Save Time and Money: 5 Tips for Choosing a Cannabis POS System
After several years working the front lines of the cannabis industry, and utilizing various POS systems, we’ve learned a few things! We want to ensure all new operators are equipped to select the best system for their establishment, and save a few headaches in the meantime! Selecting the right point of sale is crucial to cannabis operation in terms of customer experience and remaining compliant. We’ve compiled our top 5 tips when selecting your POS system. Enjoy!
Choose a Cannabis POS System Bud-Tenders Love!
Your Bud-tenders are on the front lines with customers. Selecting a POS that is digestible and user friendly for them, and your customers, is imperative to making each sale efficient and compliant.
Take it from us, we’ve been in the bud-tender shoes and know what it’s like to have a long line of customers waiting for your assistance, only to have an error message pop’ing up at the most inopportune moment and preventing a seamless experience for the person standing at your register or awaiting their home delivery.
One of the more user-friendly systems we’ve found is, Blaze! The interface is simple, organized and user-friendly for both budtender and customer.
Cannabis POS system
Consider Cannabis Compliance in Your POS!
As with everything else we do in our profession, compliance must always be at the forefront of our minds when making business decisions.
The system you select should have all necessary features to comply with your state's regulations, such as:
Cannabis purchase limits
Cannabis packaging and label requirements
If mandated in your state, the system must integrate with the required seed-to-sale tracking platform, such as Metrc, in MA.
We love systems like Cova that are proactive in preventing underage sales or illegal looping (the ability to purchase from multiple operators in a single day). Cova’s platform has a built in ID scanner and age verification integration within their POS system. This takes the guess work away from the bud-tender and eliminates any room for error when checking guests into the establishment.
Opening a New Dispensary? Not Sure Where to Start? We’ve Got You! Download Our Free Opening Guidebook Today!
User-Friendly POS systems
Ensure Your Cannabis POS System Is Reliable & Consistent!
How can you ensure the system you’re looking to purchase (and it’s a hefty price tag!) is actually reliable? We suggest you utilize your cannabis network! If you’re completely new to the industry and haven’t built up your network, no worries! Ask a few bud-tenders at your local dispensary. They will always tell you if there are any woes to their day to day with a POS!
Keep in mind that the person trying to sell you on the product isn’t going to tell you any negatives to using their system, or much to our experience, that the entire system goes down every Friday afternoon or whenever an update is made.
Here are a few questions we would recommend asking at your POS demo:
What does support from your company look like?
Are any other establishments in my state using your platform?
How often do you have reported issues or outages?
How often do you make updates to your system? Does that ever interfere with your client’s operations?
Cannabis Dispensary
Maintain Efficient Inventory Operations Within Your POS!
We’ve personally been through the all night inventory counts, audits and investigations, and well, they suck for everyone involved.
Unlike traditional retail, there is no room for unaccounted inventory. If you’re looking to operate a high volume establishment with 400+ sku numbers, you need to consider an inventory system that has a direct integration with your seed-to-sale tracking system. This will ensure that every sale, every inventory move or transfer is accounted for and reported in your POS as well as backend inventory system.
One system we wish we knew about sooner,(and would have prevented some of those late night counts), is Flowhub! Flowhub uniquely offers hardware called the “Nug Pro” which is a device that provides fast mobile inventory audits, built-in discrepancy workflows, movement between rooms and real-time date sync!
Need more support on inventory management? That’s what we’re here for at Grass Ceiling!
Cannabis Inventory
Ensure Your Cannabis POS Grows With You and Your Sales!
A huge factor in selecting your POS software is to consider their functionality in reporting sales and analyzing your business KPIs (Key performance Indicators). A worthwhile system will allow you to scale your business by tracking:
Revenue week over week, month over month, year over year etc.
Analyze profit
Analyze sales by product
Analyze sales by budtender
Highlight peak hours in your business
Highlight common KPIs like average cart and units per transaction
You shouldn't need to do crazy leg work to get these numbers! Those reports should absolutely be provided to you!
Systems that we love for backend reporting are Dutchie/LeafLogix. These systems have advanced BI reporting that allows you download pre built reports OR you can customize the data you would like to see!
At the end of the day, does the POS do what you NEED it to do?
Our tip is to make a list of your “needs” prior to going into a demo call and check them off as you go. If they don’t fit your needs don’t waste your time, move on to the next! Here are few additional considerations:
Can it integrate with your e-commerce platform?
Does it fit your budget?
Do they provide tech support during your operational hours?
