The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

CategoryGift Shop

10 ways gift shop software from Tower Systems helps small business retailers

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The Tower Systems gift Shop software has been designed and developed here in Australia for Australian gift and homewares shops. It serves local needs, works with local suppliers and is more finely tuned to your business needs.

Here are 10 ways this software can help your business:

  1. Get customers spending more. Forget the old points approach, our loyalty facilities get customers engaged to spend more and spend it sooner.
  2. Buy better. Buy more of what is selling and less of what is not. We recently we showed one owner $7,500 worth of stock which had not moved in a year.
  3. Easy LayBy. More expensive items can be attainable if you offer a LayBy service. Ours is easy to use and brings structure to offer a consistent service.
  4. Bring customers back. With no extra work, make a pitch customers see when they get home. We can bring as many as 25% of shoppers back in.
  5. Increase your Gross Profit. In our gift shop software we have facilities which help you maximise gross profit. We’d love to show you these.
  6. Cut your bookkeeping and accounting fees. From GST reporting to having an up to date P&L, we can save time and money by linking to software like Xero.
  7. Connect your online with your shop. Our Web Store facility handles this.
  8. Cut theft. We you are not there, our software tracks behaviour. Our free Theft Check service has been successful to catching theft before it is too late.
  9. Managing suppliers for success. Our smart reporting given you better data than your suppliers. This will empower you to get more from them.
  10. The Tower AdvantageTM. Our professional and friendly help from training to support to business advice. We are not your average software company.

Sunday retail management advice: inspiration retail management success stories

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While some retailers gravitate to stories of doom and gloom, others are chase and enjoy success large and small.

Through our work with our POS software we get to meet with plenty of retailers and look at many businesses.

We are certain that success is not an accident.

Success is planned for and chased. It is the goal reflected in every business decision. It comes from refusing to let the business run you.

We’d like to share three real-world stories with you.

The small shop turning over $380,000 a year and growing 28%

Talking with a gift shop owner about their 28% increase in sales in the financial year just ended.

Yes, you read right, a 28% lift in sales in the 2012/13 year. This is on the back of a 17% increase the year before. This is a business that is more than ten years old.

This is no accident. They planned for it by carefully looking at their business data and shedding products that were not working. They adjusted opening hours too as they discovered business later in the day that they had not realised was there. This knowledge opened them to opportunities for last minute shoppers.

The owner of the business decided to chase success because the turnover was barely enough to cover rent, wages and the loan taken out to fund the business. It was grow or bust.

They planned for success by using their business data. The first year – 17% up from a low turnover base – was encouraging. The 28% increase this past financial year proves value of paying attention to business data.

Sales data guided them as to the suppliers of the best to focus on. One employee was eased out of the business for failing to achieve minimum sales targets.

The owner spent more time on the shop floor selling to achieve minimum margin dollars per sale rather than just chatting with shoppers.

The result shows what can happen when you focus on being a retailer, the owner said to me with a huge smile.

A gift shop reengineers and saves itself

Another gift shop we have been working with was in trouble. Shops nearby were closing and the small shopping strip had a dark feeling. For a while they were sucked into the cloud of doom and gloom.

Checking their data we saw that several special interest items sold well and provided an above-average margin. They used this knowledge as the basis for small expansion.

Over six months they increased their range of the special interest items and they connected with community groups to share knowledge.

Over six months sales grew, not into double-digit growth but they were happy to have at least stopped the decline.

In the second six months sales grew further. Now they were into double digit growth territory. Shoppers happy with their specialisation were telling others. Word of mouth was driving extra traffic.

That was a year ago. Today, this business is very different. People travel for up to two hours to see their range. The average sale value has more than doubled, margins are up 15% and customer traffic is up 25%. Combine these three and you can see why the owner is very happy.

They did not plan to become a product specialist. The survival of their business demanded it.

How a product category drove sales and profit

This gift shop owner came to us because they were in trouble. Sales were falling. Together, we took an in-depth look at their data.

The category performing best in terms of return on investment and return on floor-space was plush, teddy bears and some soft toys. That can’t be right, said the owner, it’s stuck in the back of the shop.

Data does not lie. It revealed that their small selection of plush was selling well despite the owner and the employees not being all that interested in it.

Fast forward six months and this business has turned around. They are now a plush shop at the front with other gifts. Sales are up 65% and climbing. They have increased their margin too – because they have products others nearby don’t have.

Turning this business around was easy as the data offered the guide. The changes took a week to complete and initially required only a $5,000 capital investment in additional stock.

Own your success

Small and independent retail businesses can achieve growth in any economic situation.

People don’t stop shopping in tough times – they just change what they buy.

By taking a fresh look at business data gift shop owners can change focus, attract new shoppers and get existing shoppers spending more.

We’re happy to help.

Gift tags help gift and jewellery retailers professionally represent product

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tgtThanks to flexible and smart gift tag facilities, the Tower Systems gift shop software helps retailers to present product tags of quality and professionalism which demonstrate a product care shoppers love. Developed in consultation with many retailers, these tags are loved.

The highly customisable tags offered through the Tower Systems software offer retailers more control and flexibility in how they represent what they sell.

A cheap price label or price tag can turn a shopper off a product whereas a professional and personal tag can make a product far more appealing.

This is another Tower AdvantageTM from Tower Systems.

Gift shop software shines at Reed Gift Fair

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gposThe Tower Systems Gift Shop Software has been a hit over the weekend at the Reed Gift Fair in Sydney. Our stand has been busy with plenty of prospects as well as visits from many existing customers.

We have been keeping our pitch by rotating POS software sales experts from various offices of our company through the stand.

We are especially thrilled for the diversity of businesses we have seen over the first three days. This fair   not only attracts gifts shops, it attracts newsagents, jewellers, pet shops and garden centres – all retail channels for which we have specialist software.

We are thrilled with the Gift Fair and grateful for another opportunity to connect with these proactive retailers.

POS software co. helps gift shops with specialist software for their needs

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Gift shops are one retail channel where POS software company Tower Systems helps independent retailers to compete effectively and successfully with big businesses.

Using the Tower gift shop software, gift retailers can rely on specialist software finely tuned to serve needs specific to gift shops.

At the Gift Fair in Sydney starting tomorrow, Tower will be showing off new software evermore finely tuned for gift retailers. This new software offers enhanced facilities developed here in Australia for Australian needs.

 

POS software helping newsagents and gift shops make the most of Valentine’s Day

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valvalPOS software company Tower Systems is helping newsagents and card and gift shops to make the most of Valentine’s Day with terrific facilities for putting items together into a pack and selling that as a whole and usually at a deal price for the shopper.

The ability to make packs / hampers / package deals has been in the Tower systems software for many years.

It is also used in Jeweller businesses, bike shops, pet shops and garden centres.

Retailers love it because it maintains excellent stock control throughout. Retail staff love it because it makes selling easy. Shoppers love it because of the ease with which they can usually get a deal.

This facility is another way Tower Systems helps independent retailers to grow their businesses.

POS software got gift shops helps independent retailers compete

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Screen Shot 2015-02-03 at 7.35.16 amThe Tower Systems software for gift shops is helping more independent and small retail businesses in the gift and homewares channels to compete with bigger businesses.

The latest software offers fresh facilities for business management, business growth and business enjoyment. These are facilities developed with Australian retailers for Australian conditions. They are backed with tailored training.

This is our gift to you: personal service supporting personal software = business growth & enjoyment.

This is all part of the Tower AdvantageTM.

Gift shop software users to benefit from Tower Systems attendance at AmericaSmart gift fair in Atlanta

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gsposGift shops using the Tower Systems gift shop software will benefit from the time experts from our software company spent at the Atlanta Gift Fair at the large AmericaSmart facility., This largest gift Fair in the US is an extraordinary experience for gift retailers. Our takeaways include new relationships with the parent businesses of several Australian gift shops suppliers. This will helps us better serve our gift shop software customers as we help them more effectively and valuably connect with their suppliers.

There is nothing like getting to the source of a relationship to understand it and leverage it for all stakeholders.

This gift fair in Atlanta also helped us spot trends that we can sever better through our software – before they hit Australian shores.

As the only Australian POS software company represented at Atlanta, Tower is positioned to help gift retailers in a more effective and exclusive way in 2015.

For commercial reasons we will not share any comprehensive outcomes here as these are best deployed to our customers for their and our commercial advantage.

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