Are you getting the most from your point of sale (POS) reporting features? Or are you leaving opportunities on the table?
Picture this: Your store is thriving and staying ahead of the competition. You have several regular customers who come back time and time again. Yet your profit margins aren’t what you expect. Without a clear view of your store’s performance, it’s hard to figure out exactly what’s cutting into your bottom line.
That’s where liquor store POS reporting comes in.
Once you know what to look for, the reports on your liquor POS system can give you a deeper understanding of your customers’ habits, inventory costs, best-selling products, and more.
This post will demystify liquor store POS reporting, providing an overview of how it works, in addition to specific types of reports you can use to cut overhead costs, improve product selection, and create a better customer experience.
Every time you use your POS system to receive an invoice, generate a purchase order (PO), update stock, look up a customer, or ring up a sale, it’s generating data — the reporting tools on your POS system simply take that data, analyze it, and present it visually.
Reports like the dashboard above provide an in-depth overview of your store’s performance at a glance, helping you make confident decisions about your business. With rising inventory costs and intense competition, this can be the difference between losing money and achieving long-term success.
Let’s take a look at a few of the valuable insights liquor store POS reporting provides your business:
There’s no need to constantly keep an eye on data to get the benefits, either. Simply schedule some time weekly or monthly to monitor key metrics. You can also set your POS system to email you the most beneficial reports at the end of the day.
The goal isn't to become a data expert. It's to spot a few things that matter most to your bottom line.
When liquor store owners only look at their sales numbers, it paints an incomplete picture of store performance and leads to decisions based on a hunch, not facts.
Liquor store POS reporting helps owners back up their instincts with data. There are many key performance metrics (KPIs) that all liquor store owners should track, including:
Let’s take a look at how this type of visibility can specifically help your store.
The first and most obvious benefit of point of sale reporting is access to sales data.. In addition to looking at total sales revenue and profit margin, you can also find information about:
Compared to overall sales numbers, these reports give you insights into which specific products are boosting sales and which are gathering dust on your shelves. This lets you know which product areas to expand in and which you should discount, hold off reordering, or discontinue altogether.
For example, you might find that in the winter months, sales of spirits like tequila and gin drop dramatically, while sales of red wines and whiskey increase — based on that, you might slow down your ordering of gin and tequila in the winter and start running more wine promotions to boost sales and cut overhead costs.
Some systems, including Bottle POS, can also rank products automatically using AI and sales data, assigning them a grading between A and D, with “A” products being in your top 20% over the last 30 days and D not selling at all.
This ranking is visible throughout the system, letting you see at a glance which products you should be more conscious of restocking and which not to reinvest in for the time being.
Compared to a general retailer, liquor stores tend to experience higher levels of theft and are subject to stricter legal requirements. You may be surprised that reports on your POS system can help in both of these areas.
Your POS system simplifies legal compliance in several ways.
Inventory reports will help you keep detailed records that are required in some states, including Texas. Additionally, some liquor-specific POS systems will keep a record of whether an ID was checked for each transaction, making it easy to comply with any investigations into underage sales (and quickly identify which employees rang up the transaction).
Your POS reporting processes can also be crucial in identifying theft, fraud, and other discrepancies. You can monitor your sales data and compare it with inventory records. This data helps you spot irregularities and inconsistencies, giving you the time and opportunity to take appropriate action.
Using a webcam integration, you can also correlate specific transactions — whether it’s a contested transaction, unusual refund, or suspected theft — with footage of the register to see exactly what happened.
Related Read: Liquor Store Employee Training: 5 Critical Topics To Cover
Another benefit of POS reporting is having access to real-time stock updates. This feature helps you stay on top of your inventory by showing you your amount on hand, alerting you when certain products are running low, and identifying shrinkage areas.
Liquor store POS systems also offer automated reordering features that let you set reorder thresholds, ensuring you never run out of your bestsellers and further simplifying inventory management:
Keep your bestsellers in stock, but don't tie up your cash in bottles that sit for months. Run out of Crown Royal on Friday night? You just lost sales to your competitor down the street. Order too many cases of that seasonal gin nobody wanted? That's thousands of dollars sitting on your shelf instead of in your bank account.
Setting prices is one of the most important and challenging tasks for any liquor store owner. When you rely purely on instinct to price your products, it’s easy to over- or undervalue products.
The reports on your POS system can give you an objective view of your profits, both for individual bottles and categories of spirits. Your inventory system will allow you to easily see the:
Using all of this information, you can make smart decisions about pricing popular products and categories instead of doing blanket price changes that can be off-putting to customers.
Similarly, by creating discounts and promotions in your POS system, you can monitor their effectiveness. Use your POS system to see which types of promotions (e.g. mix and match, 10% off on sales over $100, etc.) your customers respond to, and see the return on investment (ROI) for each.
There’s a reason most liquor stores have some form of wine club or general loyalty program — because they work!
However, many liquor store owners don’t use their customers’ information to its full potential.
Liquor store POS reporting provides you with valuable customer data, such as:
Using this data allows you to better understand your customer base and tailor marketing campaigns accordingly.
For example, you could:
When you find ways to provide a more personalized and satisfying shopping experience, you ultimately build stronger relationships and increase customer satisfaction.
Related Read: 7 Reasons You Need an E-Commerce Liquor Store
The reports on your liquor store POS system are useful for more than back office decisions about vendors and pricing — they can also help you improve the layout of your store.
By segmenting your products into different categories (e.g. craft beer, Japanese whiskeys), you can start to understand which physical areas of the store are performing well and which need love.
Sometimes, a product doesn’t sell because it’s simply unpopular — but not always. Low sales in an otherwise healthy product category could point to bad shelf placement. If sales are unusually low in a whole category, it could indicate you need to rearrange your shelves or rethink your signage so customers know where to look.
You can also use basket analysis to see which types of items are frequently purchased together for ideas on standing displays, product bundles, and endcap displays.
The goal isn't to become a spreadsheet expert. It's to spot the three to four things that matter most: your real bestsellers, your actual profit drivers, your best customers, and where you're losing money without realizing it.
With the right liquor store POS reports at your fingertips, you can back up your gut feelings with data, helping you make smarter, more confident business decisions.
However, it’s worth noting that not all POS systems are built alike. When liquor stores use software built for general retail, it can take a lot more work to get to the information they need.
That’s why independent liquor stores across the country trust Bottle POS to give them invaluable insights and simplify the way they run their stores. With our unique auto ranking feature and dozens of helpful reports, our system makes it easy to make improvements and boost profits.
For more helpful tips on running a successful liquor store, download our free guide today.
