Would you rather have a point of sale (POS) system that bleeds money or pours profits?
The answer is obvious. But without a liquor-specific POS system, you’re leaving a lot to chance. From fines for underage selling to basic inventory management, using a generic POS system doesn’t give you the comfort and confidence you need to run your liquor store.
Finding a POS system built specifically for the challenges of alcohol retail is essential. What liquor store POS software features do you really need? You’ll find out in this article. Read on to find out how to easily manage compliance, inventory, reporting, and more.
There might be various POS providers to choose from when purchasing your point of sale system. When you do choose a provider, you have to consider:
Related Read: The Best POS System for Your Liquor Store: 4 Top Providers
But most importantly, do they have the liquor store POS software features you need? Off-the-shelf POS software might not be able to manage age verification well. It may struggle to handle complex inventory and detailed reporting. What else?
Let’s look at the five must-have features you need to run your liquor store successfully.
Because of the dire consequences of selling alcohol to minors, robust age verification software is a must-have feature. Verifying IDs is a challenge, and if you get it wrong, you face significant fines, license suspensions, and even criminal charges.
The best liquor store POS systems integrate scanning technology, making verifying drivers’ licenses, passports, military IDs, and other government-issued identification easy. Cashiers can scan IDs to confirm that the customer is of legal drinking age. You can also set restrictions and program pop-up alerts that prevent sales outside approved hours.
Related Read: Choosing an ID Scanner for Liquor Stores: 4 Top Options
Advanced systems can calculate a customer's age on the spot and cross-check the ID against known fakes or duplicates. Your age verification software should also maintain records of verifications for compliance purposes.
Bottom line: Don’t invest in a liquor store POS system if it doesn’t have robust age verification software.
You want a liquor store POS system that makes liquor inventory management a breeze. You might get five or ten deliveries a week, and if you don’t have software that handles receiving, organizing, and tracking your inventory, you’re in trouble.
Inventory management software helps you manage:
Solutions like Bottle POS grade your inventory on a scale from A to D. It also color codes them based on sales patterns to make your life even easier.
Every jurisdiction has its own rules and regulations for selling and marketing alcohol. Some are stricter than others, but as a general rule, you’ll need to follow the laws set out by your state. For example, when it comes to marketing:
Consider your liquor store POS software as an undercover bouncer. As well as robust age verification features, some alcohol-specific POS systems come with integrated marketing to help you reach your target audience safely.
Customer loyalty programs use purchase history to ensure you’re selling to customers who have already verified their age and to prevent overselling. You can directly market to them, perhaps suggesting wine pairings or alerting them when new flavors come in.
Related Read: Liquor Store Compliance Solutions: 4 Ways Your POS System Can Help
Employees interact with your POS system daily. From processing transactions to managing inventory, they can access anything — unless you set permissions.
Start with giving each employee unique passcodes to restrict your system to current staff. You can then manage what your employees have access to. For example, cashiers can process sales but not issue refunds. Or, managers can override prices, but the system tracks their changes.
Modern POS systems can directly link employee logins to specific cash drawers. The POS tallies the difference between expected and actual cash at sign-out and flags unusual trends.
Training your employees to use your POS system is crucial. You could let them practice transactions and test them on local compliance regulations, responsible sales practices, proper ID verification, and more.
You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Comprehensive reporting and analytics should be on the must-have feature list for liquor store owners. Reports to look out for include:
Other reports include profit and loss statements, merchandising reports, and shrinkage. Using data, you can spot sales trends, prevent stockouts, and better plan everything from inventory to loss prevention.
Related Read: GUIDE: How To Use Your Point of Sale Analytics To Increase Profits
You already know that running a liquor store comes with unique challenges. You might not know that instead of relying on generic POS systems, you can have a liquor-specific POS solution!
Managing compliance, security, inventory, and sales is easier with a liquor store POS system built by liquor store owners. The liquor store POS software features we’ve highlighted barely touch the surface.
Bottle POS has these features baked in, as well as:
…and more.
It’s hard to fit all of our features into this article, but if you want to see it for yourself and ask any questions you might have, schedule a demo with our liquor store experts today!