Best POS System for Cideries & Meaderies

If you’re in the business of making delicious gluten-free beverages, you need a point of sale system that supports your needs both in the tasting room and on the backend. Below we outline features of the best POS system for cideries and meaderies!

The Best POS System for Cideries & Meaderies Reduces Ordering Friction

POS should support staff in serving up the best customer experience possible at your establishment. After all, you know your cider and mead rock—time to equip staff with the best tools to serve it!

Streamlined Flight Tools

There’s a lot of deliciousness to choose from on your menu. Luckily, guests don’t have to choose just one! Flights are popular in cideries and meaderies, and the best POS system makes flight orders easy to input as a server and quick to assemble for bartenders. 

• Customizable: Depending how you set selections up in the backend, guests can choose from 2-8 options in their flight and also pick from any assortment of beverages you make available. 
• Input flights fast: With dynamic tab functionalities, staff members easily add a flight to a tab. Because a flight can be a unique inventory item, staff is immediately shown all of the beverage options on their device, and can add each choice to the tab as the thirsty guest rattles them off.
• Quick delivery: As soon as a server inputs a flight order, the bartender receives it instantly. They can then get assembling and the guest will be sipping fruity suds in no time!

Flights are good for business and now, with the best POS systems, seamless for staff!

Keep Hustling Staff Moving

Cideries and meaderies are fast paced, and your POS shouldn’t slow you down. That’s why the best POS systems are mobile. With small, portable devices and cloud-based technology that syncs all information to one place, staff can help customers anywhere in the tasting room. Plus, because all staff devices are in sync, any staff member can add to any customer’s tab, giving guests many options for assistance. 

Speaking of tools convenient for both staff and guests alike, the best POS system also offers the ability to start and hold tabs open without holding onto physical credit cards. Say goodbye to tracking down a guest’s card in a crowded rolodex when they’re itching to get home!

Both mobile POS devices and card on (digital) file are tools meant to help service staff be more efficient, instead of complicating their jobs.

Digital, Customizable Menus

Speaking of being a staff member’s best friend, easily changeable menus supported by POS systems also ease the burden of menu management. Your drink menu is very seasonal at a cidery or meadery, and that means your menu has to be easy to update. 

Thanks to digital, cloud-based menus, a quick update in one place updates all menus across all devices instantly. That means guests always have the most up-to-date menu available, so they’re never ordering last week’s special or from a keg that’s already kicked. 

Timed menus are also a great tool to use for time-sensitive pricing, such as Happy Hour. This set-it-and-forget-it tool lets you set days, hours, and prices when you want your menu to automatically update. Viola! 

The best POS system also supports any food you serve. Who doesn’t like a good cider and cheese pairing?!

The Best POS System for Cideries & Meaderies Offers Contactless Ordering

Part of great service is providing options for how guests choose to order and checkout. In this digital age, the options guests are seeking are contactless!

QR Code Ordering, Menus, & Payment

This convenient ordering tool totally changed the dining landscape during the pandemic. Guests simply scan a QR code to view the menu, start their own tab or order with staff, and close out and pay from their own smartphones. 

This enhanced service experience puts all ordering power in guests’ hands. And this technology isn’t replacing humans in service, it’s actually bettering the interactions between staff and guests. Now, staff can wholly focus on guests instead of running around with physical tickets, receipts, and cards. By eliminating those more tedious, administrative tasks, staff can upsell and educate guests. Not everyone knows the difference between mead, cyser, braggot, and melomel, and that’s an opportunity to dazzle!

Plus, the ease of ordering encourages guests to order more. In fact, it’s been proven that both tab and tip size increased by 24% when using QR codes. 

Diversify Revenue Streams With An Online Store

Another contactless option that’s hot right now is purchasing via an online store. This is a great place for a cidery or meadery to sell packaged beverages to-go, or branded merchandise! A customizable and branded site can help you rake in those dollars apart from your tasting room, which is always beneficial for business growth. People are increasingly drinking at home, and cider and mead houses are meeting demand by canning more and more goods. 

The Best POS System for Cideries & Meaderies Makes Inventory Management Easy

I know what you’re probably thinking: Selling via different contactless options makes inventory management a nightmare. But that’s simply not true with the best POS systems! Instead, savvy POS integrate with other smart softwares to make their capabilities more robust. 

Inventory Management

The most pertinent integration for cideries and meaderies is inventory management software. It’s the ultimate time-saver for both back of house and front of house staff—BOH doesn’t have to monitor inventory counts in the warehouse, and FOH doesn’t have to manually enter sales data. Especially when you’re slinging beverages both on-premise and online, it’s helpful to have a software ensuring utmost accuracy.

Not only does this keep your cidery or meadery more organized, it also helps you minimize waste and maximize profits. You worked hard to get that beautiful, fresh fruit to press, and it’d be a shame for any of it to go to waste just because of failed processes or bad data. 

Fully Integrated With POS

Besides number-crunching, inventory management software works with other parts of your business, too. Dynamic menus are actually linked to this software, so as your kegs/vessels update between states—active, inactive, kicked—that information is updated across all devices. 

That goes for guest-facing menus, too! Kicked kegs are automatically removed from all ordering interfaces. When you tap a new, scrumptious pear cider or melomel, it’s available instantly to be enjoyed. This functionality is key for a business like yours where the menu is constantly changing.

Other integrations that the best POS systems offer? Accounting, business management, and ecommerce, for starters! 

The Best POS System for Cideries & Meaderies Provides Comprehensive Reporting Tools

The best POS system also equips you with easy-to-use reporting tools that are customizable to your business, and give you insight into your most popular items.

Online Sales Dashboard With Pre-Built Reports

Because all of your data is in the cloud, it makes for an online sales dashboard that’s available anytime on any browser, reflecting real-time numbers. Yes, that means reports from all sales channels live in one place, whether it’s on-premise, online, a QR code order, or from an off-premise event.

This accessibility gives you a look behind the curtain at any time of day. This lets you make decisions fast, such as adding a staff member if you project a busy Saturday night, or adding another tap of that Blueberry Lavender cider that people can’t seem to get enough of! 

The best POS system provides you with pre-built reports, so there’s no blocker to getting key insights right away. Reports should also accommodate tax, liquor laws, and all accounting needs. This tool is all about saving you time and headaches!

Robust Reports You Care About

Liquor law reports come in handy, but you’re most curious about what is making your cidery or meadery tick. It’s important that you’re able to customize your reports so you can identify the insights that you care about. Here are some available from Arryved that may fit your fancy: 

• Best sellers: A clear item rank that shows which beverages are selling the most is key to building a buzzing cidery or meadery.
• Purchase size: It’s important to know if you’re pouring mostly samples of your Margarita Cider, and mostly growlers of your Homegrown Dry. If that’s the case, ditch that Margarita! You can optimize sales and know what to refine on the next batch with a report like this that breaks down orders by samples, pints, and growlers. 

Customizable reports are all about identifying what your customer base likes the most. They’re the ones you have to please, after all!

The Best POS System for Cideries & Meaderies Builds Community

You know how important it is to have a crew of people that have your business’s back and spread the word about your delicious brews. That’s why the best POS system sets you up with the appropriate tools to garner loyalty in your community. 

Reward Loyal Guests With Insider Programs

One obvious tool that encourages loyalty is a rewards program. This drives more traffic to your cidery or meadery, builds your brand name, and engages the people that love your products the most. 

Members earn points by spending money with you. Points are redeemable for discounts, free merchandise, or even exclusive products and releases. Because the best POS systems fully integrate with loyalty programs, member information and engagement level, plus points earned and redeemed, are all tracked in one place by your POS. 

POS systems also assist in communicating with members. Easily send email marketing messages to invite members to events, encourage them to purchase a pre-release, or offer a free 6-pack with a t-shirt purchase. 

Not only does this keep your loyalty members spending money, it also creates FOMO for non-members. If they see guests getting special discounts and brews across the tasting room, they’re bound to want to join the program themselves!

Participate In Local Events & Throw Your Own Neighborhood Parties

Another way POS helps you build community is by making it easy to participate in local events or throw your own events in your tasting room! 

Traveling offsite is a seamless experience with the right POS tools available. We already know the best POS system has inventory management covered, but another handy tool for off-site event-going is offline mode. Internet connectivity is spotty at farmers markets or any other event you may be holding shop at. With offline mode, you can keep raking the transactions in, and all of that sales data will sync again once you have a stable connection. 

As far as hosting on-site events, here are some other helpful POS features:

• Venue tracking: If your cidery or meadery has separate areas to manage, it’s great to use venue tracking to keep staff organized and determine the unique performance of each location. Perhaps customers tend to stay longer and order more when they can see the beautiful apple trees from your patio, and who could blame them? It might be time to expand that patio and get some heaters for the chillier months!
• Event deposits: Enabling guests to throw their own parties in your space is a great way to get new foot traffic in the door. You can easily set up and track deposits and ensure you have the staff and inventory necessary by using this POS tool. 
• Will call reporting: Hosting a ticketed event? Will call reporting lets you look into paid-for attendees, manage any remaining tickets, and easily look back at performance reports from any particular event. 

Tools like this prove that your POS should do much more than just process payments with existing customers. Your POS should provide tools that help you get new customers and retain your existing fanbase at the same time. 

The Best POS System for Cideries & Meaderies Supports Your Team

The best POS system has a team of humans that are just as supportive, helpful, and empathetic as your team is. By providing free support and transparent pricing, your POS proves that they’re on your side and rooting for your success. 

Free, 7 Days/Week Phone & Email Support

Whether you run into an issue on a Friday night or just need help reading a report on a Monday morning, your POS support team should be there. With go-getter attitudes and industry expertise, POS support from the best systems is readily available to solve any problem in a timely manner. 

In addition to answering questions every day of the week, the best POS system’s support is there to help set up your online store, customize your digital menu, and do everything in between. The Arryved Support Team, for example, manually built hundreds of individual websites for customers during the COVID shutdowns in March 2020. At a time when customers couldn’t make in-person sales, these websites allowed them to continue transacting online, and in some cases saved businesses from having to close entirely.

And that shouldn’t drop your jaw! That kind of intentional elbow grease and TLC should be expected from your POS. After all, you work your butt off for your customers! Your POS support should do the same. 

Transparent Pricing Structure

A POS system like this sounds hearty, right? And while you may be thinking this comprehensive system for cideries and meaderies may cost an arm and a leg, you’re mistaken. 

Features like the ones listed above are free with the best POS systems. In fact, all you would pay is credit card processing fees—at market pricing, to boot!

If your POS is hesitant to reveal their pricing structure transparently, you’re talking to the wrong system. Your bill should never come as a surprise and you should feel as though your POS system is going above and beyond in robust features to keep your business. 

It’s not all too good to be true: Arryved POS pricing is fair and transparent with no contracts and no fees. We work with you and for you, ensuring the best prices, service, and humans available. 

Get a free, custom demo from a friendly hospitality veteran today!