Between stocking your shelves with the right balance of well-loved brands and new arrivals, guiding your customers to the perfect cigar, and keeping your shop compliant with tobacco sale regulations, running a successful cigar shop comes with unique challenges.
That’s why you need a specialized point of sale (POS) system as your partner. A cigar shop POS is a powerful tool designed specifically for the tobacco industry. It includes all the features you need to tackle the complexity of cigar inventory management, provide top-tier customer service, and streamline your operations.
Here are four key features to look for on your journey to find the perfect cigar shop POS.
1. Cigar Inventory Management
Inventory management is a critical aspect of your cigar shop’s success. Whether they’re stocking up on their go-to cigars or looking to try something new, your customers depend on you to keep the shelves perfectly stocked.
Managing hundreds, if not thousands, of cigars is no easy feat without the right tools. Luckily, a cigar shop POS has a few special features to help you take control of your inventory.
Carton-pack inventory management is a particularly useful function for cigar shops. It allows you to track your stock at both the carton and individual unit levels, giving you an easily digestible and accurate overview of your inventory. Case breaking is a related feature that enables you to seamlessly sell an entire carton or an individual unit depending on your customers’ preferences.
These features give your customers the flexibility to try a single cigar or purchase an entire carton, while also enabling effortless inventory management.
2. Cigar Label Printing
Custom label printing is an extremely helpful cigar shop POS feature. Most of the time, cigars are sold in large cartons, and the individual units in each carton do not have barcode labels.
This can make it challenging to sell single cigars, slowing down the checkout process and leading to pricing and inventory errors.
That’s why your cigar shop POS should allow you to print individual barcode labels for each cigar. Labeling each cigar helps your customers see the pricing details for each product, and it also streamlines transactions. Your team will be able to scan each cigar, making checkout quick and simple — all while ensuring accurate pricing and inventory tracking.
3. Age Verification
Tobacco sales are subject to strict regulations. To keep your cigar shop in compliance with the law, it’s essential to make sure that your customers are of legal smoking age.
One unique cigar shop POS feature that can help you comply with tobacco sale regulations is built-in age verification. Cigar shop POS systems require you to enter each customer’s date of birth to ensure that the transaction is legal.
For the quickest and most convenient experience, many cigar shop POS systems offer an age verification scanner, which allows your employees to simply scan a customer’s ID to ensure that they are over 21.
Built-in age verification makes it easy to operate your cigar shop legally, protecting you from the hefty fines and penalties that come with selling cigars to underage customers.
4. Tobacco Scan Data Reporting
Tobacco scan data reporting is another must-have cigar shop POS feature. Tobacco scan data shows how much of each product you’ve sold in your cigar shop over a given time period.
This cigar shop POS feature is crucial for two reasons:
- Tobacco scan data gives you valuable insights into your customers’ product preferences. You’ll be able to see which cigars sell the most (and the least) in your shop, empowering you to make informed decisions about your inventory.
- Many tobacco manufacturers offer incentives to cigar shops that provide their tobacco scan data. By participating in these programs and sharing your data, you’ll be able to offer special discounts to your customers and earn rebates.
To boost your business’ bottom line, make sure to choose a cigar shop POS that offers easy-to-access tobacco scan data reports.
Smoke the Competition With a Cigar Shop POS
A specialized point of sale system can be a game changer for your cigar shop. With inventory management, cigar label printing, age verification, and reporting features designed specifically for the tobacco industry, a cigar shop POS is the tool you need to streamline your operations and boost your bottom line.
Ready to start your journey to find the perfect cigar shop POS for your small business? Give Cigars POS a try!
Schedule a live, personalized demo with one of our industry experts today, and learn how Cigars POS can transform your cigar shop.
