Sell anywhere
A mobile POS system that is a full till, not a companion app
Mobile POS gets dismissed as the cut-down version — a card reader with a screen, fine for a market stall, not for a real shop. That was accurate a decade ago and is not now, and the distinction still worth making is between an app that is a full point of sale and an app that is a remote control for one.
The test is simple: can you run the business from it if the laptop is not there? Take a multi-item sale, apply a discount, process a return, check stock in another branch, see today's takings, and keep working when the connection drops. If yes, it is a till. If it needs the desktop to be running somewhere, it is a companion.
The sell.ke Android app is the first kind. It is the same system as the browser till, on a device that fits in an apron pocket.
What you get
What this gives you
A complete till, not a viewer
Multi-item sales, discounts, held sales, split payments, returns and exchanges, customer lookup and quotations — the full counter, on the phone.
The camera is the scanner
Barcodes read with the phone camera, so scanning costs nothing to start. Pair a handheld Bluetooth reader when volume makes it worth the speed.
Bluetooth receipt printing
Prints to standard 80mm thermal printers over Bluetooth or USB. No proprietary hardware, and the printer you already own very likely works.
Offline, properly
Sales, receipts and stock reservations continue with no connection and reconcile when it returns — which is the difference between a bad signal and a lost afternoon.
Same data as every other till
It is not a separate system that syncs. A sale on the phone is a sale in the same ledger, against the same stock, visible on the counter machine immediately.
No per-device licence
Add a phone as a second till for a busy Saturday or an event and pay nothing extra. The constraint on how many tills you run is how many devices you have.
Where a mobile till actually changes how you trade
On the shop floor, it removes the queue as the only place a sale can happen. Staff can close a sale next to the product, which matters most in trades where the decision happens in front of the shelf — furniture, electronics, hardware, clothing.
On a delivery round or a wholesale drop, it turns the driver into a point of sale: sell from the van, take payment, print a receipt, and have the stock movement recorded against the vehicle's position rather than reconstructed from paperwork that evening.
At a market, an event or a pop-up, it is the whole shop. Same products, same prices, same customer records, and the day's takings land in the same reports as the fixed counter rather than in an envelope that has to be typed up.
And in the shop on the worst day, it is a spare till. A tablet that already has the system on it is the cheapest business continuity plan available.
What to look for in a mobile POS
First, whether it works offline and what 'offline' means — some apps queue sales but cannot look up a price or check stock, which is a much weaker guarantee than it sounds. Second, whether printing is over a standard protocol or requires the vendor's own hardware.
Third, what the device requirements really are. An app that needs a recent flagship phone limits which devices you can hand to staff; one that runs on an ordinary Android device lets you buy three cheap tablets instead of one expensive terminal.
Fourth, permissions. A phone that walks around the shop should be scoped: a cashier role that can sell and take payment but cannot see margins, edit prices or void without a supervisor, and every action attributed to whoever was signed in.
- Full offline selling, including price and stock lookup — not just queued sales
- Standard Bluetooth or USB thermal printing, not proprietary hardware
- Runs on ordinary Android devices, not only recent flagships
- Role-scoped permissions with every action attributed
- The same records as your other tills, not a separate system that syncs
Phone, tablet or fixed terminal
A phone is the most portable and the fastest to deploy, and the screen is the constraint — fine for a focused sale, tight for a large basket. A tablet is the sweet spot for most shops: enough screen for a real basket and a product grid, cheap enough to have two, and it sits on a stand at the counter perfectly well.
A fixed terminal still makes sense at a high-volume counter where a large screen, a wired scanner and a drawer that never moves are worth having. The useful point is that this is now a preference rather than a purchase the software forces, because the same system runs on all three.
Questions
Mobile POS — questions
What is a mobile POS system?
Point of sale software running on a phone or tablet rather than a fixed terminal, capable of taking a complete sale — items, discounts, payment, receipt — away from the counter. The meaningful distinction is between an app that is a full till and one that is a companion to a desktop system, because only the first lets you trade without the desktop.
Can I run my whole shop from a phone?
Yes, and a number of merchants do. A phone is a full till: it sells, scans with the camera, prints over Bluetooth, tracks stock and shows reports. Most shops eventually add a tablet or a laptop for comfort at a busy counter, but that is ergonomics rather than capability.
Does the mobile POS work without internet?
Yes. Sales, receipt printing and stock reservation continue offline, including price and stock lookup, and everything reconciles when the connection returns. What needs a live connection is anything inherently online — a card or mobile-money authorisation, a tax-authority submission, and the storefront.
Which receipt printers work with it?
Standard 80mm thermal printers over Bluetooth or USB, which is the commodity category — the ones most shops already own. A cash drawer connected to the printer opens on sale in the usual way. There is no proprietary printer to buy from us.
Is there an iPhone version?
Not yet — the app is Android, and iOS is coming. In the meantime the browser till works perfectly well on an iPhone or iPad for everything except Bluetooth thermal printing, which is the one capability that needs the native app.
Does it keep working when the internet drops?
The counter does. Offline mode keeps taking sales, printing receipts and reserving stock while the connection is down, then reconciles everything when it returns — so a bad afternoon costs you connectivity, not revenue or a gap in the record. The parts that are inherently online stay online: card and mobile-money authorisation, tax-authority submission, and the storefront itself all need a live link.
What hardware do I need?
None to start. sell.ke runs in a browser and as an Android app, so a phone, tablet or laptop you already own is a working till on day one — the phone camera reads barcodes. When volume justifies it, add an 80mm thermal receipt printer (Bluetooth or USB), a handheld scanner and a cash drawer the printer opens. There is no proprietary terminal to buy and no per-terminal licence, so a second till on a busy Saturday costs nothing.
How much does sell.ke cost?
Plans run from USD 12/month for a single-location till to USD 115/month for unlimited scale, with the online store on your own domain included from USD 23/month. In Kenya the same plans are KES 1,499 to KES 14,999/month, billed in shillings. Every plan starts with a 14-day trial and no card, and there is no per-terminal licence and no commission on your sales. There is no hardware to buy either — sell.ke runs on a phone, tablet or laptop you already own.
Can I run more than one location?
Yes, from the Basic plan up. Locations share one product catalogue but hold their own stock, so moving goods between them is a recorded transfer rather than a re-count at both ends. Reports run per location or across all of them, and staff permissions are set per location — a branch supervisor does not need to see another branch's margins.
Read next
The other pages that answer the question you are probably about to ask.
POS systems explained
What a point of sale system is, what it replaces, and how to choose one.
Cloud POS
One copy of your data, reachable from anywhere, with no server in the back office.
POS hardware
Receipt printer, scanner, drawer — what you need, what you don't, and in what order.
Best POS for a small business
How to judge one honestly, and the trap that catches most first-time buyers.
All-in-one POS, inventory & online store
One system for the counter, the stock and the website — not three that sync.
How to take card & mobile payments
What you need to take each payment type, and what each one actually costs.
Go deeper on a feature
Selling at the counter
Split payments, held orders, manager-gated discounts and a drawer count that reconciles.
Setup, growth and the plumbing
Trial, product import, opening stock, eTIMS enrolment and a custom domain — in the order they matter.
Branches, staff and control
Shared catalogue, separate stock, transfers that are movements, and permissions per branch.
See it for your trade
Try it on your own products
Fourteen days, no card. Import your product list or let Amina build it from a photo of your price list, and run it alongside whatever you use now.