start without Pro if you have one till and one trusted person. Add it when you need roles, transfers or ship-to-home from the till.
The setup order
Shopify's setup page lists the main steps. Follow them in this order.
- Have a Shopify account and a subscription.
- Choose and order the hardware. Check that your card reader is supported in your country.
- Set up the POS app from your admin.
- Set up payments for in-person sales.
- Work through the staff training checklist that Shopify links from the page.
- Read Shopify's page on securing your POS setup.
- Go live.
The page also says that stores based in the EU may need to meet regional POS requirements, and it links to a country requirements page. If you sell in the EU, read it before you buy hardware. The setup page does not cover locations, products, taxes or a test sale, so add those to your own list, and run a few test sales with a real card before the opening day.
Staff: PINs, roles and who can do what
This is the part owners tend to leave until too late. Shopify's staff page says every POS staff member has a unique PIN. There are two types. Some staff have access to both POS and the Shopify admin. They can log in to POS Pro and POS Lite locations. POS-only staff have no admin access and work at POS Pro locations only.
Access is controlled by roles, which are groups of permissions such as returns, discounts and cash tracking. You cannot assign single permissions, and each staff member needs a role. Predefined roles exist, and custom roles need POS Pro. Roles apply only at POS Pro locations. Admin users with POS access have full access at POS Lite locations, and you cannot restrict them there. Collaborator accounts cannot receive POS permissions.
The page gives example roles such as Manager, Senior POS staff and Junior POS staff, and shows how a manager PIN can approve returns and exchanges. High-risk actions, including voids, refunds, manual discounts and access to customer records, are linked to the staff member and can be reviewed in the POS activity log. For seasonal staff, you can suspend an account without deleting it.
Two location points. Staff added in the POS app are assigned only to that device's location, while staff added in the admin get all locations unless you remove some. And location assignment limits where a PIN works, not what inventory a person can see. To view or edit orders from other locations, a person needs the permission called Manage orders at all locations.
Selling online and in person together
- Inventory. The basic features include inventory and order visibility across locations. For tracking, receiving and transfers you need Pro. If the same stock sells online and in the shop, decide which location holds it. Our guide to inventory on Shopify covers this.
- Subscriptions. Shopify's developer page says subscriptions in POS need POS version 10.13 or later and Shopify Payments, and that subscription-only products are not supported in POS. See our subscriptions guide.
- Shopify Collective. The Collective page says POS can sell Collective products, but they ship only to the customer's address.
- Fraud checks. Shopify's fraud analysis page says there are no risk recommendations for POS orders. Your protection at the till is staff practice, not a flag.
Plan the cost lines before you buy
Because the help pages give no prices for Pro, write down the lines you will have to fill in yourself: the hardware you need at each till, the Pro add-on for each location where you want roles and transfers, card processing fees from your payment provider, and the staff time for training. Then compare two set-ups. One uses the base features at every location. The other adds Pro at the busiest location only. The page says you can add Pro to specific locations, so you do not have to pay for it everywhere on day one, and you can review the choice after a month of real sales.
A go-live checklist
- Hardware tested, charged and in its stand, with spare paper and a spare cable.
- Payments set up, and three test sales made, including a refund.
- Every staff member has their own PIN and the right role. No shared PINs.
- Manager PIN approval is set for returns and exchanges, if you are using Pro.
- Products have prices, barcodes and stock counts at the right location.
- You have decided what happens when the internet drops. The base features include offline cash payments, so know what the till can and cannot do.
- Staff training checklist done, and the security page read.
- Someone owns daily cash tracking and who to call when something fails.
Questions the pages did not answer
The help pages I read do not cover local tax on in-person sales, receipt rules in your country, the price of POS Pro or how long setup takes. Ask Shopify, your payment provider or an accountant. ESTASOFT's Shopify page describes the store work we do, and you can send a short brief on the contact page if you want help planning a launch across shop and online.
Sources
- Shopify POS subscription overview (Shopify Help Center): what every paid plan includes, what POS Pro adds, billing per location, switching and the 250 location limit; page shows no date (checked 11 November 2026)
- Set up Shopify POS (Shopify Help Center): setup steps, staff training and security pages, EU regional requirements note; page shows no date (checked 11 November 2026)
- POS staff management overview (Shopify Help Center): PINs, staff types, roles, location assignment, activity log; page shows no date (checked 11 November 2026)
- Shopify Subscriptions developer documentation (shopify.dev): subscriptions in POS need POS 10.13 or later and Shopify Payments; page shows no date (checked 11 November 2026)
- Requirements and considerations for Shopify Collective (Shopify Help Center): Collective products can be sold in POS but ship to the customer address; page shows no date (checked 11 November 2026)
- Fraud analysis (Shopify Help Center): no risk recommendations for POS orders; page shows no date (checked 11 November 2026)