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After weeks of setting up your point of sale (POS) system — counting inventory, exporting spreadsheets, and purchasing new equipment — you’re ready to open for business.

Now it’s time to cut remnant bolts of fabric into fat quarters, assemble kits for your next class, and get your staff ready. The question is:

Can your POS system handle it?

  • Do you know how to adjust your inventory?
  • Do you know how to build kits and track supplies?
  • Do you know where to go to learn how?

Quilt and fabric stores have unique needs, so you need a POS system built for your kind of business. In this blog, we’ll explore the features fabric stores rely on — and how to choose the right fabric store POS so your shop runs smoothly from day one.

Let’s dive in.

Why Fabric Stores Need a Specialized POS System

It’s tempting to go with whatever system the shop next door uses, but if they’re not a fabric store, their setup won’t fit your workflow.

You need features designed for fabric shops. The right system saves time, cuts down on errors, and helps you manage the unique parts of your business.

Related Read: Fabric Store Point of Sale Systems: A Quick Guide

What To Look For (& Ask) When Choosing a POS System

Before signing up, ask each POS provider these questions:

  • How easy is it to switch from my current system? Will you import my existing data and set everything up for me?
  • How do you support fabric-specific needs? Can I cut fabric into fractions, sell kits, and manage classes?
  • What are your training and support options? Will my staff have someone to call if they get stuck?
  • How long will setup take? Can I start using it quickly without disrupting my business?
  • What’s the real cost of getting this wrong? Will I lose sales, frustrate customers, or waste time if I choose a system that doesn’t fit?

The Real Cost of Choosing the Wrong Fabric Store POS

Picking the wrong system is inconvenient, and it’s expensive. A poor fit can:

  • Waste hours every week on manual work.
  • Cause inventory mistakes and lost sales.
  • Frustrate staff (and drive up training time).
  • Lead to early contract cancellations and extra fees.

Taking the time to choose the right system upfront keeps your shop running smoothly and protects your bottom line.

Switching Systems Doesn’t Have To Be Hard

Worried about switching systems? A reliable POS provider handles the heavy lifting — importing your existing data, training your staff, and setting everything up behind the scenes so you can keep your shop running with little to no downtime.

Key Features Every Fabric Store POS System Should Have

You need a fabric store POS system to manage your business, but what are the features that make your life easier? 

Let’s check out the ones that actually help:

  • Kit builder: Create and sell kits while automatically adjusting your inventory. This makes it easy to build square of the month clubs, seasonal projects, and custom kits that keep customers coming back.
  • Class management: Regular classes bring in new customers and boost sales. A solid POS system helps you schedule classes, sign people up, track attendance, and stay in touch with students.
  • Precuts and fractional yards: Easily turn main bolts of fabric into precuts. With a modern POS system, you can create and track fat quarters, fat eighths, and other custom cuts without manual math.
  • Vendor and product integrations: Save hours of data entry by connecting to supplier catalogs. The best systems let you quickly integrate with fabric store suppliers and access product data — including images, descriptions, and pricing.
  • Customer marketing: Your shop is part of a close-knit community, and your POS system can help you stay connected. Look for tools that allow you to group customers, send targeted emails, and schedule messages automatically for classes, promotions, and events.
  • Service and repairs: A fabric store POS system helps you set up and track the services your shop offers. With it, you can also charge for numbered parts and easily communicate and manage each step of a project.

Of course, don’t forget the basics — inventory management, online sales sync, reporting, and general retail tools. But fabric-specific features like these save the most time.

Related Read: Leveraging Preloaded Vendor Catalogs for Seamless Point of Sale Product Listing

Understand exactly what features a fabric store POS system will provide by downloading our free guide!

Top 4 Fabric Store POS System Providers

There are plenty of POS providers to choose from, but here are four POS systems that are perfect for a fabric or quilt shop.

1. Rain POS

Made for: Independent craft stores and specialty retailers

Rain is built for independent craft stores, boutiques, consignment, and outdoor retailers — it helps you manage inventory, sales, and customers in one simple platform.

With Rain, you can: 

  • Track related parts and serialized products in inventory.
  • Send text message service reminders from the POS.
  • Manage class registration and communication.

Pricing: Receive a custom quote with a demo.

2. POSIM

Made for: Boutique shops, needle arts and crafts retailers, quilt and fabric stores, toy and hobby shops, liquor stores, and franchise operations

POSIM is a POS system for small to mid-sized shops, including fabric and quilt stores. It can be installed on-premise with optional cloud-based features.

With POSIM, you can:

  • Create layaway orders and accept incremental payments.
  • Design promotions and send marketing emails.
  • Integrate your POS with Shopify.

Pricing: POSIM offers three plans requiring a custom quote.

3. Square

Made for: General retail

Square is a flexible, widely used POS that can work for many business types. While not fabric-specific, some shops still use it successfully.

With Square, you can:

  • Accept almost all forms of payment.
  • Check out customers at the counter or on mobile devices.
  • Adapt with add-ons to fit your shop’s needs.

Pricing: Square offers a free POS system with a 2.9% processing fee, plus 30 cents per transaction. Custom plans are available.

4. Like Sew

Made for: Quilt and fabric stores

Like Sew is built specifically for quilt and fabric stores and focuses on their unique needs.

With Like Sew, you can:

  • Connect to vendor catalogs and import product data quickly.
  • Sell fractional yards and sync inventory online and in store.
  • Communicate with customers using built-in marketing tools.

Pricing: Receive a custom quote with a demo.

Get Started With the Best Fabric Store POS System

If you want a POS system that works the way your shop does, Like Sew is the choice for you. 

It’s built specifically for quilt and fabric stores, so the things you do every day — cutting fabric, building kits, running classes — become faster, more accurate, and easier to teach your staff.

With Like Sew, you can:

  • Add products quickly by connecting to vendor catalogs — complete with images, descriptions, and pricing — in just a few minutes.
  • Sell fractional yards and precuts confidently, while keeping both in-store and online inventory in sync.
  • Stay in touch with your customers using built-in marketing tools to promote classes, events, and sales.

Ready to see it in action? Try our Build and Price tool today to start your next season with a POS system made for the way you run your shop.

Build and Price | Like Sew