Cash is still common in pottery studios — but the trend is clear. More customers expect to pay by card, and "cash only" is increasingly a reason people don't come back. Taking card payments isn't just about convenience; it's about meeting the expectation that your studio is a proper, professional business.
The good news is that the options have never been better or more affordable. The slightly complicated news is that the right option for your studio depends on how you actually work — how many transactions you do, whether you take deposits online, whether you sell merchandise alongside sessions, and how much admin you're willing to handle.
Option 1: A Standalone Card Reader (SumUp, iZettle, Square)
This is where most small studios start. A card reader from SumUp, Zettle (formerly iZettle), or Square costs between £20 and £60 to buy, pairs with your phone or tablet over Bluetooth, and charges a flat percentage on each transaction — typically around 1.69% to 2.65% depending on the provider and plan.
There are no monthly fees on the basic tiers, which makes it an attractive entry point. You tap, the money arrives in your account within a couple of days, and there's not much more to it.
Where it works well: If you're a small studio, taking perhaps 20–40 transactions a week, with simple pricing (one session price, occasional merchandise), a standalone card reader is perfectly adequate. The admin overhead is low and the cost is predictable.
Where it falls short: The reader doesn't know anything about your business. Each transaction is just a number — there's no connection to who the customer is, what they booked, whether they have an outstanding balance, or what discount applies to them. You end up doing mental maths at the counter, cross-referencing with a separate system, and reconciling manually at the end of the day.
Option 2: A Generic EPOS System
Step up from a card reader and you get an EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale) system — a till that knows your products, can apply discounts, produces itemised receipts, and generates sales reports. Systems like Lightspeed, Square for Retail, or Vend are designed for retail and hospitality businesses.
These are more capable than a standalone reader, and for studios that sell a lot of merchandise — mugs, tools, glazes — they make sense. But they're built for general retail, not for the specific way pottery studios work. They don't know about kiln sessions, part-payments for commissioned work, deposits held against bookings, or the fact that a customer might have three different pieces in various stages of firing. You end up working around the system rather than with it.
Option 3: An Integrated System Built for Pottery Studios
The third option — and the one that makes the most sense as your studio grows — is a payment system that's integrated with your booking and customer management. This is the difference between tools that do one thing and a platform that understands your whole business.
When your EPOS is connected to your booking system and customer records, things that are currently manual become automatic:
- ✅Deposits flow through automatically. A customer books online and pays a deposit. When they arrive and it's time to pay the balance, your system already knows what they owe — you're not doing maths or checking a spreadsheet.
- ✅Part payments are tracked properly. Some customers pay in instalments — a deposit, then the balance on collection. An integrated system logs every payment against the customer's record so there's never a dispute about what's been paid.
- ✅Discounts and promotions apply correctly. If you run a loyalty discount or a promotional offer, the system applies it consistently — not depending on whether you remember to mention it at the till.
- ✅Sales reports are automatic. End-of-day reconciliation, monthly revenue by session type, bestselling items — this data exists without you having to compile it manually.
- ✅Receipts are professional and complete. Itemised receipts, via email or on screen, that show what was purchased, what was already paid (deposit), and what the balance was. No more handwritten receipts or generic card reader confirmations.
What About Hardware?
One of the advantages of modern EPOS systems is that they don't require expensive proprietary hardware. Most work on an iPad or Android tablet, with a card reader that connects via Bluetooth. If you already have an iPad, the hardware cost can be as low as £50–£80 for the card reader.
You don't need a traditional till with a cash drawer (though you can add one if you handle significant amounts of cash). For most pottery studios, a tablet on the counter with a card reader beside it is the entire setup.
The Hidden Cost of Disconnected Systems
This is the thing that rarely shows up in a comparison of monthly fees. If your booking system, your payment system, and your customer records are all separate — a booking app, a card reader, and a spreadsheet — someone is spending time moving information between them. Every day. That time has a cost, and it compounds over months and years.
A studio processing 50 transactions a week, with 15 minutes of daily reconciliation and cross-referencing, is spending roughly 90 hours a year on admin that an integrated system would eliminate entirely. At any reasonable value of your time, that's a significant cost — one that doesn't appear on any invoice.
ChargeIt is the EPOS built for pottery studios.
CollectIt's ChargeIt feature is a full point-of-sale system connected directly to your bookings, customer records, and inventory — so payments, deposits, and balances are always accurate, without any manual work.
See ChargeIt in Action →Taking card payments is table stakes in 2026. The question isn't whether to do it — it's how to do it in a way that reduces your admin rather than adding to it. The answer, for most studios that are growing, is a system that understands your business rather than one you have to work around.