Are you opening a new smoke shop, or ready to step up your established business?
You need the right business tools to help you achieve success — and that starts with a solid point of sale (POS) system specifically made for your unique (and tightly-regulated) industry.
Here’s our breakdown of the six best features (and their benefits!) of a smoke shop POS system — then, we’ll dive into some of our top providers.
Smoke shops carry a large amount of inventory, and it’s important to keep track of every product to keep your customers happy. A point of sale system made specifically for your industry allows you to:
Some industry-specific systems also include an automated ranking system, which ranks your inventory on an A-B-C-D scale and color-codes them based on sales patterns. Use this information to avoid overstock and dead stock — and to boost your bottom line.
With the right system, you’ll save dozens of hours in labor, reducing costs and freeing up time to spend on your marketing strategy or with customers.
Many major tobacco manufacturers participate in scan data programs, which offer exclusive rebates on certain products in exchange for data on their performance. However, not all generic POS systems make getting this data easy.
Smoke shop POS systems make it easy to take advantage of these manufacturer promotions by streamlining data collection and exporting for tobacco scan data programs. Some systems also frequently update their product lists to show which items are eligible.
Participating in scan data programs is an excellent way to test out some new products while offering promotional pricing to your customers — a win-win for everybody.
Federal law dictates that smoke shops can’t sell tobacco products to customers under 21 years of age — and the penalties for underage sales (even honest mistakes) can be devastating for a small business. That means you need a reliable way to check your buyers’ ages.
A point of sale system created specifically for smoke shops includes an integrated age verification feature that immediately flags age-restricted items. A tobacco POS system can ensure you stay compliant in a couple ways:
Both options will ensure cashiers don’t skip an ID check when things get busy, but we highly recommend using an ID scanner as an extra level of security. An ID scanner is not only faster and more convenient for customers, but it can also detect counterfeit or expired IDs.
Related Read: Finding the Best ID Scanner: Cigarette Shop Hardware Basics
When a lot of your inventory requires case breaking, it can be difficult and time-consuming to individually price each item. Think of cigars: The case has a barcode, but individual cigars don’t.
A smoke shop POS system allows you to directly create and print custom labels, so you can easily track your inventory — and save tons of time. You can also customize the size of your labels to fit securely on your products, which is important when selling unusually-shaped items like cigars.
Custom labels can also be used for unique product bundles like a gift box, a mix and match promotion, or a buy one, get one (BOGO) offer. The right POS system will both save you time and let you get creative with your smoke shop promotions.
Understanding your sales patterns is key to making smart business decisions that can ultimately increase your profits — but without a bird’s eye view of store performance, that’s easier said than done.
A point of sale system made for smoke shops generates a wide variety of reports to let you know how your stock is selling and track store key performance indicators (KPIs). Just by using the POS system for your daily tasks, you can gain insights into:
All of these data points will help you better understand your customers, optimize inventory levels, and boost profits.
The best customer is a repeat customer. In fact, loyal customers are five times more likely to make repeat purchases and four times more likely to refer your business to people they know.
Running a customer loyalty program is an effective (and profitable) way to entice customers to keep shopping and spend more. Look for a smoke shop POS system that includes an integrated point-based customer loyalty program that assigns points to specific dollar amounts spent. Buyers can redeem these points for discounts, like a 10% discount for every 1,000 points earned.
Not only does a customer loyalty program incentivize repeat purchases, it gives you an easy way to tailor offers and discounts. Using the sales history of loyalty members, you can segment your customers based on what they frequently buy (e.g. vapes, cigars), then send those different segments marketing offers that are actually relevant to their interests.
Updating to a modern smoke shop POS system is a no-brainer, but which system is right for your business?
The answer depends on a few factors, including:
Here are a few of our top picks for smoke shop POS systems.
In addition to general retail, KORONA also creates POS systems for liquor stores, vape shops, and tobacco stores. The system includes many advanced and automated inventory management tools as well as personalized marketing support. It also includes the ID scanning, age verification, and security features you need for legal compliance.
One of the reasons KORONA POS stands out is that it’s the only vendor on this list that supports THC sales.
KORONA POS’ retail package starts at $69/month, with optional paid add-ons for franchise support, food orders, and invoicing.
FTx POS primarily caters to high-risk businesses like cigar shops, liquor stores, and convenience stores, but also makes solutions for other industries.
FTx includes many helpful functions for smoke shop owners, including automated scan data reporting, ID scanner support, low-stock alerts, and multilocation support. They also offer in-house payment processing for lower costs on high-risk transactions on items like CBD or kratom.
FtX POS’ single location Core plan starts at $99/month.
Last but not least: Cigars POS. Our solution is tailored for smoke shops, cigar lounges, and vape stores. As the only name on this list that only caters to smoke shops, we’re dedicated to giving stores all the specialized tools they need — without the extras they don’t.
With Cigars POS, you can easily track inventory in real time, manage carton-pack inventory, add custom product tags, and handle reorders — all in one place. In addition to keeping your store secure with employee access controls, automated tax rate adjustments, and age verification tools, we help retain customers with customized loyalty programs and e-commerce support.
To find the system that best meets your needs, we offer custom quotes and flexible pricing. To get started with your quote, try our build and price tool.
Running a successful smoke shop involves a lot of moving pieces, and you need the right business tools to help you set up a seamless operation.
The best place to get started? A point of sale system that’s intentionally designed for your specialized industry.
To get started with the smartest smoke shop POS system on the market, contact one of our Cigars POS specialists to schedule a demo today.