Retailers: beware POS software companies that charge per transaction

When comparing POS software for your retail business be sure to look at the total cost of ownership.

If there is a fee per transaction, work out what you would be paying for the software based on your current transaction volume level.

One local retailer recently discovered that they would be paying $5,000 a year more for another POS software product compared to going with Tower Systems. This is despite the other company saying they were low cost.  Once they added up the software rental cost, the per transaction cost, the EFTPOS cost and the cost for additional support to match what we consider to be basic support, the cost was even greater.

We all have EFTPOS costs so comparing the companies on that net each other off. The real differences were in the per transaction cost – we don’t have one – and the cost for extra support – there, it’s all included.

Taking a moment to more completely research the cost of POS software can reveal significant cost differences.

Another company said their rental was $50 a month less if you sign ups for their payments platform. You had to dig a bit to see the actual costs of that. What we found in that situation was that their payment costs were 33% above market cost, meaning a business that signs up for their payments platform would pay far more to use their POS software than if they went with us, where costs are transparent and fixed.

The retailer being hit with these costs, once they discovered the extent of them, was horrified at what they had been paying.

Here at Tower Systems we are a POS software company. We are not in the business of setting our price based on your transaction volume or how people pay. Indeed, it frustrates us when local retailers discover how much extra they have paid because they signed up to a transaction fee arrangement as most we have spoken to who did this did so without understanding. They thought it was a saving. They tend to feel dudded and this negatively impacts how they see all POS software companies.

All of us in business owe our customers transparency when it comes to pricing. Charging per transaction or charging based on the use of a payments platform is not transparent based on what we can see, or not see as the case may be.