THE TOWER SYSTEMS AUSTRALIAN POS SOFTWARE COMPANY BY THE NUMBERS
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LOCALLY DEVELOPED POS SOFTWARE FOR AUSTRALIAN LOCAL RETAIL BUSINESSES
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As overseas online businesses compete with local retailers for sales of almost anything, so too do overseas based POS software companies compete with Australian software companies.
Here at Tower Systems, we understand local. We understand our local retail business customers. we understand their shoppers. We understand what being local is all about and why it matters to our customers and the communities in which they serve.
This is what being local is really about, it is about being knowledgable of and engaged with your local community.
Through our POS software and through our customer service we live and breathe the local message. Our actions speak for us through locally focussed software changes and how we serve and connect with our customers.
here is a short video explaining our local pitch. This video serves multiple purposes: it speaks to our in-house video production facilities, it has our owner speaking up for us and what we stand for, it shows our commitment to plain speaking anyone can understand and it speaks to our professionalism that you can trust.
This is the Tower Advantage, our Tower Advantage, offered to you.
EASY ACCESS TO POS SOFTWARE DOCUMENTATION FOR SMALL BUSINESS RETAILERS
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When it comes to POS software, small business retailers want an easy life. This means hassle free, straightforward.
Key to achieving an easy life with POS software, besides the software itself being easy to use, is the ease with which parts of the software not often used can be learned and understood in the context of business operation.
Whereas in the past, a user manual was the key learning tool, today, the key learning tool is a good online, searchable and constantly evolving knowledge base, a knowledge base that keeps up to date with the software, evolving as the software evolves. A good knowledgeable includes how to text, step by step guides and instruction videos. It facilitates access to all these resources from anywhere including mobile, tablet and computer – at work, home and elsewhere.
This is what best practice user documentation looks like for smart POS software for small and independent retail businesses.
Whereas a printed manual is hard to update and not easily searched, evolving online searchable documentation is different, more useful and more valuable for engaged users who want to achieve more from their software.
Yes, the printed manual is so last century.
At Tower Systems we provide access to our documentation through a searchable knowledge base. This is setup in such as way so as to make searching easy for non technical people, so they can search based on plain English terms and find what they are looking for. The knowledge base is interactive too, allowing users to add comments and provide feedback. This makes it a customer driven resource and open to two-way communication.
Our experience is that small business retailers love the accessibility of the knowledge base and the documentation it contains. Better still, they love the ability to request enhanced coverage on this or that topic and then seeing us deliver this enhanced content.
Helping users enjoy easy use of our software is vital to their success and the commercial value of the software. So, to us, good documentation starts with easy to use software. Screen designs, data field descriptors, on-screen information and more combine to make using the software easy. The online documentation through the knowledge base makes it easy to, to learn more about the software.
Our approach to POS software user documentation is that the job is never done. Just as our software evolves so does the documentation supporting our software.
SUNDAY SMALL BUSINESS RETAIL MANAGEMENT ADVICE: HOW TO KEEP YOUR BUSINESS MORE SECURE
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Security is important in any business but especially in a small independent retail business. Here is a list of actions we recommend you consider to ensure your business is secure.
- Know how many keys there are to your premises and who has them.
- Keep a spare key in a safe place away from the business.
- Keep a current data backup off site. Regularly check that you can restore the data from your backup and that the data is current.
- Regularly check the use of your business software for the deletion or alternation of sales as this could indicate employee fraud.
- Have current reputable virus protection on all your computers.
- Have current reputable firewall installed on your network.
- Never open a zip file sent by email.
- Never open an email from a bank, the ATO or the police.
- Change the most powerful / valuable password for your computer software monthly and share it sparingly. Passwords should be complex. Check the strength of your password here: https://howsecureismypassword.net
- Be discrete when talking about the business and its performance.
- Do not do the banking at the same time every day or every few days. Do not follow the same route. Do not carry the same bag.
- Have a camera system installed to get a good shot of the faces of everyone entering and leaving the business.
- Consider registering your CCTV with the local police – this is an option in some jurisdictions.
- Ensure customers can see they are being filmed.
- Train employees to make eye contact with customers.
- Train employees on emergency procedures for handling: theft, aggressive people, shoplifters.
- Use the full stock control facilities of your software to understand the financial cost of shoplifting.
- When doing magazine returns, check discrepancies weekly to understand magazine theft.
- Ensure your windows are not cluttered. The police advise cluttered windows are a security risk because of what they can hide.
- Ensure there is good lighting outside if the store is locked up when it is dark.
- Ensure you have the best possible sight lines of the shop from the counter.
- Have a no personal items at the counter policy.
- If you catch someone in the act of shoplifting ask them to wait in the store, and call the Police. Also (advice from NSW govt. Crime prevention):
- Tell them who you are.
- Tell them why they have been asked to stay in the store. o Advise them that Police have been called
- Ask the person to surrender any property that doesn’t belong to them. Remember, retailers and other citizens have no legal right to search a person.
- Most importantly, do not put yourself at risk.
- Have a clear refund processing policy and ensure all employees are trained on this.
- Track all sales by employee code.
- When hiring: ask if applicants agree to a police check, check their references, do not hire friends of employees, explain your commitment to zero tolerance re employee theft.
- Have an employee theft policy in full view.
KUDOS FOR TOWER SYSTEMS XERO POS SOFTWARE INTEGRATION
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You know you are doing when when small business accountants recommend your POS software and its link with the highly-regarded Xero cloud based accounting software.
That is what’s been happening to us. We are winning new customers who are discovering us thanks to recommendations from their accountants, in part due to the Xero approved and endorsed POS software Xero accounting software link.
Creating an approved link is not an option for all POS software companies. Indeed, Xero says no to some POS companies that approach them. We are thrilled to have been approved and to be able to help small business retailers save time and money through the linking of their POS software to Xero.
As our software evolved as does our partnerships and interfaces. That iOS what we have delivered with our successful Xero interface – a facility backed by knowledgable accounting related support and assistance.
What is Transferred to Xero?
Sales
End of Shift based department-level sales are transferred to Xero via a sales invoice. Each department can be assigned its own Xero account.
Invoices
Invoices received into Retailer are transferred to Xero at department level. No individual stock items are transferred.
Write Offs & No Sales
These are transferred to individual expense accounts depending on the transaction reason chosen.
Cost Of Sales
An option on sales exporting is to export Cost of Sales. While not a full implementation of COGS it does transfer over the cost price of items sold each day to reduce the value of Stock On Hand in Xero. If you use this option you will export Write offs, not as expenses, but as adjustment to your Stock on Hand. This makes processing stock adjustments for the End Of Month much easier.
DON’T BE BOUND BY WHAT IS USUAL FOR YOUR TYPE OF RETAIL BUSINESS.
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Now, more than ever, retail businesses are not bound by strict borders in terms of what they sell. You only have to look at what pharmacies sell today compared to ten years ago to realise the value of change.
But this type of change, retailers trading outside what is usual for their type of business, is common. There are successful coffee shops today that started out as a customer service experience in vehicle repair shops, fashion outlets and more.
What is it you could sell in your business that does not fit neatly into what is usual for your type of retail business?
In our work in a range of specialty retail channels we see successes where retailers play outside what is usual for their type of business, where they ignore the borders of tradition.
Doing this successfully starts with looking at the type of customers you currently attract and considering this with the capacity of the business to offer other products and services within the space and capital restraints of the business.
A good place to start is to analyse basket data in your software and, through this, to build up a better understanding of what people purchase. Using departments, categories and tags, you can build an understanding beyond what you recall from serving customers.
Use your data to explore possibilities beyond what you sell today.
- Who is your customer?
- What else do they buy?
- What can I sell them allied to what they buy from me yet that I do not carry today.
Data analysis shop could uncover a niche interest among customers that could be served by the business carrying something you may not usually see in a your type shop.
We see this activity as important. If you rely on traffic that is usual for your type of business your results will most likely be usual for your type of business. Whereas if you attract traffic beyond what is usual, your results ought to be beyond what is usual.
Retail today is more borderless than ever. While it is important your business can be easily understood, you can do this and reach beyond what is traditional with careful management and attention.
THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CLOUD BACKUP SERVCIES FOR SMALL BUSINESS RETAILERS
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The cloud backup service offered by Tower Systems to its small business retailer customers is best practice, offering the ultimate in protection for our customers.
The features of the service include:
- Whole of PC backup. This is crucial.
- Local copy storage.
- Cloud based storage in a secure independent server farm location.
- Speedy recovery back to a selected data.
- Certainty over the management of the processes.
- No user triggered backup activity required.
While there are free cloud based backup services, when it comes to protecting your business data a free service is most likely not the best.
Your business data needs to be treated with the respect it deserves.
SUNDAY RETAIL MANAGEMENT ADVICE: CHECK YOUR BACKUP
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A backup of business data is only any good if it can be restored. For decades, Tower Systems has offered a free backup check. Our customers are welcome to post us a backup. We will restore this and check that the backup is current. This provides a real peace of mind that is better than any other approach.
Any of our customers is welcome to use this free service.
SMALL BUSINESS RETAIL MANAGEMENT ADVICE: MAKE EVERY DAY YOUR PAY DAY
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There was a time when small business retailers could rely on selling their business for a handsome increase on the price they paid thereby providing a good pay day, when businesses sold for a good multiple of net earnings.
No more. Today, the best way to extract value from our businesses is to make every day your pay day, to not rely on your pay day being the day you sell the business.
The challenge is how do you do this?
Retailers need to look at their businesses differently. This starts with the mindset of every day being your pay day. Each decision needs to be considered in this context.
Focusing on profit today will give you a better result today and make your business more valuable tomorrow.
Here are some suggestions for making every day your pay day:
- Run with the leanest roster possibl Just about every retail business we review has capacity to lower labour costs.
- Have your best people working the floor, helping customers spend more.
- Have stunning displays that attract people from outside the shop.
- Have compelling displays in-store that encourage people to browse beyond their destination purchase.
- Always have impulse offers at high traffic locations.
- Charge more every time you can. Loyalty programs such as discount vouchers, bundling into hampers, multi buys such as 2 for 3 and other opportunities enable you to do this by blocking price comparison.
- Buy as best you can.
- Grab settlement discounts every time you are able.
- Promote outside your store using online and social media opportunities.
- Leverage adjacency information. Chase a deeper basket – people purchasing more each visit.
Be responsible for the profitability of your business. Don’t blame your suppliers, your landlord, your employees or some other external factor … it all comes down to you – the decisions you make and the actions you take.
If you relentlessly pursue profit with a clear focus you are likely to see profit grow. That’s better than waiting to make money when you sell because that’s less likely to happen in this market.
Doing all this relies on your measuring the performance of your business. The Tower software helps with this. It is easy.
This advice is an example of the small business management advice POS software company tower Systems offers its customers in its weekly business builder email.
TOWER SYSTEMS EXPANDS POS SOFTWARE KNOWLEDGE BASE ARTICLES
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2016 is barely to months old and already we have published many additional articles of advice, training and help to our knowledge base for our POS software customers. These new articles reflect us being true to our commitment to continue to evolve the support and assistance we provide the small business retailers using our POS software.
Each week in our customer email we list new articles and we can see from click activity flowing from those weekly emails the articles of most interest. We use that data to guide development of further articles supporting the timely and professional use of our software.
Our knowledge base is a living growing thing, something on which our customers can rely to get more from their partnership with Tower Systems. From comprehensive how-to and training articles to high level business management advice, the Tower knowledge base resources are valuable to small business retailers.
MELBOURNE RETAILERS EMBRACE POS SOFTWARE USER MEETING
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We were thrilled with the participation at our first Melbourne retailer POS software user meeting yesterday. This was day three of a tour that will cover every state and territory, capital cities and major regional centres, offering free training, small business retailer networking and open-ended Q&A sessions.
Every session is different thanks to the mix of attendees. We are loving it.
TOWER SYSTEMS LAUNCHES NEW MAGENTO POS SOFTWARE LINK
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Several weeks ago Tower Systems launched a direct Magento e-commerce platform link, in addition to the excellent web-store link in our smart POS software.
The Retailer to Magento Link uses the Tower Advantage Link platform to allow Retailer to connect directly to Magento. The Tower Advantage Link platform is a subscription-based service that acts as an intermediary between Retailer and the Magento API.
What is Magento?
Magento is one of the world’s most popular e-commerce or webstore platforms. Being built on open source technology provides a flexible shopping cart system, giving you control over the look, feel, content and functionality of your online store. Magento offers powerful marketing, search engine optimization, and catalog-management tools. Find out about Magento at www.magento.com
How does the link work?
The link works by using the Magento API allowing the TALink platform to connect to Magento and synchronising on a periodic interval or request basis.
Stock
Retailer becomes your master stock database. You flag what stock items you want to appear on your web store. Descriptions and extended descriptions are added as your product names and descriptions in Magento.
Department and Categories
Your Retailer Departments and Categories become Categories and Sub-Categories in Magento. If you choose to link these, your existing structure will be mirrored and managed in Magento automatically. If, however, you decide not link your Department and Categories in Magento, you can allocate Categories manually to products once they are added.
Classifications
Retailers Classifications are treated as Attributes in Magento. If you choose to link these in Magento your existing Classifications will be mirrored and managed in Magento automatically. If, however, you do not want this to occur you can manually manage your own Magento Attributes.
Prices and Quantity On Hand
You have control over your webstore pricing from within the Retailer Stock Screen. Bulk updates of the webstore price can be performed in Stock Manager. Once new prices are set, your web store is updated automatically.
Quantity of hand is also managed automatically, when your sell or arrive an item into stock these adjustments are sent directly to Magento. If the quantity on hand of an items drops to 0, the item is marked as out of stock in Magento.
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.
Sales
These are downloaded on a periodic basis and imported into Retailer. These are imported into our Customer Invoice Maintenance facility allowing you to place orders and print invoices. 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 added to you main sales data, giving you excellent control over how you report on your webstore sales.
This is just some of the information we have to share about this exciting and leadership innovation from Tower Systems.
FISHING AND TACKLE SHOP SOFTWARE HELPS RETAILERS LEVERAGE LOCAL OPPORTUNITIES
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The fishing shop software launched by Tower Systems recently came about through the discovery that our software was already being used in fishing and tackle shops. By talking with these customers and learning more about the needs, we have been able to finesse the software and training to make it even more useful for fishing shop retailers and their employees.
At the heart of what we offer is facilities and tools that help local fishing shops serve local needs. For example, including local fishing spot information on receipts helps add value to the contact customers have with a business. Visitors can be put in the know in a consistent way without you having to be in their face.
This one step, of using receipts to share valuable information, can demonstrate an excellent point of difference for a local small business fishing shop.
Another benefit of the software is the management of items made and repaired. Tracking repairs is easy as is the management of the repairs including labour and products used in the repair. The same can be said for the manufacturing of items such as lures. Managing components and time and tracking special orders of these can help the business be more consistent and drive a better financial return. It is business after all.
Being able to do all this, and more, and connect it easily and seamlessly with an online business is important for any small business but more so for a local fishing shop where specialist knowledge could be the point of difference that brings people back into the business.
A relationship with Tower Systems can help the owner of a fishing shop reach beyond where the business is at today and propel it into growth and efficiency that combine to deliver a better bottom line and the bottom line is ultimately what drives the value of the business when it comes time to sell the business. This is the Tower AdvantageTM in action, a set of tools and services beyond the software that help you be the maximum value from the software for your business. When we say we’re here to help, we mean it … every day, in all we do for small business retailers including fishing shops.
POS software for specialty fishing goods retailers including fishing tackle shops and sporting goods retailers
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POS software company Tower Systems is thrilled to be serving specialty fishing goods retailers, angling goods retailers, bait and tackle shops and more with fishing shop software. Thanks to the work already completed with several in the fishing products space including bait, tackle, clothing and services, Tower Systems is in a position to offer fishing goods retailers in Australia and New Zealand excellent software tailored to the needs of your specialty businesses.
- In addition to excellent POS software, the software also offers:
- Repairs management. Serial number tracking.
- Warranty support. Scale integration.
- Bundling of items together into a package offer.
- Special orders. Selling by length.
- Selling to fractions.
- Handling secondhand goods.
- Handling manufactured goods – such as flies and other items you might make.
- Age checking.
- Xero accounting software integration.
Plus many more features designed to serve the needs of locally owned and operated fishing retailers angling goods retailers, bait and tackle shops and more.
Already in use in businesses, Tower Systems has reference sites for its fishing shop software on which we can draw to serve the needs of our prospective customers. The generosity of existing customers has been wonderful in helping us to serve new prospects.
Typically, fishing retailers are pointed to sporting goods software. While this can be useful, their needs often go beyond sporting goods, as they do considerably more than sell sporting goods. Fishing shops are personal, selling items and offering services you do not see in sporting goods shops. This is why they require specialty software, developed for fishing shops.
Here is what is unique about what Tower Systems offers fishing and relates products retailers:
- We are a software company, not a consulting business using software as a mechanism for driving consulting fees.
- We are live. Real people you can get to know by name.
- We are in your business. Not a contractor we hire, not over the phone, when we install the system we do it in your business, working with you.
- Manufactured goods. From concept to manufacture, you can manage and track what you make for whom and when. This is a billing and management asset.
- Lay-by. Our Lay-by facilities have been developed in close consultation, making them unique and comprehensive.
- We offer more facilities than any other system. These offer you flexibility for driving purchases in the current visit and for bringing shoppers back more often.
- You have access to extraordinary customisation through settings, enabling you to represent your business how you want.
- Embedded in our software are facilities for tracking how the software is used. This enables us to help you reduce employee theft.
- Retail focussed. A challenge of retail is to uncover opportunities early. Smart reports in the Tower software unlock information about opportunities in your business on which you can rely for business planning.
Our focus is on small independent retailers. We serve these businesses best as ours is a local business offering local service. We don’t deal with the big chains with head offices as we have found them to be less concerned about customers. By specialising in small local independent specialty retail businesses we have been able to better serve business needs.
We would welcome an opportunity meet with you in your shop to learn about your needs. We have a professionally skilled team who can meet with you at a time to suit. This could be during the day or after hours.
We are also happy to meet online via Skype, WebEx or some other platform. We often do this in remote situations. Remote meetings like this only allow us to demonstrate our ability to support businesses in remote situations.
Consider calling or emailing the Tower Team member nearest you: Please call our sales team at 1300 662 957 or email them at sales@towersystems.com.au.
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