Rain POS Review 2024: Pros, Cons and Features

For retail companies, Rain offers a simple cloud-based point of sale system with a great selection of features.

The solution keeps inventory and order information updated automatically, and even supports integrations with tools like QuickBooks.

Plus, Rain allows users to build their own online store, host marketing campaigns, and create loyalty programs.

Rain POS Pros & Cons

What is Rain POS

Rain offers a straightforward all-in-one point of sale solution available to use via a tablet, mobile device, or desktop computer.

The retail POS combines brick and mortar retail solutions with ecommerce selling, to ensure business owners can make the most of every sales channel.

One unique thing about Rain, is its ability offer tailored versions of its POS system to different types of retail store.

The company’s team works with vendors to create custom solutions for boutique stores, craft stores, outdoor retailers, toy shops, and more.

Rain POS Features

Retail and Ecommerce POS

The combined retail and ecommerce POS software links your in-person sales channels with a simple online store you can customize to suit your needs. The software includes everything you would expect from a cloud-based POS, including:

• Comprehensive inventory management
• Online and in-store rewards and loyalty program tracking
• Powerful reporting tools and sales analytics
• Inventory management and one-click re-ordering
• Customer review management

However, you also get tools for marketing on Google, and via automated emails or local ads, SEO solutions for your online store and blog, and even options for managing online rentals.

Ecommerce Websites

Rain POS comes with tools to build your own online store already built-in.

Notably, the stores you can create might not be as advanced as those you’d get from a dedicated ecommerce platform, like Shopify.

However, you can experiment with a range of templates and customize your store to suit your brand. Your store comes with a backend where you can track your inventory and orders, with automatic syncing between channels.

It also includes SEO solutions, allowing you to create and publish fresh content for the search engines, design technically optimized pages, and generate meta tags. There’s also the option to list customer reviews on your site for social proof.

Retail Marketing

Aside from allowing you to boost your online presence with SEO, Rain POS also offers a variety of marketing tools to enhance your visibility. There are various ways you can connect with customers through Rain’s back-end, including:

• SMS: Order notifications, service check-ins and reminders.
• Email: Automated campaigns, on-sale alerts, and birthday coupons.
• Loyalty: Reward points, loyalty cards and gift cards.
• Reviews: Automatic review requests and listings for Facebook and Google.

You can automate the majority of your marketing campaigns with simple triggers, and there’s even the option to run targeted remarketing campaigns, to boost your chances of repeat sales.

Payment Processing

Rain promises businesses all the tools they need to process in-person transactions and ecommerce payments in one place.

Your real-time POS system will handle credit card and debit card transactions, issued by the top providers. Plus, the system automatically generates sales reports for you.

The software can also process mobile payments from Apple Pay and Google Pay. Plus, it comes with fraud prevention features built-in to help protect your company and your customers.

The user-friendly software tracks all of your payments for you, and allows you to set up payment rules.

For instance, with the online rental service, you can set up short-term rentals, rent-to-own packages, set variable rental periods, and customize deposit accounts. You can also determine automatic late fees, collect information from each customer, and generate reports.

Inventory Management

One of Rain’s most impressive features is its inventory management software, designed to scale with any business size and automate a range of tasks.

You can set daily to-do lists for your team, manage stock with statistics to help with budgeting, forecasting, and auditing, and collect customer insights.

The all-in-one system syncs your online and offline transactions, for deeper insights into your business. Plus, you can configure your POS features with Rain’s team to ensure everything is optimized to suit your organization.

The inventory management tools also feature real-time reporting capabilities, for real-time insights into low stock, and you can re-order products from suppliers with a couple of clicks.

Work Order Management

Unlike many POS systems, Rain also features a work order management system. This means you can book, manage, and track repairs and services to keep your business running smoothly.

The centralized system ensures every request is processed in the same environment, making them easy to monitor.

You can list tasks by priority, and create a collaborative environment where team members can also make work order requests.

There are templates to help streamline request processes, and you can set up multiple work orders for each transaction.

Reports and Analytics

Rain can offer detailed insights and reports into your sales, beyond its inventory reports and cash flow insights.

You can track everything from your best and worst selling products, to your work orders and repairs, and even your website’s performance.

Rain also integrates with QuickBooks, so you can transfer information to your accounting software. Plus, there’s an integration with “ClientBook” to keep track of all of your clientele and their preferences.

Pricing

Rain doesn’t list any prices for its software or solutions on its website. You will need to contact the team to get a quote for your specific business needs.

Where Rain Stands Out

Customizable POS systems

Unlike most retail POS solutions, Rain allows companies to customize their solution to suit their specific needs. The team can work with you to add unique features and components to your software, specific to your business operations.

This allows Rain to serve a wider range of retail companies, offering everything from rental services, to boutique products.

Every POS system is specific to your requirements, and can integrate with a variety of tools to help boost your sales potential.

Integrated Ecommerce Website (with Marketing)

Rain’s POS comes with a deeply integrated ecommerce website, to ensure you can run your business both online and offline, with minimal effort.

Inventory and order data syncs automatically between both channels, and you can even take advantage of SEO tools to boost your online presence.

Speaking of marketing, Rain offers a range of ways to engage and convert your customers, from solutions for collecting online reviews, to SMS and email marketing campaigns.

There’s even the option to create engaging loyalty programs with custom points.

Excellent Customer Service

Rain’s team is made up of retail experts with deep knowledge of the retail industry, ready to answer any questions you might have.

The company offers a personalized level of service to every company, “partnering” with its clients to help them make the most of their software.

Rain has already partnered with thousands of retailers worldwide, and has earned fantastic feedback and reviews, which you can see in their customer success stories section.

Where Rain Falls Short

No Transparent Pricing

Rain doesn’t list the price for its POS technology on its website, which makes it difficult to know how much you can expect to pay for software, services, and other features.

This could be because the company aims to personalize its POS for every business, but the lack of transparency is likely to be a problem for some vendors. On the plus side, you can schedule a demo for free.

No dedicated hardware

Unlike other POS vendors, Rain doesn’t offer direct access to POS hardware on its website. The primary reason for this is that Rain’s software can be used via your existing computer, tablet, or mobile device.

However most retailers may find themselves needing extra tools, such as barcode scanners, registers, and cash drawers.

No Employee Management

While Rain does promise to provide companies with a collaborative environment where they can manage inventory, work orders, and more, there are no dedicated employee management tools.

You can’t assign specific accounts to different employees, by the looks of things, and there aren’t any solutions for setting up schedules or payroll.

Alternatives to Rain POS

Though Rain can be an excellent POS solution for retailers, particularly those in search of custom technology, it won’t be the right option for every seller.

The employee management tools are virtually non-existent, and there aren’t any hardware options listed on the website.

If you’re looking for something more robust, options include:

1. Shopify POS

If you’re selling online and in-person, Shopify’s POS solution is an excellent option. The software works seamlessly with Shopify’s ecommerce platform, which gives you access to a comprehensive website builder, valuable marketing tools, and sales solutions.

Shopify has it’s own payment processing system, and a fantastic app marketplace where customers can find all of the add-ons and integrations, they might need to transform their business.

Once you’ve set up and customized your store, your inventory and orders will sync automatically between your offline and online platforms.

Shopify POS also offers various dedicated hardware options to choose from, such as the Shopify Go mobile POS system.

There are also tools available for robust employee and customer management, loyalty programs, and options for creating gift cards.

2. Square POS

Square is one of the most popular small business POS systems on the market. It comes with a huge variety of features, including specialist solutions for restaurants and retail companies.

Plus, the cloud-based system is incredibly easy to use. Square also allows users to create an ecommerce website for free (like Rain), and offers secure payment processing.

The POS system is available for free, and allows users to accept payments, automate aspects of their business, leverage inventory tracking and reporting tools, and manage employees.

Square also offers appointment scheduling and payroll software.

With Square, you also get to choose from a range of physical hardware options, from a full-service countertop register, to small card readers.

3. Clover POS

Clover is another highly customizable cloud-based POS solutions. You can accept payments in multiple different forms, and manage everything from inventory, to customer relationships and staff. Unlike Rain, Clover also gives users various hardware options to choose from.

Solutions range from the Clover Go Mobile POS system that connects to your phone or tablet, to the Clover Flex POS terminal, and even the Clover Mini countertop register.

There’s also the option to use a virtual terminal to accept payments via your computer.

Clover also offers dedicated POS systems designed for retail and restaurant businesses, with unique tools like menu management.

Plus, it offers a lot more integration options than Rain through the Clover app market. However, the software can be more expensive.