Brands-to-Shops Integration
Cigar Social is excited to announce the next phase of development: Shop Pages & Brand Pages.
Coming in 2023, business owners throughout the cigar industry will be able to communicate and grow their businesses through Cigar Social.
By controlling their own pages, brands & shops will be connected to all aspects of the industry: consumer, retailer, brand.
Setting Up Your Page
Shop owners will be able to showcase not only the cigar brands that they carry, but also the exact cigars from each. During their account setup, the shop owner will simply select the brands that they carry.
A notification will be sent to that brand to confirm. Once the brand administrator approves your shop as a vendor, the shop owner can now add the cigars to their Cigars section (note: this does not require exact inventory feeds from your point-of-sale system).
The best part? All of the work was done for you. The same detailed information that you see within Cigar Social's cigar library today is added to your shop. Wrapper, binder, filler information and more are updated by the brands. You'll never have to worry about inaccurate information again
With your own admin portal, all changes are controlled by the shop administrator. Edit your store hours, contact info, post updates, followers, showcase special deals and promotions, add team members, and more.
Two-Way Communication: Brands & Shops
Cigar Social has compiled a list of over 2,000 shops and lounges. During signup, cigar brands will be able to link their shops to their Cigar Social page. If the shop is also signed up with Cigar Social (depending on their subscription level), the two parties will be able to communicate with one another.
Brands will be able to monitor the status of their shop's tobacco licenses and be notified if one is approaching their expiration date. In addition to their accounts list, brands can quickly see the last time a shop placed an order, offer special deals and promotions, be notified of an ownership change, schedule in-person visits, send new product info, and more.
Shop admins will also have an accounts page highlighting the brands they carry, their contact information, assigned rep, and other important details. Shops can send brands a new order request (simply request, not pay), report quality control issues, or request in-person visits, to name a few.
Press Releases
Brands will be able to send press releases directly to their shops through their admin panel. Shops will now be able to get updates directly from the brand in a timely manner. Brands are able to send these press releases in bulk or create a custom selection (ex: only their west coast accounts).
And brands- don't sweat it. We created templates for you to choose from and easily edit on the fly. Looking to announce a new cigar? Done. Need to update your shops on a delayed order? Check. The goal of Cigar Social is to make your day-to-day operations as easy as possible.
Collaborate with Events
Shops will not only be able to create events, but also collaborate with brands for any sponsored events. For example, if the shop is hosting an event sponsored by Plasencia, the Cigar Social event will highlight Plasencia's page so their followers can learn more about the brand prior to showing up to the event.
Control your events and invitation list from the admin panel. Options for both private and public events will be available.
Universal Gift Cards
Participating shops will be able to accept universal Cigar Social gift cards. Any user on Cigar Social will be able to purchase and send a gift card to a friend.
The shop owner simply scans the QR code from the customer's phone and applies the discount towards the purchase. The shop is paid by Cigar Social within 24 hours of accepting the payment.
Pickup Order Request Forms
Cigar Social users will be able to quickly fill out a pickup order request form for any shop that chooses to have this feature.
Once the form is filled out by the user, a notification is sent to the shop admin.
If the order is in-stock and able to be fulfilled, the shop can call to collect payment info over the phone and set up pick-up details.