Margin is always important when you are running a cigar lounge or cigar store. Let's talk about some ways to improve your margin on every cigar purchase.
First and foremost, the easiest way to increase margin is by raising your prices on the cigars themselves. Hopefully you've already done this, but if not, this is a good reminder. Even a $0.25 or $0.50 increase in prices every year can make a big difference in your bottom line. This year, because inflation is running 10%+, you should likely be increasing double that or more.
Next, and one that may again be kind of obvious, but let this serve as a reminder: Ask every customer that buys cigars from you about their humidor at home. Something like "how's your humidor holding up?", "What's the humidity like in your humidor at home?", "How much space you got left in your humidor?" are all great examples of how to get that conversation started.
If they tell you their humidity is low or they are having trouble with the humidity, it's a perfect opportunity to see if they need more humidor solution or Boveda packs. If they mention they will be running out of space soon, that's the perfect opportunity to sell them a larger humidor.
This is a great way to turn that $30 or $40 cigar sale into potentially a multi-hundred dollar sale.
Certainly not rocket science but perhaps a good reminder to make sure all of your front line aficionados are talking to their customers about their home humidor.
