Best Liquor Store POS Systems: 8 Features You Need

What’s a tool every liquor store business can’t go without? A POS system. The best liquor store POS systems offer numerous benefits.

However, not all POS systems are created equal. A truly great POS system for a liquor store is built for the industry, and it includes features that can help liquor store owners grow their businesses. The best POS systems include these features:  

• Analytics data, e.g. sales, product and customer info
• Age verification tools
• Better inventory management
• Timeclock management

Remember, today’s POS systems don’t just allow you to conduct transactions. That’s certainly a benefit, but advanced systems offer much more. They help liquor store owners increase sales, find growth opportunities, and be more efficient.

As you shop for a POS system, these are the 7 features you’ll find in the best liquor store POS systems.

The Best Liquor POS Systems Have These Features… 

Whether you’re just opening a liquor store, or you’re in need of a new, advanced POS system, be sure you look for these key features. They will help you be more efficient, reduce waste, and grow sales:

1. Sales Analytics

A POS puts useful information at your fingertips. For example, a store owner, you want to know your top-selling liquor brands each month. You can use this data to optimize your store’s layout or tailor your promotions to customer preferences.

A great liquor store POS system offers analytics data that can help you identity:

• Slow-selling products
• Products commonly bought together
• Average order values
• Average wine / liquor sales price
• Return customer rate

These data points can help improve inventory decisions (e.g. discontinuing products), pricing decisions (e.g. raising or lowering average bottle price), or help you identity areas you need to improve (e.g. low average order values).

What To Look For: Your POS system needs to provide real-time sales tracking. This allows store owners to review their sales numbers instantly and monitor performance. This feature is crucial for identifying opportunities.

2. Age Verification

Modern liquor POS systems come equipped with age verification technology (AVT). Say goodbye to relying on manual ID checks. A POS system with AVT will:

• Prompt cashiers to ask for and scan IDs
• Include ID scanners for more accurate verification
• Log cashier ID scan data to help you monitor performance

Advanced age verification systems also allow customers to create accounts and use a digital ID card that they’ve saved on their phone. This helps to improve customer experiences. AI-based age verification is one of the key ways technology is changing the liquor business.

What To Look For: Give the legal implications of selling alcohol to minors, this feature is non-negotiable. In particular, choose a system that includes ID scanners, ID scanning analytics, and online-based verifications (for e-commerce sales or for ID verifications without a driver’s license).

3. Inventory Management

Inventory management in a liquor store isn’t easy, but it’s absolutely critical for staying ahead of the competition and maximizes sales volume.

Liquor, beer and wine buyers are very brand loyal. If you don’t have a favorite brand in stock, you’re much more likely to lose a sale. Ultimately, a liquor POS with integrated inventory tools will help you:

• Automate reordering – You set reorder points, and the system automatically places an order. These systems also help you manage vendors, invoicing and payments.
• Real–time inventory – This is the instantaneous tracking and updating of stock levels as sales and restocks occur. It is crucial to ensure accurate stock counts, prevent stockouts, and help you meet customer demand promptly.
• Inventory analytics – These systems will help you visualize your inventory by brand, identity fast-selling items, alert you to any low-in-stock issues, and help you measure inventory values in real-time.

What To Look For: The best POS systems include real-time inventory management (that sync stock levels with sales) and advanced order management. Your system should help you automate a lot of the manual order placement process, which can save you a significant amount of time.

4. Easy Pricing Optimization

Managing pricing across your entire inventory can be extremely difficult. However, with a POS system, this process gets simplified. A liquor POS lets you:

• Set temporary pricing – e.g. a limited-time sale discount
• Change prices across entire operation – which is great for multi-store locations
• Set margin % or tax % pricing rules

What To Look For: Promotions and discounts are a staple in retail. A versatile POS system should allow easy management of these pricing changes, ensuring customers always get the best deals. This also eliminates manual entry errors like, for example, a sale price wasn’t turned off when the promotion ended.

5. Loyalty Program Integration

Most modern POS systems include CRM tools or loyalty program integrations, which can both help liquor stores drive repeat business. This allows you to set up customer profiles in your system. Customers who enroll in these programs can then gather points and/or rewards to be used during future visits.

This is a powerful tool for driving repeat business and growing return rate. As an added benefit, you can also use these tools for direct marketing like email, SMS or direct mail campaigns.

What To Look For: Choose a system with a simple, user-friendly system that your customers will want to use. Using a point of sale loyalty program, for example, allows you to engage customers and interact directly with them.

6. Timeclock Management

Having a single system that manages timeclock, as well as inventory, sales and loyalty will help you cut costs and save you time. The best liquor store POS systems include payroll features that allow you to monitor employee hours, as well as dive into the analytics to more effectively manage labor costs.

These systems will help you identity:

• Employee clock in / out
• See which cashiers ring in the most sales
• Set schedules
• Track hours worked

What To Look For: Choose a system that helps you monitor performance. For example, a POS system that provides a report on each employee’s sales will help you identity top performers and also those who need more training.

7. Security and Loss Prevention

Limiting loss is an often overlooked way to profitability for a liquor store. However, it can make a huge difference. There are two ways a POS system can help you limit loss in a liquor store, including:

• POS Security Features – You can set security protocols in the POS. For example, if a cashier tries to void a high-value sale, you can require manager approval. This ensures all transactions are legitimate.
  
  
• Inventory Notices – An integrated POS inventory system will show you where there are discrepancies in manual counts. For example, if your inventory levels don’t match what’s in the database alerts can be set to inform you of these potential instances of employee theft.

What To Look For: Choose a system with customizable security settings, including setting manager approval requirements, biometric employee logins, etc. Also check to make sure the inventory system features alerts and loss prevention features.

8. Ecommerce Integration

More and more liquor stores are adding online sales or in-store pickup. If this is in your plans for growth, be sure your POS system includes ecommerce integration.

This will allow you to use the same system to manage inventory and sales, as well as provide ecommerce automations (like “your order is ready” or “your order has shipped” emails).

What To Look For: Choose a system that allows you to use the same transaction register for both online and in-store sales. Your inventory and age verification systems should also be options for integrating into the process.

Is It Time to Upgrade Your POS System?

When you’re looking at popular liquor store POS systems, make sure you keep an eye out for these features. Not only will they help you increase revenue, but they can also make your business more efficient.

Another point: Be sure to look at POS integrations. For example, adding digital signage management into your POS is a super useful tool, as digital signage in liquor stores can add a lift in sales. Bottom line, the system you choose should have the features you need to be more efficient, enhance the customer experience and increase sales.

Want to learn how FTx POS can improve your business? Contact us today to demo our platform and learn more about our helpful features.