SmartStore POS — bank compatibility

SmartStore is a point-of-sale system for general retail and retail, built by AdvanceRetail. The mobile end of AdvanceRetail, added in 2014 — and a Constellation Software asset since 2022.

Certified on Linkly and on Tyro. Worth knowing the difference: Tyro is its own acquirer, so that route means banking with Tyro. The Linkly route does not.

Tyro rates it a Plus partner.

The Linkly integration runs as mobile POS.

SmartStore is AdvanceRetail's mobile POS, integrated into the platform in 2014. The platform underneath it is old by software standards: AdvanceRetail began in 1968 as a Burroughs bureau service in New Zealand, launched its own software in the 1980s, was a market leader across Australia and Asia by the mid-nineties, and shipped AdvanceRetail Windows in 1998. Offices are at Ellerslie in Auckland and Goulburn Street in Sydney, and a version 3 is slated for 2026.

Ownership is the part most AdvanceRetail users have not tracked. 3Q Holdings, the listed group that held AdvanceRetail alongside Island Pacific and Intelligent Retail, was taken over by Vela Asia Pacific under a scheme of arrangement implemented on 24 November 2022. Vela is an operating group of Constellation Software (TSX: CSU), the Toronto-listed serial acquirer of vertical market software. So SmartStore is a Canadian-owned asset with an Auckland development history.

What SmartStore is for: the in-aisle and mobile layer over AdvanceRetail's POS, inventory, order management and store portal, aimed at mid-size specialty chains in fashion, electronics, pharmacy and the like. It is not a standalone product. You end up on it because you are already on AdvanceRetail, which means the integration question is about the platform, not the handheld.