6 Best Vape Shop POS Systems in 2022

Vape shop point-of-sale (POS) systems help small business owners efficiently handle sales, inventory, and customer relationship management (CRM) from a single platform. Vape shops are often considered high-risk businesses, so they need a POS that works with high-risk payment processors and offers sales restriction functionality.

Based on our evaluations, the best vape POS systems are:

• Best overall: KORONA POS
• Best for growing businesses with large inventory: Lightspeed Retail
• Best for connecting an existing merchant account: Clover
• Best for online sales: Shopify
• Best free: Square for Retail
• Best for perishable goods tracking: POS Nation

Top Vape Shop POS Compared

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KORONA POS: Best Overall POS for Vape Shops

Leading our list of best vape shop POS systems is KORONA POS. This cloud-based software offers competitive subscription pricing. It also works with the most popular merchant service account providers, including those catering to businesses considered high risk, such as dispensaries and vape shops.

Apart from Lightspeed, KORONA is the only other POS on our list that offers complete multilocation management features and ecommerce tools for vape shops—and at a significantly lower cost at $79.

Square and Clover also offer multilocation tools but both are limited to inventory management and basic reporting. Also like Square, KORONA offers built-in ecommerce tools with prebuilt, mobile-friendly themes but takes it further with an optional age restriction functionality, which Square does not provide.

For this update, KORONA earned a score of 4.46 out of 5 in our evaluation, taking the top spot from Lightspeed. The suite of features paired with affordable subscription makes KORONA an ideal choice for small vape shops looking to expand to multiple locations.

However, limited integration options and lack of offline card payment processing prevented KORONA from earning a perfect score. If you need these features for your business, consider Square for Retail instead.

KORONA POS Standout Features

KORONA provides vape shop owners with flexible solutions that can grow along with their business. While most of these capabilities can also be found in other POS providers, there are several functions where it excels, including:

• Integrated payment options: KORONA POS does not have its own payment processing system. Instead, it partners with popular merchant service providers, which allows users with high-risk businesses to get the best transaction rates.
• Age verification function: KORONA offers a built-in age and ID verification functionality for both in-store and online checkout. The system prompts the user to enter the customer’s birth date or provide a valid ID. Otherwise, the age-restricted products will be removed from the receipt.
• Complete CRM and built-in point-based loyalty program: KORONA allows you to engage your customers through short message service (SMS), email, and branded applications. It also comes with a point-based loyalty program and lets you build your customer database to help you track customers and process their special orders.
• Flexible multistore management: At $79 a month, KORONA POS provides you with multistore management tools to consolidate data and reports in real time. You can manage inventory, conduct inventory counts, award loyalty points, track sales, and monitor employee performance for all locations from a single platform.
• Retail loss prevention: Set customizable security features to minimize retail loss and permissions to limit access to back office tools where prices can be altered. Add authorization tools to prevent impromptu discounts, price changes, and no-sales tenders.
• Inventory management: KORONA POS includes a mobile inventory app that allows you to manage inventory on the go. It also supports adding inventory using a barcode scanner and lets you track inventory movement with automated counting that generates a daily count list on-demand. You can also set automatic reordering, track shipment, and manage your vendor list.

What KORONA POS Is Missing

KORONA does not support card payment processing without an internet connection. Unless you sign up for KORONA’s custom plan, you won’t have access to its prebuilt integrations, which are also quite limited like loyalty programs, QuickBooks accounting, Excel, and Extensible Markup Language (XML). Consider Lightspeed for Retail or Square as an alternative.

Lightspeed: Best for Growing Businesses With Large Inventory

Lightspeed Retail is our recommended vape shop POS system for growing businesses that handle large volumes of inventory. This cloud-based POS software is known for its robust inventory management features and reporting capabilities.

Lightspeed Retail also includes an ecommerce integration with built-in age verification solutions and a wide variety of add-ons, making it an excellent choice for sellers looking for ways to sell in-store and online seamlessly.

A built-in payment solution makes payment processing easier to manage, and Lightspeed Retail is the only provider that includes a built-in payment processor in addition to options for third-party integrated payments. Also, vape shop owners who prefer a RACS-compliant solution will like Lightspeed’s RACS iPad bundle that includes everything to immediately start their business.

On the other hand, with only one plan below $100, which does not include ecommerce, Lightspeed is comparatively more expensive than most of the providers in our list.

In our evaluation, Lightspeed Retail scored 4.38 out of 5, earning high marks for all categories, but more so for vape shop features and expert score. It provides the best solution for inventory tracking making it our top choice for inventory management and a consistent favorite for iPad POS systems.

However, Lightspeed Retail’s high price point, which starts at $79 per month ($69 if billed annually), when most POS systems cost between $0 and $60 per month, and limited offline capabilities and basic plan features prevented it from keeping the top spot in our ranking.

Lightspeed Retail Standout Features

Lightspeed Retail, which has built-in RACS compliance, is equipped with a wide variety of tools to manage vape shops across multiple platforms smoothly. This includes the ability to take special orders, create in-depth customer profiles, and define rules to regulate sales. Lightspeed registers can also be programmed with age and quantity sale restrictions.

Take a look at some of Lightspeed Retail’s most notable features:

• Customized selling restrictions: Lightspeed Retail is currently beta-testing register rules features that enforce limitations in the sale of high-risk products. It allows users to prevent bulk purchases by setting quantity limits and perform age verification using ID scanning technology during transactions.
• Wide selection of integrations and add-ons: Lightspeed Retail offers significant integration tools that vape shop owners will find useful. Its long list includes high-risk-business-friendly payment processors and age verification solutions for its ecommerce platform. These, in turn, allow vape shop owners to sell online confidently while staying compliant with legislation requirements.
• Inventory management features: Vape shop owners will appreciate Lightspeed Retail’s ability to create custom matrix sets and build as many variants as they need for their products. It also allows users to easily manage products that are acquired in bulk and then sold individually. The same platform can also be used to track sales orders, submit purchase orders (POs), and manage vendor information.

What Lightspeed Retail Is Missing

Lightspeed Retail requires a strong internet connection to provide maximum use of its features. Like KORONA, it does not support card payment processing while offline. As it has been built for iPads, Lightspeed Retail also does not work on Android tablets. If you prefer these features, consider Square for Retail.

Clover: Best for Vape Shops With Existing Merchant Accounts

Clover POS is a cloud-based, all-in-one POS provider that allows users to keep their existing merchant account. While Fiserv is Clover’s default payment processor, third-party resellers can reprogram the system to work with your preferred payment processing solution. Clover comes with all the tools you need, which can be added from a list of apps as you grow, making it one of the most scalable POS solutions available.

Clover is the only provider on our list that does not sell vape products online because its age restriction tools are only for in-person sales. On the other hand, it offers one of the cheapest subscriptions, second to Square which offers a free plan. At $44.95, vape shop owners can have detailed inventory tracking, full client management tools, and advanced employee and reporting features.

However, it’s important to note that not all features are available in the cheaper hardware. Vape shop owners will need at least a Clover mini (costs $799 or $266 per month for three months) to access all the management tools required for running the business. Also, pricing and contract terms are both unpredictable if you plan to buy from third-party resellers.

For this update, Clover POS maintains its place in the third spot of our rankings, earning a score of 4.17 out of 5. It’s loaded with a wide range of easy-to-use tools, which resulted in high marks for ease of use and general features. Unpredictable pricing, inability to sell vape products online, and limits on features available to cheaper hardware prevented Clover from climbing further in our list.

Clover Standout Features

As one of the most popular alternatives to Square, Clover provides sales, inventory, and business management features known to be both affordable and user-friendly. But it is in flexibility and customizability that Clover stands out from Square.

• Clover register: The Clover register is customizable and easy to use, with search functions and weighing scale integrations to process sales faster. It allows you to accept swipe, dip, or tap payments as well as contactless payments like Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and Venmo.
• Customer management: Allows you to set up customer profiles automatically from the point of sale, including adding the customer’s photo so your sales staff can identify them easily. It also lets you create and search transaction history records for each customer.
• Loyalty programs: Use Clover’s point-based program to assign points to different varieties and combinations of your products. You can also advertise promos on social media or via email or text messaging using Clover Promos.
• Third-party apps: Clover has a large collection of third-party apps, including order management, advanced inventory management, and back-office tools.

What Clover Is Missing

Clover’s inventory management tools do not include low-stock alerts and vendor management features. So, if you have a busy vape shop with fast-moving inventory, you might want to consider alternatives like Lightspeed Retail. Also, Clover does not allow the sale of vape products online since its age restriction function is limited to in-person sales. Consider KORONA if you need this feature.

Shopify: Best for Online Vape Shops With Storefronts

Shopify is a household name for ecommerce merchants and has recently removed vape shop products from its list of restricted products. As long as selling vape shop products is legal in your location, Shopify will let you sell on the platform. Subscription to Shopify POS is among the most affordable on our list and comes with a range of third-party payment providers such as Authorize.net that supports processing for age-restricted products.

While the basic plan is quite limited, a fully functional Shopify ecommerce website would only cost you around $29 per month for a subscription. Adding online age verification tools will cost between $3 to $6 per month. Shopify also comes with a free POS software and expanded fulfillment methods, such as buy online, pickup in-store (BOPIS) and delivery, making it ideal for online vape shops with storefronts for distributing and accepting returned products.

Shopify earned an overall score of 4 out of 5 in our evaluation of vape shop POS systems. It offers some of the most affordable hardware and software setup. However, offline functionality for Shopify is limited, and the per-transaction fee for using a third-party payment processor can be expensive and contribute significantly to its low scores.

Shopify Standout Features

Shopify’s range of omnichannel and fulfillment method features are a welcome addition to our vape shop POS roundup. As not all ecommerce merchants are the same, Shopify gives vape shop owners more options with affordable price points that would better match their unique business model:

• Website builder: Shopify comes with stylish, free, and paid mobile-ready themes. It includes a content management system (CMS) and blogging platform to help maximize your marketing and sales efforts. Both website builder and content editor are user-friendly and users need little to no coding skill to start building their online store.
• Checkout and register: Customize your online store’s checkout process with Shopify’s range of payment and fulfillment options. The POS software allows you to conduct global search, issue refunds, discounts, process exchanges, and send customized digital as well as printed receipts.
• Omnichannel selling: Shopify allows you to receive orders online and accept payments, returns, or exchanges in-store. It also lets you send customer carts via email where they can remotely complete their purchase or add shipping details for purchases that were made in-store. Regardless of the method used, all these transactions will be organized and available on your Shopify POS system.
• Smart inventory management: Shopify’s smart inventory management tool provides you with an inventory library where you can curate products and set different variants. It also provides automated real-time product tracking and allows you to set low stock notifications. Shopify Pro users get access to the Stocky app, which provides additional features such as inventory analysis, demand forecasting, and sale item suggestion tools.
• Customer management: Create profiles automatically for customers who order online and purchase in-store with Shopify’s CRM features. You can add tags, view order histories and notes, and save contact details for marketing purposes. Shopify also offers a free loyalty app that allows you to set up branded loyalty programs.

What Shopify Is Missing

Shopify lacks custom work order tools, which vape shop owners who accept customized product requests may find limiting. Also, the commission fee for using a third-party payment processor might be too steep for small businesses. If you need a more affordable ecommerce vape shop solution, consider KORONA.

Square for Retail: Best Free POS for Small Vape Shops

Square for Retail is easily the most affordable of all the industry-leading POS software we have for this evaluation. Starting with a free plan, it offers a suite of sales and inventory management tools that can handle variants and sales by weight easily, along with the ability to manage an unlimited number of products and transactions.

Square is one of four non-RACS-compliant POS systems that made our list but, unlike KORONA, Shopify, and POS Nation, Square can only display pop-up age verification reminders during sale. While it is known for its built-in ecommerce tools, Square highly regulates the sale of CBD, including vape products, online as it does not have an age restriction feature.

Vape shop owners will have to register their account under the Square CBD Program, which also carries higher transaction fees. According to the guidelines, merchants are allowed to sell CBD-only vapes online, but age-restricted products, including e-cigarettes, are prohibited.

Overall, Square for Retail earned a score of 3.98 out of 5, performing better in terms of general and vape shop features than the standard Square POS. Limited phone support hours and the lack of sales restriction tools to support online sales of vape products prevented Square from earning a higher score.

While it did not rank best in this guide, Square tops our list for both best retail POS systems and best overall POS system for small businesses.

Square for Retail Standout Features

Square POS is free, and its intuitive system offers the best value for small businesses and startups. It is also easy to use and installs automatically, so vape shop owners who purchase this software can start selling immediately.

Here are some of Square’s standout features to help vape shops owners build a successful store:

• Square dashboard: Managing a vape shop is easier if it can be done from a single platform. The dashboard is Square’s headquarters, which efficiently provides business information at a glance, so owners can see key data and make timely decisions quickly. It also allows users to send out invoices, engage with customers, and manage employees and inventory.
• CRM: Square’s CRM uses a tool called Customer Directory where business owners can view customer data, such as their contact details and how they transact with the business normally. Customers are also able to provide feedback through their digital receipts and start a private conversation with your business.
• Cash tracking: Square can be used to accept and track cash and payments such as checks and gift cards from any Square device like a tablet, smartphone, or terminal. It’s also possible to split tender, so customers have the option to use different payment types for a single transaction.

What Square for Retail Is Missing

Square users are locked into Square’s built-in payment processing system. This means you won’t be able to choose a merchant account, which makes payment processing more challenging for businesses such as vape shops. Consider KORONA or Clover for affordable fees with more payment processing options.

POS Nation: Best for Perishable Goods Tracking

POS Nation is primarily a POS system for convenience and liquor stores. However, because of its built-in age verification tools and perishable tracking feature, it is also a viable solution for vape shops. The system is unique from other providers in our list because it is locally installed with a cloud backup that makes for a great offline solution and bundles hardware into its subscription plan.

E-juices are perishable products so, while POS Nation is not RACS-compliant, its perishable tracking function is an advantage you won’t find in others on our list such as Lightspeed Retail. It also comes with scale integration, and its built-in age verification tools are better than that of Square, which can only be programmed to display pop-up reminders when you ring up a sale.

For this update, POS Nation earned an overall score of 3.88 out of 5. For the most part, it’s the payments and pricing that caused this provider to go down in our rankings. Month-to-month subscription starts at $99 but locks merchants into Worldpay, which we do not recommend. The alternative lets you access other integrated payment processors but requires an upfront cost of $999. Customer support features are also limited based on the type of subscription.

POS Nation Standout Features

POS Nation is a popular choice for liquor stores and convenience stores, making it suitable for vape shops. It includes an ID scanner, scale integration, mobile checkout features, and integrated payment options with a number of providers:

• Custom-build plan: POS Nation offers a custom-build plan that allows you to choose your own payment processor and preferred features without a long-term contract.
• Specialized inventory management tools: It supports perishable inventory tracking, case-break inventory, mix-and-match bottle pricing, and kit building for vape shops. You can also integrate scales to allow for selling by weight options.
• Age validation: The tool includes ID scanner software and hardware to scan driver’s licenses or IDs. You can also set the age validation requirements per product from the back end using POS Nation’s advanced item configuration tools.
• Customer data management: The software records contact and billing information for each transaction. It also records purchase history with a lookup function to search for previously bought items of frequent buyers quickly.

What POS Nation Is Missing

RACS compliance gives vape shops a better chance of being approved for a business license and a merchant account. However, POS Nation lacks the automated quantity restriction feature to qualify for this. Consider Clover as a RACS-compliant alternative that offers similar freedom in choosing a merchant services provider.

How We Evaluated Vape Shop POS Systems

We compared more than a dozen POS systems based on price, general POS tools, vape-specific POS features, such as age and quantity sales restrictions, and RACS compliance. We also asked our retail experts to weigh in with their personal knowledge of each software.

Based on our evaluation criteria, KORONA is the best vape shop POS. The software received the highest overall score in our grading system for vape shop software (4.46 out of 5). Our vape shop POS evaluation resulted in rankings that are also in line with what we would recommend personally based on our experience testing different software and working with small businesses that use POS systems every day.

Click through the tabs below for a more detailed breakdown of our evaluation criteria:

Vape Shop POS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What are ENDS?

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Do you need FDA authorization to sell vape products?

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What happens if the FDA upholds its order to revoke the approval to sell ENDS?

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What is RACS compliance?

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Can you sell vape products without RACS compliance?

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Bottom Line

While we had other top contenders that showed potential in terms of vape shop-specific features, we wanted to ensure that our top vape shop POS systems offer the best value for features every retailer needs. Square for Retail is the best choice for vape shop sellers working on a limited budget. If you process large inventory, Lightspeed is the most efficient solution, while Shopify is the best match for online sellers.

However, we find KORONA the best overall vape shop POS system. It received the highest score across our grading system for pricing, general POS and vape shop-specific features, ease of use, and our own expert review. On top of being one of the most affordable systems, KORONA puts together the best tools to offer vape shop owners in one neat package.

Visit KORONA and try its unlimited trial.