The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

CategoryGame shop software

POS Software for Game Shops: Helping Local Game Retailers Make the Most of 2026

October 23, 2026
4 Min read
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Games are having a moment. In 2026, game sales are strong across Australia and New Zealand, and local game shops are growing as a result. We have seen this in the latest Circa data prepared for the ATA.

More people are looking for screen-free time with friends and family. Game nights, clubs and tournaments are bringing new players into shops every week. For independent game retailers, it’s a real opportunity.

Making the most of that growth takes more than good stock. You need to know what’s selling, look after your regulars and give new players a reason to come back.

Generic POS software isn’t built for that. Tower Systems software for game shops is. Here’s how it can help your shop grow, starting with the parts of the business that matter most.

Age restricted products

Some games carry age ratings, and some products can’t be sold to younger customers. Getting this wrong is a risk for your business.

Our software lets you flag age restricted products. When one is scanned, staff are prompted to check the customer’s age before the sale goes through. It takes the guesswork out of busy periods and helps protect you and your team.

Special orders for customers

Game shoppers often know exactly what they want, even when you don’t have it in stock. A new expansion. A hard to find title. A pre-order for a release next month.

You can record special orders against the customer, track them through to delivery and let the customer know when their order arrives. Nothing gets lost on a sticky note, and the customer leaves knowing you’ll follow through.

Games bundles

Bundles are a great way to lift the average sale. A base game with an expansion. A starter set with extra dice and sleeves. A gift pack for Christmas.

You can create bundles in your POS, price them to suit and track how they sell. Stock is managed for each item in the bundle, so your inventory stays accurate.

Sales by genre and manufacturer

Knowing what sells is the key to buying well, especially when the category is growing. Our reporting lets you look at game sales by genre and by manufacturer.

Are strategy games growing while party games slow down? Is one publisher earning far more than its share of shelf space? With clear data, you can buy with confidence, adjust your range and have better conversations with your suppliers.

Supporting games clubs

For many game shops, clubs and game nights are the heart of the business. They bring people in the door regularly and build loyalty that online stores can’t match.

You can record club members in your POS, track their visits and purchases, and offer member pricing or rewards. That helps you see the value your club brings and give members a reason to keep coming back, and to buy while they’re there.

Loyalty for infrequent shoppers

Not every customer is a regular. Some visit a few times a year, often for a gift or a new release. With so many new players discovering games, this group is growing.

Our loyalty tools let you reward these shoppers in ways that suit them, not just your most frequent customers. Points, vouchers and targeted offers can bring an occasional shopper back sooner. That’s good for them, and good for your business.

Built for game shops, supported by people

Game shops are growing, and the right tools can help yours grow faster. Tower Systems is a vertical market software company. We build software for specific retail channels, and we work only with independent retailers in Australia and New Zealand.

Our training is personal and tailored to your shop. Our help desk starts with a conversation. When you need help, you can talk to a person who understands how game shops work.

Talk to us

AU: 1300 662 957
NZ: 0800 444 367
Email: sales@towersystems.com.au

Contacting a human is easy.

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Garbage In, Garbage Out: How to Know if Your Retail Stock Data is Actually Accurate

May 27, 2026
3 Min read
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A POS system reflects what you put into it. Feed it bad data and every report it produces is wrong. That might sound obvious, but in a busy retail environment — where stock arrives daily, staff turn over, and returns pile up — inventory data degrades faster than most retailers realise.

Poor data costs real money. It means stockouts on best-sellers, cash locked up in product that will not move, and numbers you cannot make decisions from. You do not have to guess whether your stock-on-hand figures are right. There are practical ways to check, and the right tools make staying accurate far less work than most people expect.

The stocktake: still the gold standard

Nothing confirms inventory accuracy like a physical count. Closing the shop for a full weekend count is not necessary anymore.

Tower Systems supports targeted rolling stocktakes on a specific shelf, category, or supplier group. Run them during quiet trading periods — before opening, after a delivery, or during a slow mid-week afternoon. Small, frequent counts catch discrepancies early, before they distort your buying decisions and margin reports. A full-store stocktake a couple of times a year, combined with regular section counts, gives you a solid base to work from.

Stop errors at the back door: AI invoice import

A lot of bad retail data enters at inward goods. Manual entry of cost prices, supplier codes, and product descriptions from paper invoices introduces typos. Every time. It is not a staff problem — it is a process problem.

Tower Systems has an AI Invoice Import tool built directly into the software. It reads digital PDFs, spreadsheets, supplier accounting exports, and even photos of printed invoices, then matches items and imports the data without manual entry. Fewer keystrokes means fewer mistakes, and fewer mistakes means stock counts you can trust.

Two daily habits that hold it all together

Systems help, but discipline matters too.

Track every sale individually. Generic open-department keys destroy stock counts over time and make category reporting worthless. Process returns at the time they happen — scanning them back in later means the numbers are wrong in the gap, sometimes for days.

Neither habit takes long. Both make a material difference.

The bottom line

Every manual entry is a risk. Every workaround compounds the problem. Rolling stocktakes and automated invoice importing reduce human handling of data, and less handling means fewer errors. When the data is right, you buy better, you waste less, and your reports tell you something useful.

Find out more at www.towersystems.com.au.

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Advice for Small Business Retailers: Here’s Why Vibe Coding Your Own POS Software Probably a Mistake

May 16, 2026
4 Min read
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Let’s talk about vibe coding and vertical market software.

Hi, I’m Mark Fletcher. I founded Tower Systems back in 1981. Back then I was a programmer. My languages of choice were Fortran (for more technical application) and PL/1 (for more commercial coding). The last programming I did was in the very early 1990s.

I also have owned retail shops for decades. Today, I have one physical shop and four online retail businesses. That retail experience is relevant to this. You can check me out on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-fletcher-tower/

Early this year, I vibe coded a couple of applications. It was exciting, fun. One was a possible commercial project. I deployed a test version. It was very cool. But, it wasn’t commercial, certainly not to a standard I’d want money for.

I mention all that for perspective for what I want to say in this comparison of vibe coding versus buying commercial software. I should also note that I sold Tower Systems to Vela APX, a Constellation Software company. I’m still in the business and loving it by the way.

How does vibe coding compare commercial vertical market software?

Vibe Coding is a mainstream topic thanks to social media content pitching it. Plenty of people are making money selling courses and workshops about vibe coding and while vibe coding is cool, there are reasons that businesses need to be careful in approaching it.

Retailers read about vibe coding, about anyone being able to spin up an app in a weekend, and they start wondering: why am I paying for software when I could just build it myself?

It’s a fair question. But most of the time, the answer is: don’t.

Here’s the thing about commercially released software: it’s been through a process. Think of it like food from a licensed kitchen. Before it reaches you, someone has checked it, tested it, made sure it does what it claims. When you vibe code something yourself, you might end up with something that looks right and feels right. But unless you’re a developer, it probably has gaps.

Where does commercially released vertical market software differ to vibe coded software?

I spoke recently with a retailer who’d done exactly this. They’d built their own tool, and it handled some of what they needed. But not all of it. There were steps at the end of key processes that the software couldn’t complete, and so they completed them manually. Two to three hours a week, every week. When we looked at Tower Systems software covering the same ground, it handled the whole process end to end. Our software costs a few dollars a day. Their manual workaround was costing them hours.

There’s another reason to go commercial that doesn’t get talked about enough: collective knowledge. Software used across hundreds of businesses accumulates feedback that a single-user build never can. Every retailer using Tower Systems is, in a sense, contributing to the product. Their experience, their edge cases, their suggestions, that all feeds back into what gets built next. Retailers benefit from that even if they never submit a single support ticket.

The latest Tower Systems release is a good example. A meaningful chunk of the enhancements came directly from retailers. Not from our team guessing what might be useful, from people actually running shops telling us what they needed.

What is the value difference between commercial and vibe coded software?

When you’re weighing up vibe coding versus commercial software, think about what you’re actually comparing. On one side: something built quickly, for free, by someone who isn’t a software developer, with no QA process and no community behind it. But, since it’s personal you may feel more love for it. On the other: software built over decades, tested before release, shaped by hundreds of retailers across Australia and New Zealand, and updated regularly. But, since it is commercial it has a cost.

The food analogy I shared earlier holds. You wouldn’t buy a meal from a home kitchen that hasn’t met basic health standards. The same logic applies to software running your business.

Tower Systems builds specifically for specialty retail: bookshops, farm supply businesses, gift shops, bike shops, pet shops,  jewellers,  newsagencies, garden centres, toy shops, music shops, and more.

If you want to talk through whether it’s right for your business, reach out: towersystems.com.au, sales@towersystems.com.au, or call 1300 662 957.

Yes, this post is a sales pitch. It’s also true. And, it’s written by me: Mark Fletcher. Someone with decades of experience in software development and decades of experience owning and running retail businesses.

Oh, and, yes, these are all my own words.

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Beyond Generic: Why Vertical Market Software and AI Define a Bright Future for Specialty Retail

March 13, 2026
4 Min read
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Local independent retailers in Australia and New Zealand face a unique challenges. It’s always been thus. Small vs big. Main Street vs shopping centre. Physical vs online. Capital poor vs capital rich. tenants vs landlords. We could go on.

Whether you manage a garden centre, a bookshop, a sewing shop, a produce business a jewellery store, a bike shop, or a newsagency, your business does not operate like a supermarket or a big business. You have specific supplier relationships, unique inventory requirements, and specialized customer service workflows. Using generic, off-the-shelf point of sale software often forces you to “dumb down” your operations to fit a one-size-fits-all model.

Vertical market software is designed to solve this problem. It is built specifically for your industry, embedding best-practice workflows and features that generic systems simply do not offer. At Tower Systems, we have spent over 40 years developing software that serves the distinct needs of specialty marketplaces.

The Power of Specialisation

A vertical market system understands the nuances of your trade. For a jeweller, this means the ability to print specialised labels with multiple sections—parts for the ring itself that will not cause damage, and sections for the packaging. For a garden centre, it means weatherproof labels that can withstand the elements outdoors.

Specialisation also extends to how you sell your products. Many specialty retailers do not just sell by the unit. Our software allows for selling by fractions, such as length or weight. Integrated scale functionality, which is NMI approved, is essential for spice shops, butchers, and health food stores. These are not “add-ons” but core components of a system built for your specific type of business. When your software handles these industry complexities, you are free to focus on what makes your shop different from the average retailer.

Practical AI for Small Business

While large corporations talk about artificial intelligence in abstract terms, here at Tower Systems we have integrated practical AI tools directly into our specialty retail POS software. This is not about futuristic theories; it is about saving time and improving your bottom line today.

We have made AI tools accessible and understandable.

One of the most significant advancements is AI-driven invoice processing. In the past, a retailer receiving a large shipment—such as a fishing tackle shop with an invoice of 200 items—would spend hours, or even a full day, manually entering data. Our embedded AI tools can now process that same invoice in a few minutes.

Unlike some systems where you must export data to an external spreadsheet or a tool like ChatGPT and then re-import it, our solution is seamless. It happens within the software. One retailer reported saving between seven and eight hours of costed labour per week just by using these tools. This represents a weekly saving of $250 to $300, which often exceeds the cost of the software itself.

Better Data, Better Decisions

The phrase “what gets measured gets managed” is a cornerstone of retail. However, many retailers avoid complex reporting because it is time-consuming or difficult to interpret. Our software now includes AI analysis for end-of-shift and inventory reports.

Instead of scrolling through pages of raw data, you can receive a concise AI summary. This summary analyses sales trends, looks for potential theft patterns, and even considers local weather impacts on your performance. It provides an “at-a-glance” understanding of your business health, allowing you to make informed decisions without needing to be a data scientist.

Protecting Your Business Asset

Choosing professionally developed, peer-reviewed software is also an investment in your business’s future value. Some retailers attempt to build their own tools using basic bot technology. While this might serve a temporary need, it creates a liability when it comes time to sell the business.

A new owner needs a system that is supported, documented, and maintained by a professional team. By using a vertical market system with built-in AI, you are building a scalable asset. We provide the help desk support and online resources to ensure that as your business evolves or changes hands, the technology remains a source of strength rather than a point of failure.

The retail landscape is changing rapidly. By leveraging software that is built for your specific industry and enhanced with integrated AI, you can move away from manual admin and spend more time on the shop floor where it matters most.

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Why Your Game Shop Needs More Than Just a Standard POS System

February 26, 2026
4 Min read
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If you own or run an independent game shop, your greatest assets are your expertise and your community. Unlike big-box retailers or massive online marketplaces, a local game shop thrives on the relationships built across the counter. However, passion alone cannot manage complex inventory, pre-order cycles, or multi-channel sales.

We get it. here at Tower Systems we only serve local independent specialty retail businesses.

To compete, your technology must be as specialised as your stock. We have developed a point-of-sale solution specifically for game shops in Australia and New Zealand. It is not a generic retail tool; it is a platform evolved from years of experience in the toy and hobby sector, refined to meet the specific demands of the modern gaming market.

More than transactions

A standard cash register tracks money, but a specialist game shop POS tracks opportunities. Local shops are the heartbeat of gaming communities, and our software is designed to help you leverage that “localness.”

By using the system to manage community group pricing and track links to local gaming clubs, you create a destination rather than just a shop. You can share your team’s expert knowledge directly through the system, ensuring that every customer receives the high level of service that keeps them coming back.

Features built for you

The unique nature of gaming retail requires tools that generic software often overlooks. Our platform simplifies the “heavy lifting” of shop management:

  • Pre-order Management: Secure sales and manage deposits for major releases before the stock even hits your shelves.

  • Special Orders: Automate the process of ordering specific items for customers, including automated notifications when their items arrive.

  • Serial Number Tracking: Maintain precise records for consoles and high-end hardware to simplify warranty claims and security.

  • Age Verification: Ensure your team stays compliant with age-restricted titles through structured, built-in checking prompts.

Rethinking loyalty

Points programs often feel hollow to modern shoppers. We provide loyalty tools that you can actually “bank” on. Instead of confusing point conversions, our software allows for personalised rewards and incentives that drive a deeper visit value.

Because the system tracks purchase history, you can market to your customers with surgical precision. If a regular shopper exclusively buys tabletop miniatures, you can send them targeted updates about new arrivals in that specific category, rather than cluttering their inbox with irrelevant offers.

Connecting your physical and digital storefront

We know that not every customer will walk past your front door. To expand your reach without doubling your workload, our POS software features a seamless, direct link to Shopify.

When you make a sale in-store, your online stock levels update automatically. When an order comes in through your website, it appears in your POS reports. This unified approach allows you to sell to gamers across the country while keeping your local operations streamlined.

What’s included?

We provide a considered and comprehensive solution for a flat monthly rental. Your investment covers:

  • Unlimited Licences: Install the software on as many computers as you need in your shop location.

  • Human Support: Access our help desk via phone or email six days a week, including Saturdays.

  • Emergency Access: After-hours support for urgent “system down” queries.

  • Seamless Integrations: Direct links to Xero, Shopify, and electronic supplier invoice tools to reduce bookkeeping and data entry time.

The gaming industry never stands still, and neither does our software. We constantly update the platform based on direct feedback and suggestions from our community of retailers.

If you are ready to move beyond basic retail and embrace a system made for your specific niche, contact Tower Systems today. We’d love to show you how this software can transform your daily operations and help your shop thrive.

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The right POS system or website for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business. Tower offers POS software and websites made specifically for local small business retailers in a selection of retail channels. To see if we might help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today.  

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au.

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The question small business retailers ask online: “How can I reduce operating costs without losing customers?”

January 14, 2026
5 Min read
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Many retailers are working harder for less profit because they are trapped by old pricing habits and manual labor. We’ve worked with thousands of specialty businesses and found that the path to lower operating costs is about optimisation. This post covers how to reclaim 3–5% of your revenue from theft, how to automate your way out of manual data entry, and why your shop’s convenience might be worth more than you’re currently charging.

How can I reduce operating costs without losing customers? This is a common question small business retailers are asking. It’s a question rooted in higher power prices, rising rent, rising labour costs and increases in the cost of products they sell.

Before we get to talking about opportunities for reducing costs, it’s useful to consider opportunities for increasing prices. In our experience serving thousands of small business retailers in Australia and New Zealand for decades, they tend to hold back on price increased that, if done, would not impact sales.

We were working with a group of retailers in a specially retail channel a couple of years ago. We compared priced for products in a popular product category for their type of business. The diversity in pricing was considerable. While some applied a 100% mark-up on wholesale cost, some were as low as 80% and some as high as 125%.

We recommended everyone move to 125% mark-up. Two thirds of the retailers we were working with increased their mark-up. A year later we checked in and found what we expected, sales volume had not fallen. As a result, these retailers were banking more gross profit from each sale.

Our advice, based on this experience and years of experience helping small business retailers is: review your mark-up approach. Charge what you can. Do this based on why people shop with you. If it is for their convenience, you are likely able to charge more than is common for the same product.

Now, let’s get on to answering How can I reduce operating costs without losing customers?

Leveraging our experience helping small business retailers across many retail channels through supporting our Australian made POS software for jewellers, garden centres, bike shops, newsagents, bookshops, pet shops, music shops, toy stores, produce businesses, fashion shop, fishing bait and tackle businesses, firearms dealers, Christmas shops, sewing shops, repairs businesses, haberdashers businesses, Asian supermarkets,  here are 5 ways small business retailers can cut costs without losing customers.

  1. Save time = lower labour costs. Stop entering supplier invoices manually. Import them direct. AI tools in our POS software make this easy, fast and accurate. Use auto replenishment tools, based on Agentic AI tech, to have orders created ready for your approval – bypassing multiple labour steps.
  2. Reduce dead stock = less money wasted on what’s not selling. In a typical local independent shop around 25% of stock underperforms. That’s dead money, a cost to the business. Use your POS software properly and well to stop loading your shop with stock that won’t sell.
  3. Automate everyday bookkeeping tasks. Turn on the flow of data between our POS software and Xero. Shift from regular paid bookkeeping work to less frequent and less expensive work.
  4. Stop paying for analysis at your fingertips. Use your POS software business performance insights that you can access any time and at no additional cost instead of hiring a consultant or paying your accountant to do this.
  5. Cut theft. Theft cost a typical local retail business an amount annually equal to between 3% and 5% of revenue. Use the theft tracking and mitigation tools in your POS software to attack the cost of theft.

You can do these five things today without having to spend more money. Each of them saves money. The thing is though, plenty of business experts don’t talk about these things because when they do talk about ways you can cut costs they are pitching for you to spend money with them.

Here at Tower Systems we are not trying to get you to spend more money with us. The facilities in our software covered in this list of five things are there in the software today, accessible for no extra cost. Use them and you will cut costs in your retail business.

Reducing your operating costs starts by making your business smarter. The tools we’ve discussed are likely sitting in your POS system right now, waiting to be used.

Take a moment this week to audit your mark-ups and look for one manual task you can automate. You don’t need a high-priced consultant to find more profit, you just need to leverage the technology already at your fingertips. If you’re a Tower Systems customer and aren’t sure how to switch these features on, give our team a call. We’re here to help you keep more of what you earn.

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The right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business. Tower offers POS software made specifically for local small business retailers in a selection of retail channels. To see if we might help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today. 

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au. 

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What’s the best website platform for a small retail business Wix, Shopify, Woo Commerce or Squarespace?

November 25, 2025
6 Min read
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We are often asked this question by small business retailers: What’s the best website platform for a small retail business Wix, Shopify, Woo Commerce or Squarespace?

We have years of experience developing websites for small business retailers using Shopify, Magento, Big Commerce and WooCommerce. The advice we provide in this article is based on our years of experience serving thousands of small business retailers.

The best e-commerce platform for your business will depend on your technical experience, your budget, your position in your online journey and the goals you have for your website. Each of these platforms offers different benefits. from the outset, though, in our experience, Shopify is the best solution for easy of use, ease of change without technical skills, the ability to scale and ease of winning shoppers from the already considerable Shopify customer ecosystem.

Wix offers easy drag and drop, which can see like a big time saver for the novice. In reality, Wix websites can often become messy, overloaded. It can be a good platform to figure out what you want but our experience is that it’s not ideal once you are up and running and building your online business. We think it’s unlikely you’ll find hero websites for small business retailers based on Wix. If you need a site up in an hour and want total freedom to drag things around the screen, Wix could be a good choice today.

WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress. It’s made for use by technically skilled people. You do the work, and once you;’ve done that you will tend to have to do more work. This tech work can distract you from running your retail business. Woo is terrifically flexible, which comes as a labour cost for you or for the web developer you hire. If you already have a WordPress site and want to avoid monthly subscription fees, this offers the most freedom, provided you have the technical skills and truckloads of time to manage it.

Squarespace is offers beautiful looking websites with an easy to use back end for adjustment. It’s heavily image-focused. You can’t “break” a Squarespace site as easily as a Wix site because the editor forces you to stay within a grid. Squarspace lacks some of the finesse of Shopiufy for businesses that need more, especially when it comes to shipping flexibility. fI selling “the vibe” is as important as selling the product, Squarespace might be your answer.

Shopify is the best solution for local small business retailers in our experience. Shopify themes make it easy for you to change the look and feel of your website without hiring a web developer. Shopify integrates with terrific local shipping options (Sendle, My Post Business etc) and Shopify validates Australian addresses incredibly well at checkout, which saves you money on “return to sender” errors. It is the industry standard for a reason. If your goal is to grow, Shopify handles the “boring” stuff (hosting, security, checkout compliance) better than anyone in our experience.

We have years of experience using Shopify ourselves – when we offer advice to retailers on e-commerce, it comes from a place of personal experience as well as extensive technical experience and years building Shopify websites for so many different retailers.

Now, we’re not saying Wix, Squarespace and WooCommerce are bad. What you choose for your business needs to be what you want/need.

What we are saying is do your research – choose the ecommerce platform that serves your technical skills, budget, business plans and how you see your business living online.

Low cost websites may be low cost because of the work you have to do to manage and modify them.

Fast to setup websites may be fast because they don’t go as deep within your business.

Key to success is you knowing what it is that you want / need for yourself and for your business. Saying you want a website is not enough. What do you want from it?

Take your time. Figure out what you need, want and can afford. Look at examples of websites for your type of business. Consider web developers local to you, people who understand your business, people you can speak with. Ask why they recommend what they recommend.

We recommend Shopify for speed to launch, ease of change, non technical back end management, ease of scale, wonderful integrations and access to a huge ecosystem of shoppers. It’s what we use and what many of our local small business retail customers use.

Web development is unregulated. Be careful. There are some who know the words to say to dazzle less technically literate folks into spending money with them only to never deliver what the business wants / needs. Get any promises in writing – including delivery timing and website functionality.

Be sure you know the business you are dealing with. Often, we developers are not local as they may pitch.

Do your due diligence before you sign any contract or pay any money. We’ll say again: take your time.

This decision rests entirely on your business’s ultimate ambition. If you view your online store as a serious, scalable retail channel, one that you need to easily manage alongside your physical operations, integrates effortlessly with local logistics, and provides a reliable, secure foundation that won’t require a developer every time you want to make a change, then Shopify is our recommended investment.

While Wix and Squarespace offer beautiful simplicity for the start-up, and WooCommerce offers technical control, Shopify is purpose-built for the commercial rigor of a growing retail business, offering the best balance of ease-of-use, power, and a vast ecosystem of apps and support designed to help Australian retailers move more stock with less technical overhead.

Shopify is a good small business e-commerce solution, which can grow as you grow. We had one customer using Shopify go from $50,000 in their launch year to $2.5 million by year four. The growth came from their smart business decisions. Shopify made it easy to manage the growth.

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If you are considering a website for your retail business, consider Tower Systems. Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au. If we feel we are not right for you, we will say so.

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AI: Levelling the Playing Field for Small Business Retailers

November 3, 2025
3 Min read
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You might have seen the news this past week that Coles is rolling out an enterprise-wide partnership with OpenAI. When we saw that story at Tower Systems, our first thought wasn’t about the competition. It was: “This is fantastic news.”

This move by a retail giant validates what Tower Systems has been focused on for some time: AI isn’t just a gimmick for the big end of town; it’s a genuine “competitive game-changer” for independent, local retailers, including jewellers, bike shops, gift shops, produce businesses, newsagents and other small businesses we serve. It’s leveling the playing field. And the best part? You don’t have to wait. While Coles is just announcing their plans, local, independent retailers are already using powerful AI tools every single day.

We recently made a video discussing this, where we highlighted how Tower Systems has been embedding AI tools from OpenAI, Google Gemini, and others directly into our point-of-sale software for a long time now. It’s not about “future tech”; it’s about practical tools that solve real problems for small business owners.

In the video, we discuss how our customers are already using AI to:

  • Save hours of admin by automatically analyzing and importing virtually any supplier invoice, with no special setup required.
  • Market smarter by generating unique product descriptions and blog posts that speak in their business’s authentic voice.
  • Boost profitability with plain-English reports that identify what’s not selling, what’s overstocked, and even potential theft, long before it becomes a major issue.
  • Prevent lost sales by getting alerts on popular items you’re about to run out of.

As mentioned in the video, we rely on these and more AI tools in our own retail shop – to save time, make better-informed decisions, and run a smarter, more efficient shop.

This technology is here, it’s accessible, and it’s already making a fundamental difference for local businesses. The Coles announcement is a great signal for the entire retail sector and all who serve it that AI is no longer an option; AI is an essential part of modern retail.

We encourage you to watch the video to see a full breakdown of what this means for local small business retail and how you can leverage this power in your own independent business today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwRHiHlWcVg

As you can probably tell, we’re excited about AI. It makes accessible to small business retailers opportunities for more effectively competing – as plenty are already finding. It’s a terrific opportunity for efficiency and growth.

And, when you’re researching AI, get to the facts. Some software companies say they have AI tools, when they don’t. It’s important you see for yourself what’s available today as this matters

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It’s so easy to import Hunter Leisure invoices into our POS software

October 22, 2025
4 Min read
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Toy shops, game shop0s, newsagents and others using our POS software have an easy to import invoices from Hunter Leisure.

For any Australian retailer, managing supplier invoices can be one of the most time-consuming and error-prone aspects of the business. The hours spent manually entering product codes, quantities, and costs add up quickly—time that could be better spent on the shop floor engaging with customers or growing your business. What if you could reclaim those hours and dramatically increase your inventory accuracy at the same time?

This is now a reality with our state-of-the-art POS system, featuring a powerful AI-driven invoice import tool. To showcase its capability, we recently demonstrated how effortlessly it handles invoices from a major supplier, Hunter Leisure, transforming a tedious task into a simple, two-minute process.

The End of Manual Data Entry

The traditional method of receiving stock is fraught with potential pitfalls. A single typo when entering a barcode or cost price can lead to inaccurate stock levels, incorrect margins, and ultimately, lost revenue. Our system is designed to eliminate these risks entirely.

By leveraging artificial intelligence, you can now upload a supplier’s PDF invoice directly into the system. There’s no need to print it out or manually key in each line item. This is a game-changer, especially for complex invoices with dozens or even hundreds of products. Even if the invoice arrives in your inbox before the physical stock, you can get ahead by loading it in early, ensuring your records are ready and waiting.

How It Works: A Simple, Intelligent Process

As our demonstration video highlights, the process is easy, fast and accurate. It begins in the ‘Invoice Arrivals’ section, where a user can simply select the AI import option. After choosing the relevant PDF file from your computer, our system’s AI gets to work.

  1. Intelligent Analysis: The software immediately analyses the document, intelligently identifying and extracting all the crucial data. It doesn’t just read the text; it understands the context, distinguishing between product descriptions, barcodes, quantities, and pricing.
  2. Automatic Supplier Creation: What happens if it’s a new supplier? No problem. If the system doesn’t recognise the supplier, like ‘Hunter Leisure’ in our example, it automatically pulls their details—name, ABN, contact information—directly from the invoice header and creates a new supplier profile. This feature alone saves significant administrative time and ensures your supplier records are accurate from day one.
  3. Data Population and Verification: The AI then populates all the relevant fields for each product line. Barcodes, supplier stock codes, descriptions, and quantities are filled in automatically. The system presents a clear, side-by-side view of the original invoice and the imported data, making verification quick and straightforward. You can easily confirm that the totals match and make any necessary adjustments, such as setting retail prices if they weren’t on the invoice or applying a pre-set margin for that department.

From Hours to Minutes

Once you’ve given the imported data a quick review, a final click saves the entire shipment to your arrivals. A task that could have taken hours of meticulous manual work is completed in less time than it takes to make a cup of coffee.

By automating your invoice processing, you not only save an incredible amount of time but also drastically improve the accuracy of your stock management. This leads to better ordering decisions, more reliable stocktakes, and a clearer understanding of your business’s financial health.

Ready to see it in action? Watch our full demonstration video to see just how easy it is.

If you’re an existing client with questions, our dedicated help desk team is always available via live chat. For prospective new customers interested in revolutionising your retail operations, please reach out to our sales team. We would be delighted to show you how our system can work for you.

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Unlock Recurring Revenue with Tower Systems POS Subscription Management

October 16, 2025
3 Min read
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In today’s retail landscape, subscription-based selling is a powerful way to build stable revenue and foster deep customer loyalty. Whether you’re offering monthly gift boxes, annual software licenses, or regular shipments of pet supplies, managing these recurring sales can be an operational headache—but it doesn’t have to be.

Our Tower Systems POS software is equipped with robust features to efficiently manage subscriptions and recurring billing, integrated right into your existing system. We released this a while back and customers are loving it.

Flexible and configurable recurring billing for small business retailers

Our system is designed to handle a wide variety of subscription models with ease:

  • Flexible scheduling: Set billing and fulfillment schedules on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. This is configurable per individual stock item and customer, giving you granular control over your offerings.
  • Customer-specific pricing: Maintain flexibility by establishing varied subscription prices for a single product, tailored to individual customer agreements. This integrated pricing flexibility offers a significant advantage for managing corporate clients or loyalty tiers.
  • Multiple concurrent subscriptions: Your customers can hold multiple subscriptions concurrently, all managed simply within the same POS transaction.

No extra cost for essential tools

A key benefit for local small business retailers is that there is no extra charge for our customers to access the powerful subscription management tools in the Tower Systems POS software. This functionality was introduced as part of a standard software update in early 2024, meaning you can manage your recurring revenue without incurring extra fees for supplementary software.

Who benefits from integrated subscription management?

The new features are designed to support a wide range of specialist retailers, including:

  • Computer retailers: Easily bill for software licenses like Microsoft products, anti-virus, or Office 365subscriptions.
  • Gift shops: Manage the billing and fulfillment of monthly or quarterly curated gift subscription boxes.
  • Pet shops: Schedule regular shipments of flea, worm, or other treatment products.
  • Produce supply businesses & garden centres: Handle committed, regular deliveries for customers.
  • Firearms dealers and any business engaged in regular, committed customer billing.

Expand your market reach

For retailers looking to tap into popular subscription models, such as the sale of samples and curated boxes, Tower Systems simplifies the process. This allows you to easily offer these services and expand your market reach by establishing stable, recurring customer relationships.

The subscription tools in our POS software build on Tower Systems’ extensive history of managing regular customer orders, offering enhanced capabilities that reflect the growth of our user community into new specialist retail sectors. By streamlining your processes, our POS helps you control associated labour expenses and focus on what you do best: serving your customers.

Tower Systems specialises in POS solutions for small and independent retail businesses across Australia and New Zealand. With decades of experience, we provide comprehensive on-premise and cloud-based POS software solutions designed to streamline everything from sales and inventory to customer relationship management. Local support, regular updates, and listening to our customers are the cornerstones of our service.

Ready to simplify your recurring billing and unlock a new revenue stream?

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An easy way for retailers to apportion the cost of freight across products on a supplier invoice

September 23, 2025
2 Min read
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From Frustration to Efficiency: Simplifying Freight Cost Allocation

Handling the cost of freight can be a significant challenge for any retail business. For some, a substantial freight charge on an invoice can be a source of frustration. For others, the practical struggle lies in accurately apportioning that single cost across all the different items in the shipment.

Let’s start with the frustration. The simple truth is that every single item you receive has a freight cost associated with getting it to your store. Sometimes this cost is clearly itemised on your invoice; other times, it’s hidden within the cost of the goods themselves. But either way, it is always there.

The second challenge is the practical one: how do you accurately assign a portion of a $150 freight bill to hundreds of individual products on an invoice? This is where our Tower Systems POS software can help make the process easy.

In our software, you can take the total freight charge shown on an invoice and have it automatically apportioned across all items received. This ensures the landed cost of each product is accurate. The system is flexible, too. If you feel a specific product should carry more or less of the freight burden, you can easily adjust it manually. Plus, if your invoice has more than one freight charge, you can add them all in to be spread across the items.

Handling freight costs accurately and quickly is essential for maintaining healthy margins. Our software is designed to save you time on these crucial back-office tasks. We believe that every minute saved is valuable. Labour has a cost, and the more we can do to help retailers reduce this, the better.

Our software provides independent small businesses with a framework for consistency in their operations. By simplifying processes like freight allocation, we help you establish a reliable and accurate method for reflecting the true cost of your goods, paving the way for smarter pricing and better business decisions.

We love helping local small business retailers thrive. We do this for bookshops, sewing shops, music shops, garden centres, pet shops, toy shops, produce businesses, stockfeed businesses, jewellers, firearms dealers and more – all specialty retailers, all with unique needs, yet businesses with common needs when it comes to managing freight costs.

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Your business, your POS, your way: flexible software for Aussie small business retailers

September 2, 2025
3 Min read
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In the diverse landscape of Australian local small business retail, a one-size-fits-all approach rarely works. A boutique on a bustling city laneway has different needs and technical realities than a hardware store in a regional town, and different needs to a produce business in a rural setting. At Tower Systems, we understand this. That’s why  our Point of Sale software offers genuine flexibility, putting you in complete control of how you run your business.

We believe your POS system should adapt to your business, not the other way around. Ask any of our thousands of local small business retail customers. They can speak to flexibility, the ability to conduct retail their way.

Love the Cloud? We’ve got you covered.

If you want the freedom to access your business data from anywhere, at any time, you can choose to run your Tower Systems POS software 100% in the cloud. This setup is perfect for the modern retailer on the move, allowing you to manage stock, run reports, and keep an eye on sales whether you’re at a trade show, at home, or on holiday.

Prefer to keep it local? No worries.

For many retailers, the top priority is rock-solid stability at the counter. If the internet goes down, you still need to serve your customers. We get it. That’s why you can run our POS software entirely on local computers in your shop. Your sales, stock management, and day-to-day operations continue seamlessly, completely independent of your internet connection.

Got sketchy Internet? We’ve built for it.

This is where our commitment to Australian small business shines. We know that internet reliability can be a challenge, especially outside of major metro areas. If your business operates with a less-than-perfect internet connection, our software provides the perfect solution.

You can run your core POS functions locally, ensuring the till is always operational, and have the software sync your data to the cloud, if thats’s what you want, whenever a stable connection is available. It’s the ultimate safety net, offering the resilience of a local system with the convenient backup and remote access benefits of the cloud. No more stressing when the internet drops out during a busy Saturday rush.

You choose.

Your business is unique, and your POS software should reflect that. Whether you want a pure cloud, strictly local, or a hybrid setup that gives you peace of mind, Tower Systems provides a flexible solution that is appropriate for your specific needs.

We empower you to run your business, your way.

Now, if all this sounds a bit shiny, let us show you. We love talking one-on-one with local small business retailers. We’d also love to connect you with some of our customers.

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What is good POS software to connect to Xero?

August 21, 2025
3 Min read
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Our Tower Systems POS software connected to Xero. For many years we have been a partner of Xero, listed on their website, with a direct to Xero POS software integration that meets the Xero requirements as well as the requirements of the small business retailers we serve.

We are grateful to Xero for listing us as a POS software integration partner and for the opportunity to reach more local small business retailers through this.

What’s the best POS software to connect with Xero? That depends on your needs. We think our Tower Systems POS software is worthy of consideration for jewellers, garden centres, bike shops, pet shops, newsagents,. toy shops, games shops, fashion shops, fabric shops, haberdashery businesses, landscape businesses, music shops, firearms dealers, bookshops, health food shops, organic goods shops and plenty more.

Our POS software is made for local, independent specialty retail shops. Our POS software Xero link saves time, reduces mistakes and helps local retailers run more efficient and successful retail businesses.

Our powerful Tower Advantage Link platform allows Tower Systems’ specialist retail software to connect directly to Xero, one of Australia’s most popular and streamlined accounting services. Linking Retailer to Xero saves you precious time by completing the majority of your day-to-day accounting for you. We are experts at bringing independent retail businesses and Xero together and pride ourselves on connecting business owners with such an innovative, useful service.

If you are in Australia or New Zealand, select a POS software solution that is equally local like Xero. Our Tower Systems POS software is made in Australia and supported in Australia and New Zealand.

Save time, eliminate bookkeeping costs, cut mistakes and make better business decisions sooner with the Tower Systems POS software Xero integration.

The direct connection between your Tower Systems POS and Xero provides a live, accurate snapshot of your business’s financial health. Sales data, inventory adjustments, and customer payments flow seamlessly, eliminating delays and giving you the clarity needed to make informed, strategic decisions on the fly. This real-time visibility is crucial for agile specialty retailers, and our local support team is on hand to ensure your connection is set up smoothly, so you can leverage these powerful insights from day one.

So, to the question What is good POS software to connect to Xero? we think our Tower Systems POS software solution is good POS software to connect to Xero.

While the right POS system for an retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business, Tower Systems was built to serve  Australian and New Zealand local small business specialty retailers. To see how we can help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today. 

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au. 

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Buying a business with POS software? Here’s advice on how to get the most out of this in-place asset

July 15, 2025
2 Min read
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If you are buying a retail business that has POS software there are steps you can take to leverage the asset already in place, to easy your tradition into the business an to find early and easy wins for the business.

We see new owners sometimes want to change the POS software to something they know. What that can make sense, it could be that learning the POS software in place provides a faster pathway to making the business your own, to leverage for you a quicker return on the investment you have made in the business.

Learning the existing software makes it easier for you to make money from the existing data in the business – even is the data is not as well looked after as it may have been.

Our advice is to assess the software, and the data. Make an informed business decision as to whether they are good for how you want to run the business and what you are looking to achieve with and from the business.

Here at Tower Systems we offer new business owners with easy access to wonderful self-serve training resources as well as access to personal one-on-one training. Training is the key to unlocking the best value possible from any POS software. We know that someone trained by us will get far more utility of our POS software than someone not trained by us.

The FREE option is our library of 150+ training videos. These are organised by topic, making it easy for your to learn different parts of the software at your own pace and in your own location and without spending any money.

Our POS software for local small business retailers has many cool business building opportunities cities. Leveraging these takes knowledge of the software tools. This is where good training comes in.

The POS software you inherit could be a treasure chest of business intelligence waiting to be unlocked. It holds the secrets to your customers’ buying habits, seasonal trends, and most profitable product lines. Proper training acts as the key, transforming this raw data into actionable strategies. By investing a little time in learning the system, you empower yourself to not only continue operations seamlessly but to also quickly identify and act on these valuable insights, driving growth and ensuring your new business venture is profitable from the outset.

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Low-cost fast-track Shopify web development opportunity for local small business retailers

May 14, 2025
3 Min read
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If you want a website for your business, and fast, this is for you:

LIMITED TIME OFFER: Low-cost fast-track Shopify web development offer.

Fixed price $3,990.00 (inc. GST)

If you know what you want to sell online; have a logo; have straight forward requirements; offer reasonably easy to ship products; want to go live within a month. This proposal is for you.

In the pre-start assessment, we will assess whether you meet the above requirements. If you do not, we reserve the right to not proceed.

The goal of this project is to deliver you a website you can use to start selling online, to gain experience and that you can maintain with minimal technical knowledge. This is a fast-track option, to help you get online quickly.

The terms and conditions at www.towersystems.com.au apply.

Here’s what’s included in the $3,990.00 fixed price:

  1. Qualification meeting (up to 30 mins): Bring to this over the phone meeting: your logo, about us text, contact text, home page text/images, details (including images) of the products you want to launch with.
  2. 1hr consultation & planning including theme selection.
  3. 1hr support training & Tower Systems Retailer POS software setup to train you on setup of products with product descriptions and images in Retailer for linking to the website.
  4. 10 hours of Shopify store setup by our specialist web developer: Setup pages using the content you supply: Home – you provide images and text. About Us – you provide the text. Contact – you provide the details. One standard product page layout. Blog – you to write about the products you sell, to drive traffic.
  5. Setup structure using your available product feed: Up to 25 menu links.
  6. On completion – up to 2hr Shopify handover training

Costs not included in the quote.

  1. Domain & Email – you’ll need to set these up. It’s straightforward. Register with Crazy Domains or similar.
  2. Theme purchase – if you prefer to not use a free theme.
  3. Shopify plan & transaction fees.
  4. Website plugins you require.

Limits to the proposal.

Our goal is to have your website live in 2 weeks. This depends on how ready you are. We will hold the project for no more than 2 months total. If either additional time is required, or if unresponsive, the site is handed over, as is.

Important note.

A website is a hungry beast. It requires work almost daily to drive traffic and win sales. It will only be as successful as the attention you provide it. This proposal offers you a website that is a good starting point.

Interested?

Please email: sales@towersystems.com.au. They will want to see that you have a logo; have straight forward requirements; offer reasonably easy to ship products; want to go live within a month.

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How AI in your POS system can help your retail business

April 4, 2025
2 Min read
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Ever wondered how AI can actually help your retail business today? Michael, Luke, and Mark – seasoned retail pros with hands-on experience – sat down to discuss the real-world impact of AI tools in POS software. They shared practical examples of saving time and boosting profits, drawing from decades in the industry. Even though they use Tower Systems POS, the insights are gold for any small business retailer. Watch their discussion recorded April 3, 2025, to hear how AI could be a game-changer for you!

Real people talking retail from practical experience. This is the Tower Systems difference on show.

This engaging conversation provides relatable, real-life examples that illustrate the tangible benefits of AI, contrasting old methods with today’s AI-enhanced opportunities. While the discussion touches on the AI capabilities within Tower System POS software, the core business principles and strategic considerations are relevant to any small business retailer exploring the potential of AI. They also address the crucial topic of data security when using AI, offering valuable perspectives on protecting your business’s intellectual property.

This video is part of Tower Systems’ ongoing commitment to providing practical business insights for local small business retailers. It highlights their focus on developing and supporting tailored POS software for niche specialty retailers, including jewellers, garden centres, bike shops, and many more.

Discover how AI in POS software could benefit your retail business. Watch the discussion and learn more about Tower Systems at www.towersystems.com.au, call 1300 662 957, or email sales@towersystems.com.au.

Don’t get overwhelmed by the hype around AI. This discussion cuts through the noise, offering tangible examples of how AI in POS software can streamline your daily tasks, optimize inventory, and personalize customer interactions. Learn from real-world successes and see how these tools, like those in Tower Systems POS, translate to a healthier bottom line for small retailers.

Tower Systems is a small business focussed POS software company developing, and supporting POS software for niche specialty retailers. Jewellers, garden centres, bike shops, toy shops, produce businesses, farm supply businesses, fishing shops, pet shops, charity businesses, landscape gardening businesses, antique shops, sewing shops, haberdashery businesses, newsagents and more benefit from this software.

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The benefits of the Best POS Software for any retail business will be more beneficial than any price difference

March 3, 2025
4 Min read
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There’s POS software, and then there’s the right POS software for your business. The difference between the two can be huge.

Writing POS software is easy. Writing POS software that delivers on specialty retail needs is more complex.

It’s not about price you pay for the software, it’s about the commercial benefits to your business.

Even though plenty of companies want you to think it is about price of the software. They want you to believe it’s all about price because that’s how they compete. Competing on price is easy – and lazy – as any retailer knows.

People who buy based on price aren’t loyal. And loyalty matters when it comes to POS software.

  • You want your POS software company to invest in their software – the software you’re using.
  • You want them to focus on serving you, not chasing customers who only want the cheapest option.
  • You want more from the software for your business than just a quick dopamine hit from a low price.

It’s not about price because that’s the least of the costs of POS software.

The best POS software saves you time. It helps you make better decisions. It helps you stand out from the competition and attract loyal customers. It helps you nurture better employees and reduce your stress levels. Ultimately, the best POS software is about money because of all these things. It will help you run a more enjoyable and valuable retail business.

Take your time. Make the right decision.

Too often, POS software companies pressure small business retailers into making a quick decision. They chase sales and apply unnecessary pressure. Don’t succumb to this. Make the decision you feel best about, when you’re ready.

Get this right, and you can tap into some awesome benefits from the right POS software for your retail business. Here are some of the benefits we offer retailers we partner with:

  • Save time with electronic invoices from suppliers.
  • Offer personal customer service by tracking dates that are important to your customers.
  • Use tags to get a fresh perspective on stock performance.
  • Leverage your knowledge. If you believe your expertise is a differentiator, offer it through structured opportunities in the software.
  • Easily handle special customer orders. Bring product in for a specific customer and have them notified automatically by email or text when the goods arrive.
  • Build business-differentiating loyalty. Stand out from the crowd and have customers coming back to you for this. We’re told it’s a game-changer.
  • Maximise the basket with easy-to-use one-time shopper loyalty tools.
  • Trade and club pricing profiles. Set pricing rules based on customer type.
  • Leverage your local community with an awesome two-way benefits package.
  • Make money from pre-orders. Easily pre-sell a delivery so that when the stock arrives, you can manage distribution and billing efficiently.
  • Differentiate with informative receipts. These can include product care, use and safety information based on what customers buy.
  • Differentiate with bundles. Selling items bundled together makes price comparison difficult.
  • Track who sold what.
  • Say goodbye to LayBy (if you want) with buy now, pay later options.
  • Market to customers based on past purchases.
  • Save time by importing electronic invoices.
  • Sell more with a direct connection to buy now, pay later services.
  • Cut mistakes with integrated EFTPOS.
  • Cut accounting and bookkeeping fees with integration to Xero and others.
  • Easily sell online with a direct link to Shopify, Magento or WooCommerce from your POS software.

These are tangible deliverables, and the list is incomplete. Using our POS software, you can expect even more benefits than these.

Remember: Choosing the right POS software is an investment in your business’s future. Take your time, research your options, and select the system that best meets your needs and supports your growth.

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How POS software embedded AI tools from Tower Systems help small business retailers

January 23, 2025
2 Min read
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Back in mid 2022, Tower Systems released the first embedded AI tools in its POS software that serves local small business retailers. In the time since, we have further enhanced our embedded AI tools facilities, expanding the assistances delivered to our indie retailer customer base.

Being an early-adopter in the AI within POS software space has helped it win new customers. More important that this is the help we have delivered to our POS software customers.

The AI tools embedded in our POS software, which our customers can choose to use or not, focus on saving time, improving the speed and quality of decision making, revealing hitherto unknown insights about the business and increasing sales.

Making these POS software AI tools available for small business retailers positioned Tower Systems well back in 2022, a position maintained as we have delivered more AI assist tools within the software and without additional cost tour customers.

From auto generation of product descriptions to auto population of product data and images to discovering decisions that can be taken that will absolutely make more money for the business – these AI tools in the Tower Systems POS software have tangible commercial value.

One retailer told us that they have reduced allocated time for some tasks by 12 hours a month thanks to the tools. Another retailer told us that they can track thousands of dollars of additional revenue directly back to using the AI tool in the POS software.

2025 will see significant enhancements of the AI tools embedded in the Tower Systems POS software with the first of these just a few weeks away. This update, which is already in testing, delivers extraordinary benefits that will help local small business retailers compete beyond what has been possible until now.

Tower Systems has been a pioneer in leveraging the power of AI to empower local small business retailers. By proactively integrating cutting-edge AI capabilities within our POS software, we’ve not only differentiated ourselves in the market but also provided invaluable support to our customers. These AI-driven tools deliver real, measurable results, from increased efficiency and reduced workload to significant revenue growth.

As we continue to innovate and expand our AI offerings, Tower Systems remains committed to equipping independent retailers with the technology and insights they need to thrive in today’s competitive landscape.

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3 ways any local small business retailer can improve their profit

January 7, 2025
3 Min read
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Growing a retail business is all about building on success. Each step forward paves the way for the next, creating a snowball effect for your profits. Here are three easy ti implement strategies any small business retailer can implement to achieve this compounding effect.

These are easy strategies. You can remember and use them in many different business decisions you make. We’ve gone with 3 because it’s easy to remember them and use them.

1. Attract New Customers: go beyond your usual base

It’s fantastic to have returning customers, but relying solely on them limits your growth. Every single day, dedicate some effort to attracting fresh faces. Here are some ideas to get you started:

  • Create eye-catching window displays. Think unique, vibrant, and relevant to your products. You want people to stop when they notice the window from the corner of their eye.
  • Be active on social media. Share engaging posts, stories, and promotions that resonate with your target audience. Be personal. Give of yourself.
  • Partner with local community groups. Sponsor events, offer discounts to members, and build connections within the community. Be local.
  • Support local club member fundraisers. This not only helps a good cause, but gets your brand in front of a new group of potential customers.

2. Maximise Your Gross Profit Percentage: be smart about buying and pricing

The price you pay for your products and how you price them directly impacts your profit margin. Here’s a two-pronged approach:

  • Negotiate the best deals possible with your suppliers. Every cent saved on your end translates to more profit in your pocket.
  • Focus on offering value and price accordingly. Don’t simply race to the bottom by constantly undercutting competitors. Highlight the benefits and unique selling points of your products and price them fairly. Add value in your service and price products accordingly. If people shop with you because you are convenient, price that in when you can.

3. Encourage Customers to Spend More: the art of the “bigger basket”

Strategic product placement can significantly increase the average amount customers spend per visit. Consider these tactics:

  • Place impulse buys near counters and high-traffic areas. Small, attractive items like phone cases, chocolates, or accessories can easily be added to a customer’s final purchase.
  • Learn from past buying patterns. Analyse what people tend to buy together and use this data to guide product placement. For example, if socks are frequently bought with shoes, consider positioning them nearby.
  • Utilise loyalty programs strategically. Loyalty programs can encourage repeat business and incentivise higher spending. Make sure your loyalty program is easily understood and quick for shoppers to engage with.

Tower Systems: your partner in profitable retail

At Tower Systems, our Australian-made POS software can help you implement these strategies and more. We’re not your average POS company – we serve local specialty retail, small business retail, independent retail. We are retail experienced and can empathise with local retailers in practical ways.

We understand the unique challenges faced by local Aussie retailers. For over 26 years, we’ve been helping our 3,000+ customers run more successful, enjoyable, and profitable businesses. Beyond our software, we offer ongoing support, data-driven insights, and expert business analysis to keep your retail dreams thriving.

We’d love to find out about your needs: 

Website: www.towersystems.com.au
Phone Australia: 1300 662 957
Phone New Zealand: 0800 444 367
Email: sales@towersystems.com.au

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Software for game shops helps these specialty shops serve those who love playing games

December 20, 2024
2 Min read
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Game shop owners and team members know that standing out in a competitive market requires more than just a passion for gaming. It demands a robust and efficient point-of-sale (POS) system tailored to your specific needs. That’s where Tower Systems’ game shop POS software comes in. It’s made for your type of business.

Designed specifically for game shops, this software has evolved from our popular toy shop solution to cater to the unique requirements of the game retail. From handling special orders and sharing game insights to fostering strong relationships with local gaming communities, this software empowers you to thrive.

Here are some of the features and benefits:

  • Local Focus: Leverage your local advantage and differentiate your business from larger competitors.
  • Expert Knowledge Sharing: Easily share your gaming expertise with customers, building trust and loyalty.
  • Effective Loyalty Programs: Implement innovative loyalty programs to drive repeat business and increase customer value.
  • Data-Driven Insights: Gain valuable insights into sales trends, product performance, and customer behavior to optimize your business.
  • Seamless Online Integration: Expand your reach and boost sales with a seamless connection to your Shopify store.

But wait, there’s more (our software is not cliche tho):

  • Streamlined Operations: Save time and effort with electronic supplier invoices, easy special order management, and efficient pre-order processing.
  • Customer-Centric Approach: Implement community group pricing, track serial numbers, and ensure age verification compliance.
  • Innovative Loyalty Programs: Stand out from the crowd with personalized loyalty rewards and incentives.
  • Strategic Bundling: Create attractive product bundles to increase average order value and simplify pricing comparisons.
  • Flexible Payment Options: Offer convenient buy-now-pay-later options to cater to diverse customer preferences.
  • Targeted Marketing: Leverage customer purchase history to deliver personalized marketing campaigns.
  • Simplified Accounting: Integrate with Xero and other accounting software to streamline financial processes.
  • Enhanced Online Presence: Seamlessly sell online through your Shopify store, directly linked to your POS system.

Contact Tower Systems today to learn more about how our game shop POS software can help you achieve your business goals. We’re excited to show you firsthand how this powerful tool can transform your operations and drive your success.

This software is not standing still. It continues to evolve, thanks in part to advice from our customers and their suggestions, which we genuinely appreciate.

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See how a POS software-integrated Shopify website is helping a local shop thrive

December 9, 2024
1 Min read
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A few months ago, we embarked on a small experiment: building a website for a local suburban Melbourne shop on a tight budget. The goal was to test the waters and see what could be achieved with minimal investment.

Starting with a modest product range, the website quickly began generating sales. In just the past seven weeks, this simple online store has raked in over $18,000 without any additional marketing spend or inventory investment. This new video from us takes you behind the scenes on what we have been able to do through the Hugs and Love website integration with our POS software.

The Hugs and Love website (www.hugsandlove.com.au) is a prime example of how seamlessly integrating Tower Systems POS software with Shopify can streamline online sales and fulfilment processes for local businesses. This powerful combination allows businesses to efficiently manage their inventory, process orders, and fulfill purchases both in-store and online.

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Are you giving your POS software company a percentage of each sale in your shop?

November 28, 2024
2 Min read
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A growing trend among some Point of Sale (POS) software companies is to charge retailers not only for access to their software but also a percentage of each sale. They often justify this practice as a fee for their payment processing services. However, many retailers suspect these companies are profiting from the difference between the rates they pay their payment providers and the rates they charge to merchants.

This business model allows POS software companies to generate significant revenue, essentially taking a cut of every sale a retailer makes. While some retailers may be content with this arrangement, others are concerned about the impact on their bottom line.

Do you want your POS software company to take a slice of profit from every sale you make?

For businesses focused on maximising profits, it’s crucial to carefully evaluate POS software options. Not all POS providers impose these additional fees. Many offer straightforward pricing models, such as monthly or annual subscriptions, without taking a percentage of sales. By choosing a POS system that doesn’t profit from your transactions, retailers can retain more of their hard-earned revenue.

At Tower Systems, we believe in transparency and fairness. We do not charge our customers per transaction or take a share of their profits. Our pricing model is simple: a modest monthly rental fee. This straightforward approach allows retailers to focus on running their businesses without worrying about hidden costs.

By avoiding these additional fees, retailers can improve their profit margins and reinvest in their businesses. Whether it’s hiring new staff, expanding inventory, or upgrading equipment, every dollar saved on POS fees can make a significant difference.

As a retailer, it’s important to be aware of these hidden costs and to choose a POS software provider that aligns with your business goals. By selecting a transparent and affordable solution, you can optimize your operations and maximize your profits.

Here at Tower Systems we do not charge our customers per transaction, were do not take a share of your profit. The only cost for using our POS software is the modest monthly POS software rental fee, our pricing is transparent. Again, there is no per transaction cost, no slicing into your profits.

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Does your POS software company charge you a fee per transaction in your shop?

November 26, 2024
2 Min read
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If your POS software company takes a cut of your sales, read this.

If your POS software company charges a fee for every sale you make, you might want to reconsider. Here at Tower Systems, we don’t charge per-transaction fees. Our pricing is transparent, and your software cost won’t increase as your sales grow.

Not all POS software companies operate this way. Some POS software companies require you to use their payment platform, which means you pay them a percentage of every transaction. This can be a significant cost, especially for growing businesses. As your sales increase, what they make from your business increases.

Payments are a hot topic for retailers, particularly small businesses. There’s a big difference between payment platforms in terms of cost and benefits.

While there’s been a lot of hype about unified payments, the truth is, integrated payments have been around for many years. They’ve always been about streamlining the checkout process, reducing errors, and improving security.

The latest hype around unified payments or integrated payments is cover, we think, for a move by some POS software companies who want a slice of every sale you make.

Tower Systems offers integrated payments with all major banks and many other providers. We give you the freedom to choose the payment platform that best suits your business, potentially saving you up to a third on transaction fees. Some of our retailers pay as little as 0.7% per transaction.

We believe in putting our customers first. We don’t lock you into our payment platform. Instead, we focus on providing great POS software. We think it’s unfair for software companies to profit from every sale you make. It’s like a hidden tax on your hard work.

Tower Systems offers:

  • Integrated EFTPOS payments
  • Support for all major banks and financial institutions
  • Integrated buy now, pay later payments
  • Time savings
  • Fewer errors at the checkout
  • Easy record-keeping
  • Streamlined workflow

We’ve been pioneers in integrated payments since the beginning in Australia. We offer choice and focus on providing software that retailers love.

Tower Systems is proud to serve over 3,500 small businesses across Australia, New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea.

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Shopify POS software integrated solution helps small business retailers win online sales

November 24, 2024
3 Min read
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In today’s digital age, a strong online presence is essential for small businesses. Here at Tower Systems we are grateful to help many local small business retailers win online thanks to a beautiful and robust POS software integration with Shopify, the leading ecommerce platform used the world over.

Not all POS software integrates with Shopify. Some connect, but not direct. Some have come to the Shopify party late. We were here early and have enhanced the SHopify POS software direct integration to make the most of enhancements on both sides, including smart use of AI for retailers keen for fast and AI charged text to help capture eyeballs in the search world.

Everything we do in this POS software / Shopify integration space is about maximising profit for the local small business retailers we are grateful to serve. Our innovation with Shopify is part of this.

Using the Tower Systems POS software Shopify integration you manage your inventory through our software and this inventory data, including images, flows to Shopify, and sales achieved through Shopify flow back to the Tower Systems POS software.

The seamless integration of Shopify with our POS software, a two-way integration, help local small business retailers to manage both physical and online sales.

Here is why we think considering the Tower Systems POS software Shopify solution is a good and worthy move:

  • Seamless integration: Our POS software seamlessly integrates with Shopify, ensuring a smooth flow of data between your physical store and online shop.
  • Centralised inventory management: Keep track of your inventory in one place, regardless of where it’s sold. It is completely managed in the POS software.
  • Enhanced online presence: Our team of experienced web developers can create stunning Shopify websites tailored to your specific needs.
  • Expert guidance: Benefit from our consultative approach to help you discover new online opportunities and attract more customers.
  • Fast-track website development: Get your online store up and running quickly with our expedited website development process.

Now, here is how it works:

  1. Data synchronisation: Sales data, inventory information, and product images are automatically synchronised between your POS and Shopify.
  2. Centralised inventory management: Manage your inventory from a single platform, ensuring accurate stock levels across all sales channels.
  3. Seamless checkout experience: Provide a consistent and convenient shopping experience for your customers, whether they’re in-store or online.
  4. Enhanced online marketing: Leverage our expertise in keyword research and SEO to optimise your online store for search engines.

The Power of Shopify and Tower Systems

By combining the power of Shopify’s e-commerce platform with Tower Systems’ POS software, you can:

  • Expand your reach: Attract new customers from around the world.
  • Increase sales: Drive sales through both your physical store and online shop.
  • Improve efficiency: Streamline your operations and reduce manual tasks.
  • Make data-driven decisions: Gain valuable insights into your business performance.

If you’re a small business owner looking to enhance your online presence, Tower Systems can help. Our team of experts will work with you to create a customised solution that meets your unique needs. We can demonstrate our POS software and demonstrate integrations we have done with Shopify for many of our customers.

Contact us today to learn more about how our Shopify integration can benefit your business.

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Small business POS software Q&A

October 24, 2024
4 Min read
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Here are answers to questions we are often asked:

Are you Australian based? Yes.

Do you make your POS software? Yes.

How do I contact your help desk? By phone or email. Our help desk is Australian based with one team member working from New Zealand.

When can I contact you for help? Weekdays: 7am through 6PM AEST, Saturdays 7:30am through 3PM AEST. After hours for urgent calls: 24/7.

Do you have a knowledge base I can search? Yes.

Do you have training videos? Yes

How up to date are your training videos? Very – we add content regularly – many new videos in the last three months.

Can I ask support questions without having to speak to someone? Yes, we offer a closed network AI tool that relies solely on our own intellectual property. This is free and available 24/7.

What if I am unhappy with support? You can escalate to our Chief Operating Officer or our Managing Director – every customer is given their direct numbers and email addresses.

Can I run the software in the cloud? Yes.

Can I run the software on my desktop? Yes.

Can I backup to the cloud? Yes.

How long am I locked in with software rental? There is no lock-in. You can cancel rental at any time and billing stops immediately – once the current month is completed, there is no further charge.

Can we offer a special price to members of a club or some other group? Yes.

Can we market to members of clubs or teachers or schools? Yes.

Can we track sales to club or school members to rebate as a fundraising opportunity? Yes.

Can you pass on product care manuals and other documentation? Yes, you can load files, images, documents or PDFs for products (information sheets, advice, notices) and have them automatically included in emailed receipts.

Can we promote things on receipts? Yes.

Can we use the software to manage repairs? Yes. You can track jobs, parts and labour. Plus, communication with customers is streamlined.

Can we remind customers about servicing or similar? Yes.

Can we do this by text or email? Either, we support both.

Can we look-up historical servicing records for a specific customer? Yes.

Can we create a quote for a customer? Yes.

Can we track / manage quotes? Yes.

Can we track using parts from our shop and labour to make a product? Yes.

Can the software track special or one-off orders for customers? Yes, from the moment the order is placed.

Can we manage buying and selling second-hand items? Yes.

Can we group items together to sell in a pack or bundle? Yes, it’s easy to create packs using the software.

Does the software track product serial numbers? Yes. You have a couple of different ways you can do this.

Can we integrate the software with our suppliers? Yes. We have many customers importing stock files and invoices. If you want to provide a supplier a data feed of sales of their product, our software can do this too.

Does the software connect with our website? We partner with Shopify, Big Commerce, Magento and WooCommerce and offer direct links to these.

Can we email receipts? Yes.

Can we track where our customers come from? Yes.

Do we have to pay for software on additional computers in our business? No.

Does the software handle LayBys? Yes.

Can we connect with our EFTPOS terminal? Yes. We have a direct link to Tyro and through Linkly we connect to all major banks.

Can we use our existing hardware? Yes, as long as your hardware meets our minimum standards.

Can we use our existing data with the software? Yes. We’d like to check your data to be sure. We will advise what can be safely brought across.

Does it integrate with Xero? Yes.

Can the software age check on certain products? Yes.

Do you offer a business insights platform? Yes.

Can I use the software for a pop-up shop? Yes, our retailer Roam does this.

Do you offer a self checkout option? Yes.

Do you push software updates on me? No. You choose if and when to update.

Can I suggest changes for an update? Yes. Customers transparently vote on these.

These are some of the questions we have been asked by retailers considering our POS software. We hope our responses are helpful.

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