Smoke Shop Credit Card Processing: 5 Tips and Tools

Are you maximizing your profit potential in your smoke shop? If you don’t have smooth smoke shop credit card processing tools and practices, you might not like the answer.

Customers come to your smoke shop for various reasons. They may want the newest vape juice flavor or the latest imported cigar options. They may just want to pick up a few packs of their regular cigarettes. Regardless of their reason for entering your store, they want one thing: a quick, painless checkout process.

This post covers all things smoke shop credit card processing. We’ll cover the importance of credit cards in smoke shops, the laws you must follow to accept payments in your store, and the top tools you can use to process payments in your store. 

Smoke Shop Credit Card Processing: How Important Is It? 

Before we dive into our list of tips and tools, let’s answer one question: How important is credit card processing for smoke shops? The short answer is critical. Less than 20 percent of all transactions are made in cash these days. As more customers move towards cashless and contactless payments, it's becoming increasingly crucial for smoke shops to offer various payment processing options. 

What payment processing methods are essential for modern businesses? In addition to regular credit card payments, you may want to explore a solution that allows you to accept the following:

• Mobile Pay: Mobile payment services like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay are popular, especially among younger consumers. Customers like the speed and security these services provide through their smart devices.
• EMV Chip Cards: EMV chip cards are the new standard, providing enhanced security through embedded microchips. These processes help prevent in-person payment fraud.
• Peer-to-Peer Services: Options like PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App enable direct payments between parties. Some stores may benefit from accepting payments through these channels, but it’s not the right fit for every store. 

If you choose not to implement credit card processing solutions in your smoke shop, you risk losing a lot of business. Over 80 percent of modern consumers make their purchases without using cash. These customers will skip stores that don't take electronic or credit card payments. Without credit card processing capabilities, you’ll miss out on large purchase opportunities that customers would make with credit. Increased theft and security risks also come with running a cash-only operation.

Additionally, you’ll miss out on several key demographics if you run a cash-only business. Millennials and Gen Z rarely carry cash and expect mobile pay options. Credit card acceptance also opens the door for e-commerce capabilities, which can benefit smoke shops. 

With this information in mind, let’s examine some additional considerations smoke shop owners need to understand before accepting payments in their stores. 

Local Laws and Tobacco Transactions

Before we examine our list of the best tools for smoke shop credit card processing, we must consider one of the unique challenges of running a smoke shop: tobacco laws and regulations. What are some of the laws that smoke shop owners must understand before opening up shop and processing transactions?

• Minimum Age Requirements: Every state has a legal minimum age for purchasing tobacco products, typically 18 or 21. It's crucial to strictly adhere to these age restrictions and verify the age of customers through identification before selling any tobacco products. You will want to use a point of sale (POS) solution with age verification features to minimize your risk of selling to underage patrons. 
• Licensing and Permits: You must obtain the right licenses and permits for tobacco sales before opening your shop. Research your state and locality requirements to ensure you have all the permits you need to operate legally.

Related Read: How To Obtain a Tobacco Retail License: 5 Steps

• Product Restrictions: Some localities have additional regulations regarding selling flavored tobacco, vaping products, or specific types of cigarettes. Understanding what products can be sold in your area is crucial if you want to maintain compliance.
• Advertising Restrictions: Products like alcohol and tobacco have additional laws regarding advertising and promotion. Depending on your state or locality, you may have different limitations on where signs or advertisements can be placed, how they can be displayed, and if they can target specific demographics.
• Taxes: Tobacco products have different required taxes imposed at the local, state, and federal levels. Smoke shop owners must understand and comply with these tax requirements, including appropriately collecting and remitting taxes.
• Credit Card Processing: Some regions might have laws or regulations related to credit card processing for tobacco sales. For instance, there might be restrictions on the types of credit cards used for tobacco purchases, or additional fees might be associated with processing credit card transactions for tobacco.
• Sales Records: Keeping accurate records of tobacco sales is good business practice and a legal requirement in some states and localities. These records might be subject to inspection by local authorities, so investing in a point of sale system that tracks your transactions automatically can save you time and stress. 
• Online Sales: If you plan to sell tobacco products online, additional regulations might be specific to online sales, including age verification methods and shipping restrictions. Review your local laws before setting up your e-commerce channels.
  
  

1. Cigars POS 

Best for: Independent smoke shops

Cigars POS is a user-friendly, all-in-one point of sale solution designed for smoke shops and tobacco stores. Our system offers flexible payment processing, including credit and debit card processing and mobile payments through solutions like Apple Pay.

In addition to these payment processing features, Cigars POS includes robust inventory management, including case breaking and carton-pack inventory, allowing you to sell and track products by unit rather than by full cases. 

Cigars POS is perfect for tobacco, cigar, and pipe shop owners, offering other critical features you need like age verification, which helps you stay compliant with all laws and regulations related to tobacco sales. 

Key features:

• Advanced tobacco inventory management
• Reporting and analytics
• Custom label printing
• Scan data reporting
• Customer loyalty programs
• Age verification

Pricing: Use our transparent build and price tool to price out your perfect solution.

2. KORONA POS 

Best for: Ticketing and quick-service restaurants

KORONA POS is a point of sale solution for businesses in various industries, including quick-service restaurants and event ticketing venues. KORONA also offers solutions for smoke shops. You can use KORONA’s transaction kiosks for payment processing, including smoke shop credit card processing. 

Additionally, KORONA POS offers detailed employee reporting, streamlined inventory and vendor management, and comprehensive sales reporting. You can also use KORONA’s built-in customer loyalty functionality to manage loyalty programs for your smoke shop. 

Key features:

• Loss prevention features
• Automated ordering
• Age verification
• Discount pricing features

Pricing: KORONA’s Core solution starts at $59 per month.

3. Lightspeed 

Best for: Combination CBD/smoke shops

Lightspeed offers a point of sale solution for vape shops and CBD stores. Lightspeed’s solution offers advanced payment processing features, including credit card and contactless payment options. 

You can also use Lightspeed for inventory management, staff optimization, and customer relationship management. Lightspeed also offers a comprehensive commerce platform. This feature allows you to reach customers in-store and online, integrating your inventory counts between your online and brick-and-mortar storefronts. 

Key features:

• E-commerce integration
• Advanced reporting
• Contactless payments

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

4. POS Nation 

Best for: Small to mid-sized retailers

POS Nation’s flexible point of sale solution is designed for small to mid-sized retailers in various markets, including liquor stores, tobacco shops, and convenience stores. POS Nation offers flexible payment options, including credit and debit cards, mobile payments, and contactless payment processing. 

You can also use POS Nation’s built-in customer loyalty programs to foster customer retention, leverage their age verification features to maintain compliance, and use their robust inventory management solutions to gain real-time insights into your inventory. They provide a fully customizable plug-and-play POS software solution tailored to small business retailers.

Key features:

• Mix and match pricing
• Carton-pack inventory tracking
• Age verification
• Scan data reporting

Pricing: Get a custom quote with their pricing tool.

Beyond Smoke Shop Credit Card Processing: Running a Profitable Store 

Accepting credit card payments is critical for running a profitable smoke shop in today’s cashless world. The solutions in this post all offer quick, efficient credit card processing. However, credit card transactions are only one piece of the puzzle. You need strong inventory management, customer loyalty, age verification, and scan data reporting to run a successful smoke shop. 

Managing all these complex store operations is no easy task. That's why leveraging the right point of sale solution is critical for smoke shop owners. If you want to take your smoke shop to the next level while saving yourself a headache, you need a POS system built for businesses like yours.

Cigars POS is a point of sale solution designed specifically for tobacco stores and smoke shops. Our solution gives you built-in tools to effortlessly handle payments, inventory, loyalty programs, age verification, reporting, and everything else your shop needs.

Schedule a personalized demo of Cigars POS today to see how a modern POS could benefit your smoke shop.