The foundation of every successful cannabis dispensary is its point-of-sale (POS) system. The reality is without a powerful POS system that provides the functionality your cannabis dispensary needs to operate smoothly, you’ll lose money and sales. Your dispensary could even get in legal trouble if your POS system isn’t good enough.
To help you choose the right cannabis dispensary POS system for your business, the Leafy Green Agency team put together a guide of popular marijuana POS software and cannabis dispensary management systems complete with descriptions and contact information for each provider. You can download the FREE guide here or click the Download link below.
➧ Click here to Download the FREE Guide Now!
Getting a list of POS software providers is just the first step to choosing a POS system for your dispensary. You also need to understand how to evaluate each software, so you choose the right one to meet your needs.
Following are 10 factors you need to consider as you research POS providers for the cannabis industry.
1. Ease of Use
A POS system isn’t helpful to your dispensary if it’s too confusing to use! The right POS software is easy to set up and saves your employees time on a daily basis by making it simple to do their jobs. Also, look for a POS software that doesn’t require extensive (or expensive) training.
2. Integrations
Of course, it’s essential that your cannabis dispensary POS software integrates with any seed-to-sale tracking systems required by your state, but take some time to research beyond seed-to-sale tracking integrations.
Ideally, your POS system will also integrate with your accounting, payroll, marketing, and other software that you use to run your business. Not only do these integrations save time and reduce errors related to manual data entry, but they also help you identify and improve employee performance, sales, and marketing results.
3. Reports
Your POS system should come with comprehensive reporting features, so you can access the data you need whenever you need it. For example, it should take just seconds to create and view customer history reports, sales history reports, revenue reports, inventory reports, and so on.
4. Inventory
Inventory tracking and real-time updating is an essential feature of a cannabis dispensary POS system. In addition, look for a software that uses data collected from your dispensary’s sales to predict future inventory demands, sends you notifications when inventory shortages are imminent, and automatically places orders for you. These features save you time and give you peace of mind that your inventory is always optimized.
5. Support
If you have questions or problems related to your POS software, it’s critical that you have immediate access to support. Therefore, choose a POS system that provides the type of support you prefer (e.g., phone, email, or chat) and is available 24×7 or during your dispensary’s hours of operation at a minimum. Furthermore, choose a provider that doesn’t charge extra for support.
6. Compliance
Compliance can take up a lot of time for dispensary employees, but the right POS system can make a lot of your compliance responsibilities easier to manage. From inventory management to customer identification and calculating the amount of THC in products, your POS system should be built to automate many of the compliance tasks required in your state.
7. Customization
Choose a POS system designed specifically for the cannabis industry that can be customized to meet the unique needs of your dispensary. Most often, dispensaries want customized reports to track specific data. If you know you’ll need a software that can be tweaked to meet your needs, ask questions related to your customization requirements before you invest in a POS software.
8. Data Intelligence
For marketing and sales growth, your POS software should make it easy for you to extract data that can be used to improve marketing and sales programs. For example, you might want to use sales data to identify seasonal trends related to product popularity and create unique marketing and sales programs coinciding with seasonality data. If you can’t access that data in your POS, you won’t be able to identify marketing and sales opportunities or threats.
9. Data Security
As a cannabis dispensary, you’re responsible for keeping customer data private, so it’s crucial that you use a POS software which is 100% secure. You don’t want to have a data breach jeopardize your customers’ information or your business!
10. Software Reliability
What would happen if you log into your POS system one day and discover it won’t open? You won’t be able to operate without your POS system, so it’s mandatory that the provider you choose can guarantee the reliability of the software. The company should have redundancy and backups in place to ensure your business can always operate.
Your Next Steps to Choose a Cannabis Dispensary POS System
Selecting the right cannabis dispensary POS system is a big decision that requires research. When you use a good POS software, you’ll minimize expenses and risks. You’ll also have access to the features and data intelligence that you need to make critical business decisions, increase profits, and grow. Choose wisely!
Start your research now by downloading Leafy Green Agency’s Marijuana POS Software and Cannabis Dispensary Management Systems Guide.