The POS Software Blog
News from Tower Systems about locally made POS software for specialty local retailers.
Here is another unbranded marketing video that we created for the small business retailers in our POS software community. We are grateful for the encouragement of our customers to make more of these videos.
The new events facilities in the Tower Systems POS software expand and enhance the experience for small business retailers.
Using events, retailers using the Tower Systems software can track traditional events connected to shoppers as well as events related to the type of business and type of shopper using the business. Here are some examples of events that can be tracked and leveraged through the software:
The thing is, our events facilities are flexible and powerful, most valuable to retailers in all kinds of situations and for many business circumstances.
We have built a valuable tool here, something retailers can use to grow their businesses.
We had facilities like this in the past. The new events facilities take the opportunity to a new level. Plus we have put it in the software for any type of retailer partnering with us to use. This way, our customers can show us the potential rather than us telling them what to do.
This week we are providing more FREE training for all our POS software customers on events, through a group online live training session we are demonstrating events, explaining how to use it and taking all questions.
This free training, plus our offer of one on one training, plus our wonderful documentation makes the events facilities accessible to any of our customers in any situation. we make it easy for people to access and easy for them to learn.
We think this is what being a good and engaged small business POS software company is all about. We create awesome software, based on customer needs, and back with with training and support on which our customers can rely and enjoy in their partnership with us.
Tower Systems is grateful to the many small business retailers in our community who provided advice and insights that we leveraged to create the new events facilities in our POS software. Working together like this makes better software for everyone.
Here is a short video we created for our dog-loving small business retailer customers to use to promote their shops and businesses to dog lovers they welcome.
POS software, Point of Sale software, is software that turns a computer into a cash register.
But it is much more than that.
Smart POS software for your type of retail business is about much more than being a glorified cash register. The right POS software for your business will help you:
While these may sound like marketing claims, they are real benefits on which you can rely if you choose the right POS software from the right POS software company for your business.
No, we don’t think POS software from Tower Systems is right for every business.
Just a customers assess us and our software to determine if our software and we are right for them, we do the same when considering customers. We want the choice to be right too, we want to do business with customers and businesses that are a good fit.
We take this approach knowing that a good fit works for both parties. We see selling our software as a mutually respectful relationship, one that has to benefit both sides. This is why we take care in partnering with new customers.
If someone does want a glorified cash register for a simple business operation, we will suggest they look elsewhere as there are cheaper simpler systems that serve that need. Our focus is outside of this. Our focus is on retail channel specific POS software that serves very specific needs in retail niches.
This is why we say we are a vertical market POS software company. We deep-dive into the needs of each retail channel in which we serve, working with retailers, suppliers and others to deliver solutions unique to the needs of the retailers in each channel, to be specialist. This is where we can make a real difference beyond basic POS software.
Being specialist matters to independent retailers in their local communities as well as to our own POS software company as we serve specialty retailers with specialty POS software for each of these retail channels.
Customer service is a critical factor when choosing POS software for amy independent or small retail business.
That sounds like a motherhood statement so we can understand if you say Duh!
We agree 100%. Our focus is on delivering the level of customer service we would expect ourselves. To us, it needs to be personal, professional, human, knowledgable, engaged and relevant.
These are the principles of the POS software customer service here at Tower Systems. This is what we train our help desk and other teams in when we meet to work on what we do and how we do it. We see these pri cripples as being differentiating for us.
In a practical sense, our customers see how we operate through:
When you are looking at POS software companies, see if they are similar. We think these eight, and other, personal touch points that we offer here at Tower Systems are differentiating and empowering for our small business retail customers. We think what we do in providing personal and reliable service to our customers matters as much as the awesome POS software itself.
Google reviews can hide the truth of POS software support as people can write them for malicious reasons. Take this Google review by Ashley tester posted to our Google page:
I have been using Tower Systems “Retailer” POS system for about 2 years now and if i was able to go back in time i would never had bought it. The system offers plenty of potential but is incredibly buggy with quite a bit of stuff missing from the program. I have had multiple things go wrong with the program and the customer service attitude with it is “we’re working on it” with no communication on progress of fixing the issues. As we speak i am still waiting on a bug fix that currently has my website looking quite messy as product that has been sold from my POS in store is not displaying correctly on my E commerce website. This issue was brought to their attention a week ago, i phoned again 2 days ago and have still heard nothing. I was originally told it was a day to fix the issue. Many more examples like this have happened over the past two years. I would STRONGLY recommend not buying this product. There are better options out there but i am too invested in the software, not only with the initial 11k outlay but the hundreds of hours of data entry that i have done now.
Here is the response from our Managing Director, Mark Fletcher.
My name is Mark Fletcher, I am the owner of Tower Systems. My mobile number is 0418 321 338. My email is mark@towersystems.com.au. What sucks about Google reviews is there is no vetting and no right of reply to a specific review. The review by Ashley Tester is false and misleading. Ashley had an issue with our software that was resolved the day it was reported to the help desk. 100% resolved. However, that is not my core point here. At Tower we have a structured documented and promoted escalation process, because people do sometimes make mistakes. At no time did Ashley tester use our escalation process. Ashley Tester complained here without our knowledge, in an effort to harm our business, and based on false and misleading information. Many people work at our POS software company. They rely on the company for income and professional development. As the owner, I will not abide an unwarranted attack that, by extension, seeks to attack those we serve.
As mark is connected with the page, Google would not publish the response.
Everything published in the Tower response is verifiable by our CRM data records. The claim made by Ashley tester is false and misleading, as he would have known at the time of publishing.
There is another review at the page by a Ryan Farrow:
Overcharge for their product and services, owners are aggressive and unhelpful, and will charge for every single feature that comes standard with most products. System is often down for extended periods with most features essentially in Beta and not working as intended. Staff are uneducated in their own product and charge a premium for lacklustre support.
Ryan is not a customer of Tower Systems and never has been. Ryan is a web developer. he developed a website for a Tower client. Rather than follow our published advice for connecting the website to our POS software, Ryan demanded it be done how he wanted.
As with any engineering where you build a bridge to connect two sides of a river, there are professional processes to follow to ensure the bridge meets in the middle. Ryan did not see it this way.
We can’t change the reviews. What we can do is point to our current 3,500+ customers, our years in business and our transparent engagement. We established a private Facebook page for our customers where they can ask anything any time, where they can provide feedback and do so without moderation by us. This level of customer driven transparency reflects on our commitment. neither Ryan nor Ashley Tester used this customer forum. Instead, they sought to hurt us publicly.
Onboarding is a term some POS software companies use to describe their process of bringing on new customers.
Onboarding is a corporate term, a big business term, for detached remote setup and installation. It is not personal. It is not small business.
Small business is personal. Most small business rely on providing personal local service.
That is what we do at Tower Systems through our POS software.
We don’t onboard, not in the big business corporate sense. No, we work personally, face to face, in your business. We setup our software in your shop, leveraging installation options to provide you with as much of a tailored solution as we are able. We do this working alongside you.
Not on the phone.
Not by email.
Not via Skype.
Our service is personal, like small business retail is personal.
Of course, if you would rather we did the work remotely we will happily do this. However, this is not our recommendation.
So, here at Tower Systems, no impersonal onboarding, no distance learning. We work with you, in your business, personally and engaged with your Like a conversation. Friendships develop. Understanding of your needs develop. This makes it better for you and for us.
We are confident that the personal in-store approach to setting up your POS software provides you with a better outcome. It is calmer and more engaged. We think you will learn better by our experts working with you in your business. And isn’t learn ing better vital to you and your business? For sure!
Every time we are in a retail business we learn. This is another reason we are keen to install and train on-site, in retail businesses. Working remotely on the phone denies this learning opportunity. It means the outcomes are less appropriate and useful. This is another reason onboarding is not a smart move in our view.
Small business retail is personal. Tower Systems gets that and delivers on the through its personal POS software installation and training approach.
We are grateful to serve in excess of 3,000 small business retailers today, retailers we have learned from by being in their businesses.
We switched a small business retailer to ur POS software recently from another package that was costing their business money.
Using the other software package, the retailer could scan a series of items and there was no warning, no sound, no error message if the item scanned did not exist in the stock file. This was costing them money on a daily basis.
If a stock item is not found in the stock file, the sale should stop there until the issue is resolved. This is the only ay to stop the business from losing certain money.
Our Tower Systems POS software is strong in managing inventory and rob just in reporting data problems, such as scanning a bar code that is not recognised. An error message appears. The transaction cannot proceed until the error is resolved somehow.
Getting data right is vital in any retail business. Otherwise, what is the point.
Here at Tower System s we work with retailers to get data right, to ensure mistakes are minimised, to help make the flow of shoppers through the sales process easy, fast and accurate. If something does go wrong, we do not ignore it, as this other POS software that we recently replaced was doing.
We want small business retailers to have tools and processes that protect their businesses, which ensure good business performance. This is why we back our wonderful software with strong retail management training, that is delivered in store in a face to face situation, with business owners and team members.
This personal service that we provide from our skilled retail experts is what can make a difference for successful POS software integration.
Tower Systems is staffed by retail experienced people. For sure we are a tech company, but we are also retailers with solid retail experience and this is a big difference as we can speak to experience and leverage this for better outcomes in retail customer situations.
Our retail first approach helps small business retailers get more value from their technology investment with us. It is what makes partnering with Tower Systems different and valuable.
We were shocked to discover small business retailers using some other POS software needing to export stock data to excel for manipulation and then importing the changed data back into the POS.
We think this reflects poor design of the POS software.
Our Tower Systems small business POS software has an awesome stock manager tool that enables you to make bulk safe changes to data without the need to export. Our stock manager tools are ideal for small business retail where data changes are common, especially bulk data changes as the business moves online or deals with new suppliers.
Indeed, there are myriad reasons bulk data manipulation is needed.
Exporting data to an excel spreadsheet is nuts in our view. It is old school from twenty years ago. If POS software requires it we suggest you look elsewhere as in the export and import problems can happen, damage can be done, data integrity can be lost.
By being able to make any data change necessary from within the POS software and without having to export the data makes sense to us and to our small business customers. That this can be done with a tool that is easily and safely used by a non tech person in a retail business is key. We make sure this can happen.
With more than 3,000 customers, Tower Systems understands small business and the needs of people working in small business. We make sure you are protected while at the same time proving tools necessary to enable you to run the business how you want.
Never export data to excel from your POS software for manipulation again. If a software company rep asks you to do this, ask why? Ask why they are not providing the tools necessary for you to do the data work needed from within the POS software. If they are honest the answer will most likely be a technical restriction in their software, something that does not allow the software to serve the reasonable needs of your business.
Tower Systems can help. Our POS software is ideal for small business retailers. It is robust, l capable and safe.
Over the last ten days in the US on three occasions in different shops we had to switch from a cash purchase to using a card as they did not have enough money to make change. The change needed was $27, $16 and $32 respectively. In each case they did not have enough change in their til and, hence, asked me to pay by a card.
Near our office in Melbourne, Cannings the butcher switched to cashless trading three or four years ago,
Recently, we were offered a tenancy at Malvern Central shopping centre in Victoria for retail businesses I own and had decided if we went ahead with the planned gift and collectibles shop we would do so as a cashless business.
Being cashless can cut time spent banking, reduce employee theft opportunity and reduce the cost of change mistakes. While there are downsides for sure, that more and more businesses are switching indicates valuable upsides.
We mention this in our email today so it is on your mind and part of consideration for your own shop. Not because we think you should go cashless, but because we with it could be useful to be aware of the trend.
Going cashless needs planning from an operational perspective as well from a shopper communication perspective. While not for everyone, it is proving to be successful for plenty.
We think governments will embrace cashless as it benefits the tax take, for the same reason it reduces employee theft.
What do we think? We don’t know for sure if cashless will take off. What we do know is that there is nothing to lose from contemplating this, gaming it out, to see how your business might look.
In the meantime in our specialty POS software, we have tools to make cashless easier. For example, ur direct link to Oxipay (like Afterpay) helps you eliminate LayBy. Our direct link to Xero makes record-keeping easier.
Our goal at Tower Systems is to help independent small business retailers be aware of rends and to work with them figure out implications for them.
Our specialty POS software is an awesome platform on which you can rely to serve your needs to day and to evolve for what may happen tomorrow.
We offer solutions for: gifts, jewellers, bikes, toys, fishing/outdoors, garden centres, pet shops, produce, firearms, adult shops and newsagents.
Call if you have questions, the account manager for your state / territory can help: Please call our sales team at 1300 662 957 or email them at sales@towersystems.com.au.
Thanks to our POS software integrations with Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce we offer independent small business retailers flexibility in connecting their physical stores with online stores.
We make it easy for small business retailers to get online, from their current database of inventory. We do this through the POS software and by developing beautiful websites for our customers.
This makes Tower Systems an established and proven one stop shop for web connected POS software.
POS software users of our software for gift shops garden centres, jewellers, bike retailers, toy shops, newsagents, gift shops, fishing shops, outdoors shops, produce stores and more can rely on the connection for two-way comms between shop and website. It is easy, fast and seamless.
We made the decision years ago to integrate with the best of the best rather than by developing our own web tools. That decision is proven to be the right one since we leverage our POS expertise and web platforms we integrate with are experts in their respective fields.
There is no sense in a retailer having a website developed outside of Shopify, Magento or WooCommerce. Every need we have seen in retail is served from within these three awesome and proves products.
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, which develops POS software connected websites using Shopify, magento and WooCommerce 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.
But best of all, Tower Systems provides professional advice and guidance to small business retailers keen to build their online presence. Our commitment is honest transparent advice on which any small business retailer can rely.
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.
As employers, retailers and small business owners, mental health challenges are often not far away.
Sometimes, we don’t know we are experiencing a mental health challenge while other times it’s obvious and on show for all to see. The same is true of any individual in the business.
At Tower Systems through our work with many retail businesses over many years we have been able to see first-hand business situations lead to mental health situations. the advice we share here has evolved over these years and based on advice of professionals in the mental health area.
How we respond to mental health challenges in business is important for for the business, those who rely on it and those it serves.
While we are not trained professionals in the area, our years of working with small business owners confronted by challenges to their mental health have helped us develop some guiding principles.
Your GP is an excellent person to speak with. Our advice is that if you suspect there is a mental health challenge, contacting the GP is an important and immediate step.
A GP may suggest preparing a Mental Health Treatment Plan. This is a government recognised and Medicare funded plan for professional help. 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:
In our day to day work with small business retailers, especially though contact o the health desk, we can ourselves encounter people under considerable stress and, sometimes, experiencing a mental health challenge. We provide training to our team to deal with this in a way that is respectful and does not cross personal boundaries.
If you feel we can help in any way, please reach out directly to anyone on ur team including our leadership team.
We hope this information has been useful. It reflects concern, care and advice we offer beyond our small business POS software.
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.
Tower Systems only sells its POS software to small business retailers.
We believe in small businesses, their importance to local communities and their broader economic value.
Through our software, our personal in-store 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.
Our company motto is we’re here to help. We take this seriously. Everyday, out motto challenges us to help our customers in ways they do not expect, ways beyond the software itself.
Founded in 1981, Tower Systems has evolved as technology has evolved. The software we sell today is generations away from where we started. We are proud to have served some of our customers for decades.
More than 3,500 specialty small business retailers in Australia and New Zealand use our specialty POS software.
To us, a specialty retailer is one that offers services unique to the channel, services that define the business. We embed in our software for each retail channel facilities that serve needs unique to that channel. We take pride in doing this and enhancing these channel-specific facilities as the needs evolve.
RETAIL MARKETS
There are versions of the software serving the business specific needs of: Jewellers, Bike shops, Garden Centres, Book shops, Gift Shops, Homewares Shops, Produce businesses, Fishing and Outdoors shops, Newsagents, Toy Shops, Confectionery Retail, Stationery retail, Pet Shops, Pet Grooming, Whole Foods Grocers, Swimming Pool Supplies, Firearms Retail and Adult Shops.
Linking directly to Xero enhances the time-saving gained through the software as well as facilitating the accuracy of data managed by the software.
Our Xero link provides for a data feed of sales as well as purchases.
With a CPA working full time in our business we are configured to provide a technical solution that has been overseen by our own Accountant, to ensure it is a viable solution for the small business retailers we serve.
INTEGRATIONS
Our Xero integration is one of many approved integrations provided by the software to serve the needs of retailers. Other integrations include:
CLOUD OR NOT
The Tower software can run on the desktop or in the cloud. Retailers decide what they prefer.
In its cloud offer, Tower offers a 100% hosted solution running in a secure purpose-build location with high-level security and backup. This solution is offered on a SAAS (Software As A services) model with minimal on-boarding costs and a single monthly fee.
Retailers who prefer local control can purchase or lease-finance the software. Once acquired, there are no mandatory annual access fees.
This flexible approach to pricing provides retailers the maximum flexibility in acquisition model.
WHAT THE SOFTWARE OFFERS.
This is a comprehensive and flexible Point of Sale software package offering facilities in many areas of retail business operation including facilities that help small business retailers to run more competitive and valuable businesses. The Tower website provides comprehensive information on software facilities.
PERSONAL SERVICE MATTERS.
The Tower training is personal, one-on-one. It is delivered in-store, by someone with extensive retail experience.
The help desk help desk is based in Hawthorn victoria. When people call, the call is answered by a human and not a computerised phone system. We believe in personal service.
The company also offers free online training workshops where retailers can learn more and talk to each other about how they use the software.
Every customer has access to free one-on-one training year after year.
There are also user meetings around the country where people can meet the management and technical team in an open group setting for more free training and free assistance.
WE ARE RETAILERS TOO.
We own and operate several retail businesses, providing us with experience every day that enables us to walk in the shoes of our customers. We also use these shops as test sites for early releases of software updates plus we are happy for customers and prospects to visit the shops and learn from what we do ourselves in leveraging the software.
THE CUSTOMERS ARE IN CONTROL.
At the Tower Systems website, click on Software Ideas to see our transparent approach to customer engagement on software enhancements. This is world-class. Customers can make suggestions. These are assessed to ensure they will work. All customers are then invited to vote on the suggestions. The more votes the faster we bring the suggestion to reality.
Beyond being a POS software company, Tower Systems often provides business management advice to small business retailers.
How do you identify product that is not working? When do you quit a product that is not working? Why should you quit stock? How do you quit the stock? How long should quitting stock take? What if the item does not sell no matter what you do?
These are all questions we will answer here for you in the form of suggestions. What you ultimately do is 100% up to you. Your choices need to reflect your own situation and circumstances.
Identifying product that is not working.
Product is not working if it is not paying its way – paying for the floor space it takes and the time you spend on it. Check your sales, rank all your stock based on sales – look at the bottom performing stock. Your software should have a ranked Sales Report that lets you list all your stock ranked by unit or $$ sales. Use this to create your list of items to consider.
The other way to identify stock that’s not working for you is to check your back room or other storage facility. Stock that is not generating cash regularly has to be considered dead in our view.
When do you quit a product?
You quit, exit, products when they are not paying their way, when a season is done or when you want to exit that category for some other reason.
Let’s say your rent is $1,250 per square metre per year. If your gross profit averages, say, 50%, you will need to sell $2,500 worth of product to pay for a metre of space. However, this is not the complete consideration as you have labour, power and other costs to cover. The suggested rule of thumb is that your retail sales need to be at least three times that necessary to cover the cost of the space. In the scenario covered here, you should be earning at least $7,500 from a square metre of space. If stock is not delivering this, quitting it could be necessary.
Why quit stock?
To keep your shop fresh, to not be weighed down by dead stock to make your shop look more relevant, to stop hoarding.
How to quit stock.
Here is how we quit stock in retail businesses we operate. These businesses are in shopping centres where retail space is limited and expensive. We are necessarily aggressive.
Quitting stock takes strength and commitment. We urge you to do it to keep your business fresh. Product not selling gives shoppers a bad impression of your business.
Take a look at your shop floor and in your back room. Look at what you can get rid of right away to reduce the anchor of dead stock on your business.
Too many retail businesses have old stock gathering dust. One of the best ways to separate your business is to regularly quit stock that is not performing as it should.
Here at Tower Systems, we help businesses using our small business POS software compete with big businesses.
Helping small business retailers compete is important to us and to all who rely on each of our small business retail customers. It is also important to regional and rural towns around Australia, New Zealand and other locations where we serve.
How we help small business retailers compete with big business is a secret as there are things we do in our software, tools we offer, processes we follow, opportunities that we provide that are proprietary. They make our software different, better, stronger and more useful to small business retailers.
It’s like a secret sauce if you will. A secret recipe of software and facilities on which ur small business retailer customers can rely to leverage a points of difference over big business retail competitors.
Since we only sell our POS software to small business retailers, this is 100% our focus, to deliver for this group of retailers so they can have a valuable point of difference over big businesses.
From the way we manage inventory to the marketing tools we provide to the front-end loyalty we offer to the management insights we share, our small business retail software helps provide a competitive advantage.
Take our front-end loyalty. It is unique, valuable and proven to help small business retailers win business they might otherwise not win. These are facilities big business retailers do not offer. They are differentiating and valuable.
We are grateful to the support of our small business customers for trusting us to provide these and other tools in our POS software.
Beyond smart loyalty, our POS software helps small business retailers compete with big businesses by helping them to leverage what is unique about their businesses. We help them leverage local knowledge and experience and to encode this in a way that is useful and easily served to customers consistently and with pride buy the business.
By giving small local retail business tools that compare favourably with the tools of big business retailers we help small business retailers win moire business, every day.
Tower Systems launched its POS software – Shopify interface more than two years ago. Back at the time a competitor mocked the move, which we thought was ignorant of them. We have the last laugh with them recently completing their Shopify interface
What we offered then and continue to offer today is direct integration between our small business POS software and Shopify.
It is beautiful, fast, easy to use, accurate and two-way. This is an integration that helps small business retailers compete online. We are proud of what we launched in 2016 and proud of what it has evolved to become and the businesses we help every day.
Here is information abut the Tower Systems POS software Shopify link:
What is Shopify?
Shopify is one of the easiest ways to setup and run an ecommerce store. We think it provides you with the ideal place to create you first website and gain experience in the world of ecommerce. You have complete control over the look and feel of your online store and can instant access fantastic look themes to reflect the personality of your business. For more information visit www.shopify.com.au.
What is the Retailer to Shopify Link?
The Tower Systems Retailer POS software to Shopify Link uses the Tower Advantage Link platform to allow Retailer to connect directly to your Shopify store. The Tower Advantage Link platform is a subscription-based service that acts as an intermediary between Retailer and the Shopify API.
How does the link work?
The link works by using the TALink platform platform to connect to the shopify API and synchronise your data.
Stock. Retailer is your master stock database. You flag what stock items you want to appear on your shopify store. Descriptions and extended descriptions are added as your titles and descriptions in Shopify. Newly flagged products are automatically added and if you edit items in Retailer you have field level control over how these are handled in Shopify.
Department and Categories. Your Retailer Departments and Categories become collections in Shopify. You can have a chose of either Department level collections or category level, but not both. If you choose to synchronise either a department or category, your existing structure will be mirrored and managed in Shopify automatically. If, however, you decide not link your Department and Categories in Shopify, you can allocate collections manually to products once they are added.
Classifications. Shopify does not have a mechanism to manage classifications.
Prices and Quantity On Hand. You have control over your webstore pricing from within the Retailer Stock Screen. Bulk updates of the webstore prices can be performed in Stock Manager. Once new prices are set, your web store is updated automatically.
Quantity on hand is also managed automatically, when your sell or arrive an item into stock these adjustments are sent directly to Shopify. If the quantity on hand of an items drops to 0, the item is marked as out of stock in Shopify.
Images. The images you set against stock items in Retailer are automatically uploaded to your website. If images change, then old one is removed and the new one is added. You can upload as many images as you like per stock item.
Customers. Customers that purchase off your webstore are added as customers in your Retailer database, allowing you to track what they buy and market to them if you desire. Existing customers with an email address will also be added to your web store to facilitate easy sales if you choose.
Sales. Sales are downloaded on a periodic basis and imported into Retailer. They are imported into our Customer Invoice Maintenance facility allowing you to place orders and print invoices if needed. Once sales are imported it reduces your quantity on hand so you maintain accurate stock control. Sales can be allocated to a specific location or merged to you main sales data, giving you excellent control over how you report on your webstore sales.
I don’t have a website but want one. Can Tower help?
Yes! We are expert in POS software and web store development and deployment.
The shop local movement has a good profile. Locals do tend to prefer to shop local. Retailers need to actively and consistently leverage this through a regular reminder but such a reminder is hollow unless you offer local benefits such as community engagement, hiring locally and sourcing locally made products. Actively engaging in the business through locally focussed decisions helps any retailer bring power and strength to their calls for people to shop local.
This is our advice today – if you pitch shop local, live in in your shop every day and show you yourselves believe in it. Our POS software can help.
Tower Systems helps retailers actively pitch and live the shop local mantra through its POS software and through the business support the company provides in its training and on its website.
We are grateful to have two software development teams in our business, one continually enhancing our awesome small business POS software and the other developing beautiful and valuable websites for small business retailers.
We have just expanded our web development team to help us keep up with demand while we last month added to our POS software development team.
Our commitment is to providing small business local retailers in Australia and New Zealand solutions to their specialty retail needs in-store and online. we do this by offering off the shelf specialty POS software in selected marketplaces.
All our websites are developed from scratch using tools well respected around the world, tools such as Magento and Shopify. We ave experience enhancing these offerings to provide retailers with facilities that are unique, valuable and powerful beyond what you see out of the box.
Our small business website development starts with a comprehensive consultation process, to ensure we understand d the needs and agree these with our customers. Too often with offshore web development this is not done and fixing a site from afar is problematic.
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.
But best of all, Tower Systems provides professional advice and guidance to small business retailers keen to build their online presence. Our commitment is honest transparent advice on which any small business retailer can rely.
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.
Professional web development takes time. Time has a per hour cost. IT professionals are paid well. Going for the cheapest price for website development could mean that you have gone with a business that cuts corners or has most of the work done offshore.
Since your website is your business calling card to the world it is not something to cut corners with, it is not something to take offshore for a saving today. A good source of business for us is replacing offshore developed sites.
INVITATION: FREE small business retailer workshop.
How to create, promote and run a successful online business from any shop through our POS software, anywhere in Australia
Join us for a practical, jargon-free, workshop where we show the value of our Aussie developed and supported POS software and website solutions. See awesome POS software and successful websites for your type of business.
At this free workshop we will…
We offer solutions for retailers in these channels: gifts, jewellers, bikes, toys, fishing/outdoors, garden centres, pet shops, produce, firearms, adult shops and newsagents.
As well as offering POS software designed for your specific type of business, Tower Systems provides websites seamlessly connected to the shop floor, giving you a single management view.
We develop websites for our customers, in Magento, Shopify or WooCommerce.
Our websites are POS software connected, offering 24/7 selling with payments through PayPal, Oxipay (interest free buy now pay later) and credit cards.
Our websites leverage online purchases as well as click and collect. They also drive basket depth with up-sell options and handling coupons for special deals.
If you are in a banner group or a marketing group, we can provide a single website to represent all stores in the group. We do this today for one group, through five websites we created – each easily found through Google thanks to our SEO work.
Each store in a banner or marketing group gets their own page, which they can easily promote. For a single business, the POS connected website promotes their business.
We know from experience that:
We can network stores from a banner or marketing group into a single website. Thereby leveraging the power of the group of independently owned small businesses to be stronger and more useful than a big business competitor. This is how small businesses can win online.
Let us show you how together we can do this, how we can bring single stores online as well as whole groups online … through webstore connected POS software.
Not only do we create the website and the POS software, we ensure they can be found. This is key as a website that cannot be easily found through Google is a waste of money.
We would love to show individuals privately or members of your group, if you are in a group, the POS software connected websites we have created. We would take you behind the curtain, showing not only the tech. but explaining the business approach, outlining what we have done to create successful online businesses.
Fulfilment can be a challenge. We can help here too thanks to our integration work with Australia Post, Sendle and others. We can help you reduce friction with fulfilment and see you benefit from incremental online business.
Online is about a race to the cash. By this we mean that an online shopper is more likely to be ready to purchase. The first business to take their cash wins. This is where POS integrated websites can win. We can show you how.
The latest release of our POS software introduces a web dashboard to help in-store online sales fulfilment. This, coupled with inventory integration, accurate stock on hand data, professional image handling and smart SEO work helps you create and run an efficient, integrated physical and online business.
Whether you run a single store or operate as part of a marketing or banner group, Tower Systems has a track record of success you can leverage for your success. Let us show you how.
INVITATION: FREE small business retailer workshop.
How to create, promote and run a successful online business from any shop through our POS software, anywhere in Australia
Join us for a practical, jargon-free, workshop where we show the value of our Aussie developed and supported POS software and website solutions. See awesome POS software and successful websites for your type of business.
At this free workshop we will…
We offer solutions for retailers in these channels: gifts, jewellers, bikes, toys, fishing/outdoors, garden centres, pet shops, produce, firearms, adult shops and newsagents.
Serving more than 3,500 small business retailers in several countries, Tower Systes has a wealth of experience in advising retailers, especially in switching retailers from software not ideal to circumstances.
Here is an article we recently wrote to help small business retailers navigate their POS software choices…
HOW TO CHOOSE POS SOFTWARE FOR YOUR INDEPENDENT RETAIL BUSINESS.
The POS software you choose for your 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.
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.
INVITATION: FREE small business retailer workshop.
How to create, promote and run a successful online business from any shop through our POS software, anywhere in Australia
Join us for a practical, jargon-free, workshop where we show the value of our Aussie developed and supported POS software and website solutions. See awesome POS software and successful websites for your type of business.
At this free workshop we will…
We offer solutions for retailers in these channels: gifts, jewellers, bikes, toys, fishing/outdoors, garden centres, pet shops, produce, firearms, adult shops and newsagents.
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