EPOS Direct Reviews: UK Fees & Pricing

EPOS Direct is like a jack-of-all-trades service for online businesses. You’ll gain access to a point-of-sale (POS) system that any retail or hospitality business can use, a website-building platform to create your own site, digital marketing services that can help you grow your company, and finally, an online ordering service.

You can choose whichever service you need or simply go for all of them since they all come with unique and vital tools that can help any small business grow into a titan in the retail and hospitality industries.

Services

We’ll go over all of the services that EPOS Direct offers and give you a brief run-through of the available features.

POS

The point-of-sale system that EPOS Direct provides comes with plenty of features that would be helpful for any business in both the retail and hospitality sectors.

The truth is that both the retail and hospitality packages come with basically the same features, although the POS UI is different for both.

The hospitality POS is an ideal option for bars, restaurants, cafes, fast food establishments, and other hospitality businesses. It provides you with customisable icons and tabs to reflect the items that you have on your menu, and you can adjust the font and the size to make the displayed items easier to recognise and find when working.

The Retail POS UI is equally as customisable when it comes to the icons and tabs on the screen, although this time it’s more appropriate for services in the hosting industry. Grocery stores, clothing stores, and convenience stores can all make use of this POS, and that’s just a very short list of possible places where it can be used.

Price

Both versions of the POS come with an immediate payment option, as well as a 4-month gradual payment plan. The monthly price is advertised as £299, but the truth is that it’ll cost you £359.70 once you include the VAT. If you prefer to pay it off at once, you can always use the one-time payment option and send £1438.80 to EPOS Direct (VAT included).

Features

The POS systems come with quite a few features that make them great tools for any industry.

Hardware – Both the hospitality and retail packages come with a 15-inch touchscreen table display, a secure metallic cash drawer, and an 80 mm thermal receipt printed. The one difference between the two packages is that the retail package also comes with a barcode scanner. While this might seem like an advantage of the retail package, you don’t really need a scanner if you’re working in a hotel, so that’s not a major loss.

Easy-to-Integrate – The POS systems come already installed on the provided 15-inch touchscreen tablet display. All you really need to do is fire it up and start bringing up orders.

Online Training – In order to learn a bit more about how the system works, you can always attend one of the free complimentary lessons that EPOS Direct provides. The entire course is free and you can find out everything about the system, the features, and how you can use them to receive and complete transactions much more quickly.

Support – Aside from the training program, EPOS Direct also provides support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You’ll always have access to professionals who know every aspect of the system and you’ll be able to ask them any questions that you might have about the system or the features. According to the site, 80% of the issues that people have are solved within 30 minutes.

Works Online and Offline – The system has an online database that stores all of the completed transactions. When there’s no internet, the transactions can’t be backed up, but they’ll still be stored in the internal memory until they can be uploaded once there’s an internet connection. Fortunately, the system is completely functional without an internet connection, so you can go about your day as usual and then the system will automatically make an online backup when it can.

No Additional Charges – There are no licensing fees or any hidden charges that you might need to worry about. Once you cover the initial price of the service, all of the features are yours to use without any catch in the fine print of the contract. Additionally, there are no ongoing charges, so you simply need to make a single one-off payment or a 4 part payment in order to get access to everything that the service provides.

Weight Scale – If you’re in the retail sector and you need to use a weighing scale, you’ll be glad to know that this POS service can actually integrate with an electronic scale. All you need to do in order to establish this integration is to attach the scale to a port on your device and the system will take care of the rest.

Kitchen Display – If you’re in the hospitality field, you’ll be able to use the “Kitchen Display” feature. This has several functions. You’ll be able to see the tables that you’re in charge of, the orders that have been placed for each table, a list of potential allergens in the dishes, and so on.

This feature also helps with the management side of things as it allows you to see the remaining cooking materials that you have, when to make orders for new supplies, check the number of ingredients that are being used for each dish, and so on. You’ll also be able to see the most popular dishes, as well as the exact income for that day.

Integrations – You’ll be able to add various integrations to your POS that can help you improve your business in various ways. Deliverect allows you to receive orders online and helps you manage those orders efficiently. Xero and Sage can help you with the accounting side of things and allow you to calculate your taxes more easily, as well as do a number of other things. StoreFeeder allows you to manage multiple stores from one device.

You can even use Magento and Shopify to link your POS with your eCommerce store. Not only will this allow you to process all payments from your website and your store in one location, but both of these integrations also work well with the eCommerce service that we’ll go over next.

eCommerce

With EPOS Direct, you can create eCommerce sites that perfectly fit your business. There are three plans, and while they don’t have names, they basically provide you with three levels of service. 

The basic plan comes with everything that you need for a basic eCommerce site. 

The second plan comes with more advanced features that can help you build a better site for your visitors.

The third plan allows you to create bespoke sites. This essentially means that you can work in tandem with professionals to design the ideal site for your business. However, there’s no listed price for this service, so you’ll need to contact a professional in order to get an estimate on how much a site might cost you.

While the lack of transparency when it comes to the price isn’t ideal, there are upsides. After you get in touch with the EPOS Direct representative, you’ll be able to tell them exactly what you want your site to have and which features you want it to include, and they’ll be able to give you exactly what you want.

Once the layout is agreed upon, you’ll get a better idea of whether that’s possible or not, any changes that need to be made, and how much the whole thing will cost you. In essence, you’ll get a professionally designed site with all of the trimmings and you’ll be able to decide on whether or not the price suits you or not ahead of time.

Custom Designed Responsive Website

The first eCommerce plan will cost you £399, or £478.80 if you include the VAT. You also have the option to split the payment over 4 months, which will come out to £119.70 per month (with the VAT included) £99.75 without the VAT.

If you go for the second option, you won’t have to pay any interest, there’s no admin fee, and the monthly payments will automatically be subtracted from your account after the first payment. You’ll get a certificate that proves your purchase after the final payment, but keep in mind that any unpaid instalment will incur a £25 plus vat admin fee.

This plan comes with free hosting and customer support, and you’ll even get a dedicated consultant that you can contact in case you have any questions about the service.

You’ll get 5 or 6 professionally designed SEO-friendly pages, so there will be a better chance of your site coming up when someone looks for a specific product or term online.

The site is also mobile-friendly, so people will easily be able to view your pages regardless of the device they’re using.

While these are all pretty basic features of any site creation platform, it’s still a great price for a service that gives you the foundation to start your online business.

E-commerce Solutions

The second plan from the eCommerce service will cost you £3,598 (VAT included), or £2,999 if you don’t include the VAT. However, if you go for the 4-month delayed payment, then the price will be £749.75 a month without the VAT and £899.70 with the VAT. You also get all of the perks of the delayed payment option that we mentioned previously. These include the 0% interest, admin fees, and other fees.

This plan offers free domain and hosting services, a dedicated consultant, and an SSL certificate that gives you a bit more security on your site. You’ll also be able to add an unlimited number of products to your site and receive free training from EPOS Direct professionals who’ll teach you how to use all of the features.

You’ll get access to inventory management tools that will allow you to check your stock numbers, review the list of most popular and most purchased items on your site, as well as add multiple images for each product. There’s even a zoom-in function so that potential customers can get a better look at your products.

Additionally, if your visitors add certain items to their wishlist, they’ll get suggestions for similar items or complimentary products they might also be interested in. You can tag products with multiple categories and separate them into groups so that your visitors can find what they’re looking for a lot more easily. You can also introduce a rating system to your site so that customers get a better idea of the quality of the products.

The site can integrate with both PayPal and Stripe payment services, so you’ll be able to add either or both to your site.

And finally, this plan also comes with mobile-friendly pages that automatically adjust the elements of the site to fit the device that they’re being viewed on, as well as analytics and reporting tools. These tools can allow you to generate reports on the most popular products in your inventory, your overall SEO stats, the number of purchases per day, and much more.

Digital Marketing

The Digital Marketing service has 3 plans to offer – Silver, Gold, and Platinum. 

Silver

The Silver plan will cost you £199, or £238.80 if you include the VAT.

The Silver plan comes with the following features:

• On-Page SEO – Certain keywords, page-specific words, tags, headings, and other elements are used in order to increase traffic going to your site, as well as increase your overall brand visibility.
• Google Maps – This feature allows your site visitors to find your store location much more easily by using the Google Maps link.
• Google Analytics Setup – Google Analytics reviews the info from your site visitors and provides you with a bit more information on your customers. You’ll get detailed reports on the average number of visitors that you get per day, where most of your visitors come from, and much more.
• Content Optimisation – You’ll receive content management tips that can help you improve the overall performance of your site and tell you what you need to improve or cut out to increase site traffic.
• Keyword Analysis – This feature helps you find new markets for your products by providing you with keywords that you can use to become more visible online when people search for specific items.
• Meta Titles and Descriptions – The meta titles and descriptions show up under the page title on the SERP and it tells potential visitors what your site is about and what products you’re selling.

Gold

The Gold plan will set you back £299 if you don’t include the VAT, and £358.80 if you do.

The Gold plan comes with the following features:

• On-Page SEO
• Google Maps
• Google Analytics Setup
• Content Optimisation
• Keyword Analysis
• Meta Titles and Descriptions
• Setting up of Social Media Accounts – The Gold service will create a social media account for your brand so that you can market your products more effectively.
• Configuring Social Media Accounts – Aside from creating a social media account for you, all of the elements on the page will also be configured for the best online visibility and product marketing.

Platinum

The final plan is a one-time payment of £599 (£718.80 once you include the VAT), or you can go with the 4-month delayed payment option and pay £149.75 (£179.70 per month with the VAT).

The Platinum plan comes with the following features:

• On-Page SEO
• Google Maps
• Google Analytics Setup
• Content Optimisation
• Keyword Analysis
• Meta Titles and Descriptions
• Setting up of Social Media Accounts
• Configuring Social Media Accounts
• Posting Ads for a Week – The service will help increase the visibility of your site by showing brand-specific ads that lead back to your page.
• Running Ads Campaigns – EPOS Direct professionals will create bespoke ads for your site that can help boost the discoverability of your site.

Online Ordering System

The online ordering system will cost you £838.80 (£699 without the VAT), or you can go with the 4-month delayed payment option that will set you back £209.70 a month (£174.75 without the VAT).

This service comes with the following benefits:

• Order at Table – The online ordering system can be customised with your logo and brand colours, and you’ll also be able to design your own menu and upload it to your online service so that your customers know what you’re offering. Your guests can place their orders from their phones without having to wait for a waiter to come and take their order.
• Pay at Table – Customers will also be able to split the bills and divide the dishes and drinks however they see fit. If they’re in a rush and don’t want to wait for someone to bring the bill, the customers are also able to pay the bill online through their devices.  
• Online Orders – The orders will be sorted into online and at-table orders, so the servers can track which dish is supposed to go where. The kitchen staff will simultaneously get the same orders as the waiters, so they can start preparing them as soon as they come in.
• Intelligent Messaging – Customers will be able to send messages to the waiters to get their attention, change their orders, or simply call them to the table. This is also a good way for customers to leave positive reviews if they were satisfied with the service.
• Alerts – Rather than the waiters, the alerts are aimed towards the customers and they’re meant to tell them when their order is ready, or how long it will take. This improves communication with your customers and contributes to an excellent service.
• Admin Acess – You’ll have full access to the system and you’ll be allowed to change the prices, the opening and closing hours, make changes to the menu’s layout and look, and much more.
• Customer Database – If your customers leave you their email, you can use your online marketing tools to send them messages about any discounts, special dishes, or celebrations that might pique their interest.
• Seamless EPOS Integration – The online ordering service can be used on its own, but you can also combine it with the POS service. These two are incredibly easy to integrate and they both come with their own benefits that can help you improve the performance of your staff.

Payment Options

All of the services that we went over can be used with the PayPal and Stripe payment services. While other electronic payment services aren’t specifically mentioned, you can probably also integrate several other options into your POS, eCommerce site, and so on.

However, we’d still recommend double-checking that to ensure that your payment platform of choice is supported.

Your customers also have the option to pay for their meals with cash, however, credit or debit cards aren’t an option. If you want to enable card payments, you’ll need to get a card reader, but you might want to ask if the system is compatible with one before you make that purchase.

Company Background

EPOS Direct provides payment and management tools for businesses in retail, fashion, hospitality, quick service, pharmacies, and other sectors. While it’s not stated when EPOS Direct was formed, the site does mention that the company has been in the business for more than 20 years now. 

The company can be found in 23 countries, and throughout its two decades, it’s managed to help more than 100,000 businesses.

User Reviews

EPOS Direct gets 4 out of 5 stars on Sitejabber and most of the reviews praise its ease of use.

EPOS Direct scores a slightly better 4.5 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot, with more than 80% of the reviews being perfect scores.

User Reviews

Review Summary

Recent Reviews

Submit a Review