Lightspeed launches point-of-sale product for independent retailers in U.K. market

Lightspeed Retail has launched the expansion of its point-of-sale platform for restaurants and retail for independent retailers in the U.K.

When we last checked in on Lightspeed’s Dax Dasilva last month, it was fresh on the heels of a $61 million investment led by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Investissement Québec, along with Accel Partners and iNovia Capital.

“Europe’s been a really bright spot for us,” said Dasilva in an interview with Cantech Letter. “We did 745% growth there since the beginning of our last fiscal year. It’s been an eye-opener in terms of what the potential is. We’re bringing our Retail products over there very shortly. Part of the funding is just to fuel that expansion.”

While the U.K. launch is being made available to “a limited number of customers”, Lightspeed has plans to sign up thousands more U.K. retail businesses over the next year and to triple the size of the company’s London presence to provide those customers with 24/7 technical support services.

“Independent shops are driving a sea change in the UK’s retail technology space,” said Lightspeed’s Chief Revenue Officer Jean-Paul Chauvet. “Unencumbered by legacy enterprise software, they are free to embrace cloud technology and offer an entirely new sales experience to their customers – one that transcends channel or location.”

The Lightspeed POS platform offers independent retailers inventory management, customer relationship management (CRM) and a suite of analytics to help them run their business.

“With Lightspeed Retail you have a single view of your customer and inventory, and it is accessible anywhere, anytime,” says Chauvet. “It’s built for the realities of running a modern retail business – all from a laptop or iPad screen.  You can keep close tabs on your customers, your inventory, your sales, and, ultimately, your success.”

With a customer base of more than 26,000 independent retailers worldwide, Lightspeed POS processes over £7 billion in transactions annually.

Last year, before the funding announcement, Lightspeed saw its bookings grow by 123%.

Pointing to the example that more than half of independent bike shops in the U.S. now use the Lightspeed platform, the company claims that retailers in general grow their revenue by 20% during their first year using the product.

“UK independent retail is thriving, and at the same time new payment technologies from contactless to mobile are exploding,” says Chauvet. “Add to that a nation of tech-savvy customers and retailers alike, and the opportunity is ripe for disrupting the old rules of retail across the UK.”