Retail Mode Overview
Retail Mode is designed to deliver a faster, more accurate, and more intuitive checkout experience for retail transactions on the POS. By streamlining common checkout workflows, Retail Mode helps cashiers process sales efficiently while reducing manual entry and errors.
This launch introduces three core capabilities that support a modern retail checkout experience:
Barcode scanning for quick product identification
Scale-based weighing for items sold by weight
PLU (Price Look-Up) code lookup for produce and other PLU-enabled products
Together, these features enable retailers to process transactions faster, more accurately, and more easily, improving both cashier productivity and the customer checkout experience.
Retail Mode Configuration
Step 1: Toast Web Configuration
In Toast Web, navigate to Front of house > Order screen setup > UI options.
Confirm that the following settings are toggled Off:
Prompt to tab name (Quick order only)
Prompt for dining options (Quick order only) Note: If any changes are made in this step, be sure to Save and publish your changes.
Navigate back to Front of house > Quick order.
Confirm that Send and Stay are not enabled.
Decide whether you want the Save button in Retail Mode. Save lets a cashier set an order aside and start the next guest, and it appears only when the Hold button is enabled here. Enable Hold if you want Save; leave it off if you do not.
Next, confirm that the following settings are set to Off:
Require a tab name
Prompt for dining option. Note: Retail Mode automatically skips this prompt and opens sales with no dining option, regardless of this setting.
Seat numbers
Coursing
Save and publish any changes.
Step 2: Retail Mode POS Settings
On the Toast POS, navigate to Device Settings and confirm and/or update the following settings:
Primary Mode: Retail
Enable SKUs: Yes
Default Dining Option: Off
Order Screen Menu View: Focus View
Note:
The Mode button (used to switch into Retail Mode) cannot be removed from POS navigation. If you don't use Retail Mode at a given terminal, you don't need to set Primary Mode to Retail — leaving it set to Quick Order or Order Manager (Payment Terminal) keeps staff from being dropped into Retail Mode by default. The Mode button will remain visible but unused.
Once configured, you can confirm these settings remotely across your retail terminals via the Settings tab in Device Hub, without walking up to each device.
These setup steps (Step 1: Toast Web Configuration and Step 2: Retail Mode POS Settings above) apply to Toast POS terminals, configured in Device Settings on the terminal itself. This article does not cover Toast Go® handhelds. If you want to use these settings on a Toast Go® handheld, contact Toast Customer Care to confirm availability for your device.
Use Retail Mode on the Toast POS
Follow the steps below to use Retail Mode on the Toast POS.
On the Toast POS, navigate to Mode > Retail Mode.
In Retail Mode, you can add an item by one of the following:
Use the search bar to enter the item.
If enabled, scan using an in-counter or handheld scanner, or enter the PLU.
Notes:
You can show or hide the on-screen PLU keypad to give the speed menu more screen width. Select the overflow menu in Retail Mode and choose Hide Keypad or Show Keypad. This setting applies to that terminal only and is remembered when you leave and return to Retail Mode. If a physical Toast PLU keypad is attached, the on-screen keypad is hidden automatically. Hiding the on-screen keypad doesn’t change PLU entry, item lookup, or the physical keypad.
If a scanned barcode doesn’t match any item, Retail Mode looks it up as a receipt instead and opens that sale if one is found. This lets a cashier pull up a past sale by scanning its receipt instead of searching for it.
The Speed menu is a configurable list of items users can quickly add to an order without searching for the item or entering a code.
Items from the speed menu can be added by selecting the + icon or removed by selecting the overflow menu on the item.
Note: Up to 24 items can be listed on the speed menu. If a physical Toast PLU keypad is attached, all 24 items appear on one screen. Without a physical keypad, the speed menu shows 12 items per page — swipe left inside the speed menu to see items 13–24, and use the page indicator to see which page you’re on. Unplugging or reattaching a keypad doesn’t remove any items, and the speed menu is shared across all Retail Mode terminals at your location.
Once edits have been made, select Save.
Speed action settings are a configurable set of frequently used action buttons that let cashiers perform routine tasks quickly to keep lines moving. To choose which actions appear and in what order, long-press the Speed Actions bar, then pick from the actions available at your location and arrange them as you’d like. Select Save when you’re done.
Undo Last Item is one of the default speed actions. Select it to remove the most recently added item from the order in progress. The subtotal, tax, and total recalculate immediately.
If your location requires a reason for item removals, a prompt appears first, and the item is removed after you select a reason.
Note:
Undo Last Item always removes the most recently added item on the current order. To void an entire order, see Void Items, Payments, and Checks. To return an item from an order that has already been paid for and closed, see Get Started With Returns on the POS.
If the item you removed was the only item a promo code applied to, that promo code is also removed from the order.
If Undo Last Item is not on the Speed Actions bar, it may have been replaced with a different action. Long-press the Speed Actions bar, select Undo Last Item, and then select Save.
Undo Last Item is available on Toast POS 2.111 and later.
Undo Last Item is unavailable when no items have been added to the order.
Price Lookup is one of the default speed actions. Use it to answer a guest's price or stock question without adding anything to the order.
Select Price Lookup. A window opens showing a scan target and Ready to scan.
Scan the item's barcode.
The window shows the item name, price, SKU or PLU, and Quantity — the current on-hand count.
To check another item, select Scan Another Item. To close the window, select Cancel in the bottom-right corner, or select anywhere outside it. Either way, the order you were working on is exactly as you left it. Price Lookup never adds or removes an item and never changes a total.
Note:
If the barcode is not recognized, the window tells you the barcode was not found and lets you scan again. A barcode that repeatedly fails to look up usually means the item is not in your menu or catalog yet. A manager can add it in Toast Web.
A dash in the Quantity field means the item is not being tracked for quantity. It does not mean the count is zero.
Price Lookup is read-only. Prices and counts are changed in Toast Web.
Price Lookup is different from the search bar. The search bar accepts PLU (Price Look-Up) codes, but it adds the item to the order and does not show the on-hand quantity. To check a price or count without changing the order, use the Price Lookup speed action.
If Price Lookup is not on the Speed Actions bar, it may have been replaced with a different action. Long-press the Speed Actions bar, select Price Lookup, and then select Save.
Price Lookup is available on Toast POS 2.112 and later. No back-office setup is required.
Or, you can access the full menu view by selecting Menu view.
Once all items have been added, select Pay to accept payment and complete the transaction.
Save an Order and Come Back to It
Save sets the order you are ringing aside so you can start the next guest right away. The saved order is sent to your Order Manager (Payment Terminal) as an open check, and you reopen it from there when the guest comes back. This is the same capability as the Hold button in Quick order — Retail Mode calls it Save.
Before you start: Save appears only if the Hold button is enabled for the Quick order screen in your Toast Web Front of house configuration. There is no separate Retail Mode setting. If a cashier does not see a Save button, confirm that the Hold button is enabled and that the device is on Toast POS 2.114 or later.
To save an order:
Ring up items as usual.
Select Save.
Expected outcome: The order is sent and the screen clears, ready for the next guest.
To finish a saved order, go to your Order Manager (Payment Terminal), find the order in your open checks, and take payment as normal. You can add items, apply discounts, and complete the transaction exactly as you would with any other check.
When you reopen a saved order, it opens in the ordering mode the device is currently using, or the device’s primary mode if that mode isn’t available. This means a cashier working in Retail Mode stays in Retail Mode when they reopen a saved order, instead of being dropped into a different mode.
Notes:
Saved orders are ordinary open checks. They follow your location's existing open-check behavior, including end-of-day handling, so make sure saved orders are settled before you close out.
You can save more than one order and reopen them in any order.
Save is not a void. The order stays open and still has to be paid for or voided.
Save is available on Toast POS 2.114 and later when the Hold button is enabled.
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