Moving an Irish Shop onto Shopify POS Pro: What It Actually Takes
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Moving an Irish Shop onto Shopify POS Pro: What It Actually Takes
Plenty of Irish retailers are already selling online through Shopify while running a completely separate EPOS system on the shop floor. Two systems, two stock counts, two versions of what a product costs, and no reliable answer to a question as basic as how many of these did we sell this month.
Most of them know it is a problem. What stops them is not being able to picture what fixing it actually involves. Ripping out a working till is a genuinely nervous decision for a small shop, and there is very little written about what the job looks like from the inside.
So here is one, in detail. An independent menswear retailer in the west of Ireland went live on Shopify POS Pro in July 2026, replacing a legacy EPOS system that had no connection to their website. This is what was involved, what it cost them in hardware, what we got wrong, and what I would tell any Irish retailer thinking about the same move.
The client is anonymous here at my discretion, not theirs. The specifics are exactly as they happened.
In short: the hardware came to €1,081 for the Shopify kit plus an iPad, the project ran from proposal to go-live in roughly eight weeks, the hardest part was product data rather than hardware, and the thing that nearly derailed the day was a firmware update that should have been done in advance.
Coming off a disconnected EPOS system
The shop was already live on Shopify. Online store on the Basic plan, Shopify Payments switched on, a catalogue of roughly 450 products.
On the shop floor they were running Meridian on a Clover Mini, with no integration to any of that. The shop and the website were effectively two separate businesses that happened to share a name and a stockroom.
Their goals were straightforward and, I would say, typical:
- One source of truth for stock across the shop and the website.
- Different pricing and promotions in store versus online, deliberately, rather than by accident.
- Five to six staff on the till with permissions that matched their roles, so that not everyone could see margins and analytics.
- Live before autumn/winter stock started arriving, because nobody wants to change till systems in the middle of a delivery.
That last one matters more than it sounds. Retail has windows where this kind of change is sane and windows where it is not. Plan around your stock calendar, not around your supplier's availability.
What the hardware costs: the full Shopify POS kit
Hardware is the part retailers most want a straight answer on, so here it is. All of this came from Shopify's own hardware store, and prices were as listed at the time we specified it.
| Item | Price | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify POS Terminal (Wi-Fi) | €282 | Customer-facing display and card reader |
| Eddy tablet stand | €146 | Counter stand for the iPad |
| Zebra DS2278 scanner with cradle | €232 | Wireless scanner at the counter |
| Epson OmniLink receipt printer | €368 | Connects to the iPad over Bluetooth |
| Star Micronics CD4 16" cash drawer | €122 | Connects to the receipt printer by RJ11 |
| Kit total, bundle discount applied | €1,081 |
An iPad to run the POS app is sourced separately.
Two things worth saying about that list.
First, it is deliberately short. It is easy to over-specify a POS setup, and every extra device is another thing to fail on a Saturday afternoon. We went through what the shop actually does at the counter and left out anything that did not earn its place. One scanner, not two, with a note that a second could be added later for the stockroom if it turned out to be needed.
Second, check every component against Shopify's supported hardware list before anyone buys anything, and pay attention to the fact that the supported list differs by country. The shop already owned a Zebra GK420d label printer that is not on the supported list for Ireland. Because label printing runs off a desktop independently of the POS hardware, the sensible move was to test what they had before replacing it rather than adding a few hundred euro to the bill on principle.
Ongoing, Shopify POS Pro is charged per location per month, on top of the existing plan, with in-person card transactions charged at the Shopify Payments in-person rate. Check current pricing for Ireland directly with Shopify, since rates and plan pricing change.
The barcode problem for multi-brand clothing shops
This is the part I would not have predicted from the outside, and it is the part most likely to apply to other clothing retailers.
The shop's products carry GS1 barcodes printed by the manufacturers. There was no internal SKU system at all. For a menswear shop carrying multiple brands, that is completely normal, and it creates a specific problem: a single product variant can legitimately have more than one barcode on it, because the same item arrives from different sources or across different seasons with different codes.
Shopify's product model expects one barcode per variant. So there is a real gap between how the platform models a product and how a clothing shop actually receives stock.
My contact on the client side worked out a proxy product approach using a bundling app that handles the additional barcodes and points them at the right variant. It works, and it was a genuinely good piece of thinking on her part, but it is a workaround for something the platform does not natively do.
If you are a multi-brand clothing or footwear retailer, look at this early. Do not discover it during your first stock take.
What went wrong on setup day
I would rather write this honestly than pretend a setup day goes perfectly.
On the day, with the hardware on the counter and staff waiting for training, the POS Terminal would not take a card payment. Tap failed. Chip failed. Manual card entry worked, which told us the account and payment configuration were fine and the problem was the device. It persisted on the shop's Wi-Fi and on a phone hotspot, which ruled out the network.
The fix was restarting the Terminal and installing a firmware update. Not dramatic, but genuinely uncomfortable for twenty minutes with a room full of people waiting.
The lesson is simple and I now apply it as standard. Power up every device and let it pull firmware updates days before the setup day, not on it. If you are engaging someone to do this work, ask them whether they intend to do that.
The rest of the day went as planned: hardware commissioning, end-to-end testing of card, cash, receipts and scanning, then staff training on sales, discounts, refunds, exchanges and end-of-day reconciliation.
Some decisions we deliberately left open rather than rushing: how to handle unverified returns, what to do about legacy paper vouchers, and exactly where in-store pricing should diverge from online. Those are commercial decisions for the business, not technical ones for me, and forcing them on go-live day would have been the wrong call.
If you already use Shopify POS Go, check this date
If you have POS Go devices in your shop, there is a date in the diary worth knowing about.
Per Shopify's help documentation, POS Go units purchased before 25 September 2024 in Ireland, the UK and a number of other markets continue to be supported in mobile selling mode until 26 May 2027. After that date, POS Go automatically switches to countertop payment terminal mode.
If your staff walk the floor with a POS Go and sell from anywhere in the shop, that is a change to how you trade, not just a hardware note. Shopify lists replacement options for Ireland including the Verifone Victa Mobile, WisePad 3, and Tap to Pay on iPhone or Android. Worth planning for well before 2027 rather than the week it happens.
What I would tell any Irish retailer replacing an EPOS system
Do the product data before you touch hardware. Barcodes, variants and stock counts are the actual project. The hardware is a day.
Decide your channel rules deliberately. Which products are in store only, which are online only, and where pricing and promotions differ. If you do not decide, the system decides for you and you will not like the answer.
Sort staff permissions properly at the start. It is much harder to take access away from people later than to give it in the first place.
Pick your window. Not during a delivery. Not in December.
Budget for the boring parts. Barcode data entry, testing, and training are where the real work is. A setup that skips training is not a setup, it is a delivery of boxes.
Common questions about Shopify POS in Ireland
Does Shopify POS work in Ireland? Yes. Shopify POS is supported in Ireland, with Shopify Payments handling in-person card transactions and a country-specific list of supported hardware. The supported hardware list differs by market, so check the Ireland list rather than a US or UK guide before buying anything.
Can Shopify POS replace an existing EPOS system? For most independent retailers, yes. In this project it replaced Meridian running on a Clover Mini. The practical question is rarely whether the till functions exist and almost always whether the product data is in good enough shape to move across: barcodes, variants, and accurate stock counts.
What hardware do I need for Shopify POS in an Irish shop? A typical single-counter setup is a card reader or POS Terminal, an iPad with a stand, a receipt printer, a cash drawer, and a barcode scanner. In this project that came to €1,081 from Shopify's hardware store, plus the iPad separately. Prices change, so treat that as an indication rather than a quote.
How much does Shopify POS Pro cost per month? POS Pro is billed per location per month, in addition to your existing Shopify plan, and in-person card payments are charged at the Shopify Payments in-person transaction rate. Check current Ireland pricing with Shopify directly, since both plan pricing and card rates change.
How long does a Shopify POS setup take? This project ran roughly eight weeks from proposal acceptance to go-live, including remote configuration, barcode data entry by the shop's own team, and a full on-site setup and training day. The variable is almost always the product data, not the technical configuration.
Can I have different prices in store and online? Yes, and you should decide this deliberately rather than by default. Shopify supports separate in-store pricing and promotions, but it is a configuration decision that needs to be made before go-live rather than discovered afterwards.
Getting help with a Shopify POS setup in Ireland
ShopiCraft is a Shopify Select Partner consultancy based in Dublin. We help Irish retailers move the shop floor onto Shopify POS Pro, covering hardware specification, POS Pro configuration, staff accounts and permissions, product and barcode preparation, on-site setup, and staff training. We work with independent retailers across Ireland and the UK, including shops replacing legacy EPOS systems.
If you are planning the online side of a project like this, it is worth reading our guide to the Grow Digital Voucher and what it will and will not fund for a Shopify project, since the sequencing rules catch a lot of Irish retailers out.
If you are running a disconnected till system and want to talk through what the move would actually involve for your shop, get in touch.
Daniel Perera is the founder of ShopiCraft, a Shopify Select Partner consultancy based in Dublin, Ireland. He spent nearly six years at Shopify as a Product Launch Specialist before founding the agency.
