Adding customers and attaching them to sales is a powerful way to unlock your Retail POS account's ability to:
- Quote, layaway, service or special order items for them,
- View all of their information and activity at a glance,
- Easily ship items and email sales receipts to them,
- Suggest items and services tailored to their needs and custom fields (e.g. shoe size 11),
- Automate special discounts based on their customer type (e.g. VIP, students or veterans),
- Improve your ordering by reporting on their sales history and anticipating their future purchases, and
- Drive up their loyalty through marketing strategies and our integrated partners.
Note: If you're transitioning from another POS system or have a bulk update to make on your existing customer accounts, you can import your customer data via our Retail Imports team. For more information, please see our Importing customer data article.
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Adding a customer
In Lightspeed Retail, you can add a customer from:
- The register
- The Customers section
- An eCom order (if you're an Omnichannel merchant)
Adding a customer from the register
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From the main menu, click Sales > New Sale.
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To the right of the Search Customers field, click + New.
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Enter your customer's details (see this article's Entering a customer's details section for more information).
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Click Save Changes.
Note: To return to the current sale immediately, you can simply click Attach To Sale instead.
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To return to the current sale, click Checkout.
Adding a customer from the Customers section
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From the main menu, click Customers > Customers.
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From the top-right, click + New Customer.
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Enter your customer's details (see this article's Entering a customer's details section for more information).
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Click Save Changes.
Adding a customer from an eCom order (if you're an Omni merchant)
If a sale is created automatically in your Retail account due to an order in your eCom store, a new customer account is also created automatically when the order in eCom is marked as paid. For more information on how Lightspeed eCom handles the creation of customer accounts in Lightspeed Retail, please see our Managing customers accounts in eCom article.
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Entering a customer's details
To take full advantage of the above benefits of creating customer accounts, it's important to understand which customer details can be searched, filtered, viewed, edited, and exported from the register and customer searches throughout your account. This way, you can know which customer details to enter when you create, import, or edit your customer accounts.
Below you'll see all the details you can view, enter or select in a customer account:
For details that involve more robust features or may need to be elaborated on, please consult this helpful table.
Detail Description Type Specifies the group (customer type) you want to assign your customer to for special discounts and sales tax rate.
E.g. Student or Employee.
Created The date the customer account was created. Discount Specifies a discount rate for the customer. If left blank, no discount will be applied.
E.g. 15% off.
Sales Tax Specifies a sales tax rate for the customer. If left blank, the shop's default sales tax rate will be applied.
E.g. Out-of-State.
Address 2 A secondary field for longer addresses.
E.g. 3rd floor.
2 The customer's secondary email address.
Custom A custom detail that can be searched to quickly find a customer or attach a customer to a sale.
E.g. A customer membership number.
Tags Keywords or terms used in customer searches. You can search for customers that either have or don't have a certain tag. You can also search multiple tags at once if you place a comma between each tag.
E.g. 56cm, Female, Rider.
Email (contact method) Specifies if the customer's preferred contact method for marketing communications from your shop(s) is via email. The customer's explicit consent is required to contact them through this method.
Note: If you're an Omnichannel merchant, customers who have subscribed to your newsletter in your eCom store will have the Email checkbox selected in your Retail account.
Mail (contact method) Specifies if the customer's preferred contact method for marketing communications from your shop(s) is via mail.
Note: The customer's explicit consent is required to contact them through this method.
Call (contact method) Specifies if the customer's preferred contact method for marketing communications from your shop(s) is via phone.
Note: The customer's explicit consent is required to contact them through this method.
Custom Fields Customizable fields used to record useful information on the customer.
E.g. A Shoe Size custom field.
Notes Personalized notes about the customer used to record useful information on the customer.
E.g. Due for tune-up in march 2019.
Searchable details
The details below can be searched in customer searches throughout your account (e.g. Customers > Customers):
- First name
- Last name
- Title
- Company
- Home
- Work
- Mobile
- Pager
- Fax
- ZIP/Postal Code/Postcode
- Email 1
- Email 2
- Custom
Note: You can search for customers by their postal codes if they're entered in the postal format of the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Barbados, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, and the United States.Filterable details
The details below can be filtered in customer searches throughout your account (e.g. Customers > Customers):
- Type
- Created (date the customer account was created)
- Discount
- Sales Tax
- Tags
Viewable and editable details from the register
The details below can be viewed and edited from the register specifically. To reveal all the details listed below, click the Ship button:
- Notes
- First name
- Last name
- Company
- Address
- Address 2
- City
- State/Province
- Zip/Postal Code
- Country
- Home
To view and edit other customer account details, you need to do so from a customer account search (e.g. Customers > Customers) or the customer account itself (e.g. Customers > Customers > Betty Smith).
Exportable fields
The fields below can be exported to a .csv file by navigating to Customers > Customers. From there, simply use the search field and filters to refine your results and click Export at the top-right:
- Type
- Created
- Discount
- Sales Tax
- First Name
- Last Name
- Title
- Company
- Company registration number
- VAT Number
- Birth Date
- Home
- Work
- Mobile
- Pager
- Fax
- Country
- Address
- Address 2
- City
- Province/State/Region
- Postal Code/Zip code
- Website
- Email 1
- Email 2
- Custom
- Email (contact method)
- Mail (contact method)
- Call (contact method)
- Notes
Check out the How customer search works article to review how customer search works and the How to search for customers article on using the customer search function.