The Tobacco Point of Sale System Buyers' Guide

The Essential Guide to Smoke Shop Inventory Management

Think back to the customers that have made a purchase in your smoke shop recently. What products did they choose? How much of each item did they buy?

Chances are that almost every single customer bought a different assortment of items from different brands and in different quantities.

Your smoke shop has to cater to the diverse preferences and needs of your clientele, carrying everything from popular e-juice brands to the finest cigars. And not only is stocking the right products important, but it’s also critical that you stock them in the right amounts.

Smoke shop inventory management is foundational to the success of your small business, keeping your customers happy and your profits healthy. But to effectively manage your inventory, you need the right knowledge and tools.

In this guide, we’ll cover what makes smoke shop inventory management unique — and how you can level up your inventory management process using a smoke shop point of sale system.

What Is Smoke Shop Inventory Management?

Inventory management is key for any retail business. Simply put, inventory management is keeping accurate records of the products that come into your store, the products that you have on hand, and the products that leave your store when a customer makes a purchase.

Effective inventory management helps you maintain the right balance of inventory. Too much of a product causes cash flow and storage problems, and too little of a product can lead to customer dissatisfaction and lost sales.

Smoke shop inventory management presents two unique challenges. First, smoke shops carry a wide-ranging catalog of products, keeping everything from popular cigarettes to high-end cigar cutters on hand. Managing this many individual products is tricky, and it’s easy to miss when a product is low in stock.

Second, sales of tobacco products are governed by strict laws in many areas, including age verification and tax regulations. Your smoke shop’s inventory management system needs to take these requirements into account, ensuring that all inventory is carefully recorded and all sales are compliant with the law.

Taking Stock: Smoke Shop Inventory Checklist

TopProductsStock_CigarsInventoryGuide If you’re evaluating your smoke shop inventory management process, it might be a good time to make sure you’re carrying the right selection of products.

Your offerings should take into account your customers’ preferences, as well as your smoke shop’s unique niche, but here are some commonly-stocked smoke shop items to consider:

Cigarettes
Cigars
Vape pens
Juices/e-liquids
Lighters
Cigar cutters
Rolling papers
Pipes

Being intentional about the types and brands of products to stock in your smoke shop will help you stand out from the competition and make shopping with you a memorable experience for each of your customers.

Leveraging a Smoke Shop Point of Sale System

When you think of a point of sale system, what comes to mind?

You might imagine a POS system simply as a tool that facilitates sales transactions, but in reality, a point of sale system is a powerful tool that can streamline your inventory management, analyze your sales data, and provide you with valuable insights about your business. It can even help you grow your loyal customer base.

v2PowerfulToolQuote_CigarsInventoryGuide

A modern point of sale system can transform your smoke shop inventory management process. Instead of spending countless hours manually counting and recording your stock during receiving and cycle counts, your smoke shop POS system allows you to scan products in to count them while your software automatically tracks your inventory.

Using a POS system for your inventory management process saves you time, makes your records more accurate, and enables you to optimize your inventory for the highest sales at the lowest cost.

Here are a few must-have inventory management features for your smoke shop’s POS system:

Carton-Pack Inventory Tracking

Carton-pack inventory tracking shows you exactly what you have in stock at the carton and pack levels. For example, you can easily see how many cartons and individual packs of a particular brand of cigarette you have available, which is helpful when it comes to making reorder decisions.

Case Breaking

Case breaking allows you to seamlessly sell an entire case of a product, or to break that case and sell only one unit — all while maintaining pricing and inventory accuracy. This is common for cigars, breaking a case into individual units.

Scan Data Reporting

Scan data reporting provides you with a detailed report of the sales volume of each product in your store. This data can help you identify and stock your customers’ favorites, and it can be used to take advantage of tobacco manufacturer rebates.

Mix and Match Pricing

Mix and match pricing allows you to offer special pricing for customers who purchase a combination of different products. For example, you can promote two of your products by offering a buy one, get one 50 percent off special, and your POS system will automatically apply the discount at checkout.

Kit Building

Kit building enables you to group certain items together in a kit with a special price. This feature is especially useful in smoke shops, where customers might want to try an assortment of cigars or tobacco blends. First-time vape customers may want the opportunity to pair a couple of e-juice flavors with their new device and coil to get started. No matter the bundle, your POS system should make pricing and tracking the inventory of kits easy.

Cigar Label Printing

Cigar label printing allows you to print custom labels for the cigars you sell in your store. These labels are designed to fit cigars perfectly — and since most cigars come in a case and don’t have a barcode on each unit, it’s helpful to print an label for each. This feature speeds up the checkout process and provides helpful information to customers as they browse.

Automated Ranking

Automated ranking is a powerful tool that can help you optimize your smoke shop’s inventory. It uses sales data and artificial intelligence to show you which of your products are selling the best — and informs your decisions about promotions, pricing, and stocking.

Automated Purchase Orders

Automated purchase orders save you time and ensure customer satisfaction by preventing stockouts. When an item’s inventory falls below a certain level, your POS system will automatically generate a purchase order, ensuring that you never run out of your bestsellers.

Staying Compliant With Tobacco Laws and Regulations

Tobacco is a tightly-regulated industry, and proper compliance with the law can mean success or failure for your smoke shop.

Legislation applying to tobacco sales differs from state to state, and some municipalities even have an additional set of laws on the books regarding the sale of tobacco. You’ll need to check your state and county’s specific laws, but here are a few examples of regulations that are commonly applied to the tobacco industry:

Age restrictions: Most states adhere to the federal restriction on tobacco sales to customers 21 and older, which means that it’s important to verify customer ages.

Licensing: Many states require you to apply for a tobacco retail license, and maintaining a license is dependent on your smoke shop’s compliance with tobacco regulations.

Reporting: Some states require you to keep accurate records of your sales of tobacco products, and to either submit these records or present them to authorities upon request.

Failure to comply with these laws can result in your tobacco retail license being suspended or revoked, and your smoke shop may face hefty fines and penalties.

Fortunately, smoke shop inventory management and legal compliance go hand in hand. Your smoke shop POS system can be your greatest resource and ally in maintaining accurate inventory records and ensuring that all tobacco sales conducted in your business are in line with the law.

Built-in age verification is an essential POS feature for legal compliance if your state requires you to verify customers’ ages before completing a tobacco sale.

POS age verification allows you and your employees to enter a customer’s date of birth, or for the most convenient and quick checkout experience, use an age verification scanner to scan their IDs (which also helps you determine if they’re real).

This feature adds an extra layer of legal protection to your business, while also streamlining and optimizing your operations.

How To Boost Sales With Smart Smoke Shop Inventory Management

We’ve explored how effective inventory management can help you maintain a well-stocked smoke shop, prevent lost sales from stockouts, and help you make the most of your inventory budget — but smoke shop inventory management can actually boost your sales, too!

Making strategic decisions about your inventory and promotions can increase your revenue and elevate your customers’ satisfaction.

For example, many POS systems have a kit building feature, which allows you to group items together and seamlessly sell and track your inventory as kits and as individual items. This is a particularly useful feature because it allows you to group popular, bestselling items with less popular items that need a boost. As an added bonus, your customers will love the exciting, curated experience they get when trying a kit.

Automated ranking is another useful tool for boosting your sales. This AI-powered feature gives you insights into your customers’ favorite products, empowering you to make strategic decisions about your stock. Keeping a healthy collection of your bestsellers and adding new, similar products to your selections will increase your sales.

Choosing the Right Smoke Shop Inventory Management System

Effectively managing your inventory can be a game-changer for your smoke shop. As a refresher, here’s an overview of why smoke shop inventory management is so critical to the success of your small business:

Ensures customer satisfaction and decreases lost sales due to stockouts
Stabilizes your cash flow by helping you stock the right products in the right amounts
Prevents storage problems and the waste of overstocked, slow-moving items
Saves you time by eliminating tedious and inaccurate manual inventory counts
Helps your smoke shop stay compliant with laws regarding tobacco sales
Boosts revenue with exciting features like kit building

MustHaveFeatureChecklist_CigarsInventoryGuide If you’re in the market for a new point of sale and inventory management solution for your smoke shop, make sure to consider these benefits and identify your top priorities, so that you can make informed decisions on your journey.

It can also be helpful to create a checklist of your must-have inventory management features to help you narrow down your options. Here’s one to get you started.

If you’re ready to take control of your smoke shop inventory management, check out Cigars POS. Cigars POS is an all-in-one point of sale solution that includes all the features you need to accurately and efficiently manage your inventory, offer top-tier customer service, and grow your business.

While you’re shopping around for the right POS and smoke shop inventory management solution for your business, make sure to give Cigars POS a try! Schedule your free live demo with a tobacco industry expert today to see Cigars POS in action.

In the meantime, check out our build and price tool to start creating your custom smoke shop POS solution and see an instant quote.