The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

CategoryGarden centre software

Tyro EFTPOS for small business retailers through POS software

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Tyro EFTPOS has been integrated with our Tower Systems POS software for small business retailers for more than ten years. The Tyro integration is simple, effective, seamless and fast… all factors that matter to small business retailers keen for a smooth counter operation for their businesses.

The thousands of retailers using the Tower Systems POS software for specialty retail can bank on Tyro for delivering counter and mobile based EFTPOS access, including through the Tower Systems Retailer Roam product that takes retail on the road, out of the shop and into the field, the markets and the farm gate.

We like Tyro because it is a smart interface, one that works well for small business retailers, delivering EFTPOS solutions that are best-practice and secure.

Through the recent COVID-19 challenges, Tyro has been our preferred payment solution for small business retailers, as it offers contactless EFTPOS integrated with the Tower Systems Point of Sale software.

At Tower Systems, we use Tyro EFTPOS in our own shops and have done so for many years. We like the streamlined operation, the security, the speed and the ease of settlement. Tyro makes doing business a breeze for our retail shops and we think many retailers using Tyro EFTPOS integrated with our POS software would agree.

Tower Systems is well positioned thanks to a solid relationship with Tyro and our experience across eleven specialty retail channels. The Tyro and POS software solution is robust, proven and used in more than 1,000 retail outlets in Australia.

Together, our integration is regularly updated, ensuring it is current and continues to be useful in serving the evolving needs of small business retailers. This matters now more than ever, because the environment of the retail industry is constantly changing.

Working with the tech folks at Tyro, we are able to deliver an integrated Tyro and POS software solution that is dependable, useful and financially rewarding.

Tower Systems offers first level support for retailers using the integrated Tyro and POS software solution, offering a one stop shop support entry point, delivering fast access to help on any Tyro related query. We pass these queries to Tyro’s 24/7 Australian-based Customer Support team if they are outside our remit. In both support cases, most are easily handled and retailers are able to get back to business quickly.

Tyro is a breeze to work with. We are grateful for the relationship and the value it brings to our small business customer community.

Click frenzy for Tower Systems POS software customers

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We are thrilled to bring a click frenzy like opportunity to the Tower Systems small business community.

If you have a website, come and join our small business to small business promotion. To promote the websites of Tower customers to other Tower customers, we invite you to set up an offer code – [redacted] – in your website to run from July 6 to July 31, giving those who use the code a discount, which you set.

This is a click frenzy opportunity with a difference. It is within our small business POS software user community only.

Email Tash, our admin expert, your web address, one line on the product categories and the discount the code delivers. Our advice on the discount is be bold with a discount designed to help you get icing on the cake type sales, sales you would otherwise not get.

Here are two examples from us:

www.cutenessoverload.com.au; all things cute; 25%.
www.mintcoinshop.com.au; coins from the Royal Australian Mint; 10%.

To ensure consistency of information in the list we will share with our customers, please follow this standard.

Our goal here is to help you show off your website and to, hopefully, get more small business retailers buying from small business retailers. We want to give you a valuable click frenzy sales boost of online sales.

Ours is a diverse small business community. We’d love to see this diversity reflected in the range of websites that join this promotion.

We will only promote it to Tower Systems customers. That is to 3,000+ small business retailers.

Plus…

We will include a list of all Tower POS software connected retailers who send us the above information on our own website. This will be a new page we create: Retail Businesses We Love. That listing will have your business name and web address. We will not publicly share the discount code. The goal of the listing is to give you another backlink.

This Tower Systems small business retailer click frenzy opportunity is another way we are working with and helping our small business retailer community to reach people and to drive business opportunities from other small business retailers.

Our click frenzy campaign also helps small business retailers expand the reach of people to their new websites and through this to get more experiences about online sales.

R3: new generation POS software made in Australia for Aussie small business retailers

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Hundreds of small business retailers have installed R3, the next generation POS software from Tower Systems. R3 is a technical step forward in small business POS software.

Its release last week is the culmination of months of beta testing and acceptance testing through partners with which Tower Systems connects through its POS software.

  • R3 POS software delivers access too a fresh and current design look and feel. It is 2020 sostfwasre for the 2020 marketplace.
  • R3 POS software uses a stronger and more robust data management system providing safe, secure and fast access to business data.
  • R3 POS software is written in a langauge that is forward leaning, setting Tower Systems and it customers up for wonderful advance opportunities in the back half of this year and into next year.
  • R3 POS software delivers new facilities, bonus facilities through which retailers can extend their businesses.
  • R3 POS software delivers a replacement of core facilities. Yes, we did a Marie Kondo, thanking parts of the software for their service and letting them go, replacing them for completely new, completely rewritten facilities, that truly spark joy.

Our R3 release is us investing in the future of the small business retailers we serve and those we are yet to welcome to our Tower Systems small business retailer community. The project itself began three years ago and involved more than 10 IT professionals working together to design and build awesome next-generation POS software for our specialty retail channels. This team did this work while our existing software was itself enhanced and supported.

The million dollar plus project is an investment we are proud to have delivered for our customers and for our own community working in the Tower Systems business.

This is what POS software companies do. They make software. And, making software is complex, expensive, time- consuming and inexact. hence, the long beta release program as we finessed the software to ensure it served the needs of our customers.

R3 is truly innovative POS software. It is backed with excellent help and training, seamless data conversion and more as we take the hands of our small business retail customers and bring them to the new world of R3, next generation POS software for small business retailers in Australia and New Zealand.

Discount vouchers: differentiating loyalty in POS software from Tower Systems

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We are grateful for the success our discount voucher facilities in our POS software have delivered to small business retailers since February 2013.  Last week, we got together with a small group to explore the discount vouchers and to understand the opportunity operationally in small business retail.  Our goal was to record content for others. Here is a video of some of that meeting.

Instant asset write-off options for small business retailers

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Harvey Norman is engaged in ad ad blitz right now pitching to businesses for instant asset write off business prior to June 30. They are spending big to entice businesses to spend big with them.

Click here to access the instant asset write off information on the Tax Office website. We think it is important that businesses act on up to date advice from the government authority overseeing the tax write off program.

This year, some shelter changes were made to the instant asset write off program:

From 12 March 2020 until 31 December 2020 the instant asset write-off:

  • threshold amount for each asset is $150,000 (up from $30,000)
  • eligibility has been expanded to cover businesses with an aggregated turnover of less than $500 million (up from $50 million).

Here at Tower Systems, our interest is small business retailers and, in particular, helping them with our POS software written for a range of niche specialty retailers. This is POS software made in Australia for their types of businesses.

Installing our POS software and related infrastructure is an eligible purchase for any business, it meets the criteria for the instant asset write-off program. Our POS software could be financially beneficial and operationally beneficial to a business this financial year. Our focus, through good use of the POS software, is to help small business retailers run more efficient and valuable businesses.

  • Computer hardware purchases.
  • Tablet, iPad and similar purchases.
  • Network infrastructure purchases.
  • Printer, scanner, scale and other purchases.
  • Software.
  • Software support.

All of these and other expenses can be investments that help any retail business and they could be useful when the and retail business is planning to tap into the instant asset write-off opportunity.

The Tax Office and accounting professionals are the ones best positioned to guide any purchase, to help any business ensure they purchase to maximise their spending and deduction opportunity.

Our job here at Tower Systems is to help small business retailers leverage our POS software for the best possible use in a business, for management certainty and through this to drive the best value possible for a business. Oh, and to help those in the business enjoy the business.

Any retail business keen to explore instant asset write-off opportunities can speak with us here at Tower Systems and we will help as much as we are able. We also appreciate specking with accountants, to ensure that any transactions meet they requirements they identify for their clients.

Australian made garden centre POS software made for Australian garden centres and garden supply businesses

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Last week, we released a major update to our Aussie made and supported business software for garden centre and garden supply businesses.

This is Australian made garden centre software for local Australian businesses. Our focus is on independent and small retail businesses.

Our garden centre POS software is finely tuned to the needs specific to garden centres as their needs are not traditional POS software needs. Our specialisation has come about over years of service with and to this niche retail channel.

We are proudly developing local software for local businesses and our garden centre POS software reflects this. We say are as development is not done as this software continues too evolve to meet the evolving needs of this specialty retail marketplace.

Our specialty garden centre software offers many benefits including:

  1. Special customer orders – get a sale today, before you order the stock.
  2. Loyalty rewards customers love. Encourage return visits and purchases.
  3. Sell you. Extended product descriptions help you offer plant care info.
  4. Bagging up. Bag bulk products smaller packs, with accurate stock data.
  5. Genuinely informative receipts. Share information that sets you apart.
  6. Quote and invoice management. Strong, flexible, fit for purpose.
  7. Trade pricing profiles supporting pricing flexibility for your customers.
  8. Customer account management: Professional and accurate control.
  9. Catalogues. Easily manage special pricing for a date range.
  10. Pricing profiles. You can set pricing rules based on types of customers.
  11. Sell by weight, including fractions.
  12. Seasonal reordering. Easily reorder inventory based on seasonal sales.
  13. Weatherproof labels.
  14. Stock write offs – done in a structured way feeding into your accounts.

You can rent our garden centre software for $185.00 a month. This provides, among other things:

  1. Australian developed and supported POS software.
  2. Software updates as we release them.
  3. Unlimited computer licences for your location.
  4. Shopify / Magento / Woo link. Easily sell online from your POS software. We are partners.
  5. Xero link. Direct. We are a Xero partner. Easing bookkeeping costs and streamlining accounting.
  6. Our OzBiz link. This helps you link to MYOB and Quicken through OzBiz.
  7. Tyro link – safe, fast and easy EFTPOS link for streamlined sales.
  8. PC Eftpos link. This offers easy EFTPOS processing for the major banks.
  9. Easy to setup and run  buy now pay later options with Zip Pay and Humm.
  10. Support – help desk access.
  11. Training – unlimited one-on-one training over the phone.
  12. User documentation. Access to our searchable knowledge base.

Rent for $185.00 each 30 days, in advance. It can be cancelled at any time. You can also choose to purchase the software outright.

Tower Systems is a vertical market POS software company. We make specialty POS software for specialty marketplace needs.  Our garden centre software fits with this goal. It is highly tuned to the needs of local garden centres.

Stocktake using POS software for small business retailers

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Here is a video of a Zoom meeting we held for our POS software customers last week. The core reason for the meeting was to record this and make it available to our customers as free training.  Since release, the view numbers and feedback have been terrific. We have many more training videos online for our customers.

Free stocktake training for Tower Systems POS software users

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We are all set to go for our free live POS software stocktake training Zoom meeting this morning. We will share time saving tips, data accuracy tips and more as we share train ing on how to stocktake using our POS software. We will cover a full stocktake, a spot stocktake and a custom stocktake.

Better still, we will record the meeting and make it available t all of our POS software customers along with our articles of advice on stocktaking and our free one-on-one training on stocktaking.

This end of financial year, Tower Systems has you covered for stocktakes.

SEO assistance for Australian retailer websites

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Tower Systems offers small business retailers a comprehensive SEO services website marketing package that aims to help the target website to attract more visitors. This is offered as part of our POS software connected website development services for small business retailers.

SEO, Search Engine Optimisation, can be complex and misunderstood, and confused with SEM, Search Engine Marketing. Click here to see a video of a discussion we had with customers about SEO and SEM for small business retailers. This video is an example of our transparent approach in helping small business retailers in the areas of SEO and SEM.

If you have a website and are keen to see it rank more highly online, for a modest fixed price of $990.00 (inc. GST) we offer the following SEO package of services:

  1. We will keyword target the site with 30 – 40 backlinks, to help Google more easily find your site. Backlinks are a critical factor in driving Google ranking.
  2. We will report on current your traffic and provide a PDF of a detailed report. This will provide insights that can help retailers to enhance the website to better improve SEO performance.
  3. We will report on current keyword traffic and provide a PDF of details. This, too, will help in SEO related decisions as to site structure and landing page optimisation to help drive search results.
  4. We will email advice on suggested POS software connected website improvements. This advice will cover SEO as well as SEM opportunities.
  5. We will provide advice for you on how to get others to link to your site, to further drive shopper traffic for the website.

We created the SEO services package in response to requests from retailers using our POS software connected to websites. They were keen to learn how we had been able to get other consumer facing websites ranking well.

The work is undertaken by our SEO professionals in a timely and transparent manner. The work is based on our own years of experience driving outcomes for our own various e-commerce sites pitching a broad range of consumer goods in several niche categories.

The work would commence within a week of being ordered and would be completed within 2 weeks.

iPad POS software offers flexibility for small business retailers

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Retailer Roam from Tower Systems is portable iPad POS software, offering retailers to sell where they want, when they want and how they want.

A counter is not needed.

A shop is not needed.

That’s right, you can sell from the back of the car or a trunk, at a market, at someone’s one. This is portable POS software, I{Pad POS software for people on the move.

This is truly portable iPad POS software that you can access from the app stores for retail on the go. It’s Australian made and Australian supported for small business retailers.

This iPad POS software can also connect to Shopify and Magento websites, too, offer online, in-store and on the road sales. It’s flexible, made for retail today.

Better still, thanks to the support of the federal government’s ipAustralia trademark and rights agency, retailer Roam is being trademarked to us for iPad POS software in service of retail businesses.

Here is a list of what retailer Roam can do for any retailer today:

  • Cash/EFTPOS Sales
  • Invoice Sales
  • Create a LayBy
  • Sell stock with Serial Numbers
  • Loyalty Point Redemption & Acrrual
  • Customised POS Screens
  • Variants
  • Refunds
  • Basic End of Shift
  • Stocktaking
  • Re-ordering
  • Integrated EFTPOS

What a great list! This is iPad POS software made for businesses on the go. You don’t even need internet access to transact.

This is a cloud based POS solution, bring iPad POS software to live in an affordable and useful package for small business retailers like garden centres, farm supply businesses, fishing and outdoors retailers, jewellers, pet shops, makers, artists and more.

Retailer Roam is a tablet app-based iPad based POS software solution. The app runs on Apple iPad and Android based tablets. It can run connected over WiFi or any other network. It can also run disconnected, syncing when connected again to a network at a later time.

As the name suggests Retailer Roam enables the business to roam to transact sales. You can accept cash, EFTPOS (Tyro Integration), Invoice an account or create a LayBy. Selling is through a screen designed specifically for Retailer Roam and the devices on which it would be run.

We are grateful to bring this opportunity to life.

Cloud POS software for small business retailers, made and supported in Australia

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Our Australian developed and supported cloud POS software for small business retailers serves the specialty needs of: garden centres, produce businesses, farm supply businesses, fishing and outdoors businesses, toy shops, pet shops, newsagents, jewellers, adult shops, homewares shops, gift shops, firearms dealers, butchers and more.

Specialty retail is our thing.

Serving POS software in the cloud is also our thing.

Using our cloud POS software, retailers can tap into the benefits of managed IT infrastructure without having to install the software themselves, locally on their own computers. While they can do that if they wish, we offer our cloud POS as a solution for those keen on being shielded from this work.

Cloud POS is fully functional for the retail businesses we serve in our focus on niche retail channels. We can  host through our professional hosting relationships. Alternatively, you can host through any platform you prefer. We offer complete flexibility in our cloud POS hosting options, in service of genuine flexibility for our retail small business partners.

The big question often asked is what is cloud POS and do I need it? Cloud POS is POS software, running on a hosted computer not located in the business.  It usually comes with automatic backup, easy access, speed, built in redundancy and more. I can also come with no need to update the software as it is updated by the software co. With us, you choose the level of cloud POS that is right for your own business needs.

Tower Systems has offered cloud POS solutions for the last fifteen years to small single shop businesses through to bigger small businesses. One customer has more than 15 outlets connected through the cloud. No matter what size your retail business, our cloud POS solution can be in service of your needs.

Now, if cloud is not the right fit for you, we offer desktop, local server access too. You can choose the level of tech that is right for your own business needs. As we say, we’re here to help – that is why we appreciate conversations to make it easy to determine what works best in your situation.

Cloud POS is a terrific and easy to access solution for many different retail business situations.

Why Australian made Point of Sale software is important to Australian retailers

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Australian retailers benefit from using Australian made and Australian supported Point of Sale software.

Of course we would say this, we are an Australian Point of Sale software company. We want you to buy from us. That is true. But moire important, we want you to buy Australian.

If your local Australian retail businesses ever pitches shop local, then where you source what you use and sell in your business matters. The COVID-19 pandemic and the economic response has brought that into sharp focus. It has helped us understand that our local economy matters.

Being an Australian Point of Sale software company we are focussed on serving here and nearby, like in New Zealand, Fiji and other pacific nations.

Buying your Point of Sale software local…

  1. Keeps jobs local.
  2. Drives local tax revenue.
  3. Nurtures tech skills development locally.
  4. Ensures more relevant software because it have been developed locally.
  5. Provides access to more timely and local support.
  6. Puts your closer to the developers and therefore more likely to influence enhancement.
  7. Gives you a perfect answer for people who ask how much of your business is local.
  8. Nurtures Australia to bee smarter.

The economy is circular. People shopping in your shop need money for their purchases. The most valuable money they can bring into your business to spend is that which they have earned locally. The more your buying supports local jobs the better for your business and every there local business.

The cliche is true, we’re all in this together. This is at the heart of why shopping locally for inventory and business infrastructure matters, it is why buying Point of Sale software locally matters.

Tower Systems is a proud local POS software company. We proudly make our software for local retailers. We are grateful to the 3,500+ local retailers who have partnered with us duo far on our journey. We are proud to have given so many their start in work and for many of those to contuse to offer them valuable and enjoyable employment – in creating land supporting locally made Point of Sale software.

We’re local. We’re proud. We’re making a difference, every day.

Tower Systems Point of Sale software helps small business retailers through COVID-19

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Point of Sale software from Tower Systems has been helping small business retailers navigate the challenges and leverage opportunities of this COVID-19 world.

Here we are almost four months in and COVID-19 is here and has fundamentally changed retail. The Tower Point of Sale software has helped retailers to quickly identify trends and thereby to respond to these in a competitive and timely manner.

In a more practical way, the Tower Point of Sale software has helped retailers access federal, state and local government funding support through the provision of accurate records that are key to meeting application criteria.

From a health and safety perspective, the Tower Systems Australian made Point of Sale software has helped retailers with shop floor management and staffing scheduling. This is key to providing a COVID safe working enviro9nment while helping the retail business to serve and transact.

More broadly, thanks to POS software Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce integrations, the Tower Point of Sale software has helped independent and small business retailers to transdact online for click and collect as well as for delivery. While often created in service of existing and local shoppers, the online connection has helped these retailers to find new shoppers who would otherwise not have known about the business.

Of all the COVID-19 related opportunities leveraged in the Tower Systems Point of Sale software, it is the insights offered through the data collected and curated by the software that offer the most value as this lays out a path ahead that is specific to each business using the software.

We have seen COVID-19 play out differently in different businesses. Some are up. Some are down. In almost all businesses there has been a shift in what sells and it is this shift, unique to each business often, that is most important to small business retailers.

Tower Systems has backed its software with COVID-19 workshops for its retailers, showing them how to use the software to better understand the COVID-19 impacts and opportunities in each business. This training and assistance is on-going as COVID itself is on-going.

Small business retailers in the Tower Systems POS software user community are, overall, trading well and with certainty that the software they are using helps shine a light on a path forward while at the same time offering understanding for the pathway behind.

2020 is proving to be a fascinating year in retail. We are grateful to our customers for their support and trust.

Advice for small business retailers considering selling online and the big challenge many face

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In our work developing, selling and supporting Point of Sale software and Shopify and Magento websites connected to our POS software, we have been fortunate to curate advice for retailers who embark on the journey of selling online.

In this article we explore the most common challenge we see retailers confront: what to sell online.

Taking your retail business online is critical, right?! Especially since COVID-19 hit.

The need to offer click and collect, curbside pickup as well as local and further afield shipping is a vital customer service.

Reaching shoppers who are not nearby and may never visit your area is also critical as it broadens the reach of the business.

A big challenge we see experienced retailers confront is what to sell? They know they do not want to take everything in their physical shop online. Often, they want the website to be specialty, to stand for a unique need or product niche.

The question is what? What to have the website be known for, to focus on?

It’s a business start-up question in many respects, a question anyone starting a business from scratch needs to consider. This is why some experienced retailers find it challenging to know where to start as they first have to disconnect thinking about the website only in the context of the current physical business.

Our suggestion is that you own the challenge for yourself. While you could have someone come up with the idea for you, then the idea would be theirs.

Think about your website as a start-up, but probably related in some way at least in part to what you do or could do in your shop. By being known for something, a product category or niche you can be more easily found online. And that right there is the key – being found online.

So, the real question is what are people looking for? We can help with that as we have access to tools that track what people in Australia are looking for. We will gladly do this research for people getting a website developed by us. However, we need a starting point for the research – which back to the entrepreneurial question about the niches that interest you. This has to come from you. You have to own the site focus.

We appreciate that it can feel daunting to start a business from scratch. Maybe, for you, an easier option is to take one or two departments of what you sell currently online. That can be an easy start. We suggest this as it gets you experiencing online. That experience can be leveraged as you evolve your online business.

Remember this – where you start online is never where you will end up. That is our own experience with our online businesses. We have learnt a ton and continue to evolve our sites.

Tower Systems offers Australian made and supported Point of Sale software for small business specialty retailers

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Tower Systems is an Australian software company. We make what we sell. We support it, too. Small business retailers keen to pitch shop local and themselves shop local for Point of Sale software.

Here at Tower Systems we are specialised,  we develop Point of Sale software specifically for small business retailers in a range of niche retail channels … jeweller, garden centres, bike retailers, toy shops, pet shops, produce businesses, farm supply businesses, newsagents, fishing and outdoors businesses, adult shops, homewares businesses, gift shops and even butchers.

Our Point of Sale software is called Retailer. We called it that 20 years ago when the first version was released as it speaks to who it is for. As retailers ourselves, we leverage our own experience as well as that of hundreds of other retailers in evolving the software, to ensure it is genuinely useful in myriad retail situations.

We are proud to have had more than 20 years experience owning and running our own retail businesses in the retail innovation part of our company. It’s where we play, learn and walk in the shoes of our customers.

Through every year we release software updates to Retailer. These are developed based on customer enhancement suggestions. Our customers are invited to vote on the suggested POS softer enhancement. We love this, the democracy of it.

The Point of Sale software we sell and support today is very different to that with which we started. It is fresh visually, technically and functionally. We are proud to bring this to local retailers in Australia and New Zealand.

From our Xero integration to our Shopify and Magento integrations to our scale integration, we connect with tools that help retailers to operate more efficiently and successfully.

In the back office we offer repairs software, manufactured goods software and other tools that help retailers to run their businesses well and through the software. Our repairs software works a treat, for example, for jewellers, bike shops and any business with an in-house or external repair offering for customers.

We are a proud team of software professionals working in service of small business retailers. We are grateful to our customers for their business and for their recommendations. Their guidance and support has been wonderful for us as we have grown the business and helped more retailers run successful businesses.

That is what our Point of Sale software is about – helping local independent small business retailers to run efficient businesses they enjoy. We love seeing that.

While it may sound trite, we know it is true – we’re here to help. We know that if we can and do help, we will be appreciated and appreciation among current customers is at the heart of our future.

The importance of buy Australian for small business retailers when it comes to POS software

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Point of Sale software developed in Australia is better for Australian retail businesses and here’s why:

  1. Australian developed Point of Sale software is better tuned to the needs of local Aussie businesses.
  2. Australian developed Point of Sale software nurtures Aussie tech jobs and that is good for the broader economy.
  3. Every dollar spent with an Australian company for products or services is a dollar retained in the Aussie economy, a dollar on which tax is paid, a dollar that goes towards making our country stronger.
  4. Australian developed Point of Sale software offers and Australian perspective.
  5. Australian developed Point of Sale software is better. Yes, we said it.  It’s true in the specialty retail marketplace;aces in which we serve. Our software is finely tuned to the specialty needs of our specialty retail channels.
  6. Australian developed Point of Sale software is supported locally, in Australia, by Australians.
  7. Australian developed Point of Sale software is developed for small business retailers. Small business retailers have different and more personal needs than mass retailers.

Buying local matters. Well, it should matter, especially to retail businesses that themselves call  on local shoppers to shop local and shop small. That message is stronger when a business itself shops and supports local. That is why when it comes to POS software for small business retailers in Australia we say buy local, shop local, support local.

Rich and deep in our software is nuance that serves Aussie retailers well. We are parochial for sure. Nothing wrong with that. We help our small business local retailers go hyper local, too. We help them drill down to where they are, to their local community and, through the software, pitch this connection in a smart and serial-served way.

Ours is smart local software supporting local small business retailers.

Tower Systems only sells its software to indie small business retailers. It’s what we have focussed on for many years. It’s serves us well, and our customers.

Now, more than ever, buy Australian matters. We are proud to make that pitch, to encourage Aussie small business retailers to shop fort Aussie developed and supported POS software. This patriotic pitch is right for today, right for 2020.

Help for small business retailers run this coronavirus impacted economy

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Practical help for small business retailers impacted buy the coronavirus can be challenging to access. At the government level there are forms to complete, data to gather and waits to sit out which a request for help is assessed.

Here at our small business focussed Point of Sale software company, our assistance is easy to access for any small business retailer.

In a practical sense, here we announced to our customers back in early March:

  1. No support fee increase in 2020. We were planning to increase our software support frees having not increased them for 3 years. We decided a couple of months ago to forego the planned increase this year.
  2. Free Retailer Roam. We decided to provide free access for 3 months to ur Retailer Roam product – so you could more easily sell from anywhere and not just being the counter.
  3. Free home access. If you need help setting up access to a computer from home, we can assist for no cost.  Click here to access our advice on setting up another computer. For this you will need access to a current backup. For help on this, there is no cost for supported customers.
  4. One on one training. This continues for all supported customers. Free one-on-one training on any topic related to our POS software.

In addition to these financial benefits, we also increased our support capacity to serve support needs unique to the pandemic situation.

Plus, we commenced regular Zoom meetings open to all of our customers on many practical topics. We have been running usually 3 Zoom meetings every week for more than  two months now. They are proving to be a terrific  way for retailers to learn and engage. More important, though, is they give small business owners an opportunity to experience that they are not alone in going through what they are going through.

Here at Tower Systems we proudly only sell our software to small business retailers. It’s what we have done for 39 years. We are as energised for the opportunities today as we were back in 1981. We are grateful to our small business retailer community for their engagement with us through the pandemic and always as we walk together to serve our shared customers.

Shopify changes help small business retailers sell online with POS software connected Shopify

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Shopify last week announced major innovation and changes to their online platform that will benefit small business retailers, especially those connecting Shopify to their Point of Sale software.

We love the latest enhancements announced by Shopify.

For our own retail business Point fo Sale connected e-commerce websites as well as for websites we develop for our small business retail customers this raft of enhancements from Shopify are terrific.

By connecting your Tower Systems Point of Sale software to Shopify you being together two awesome and separate tools and create a powerful and integrated platform for online selling. The latest enhancements from Shopify help us reach even more retailers with an online shopping solution.

With Point of Sale software managing the inventory and Shopify presenting the online store front, specialty tools are fulfilling their specialty roles.

We are across the detail of the latest Shopify changes and our web team is working with small business retailers for whom we are developing Point of sale connected websites to ensure the leveraging of the new opportunities now before us.  We are particularly excited about several of the changes delivered.

We love Shopify and that our PIS software co. is a partner of theirs, offering a direct integration.

Shopify powers 1,210,682 live websites around the world, according to BuiltWith.com. That is an extraordinary number. It is a powerful platform that is ideal for the needs of retailers. Small, medium and large retailers take Shopify online. While here at Tower our focus is on small business retailers, Shopify is broadly used, which is terrific news.

The latest changes announced last week make Shopify even more appealing for retailers, especially Point oil Sale software connected retailers.

If you are looking for a website for your business, the Tower Systems web development team could be the right partner. Based 100% in Australia, our web team understand local retail business needs. We are focussed on delivering useful and valuable solutions to retailers, particularly specialty retailers in the channels in which we also serve with our POS software.

Being Australian based, we are accessible when needed. Support is local too. Partnering with us is an investment in Australia and we are proud to offer that.

Retail coaching tips for small business retailers in Australia

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We are grateful to have a diverse and engaged community off small business retailers using our Point of Sale software on which to draw when putting together tips and advice for retailers.

Daily, we are engaged in coaching retailers, providing advice and practice al support to help create more valuable and enjoyable businesses. Our coaching advice ranges from motivational to the practical. Sometimes it is Point of Sale software related while other times it is not.

Always, though, our advice is shared openly and with supporting reasoning and evidence. We want what you want – a more successful and enjoyable retail business.

Here is an example of one aspect of coaching for small business retailers. It’s related to our Point of Sale software:

Measurement is key to the success of any retail business. 

Measuring sales, stock, employees and suppliers.

Without accurate and consistent measurement, you are not able to make good business decisions or to hold others to account for their actions.

By measuring you can make better decisions.

Here are some simple rules for accurate measurement in retail:

  1. Only sell what you can track – by scanning a barcode or pressing a PLU (stock code) to track the item.
  2. Do not use department keys to sell items as this denies you the opportunity of tracking individual items you sell.
  3. Enter into your computer system everything you sell. Record stock you receive by supplier so that you can track supplier performance.
  4. Enter into your computer system everything you return to suppliers – consignment stock, returns or damaged goods.
  5. Record all sales and other activity at the sales register by employees.
  6. Reorder replenishment stock by using your computer system to create orders for you.

My making your business data driven you are better equipped to take the emotion and gut feel out of business decisions.  This will improve decision quality and accountability and, hopefully, the return you achieve from these decisions.

Businesses which do not measure stock, suppliers, employees and sales accurately often find themselves faltering without knowing why – because they have no accurate data on which to base research.

Tower Systems develops Point of Sale software for a range of select specialty retail businesses.

Australian Point of Sale software for Queensland specialty retailers

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Justin Randall manages Point of Sale software sales for Tower Systems in Queensland. He’s local and has excellent retail experience having managed a retail business prior to joining our support team before moving into a sales role.

Justin works with jewellers, garden centres, bike shops, toy shops, pet stores, produce businesses, farm supply businesses, fishing shops, newsagents, adult shops, homewares stores and more … learning about their needs and seeing whether the Point of Sale software that we develop, sell and support could be useful to their business needs.

It is a collaborative process that follows the timeline needs of the business owners. That’s right, there is no pressure. Justin will say so if he feels that our Point of Sale software is not a good fit for any business. His reputation is important to him, he takes his role seriously as he wants too be trusted.

Retail businesses in Queensland looking for Point of Sale software should speak with Justin, to see whether the Tower Systems Point of Sale software is a good fit for their business, a good solution to serve the needs.

Justin’s process is simple: understand the needs of the business first. This involves research and conversations. He is hungry for information about the business and he applies this learned information to his knowledge of what our Point of Sale software can do. If he finds a good fit, he will arrange to demonstrate the software and do this in a collaborative and engaged way to help the business.

We believe that actions speak louder than words. This is why Justin will want to answer queries about what the software does in a certain situation with a demonstration of how the software works for that need. There is no limit to the number of pre-purchase demonstration of our Point of Sale software, no limits to how deep into the software you may go.

The goal is to give small business retailers everything they could possibly want to know about our Point of Sale software before they make a decision so that they can be confident as to the appropriateness of the decision for their business.

Email Justin to connect.

Free online POS software workshops for small business retailers this week

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We are grateful to all those participating with us in our online workshop program. Here are two0 sessions scheduled for this week. We have a couple of more secret sessions too.

Online workshop: SEO & SEM.
How to guide online shoppers to find your website. This interactive workshop will explore SEO and SEM, explain them and show you what to do to make your website more easily found. We will also look at what people look for that gets them to websites that may compete with your plans.

Time: May 19, 2020 10:30 AM Melbourne time
https://zoom.us/j/94913369113?pwd=WndsWjQ5ODZBMnBIc3BmOVhVTzVIdz09
Meeting ID: 949 1336 9113 Password: 344536

How to take your newsagency online
We will explore what to sell online, how to sell online, why it matters and go under the hood and look at what people are looking for right now.
Time: May 19, 2020 09:00 AM Melbourne time.
https://zoom.us/j/93928597710?pwd=Njh6M2FzRVNaeVdnK3NJK1pGTDEvUT09
Meeting ID: 939 2859 7710 Password: 778081

Online workshop: Loyalty marketing using Retailer.
Now is a perfect time to refresh your approach to shopper loyalty, to maximise the opportunity with one-time and regular customers. In this workshop, we will show you several loyalty options in Retailer and explain how they can drive a deeper basket and a sooner return by shoppers. Plus, we will answer all of your questions.

Time: May 18, 2020 10:30 AM Melbourne time.
https://zoom.us/j/94829736147?pwd=SWlhSjVSb0xKZ3FtcHk1cVdvaXV0Zz09
Meeting ID: 948 2973 6147 Password: 502630

ANYONE CAN JOIN IN.

Yes, we understand that competitors could join in. We’re happy if they do as we welcome opportunities to help others help small business retailers be more successful.

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT?

Our online POS software workshops are genuinely interactive. We present material at the start and are then guided by questions and comments as to where the session goes. This way we all learn and explore together. It’s a terrific experience that benefits all engaged.

We are also happy for people to sit and say nothing, just watching and listening and learning about out POS software.

We record the sessions too and make them available to customers who cannot attend. This usually expands the reach of the material five and ten fold, which is excellent as it expands the learning community opportunity.

ONE ON ONE?

In addition to these group workshops, we provide on-going one on one training opportunities for our customers, helping them to learn about our POS software  in a way that suits their specific business needs.

Learning is wonderful. It is calming as you get to exert more control over your business too.

Everyone is welcome.

Mental health check for small business retailers

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Ahead For Business is a terrific, safe, mental health check-up and support resource for small business owners and those who support them. They are recommended by government. On their website they have a sell assessment opportunity to determine possible next steps if you are confronted by stress, anxiety or depression. And, for sure, many retail business owners will have these challenges. Our tip is check out the site and the resources available.

In our work with retailers we get to hear and see stressful situations first-hand, usually nothing to do with our POS software, but impacting on the POS software experience nevertheless. This one reason we have an interest in mental health resources and tools, so we can suggest if we think it is appropriate in the circumstances.

Safe Work Australia also has some excellent resources that they have curated specifically for retailers in this COVID-19 situation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented situation for everyone. As a small business it is understandable you may have concerns about how to continue to meet your WHS duties at this time. There are a number of practical steps you can take to manage the risk of exposure to COVID-19 at your workplace and meet your legal obligations.

In our own situation we provide opportunities for our team members to decompress, which is important given the situations they can encounter when helping retailers.

As we have heard from government this week, mental health is a challenge as a result of the challenges of COVID-19. As time goes on, the challenges can magnify personally and professionally.  It is good to see that the politicians are investing in resources.

As business owners, we have an obligation, too, to ensure the right resources are available for those in our businesses and near our businesses. hence, our sharing of resource information to our customers here and through our regular customer emails.

We are not mental health professionals. Our goal with this post is to share some resources from them that small business retailers and their teams in our Tower Systems POS software user community may find useful.

Shopify connected POS software for small business retailers

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POS software connected to Shopify provides small business retailers with a terrific, seamless, online and in-store retail management solution.

The Tower Systems Shopify POS software integration is seamless, developed to Shopify standards, to provide small business retailers a solution on which they can depend to drive online sales while managing in-store data.

Jewellers, bike shops, garden centres, newsagents, gift shops, toy shops, book shops, homewares stores, fishing stores, pet shops and more can rely on the Shopify integration with the Tower Systems small business POS software to deliver a seamless, fast, safe and dependable solution for online and in-store sales.

As a Shopify partner, Tower Systems is delivering to small business retailers solutions for easy online selling, helping these indie retailers to reach shoppers beyond their local territory.

Tower Systems has been delivering Shopify connected POS software for years. We use it ourselves in retail businesses we run. Our experience is first-hand. We develop to there Shopify POS software standards too, to serve retailer needs across multiple retail channels.

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

Tower Systems is committed to local development for local businesses. Our developers understand retail in Australia and New Zealand. We leverage that to deliver practical and valuable business outcomes.

From simple websites to complex multi business solutions, the Tower Systems web development team for retailers is skilled and capable of delivering valuable solutions.

Here are some many of the retail store linked websites we have developed for our own businesses:

This is a selection of sites created by Tower Systems. Our web development skills are diverse. Our SEO and SEM skills are fine-tuned, to help you get the notice for your website.

We like Shopify the most because of the professionalism and simplicity of the solution. It is an excellent starting point t and can serve the needs of most single businesses for a considerable distance of their online journey.

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