CategoryGarden centre software

Selling a retail business is like selling a house, you need to prepare it so that it looks appealing to prospective purchasers. Selling a newsagency is more challenging because of assumptions out there and changes in what a newsagency is can could be.

Here at Tower Systems we are often asked for retail advice beyond our POS software. Preparing a retail shop for sale is one example of advice we are asked for.  We have developed a package of information to help small business retailers as they navigate this. What we share in this blog post today is some of the information we have put together.

Tower Systems POS software customers have access to this and more business management advice and insights.

1. Make it look and feel appealing. While there are people who will look for a challenge (opportunity). Most buyers will want two see a retail business they understand and feel they can run.
2. Eliminate dead stock. It looks bad on the shelves and looks bad on the books. Purchasers should not pay full wholesale for inventory more than six months old as your poor buying or management is not their obligation.
3. Streamline operations. Make the business look easy to run by ensuring it is easy to run for you. The easier it looks to run the more interesting to people who don’t understand the business.
4. Maximise profit. What anyone will pay will depend on actual profitability of the business.
5. Be happy. Owners who talk their business down will find it harder to sell the business. You never know who is shopping your shop and the broader interest they may have.
6. Keep your social media presence up to date. Today, many people check out a business online prior to looking at it in-store. Maintain up to date Facebook, Instagram and elsewhere.
7. Get your paperwork in order. Early on, get business documents together:
   1. Premises lease.
   2. Equipment lease.
   3. Employee records.
   4. Product forward orders.
   5. Franchise documents.
   6. Supplier agreements.
   7. Details of any forward orders.
   8. Any other documents relating to the operation of the business including manuals for any equipment items.
8. Choose a broker for your circumstances.

Success at selling your retail business depends on the work you do to prepare it for sale. Focus months, even a years, out can make for an easier and better sale.

Get it right and you can expect to make more than you might have thought possible.

Small business retailers using the Tower Systems POS software can easily, quickly, safely and accurately sync product images from their PSO software to their Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce or other POS software site easily, quickly and accurately thanks to smart image management in the Tower Systems POS software.

Syncing images without the need for human intervention saves time. It also cuts mistakes, streamlines workflow and provides a better e-commerce as well as in0-store management outcome.

This is good for business.

Tower Systems has offered this POS software website image sync for ages, as part of its core e-commerce interface benefits.

As retailers with multiple websites and active in-store use of POS software in businesses it owns, Tower Systems is delivering solutions it itself wants for more efficient, accurate and successful e-commerce trading. This personal experience is a key factor in why Tower Systems is able to differentiate its offer over other POS software companies in this and other areas.

With the POS software the keeper of the images – multiple per product and any size that is appropriate to what you sell – connecting to the website is easy and seamless. Each new image loaded for a product is synced to the website based on rules established and managed in-store. This enables the software to behave in accordance with the wishes of the business.

Tower already partners with Shopify, Magento and WordPress – WooCommerce. The interface for each with the Tower software is direct and not through a third party. This is also key in the service of accurate, seamless and safe product image transfer.

Tower Systems is able to demonstrate these facilities live to any retailer contemplating the Tower software or website development services.

Image syncing between POS software and a website is critical for any small business that wants to sell online as it reduces the workload involved in managing images. Too often, small business retailers are asked to manually cut and paste and do other work on images. The Tower software makes the process easier, more certain and more enjoyable in that getting to the opportunity its to sell online is faster.

Any POS software that cannot facilitate the automatic and easy flow of images to a Shopify, Magento or WooCommerce website could be considered to be inappropriate for a business that prides efficiency and accuracy.

POS software company Tower Systems has launched an innovative and valuable opportunity for ay retailer considering its POS software.

A free video of your POS software demonstration.

Using cool cloud based technology and backing this with local infrastructure, Tower Systems is delivering to small business retailers certainty, commitment and trust in truth. We think this matters. It demonstrates that we take our pre-sales approach seriously.

Let us demonstrate our POS software to you in a live, interactive one-on-one online demonstration and we will offer you a video recording of the demo every question you ask, and our answers.

This offer is one to any sales prospect, any in their business and any who advise them.

This is a wonderful development for small business retailers. It gives them the ability to revisit a demonstration, check their memory, be sure of what they were told and be confident that buying POS software from Tower Systems is backed by a truth, transparency and trust on which they can build a long-term relationship with the company.

If you have ever wanted to recall, for certain, answers given or promises made in a sales situation, we make it easy because, to us, transparency matters.

This is a really big deal, something that differentiates the Tower Systems approach to business and to attracting users of our POS software.

We are tired of hearing stories of sales people from various businesses who do not tell the truth, stories of promises made during a sales pitch that never eventuate. Tower Systems wants to see that changes. Change starts with truth, it is built on trust, which its shared with transparency.

We offer locally developed and highly tuned software for specialty retail businesses including garden centres, produce / farm supply businesses, jewellers, bike retailers, pet stores, toy shops, gift shops, homewares shops, fishing and outdoor businesses, newsagents and adult shops.

To find out more about our POS softwareand support for specialty retailers please call our sales team on 1300 662 957 or email them at sales@towersystems.com.au.

Tower Systems is an Australian POS software company serving 3,500+ specialty retailers in Australia and New Zealand.

Our POS software customers are loving this unbranded video we created for them. It is part of a mix of marketing collateral we continue to evolve for our retail business community.

The POS software you choose for your indie small retail business is an important decision. Get it right and the business could prosper and become considerably more valuable. Get it wrong and it could cost you plenty.

In thinking about the software you want, think about your business. Here are some headline level thoughts and suggestions.

1. If you see your business as specialist in nature, the software you choose should be specialist.
2. If part of your business pitch is to shop local, choosing locally made and supported software supports your pitch. Local software is software made and supported in Australia.
3. If you want to be known as the local specialist, you need software that helps you do this consistently and effectively.
4. If you do repairs or maintenance of any sort, you need software that can handle this.
5. If you sell items bundled such as a rod, reel and line pack, you need software that can handle this.
6. If you are in a tourist area and sell to people once, or once a year, you need software with loyalty facilities to maximise their rare visits to your shop.
7. If you sell products by weight, you need software that can do this.

Think about these things and think about what you want in software in your business to help you stand out.

There are many generic and cheap point of sale systems in the marketplace. Price does matter. You would know that in your business. Think about the shopper who wants a full kit but says they want the cheapest. Think about your advice to them. If you say price does matter and that you get what you pay for, the same is true with retail business software.

A small higher price today for the right software could save many times the gap between it and cheap generic software.

So, work out what you want. This must come first, ahead of any budget.

Given that you can lease or even rent software, the capital cost is best assessed as a weekly cost on the business. This makes comparing systems easier. Once you work out the weekly cost and tote up what you get for this in terms of support serves and software functionality you can reasonable compare the different systems.

If you are not sure whether a software package will serve your needs, don’t choose it. You are better off saying no than fighting with the software and the supplier to get it working exactly as you want. However, it is likely that you will need to change some business processes to suit the software you do ultimately choose.

Be flexible. Once you have chosen software, follow the advice provided by the software company and the expert they send to your business to train you. If they suggest changes to your business processes, embrace them. While changing what you do can be frustrating, software designed specifically independent specialty retail businesses is specialist in nature and it does what it does based on years of development and feedback from many customers.

Be disciplined. Software is like a machine. It needs the right fuel. For software, that fuel is data. Ensure everyone in your business is disciplined in how the software is used. From the moment stock comes into the business to when it is sold. Track it. This will help you make better business decisions.

Be engaged. Your software company will want a two-way relationship If you have suggestions, share them Play a role in the continued evolution of the software. This helps you and other businesses in your channel.

Save time. The right software will help you eliminate manual processes. Embrace these opportunities as much as possible. Time saved is time you can invest in yourself or in the business. Seek time saving opportunities out.

Be realistic. Any new software will be a challenge. Know that you will have some rough days learning the new things. Accept these by focussing on the main goal of enjoyment and efficiency once you know the software well.

The software you choose reflects your business. Take your time. Be certain about what you want. Invest well and the right software will easily pay for itself.

How employees who steal do steal from a retail business has changed over time. As technology and changed and as society has changed, theft techniques have changed.

It is vital that indie retail businesses keep up to date on how to detect and confront theft by employees. It is critical these businesses are ahead of the game in this pursuit.

The challenge is, you don’t know what you don’t know. This is where the comprehensive and POS software integrated approach recommended and guided by Tower Systems can help. The company leverages years of experience, personal retail management knowledge and expert mentorship from some world class leaders to provide its retail business community advice and help.

Detecting and mitigating employee theft in retail starts with the POS software itself. It is critical that retailer use software that has tools, known and unknown to users, that help confront the employee theft challenge. The best detection is the surprise detection, catching an employee when they least expect it, when they think they can get away with theft crime undetected.

The employee theft tracking and evidentiary tools in the Tower Systems POS software have been proven time and again to help retailers, police and prosecutors to deal with theft situations.

The best news is that engaged retailers who follow our advice are able to see theft easily, before the cost on the business is too great. Clearly, this is the best situation – early detection, early addressing of a situation before it becomes expensive and possibly terminal for a business.

Through our in-house theft specialists and personal experience running retail businesses, we offer training, advice and help using the awesome theft tracking and mitigation tools in our retail business POS software. At all times, our work is done in ways and following processes that are useful to any authorities brought in to deal with an employee theft situation.

Indie retail businesses can cut the cost of employee theft. It takes good POS software backed by good support with an oversight from leadership.

Tower Systems has years of experience working with small business retailers, police, prosecutors and insurance companies to help detect and mitigate theft in retail businesses, especially independent retail businesses.

We are often asked by small business retailers for business help when it is too late. In this article, we outline steps any retailer can contemplate from them moment they realise their business is in trouble, from the first thought that closing may be the only option.

If your retail business is in tough times and facing possible closure, you may be able to save it if you act quickly and ruthlessly. Based on years of working with many different retailers, we have found some basic steps can successfully turnaround a business in trouble. But you need to be ruthless.

1. Know your truth. If you run a computer system, analyse the data it collects. If you don’t know how to do this, find out. Look for surprise information in your data, things you did not know about your business. For example, look at the top selling items. If there are surprises there they could inform other decisions you make to urgently address your situation.
2. Trim employee costs. Cut employee hours and work more in the business yourself if you are not doing so already. While this can have a significant personal cost, the less you pay others the more be business benefits in financial terms.
3. Trim overheads. Cut everything you can: cleaning, power usage, insurance, freight, banking. Look at every supplier relationship you have and see if you can negotiate a better deal to cut your operating costs. However, do not turn off lights as darkness is death in most retail businesses.
4. Stop unprofitable behaviour. If you are doing things in your business which lose money or do not contribute to a good future for the business, stop doing them. Regardless of history or what your business might stand for, continuing with unprofitable activity only makes your situation worse.
5. Quit dead stock. If you have stock on the shop floor which is old – ‘old’ can vary between product categories – and for which you have already paid, quit it. However, stock that is greater than six months old is a reasonable guide – then take action to sell this at a substantial discount.
6. Cash matters. Converting anything you have fully paid for to cash has to be your key goal.
7. Different retail options. Maybe a right or left turn away from what your business has been is an answer.
8. Move things around. If your business is in trouble it is likely that it has not changed much in recent years. Change it. Move departments around, shake things up so your customers trip over things they did not think you sold.
9. Review prices. Look at the common items you sell, consider a small increase in your prices. It could be a small increase will not hurt sales volume yet will add profit to your bottom line.
10. Upsell well. At the counter, work to extend the basket for every sale possible. Do this with clever counter product placement and witty and engaging banter with customers offering upsell products. You goal has to be to make more from each customer.
11. Market within your budget. Photocopied black and white flyers designed with care can be cheap and effective.
12. Get suppliers to help. Suppliers often have old stock themselves which they want to quit at a substantial discount. Buy items you have not stocked before, negotiate good prices and put the stock out with a healthy margin but still at a discount to what others would be charging. Negotiate to pay once you are paid by customers.
13. What assets can you sell? Do you have computers, retail fixtures, vehicles or other assets you no longer use in the running of the business? If they are not being used, turn them to cash as quickly as possible.
14. Get a job. If you have a partner in the business with you and the business can run with one partner, one of you should get a job outside the business. This is especially helpful in a husband and wife situation where the family income can benefit.
15. Talk to your landlord. A good landlord will prefer a good business to stay rather than have then close down and a new tenant having to be found. Talk to the landlord, be honest with them about your situation. Given the landlord all of the information they need to make the decision you need them to make. This information will include sales figures, expenses and margin information. Usually, the more transparent you are with the landlord the more they will support your business.
16. Talk to colleagues. If you have nearby business colleagues in the same line of business, they might have stock they are happy to provide you for free or at a discount to give you stock to move for a good price.
17. Deliver amazing customer service. When serving customers be the perfect shop assistance and not the owner of the business facing closure. Keep your mind on the job at hand and not the cliff you’re worried might be a few steps ahead.
18. Whoever is pressuring you the most to close or contemplate closing, talk to them. If it’s a supplier, the tax office or some other organisation or individual pressuring you about debts, be upfront with them, lay out for them your plan detailing the action you will take to turn your situation around, be clear about what you are doing and outline a timeline step by step for them. Seek their support.
19. Set a timeframe. Decide where you want to be in a week, four weeks, eight weeks, twelve weeks. Set realistic goals. Measure yourself against those goals. Know what you will do if you fall short.

No two situations are the same. No situation is impossible. No business is dead until the doors are closed for the last time.

Never give up. Fight hard and fight smart to turn your business around.

Tower Systems is thrilled to announce Retailer Roam, POS software enabled for portable retail, retail on the go, retail where you want to sell, as a pop-up, at a market, from a trunk, truly anywhere.

Retailer Roam is portable retail for small business retailers.

Retailer Roam is a tablet app-based POS extension to the Tower Systems Retailer POS software.  The app runs on Apple iPad and Android based tablets.  It can run connected over WiFi or any other network. It can also run disconnected, synching when connected again

Retailer Roam is designed to help retailers better manage buy times without the need to install considerable hardware as well as to transact business away from the counter, from an outpost or from a vehicle some distance from the shop.

As the name suggests Retailer Roam enables the business to roam to transact sales.

You can sell for cash or credit card, to an account or through a LayBy. Selling is through a screen designed specifically for Retailer Roam and the types of devices on which it would be run.

Retailer Roam utilises the Tower Systems developed and proprietary secure TALINK platform to synchronise with Retailer store level data. That is, stock in your Retailer software can be sold through Retailer Roam.

Behind the scenes, seamlessly, data is synchronised in 3 phases.

1. Phase one is an initial transfer that contains the base stock. This is done on start-up. It sets Retailer Roam up to be able to sell.
2. Phase 2 is to receive product updates – on hand levels or pricing changes.
3. Phase 3 is to send sales and customer, inventory and sales data to Retailer. Sales data is be identified by each Roam terminal, allowing your view of terminal sales.

Sales (Phase 3) will be stored in a ‘queue’ on the device, which will be cleared periodically to sync sales with the roam server (and then sent to retailer). There is an option to force a sale to be sent to retailer again (in-case it was missed for whatever reason).

Sell online and offline.

Yes, connect for easy EFTPOS processing.

Retailer Roam is set to change how, when and where retailers sell.

WHAT DEVICES OR HARDWARE DO I NEED TO RUN RETAILER ROAM?

IPAD
Our preference is for a regular size iPad running minimum iOS 10.

ANDROID TABLET
Roam was developed and tested using Android 6.0 (API 23). So, if you are running an operating system ahead of Android 6, you’re good to go. We anticipate that Roam could work in earlier versions (either 5, or 4.1). However, we may need to setup for this.

RECEIPT PRINTERS
We recommend and support Epson IP receipt printers. Our preference is the Epson TM82 Ethernet receipt printer. A full list of supported printers is available from Tower Systems. You can share an existing printer between multiple Roam Terminals or even share a supported printer with a Retailer fixed POS if operating in store. A Receipt Printer is not mandatory to operate Roam as receipts can be emailed.

BARCODE SCANNERS
Any direct Bluetooth scanner, i.e. a scanner the communicates directly with the terminal and not via a base, should work. We support and recommend the Socket range of scanners.

Tower Systems has a Lead Referral Program to express appreciation to professionals who provide the company with sales leads that convert to bankable business. This is part of our small business partnership program that seeks to help encourage stronger small /indie retail businesses.

Our lead referral program is designed for bookkeepers and accountants who invest their time and knowledge to help introduce Tower Systems to prospective customers. Since our software links directly to Xero and offers third party supported access to MYOB and Quicken, connecting with Xero specialists makes sense.

Our software is also integrated with the Magento, Shopify and WooCommerce e-commerce platforms.

For easy banking and payments, we interface with Tyro directly and the major banks through a third party.

For buy now pay later, we interface with Oxipay (Hmmm) and ZipPay ZipMoney. We are working with AfterPay to bring that platform to our 3,000+ customers.

Our POS software is purpose build for a select range of niche retailers. While our software may work for businesses outside the retail channels listed on our website, it is important to know that being specialist matters to us. We dive deep into the needs of each retail channel we serve.

We are keen to work with bookkeepers and others who also specialise in their service of specific retail channel retailers.

In addition to developing awesome POS software, we also develop websites for our customers in-house, at our Hawthorn, Victoria, head office. This results in websites more finely tuned to the needs of local retailers as we understand local retail.

To maintain standards and ensure transparency, Tower Systems manages the lead referral program out of its head office.

To express interest to be part of the lead referral program, please email sales@towersystems.com.au. This is also the entry point for any queries. We will provide a document that outlines the program, how it works and what we offer.

To those contemplating partnering with us: we say thank you for considering working with Tower Systems to empower small business retailers to run more efficient and successful businesses.

Tower Systems is proud to serve small independent retailers in Australia and New Zealand.

Shopper loyalty software needs to drive sales. If it does not do this then it fails the business and is of questionable value. By driving sales, we mean achieving incremental revenue for a retail business – by bringing shoppers back to the business or by getting them to spend more in a visit to the business.

Good loyalty software has the hooks and tools that can be deployed to achieve these outcomes.

This is what the Tower Systems loyalty management facilities in noir smart POS software.

This is where the loyalty software facilities from Tower Systems come into their own. Offering a broad range of loyalty solutions, small business retailers can choose the approach that works best for them, included a blend of multiple approaches.

Most retail businesses using our specialist retail software love its points-based loyalty program that looks and feels as professional as the supermarkets’ programs. However, our software’s Discount Voucher facilities deliver even better results. We say this based on wonderful and helpful feedback from many of our small business retail customers.

Discount vouchers are a very different approach to loyalty. They offer immediate rewards. They help shoppers spend more this visit. This is vital in businesses that see shoppers once, in tourist and similar locations. They genuinely change shopper behaviour in that visit to the business.

One of our own retail businesses reported growth of 10% in the three months. Much of the success comes down to smart use of Discount Vouchers.

Discount Vouchers don’t need a card – they print on sales receipts and offer an amount customers can spend right away. Our experience and the experience of hundreds of our customers is that Discount Vouchers drive faster and deeper engagement with the business – making a shopping visit more valuable right away.

1. You name the voucher anything you like and can change this at any time.
2. You set the rules on how the value of the voucher is calculated.
3. You set the rules on what the voucher can be redeemed for.
4. You set the rules on expiry dates.

Male shoppers are more likely to spend the voucher immediately and many customers use the voucher to purchase items more expensive than the items in the initial purchase made. Customers see the voucher as cash, often commenting that they like the direct approach better than a points-based system. They like the transparency and simplicity.

In our own retail experience, which sees us competing against major retailers in a Westfield shopping centre, several shoppers have stated they prefer Discount Vouchers over the rewards programs of our competitors.

We are confident that Tower Systems’ Discount Voucher facilities can help you:

1. Get customers spending more in a visit.
2. Bring existing customers back sooner.
3. Attract new shoppers to your business.
4. Drive impulse purchases at the sales counter.

Here is a video from us about Discount Vouchers: