Craft Business Software: 4 Best Retail Solutions

Arts and crafts stores, hobby shops, and similar businesses thrive by appealing to a niche customer base. To succeed, your craft store needs to excel in various areas, including managing inventory, maintaining strong customer relationships, putting on workshops, and generating detailed sales reports.

Using the right point of sale (POS) system can make managing your craft store’s day-to-day operations easier. 

This blog highlights the top four POS software solutions trusted by leading craft stores — and the features and benefits they can bring to your business.

1. Rain POS

Rain POS is an all-in-one, cloud-based point of sale system ideally suited for craft businesses. Our industry-leading POS system can keep your inventory organized, improve your daily operations, and help you understand your customers from one central platform.

• Advanced inventory management: Rain POS gives you an accurate, real-time view of your inventory. Receive instant stock level updates, see your customers’ favorite and most ordered items, and order new materials from suppliers directly from your POS system. No more dealing with excessive carrying costs, or understocking and overstocking issues!

• Positive customer experience: With Rain POS, you can build easy-to-navigate, professional websites and online storefronts that sync with your brick-and-mortar stores. You can also sync your inventory, manage in-store and online payment processing, and easily track orders or workshop classes.

• Partnerships with top suppliers: Rain’s partnership with Notions Marketing and the International Art Materials Association (NAMTA) gives your business access to product catalogs from the leading arts and crafts suppliers. You also learn how to create quality workshops, through our work with the Creative Products Certification Program (CPC).

Rain POS’ craft business software also integrates with popular e-commerce platforms such as Shopify and accounting tools like QuickBooks Online, so you can conveniently manage your craft store from a single device. 

Pricing: Starts at $99/month for the Startup plan.

Customer reviews

• “I would recommend them to anyone. This is a great experience for me and my business.” – Connie A.

• “By going to a cloud-based system I am able to keep inventory updated when I am at a trade show or selling products online. The integration with Notions Marketing is a time saver. I no longer have to manually add price, description, or photos.” – Tee A.

2. Korona POS

Korona POS is a versatile point of sale system that helps your business run smoothly. It’s scalable, so it will grow with you, yet it’s easy to use for everyday tasks.

• Versatile analytics tools: Korona POS features advanced tools to analyze sales data and customer relationships. With its easy-to-use database, you can track each customer’s detailed purchase history. This lets you learn about their preferences to help you refine your craft shop’s marketing strategy, loyalty program, and customer service. 

• Promotions and discounts creation: Use Korona’s built-in Promotion Wizard to design promotions, discounts, and other deals for your craft store.

• Smart inventory management software: Korona’s inventory software lets you set up automatic reordering for individual products, fine-tuning your stock levels for each material or craft product.

Although Korona POS isn’t a craft store-specific POS system, its multi-industry software features can benefit arts and crafts shops.

Pricing: Starts at $59/month for the Core plan.

Customer reviews

• “It has been a positive experience for the company. I love that they are always trying to improve things as well.” – Jaylene A.

• “Integration was relatively easy. Tech support is outstanding. It is so feature-rich and customizable.” – Richard D.

3. RetailEdge

RetailEdge first hit the market in 1989, making it one of the oldest retail POS systems for outlets in various industries, including arts and crafts stores. The POS solution offers excellent features at a low price and is backed by reliable assistance, including a network of local resellers and quick access to U.S.-based tier 3 support.

• Vast inventory memory: RetailEdge’s inventory manager can handle up to one million items and material types. This offers more than enough space to store your entire store’s catalog of individual beads, jewels, stickers, fabrics, yarns, and other raw materials.

• Kitting feature for workshops: If you’re organizing a craft day, class, or workshop at your craft store, you can use RetailEdge’s item-kitting feature to create convenient kits and bundles for your customers and class members.

• Detailed customer management: RetailEdge includes numerous customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Track complete purchase histories, interests, preferences, discounts, and loyalty programs. Get all the data you need to adjust your marketing strategy and grow your craft store’s customer base. 

Despite its 35-year market presence, RetailEdge remains primarily a general POS system. As a Windows-only solution, it may also be unsuitable for craft shop owners on Mac or mobile devices.

Pricing: One-time purchase of $495 plus $225 for additional workstations.

Customer reviews

• “This program is so easy for me to use. I am still learning all the different features available. I like all the reports that can be generated, as well.” – Joyce S.
• “I like that RE is all we need for inventory management, POS, reports, etc. It's easy to use, even for new hires, and easy for me as a manager to adjust as needs change.” – Jennifer K.

4. Sintel Systems POS

Sintel Systems is a U.S.-based omnichannel POS hardware and software provider, including the Sintel Systems retail POS system. It focuses on giving your craft business everything to grow and expand to new locations without compromising service. 

• Simplified inventory and customer management: Sintel Systems combines various store management features into an easy-to-use interface. You can keep track of your inventory in real time, pull up customer information at a glance, and explore sales and transaction histories within seconds.

• Easy loyalty programs: Create and manage a convenient loyalty program for your craft shop with Sintel’s QR code-based gift cards and loyalty points. With this system, you can encourage your customers to make repeat orders and earn rewards.

• Back office module: Sintel Systems also has a separately available back office module that works with your main retail POS system to manage your craft shop’s behind-the-scenes operations. Use its powerful interface to maintain vendor information, reorder new materials, produce sales reports, and even forecast your craft business’ sales trends.

The Sintel Systems solution is mainly a food service-industry POS system, but its retail features also help manage your arts and crafts store and encourage customer loyalty. 

Pricing: One-time purchase of $999 for the main retail POS program and $899 for the back office module.

Customer reviews

• “Having looked at probably eight other brands, I went forward with Sintel.” – Yo Factor
• “It’s easy to work in it and to get orders because all of the buttons are color-coded and items are categorized… which gives us the opportunity to find items easy.” – Art’s Bakery

Craft an Unmatched Customer Experience

When looking for a new POS system for your craft business, you have many options. While each system has its own features and tools to support retail businesses, none offer the same tailored approach as Rain POS.

Adopting Rain POS means using a craft business software designed by and for people from the arts and crafts industry. Every feature in Rain POS is built for your craft shop’s inventory and customer management requirements, so you don’t pay for features you don’t need!

Integrate the leading POS system for craft businesses into your store today. Give Rain POS a try — schedule a demo today and discover why it is the top-rated POS choice for craft shops!