Wine POS System: 6 Must-Have Features [+Top Providers]

If you're looking to move your business into the future, a wine point of sale (POS) system could be just what you need. Studies show that 91 percent of consumers feel better about shopping in stores that make the experience personal.

A wine store POS system gives you the specialized tools to develop deeper relationships with your customers and keep them coming back. Designed to help wine shops expand and grow, a wine POS system will help you spot trends, track inventory, and improve customer service.

But what makes a wine shop POS different from your typical retail management system? Here is a list of the essential features that make these systems stand out, followed by our recommendations for top providers.

1. Inventory Tracking

Imagine learning about a new wine seller in town, browsing their website for a special bottle, then going in only to find it’s out of stock. Keeping your shelves stocked with customer favorites and tracking which bottles are selling fast (and which aren’t) is essential.

A wine shop POS system can update your inventory levels in real time, automatically updating the number of individual bottles you have on hand after receiving a shipment and every time you make a sale.

POS systems tailored to wine shops can also track vintage, style of wine, tasting notes, and other important details for fast product lookup. As you sell bottles, the system will automatically keep track of items that are low in stock and generate a purchase order based on sales history and supplier lead times.

This means you will never run out of your most popular wines, as you can keep track of when you need to restock. It also helps to influence what bottles you offer at a sale price to get your assets moving.

Free Resource: Wine Inventory Spreadsheet Template

Customer and Sales Data

Every wine store owner has questions.

What wines do your customers buy on a Friday evening? Do they spend more on a Saturday or a Sunday? How do sales change seasonally? How can you make the most from quieter mid-week sales? What holidays and life events make them spend the most?

Your wine POS system can answer all these questions by keeping track of customer and sales analytics.

When you sign people up for your store’s loyalty program, you aren’t just encouraging more sales, you get a window into the preferences of your best customers. Study loyalty members’ favorite wines, average transaction size, and other historical sales information to refine your product selection and promotions.

You can also use your POS system to track overall sales and financial performance data. Use the reports on your POS system to track:

Bestsellers
Inventory turnover rate
Shrinkage sources
Supplier performance
Profit margin (by bottle, by brand, etc.)
Seasonal sales trends
Promotion and sale performance

Metrics like this are hugely beneficial to any liquor or wine store owner. Instead of basing decisions on intuition alone, a wine shop POS system backs them up with unbiased data.

3. Faster Checkout and Better Legal Compliance

As a wine store owner, it’s important to offer a painless shopping experience while also ensuring your shop complies with liquor laws.

A wine shop POS offers customers flexible payment options, whether they pay via debit card, credit card, or contactless payment. Some systems, including Bottle POS, also offer dual pricing, which allows you to offer a discount for customers who pay in cash.

If you have a loyalty program, you can quickly pull up a customer’s account using their phone number.

Critically, the majority of systems that are made for liquor sales also include support for ID scanners. These allow you to check and validate a customer’s ID without slowing things down, which can be a real lifesaver when things get busy.

4. Employee Scheduling

As wine is increasingly sold in grocery stores and other non-specialty stores, wine stores need to find ways to offer a unique and personal experience for shoppers to stay competitive. Great employees who are ready to offer up knowledge and an expert recommendation are part of what makes visiting a wine shop so special.

But managing employees and ensuring there are enough staff on the floor can be a challenge.

With the right wine POS system, you can keep track of what employees are working and when. Some systems make use of a PIN code or username assigned individually to each employee. The employee uses this to clock in and out, and you can then keep track of who is on your team for the working day.

You can also use the reports and dashboards on your system to see when your peak hours or busiest holidays are (and when your quiet times are). This will help you optimize your staffing schedule so you’re only paying for extra staff when needed.

Your employees themselves will benefit from a centralized employee management system. They can keep track of their hours, and the system can automatically calculate payroll.

5. Secure Online Sales

Online alcohol sales are growing slowly but surely, accelerated by industry groups who are looking to loosen restrictions. This is good news for small and independent wine shops.

Online sales are a great way to connect with new customers and offer another convenient sales option. To get the most out of your wine e-commerce site, make sure you:

Use a compatible POS system to sync your in-store and online inventory.
Work with an e-commerce platform that supports high-risk payments and industries.
Write detailed product descriptions that try to replicate the recommendations you give in-store.
Have age restrictions for ordering and shipment deliveries (you are liable for underage sales, whether they’re in-person or online).
Include up-to-date contact information and address information.

Remember, the website should be an extension of your store, so don’t be afraid to inject a healthy dose of personality and expertise throughout. That said, painstakingly writing descriptions for every single bottle you carry isn’t possible for most store owners.

Instead, use your POS system to identify your best sellers and start with them, along with write-ups for any new arrivals.

Even if you aren’t ready to offer wine online for delivery or pickup, it can still be a good idea to sync your inventory to your website so people can browse your selection online.

6. Customer Retention and Marketing

A wine shop POS system doesn’t just make running the store easier, it also gives you various tools to keep customers engaged. Here are some of the most helpful:

Built-in email and SMS marketing: Send out newsletters or announcements to your customers via email and SMS.
Customizable customer loyalty: Create a loyalty program that lets customers earn rewards for repeat business.
Discounts: Set up sales and promotions in the system (including buy one get one or other types of offers) and apply the discount automatically at checkout.
Product bundles: Create unique product bundles (e.g., sampler sets or holiday bundles) to upsell customers.

With the right wine POS system, you'll be able to develop relationships with your regular customers, promote specific items, and bring increased profits to your liquor store.

There are a lot of choices for wine POS systems on the market right now, and while we’d love to say Bottle POS is a great fit for every business, that isn’t always the case.

However, there is a reason why Bottle POS is trusted by independent businesses across the country. With case-break inventory tracking, streamlined vendor management and invoicing, customer loyalty, and more, Bottle POS gives you everything you need to succeed.

Looking for the perfect wine store POS system? Talk with one of our experts today to see if Bottle POS is a good fit for you.