One of the most satisfying parts of what we do here at Tower Systems is helping our small business retail customers see their businesses differently. Slicing data can help achieve this, revealing opportunities previously not seen. #SmallBusiness #Retail #POSsoftware #Help #ShopLocal #AustralianJobs
The Tower Systems gift shop software offers many benefits from time saving to shoppe engaging to team member enjoyment. Delivering tangible benefits through our POS software is important to us, especially benefits beyond the traditional, beyond what people expect.
The top benefits from using the Tower Systems Gift shop software, as told to us by our customers.
We are grateful to have launched more POS software connected Shopify websites for small business retailers in our community. These sites, all developed by us here in Australia, deliver terrific new customer acquisition opportunities for our shoppers, helping them to sell 24/7 and sell as far afield as they would like.
Here are some of the recently made live websites from our web team:
www.backobourkecollective.com.au
www.inspiretasmania.com.au
www.brindabellastockfeed.com.au
www.heavensabove.com.au
www.loavesrobe.com.au
www.masterjewellersonline.com.au
www.chitchatgifts.com.au
www.eidsvoldrural.com.au
www.forevergiftsandmore.com.au
www.funporium.com.au
www.goulburnstationery.com.au
www.rehfisch.com.au
www.merimbulaextra.com.au
www.morganpark.com.au
www.nextragiftsorange.com.au
www.northsideproduceagency.com.au
www.pamperedpetz.com.au
www.www.paperplayonline.com.au
www.parkesnewsandgifts.com.au
www.rivercitypets.com.au
www.smithstreettraders.com.au
www.sprengersruraltraders.com.au
www.hefeedshop.com.au
www.shop.newcastle.edu.au
www.toyworldcanberra.com.au
www.toyworldwauchope.com.au
www.reasureboxgifts.com.au
www.uncletomspps.com.au
www.warragulpetemporium.com.au
www.welbygardencentre.com.au
www.wollongongbikehub.com.au
If you are interested in a POS software connected website, please reach out to our sales team: sales@towersystems.com.au.
USEFUL, EVERYDAY WEBSITE ADVICE FOR SMALL BUSINESS RETAILERS.
Regardless of who you choose to create your website, here are tips we offer to help make setting up a Shopify site successful for you.
Tower Systems is proud to have been a financial supporter of the Jewellers Association of Australia for 25 years. This association supports local Aussie jewellers.
We are grateful to the Channel magazine published by ALNA for their double page spread this month.
The workshop management facilities in the jeweller POS software and bike shop software from Tower Systems offer support for managing customer repair and other jobs.
Embedded in the POS software itself, these tools have evolved over time to serve the needs particularly of bike retailers and jewellers … and long the way have been found to be useful in. myriad others retail businesses in which workshop management facilities have been found to be important.
From the moment a job is setup or opened, the Tower Systems POS software tracks work, parts and other aspects of the job. It also manages contacting the customer when collection c an be made, when the job is done.
Connected to our inventory management tools, this software really does help a retail business track everything used in a workshop job, giving a business an overall level of visibility and control, which is crucial to understanding the performance of that part of the business.
Having the workshop management tools embedded in the software offer bike shops and jewellers a low cost alternative for managing repair and product build jobs without the need to source additional software at an additional cost.
Growing out of our POS software connected workshop management software, our spare parts inventory software has become critical to accurately recording sale and use of spare parts in repairs as well as over the counter to customers.
Offering tracking by brand, use, supplier, barcode, SKU and more, this spare parts inventory software works in a range of situations and businesses. Motor bike businesses, trailer sale and repair businesses, bike shops, jewellers, outdoors businesses, farm supply businesses, pool maintenance businesses … they can all use this spare parts inventory software.
In addition to managing workshop jobs, this software offers multiple reporting tools that enable various views of inventory performance. The flexibility in the reporting is useful and a key factor in the software serving needs across several types of spare parts related businesses. Accessibility to these and other reporting tools enables easier remote business management, which is a need that has come into its own in recent times.
Tower Systems is grateful to serve thousands of independent, local and small business retailers across a range of retail channels.
The Tower Systems approach to Shopify website development and connection to our specialty retailer POS software is thorough. it includes …: For ease of reference and clarity, below is a numbered list of all work and tasks included in the above quote and work you will have to do. This is the complete list.
There is more to the work we do than this. It is detailed, comprehensive and small business retail ourcome focussed. Oh, and all done in Australia for local Aussie businesses.
The Tower Systems POS software for game shops has evolved from our work with local specialty toy shops. We are grateful to have discovered that our toy shop POS software serves local specialty game retailers well, making it ideal POS software for game shops.
Using this Australian made POS software, specialty game retailers are able to serve the specialty needs of their specialty businesses. This is POS software for game shops that truly specialise. Proof can be found in some of the facilities offered by this software:
Using this POS software for game shops you can expect to enjoy a valuable view of the performance of your game shop – from in the shop or afar – if you manage the business remotely.
Thanks to our work with local specialty toy shops we have developed solutions for some data situations that are unique to that channel that play our for specialty game retailers, too.
This POS software for game shops from Tower Systems could be an ideal solution for your specialty game shop. The easy way to determining if it is a good fit is for your to see the software for yourself through an obligation free demonstration. We are grateful for opportunities to do this and to understand your specific business needs.
The key with POS software for game shops is to see if it fits your needs. The Tower Systems commitment is to let you know if we think our software is not a good fit. We;’re not high pressure. We treat every demonstration as a learning opportunity for us.
We are grateful to serve close to 1,800 newsagency businesses with our newsagency software, double all other software companies combined.
The newsagency software we offer today is technically and visually fresh thanks to our investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars in leading-edge engineering to deliver to our current version software.
Our Australian made and Australian supported newsagency software is backed with personal experience.
Here are 5 reasons to consider our Tower Systems newsagency software …
We also do the quarterly newsagency sales benchmark study and have done for 18 years. This is a valuable benchmark helps you see the future.
The Tower Systems newsagency software costs a few dollars a day. For on as many computers as you need in the business. There is no extra charge for extra computers.
There is no extra charge on top of this for support or updates. It’s all included.
How can we do this? We serve more newsagents than all other software companies combined. We leverage our size to save you money.
One-off installation, training and setup advice is priced as an up-front services package, delivering:
Call to find out more: sales@towersystems.com.au or 1300 662 957
We are grateful for the almost 1,800 newsagency businesses that have installed our software. Their commitment and encouragement encourage us every day.
Does your POS software run in the cloud? This is a common question we are asked.
Our answer … yes, our POS software runs in the cloud. We have many customers who do this. Some arrange their own hosting while others host through our secure off-site hosting infrastructure.
We also have many customers who choose to run our software on their own in-house desktop computers.
Our cloud POS software enables businesses to easily handle a single store situation through to a network of stores, 15, 20 … more. This is the flexibility of cloud POS software and we are here for it, helping small business retailers leverage cloud hosting to their advantage.
But, hey, if you run in a desktop situation, how can it be a cloud POS solution as well. Where the software runs, where it is hosted is 100% up to our customers. They choose the hosting platform that best suits their business needs and best suits their tech infrastructure access. This is important in that a business situation with poor internet access may not be ideal for a cloud hosted environment.
This is why offering flexibility for our customers as to hosting situation makes sense, it is why we provide our customers with choice.
Our POS software can be clod hosted or desktop hosted. You choose.
Big IT companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in marketing the term cloud. They have done this because they know buzzwords sell. The reality is, your software has to run somewhere. It has to be maintained. Whether it is running on computers in your business or in the cloud, the costs are not that different. The key difference is one approach feels sexier than the other, because of the marketing.
Our retail skilled account managers can talk with you to determine your needs and propose a solution that best serves your needs.
Whether you run cloud hosted POS software or desktop hosted POS software is best determined by your business needs, by your business situation. Take the time, do the research and decide what serves you, your location and your budget.
Tower Systems offers choice and that is what really does matter in the debate of cloud hosted POS or not.
Memorable customer service is the most important point of difference a retail business can have, especially a business which does not make what it sells and therefore could have its products being sold by any other business apple to reach the same pool of shoppers.
We call it memorable customer service because it truly has to be that … memorable. So memorable that it is praised by your customers to others.
Good customer service should be the norm, the lowest hurdle any retail business can jump. Memorable customer service, the level of customer service that makes a shopper talk about the experience to their friends, must be the goal and it is the word of mouth from these customers that is a factor in driving traffic growth.
Memorable customer service is just as vital to Point of Sale software companies as it is for retail businesses. Since we own retail businesses as well as our POS software company we see it, live it and reach for it from both sides.
This is why we work hard to encode the ability to focus on customer service in our Point of Sale software. That’s right, retailers using our software have touch points they can leverageusing software which help deliver the kind of memorable customer service we are talking about here.
Memorable customer service in retail, just as in a software company, is experiences which exceed expectations, it delivers benefits outside of what you expect even from a good business. In our IT company we compete with big IT companies and small, like us, IT companies. While we want our software to be the point of difference customers notice and talk about positively, it is our customer service which is loved and mentioned to colleagues more. Realising this was an epiphany for us.
We focus on building stronger, better and more valuable software. But we also surround this, completely, with customer service experiences which are the very best of the best. This gives us, and our customers, the best of both worlds. And we love it ourselves.
Given that most retailers do not have products unique to their businesses, delivering memorable customer service is critical to the business plan. Small and independent retailers can do this more easily and effectively than big retailers. From the genuine smile to shoppers to product knowledge to that extra information which helps a shopper get more out of the product purchased than they would have had the purchased the product elsewhere. This added value is the key and it can be delivered in almost any situation and with any product from a stapler through to a high-end road bike.
So, beyond our software and as part of our customer service focus, we seek out opportunities to help our customers deliver memorable customer service. Indeed, this was one topic we covered in the recent face-to-face user meetings we ran in capital cities and major regional centres around Australia.
As a Point of Sale software company, our mission is to deliver constantly improving retail management software backed with memorable customer service and going beyond this with business insights and assistance which helps our retailers themselves deliver exceptional and memorable experiences to their customers.
It is easy for employees in a local retail business to think the owners are rich if all they have to go off is the money paid by customers to the business. In this article, we share an an approach on how a local retail business can better inform employees. Here is an information sheet we have seen work well in the back room of a shop as it explains each dollar.
WHERE THE MONEY GOES
Where every dollar we get from our customers goes.
Every dollar paid to us by our customers and put in the til or through the credit card terminals gores somewhere and quickly. Some of it goes right away, some of it in a few days and most of the rest by the end of the month.
Some of the money we are paid goes before we get it – like for stock we pay for before it arrives in the shop.
This graph shows where every cent of every dollar we earn goes. The stock cost is the average cost of items we purchase. Some items cost us 90% of what we sell them for while others cost us 20% of what we sell them for. This is why we are using the overall business average for this illustration.
Based on our current numbers our profit is 4%. But we don’t get to keep that: we have borrowings to service, we don’t receive a salary for our time and any profit is taxed by the government.
We buy stock for the best price possible but with the price of many products we sell controlled we need to work elsewhere to improve things. This is why we look carefully at the roster. Even one hour saved can be like selling $100 in stock.
The best way to help the business achieve better results is for us to sell more of our stock to existing customers and for us to attract new customers.
We’d love your help in encouraging customers to buy more. You can do this with excellent displays, helping customers on the shop floor and giving customers awesome customer service.
We’d also love your ideas on attracting more shoppers.
Please don’t think we’re putting this notice up to cry poor. We share the information to give you a better understanding of what happens to each dollar we get from our customers because we believe that the more information anyone has the more informed their actions can be.
We work with many different retailers in different situations. We are grateful for what we have learned from our diverse community. Reflecting on this recently, it is the advice we share today that we have found to work well in almost any business type. It is basic, free to action and universally useful from what our customers tell us.
Here is that advice. We offer it today as recommended advice for any local small business retailer, as a terrific assist in terms of mental and physical health for business owners, managers and the business itself …
It is tough work running a small retail business, working 70, 80 and more hours a week covering many tasks from business manager to cleaner to customer service to creating retail displays.
There is always something to do. Some days, often in fact, it can feel like no matter what you do you have more to do at the end of the day than when you started.
Regardless of how busy you are in your retail business, we urge you to take time out every day for a brisk 20 to 30 minute walk outside, in the sun (or the rain), alone.
Leave your phone behind – the shop won’t burn down.
Walk alone.
The best time to take the walk is when you feel most overwhelmed.
Walking, as a brisk pace can break the cycle of feeling overwhelmed, the negative feeling about what is confronting you in the business.
Getting your heart rate up will be good for your physical and mental health.
A good energetic walk is an excellent opportunity to reset.
Being away from the business, other people and the phone will give your body and mind time to process – even if you are not actively thinking about the business.
If you are like me, stepping back into the business after a brisk 20 or 30 minute walk, you see things differently, decisions are easier, progress is real.
Days with a walk are far better than days without.
Footnote: this advice for business owners and managers to go for a walk when feeling overwhelmed is consistent with advice from mental health experts around the world. Better still, following the advice costs nothing.
Mental health challenges are often close by in small business retail. While not always seen, they are there, and in need of attention. Whether being experienced by customers, team members, suppliers or business owners, mental health challenges are impacting our businesses.
The test for any business owner is how it deals with mental health … identifying challenges, supporting those experiencing them and supporting those impacted in other ways.
While we are not trained professionals in the area, our years of working with small business owners confronted by mental health challenges have helped us develop some guiding principles.
here are our thoughts specifically for business owners confronting their own mental health concerns …
Your general practitioner is an excellent person to speak with. Explain to them how you feel and how this impacts on your life. Ask them to prepare a Mental Health Treatment Plan. This is a government recognised plan. It can usually be prepared in a single double visit to the GP. This plan is the trigger to you gaining Medicare supported access to a psychologist for an initial number of visits, which can be extended depending on your situation.
Some people can feel a visit to a GP or psychologist is not warranted in their situation. While the medical professionals are the best to determine this, there are other resources you could explore:
Beyond Blue has published Business In Mind, a useful resource for small businesses on issues relating to mental health in the workplace. This is a good starting point for learning more. In the resource there are links to other resources that can help.
Finding mental health resources for small business owners dealing with mental health issues is not as easy as it is finding resources for managing the workplace for better mental health. It’s tough running any business and sometimes things can feel overwhelming. This is where networking can help as a first step, talking with others.
Small business owners feeling challenges within themselves need to treat themselves as employees and use the resources available such as:
We will help and support as much as we are able and to the extent we are made aware of any situation.
While our offices are closed for the Easter break, our customer service is accessible online as well as via our after hours phone network.
Today, April 1, is a good day here at Tower Systems. We are grateful to our beta crew for the work they have done proving the latest release of our small business POS software. Their feedback is helpful, inspiring. The next update, and the one after that … they are awesome!
More good things are coming in our software thanks to our beta crew!
When it comes to accounting software, Tower Systems has experience as a software company and through years of direct small business retail experience. This experience includes direct experience with MYOB, Quicken and Xero for accounting software.
While our POS software offers connectivity through to Quicken, MYOB and Xero, it is the Xero integration that is the deepest and most useful. We use Xero ourselves in-house. When it comes to Xero accounting software, our advice is personal.
Our POS software and Xero together provide a useful and appreciated accounting software solution to many small business retailers.
Our accounting software Xero integration is one of many approved integrations provided by the software to serve the needs of retailers. Other integrations include:
The most effective ways small business retailers can compete with big businesses and online is through efficient operation, accurate data and customer service touch-points that add appreciated value. This includes fit for purpose accounting software, tailored to the needs of the retail channel in which a business operates.
We believe in small businesses, their importance to local communities and their broader economic value.
Through our software, our personal training, 24/7 human and locally based help desk service, regional user meetings, weekly online workshops and other touch-points we help small business retailers beyond what is usual for POS software companies.
Critical to all of this is the help offered from the Tower Systems customer service team. This includes providing advice on connectivity between our POS software and accounting software, helping our customers to ensure linkages are right, feeding data to the correct location within the accounts managed by the accounting software. Getting this right is key to calm and happy use of both the POS software and the accounting software.
Our Australian made workshop software has been an integral part of our POS software for many years. It continues to evolve thanks to insights as to teen ds shared by our customers.
Originally developed for jewellers and bike shops, our workshop software has evolved in function to serve a variety of business needs including sewing machine repairs, farm equipment repairs and more.
This workshop software serves in a range of business needs. It is POS software connected, Xero accounting software integrated and able to deliver tracking and other facilities needed in workshop management including:
This workshop management software is designed for small business retailers that have a workshop need within their businesses. Evolving out of local small business needs, the workshop software has stayed true to its roots.
The best way to assess the workshop software is to see for yourself if it serves your business needs. We will happily show the software to anyone looking for workshop management software.
With specialist software like our workshop management software, it is important it is thoroughly assessed and chosen by business owners who are sure it is the right fit for their business. We’re not here to push it, to sell it to you. We have found the opposite approach serves our business and the business of prospective clients well.
Workshop management is different in different businesses, even within businesses in the same channel. This is why the needs of a business need to be understood and agreed within that business before they start assessing different workshop management software packages out there.
Tower Systems has many years of service in the area of small business workshop management. It is grateful for the diversity of its customer base, which enables diverse in function software to be offered.
To see if this workshop management software may be right for you, please email sales@towersystems.com.au or call 1300 662 957.
The management needs of farm supply and produce businesses in Australia are comprehensive and unique compared to the needs of many other ‘retail’ businesses. Specialty software is needed to best serve these needs.
Tower Systems is grateful to serve these specialty retail businesses with produce / farm supply business software made for them.
Our produce / farm supply business software continues to evolve thanks to the generous advice and guidance from our customer community. Our software nurtures many benefits, including:
The Tower Systems with produce / farm supply business software does much more than this. It offers traditional POS software facilities with considerable specialisation and customisation to the needs of produce / farm supply businesses.
The needs of produce and farm supply businesses vary, too with those in dairy farming areas having a set of interests that could vary from those in the sugar cane growing areas. It is a testament to the flexibility of the Tower Systems software that it is able to serve varied needs of businesses in such diverse situations.
This software does not stand still. It is regularly enhanced from the tech specs perspective as well as from a user functionality perspective. This keeps it current and useful … Abele to lead the marketplace in providing a software solution for produce and farm supply businesses.
Tower Systems is proud to serve businesses in Australia and New Zealand with specialty software for their specialty business needs. We develop what we sell and support.
We are grateful to our in-house designer for fresh retail channel images for our POS software website home page and retail channel landing pages.
Each image has been thoughtfully selected and appropriately accessed for our online and print media use.
The visual refresh of our website reflects the visual refresh of our POS software.
