Sluggish transactions, inventory headaches, and compliance issues all risk damaging your smoke and vape shop’s hard-earned reputation and customer loyalty. Yet many smoke shop owners still rely on a cash register that’s essentially a dinosaur in today's age.
The reality is smoke shops now have access to specialized point of sale (POS) systems designed explicitly for your unique needs. In one seamless platform, you gain compliance assurance, inventory automation, customer loyalty tools, and data-driven insights that boost profitability.
This guide covers seven modern vape POS solutions smoke shops can leverage this year to delight their customers and grow their sales in an increasingly competitive market.
You know you need some kind of point of sale system for your store, but why invest in a vape POS solution? A specialized point of sale system can help you level up your vape shop. Some features you need to look for when choosing your ideal provider include:
When evaluating vape POS solutions, find a system that seamlessly integrates with your existing hardware and software, including syncing capabilities with peripherals like receipt printers, cash drawers, and barcode scanners. Also, remember that cloud-based systems often provide the most seamless experience.
It's essential that the POS is robust enough to handle vape-specific inventory like mods, kits, individual components, juices, and flavor variants. And if you intend to expand your business over time, ensure the POS can scale with higher sales volumes across multiple locations and product lines.
Finally, look for dedicated customer support from the POS provider to assist with hands-on training during onboarding or help resolve any issues. With these key features and functionalities in mind, let’s examine our list of the top picks for vape POS solutions for this year.
Best For: Simplicity and Mobility
Square POS is one of the most popular point of sale systems on the market. Best suited for retailers prioritizing simplicity and mobility, Square enables businesses to accept payments and manage basic operations on the go.
A key advantage of Square is the ability to turn mobile devices like tablets or smartphones into full-featured POS solutions. This capability allows retailers the flexibility to sell products and process transactions on the sales floor or checkout area.
Other notable features include:
Overall, Square creates a powerful yet easy-to-use POS system for basic payment processing and sales insights. Their retail solution suits smaller shops or those with straightforward needs that still demand flexibility plus mobility.
Pricing: Square offers a free solution with 2.6 percent + 10¢ processing charges per in-person tap, dip, swipe, or manual card entry.
Best For: Omnichannel Retail
Korona POS is a robust cloud-based point of sale solution tailored for vape shops and tobacco retailers. Best suited for stores needing strong omnichannel features, this solution provides detailed analytics and automation to streamline product tracking.
Notable capabilities include:
Korona POS delivers robust functionality beyond basic systems for vape retailers struggling with inventory challenges or lacking visibility into day-to-day operations. Owners gain greater oversight into store performance while features like age verification ensure continued compliance.
Pricing: Korona POS offers flexible pricing starting at $59 per month. Higher tiers provide added capabilities like advanced reporting and e-commerce integrations.
Best For: Inventory Management
POS Nation offers a specialty POS solution tailored to the needs of tobacco shops, smoke retailers, cigar stores, and lounges. Best suited for small businesses and omnichannel merchants, it unifies data from online and brick-and-mortar sales channels into a single dashboard with advanced inventory features.
Key capabilities include:
POS Nation offers seasoned industry expertise to merchants needing unified channels and granular inventory oversight. Their solution also scales to accommodate growing sales volumes and additional locations over time.
Pricing: POS Nation provides transparent pricing through a customized pricing tool.
Best For: Advanced Reporting
Lightspeed POS offers a feature-packed system tailored to the needs of specialty retailers like vape shops. It provides powerful analytics and reporting tools to inform better business decisions.
Notable capabilities include:
Lightspeed offers vape shop owners with the actionable insights they need to identify trends, optimize inventory, evaluate campaigns, and boost productivity. Using Lightspeed, store owners can slice and dice data, configure detailed reports, and clearly visualize key performance indicators.
Pricing: Lightspeed pricing starts at $119 per month for the basic plan, but goes up considerably for the advanced plan with additional capabilities.
Best For: Fuel and Gas Sales
NCR offers a robust POS solution tailored to the needs of convenience stores, fuel stations, and similar retail environments. This solution provides tools to track customer purchases, configure loyalty programs, and deliver targeted promotions.
Key features include:
NCR brings enterprise-grade capabilities for convenience store owners struggling to compete with big brands on customer experience. Their solution optimizes operations, enables innovation via open platforms, and provides specialized services.
Pricing: NCR pricing is only available through custom quote.
Best For: Add-On Apps
Clover POS offers a solution known for its flexibility and extensive app integration capabilities. This tool enables deep customization via third-party apps and supports a wide range of hardware options.
Key features include:
Clover provides extensive flexibility for retailers needing to bridge online and in-person shopping across customized environments. Owners can adapt Clover to existing workflows through open APIs instead of the other way around.
Pricing: Clover offers transparent pricing starting at $59.95 per month for the basic plan. Higher tiers provide multi-device bundles, advanced reporting, and customization flexibility.
Best For: Tobacco and Vape Inventory
Cigars POS offers a cloud-based solution tailored to the operational needs of tobacco shops, cigar lounges, vape stores, and other specialty retailers. Our solution provides robust tools for managing wholesale case-based inventory while helping you crush compliance tasks without the headaches.
Notable features include:
Cigars POS delivers purpose-built functionality for tobacco and vape retailers struggling with legacy systems unequipped for industry nuances. You can use our built-in reporting features to gain insights and automation around vital but manual processes like the PACT Act and scan data reports.
Pricing: Get a custom quote for your perfect solution using our transparent build and price tool.
Whether vape products make up the bulk of your smoke shop's sales or are a growing segment for your store. The solutions listed in this post should give you a good idea of the capabilities you need from your POS solution. You can optimize and future-proof operations by implementing a solution with must-have features like robust vape inventory management, built-in age verification, and custom reporting.
Cigars POS offers a specialty POS platform explicitly designed for smoke shops, vape stores, and cigar lounges. Our solution is packed with features tailored to the needs of your unique industry, including automated age verification, carton-pack inventory tracking, scan data reporting, and custom label printing for bottles and displays.
Schedule a demo of Cigars POS today to learn more about our vape and tobacco specialty retail solution and see how we can help you grow your business.