Find the best operational CRM software for your business. Learn about the features, pricing, and use cases of the top six CRM solutions for 2024.
A retail CRM is a software that supports customer-facing B2C sales, which tend to involve frequent repeat transactions. The best retail CRMs include a point-of-sale (POS) system and inventory management tools that analyze customers’ shopping patterns and purchase history. We evaluated the top retail CRMs that help ecommerce and brick-and-mortar stores reduce costs and satisfy customers while selling faster and smarter.
Here are the top six retail CRM software:
All of the retail CRMs evaluated are good options and scored highly in one category or another. However, overall, we found that Square POS offers the best value for those seeking a retail CRM, scoring the highest for core features and ease of use, and tying for pricing. Check out how each fared across six categories below, including primary use cases, summary of features, and pricing plans. To see how we evaluated each retail software, jump down to our explanation.
Note: All per-user prices are with a one-year commitment unless noted.
Offers a free and user-friendly POS system with ecommerce features for growing retail stores.
Price Range: Free to $60+ per location, per month + processing fees (30-day free trial)
Square POS is a free point-of-sale software with ecommerce functions that cater to different types of businesses, such as brick and mortar and online retail stores. Set up your business without monthly contracts or SaaS fees, and pay only processing fees when your customer makes a purchase. You can manage your inventory and payment transactions without an additional cost and upgrade to a higher tier to manage multiple store locations or accounts.
While Square POS provides a good mix of price, features, and ease of use for retailers, its customer support isn’t the best. If you’re looking for a retail CRM that offers great user support, try Freshsales, which won in this category.
Creates a personalized shopping experience for customers to increase your retail store’s ROI.
Price Range: Contact for quote (15-day free trial)
Zoho CRM for Retail is a highly-customizable CRM platform which lets you build a personalized shopping experience for your customers. Create a comprehensive product catalog for your online store, organize them into categories, and set up pricing rules using custom fields and modules. Then, establish reorder points for your products by setting the minimum stock level at which you want to replenish to ensure timely restocking and avoid shortage or surplus.
Zoho CRM for Retail provides top-notch customization features and is one of our best CRMs for ecommerce, but it needs to integrate with a separate point-of-sale system. If having built-in POS software is important to you, look into Square POS, which offers this feature for free.
Visit Zoho CRM for Retail
Helps retailers tailor marketing campaigns and loyalty programs through data-driven insights.
Price Range: $50 to $300+ per user, per month (30-day free trial)
Salesforce for Retail is a sales-forward CRM with built-in reporting and analytics that provides insights into customer behavior and purchasing history. Access data-powered reports for your performance each quarter or season and see your online sales, email marketing revenue, and more in one visual dashboard. You can also monitor your post-sale activities by segmenting your reports among factors like order fulfillment, returns, and customer interaction.
Although Salesforce has excellent reporting capabilities, customizing it can be overwhelming. If you’re someone who needs a retail software with a simpler interface, try Square POS, which won in this category and also offers great sales analytics tools.
Unifies customer data from multiple sales, marketing, and service platforms of your retail store.
Price Range: Free to $69 per user, per month (21-day free trial)
Freshsales is a top-rated CRM that offers robust contact management for retailers to consolidate and track customer information in a centralized hub for your sales, service, and marketing operations. You can identify your loyal customers and create personalized campaigns or rewards programs based on the data you’ve gathered. Get a holistic view of your contacts’ open deals, meeting notes, and more using Kanban views in your dashboard.
While Freshsales is a great option for contact management, it lacks robust ecommerce functions. If you’re looking for retail software with comprehensive ecommerce functions, look into Zoho CRM for Retail.
Helps you build an online store from scratch and integrate with your social media channels.
Price Range: Free to $199 per month (30-day free trial)
Bitrix24 is a general-purpose CRM with an online store platform that you can build for free. Sync social media channels with your online store so customers can browse through your products on Instagram or Facebook. If you don’t want to build a separate website for your business, you can process purchases and payments directly from Bitrix24’s online store platform. Upgrade to paid versions if you need advanced features like sales intelligence or marketing automation.
While Bitrix24 offers a good option for retailers to build their online store without cost, it lacks POS integration. iIf you need a retail CRM with a built-in POS system, try Square POS.
Helps retail businesses scale by attracting new customers and retaining old ones.
Price Range: $69 to $199+ per register, per month (14-day free trial)
Lightspeed is a well-integrated POS system for growing a retail business. It provides powerful analytics that help retailers understand customer behavior, enabling them to offer incentives that will appeal to them. Lightspeed retailers can create rewards and tiered loyalty programs to attract and retain these customers, which makes it best for retailers seeking a smart POS system to increase sales and customer acquisition and ultimately grow their business.
Lightspeed has robust ecommerce features, but upgrades or add-ons might be pricey for small retailers. If you’re someone who needs retail software with comprehensive but affordable POS and ecommerce tools, try Square POS, which offers a good mix of pricing and features.
The best options for retail software include these functions:
Secure in-store and online payments for your products or services, and process your sales transactions in one integrated system.
Optimize retail operations by monitoring stock levels from multiple locations, managing procurement processes, and ensuring accurate inventory data is shared within your team.
Provide a convenient shopping experience to your customers by accepting various payment methods, applying discounts automatically, and generating receipts on one platform.
Create a system to reward and incentivize customers by offering exclusive discounts, promotions, point accumulation, and personalized offers based on data-driven insights.
To round up the top CRM software for retailers, we first defined the six weighted categories based on the factors that tend to be the most essential for users. Then, we included several subcriteria, which summed up to an overall score out of five. Finally, we determined an overall score for the retail CRMs on our list and identified a primary use case for each option.
Retail management and POS hubs are multifaceted systems that integrate inventory management, sales, and customer relationship management. Use our list to narrow down your choices and find the right fit for your business. If you’re specifically managing an online-only store, check out our editorial review of the best ecommerce CRMs. You can also read our list of the top CRMs for salespeople if you prefer a general CRM over an industry-specific one.
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