Written by Business Expert Wale Ameen 
Our product review team dedicates hours of research, fact-checking and testing to recommend the best solutions to business owners. We earn from qualifying purchases through our links, but this does not influence our evaluations. Why trust our reviews?
A beauty supply POS is an essential solution that you need to increase customer experience in your beauty supply shop. In this review, I have done an extensive analysis of some of the best POS systems out there looking at cost, features, and customer reviews.
The essential features to look out for in a beauty supply business POS system are inventory management, order and supplier order management, appointment booking, and real-time data reporting.
Based on the above highlighted features, the best beauty supply POS system I recommend is Brilliant POS. Just like its name, it is a brilliant cloud based solution that will help you adequately manage your inventory, supplies and employees.
In addition, Brilliant POS scores very high among users who rate its customer service and simplicity very high. It has a 4.9/5 star rating on Google and Trustpilot.
You may also be interested in:
8 Best POS System Options for Retail Business Owners
7 Best Salon POS to Increase Your Online Bookings [User Tested]
The 5 Best POS for Barbershop: Pricing, Features Compared
| Our Experts’ Choice | Brilliant POS |
 |
Specifications of Brilliant POS:
|
Don’t have time to read this whole review? Skip ahead to:
- How I Evaluated
- Brilliant POS – The Best Beauty Supply POS System Overall
- Lightspeed Retail POS – The Best iPad-Based Beauty Supply POS System
- NCR Counterpoint – The Best Beauty Supply All-in-One Retail System
- Revel POS Systems – Best Cloud-Based Beauty Supply POS
- Buyers Guide
- FAQ
How I Evaluated
This review is the result of in-depth research into more than 10 of the best beauty supply POS systems and POS software for beauty supply available on the market. It is drawn up based on two parameters: First, a review of users’ submissions online; and secondly, a personal review and analysis of the features of each solution. In coming up with my review, I reviewed about 300 users’ reviews across four platforms: Capterra, Trustpilot, Softwareadvice, and G2.
Along with these parameters are our standard considerations for choosing a POS system.
The best beauty supply POS system should be capable of managing a diverse inventory of cosmetic products, hair gels, combs, and many other products. The ideal system would also manage a customer’s need for loyalty programs and gift cards. So if you are ready to take your business to the next level, let me take you through an in depth analysis of the modern beauty supply POS systems on the market.
1. Brilliant POS – The Best Beauty Supply POS System Overall
The Brilliant Beauty Supply POS system will simplify business management for you and improve customer service. It is a POS software for beauty supply that allows you to effectively manage employees, stock the right products for the target market, and offer the right services to attract new and repeat business.
The solution is packed with a myriad of innovative tools to save you time on administrative tasks and facilitate decision making.
Best features of Brilliant POS
Other capabilities that make Brilliant ideal for beauty supply businesses include:
Cloud-Based Mobility
As one of the best cloud-based beauty supply POS systems, Brilliant POS offers you secure and convenient access to business data in real-time. This solution makes it possible for you to connect with your customers from anywhere.
It will also free your team to meet customers anywhere on the store floor, bringing the POS system along with them in real-time. In addition, if you want to stay on top of the business remotely, the solution offers an intuitive log-on capability.
Inventory Management
This feature offers you all the tools you need to keep pace with the ever-changing beauty trends. The solution features robust and comprehensive inventory management functionality.
It allows you to keep track of the hot-selling and not-so-hot selling items so that you can adjust course and manage inventory intelligently.
You will also be able to set low stock alerts, manage vendor relationships, and generate and receive purchase orders in a seamless manner.
How Much Does Brilliant POS cost?
Whether you are using Clover Mini, Clover Flex, or Clover Mobile, the provider offers a number of price plans to suit your needs and budget. Some of the main price plans offered by Brilliant POS include:
Payments Plus ($4.95)
This plan offers you the basic functionality you need to monitor your cash and credit sales in real-time from anywhere. It allows you to accept all forms of payment and capture electronic signatures and tips on-screen. This option also enables you to send and store digital receipts, set employee permissions and shifts, as well as enable customer engagement marketing.
Register Lite ($14.95)
Would you like to upgrade the functionality of your Brilliant POS system beyond the basic cash register capabilities? The Register Lite plan will add order and inventory management capabilities to your POS system.
Register ($44.95)
This is a full-featured beauty supply POS solution that will help you unleash unlimited potential. In addition to Register Lite features, this plan will also offer you advanced order and item management capabilities. The $44.95 price is for the first register. Additional registers are priced at $9.95 each.
Possible Drawbacks
Requires upfront payment for the hardware, which smaller businesses may have problems footing the bill for.
How is Brilliant POS Rated Among Users?
As mentioned earlier, Brilliant POS comes highly rated among users who have submitted their reviews on various platforms like Google and Trustpilot.
2. Lightspeed Retail POS – The Best iPad-Based Beauty Supply POS System
Get yourself an all-in-one POS software for beauty supplies that offers great value for money. The mobile-based POS convenience of the solution allows you to streamline your operations on the go. Lightspeed also supports multiple business locations and multiple payment options. Other aspects that make Lightspeed one of the best beauty supply POS systems include:
Best Features of Lightspeed Retail POS
Omnichannel Capabilities
This capability allows you to do online and in-store sales and other retail operations from the same platform with Lightspeed’s Omni Channel functionality. The provider offers some of the best eCommerce capabilities for beauty supply businesses. The Omnichannel suite of tools is aimed at optimizing sales and productivity in your business while managing the workflow and inventory in real-time.
Reliable Customer Support
LightSpeed beauty supply POS system features an intuitive interface for enhanced ease of use. However, you may find yourself in need of professional assistance from time to time.
In such a case, the provider has a team of experienced customer support professionals in place to help you out. LightSpeed customer support is reliable, reachable, and highly-responsive. You may contact them 24/7 and have your concerns addressed in a timely manner.
How Much Does Lightspeed Retail POS Cost?
Lightspeed retail offers a number of software subscription plans to suit different business sizes and budgets. Here are some of the monthly subscription plans you should consider:
Basic Plan ($69/Mo)
Priced at $69 per month, this plan offers basic retail management and POS capabilities. This price is for a single register and is billed annually. For those who would wish to be billed monthly, the provider charges $79/month for the same plan. Additional registers will cost you $29/month each.
Starter Plan ($99/Mo)
This is for retailers who would like to have an online presence. In addition to the Basic features, this plan offers eCommerce capabilities. If you would rather pay for your subscription month after month, the provider will charge you $119/month.
Standard Plan ($119/Mo)
For $119/month that is billed annually, the provider will offer you automated accounting in addition to Standard features. If you would like to add registers, you will be charged an additional $29/month per register.
Advanced Plan ($169/Mo)
Would you like to reward your loyal customers through the POS system? The Advanced Lightspeed retail plan features LoyaltyEngage to help you achieve this. If you are to be billed on a monthly basis, you will be charged $189/month for this plan.
Possible Drawbacks
It requires a one-year commitment, which may be too expensive for some businesses.
How Do Beauty Supply Owners Rate Lightspeed Retail?
Lightspeed is highly rated on the various review platforms I analyzed. On Softwareadvice.com it has a 4.2/5 star rating from 875 total reviews, on G2.com, it has a 5 star rating from a total of 176 reviewers, while on the Apple app store, it has a 2.4 star rating out of 5.
3. NCR Counterpoint – The Best Beauty Supply All-in-One Retail System
With the NCR Counterpoint POS system, beauty supply business owners and managers can focus more on running the business and connecting with customers. As a complete retail POS system, NCR Counterpoint automates some of the important tasks to help streamline operations. Ranging from inventory to sales management, the solution features all the tools you need to succeed.
Best Features of NCR Counterpoint
Mobile Inventory Management
Mobile Inventory Management The NCR Counterpoint system features a 2B-Inventory solution. This is a powerful, simple, portable, and accurate mobile solution for inventory and warehouse management. It allows you to save time, improve accuracy, and ease the burden of physical inventory.
Scan inventory item barcodes to monitor actual store quantities. Quickly transfer scanned information from 2B-Inventory to Counterpoint to calculate differences in recorded and actual inventory.
Secure Payments
The NCR Secure Pay offers a secure and reliable integrated payment solution for your beauty supply business. It is a PCI-DSS Compliant electronic payment gateway that you can rely on for reduced credit card breach risk.
Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE) helps protect sensitive credit and debit card data from the first card swipe, while in transit, and all the way to the Secure Pay host. State of the art encrypting devices encrypt cardholder information prior to performing an electronic payment transaction.
These sophisticated devices use strong encryption and industry-standard key management technologies to encrypt and transmit cardholder data securely over any network.
How Much Does NCR Counterpoint Cost?
The pricing for NCR Counterpoint hardware and software solutions is tailored to your specific business needs. To get an accurate quote, you should contact the provider directly through its official website.
Possible Drawbacks
The system only works on proprietary hardware components, which can be quite costly to acquire.
How Do Other Business Owners Rate NCR Counterpoint?
Although I noticed that NCR Counterpoint does not have as many reviews online when compared to others like Brilliant POS and Lightspeed Retail, it still rates well among the few users that have submitted reviews.
From reviews I analyzed on Softwareadvice.com, the POS solution scores a total of 21 five star ratings and thirty-five 4-star ratings. On G2 and GetApp, it has a total of 9 five-star ratings and a 3.6/5 overall star rating respectively.
4. Revel POS Systems – Best Cloud-Based Beauty Supply POS
Revel POS is a feature-rich, cloud-based iPad POS system for a variety of businesses, but really excels in two industries; restaurant and retail. It comes equipped with all the bells and whistles you expect to get for its price tag.
With Revel POS, hourly sales can be tracked, inventory management tools make keeping track of stock a breeze, and best of all, it can be integrated with other services such as Apple Pay and QuickBooks. Although it is one of the more expensive iPad POS systems, Revel continues to earn its keep. It is able to cater to just about any need you may have for your beauty supply business.
Best Features of NCR Counterpoint
Gift Cards/Loyalty Programs
As a beauty supply store owner, the key to getting repeat customers is incentivizing customer loyalty. This can be accomplished through a wide variety of loyalty program setups, or even gift cards to your store. Revel POS makes it easy to manage in your POS dashboard.
Inventory Management
Inventory ManagementSetup low inventory updates and even automatic re-orders for low stock so that you never run out of any supplies.
Email Marketing Integrations
If email marketing isn’t your forte but you’d like to implement it with your customers, the integrated email marketing software options available with Revel POS will make it easy for you. Email marketing campaigns are a great way to keep your customer base educated on the products and/or services that you offer, as well as any current promotions that you may be running.
Possible Drawbacks of Revel POS
Apart from being extremely expensive, the Revel iPad POS system also falls short in quite a few other areas. Even after that initial $1,000 fee to get it all set up.
You are still left with the headache of making it work the way you actually want it to, and for the less tech-savvy this is a daunting task to say the least.
Reporting data
The reporting data is not always accurate, the system has a tendency to get very laggy or just crash altogether, customer service does not seem very well educated in the product, and there are a lot of customers still waiting on iOS 10 compatibility.
Revel really does have the potential to be a huge name in the point of sale industry. However, they need to make it more accessible to entry-level users, as well as fix a lot of the bugs the system has.
This iPad based POS system is indeed rich in features, but I cannot recommend it for the average user unless they have a large budget and are tech-savvy enough to troubleshoot any problems they run into. Overall, Revel isn’t a bad system outside of the problems I mentioned above. The folks over at Revel have heard all kinds of feedback from their customers, and they are actively and constantly working to improve their system based on what the community wants.
How Much Does Revel POS Cost?
Revel is without a doubt one of the more expensive options on this list. For small beauty shop owners who are just starting out, it is probably best to avoid starting with Revel at first. The initial setup fee is a fairly large price barrier for most and will run you $1,000 just to get started.
This is a deal-breaker for many, considering that even many of the more well-known iPad POS systems do not have any setup fee at all. As a matter of fact, Revel is the only one on this list that has any kind of setup fee.After you are all set up, you will also have a monthly fee that can range from $70.00 – $200.00.
What Do Beauty Supply Store Owners Say About Revel?
Revel POS is a 2024 Summer Leader on G2 and a 2024 Noteworthy Product and Established Player on Capterra. It has a score of 3.7 overall star rating for ease of use on the Capterra platform,while it has 130 and 78 5-star reviews on Softwareadvice and G2.
Buyer’s Guide: Things You Need to Know Before Settling For A Beauty Supply POS System
As noted earlier at the beginning of this review, certain features should stand out for beauty supply owners when looking out to purchase a point of sale solution.
Beauty supply owners should only go for software options that help them manage the employees and stock the right products for the target market. Your preferred beauty supply POS system should simplify your work by streamlining the important processes.
Ideally, you will need a POS solution that can manage the diverse beauty supply inventory, keep things organized, offer discounts, and offers like Mix and Match. If you are looking for such a system, here are some of the important considerations you need to make:
Reporting and Analytics
The software option you choose should keep you updated on the performance and all the important business metrics at all times. Most of the leading beauty supply POS systems are designed to collect important business information and generate relevant reports automatically.
The solution should allow you easy and secure access to this business data from anywhere in real-time. An integrated time clock will make it easier for you to track your employees. Additionally, it should be capable of generating appropriate staff reports and insights.
Although some beauty supply POS software solutions are known to feature accounting capabilities, it is advisable to get one that supports integration with third-party accounting integrations. This will ensure that your accounting data is automatically posted to prevent costly errors.
Inventory Management
Only a specialty POS software for beauty supply will have all the tools you need to effectively manage the diverse stock in your business. Following the initial setup, the system allows for easy transfer of business information, including the inventory database.
In this regard, the leading software solutions allow you to import data in Excel or CSV formats. The right system should allow you to order your stock directly from the POS system, preferably through pre-loaded catalogs. Other inventory management tools that will come in handy in a beauty supply business include:
Product Variants
Owing to the diverse nature of a beauty supply inventory, you will need an inventory manager that can accommodate all your product Variants. As such, your preferred beauty supply software should allow you to capture multiple product attributes.
For instance, it should allow you to enter multiple Variants for the same product, such as color, size, and style. It should also make it possible for you to categorize items using the relevant custom labels.
Purchase Orders
This tool will make it easier and more convenient for you to order stock from multiple vendors. In this regard, some of the leading POS providers allow you to place orders with different vendors by creating a single purchase order. This will definitely save you a considerable amount of time.
Orders
In addition to purchase orders, the system you choose should be capable of creating work orders, layaways, and special orders right from the POS system. Need stock from multiple vendors? Save time (and money) by creating a single purchase order.
Item Types
The system should make it relatively easy for you to categorize your stock items by types, such as assembly or box. A system that can attribute serial numbers to the various inventory items will also come in handy.
Customer Relationships Management (CRM)
The best beauty supply POS system should equip you with the CRM tools you need to drive loyalty and keep your customers coming back. To grow your customers’’ lifetime value, you need a suite of tools that help you anticipate their future purchases.
It is also advisable for you to get a solution that supports loyalty programs and gift cards for your beauty supply business. It should allow your customers to purchase gift cards and use them with ease on their future purchases.
In addition to collecting important customer details automatically, the system should also allow you to create customer profiles/accounts. It should allow you to include additional notes to each customer profile, denoting their specific needs. This, along with customer sales history, will help you tailor your offering to each customer’s needs.
Customer Types
The system should let you group your regulars according to their purchase histories. For instance, you may have regular, employees, and VIP customers. The right software for a beauty supply business should allow you to assign statuses to customer accounts, making it easier for you to identify them and offer appropriate incentives.
Final Verdict
Choose a beauty supply POS system that is specifically designed for a beauty supply store and other specialized boutiques. Such systems have the capabilities you need to manage the diverse range of lipsticks, flat irons, perfumes, and other beauty products you have in stock.
Like the four POS systems I have reviewed above, your preferred solution should organize the inventory, manage customers, and staff effectively. Whether you own a startup business or a supply chain, this guide will help you get the best beauty supply POS system. You can get a quote now from our top rated beauty supply POS Brilliant here.
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable are beauty supply stores?
The average net profit in the United States for beauty supply stores is $35 – $70,000 annually.
Is a beauty supply store a good business to open?
If you love the beauty industry but don’t have any education or experience, being a beauty supply store owner is a great option. This will let you interact with your customers and share your passion for all things beauty-related.
What is the purpose of a beauty supply store?
Beauty supply stores exist as a one-stop-shop for consumers to find all their beauty-related products ranging from cosmetics, accessories, grooming, and haircare.