Top 15 Free Software And Tools For Retailers

By Kevin Kogler, President, MicroBiz

The role of a retail VAR is changing. Retail VARs can no longer just sell and install POS hardware and sign up retailers for merchant services. Today’s VARs need to position themselves as the trusted IT consultant to their retailer clients.

One way to do this is by recommending software and services that provide huge value for the money. Today, there are many open source and free versions of paid subscription offerings that can help your retailer customers to operate their business more efficiently without breaking the bank. While there are a variety of free and low cost alternatives available, shifting through the Web in the hopes of finding an effective no-cost software solution is very time consuming.  Worse yet, many low-cost or free applications are poorly designed or missing critical features that could end up costing a retailer much more money (measured in terms of lost time, manpower and opportunity) than could ever be saved by using a free technology. 

So, what’s a retail VAR do? Simple: Read this article. Below, you’ll find 15 superb pieces of software that can increase productivity without costing your client a fortune. I included options for most major business functions of a retailer. All but one are either free open source projects or free starter versions that can be upgraded to paid offerings.

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