The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

News from Tower Systems about locally made POS software for specialty local retailers.

ArchiveMay 2019

Retailer Roam – POS software for indie retailers – anywhere, anytime

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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.

How the POS software Xero link helps small business retailers cut the cost of theft

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Indie retailers using the Xero POS software link from specialty retail POS software company Tower Systems are well positioned to reduce the impact of employee theft on their retail business.

Thanks to smart coding and that we own retail businesses as well as our well-established POS software company we really can help retailers cut the cost of theft. here is now…

  1. Every data touchpoint in a business is an opportunity for employee fraud. Using this link there is less touching, less entering, of data. This in and of itself reduces the opportunity for covering top theft and if you reduce this opportunity you reduce actual theft.
  2. Theft occurs where there is less oversight. Thanks to the seamless flow of data from the POS software to Xero, without human intervention, oversight is tight and constant. This means loess opportunity for theft.
  3. Track cash without the opportunity for manipulation and you reduce the opportunity for theft. The POS software / Xero interface means that cash is recorded the moment a sale is completed. Every step of engagement with the cash whether it be the end of shift cash count, a customer refund, removal of cash from the register is tracked.
  4. Getting data out of the business and into the accounting ting function makes it more protected. The POS software Xero link gets data to the accounting function quickly, easily and without being manipulated. Data is treated like a serious business asset, as it should be.
  5. Never take your eyes off data. For the moment you take your eyes off the data you open it to be manipulated. This link never takes its eyes off.

Also, thanks to powerful data tracking including deep security data tracking, you can rely on this software to help you manage theft so as to ensure the impact on the business is minimised compared to what would be the case if you were not using the Tower Systems POS software Xero interface.

There are many stories from small business retailers where Tower Systems has helped uncover, resolve and even prosecute in situations of employee theft. We have specialist experience in helping small business retailers in this stressful and expensive area of business operation.

Tower Systems has brought its theft mitigation experience to the Xero link to leverage this ti maximum benefit for its small business retail customers.

Aussie POS software for independent small business retailers

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Small business retailers benefit from locally develop0ed and supported POS software. The Tower Systems POS software has been developed for local business needs in a range of specialty markets. Ours is POS software for niche retail channels.

Being Australian developed and supported is good for Australia.

Being Australian developed and supported is good for our retailer business customers.

Retailers looking for help in using our POS software can speak with us direct. not by email. Not by chat. They can speak with us on the phone, in person, m locally, with someone who understand retail, who understands their retail situation. This is why what being local matters.

The Tower Systems POS software helps small business retailers to compete, using local skills and tools, leveraging local opportunities, making the most of local facilities and connections.

There are many POS software solutions out there. For Aussie retailers, there are few that are truly local.

Tower Systems serves 3,500+ local retailers with awesome POS software designed for local retail channels.

While Tower Systems offers POS Software services for all retailers, our core business is the provision of specialist software packages for gift shops, newsagents, jewellers, pet shops, garden centres, firearms shops, adult shops, bike shops and toy shops.  We are the leading Australian company supporting these markets and our software is directly developed for their unique needs.

Tower Systems understands these specialty retail business needs because it owns and manages its own thriving retail businesses.  Our staff have retail experience and our POS software is informed by what happens in real world business – not from what happens behind a desk.

The company’s strong and consistent management infrastructure champions the small business, independent culture of Tower Systems.

Tower Systems helps independent business owners compete against the big end of town.  In order to do this we engage in long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with our clients.

These relationships are our real assets: they are the unique lifeblood of Tower.

Tower Systems develops and supports specialised Point of Sale and retail management software for a number of retail marketplaces. Our robust, always-expanding product suite can help you unleash the potential of your business today.

A message for retailers who pitch shop local when promoting their shop

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If you are a small business retailer and you pitch shop local in promoting your business, please take a look inside your business. Look at what you buy, the source of the goods and services.

Do you shop local?

Shoppers today notice these things. They want to know the source of what you sell and use in your business.

Because the understand that shopping local is about more than product or goods being made locally.

Shopping local is about a whole of business local experience.

Tower Systems is an Australian POS software company serving local small business retailers with locally developed, supported and trained POS software for speciality retailers.

Many of our competitors are based overseas. When you buy, rent or lease their software, 100% of what you spend leaves the country.

When. you buy, rent or lease from Tower Systems, 100% of the spend stays in Australia.

If you are a local small business retailer and want to show off your local credentials, shop local for your POS software with the locally grown and supported Tower Systems retail management software.

By shopping locally with us you are supporting the Aussie tech industry. This is good for the economy as well as the career paths of school leavers. Yes, shop local reaches beyond the transaction itself. Shopping local delivers wonderful and appreciated value, often outside the business you shop with.

You’d see that in your shop too, when you support local suppliers. It could be part of the pitch you make to local shoppers, to support their local community because your reach is outside your shop and into the community.

We are a proud, strong and growing local POS software company offering world class software here in Australia as well as in New Zealand and some other Pacific region countries.

Our contribution is consistent and far-reaching, beyond out Hawthorn VIC office. This is a demonstration of the value of shop local – the jobs we provide, the families we support, the buying we do with other local businesses.

The circular relationships of supporting local businesses have value considerably beyond the $$$ transaction value in front of you.

For good local POS software for specialty retail, consider Tower Systems.

Diversity in retail

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Here is an article we have recently completed about diversity in retail, as a management approach to help you attract more customers to your business. I have been thinking about diversity because of an inspirational presentation I heard by Aubrey Bergauer, Executive Director of the California Symphony, in which she outlined how a commitment to diversity has helped the Symphony become more successful.

Diversity in retail.

This is not about what you may think it is about.

For years, retailers, especially small business retailers have been told do one thing right, be known for something.

They have been told that a unique selling proposition(USP) is about that one thing and getting it so right that you are known for it.

This singular focus began in an era when people often discovering a business did so by being in front of the business.

While pursuing a USP has worked for many, the world today has changed. Technology has changed us, it has changed how people find retail businesses.

Whereas in the past, there was often one major path delivering traffic to a business, today, thanks to technology, there are usually many paths, often not as obvious to us as the path of years ago.

Technology has also changed what businesses can and do offer.

Most important, technology has changed the ease of reaching customers.

Being local is not as important as it used to be.

While local small business retailers wish being local is all that matters, it is not. Often, the local community is not sufficient to serve the growth needs of a business, often because locals themselves are shopping elsewhere because doing so is easier.

Retailers need to reach more people. This means reaching beyond what has been traditional. For local retailers it means reaching beyond local. It can mean reaching beyond what you are known for.

Thanks to cool personalisation technology and targeted marketing, businesses interstate or overseas can provide a special interest product in a way that locals can love. Big businesses, especially, can leverage technology to reach local shoppers in personal and local ways.

Being local is notas important as it used to be for plenty of specialty retail businesses.

A commitment to diversity could help local retailers in this changed world.

I am not talking here about diversity in the manner in which the term is often used.

To me, diversity in small business retail is about a business, your business, being diversein the customers it pursues and diversein the ways it seeks to connect with potential new customers.

Customer diversityis about being relevant, appealing and of value to different groups of customers to those you pursue today. No, not everyone, because that does not work.

Diversity in customers is about targeting very specific, new, groups that you are certain you can satisfy.

Why do people shop with you?

Think about what brings people through your front door right now. Typically, a majority of shoppers will come through for one reason, one product or service category.

Is there another product or service category not too distant from what you focus on today that you could introduce to broaden the appeal of the business, to help you reach people who are not interested in your prime product category or service today?

This is one example of diversity … making your business appealing to a group of people who do not find your current offer appealing.

It is not about becoming a general store. Rather, it is about making thoughtful moves, based on research, to broaden the pool of people who couldwant to shop with you.

This is about you reaching more customers.

Diversity in ways of connecting with potential new customersis about how you communicate, how you connect.

Multiple touchpoints matter in this connected world.

While we all get sick of emails, text messages, social media ads and the like, they are sent for a reason, by big businesses with strong tech infrastructure to take care of this follow up.

Think about the new shopper journey in your shop today. Think about how they found you. In small business retail, word of mouth remains important as does store location. But what about other new shoppers, how can they be found?

Diversity in how, where and when you promote your business matters as does diversity in your voice.

How you reach out to an older shopper should be different to how you reach out to a young mum.

How you reach out to someone new to your core product category should be different to how you reach out to someone deeply engaged with your core category.

A more diverse pool of shoppers requires a more diverse approach to find them.

Here’s what I mean: use diverse avenues of marketing and through these use diverse marketing pitches, targeted for a more diverse pool of customers.

Marketing avenues can include social media paid and free, Google Ads, with each being thoughtfully created to pursue a specific type of shopper, one that fits a diversity goal.

Just as you expand what you offer to appeal to new consumers, you expand how you appeal to reach new customers.

Local businesses often promote local. It made sense for years. Today, specialty retailers can easily sell outside the local area, making a commitment to diversity also being about reaching beyond local as that in itself is about pursuing diversity.

It’s about more than what you are known for today.

Here is what it comes down to. What you are known for today is not enoughsince that will limit your appeal to customers interested in that. Smart and tech engaged businesses are chipping away at your core, what you are known for.

Thoughtfully, carefully, broaden the appeal of your business through what you sell and how you pitch. Pursuing a more diverse pool of customers will buttress your business, help it weather change.

This is why diversity matters. It is why you have to make your business appealing to more people and why you have to be more diverse in how you try and find them.

Now, an action plan.

Write down your target customer today. Describe them in a concise way.

Now, think about another customer you could target, a different customer you would like to reach but do not reach today. Think about what you need to do in terms of inventory, shop layout, online engagement and other changes to reach this new customer.

Write down how you promote your business today. Now, think about other ways you could promote your business and other voices, styles, tones you could use to appeal to people you do not appeal to today.

New products, new services, pitched through new voices in new mediums, this is how to attract a more diverse customer pool to your business.

Diversity in retail is simple really. It is about expanding your reach through thoughtful planned actions to reach a more diverse group of customers.

The alternative is to keep doing what you have been doing. That will maintain your current business trajectory.

Mark Fletcher is the owner of Tower Systems, newsXpress and several niche retail businesses.

TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT TOWER SYSTEMS:

Please call our sales team on 1300 662 957 or email them at sales@towersystems.com.au.

Instant asset write-off benefits for small business retailers

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The immediate asset write off benefits that have been further enhanced by the federal government this year present small business retailers investing capital in their businesses tax and other benefits that are worth considering.

The details of what we in small businesses can do are outlined in the simpler depreciation for small businesses information from the Australian Taxation Office:

Right now, the threshold is $30,000. Spend this much on a depreciating asset and you can write it off this financial year. If your business books a profit, the benefit of the write-off can be considerable.

The Tax Office website has excellent details. Your accountant can help too.

The Small Business Development Corporation in Western Australia has an excellent explainer of instant asset write off on their website. Click here to access it.

Click here to access an explainer from Finstro, a business finance company.

POS software lead referral program for Xero Advisors

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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.

A small business retailer POS software connected website can be a hungry beast

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A constant piece of advice we provide to our small business retail POS software customers who whom we have developed POS software connected websites is that websites are a hungry beast.

While the technical process of connecting your Retailer software to a Shopify, magento or Woo Commerce website, developed by us or someone else, is straightforward and the data flow of inventory details and images easy to establish, maintaining the site requires work.

Here are some tips from us designed to help you manage your website(s) for success. These tips are based on our own experience of developing sites for our businesses:

  1. Ensure your website stands for something. It could be that your online presence is through a different name or brand to your retail shop, to help you reach more people. The best websites stand for something clear, easily understood.
  2. Ensure your product photos are good.
  3. Don’t load all your shop stock on the website. Too much stock makes a website challenging to navigate.
  4. Get your shipping right. Like it or not, people want low or no cost shipping from online.
  5. Know your pricing model. You need to decide if you want online to be break even or loss making.
  6. Keep your content up to date, fresh.
  7. Offer multiple forms of payment.
  8. Fulfill orders quickly.
  9. Answer questions quickly, and completely.
  10. Work ion your website regularly … i.e. several times a week.
  11. Promote the website.

If you’d like a quote from us about having a website developed for you, consider completing ourweb questionnaire form.

Tower Systems undertakes web development in Australia, out of our head office based in Hawthorn, Victoria.  This local and easy access serves our customers well in that we can answer questions and bring to the table our own local retail business management and operation experience.

Or POS software connected website solutions cover many different retail channels and offer myriad facilities and experiences on which prospective customers can draw in considering their plans.

We also provide practical advice and help to retailers who are keen to resolve questions on management of their website once they are up and running. This blog post provides some insight into the knowledge and services we provide in this area.

Gift shop POS software, $145 a month – perfect for small business retailers

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We have a gift shop software offer that respects the cashflow challenge of small business retail.

For $145.00 (inc. GST) a monthyou can access gift shop software used by many hundreds of small business gift retailers like you.

Our Gift Shop Software helps beyond tracking sales. It helps with marketing, improvingcashflow, encouraging shopper loyalty, competingwith big business, selling online, cuttingbookkeeping costs, improving decision speedandqualityand taking payment in many ways including buy now pay later.

These promises are real. We are real. Tower Systems is a well-established Aussie POS software company with more than 3,500 small business retail customers in nine specific retail niche categories, like gift shops.

Here is what we think really matters about what we do and what we offer Australian gift shops like yours:

  1. This awesome gift shop software is developed in Australia.
  2. It has been designed specifically for gift shops.
  3. Our customer service team is Australian based. If you call, email, text, Facebook message or visit us, a human, with a real name, responds.
  4. Our software is regularly enhanced, based on user suggestions.
  5. You have access to unlimited one-on-one training.
  6. We offer business growth training, providing business context for cool things you can do with the software.
  7. Easy access to a fantastic knowledge base – like a searchable manual.
  8. Easily link with your website to sell online.
  9. Easily link to Xero– save time, cut mistakes and cut accounting costs.

$145.00 (inc. GST) a month is the cost. We guarantee this price for three years.

To get you started, if you agree, we come to your business and provide two days onsite.Included in this time is one-on-one training of you and any staff. This training is jargon free and designed for small business retailers.

  1. There is no additional travel cost.
  2. There is no additional monthly support cost.
  3. There is no extra cost for software updates.
  4. There is no extra cost for extra registers or computers in your shop.
  5. There is no after-hours charge for after-hours support calls.
  6. There is no additional charge based on turnover.

Look at that list of things we will not charge for!

We have tried to make this offer as cost-effective as possible while maintaining the high level of personal professional service for which we are known.

Here’s more good news.Once you have paid the $145.00 a month for three years, the charges stop and you can keep using the software forever, for no extra cost if you don’t want software updates and help desk access. If you do want those things a smalleroptional support fee is available.

Call one of our gift shop software experts today for an obligation-freediscussion about your business needs, or a first-hand look at our software: please call our sales team on 1300 662 957 or email them at sales@towersystems.com.au.

Our goal is to help you enjoy a more successful and valuable business.

POS software co. Tower Systems at Magento developers conference in Las vegas

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We have four people at the magento developers conference in Las Vegas this week, networking and learning more about opportunities for further enhancement of the awesome POS software integration to Magento offered by Tower Systems.

Leveraging years of experience with Magento, Tower Systems benefits from experiences like the Imagine conference in Las Vegas through networking with peers, learning about enhancements from experts and from seeing the accomplishments of others in presentations.

We have been attending the Magento developers conference for years and benefiting from each event.

Our POS software integration with magento delivers a wonderful e-commerce solution for small business retailers, providing to them website facilities linked directly to their POS software system, sharing a common pool of inventory – with the retailer having complete control over what is shared to the website and what is not shared.

By bringing management and tech leads to the Magento Imagine conference in Las Vegas we have the right people in the room to soak up tech, marketing and management insights that are being shared here. This multi-disciplinary approach provides best broad based outcomes for our customers. Were think it is good for our business too.

We have development many websites in magento, delivered to retail businesses awesome Magento based POS software connected webstore solutions, helping small business retailers to easily and successfully sell online and thereby reach a broader range of shoppers for their business.

Online is critical today and Tower Systems through its POS software webstore connected POS software leveraging magento helps small business retailers to easily, effectively and successfully compete.

Small business retailers can benefit from the retail management experience at Tower Systems experience that helps deliver a more retail focussed solution.

The Tower web team is also skilled at SEO and SEM services that help raise the website rankings in key search engines, ensuring the site is found ahead of others.

The Tower Systems web development team is Australian based, working out of the company’s head office in Hawthorn. This is important as many web development businesses are overseas. While you might have a locally based contact person development too often is done overseas, leading to challenges with delivery and usefulness.

Loyalty facilities embedded in POS software help small business retailers

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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:

Adult shop software helps small business retail adult shops

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The Tower Systems Adult Shop POS software has been designed and developed in Australia for Australian adult shops. It is respected and well used software that serves this niche retail channel in myriad specialty ways.

Here are ways this POS software developed for adult shop retailers can help with business management:

  1. Remote management. This software has tools to let you easily track and manage the business if you don’t work in the business.
  2. Multiple store management. Multiple stores can be easily managed.
  3. Electronic invoices from suppliers. Import electronic invoices and cut mistakes and the time taken to bring in new inventory.
  4. Bundling product for price deals. How and what you bundle is flexible and easy with this software.
  5. Product care instructions. Include these easily by product for customers and demonstrate a level of customer service people will love.
  6. Cut employee theft.This software makes it harder for people to steal and easier for you to track.
  7. Cut customer theft.This software identifies what is being stolen. This helps you claw back GST paid and it helps you manage theft better.
  8. Easier regulation compliance.The age-check facilities in this software reduce the chance of mistake and give you proof you are managing the business to legal obligations.
  9. Less dead stock.The software helps you buy what sells. It shows you instantly what is not selling. This reduces mistakes in stock purchasing.
  10. Compete with online.This software has facilities you can easily use to show why shopping with you is more valuable and enjoyable than shopping online.
  11. Bring customers back. With no extra work, make a pitch customers see when they get home. We can bring as many as 25% of shoppers back in.
  12. Cut bookkeeping and accounting fees.From GST reporting to having an up to date P&L, we can save time and money by linking to software like Xero.
  13. Connect your online with your shop.Our Web Store facility handles this.
  14. The Tower AdvantageTM. Training long after you first install for no extra cost.

We are adult shop software specialists, serving many in this retail niche field.

Adult shops are retail businesses with unique business management needs. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve these needs, to help create more successful and enjoyable businesses,. This is good for the owners of the businesses as well as the employees. The more we can do to help local retailers stay strong the better in our view.

We discovered that our unique POS software served this niche when a retailer in the channel approached us and told us we were a good match.

POS software for produce and farm supply businesses

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Produce businesses come in many shapes and sizes. We hear them referred to as stockfeed businesses, farm supplies businesses, rural stores as well as produce businesses.

There are common needs in these businesses for software beyond what is usual in retail management software. This is what we do – create software for very specific retail business niches, like yours. We do the regular POS stuff you’d expect, and we serve produce requirements, like…

  1. Invoicing and account management – in our specialty software you can manage accounts in a way that is highly tailored to your business. You can produce picking slips, manage accounts, feed data to Xero and MYOB, accounting for freight and more.
  2. Pre-orders – We make it easy for you to pre-sell a delivery so that when the stock arrives you can manage distribution and billing efficiently.
  3. Bagging up feed – Using our software we manage you bagging up a bulk feed delivery into smaller, saleable lots, while keeping accurate stock on hand data.
  4. Making your own feed mix. We help you track managing bulk quantity ingredients and mixing these into saleable packs of your own brand of seed mix. What an awesome point of difference for your business!
  5. Special orders. You can bring product in for a specific customer or customers and have them notified automatically by email or text when the goods are in and ready. The software can even print a label with their details on it, to personalise the package.
  6. Pricing profiles.You can set pricing rules based on types of customers you serve in your business.
  7. Seasonal reordering.You can easily reorder inventory based on seasonal sales data managed by the software.
  8. Staff Tracking – Track all suspicious transactions, cancelled sales, discounted sales, deleted sales, quantity changes and more.
  9. Know Your Customers – Understand your customers’ needs better by viewing all their interactions with the business in one screen.
  10. Marketing– Keep in touch with your customers based on their product purchase history.
  11. Offer Customer Loyalty – Move away from straight discounting (a race to the bottom) and implement a loyalty facility that encourages customers to spend higher amounts, more often with you.
  12. Buy now pay later. In the software, you can give people terms yet be paid right away yourself. We integrate already with Oxipay. Zip Pay is a couple of weeks away and we are working on Afterpay.
  13. Gift Cards & VIP Cards – Branded to your business, helping you guide shopper loyalty.
  14. Website Integration – Our software connects with Shopify, Magento & WooCommerce.  Sell online, easily.
  15. Accounting Integration – Have your sales and purchase information automatically flow into Xero, MYOB & Reckon.

Hey Accountants – if you are asked for POS software advice by your retail business clients…

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Accountants are often asked for advice by retail business owners about which software to buy.

Unless an Accountant has experience actually running the type of retail business, they may not know what the business needs in the shop. They will understand the accounting need, but what about the business operational need, the workflow need, the specialty needs unique to that type of business?

Most accountants we meet are accounting experts, not specialty retail operational and management experts.

Unless an accountant has actually used the POS software they suggest how can they know if it is right for the job? Sure they will read about it and often talk to people about software from an accounting perspective, but this does not make them experts. Accountants usually know accounting software well, but not specialty retail POS software.

Good accountants use specialty practice management software too run their practices. Why, therefore, would an accountant suggest a specialty retailer not use specialty software make specifically for they type of retail business? They shouldn’t. That’s right. In fact, they should suggest to their specialty retail clients that they use software for their type ion business.

Bike shops need software made for bike shops.

Jewellers need software made for jewellers.

Firearms retailers need software made for firearms retailers.

Garden centres need software made for garden centres.

Pet shops need software made for pet shops.

Produce and farm supply businesses need software made for produce and farm supply businesses.

Toy shops need software made for toy shops.

Gift shops need software made for gift shops.

Newsagents need software bade for newsagencies.

Adult shops need software made for adult shops.

Accountant need software made for accounting practices.

Specialty software provides opportunities for better workflow management, easier selling, better supplier connection and better service of customers. Bottom line: specialty software is more fit for purpose for specialty retailers.

Tower Systems only developes and sells specialty software in a selected number of niche retail channels. We are experts, selling expert software, to expert retailers.

While we like accountants, and have a couple working full time in our software company, we think sometimes their advice to go with an generic simple POS package could be less than appropriate advice.

The POS Software Blog

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