Customers could pick up a pack of cigarettes or a cigar at the local convenience store, but they choose to support your smoke shop instead. That’s because small businesses like yours are unique — from your handpicked tobacco selection to your friendly customer service.
But too often, local smoke shops and cigar lounges rely on cookie-cutter point of sale (POS) solutions that don’t fit their distinct needs. Missing features, excessive fees, and unreliable support hold them back.
In this blog, we’ll explore how moving away from these generic POS systems can take your smoke shop to the next level — plus five ways a tobacco-specific solution helps you protect your tobacco retail license, boost customer satisfaction, and increase profits.
Let’s dive in!
The Problem With Generic POS Solutions
For new smoke shop owners on a tight budget, generic POS systems like Square, Clover, and National Retail Solutions (NRS) seem like a great option. They’re popular, they advertise low prices, and they promise a user-friendly experience.
However, within a few months of operation, these tobacco retailers start to realize that their POS system isn’t quite the right fit. Here are common pain points:
- Compliance issues: The tobacco retail industry is heavily regulated, and protecting your tobacco license takes more than visually checking IDs. Generic retail POS systems don’t always include the compliance features you need, like scanner-powered age verification, tax handling, and detailed inventory reports.
- Payment processing cancellations: We’ve all heard the horror stories — providers unexpectedly cancel tobacco retailers’ payment processing service, bringing their sales to a screeching halt. This is because most generic retail POS providers don’t specialize in tobacco sales or offer high-risk payment processing.
- Inventory management headaches: Tired of manually ringing up unlabeled single cigars at checkout, struggling to count cigarette cartons and individual packs, and running out of your customers’ go-to smokes? Your POS system is probably missing important, tobacco-specific inventory management features.
When your POS system doesn’t offer these critical tobacco retail features, you only have a few choices: do without, pay excessive monthly add-on fees, or invest in multiple systems to manage your smoke shop.
What Makes Cigars POS Different
You shouldn’t change your business model to fit your POS system. Instead, you need a POS system built to fit your business.
Cigars POS is a tailored POS solution designed specifically for tobacco stores, smoke shops, and cigar lounges. This means no add-on fees for must-have features like age verification, no retrofitting a system to meet your needs, and no risk of your payment processing being canceled without notice. Plus, you have access to a support team of tobacco retail experts who actually understand your business.
Discover why Keith Brick, manager of F&M Cigars, switched from an old-school cash register to our modern cigar shop POS system:
Now, let’s look at five ways Cigars POS can take your tobacco shop to the next level.
1. Comply With Tobacco Retail Laws
From scouring customers’ IDs to organizing tax documents, protecting your tobacco retail license can feel like a full-time job. And unlike generic POS systems, Cigars POS is designed with this challenge in mind.
For example, age verification technology is included in each of our pricing plans, so you never have to worry about selling tobacco to customers under 21. Before every transaction, our software prompts your cashiers to check IDs and enter customers’ birthdates or use an age verification scanner for even more security.
Cigars POS also includes in-depth reporting for tobacco taxes, purchase orders and receipts, sales transactions, and inventory — ensuring you’re always ready for audits and inspections.
2. Stock the Right Products
If customers’ can’t find their go-to cigarette brand or vape flavor in your shop, they’ll turn to one of your competitors — and they might not give you another chance. That’s why it’s so important to rely on a POS solution built for tobacco inventory.
Here are three unique features you need:
- Carton-pack inventory tracking: A tobacco-specific POS system like Cigars POS eliminates confusion when it comes to inventory counts, making it easy to track and sell inventory by the carton and pack.
- Automated purchase orders: Struggling with frequent stockouts? Automated purchase orders save you time and help you keep tobacco bestsellers in stock. When a product is running low, your POS system will automatically generate a purchase order to replenish it.
- Custom cigar label printing: While generic POS systems allow you to print barcode labels, they’re not always the right size and shape for individual cigars.
Cigars POS includes these features and more to save you time, prevent stockouts, and eliminate the hassle of tobacco inventory management.
Related Read: 7 Inventory Mistakes Tobacco Shops Make (and How To Avoid Them)
3. Take the Guesswork Out of Profitability
Competition from gas stations and convenience stores is squeezing local smoke shop margins — which means you need all the help you can get from your POS system.
Cigars POS includes tailored tools to help you track and improve your profit margins, including:
- Automated ranking: Identify your bestselling cigars, and discover which ones are actually costing you money with our AI-powered reporting software. It assigns an A, B, C, or D grade to each of your products and colorcodes them for easy decision-making.
- Flexible promotions: Boost key performance indicators (KPIs) like average basket size and transaction value with mix and match or bundle promotions that apply automatically at checkout.
- In-depth reporting and analytics: Track wholesale costs, profit margins, sell-through rate, and more to help you make strategic pricing decisions and monitor your smoke shop’s financial health.
Features like these eliminate the need for expensive accounting software, cluttered spreadsheets, and manual math — making it easier to achieve steady profitability.
4. Make Marketing a Breeze
One of the biggest challenges tobacco store owners face is attracting and retaining valuable customers. It might seem like marketing success depends on a huge budget and unlimited free time, but Cigars POS’ built-in marketing features make it manageable.
Our software includes a built-in customer loyalty program, letting you create accounts in seconds, track purchase history, and manage points and rewards. When customers have the opportunity to unlock discounts and special perks like exclusive cigar lounge event invitations, they’ll trust you for all their tobacco needs.
You can also use these customer relationship management (CRM) tools to send marketing emails and text messages about your new product arrivals and latest promotions. You can even send personalized offers to bring customers through your door!
The best part about these built-in tools is that they help you market your smoke shop without violating tobacco advertising laws.
Related Read: 6 Tobacco Advertising Regulations Every Smoke Shop Owner Should Know
5. Enjoy Support From Tobacco Industry Experts
Choosing a tobacco-specific POS solution isn’t just about having access to the right features — it’s about getting the right support.
When you reach out to the support teams of generic retail POS providers, they might not be able to help you set up carton-pack logic, print cigar-sized labels, or prevent underage sales. At worst, these providers might approve your smoke shop for payment processing, then cancel unexpectedly.
At Cigars POS, we only work with tobacco stores, smoke shops, and cigar lounges. Through onboarding and beyond, you’ll have access to tobacco retail experts who work with shops like yours day in and day out.
We also offer high-risk payment processing, allowing you to sell tightly-regulated products like vapes, CBD, and more without cancellation worries.
Get Started With Cigars POS, a Purpose-Built Tobacco POS System
Are you serious about becoming your neighborhood’s most successful smoke shop? Then you need a POS system designed to help you achieve your goals.
From scanner-powered age verification to AI-powered inventory tracking, Cigars POS includes all the tools you need to satisfy customers and stay profitable. Plus, you’ll have 24/7 access to our team of tobacco shop experts at no additional cost.
Take Cigars POS for a spin by scheduling your live, personalized demo today!
