From Standalone Till to Joined-Up EPOS, In-Store & Online
How we unified payments across the counter, the yard and online for a two-site hardware retailer — bringing everything onto one transparent merchant agreement.
A well-run hardware retailer with two sites was juggling a standalone till, a separate card machine and a disconnected website. Stock and sales lived in different systems, and online orders had to be keyed in by hand. They came to us for a card processing review — and we ended up joining the whole thing together onto one transparent account.
The Starting Point
The retailer ran two shops, each with its own standalone till and a separate card machine on an ageing contract. The two systems didn't talk to each other, so stock and sales were tracked separately.
Their website took orders, but those orders had to be re-keyed by hand into the till — slow, error-prone, and frustrating during busy periods.
Reporting across both shops meant adding up two sets of paperwork every week, with no real-time view of how either site was performing.
What We Found
Card Processing
- Card machines on an ageing contract at an uncompetitive rate
- Separate merchant agreements across the two sites
- No single view of card processing costs across the business
- Online and in-store payments handled by different providers
EPOS & Till
- Standalone tills with no link between the two shops
- Stock and sales tracked separately at each site
- No real-time reporting for the owner
- Manual weekly reconciliation across both shops
Online Orders
- Website disconnected from the till and payment account
- Online orders re-keyed by hand into the system
- No pay-by-link option for trade and account customers
- Errors and delays caused by manual order entry
Reporting
- Two sets of paperwork added up manually every week
- No live picture of sales across sites and online
- Hard to spot trends or compare site performance
- Time lost to admin that should have been automated
What We Delivered
Cloud EPOS Across Both Sites
- Rolled out cloud EPOS across both shops
- Linked stock and sales into one connected system
- Gave staff modern, easy-to-use till software
- Brought both sites onto a single platform
Integrated Terminals
- Integrated countertop terminals at the counter
- Added portable terminals for serving out on the yard
- Linked terminals to the EPOS for automatic reconciliation
- Enabled contactless, Apple Pay and Google Pay throughout
Website & Pay-by-Link
- Connected the website to the same payment account
- Added pay-by-link for trade and account orders
- Removed the need to re-key web orders by hand
- Joined online and in-store payments on one account
One Transparent Agreement
- Consolidated everything onto one transparent merchant agreement
- Secured a lower blended rate across the whole business
- Delivered unified, real-time reporting across both sites and online
- Gave the owner a single point of contact for support
The Numbers
By consolidating two separate merchant agreements and the online gateway onto one transparent account, the retailer secured a lower blended rate across the whole business.
The bigger win, though, was operational: stock, sales and payments now flow through one connected system, so the weekly admin of adding up two sets of paperwork has gone entirely.
Two sites and an online shop now run on one account, one rate and one set of reports — with no hidden fees and one local number to call.
Where They Are Now
The retailer now has one real-time view of sales across both shops and online, with reduced processing costs on a single transparent agreement.
Checkout is faster at the counter and out on the yard, and online orders flow straight through with no manual re-keying.
Everything runs on one account with local support on hand — a joined-up setup that grows with the business instead of holding it back.