Winery owners and operators have a great many things to monitor and manage, from vineyard conditions and production costs to marketing, sales, and distribution. Many of these logistical challenges can be made easier with the right point of sale (POS) software tools. One of the most important of these challenges is inventory management.  What can inventory management software do for your winery?
Monitor depletion tracking in real time.

Always know what you have on hand and what you don’t, to avoid outages (resulting in disappointed customers). Ensure, for example, that you have enough of the merlot that is next month’s wine club selection to fill all subscriptions. You should be able to track both finished products and ingredients used in production, as well as monitor costs and profits. With cloud-based inventory management software, you can check your inventory figures at any time and manage discrepancies between reported and actual inventory. You can set up alerts to notify you when stock levels reach a certain threshold, and you can even send reorders to your vendors directly from the inventory program.
Connect and manage all of your channels.

Today’s marketplace is omnichannel, and you need a single, centralized inventory management solution that coordinates data for all types of sales, including wholesale, retail, license, and export. It should integrate with your POS system to track in-house sales on the tasting room floor, online orders from your website or mobile ordering app, wine club subscriptions, and phone orders for large catered events such as weddings or reunions. Integration of online payments should be uncomplicated as well. If you have multiple locations, you should be able to view inventory for an individual location or all of them, and be able to transfer inventory easily between them.
Track the production history of each bottle.

Using inventory management software will help you eliminate the hassle (and potential for human error) of juggling complex spreadsheets. There are solutions that provide batch traceability and allow you to track each bottle through the entire process from grape to glass. You can also view profitability reports, gauging how well a particular category or individual product performed during a specified time period. And you can track total cost of goods sold and compile histories of product prices.
Create an audit trail. 

In the event of an excise tax audit by the U.S. Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, you’ll want a complete paper trail. The inventory management module of your POS system automatically and accurately records all of your transactions, ensuring regulatory compliance and reliable accounting data.
SalesVu offers a suite of POS apps and cloud-based services that will help your winery grow, including inventory management. And SalesVu products are backed by always-available customer support. Contact SalesVu for more information or to set up your free account and start experiencing the difference the right tools can make for your business.

If you operate an entertainment venue or manage an arts and culture organization, chances are you’re already familiar with Tessitura, the widely-used, industry-specific customer relationship management (CRM) platform. But if your point of sale (POS) solution isn’t integrated with your CRM program, you’re missing valuable benefits. Here’s why CRM integration is a must-have when you’re choosing a POS solution.

1. View customer purchase history in one place.

When your CRM and POS System are working together, all of your customer information is available in a single, consolidated database rather than two separate ones that require extra work to coordinate. The unification saves you time by eliminating the need to manually enter data from one source into the other, and it provides several benefits.

• Staff members can access a customer’s purchase history during a transaction to assist with upselling, check for deals, or see if organization membership needs to be renewed.
• Ticket sellers and front of house staff will be able to identify significant donors and other VIP customers and acknowledge them accordingly.
• The shared information can also be used to create specifically targeted marketing campaigns and personalized communications — ensuring that customers see offers that are most relevant to them, which increases their overall satisfaction and fosters loyalty and repeat business.

 

2. Find customers in your CRM database.

CRM integration with your POS system makes it easy to look up customers from your database. You should be able to search using any of several pieces of data, including customer name, phone number, e-mail address, or membership number. Or, for even faster service, simply scan the customer’s membership card. Recognizing your customers and offering personalized service goes a long way toward strengthening the relationship and encouraging continued patronage. And upselling suggestions based on purchase history are a great way to increase ticket size and revenue.

3. Apply customer membership discounts.

Once you’ve looked up customers in your CRM database, you can easily (even automatically) apply any appropriate membership discounts or loyalty program reward points toward purchases in concessions or gift shops. And if membership needs to be renewed, it can easily be done as part of the transaction, thereby maintaining both the customer relationship and the stream of revenue from memberships. Both are particularly important to arts and culture organizations.

4. Redeem existing gift certificates.

Customers can purchase gift certificates and gift cards through the Tessitura platform. CRM integration with the free POS solutions available from SalesVu (including OrderUp self-service kiosks) enables easy redemption of Tessitura gift certificates. To use a certificate, simply scan it at checkout or enter the number manually. Customers appreciate the convenience, increasing their satisfaction and loyalty.

‘Our initial attraction to SalesVu was its mobility and scalability. As a major presenting arts organization, we have an ever-changing range of needs across our venues, events and festivals and we were searching for one system that would allow us to capture both concessions and merchandise sales with an easy to learn interface for part-time/seasonal employees. The Tessitura integration will give us the ability to see a more complete picture of patrons’ spending with us and more easily fulfill membership perks. Being able to process Tessitura gift certificates will allow a gift certificate to be used for anything in our venues, not just tickets’.– Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
SalesVu currently offers the only integrated POS solution that accepts Tessitura gift certificates and cards. To find out more about the advantages of integrating SalesVu iPad POS and Tessitura, contact SalesVu today.

Over the last few years, self-order kiosks have shown a steady upswing in popularity at all types of restaurants, from fast-casual to full table service. But other industries can benefit from the advantages as well. In particular, theaters, playhouses and other entertainment venues can increase customer satisfaction and improve bottom lines by adopting self-service. Here’s why.

1. Line-Busting, Especially at Intermissions

Theaters need to keep people moving through both ticketing and concessions lines, so people can make it to their seats before the show begins. If it looks like there will be a long wait to get their refreshments, they may well decide to skip it — and since the majority of a cinema’s profits comes not from ticket sales but from concessions, you can’t afford that scenario.

Similarly, arts and cultural performances — from ballets and operas to plays and stand-up comedy shows — have only brief intermission periods for patrons to take restroom breaks and purchase food and drink. Self-order kiosks keep the lines moving so you can serve as many patrons as possible during those breaks, and they won’t miss any of the performance. Orders can be placed and paid for more quickly, and staff members can focus on efficient fulfillment rather than order placement.

2. Fast and Accurate Service

Self-order kiosks increase speed of service because employees are concentrating on order preparation instead of having to input the order and process the payment first. Cinemas can even combine ticket and concessions sales into a single transaction to save even more time. And self-service is also more accurate, since customers are entering their own specifications (so there’s no miscommunication, especially in a crowded, noisy lobby), and they can verify their orders before sending. Avoiding mix-ups reduces food waste and increases customer satisfaction — so they’re more likely to repeat the experience.

3. Increased Concessions Revenue and Ticket Sizes

Perhaps the biggest way for self-order kiosks to provide a healthy return on investment is by increasing concessions revenue. Self-service encourages customers to order more food and drink with automatic upselling suggestions (“Would you like to make it a combo?”) and enticing visual images. Impulse buying and add-ons increase, thereby raising overall order sizes — and profits. The Washington Post reported in 2015 that at Cinemark movie theaters, self-service kiosks had helped per-person concession spending to increase for 32 straight quarters.

OrderUp is a SalesVu POS System that turns an iPad into a self-order kiosk. You can create a free account and download the app today to start enjoying the benefits of self-service. Contact SalesVu to get started or to reach their 24/7 customer support with any questions about how to put these advantages to work for you.