Lightspeed Adds eCommerce Link To Mobile POS

When the first mobile dongle allowed small businesses to turn a smartphone or tablet into a fully functioning POS system, the playing field between big and local businesses got a little more even. Now that Lightspeed has another game-changing announcement, that balance of power may have shifted again.

In an interview with VentureBeat, Lightspeed POS Chief Revenue Officer J.P. Chauvet announced that his company had released Lightspeed eCom, a suite to help retailers integrate their in-store operations with pop-up eCommerce sites. Since flexibility is not only key to effective omnicommerce stewardship but also to Lightspeed’s consumer base of mobile device users, Chauvet explained that eCom is built from the ground up to make shifting inventory between in-store and online and selling globally as easy as possible.

“Our app partnerships ensure that merchants can easily integrate with local technology as well,” Chauvet told VentureBeat. “Take payments, for example: If a retailer is selling in France, instead of being limited to a global payments system that takes a percentage of their fees, they can connect to the local French banks through the Lightspeed app store to reduce fees. Our global network of app partnerships means retailers can sell globally but connect locally.”

Lightspeed eCom will include all of the features merchants have come to expect from plug-and-play eCommerce suites — consumer profiles from online data, real-time inventory monitoring, etc. — with the ease of use that Lightspeed’s customers have come to expect from its brand, Chauvet explained.

“Shoppers are increasingly moving between in-store and online (on various devices) as they shop,” Chauvet told VentureBeat. “To keep up, retailers should be able to seamlessly manage their selling channels without a lot of extra work — no compromises.”

Unfortunately, for small businesses just supercharging their eCommerce efforts with products like Lightspeed eCom, big-box retailers have been operating under that take-no-prisoners mentality for years now.