5 Top Options for Tobacco POS Solutions for 2024

In the ever-evolving world of tobacco retail, staying ahead of the game is the key to success. But with all the different point of sale (POS) solutions flooding the market, how do you know which is the perfect match for your tobacco shop?

Picture this: It's a busy Friday afternoon, and your tobacco shop is buzzing with customers grabbing their favorite cigars or vape juices for the weekend. You want every transaction to be smooth, every age verification to be flawless, and every sale to comply with ever-changing regulations. Is your current point of sale solution up to the task?

This post will walk you through the top five options for tobacco POS solutions this year. For each, we’ll talk about features, pricing, and reviews. 

Essential Features in a Tobacco POS Solution 

Before we examine our list of tobacco POS solutions, let’s first address the elephant in the room. You may be wondering… “Why do I need a tobacco point of sale system when I can get by just fine with my old cash register?”

A cash register might be all right for processing basic transactions, but if you want to run your store effectively, you need the essential features a strong tobacco POS solution can offer. Let’s take a look at a few of the features you need for your store:

• Age Verification: Age verification is one of the absolute must-haves in a tobacco POS solution. A robust POS system ensures that customers purchasing tobacco products are of legal age by requiring identification checks. 
• Inventory Management: Now, let's talk about the backbone of your tobacco retail business: inventory. A stellar POS solution should offer inventory tracking capabilities, allowing you to monitor stock levels, track product sales, and streamline restocking.

Related Read: How To Keep Track of Smoke Shop Inventory: 8 Tools & Tips

• Tobacco Regulations Compliance: In the tobacco industry, compliance with regulations is non-negotiable. Your tobacco POS solution should come armed with built-in features to calculate and apply applicable taxes while generating reports and receipts that adhere to local and federal tobacco sales regulations. 
• Customer Loyalty and Promotions: Many successful retailers use loyalty programs and promotional offers to keep customers coming back for more. A top-notch POS solution should provide the tools to implement and track these programs, discounts, and promotions. These programs boost sales and keep your customers feeling appreciated and valued. 

In today’s fast-paced world of tobacco retail, a dedicated POS system isn't just a luxury; it's a necessity. It streamlines operations, keeps you compliant, and ensures customers return for more. With this in mind, let’s examine our top five picks for tobacco POS solutions for this year. 

1. Cigars POS 

Cigars POS presents a modern and user-friendly point of sale solution designed to provide you with a competitive advantage. Our solution eliminates the need for time-consuming software training and the challenges of handling fragmented data spread across various systems. 

Cigars POS delivers essential features and functions, including automated inventory management, age verification, and custom label printing options. We also have integrated scan data reporting features. Tailored exclusively for tobacco, cigar, and pipe shop proprietors, this customized POS solution offers a straightforward, efficient, and adaptable experience for any smoke shop owner!

Pricing: Our transparent build and price tool allows you to see your exact price based on your desired features and hardware. 

According to one customer:
“I was able to see, not just my daily sales, but I could find what cigars were trending. I could find what times of the day my cigars were trending. That enabled me to promote and push additional sales.” -James Thompson, Huntington Humidor

2. Lightspeed POS 

Lightspeed offers a comprehensive all-in-one point of sale solution for vape shops. With this platform, you can effectively oversee inventory, streamline operations, enhance staff productivity, and nurture customer relationships. 

Lightspeed's POS system makes inventory management a breeze, ensuring you're always stocked with popular vape products and accessories, including the ease of expanding your catalog and keeping a precise watch on variants. Plus, Lightspeed's extensive commerce platform empowers you to connect with customers in-store, online, and beyond, complete with integrated SEO tools and adaptable reporting features. 

Pricing: Lightspeed’s Standard package starts at $119 per month.

According to one customer:

“I absolutely love the basic reporting Lightspeed offers. Lightspeed POS is pretty straightforward once you get the hang of it. Allows discounts and customer loyalty accounts to be easily integrated. Support chat is always top notch.” -Lightspeed User

3. Square POS 

Square for Retail offers a comprehensive retail POS system designed to streamline your business operations. They offer solutions for retailers in the clothing, home goods, grocery, and tobacco industries and more. 

With Square for Retail, you can accept various payment types, handle returns and exchanges seamlessly, and expand your sales online through Square Online e-commerce or integration with other platforms. Retailers choose Square for its simplified workflows, automated data entry, security, and customization options, allowing them to tailor their POS system to their unique needs and preferences.

Pricing: Square’s Plus package starts at $60 per month.

One customer says:

“Square POS is ideal for a small business. I am able to easily add items and pricing manually or with a barcode. Customers are used to handling the unit and tapping. Works well with wifi and data.” -Square User

4. POS Nation 

POS Nation provides a user-friendly system designed to improve your checkout process, enhance customer satisfaction, and help you grow your store. They offer hassle-free solutions with robust customer support, transparent pricing, and no long-term contracts. 

Their comprehensive package includes a fully customizable plug-and-play POS software solution, including key features like age verification, scan data reporting, inventory management, and case breaking, all tailored to cater to the needs of small business retailers.

Pricing: Get a custom quote with their transparent pricing tool tool.

One customer says:

“I like the POS system because it is touchscreen and fairly easy to navigate. Everything is sectioned off into categories and pages and you are able to scroll through and find what you need to find. It seems to be updated every now and then but not that often.” -POS Nation User

5. Clover 

Clover offers an all-in-one system designed to empower your business, providing easier payment processing, tighter tracking of transactions, and enhanced customer satisfaction both in-store and online. With the flexibility to manage your business from anywhere through their dashboard, mobile app, and virtual terminal, Clover adapts to your needs. 

It facilitates online ordering for restaurants and retail, streamlines invoicing, and offers comprehensive sales tracking and reporting for informed decision-making. Clover's ability to accept popular payment methods ensures your business remains adaptable to the evolving payments landscape, making it a future-proof solution for point-of-sale systems.

Pricing: Get a custom quote here.

One customer says:

“Clover makes it incredibly easy to run PCI compliance scans and generate compliance documents. As an end-user, I love that we can schedule our scans on a regular basis and then have them automatically transmitted to our merchant service provider.” -Clover User

Picking the Best Tobacco POS Solution for Your Store 

The five tobacco POS solutions listed in this post are all excellent choices for retailers in the modern marketplace. However, no one point of sale solution is the right choice for every business. How can you be sure you’re making the right choice for your store?

If your perfect point of sale solution offers advanced inventory management, performance analytics, and built-in customer loyalty features, Cigars POS might be the right solution for your business!

Our POS system is built specifically for tobacconists and smoke shops, with scan data reporting features, age verification tools, and custom label printing options.

Schedule a free software demo today to see if Cigars POS is the right point of sale solution for your store.