The End of Heartland LiquorPOS?

 

Rumors about Heartland dropping their LiquorPOS product have been around for 2 years now. Recently, several Heartland team members have shared privately that a formal announcement about the end of LiquorPOS could be coming shortly.

So, what does that mean for liquor stores who currently use LiquorPOS in their stores? Like other software programs that have gone "end of life" (like Windows 10 and Microsoft Dynamics RMS Store Operations point of sale), we need to look at the most likely outcome and recommended actions that should be taken.

Likely outcomes:

1. Heartland just flat out discontinues LiquorPOS. There will likely be a end of life support period of up to one year to allow users of LiquorPOS to find new point of sale (POS) software.
2. Heartland sells LiquorPOS to another company. This introduces more questions than answers regarding support, software updates, who can offer merchant services with LiquorPOS,  and, if the new company has their own POS solution, will LiquorPOS users have to migrate to a new POS system?
3. Heartland returns LiquorPOS to the original owner. LiquorPOS was originally not a Heartland product so it is possible that the original team behind LiquorPOS may take it back from Heartland. While this would provide a clearer support path, questions still remaining regarding updates to the software, ongoing support costs, and options for integrated merchant service.

Recommended Actions:

1. Ride it out and see what happens. Pretty big gamble and very high risk to not have a plan should outcome #1 happen. Do you have the time, energy and budget to find a new POS system under a deadline? Would at least doing some pre-planning be smart from a business perspective?
2. Watchful waiting but have a plan in place so you are ready to pull the trigger regarding any of the likely outcomes.
3. Take action now and not have to deal with waiting on any of the possible outcomes (none of the possible outcomes sound all that great anyway given the age and lack of recent updates to LiquorPOS). 

If you are in the Recommended Actions Options #2 and #3 camp:

Start searching now for a liquor store specific POS system. Liquor store specific means that the POS system has all of the unique features and functions that liquor stores require like the following (you can use the list below as a checklist and then zero in on the top 3 candidates to get demos and proposals):

1. Age Verification
2. Parent/Child or Case/Lot Inventory Tracking
3. Deal Planner and Bridge Buying
4. Supplier Integration
5. FinTech Integration
6. Restock Rocket
7. Smart Alerts
8. State Specific Sales Tax (especially if you are in a state with a spirit volume tax)
9. State Specific Reports  
10. Bottle Deposits
11. Wholesale Functions and State Specific Wholesale Reporting
12. POS is Designed ONLY for Beer, Wine and Liquor Stores 
13. Delivery Integrations (if allowed in your state)
14. Product Ranking
15. Dog Inventory Reporting
16. Physical Inventory Count Module
17. Keg Rentals (if you do this)
18. THC Product Sale Compliance  
19. Shelf Tag/Price Tag Printing
20. 24/7 Support
21. Supplier Purchase Planning
22. Multi-Store Capabilities (if you own multiple liquor stores) 
23. Market Basket Reporting
24. Customer Loyalty Program and Gift Cards (of allowed by state law)
25. Role Based Security (keep control over what your employees can and can't do) 

 

 

 

 

Should I accept PIN debit in my store?

 A common question that retailers ask me is if it makes sense to accept PIN debit in my store or should I run debit cards as credit cards?

• PRO: Extra Security
• CON: Slows down the lines
• FACT: Can’t use with Dual Pricing 
• FACT: Cost is about the same for PIN Debit versus running debit cards as credit cards (typical $35 transaction = ~$.70 for PIN debit versus ~$.77 for debit run as credit)

With the Durban Amendment,  there is a "breakeven" point right around $35 in transaction size where it makes sense to accept PIN debit if the average transaction amount in your store is over $35.

The reality is that you have to decide for yourself based on what is best for your business.

 

 

 

Result of meetings with multiple liquor stores in Oklahoma last week

 What a blessing to be able to meet with the owners, managers and staff at over 31 liquor stores in Oklahoma last week! Most of them use the Cloud Retailer Liquor POS software in their stores and they all had a lot of positive things to say about Cloud Retailer.  Here are a few pictures that I took:

 

 Aside from the feedback on Cloud Retailer, we discussed a larger variety of topics like YoY sales data, THC, marketing, dual pricing, and the Oklahoma ABLE Commission.

If I missed getting chance to meet with you, please let me know via my personal email (kevinantosh@gmail.com) - I'm sure that I can make another trip to Oklahoma if enough liquor stores express interest in meeting with me! 

Cheers!