4 Best Liquor Retail POS Providers [Pricing & Reviews]

How many hours a week do you spend managing inventory?

If you answered, “too many,” you’re not alone. What about all the other parts of your store you need to manage? From age verification to custom loyalty programs to sales, your glass is full.

Staying on top of it all with manual counts and spreadsheets doesn’t cut it anymore — but a liquor retail point of sale (POS) system does. Now you’ve just got to make the right choice for your store.

And we’re here to help you do just that. This article highlights the features you should look out for and the top liquor retail POS providers on the market today. Let’s help you make the best choice for your store.

What Can a Liquor Retail POS Do for Your Store?

As a liquor store owner, you face unique challenges. 

Between keeping track of stock levels across hundreds of SKUs, dealing with varying bottle sizes, juggling promotion pricing, and the big one — scanning IDs and staying compliant with state alcohol regulations — it’s a lot to manage.

You could use a generic retail POS system, but the problem is, they lack the key features you need to manage your liquor store. 

Sure, they can ring up sales – that’s POS 101 — but do they have advanced inventory features like case break tracking? Built-in age verification software and hardware that flags underage sales? Dual pricing? Loss prevention features? You’d be lucky to find these features in a generic POS system.

The right software, tailored for liquor retail, can manage your business from top to bottom. From barcode scanning to built-in customer loyalty, a specialty liquor retail POS gives you control and saves a lot of time.

But how do you choose the right liquor retail POS? Start with the features you absolutely need.

Related Read: 8 Liquor Store POS System Benefits You Can't Afford To Miss

Features To Look For in a Liquor Retail POS System

Here are some features that make up a solid liquor-specific POS system:

• Inventory and stock control: This is at the top of the list. You need control over every SKU. Granular control and tracking help you understand how your inventory moves, which products are your top sellers, and which stagnant bottles are gathering dust.
• ID scanning and age verification: A close second, scanning customer IDs and flagging potential underage sales should be effortless. You need an age verification scanner that integrates with your POS.
• Integrated barcode scanning: No more manual, error-prone inventory counts! Use a barcode scanner to receive, organize, and sell your stock. When you scan a product at the checkout, it should automatically update your inventory.
• Mix and match bottle pricing: Want to increase your revenue? Let customers bundle liquor, wine, or beer and get a great deal. Manage mix and match pricing with ease.
• Customer loyalty management: The best customer is a return customer! Look for a liquor retail POS with built-in customer loyalty features.
• Omnichannel capabilities: Customers want to buy alcohol in your physical and online stores. They want a consistent experience in both. Look for liquor software with e-commerce integrations.
• Custom reporting and analytics: Identify which brands drive your sales with detailed reporting.

Other features to look out for include robust security, shrinkage prevention, and marketing. Let’s dive into the best liquor retail POS providers.

#1: Bottle POS

Best for: Liquor-specific features

Features: Bottle POS is designed specifically for liquor store owners, focusing on key features that truly matter to make operations easier and increase customer satisfaction. Standout features include:

• Automated invoicing: Automate invoicing processes and eliminate manual paperwork involved in inventory management tasks such as adding and updating items. This feature saves time and reduces errors associated with manual data entry.
• Flexible pricing: Bottle POS offers mix and match, case break, wholesale, and promotional pricing options. Pricing management is easy and customizable.
• Automated ranking: Automation is the name of the game for Bottle POS users. With our auto ranking feature, you can quickly identify which brands drive your sales. Auto ranking grades all of your items on an A-B-C-D scale and color codes them based on sale patterns.

Other features include:

• A centralized database of common products
• Easy age verification
• Built-in dual pricing
• 24/7 inventory management from anywhere
• Out-of-the-box loyalty and rewards
• Online sales through BottleZoo

If you want a truly liquor-specific POS system, Bottle POS ticks all the boxes.

Pricing: Your store is unique, so build a custom system and pay only for what you need.

Customer Review: “Fast response during the setup process. The best customer service of any POS company. Great help as always.”

#2: mPower Beverage

Best for: Multi-location liquor stores

Features: mPower highlights its inventory software that gives you actionable, real-time data. Made for beer, wine, and liquor stores, mPower can help run your business smoothly — especially if you have more than one location. Features include:

• Inventory management: Liquor store owners can manage thousands of items efficiently and accurately. You can streamline reordering and get insights into product availability.
• Multi-location support: Synchronize data across multiple stores, including centralized pricing and promotions. Improve your operations through centralized management of inventory, pricing, and reports.
• Customer management and loyalty rewards: mPower includes built-in customer management tools and loyalty programs (where permitted by local law), allowing store owners to track customer purchases, preferences, and history.

Pricing: The ongoing monthly subscription starts at $1,000 for one register per location and $120/month.

Customer review: “The software offers pretty much everything you need, reports & operationally, to operate a liquor store. The scanner works well.”

#3: POS Nation

Best for: Small and mid-sized liquor stores

Features: POS Nation provides the hardware, software features, support, and payment processing your liquor store needs to grow. Trusted by more than 10,000 customers, POS Nation has liquor-specific features such as: 

• Case break inventory tracking: Easily track inventory by case, bottle, or six-pack, with automatic accounting for case breaks.
• Vendor management and purchase orders: Manage vendors and create purchase orders in a single system, saving time and streamlining operations.
• Dual pricing options: Offer customers cash discounts to incentivize cash payments over credit card transactions.
• Mobile inventory management: Simplify inventory tasks with mobile inventory features and handheld devices for receiving deliveries and conducting shelf counts.
• Multiple payment options: Accept various payment methods, including gift cards, credit/debit cards, mobile payments, and cash.

Pricing: The Flex Monthly option is $149/month. Or, use their build and price tool to custom-build your own system.

Customer review: “The software is incredibly easy to use. Our Customer Success Manager helped us with onboarding and training, and we were up and running in a matter of days.”

#4: Shopify POS

Best for: Online liquor sales

Features: Geared towards omnichannel selling, Shopify POS offers the software, hardware, payment processing, and staff management you need to run a successful online and in-person liquor store. Key features include:

• Fast checkouts: Close sales quickly with intuitive software.
• Smooth payments: Online or offline, Shopify is designed for smooth sales everywhere you sell.
• Integrated back office for online sales: You can save time with synced orders and inventory data.

Shopify isn’t liquor-specific software, but for small stores that want to sell online, too, it’s a great option.

Pricing: Various pricing structures. For a small team, the monthly fee for one store starts at $105.

Customer review: “We really enjoy using the Shopify POS system. It makes our in-store experience easy and keeps our inventory accurate. We have had great experiences with customer service and have seen our store flourish after switching to Shopify.”

The Best Liquor Retail POS System for Your Store

The right liquor retail POS system can give you the time and cost savings you need to run a successful liquor store. Providers like POS Nation, Shopify, mPower Beverage, and Bottle POS offer many of the features that help run your business.

We might be a little biased, but at Bottle POS, all we do is consistently iterate and improve our liquor store POS system. We don’t serve other industries — we’re all in. With features like automated inventory management, ID scanning, and built-in customer loyalty programs, we can help your store thrive.

But don’t take our word for it. Instead, schedule a demo with our liquor experts and see our POS system in action.