When your customers visit your smoke shop, they rely on you to provide an excellent experience — from the moment they walk through the door to the minute they finish their transaction.
Smoke shop inventory management is central to creating this positive experience for your customers. When they visit your shop, they expect to find their favorite products in the right amounts — meaning that failure to keep your shop well-stocked will result in lost sales and lower customer satisfaction.
That’s why it’s critical to implement an effective strategy for smoke shop inventory management. In this blog, we’ll walk you through our top four tips for maintaining the perfect balance of stock in your shop.
1. Rely on Your Point of Sale System
With the vast array of products your smoke shop carries, inventory management is no easy task. Your smoke shop stocks multiple brands and varieties of cigars, cigarettes, vape products, and smoking accessories, making it nearly impossible to keep track of your stock by hand.
To take control of your smoke shop inventory, you need a point of sale (POS) system with robust inventory management features. Relying on a POS system saves time and reduces errors in your inventory management process by updating your stock levels in real time when a customer makes a purchase — allowing you to conveniently see an accurate overview of your inventory at any time.
For the best smoke shop inventory management, a POS system designed specifically for the tobacco industry is a must-have. A smoke shop-oriented POS system should include features that make it easier to handle the intricacies of tobacco inventory, like:
- Carton-pack inventory management, which allows you to track stock at both the carton and pack levels. For example, this feature shows you how many cartons of a particular cigarette you have in stock, along with how many individual packs are available.
- Case breaking, which enables the sale of either an entire carton of a product or an individual pack from the case — all while maintaining accurate pricing and inventory.
- Custom-printed labels, which allow you to label individual cigars for easier checkout and inventory control.
A POS system with the right features is the most valuable asset on your journey to the perfect smoke shop inventory management strategy, helping you keep more accurate inventory records in less time.
2. Automate Your Reordering Process
Nothing is more frustrating for your customers than not being able to find what they need in your store. Keeping your smoke shop well-stocked is foundational to keeping your customers happy and your sales high.
That’s why it’s important to place purchase orders for your inventory at the right time. Waiting too long to reorder inventory can result in stockouts, lost sales, and reduced customer satisfaction — but placing them too early can lead to storage and cash flow issues.
Automating your smoke shop inventory management process can prevent these problems while saving you time and energy.
Many smoke shop POS systems offer automated purchase orders. With this feature, you can set a minimum threshold for a certain product’s inventory. When your stock levels fall below this threshold, your POS system will automatically generate a purchase order for the item to replenish it.
Automated purchase orders are a time-saving and sales-boosting addition to your smoke shop inventory management strategy, ensuring that you never run out of your most popular items.
3. Implement a Customer Loyalty Program
As a small business owner, you already know that a customer loyalty program can boost sales and increase customer satisfaction — but did you know that it can also be a helpful smoke shop inventory management tool?
Loyalty programs provide valuable insights about your customers, including which products they buy, how often they buy them, and in what quantities. Over time, these buying patterns will show you a clear picture of what your clientele wants.
For example, if you notice that loyalty program members frequently purchase a particular brand of cigars, it would be wise to ensure that you always have an ample supply of that brand. On the other hand, items that rarely make it into the shopping baskets of your loyalty program members might be taking up valuable shelf space that could be better used for bestsellers
Data from your loyalty program can help you optimize your smoke shop inventory management process and ensure that your business is always catering to your customer base.
4. Leverage Your Sales Data
Along with data from your customer loyalty program, your sales reports can be a goldmine of information to help you optimize your smoke shop inventory management.
Data from your POS system about your sales over time should show you which products are selling and in what quantities, empowering you to fine-tune your stock to your customers’ changing preferences.
A POS system that offers an automated ranking feature makes it even more convenient to identify your bestselling products, showing you a ranked list of your top-moving items. This information can inform your decisions about which products to stock and which to discontinue, what kinds of promotions might be most effective, and even how to arrange your store for the most convenient customer experience.
Master Smoke Shop Inventory Management With Cigars POS
Keeping your shop perfectly stocked is the key to your small business’ success, and no tool is more helpful for smoke shop inventory management than the right point of sale system.
With the help of a powerful smoke shop POS system, you can start keeping accurate inventory records effortlessly, automatically placing purchase orders to ensure that your customers’ favorite products are always on the shelves, and leveraging invaluable data to help you optimize your store’s stock.
If you’re ready to give your smoke shop inventory management strategy an upgrade, get in touch with one of our tobacco industry experts to schedule a live demo of Cigars POS today.
