I'm currently running a Magento Store in Version 2.2.3
I am need of a POS extension that can operate online and offline for when i take physical offline sales in a shop or at an external event.
After trying 3-4 POS extensions already, I have just installed Webkul POS for a few different reasons. It's a one time payment which is very important. It's got a very easy to understand interface and it syncs sales to keep my stock correct when it's connected to my Wifi, but it can also work offsite and store offline orders to be synced when it reconnects to wifi.
However, despite being cheap and easy to use, it's also horribly riddled with bugs and shortcomings. As below:
Offline sales don't sync when the system goes back online
Doesn't work on Safari
Can't show Configurable products
No way for it to process disabled products through the checkout
Crashes fairly regularly
No way to delete unsynced orders (which happens to be all
offline orders)
some other technical bugs which i have reported to their support system.
So without spending crazy money, is there actually any POS extensions which people have found to work well?
So one year on with Webkul POS and I thought I would post an update.
Webkul support worked on and fixed approximately 25 - 30 bugs in the software and despite being a little slow it worked for the most part. Their support team was very helpful in fixed multiple issues.
Whilst planning an upgrade on Magento 2 I asked the webkul support team if their latest version included the multitude of fixes which were completed on my build and if it was compatible with the latest verion of magento and php. Without hesitation, i was told, yes everything will work and they arranged a download of the latest version which we got and installed into our newly upgraded magento 2.3.3
Back to square 1.
All bugs returned and extension was unusable. It simply didn't work. After support refused to look at the issues I paid for extended support and they started to fix bugs. After some bug fixes and getting our heads around the magento Multi Source Inventory, we have got the pos to work or at least function enough to use it.
So here's my current issue. Webkul POS requires it's own source for stock (not sure why it can't use the default one) so now I have my default source which the website uses, and another source or stock qty table that the POS software uses and the 2 stock numbers are completely independent and do not sync.
This means if I sell an item in my shop using POS, my website stock does not update and it is still possible for people online to buy an item that I may be sold out of. This is until I manually adjust the stock.
Therefore in my eyes, the POS extension is totally pointless.
Does anyone else have the latest magento and had the same issue with any other POS systems? I think the MSI in the new magento seems to be causing some similar stock control problems. I can't really justify a monthly payment style POS extension because this experience has made me question if any of them work properly in the latest version of M2.
I may be a bit late to this post, but I know exactly what you mean about Webkul POS. Disappointing and just confusing to use tbh.
Sad truth is if you're not willing to pay for the good stuff, you'll get what you pay for. One-time payment for Webkul is all well and good, but it's got the usability and functions corresponding to that. If you want to experience the really good stuff, you've got to pay for it.
I know people who have had success with Connect POS - https://www.connectpos.com/magento-pos/ - and there's no extra hidden fees that surprise you down the line. A pretty powerful extension in my view cos it's got AI and PWA capabilities. The best option for Magento 2 imho.
Has anyone got any experience with Lightspeed POS? It's currently looking like a front runner to become a webkul replacement for us. I can't really fine too many reviews or any information from any users. We're moving to a new store soon and need something a little bit slicker at a reasonable cost.
Related
The subscription based revenue model, which is becoming more and more common on app stores, is an often debated and hated subject among customers. Having read many articles and forum threads about why people hate subscriptions and what they would prefer instead, an often mentioned wish from customers seems to be to pay once for an app, but pay again for major updates (i.e. from version 1.x to 2.x) - but having the option to stick with version 1.x and not upgrade, i.e. "owning" the software.
This is kind of a traditional revenue model, which has worked well for both big and small software companies for a long time. The company gets paid for the work they put into each major release, and customers get the sense of "ownership" because they purchased the product rather than renting it (as is the case with a purely subscription based model).
But there doesn't seem to be a clear way of achieving this revenue model on Apple App Store and Google Play?
The option that most closely resembles the traditional model would be to create and release a brand new app with each major version upgrade. But this has several drawbacks, including resetting any reviews and ratings, having URL's all over the Internet pointing to old versions, making it difficult/confusing for existing users to upgrade smoothly, etc.
There's also the option of using in-app-purchases to "unlock" the new version. This could be successful if the changes consist of clearly defined new functionalities. But if there are differences in functions that exist in both the old and new version, I can see it quickly becoming a nightmare to maintain, even for two major versions. What it would look like when it becomes three or four or five versions deep, I don't even want to think about...
So are there any better options? Did anyone accomplish this successfully on Google Play or Apple App Store?
short answer is : That is impossible.
However, you could set up a non consumable purchase and force them to buy it to activate the newer version
I am new to both Magento and Prestashop. I have no clue upto what point I can customize on each platform. So, before I decide, I want your feedbacks on to which direction to go towards. Listed below are the feature I need in the ecommerce site I am going to develop:
Product Type:
Wedding cards and other greeting cards, some cards might have two sides, so the user might need to fill in the text for both cards prior to adding it to the shopping cart.
Features:
Each card will have unlimited options, e.g Changing colors of some
aspects of the card, so the user can see the differences. Each one is
different image, so when the admin adds a product, they need to
upload those variations.
Needs to attach some products to be a
suggestion, e.g when you order a wedding card, we suggest them to get
Place cards and etc.
On a custom card, the user can upload their
photo, and then can add the necessary text they want to appear, then process the order.
The following is almost as to what I am looking for: http://www.betsywhite.com/arya-wedding-invitation-5586-prd1.htm [Click on the play with pallettes to see the changing color in action]
Those are just some of the features that I think are very unusual for a standard E-Commerce site. Can I do those features with Magento and/or Prestashop or I need to build a custom solution?
You can make those features with Prestashop and Magento. But no matter which one you chose, you'll have to personalize/modify your shop to get those features to work.
Prestashop is easier to use and to learn and it is faster because it is slim compared to Magento. On the other hand Magento is even more customizable but it is much harder to learn and getting used to it.
I would give you the advice to install test-versions of both shop-systems and try them yourself. So you'll see which is the better choice for your skills, your needs and your products.
I had to make this choice some months ago for myself. After some testing I chose Presthop and I do not regret my choice. But everbody has to make this choice for himself ;).
Installation and customization are two important considerations during the purchasing decision, especially if the goal is to get the e-commerce site up and running as quickly as possible. These characteristics of Prestashop are better than Magento. While Magento is more customizable, therefore resulting in longer set up and installation times, Prestashop makes a trade-off by having fewer “out of the box ready” features available.
One of the key features of an e-commerce software package is its ability to maximize Search Engine Optimization (SEO) capabilities. Magento has distanced itself from all of its software competitors in constructing the best SEO features of any e-commerce platform.
The support/community of Magento is a little better in my opinion. A lot of the times you get no response on the Prestashop forums and you are left to find a way for yourself. I have worked with both. I would pick the one you are more comfortable with.
Just my 2 cents.
I'm aware this isn't exactly a programming question, but it directly impacts our developers and the code we're assigned to write. If there's another SO-like forum where this could be better posted, please let me know and I'll take the question down from here & post it there.
Our work environment is a couple of developers creating (20-30%) and maintaining (lion's share) legacy software for factory production floor and test workers to use to calibrate or test the equipment the company sells. We've implemented a very simple Google form based bug reporting page, but we're already running into problems of scale (approx 40:1 them:us and lots of old-old buggy software that we didn't write). The company has tried using Bugzilla before my arrival with little success, the factory folks were apparently intimidated by it and wouldn't use it. However, they seem to like the simple Google form and the wizard-like steps to file a bug or request a feature. We're currently manually cutting & pasting their bug/feature requests from the Google form spreadsheet into Trac, and manually tracking the bugs/feature requests on a white board with magnetic bug cards. We're only a few weeks into this system and it's already showing it fragility and lack of scalability.
Ideally we'd have a Windows >= XP web or desktop client that would provide:
Simplified bug reporting, a Wizard like approach seems to work well
Customizable for our software packages (like drop downs for each)
Bugzilla or Trac integration
Standard bug tracking features developers and management can use
I've found the winners of the "Make Bugzilla Pretty" contest, but coming from a pure software house where we just used straight Bugzilla out of the box, I'm unclear on how to configure and install these skins. Obviously I can figure this out but don't want to go down that path if it's not going to solve our basic problem which is non-technical people reporting bugs.
TaskCompiler, found on the Bugzilla wiki site seemed like a candidate because it talks to both Bugzilla & Trac, but their sales page is offline and the site hasn't been updated since 2012 and I'm unsure as to their viability.
I'm certain we're not the first production facility to run into problems like this, I'm looking for recommendations to help solve both our scalability as well as-ease-of-use problem.
Another thought that occurs to me is a GAS script to push our current Google forms based bug reports into Trac or Bugzilla.
Edit: The decision between Bugzilla/Trac seems to have been made for us. I'm exploring options for using Trac here if you want to follow along.
I look after a small site which was built a few years ago in Magento ver. 1.3.2.4
Fairly frequently the site suffers inexplicable problems such as products suddenly not displaying by price (where no settings have been changed) and orders being sent in triplicate to the website owners email. It seems really hard to find reasons for why things like these happen and even harder to get support. I know that the version being used is old and that to upgrade is a serious and expensive development job. Would it be fair to say that because a legacy version is being used that we can expect the site to become less and less robust over time?
Many thanks
Bev
In the order of "will it work with newer versions of PHP?", the answer is "not unless you make modifications to the code yourself." Which means, to put a not-to-fine a point on it, expect your web hosting provider to "Get Religion" somewhere along the way, decide to upgrade out of a security hole by upgrading PHP which suddenly causes your website to crash.
Magento 1.3.x.x also shows its age when dealing with Prototype Framework and Scriptaculous versions past their "sell by date" causing weird and annoying issues with newer browsers.
Im interested in providing part of magento ecommerce as a SAAS solution. However, it would be great to get some clarity around the osl license.
I realise that distributing that actual software requires me to open the source. However, in a SAAS environment, surely I can charge for the software service? As long as I release all changes to the core code etc?
How about using the XML API to provide data - I guess thats ok too?
What about if I decide to let the user have the source code? what would I be obliged to do then? let them have it? release all changes?
Anyone have any experience with this? ps I realise you may not be a lawyer ;]
Cheers
Ke
What I would do is charge the user for the hosting. You can sell your customizations as you please as they technically are not subject to the Magento license.
I would stay away from making changes to the "core" code and instead build off of them. That way you are not selling modified versions of the core software (which would kill your ability to easily upgrade the system).
You are allowed to license your extensions however you please so you would not have to worry about the open source model.