The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

CategoryJeweller software

How we see our POS software for small business retailers

November 28, 2018
2 Min read
H

We did an exercise in the office this week, thinking about how we see our software and what we do for small business retailers. Using a single word to describe what we dock to make a statement about what we stand for, aspire to, deliver and achieve for our customers in their businesses and in their lives as a result of engaging with our small b business POS software.

Here it is. Here is the list. the single word., Each word is, of itself, a statement of aspiration and / or achievement. We share it here as this is a shared goal we have with our customers and businesses owners who would be our customers. Here is the list in no special order…

Useful.

Exciting.

Expanding.

Helpful.

Responsive.

Customers.

Helpful.

Simple.

Stable.

Strong.

Powerful.

Easy.

Fast.

Accurate.

Safe.

Reliable.

Evolving.

Happy.

Trustworthy.

Peaceful.

Helpful.

Growing.

Calming.

Enlightening.

Aussie.

Me.

Focussed.

Structured.

Empowering.

Partner.

Collaborator.

Protected.

Rainbow.

Happy.

Relaxing.

Local.

Small.

Planning.

Smooth.

Personal.

Cool.

Future.

Flexible.

Changes.

Insights.

Peaceful.

Sure, they are single words. They are part of what came out of a workshop we did looking at who we are, what we do and why we do it. We do this from time to time, checking in with each other and our goals and the goals of our customers. We think this is good practice for any POS software company, especially one that focusses on the needs of small business retailers.

We take what we do here seriously and thoughtfully. We take great care to get it right even time. Pursuing this means we need to understand the goal. These single word responses help define the goal and the diversity of the goal.

Read onRead later

POS software for small business retailers

November 24, 2018
2 Min read
P

POS software, the right POS software, can be hard for small business retailers to find. While there are many point of sale packages out there in the marketplace, it can be hard to know the right p.o.s. package that is right for your business.

So many say that their software the best software for you. There can be wild claims. Often, wild claims are not backed up by the facts.

No two POS software programs are the same. Making the choice should rake time and care. It should involved a deep dive into the software and what it does, how it works.

If you are in a specialty retail business, we suggest you look thoughtfully and carefully at the needs of the business, to make sure you know what you want and why you want it before you head off and make a decision. A quick decision is not necessarily the best decision as you could be stuck with bad data, bad business practices and frustration all round.

POS software can be complex, which is good you want it doin g the heavy lifting in your business, you want doing things that will genuinely save time and money in the business. This is why we think taking time to make the right decision is critical. It is also why we say not all POS software programs are the same.

POS software for small business retail can include transacting sales at the counter, managing LayBys, handling product catalogues, connecting with suppliers, connecting with your accounting software, managing repairs, managing EFTPOS payments, handling complex freight requirements, telling you what is working and what is not working, making sure business is transacted accurately, mitigating theft, connecting with your online store, selling products by weight … and plenty more.

POS software is powerful, flexible, easy to use and constantly evolving as the needs of retail and the needs of your type of business evolve.

Tower stems serves over 3,000 small business retailers with POS software. This is what we do. We make POS software, what we think is awesome POS software. We sell, rent , lease POS software. We provide support for ur POS software.

Read onRead later

We help small business retailers send targeted marketing emails to drive shopper traffic

November 22, 2018
2 Min read
W

Thanks to the Events facilities in our POS software, Tower Systems customers can export email address data to create lists for targeted email marketing and customer service campaigns.

Our small business retail customers can use Events to tag life events, customer purchase activity, repairs and more. This information, with multiple allowed per customer, enables you to be focused in your marketing.

Our customers can use the Events tools to build a marketing database based on what has been transacted through the Retailer POS software.

  1. A jeweller may use Events to track events such as anniversaries, life events for the customer and family members. Jewellers could use Events to reach out to all customers who have purchased an engagement ring in the last year or two years.
  2. A pet store may use Events to track worming details for dogs and therefore have a platform through which to remind customers on a treatment purchase being due.
  3. A bike shop can use Events to remind customers of a service due, The software easily knows who to specifically target for the reminder – this reduces the opportunity for spam..

Once you export the email addresses, you can import them into Mailchimp. Mailchimp is a fantastic tool for sending beautiful emails and tracking recipient engagement.

If you have a website, you can use Mailchimp to automatically email abandoned cart shoppers. These are shoppers who put products in their basket and then leave (abandon them) without completing their purchase. We have seen these abandoned cart emails work with 10% and more of them leading to purchases, which would have otherwise been lost to the business.

A business website without an abandoned cart strategy is missing out.

You can access Mailchimp direct and they can provide you with help on its use. Our focus, as the POS software company, is to provide you with tools for extracting target data for you to use in reading your Mailchimp target list.

We have wonderful, easy to access and read, resources in our POS software self-serve knowledge base to help with the POS software – Mailchimp export.  

All supported causers have access to Events.

Read onRead later

Free POS software training helps small business retailers enjoy their software more

November 21, 2018
2 Min read
F

Tower Systems offers the thousands of retailers using its POS software access to free one-on-one training in the use of its POS software.

Our customers can book and take as many of these POS software training sessions as they like.

The training can be on any topic related to the software. We have a catalogue of topics available. We also welcome topic requests from customers, all of which we will deliver.

The training is delivered by a training specialist with terrific retail experience.

We are proud to offer this service and to deliver it with consistency to our customers, to help them get the most possible from the use of our POS software in their business.

Booking the training is easy, hassle free.

This is real, we do it every day – free training for small business retailers using our POS software. Yes, free.

This is a Tower Systems advantage … and advantage for our retail business partners, those who use our POS software.

We are grateful to the support of our small business retailer community that enables us to provide this service and to have been providing this service for years.

The training itself is done over the phone, using a customer computer and their data, providing the customer the ability to learn by doing, to learn how and where they want to. We have found this works well in the small business environment.

Our approach also makes it easy for multiple team members in a business to learn their part, the part of the software that relates to their role. We can some days do training for four or five people in a single business. We are truly grateful for this because we know that the better someone knows the software the more they will get from it and the more they will love it and we are keen for people to achieve a place of love with our software.

Tower Systems is genuinely and acutely focussed on small business retailers in selected specialty marketplaces. We understand the importance of training and the value that can be derived from it for POS software customers.

Read onRead later

Christmas marketing ideas for small business retailers

November 17, 2018
8 Min read
C

Tower Systems works with more than 3,500+ small business retailers using its POS software in speciality retail niches including jewellers, garden centres, bike shops, toy shops, gift shops, newsagents, pet shops, adult shops and more. We offer these ideas as our Christmas gift to you.

  1. Make it easy. People often talk about how hard Christmas is. Be the local business that makes it easy. The ways to do this are with easy Lay-By, free wrapping, better shop floor help, guide buying advice or tips on perfect gifts no one else will think of. Consider making Christmas easy as being a key part of your messaging.
  2. Be thrilled people are in your shop. Your personal smile or greeting is something they may not see in a big business where employees are less invested in each shopper and where the owner is usually thousands of kilometers away.
  3. Make the giving easy. If people purchase items from you to send somewhere else. Offer a one-stop shop. Save them the trip to the post office.
  4. Make the shop less about Christmas. Consider pulling back on the Christmas visual noise. Go for something simple, muted, respecting the season but making a calm statement. Consider declaring the shop a Christmas carol free zone – not because you hate carols but because you want to help customers take a break.
  5. Help people rest and recharge. Create a Christmas shopping rest and recovery zone. Offer free tea, coffee, water and something to eat. Encourage people to take a break in your shop – without any obligation for them to spend money with you.
  6. Let your customers help each other. Setup a whiteboard or sheets of butcher’s paper, yes keep it simple. Get customers to write gift suggestions under different age/gender groups. For example: Girls 18 – 25, Boys 55+. Encourage your customers to help each other through their suggestions.
  7. Make price comparison difficult. If you sell items people are likely to price compare with other businesses, package them so price comparison is not easy. Put items into a hamper as a perfect Boy 8 to 12 bundle for example. Or offer the item with pre packages services if appropriate for an item.
  8. Less is more.  The stack em high watch em fly mantra can be wrong. Indeed, it is often wrong in retail. Shoppers can be store blind because a shop is too full or a display is too busy. Consider creating simpler less cluttered displays and window promotions. Draw attention to what you want people to see by promoting that one thing. Every time someone asks if you have something that you think through should be able to find easily – take it as a challenge for you to address rather than a commentary on a facility of the customer.
  9. Change. Christmas season in your shop should evolve. Major change weekly is vital for people to see what you have that they could buy.
  10. Be socially engaged. On Facebook, Instagram, twitter and elsewhere, be the calm voice, the person people enjoy reading or seeing photos from. Provide entertainment this Christmas rather than the usual retailer shrill of come and shop here!
  11. Be community minded. Choose a local charity or community group to support through Christmas. Consider: a change collection tin at the counter; a themed Christmas window display; promotion on your social media pages; a donation to their work; a collection point for donations from customers.
  12. Facilitate sharing stories. Find space in your shop for customers to share their Christmas stories. It could be a story wall inside or in front of the shop. This initiative encourages storytelling by locals and better connects the business with the community.
  13. Award a prize at a local school. Fund a year-end prize at a local school. Attend a school assembly to award the prize. Work with the school leadership on a prize appropriate to your business.
  14. VIP preview. Host a VIP shopper preview night when you show off your Christmas ranges ahead of being available to the general shoppers. Respect and reward your local shoppers with deals and the opportunity to preview ahead of others.
  15. Leverage Christmas traffic. Encourage the Christmas shopper traffic surge in after Christmas. Give them a reason to come back. A coupon promotion or a discount voucher on receipts could be the enticement to get shoppers back in-store. Note: the Tower POS software produces discount vouchers to rules you establish.
  16. Become a gallery. Work with a school, kindergarten, community group or retirement village to bring in local art for people to come and see through Christmas. A small space commitment can drive traffic from family and friends of those with art on show.
  17. Dress the shop. Fully embrace Christmas. Create a Christmas experience such that shoppers know they have stepped into somewhere special this Christmas. Go for more than some tinsel and a tree. Fully embrace the opportunity.
  18. Make your shop smell like Christmas.
  19. Send cards. Send Christmas cards early in the season to suppliers, key customers and local community groups. This connects you with Christmas. Invite all team members to sign each card.
  20. Host a Christmas party. For shops nearby. You are all in the season together – let your hear down before things get crazy.
  21. Ensure you have gifts targeted at occasions. For example: Kris Kringle, by price point and by recipient. Make it easy for people to know what they could give.
  22. Stocking stuffers. At your counter always have one or two stocking stuffers for impulse purchase.
  23. Offer gift vouchers – for someone to give when they are not sure what to give.
  24. Be local. Ensure you have a selection of locally sourced products available for purchase. Make it clear in-store that these products are sourced locally.
  25. Tell stories. On your Facebook page, talk about what is important to you at Christmas. Personalise the season and deepen the connection with those who could shop with you.
  26. Offer a free gift. Bulk purchase an item to offer those who spend above a set amount. For example, spend $65 and receive XX where XX may have cost $5.00 but could have a perceived value of $20.00.
  27. Keep it fresh. Every week make significant change to your Christmas displays and promotions to keep your offer fresh.
  28. Share Christmas recipes. Each week for, say, four weeks, give customers a family Christmas recipe. This personalises Christmas in your business, creates a talking point and makes shopping with you different to your bigger competitors.
  29. Free wrapping. Sure, many retailers offer this. Make your offer better, more creative and more appreciated.
  30. This is essential in any business. Manage it through your computer system with strict rules.
  31. Work the floor. Increase time on the shop floor. Be present to manage shopper flow and to facilitate purchases.
  32. Christmas is crazy busy I most retail situations. Give yourself and your team members sufficient time to recharge so the smile greeting shoppers is heartfelt.
  33. Keep a secret. If yours is a business selling gifts a partner may purchase for their loved-one, create some mystery with a closed off display for the shopper to see the products.
  34. Free assembly. If you sell items that require assembly. Offer to do this for free.
  35. Free delivery. Offer free Christmas Eve delivery for items purchased for kids for Christmas.
  36. Sell training. Leverage the specialist knowledge you have in your business by selling as gifts places at classes you run sharing your expertise.
  37. Hold back. Don’t go out with everything you have for Christmas all at once. Plan the season to show off what you have as the season unfolds. This allows you multiple launches.
  38. Share a taste. Regardless if your type of business, bake a family recipe of Christmas cake, Christmas pudding or Christmas biscuits and offer tastings to shoppers on select days. This personalises the experience in your shop.
  39. Offer hampers. Package several items together and offer them as a hamper. Time-poor shoppers could appreciate you doing this work for them. We have seen this work in many different retail situations.
  40. Buy X get Y. Encourage people to spend more with a volume based deal. Pitched right, this could get customers purchasing items for several family members in order to get the price offer you have. Use your technology to manage this.

Christmas is the perfect time to plan for next year. It is the time to do everything possible to leverage bonus Christmas traffic to benefit your business through next year.

Tower Systems offers Point of sale / retail management software tailored for your specific type of retail business. Our software can help you leverage Christmas traffic for year-long benefits.

Read onRead later

Renting POS software preserves small business retailer capital for other users

November 13, 2018
2 Min read
R

For years, Tower Systems has offered access to its POS software through rental. This easy to establish arrangement offers access to the software on a month by month basis with no capital outlay up front to access the software.

The rental payment option, like our cloud hosted option, is available to all Tower Systems customers in all marketplaces.

Our customers can also convert from rental to purchase or lease at any time. How people pay to access the software is easy, simple and self-managed. This provides our customers with the best options, options that suit their specific circumstances.

In offering rental years ago, Tower Systems provided small business retailers with payment options that suit the cash flow needs of many small business retailers. There is no loan application, no finance approval process, no cumbersome paperwork, no hassle. This is another way the company makes doing business with Tower Systems frictionless, easy.

The paperwork is a dream and there is no minimum lock-in term. Like we said, easy, frictionless.

The Tower Systems POS software for any of the specialty retail marketplaces in which the company operates is available for rental.

Our rental customers have access to exactly the same customer service experiences and touch points as all other customers using our software.

Read onRead later

Advice for small business retailers on POS software connected websites

November 9, 2018
2 Min read
A

In our Knowledge Base, we have articles on connecting your Tower Retailer software to Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce. A quick search will soon find these. All of our customers have access to our Knowledge Base.

We urge our small business POS software customers to read the article for the type of e-commerce platform you plan to connect with. Give the article to the people developing your site. Most questions we get from external web developers are answered in the articles.

We’d love to develop your website for you. We have a separate web team in our business who do this work. They are based out of our Melbourne Australia office. They have developed plenty of Retailer connected websites already. We think we offer a service that is beautifully tuned to the needs of local small business retailers and their customers – more so than web developers overseas.

Connecting our Retailer POS softwareto a website is technically easy. However, you are creating a hungry beast that needs to be fed. Here are some of our everyday POS software / webstore tips for getting started and managing the website efficiently:

  1. Get your inventory data right with product names, departments, categories, pricing and images. Retaileris in control of the data, always.
  2. Start with a small range of stock in the website first. Get that right and your prices right before you go further.
  3. Make decisions yourself on website look and feel and design. Expecting someone else to do all this usually leads to disappointment. Attention invested now will result in a website you like and that reflects you.
  4. Use real photos. Stock photos stand out. They look awful.
  5. Know that any website you launch today will need investment to refresh it within eighteen months. Web is a rapidly evolving environment. Not investing to keep up will see you fall behind.
  6. Whoever develops your website – make sure they are local. Offshore development is cheaper today but more expensive in the long run.
  7. Choose a platform that is appropriate. We are yet to see a retail business not satisfied with a Shopify or Magento site. Shopify is ideal for simpler needs and Magento works a treat for more complex and multi-store requirements.

Our focus on web development is absolute and thorough, as is our focus on delivering genuinely valuable small business POS software.

Read onRead later

Repairs software for small business retailers streamlines the repairs process

November 7, 2018
2 Min read
R

Tower Systems has offered repairs software for many years. First developed for bike shops and jewellers, our repairs software has evolved over time to provide valuable solutions to businesses offering repairs services.

The repairs software sits within our specialty retail POS software as a valued and appreciated software module.

Like all of our software, the repairs facilities benefit from our commitment to constant improvement, based on active customer feedback.

Some of the functions our specialist retail software’s repair features are being used for include:

  1. In Jewellers: Jewellery and watch workshop repairs, dated manufacturing.
  2. In Bike Shops: Bicycle and tricycle repairs, warranty returns.
  3. In Garden Centres: Landscaping services management.
  4. In Firearms Stores: Gunsmithy and equipment repairs, warranty returns.
  5. In Pet Shops: Aquarium installations, maintenance and repair.

Our repairs management software is flexible, serving a range of needs outside managing the actual repairs themselves. The flexibility in the software enables it to be used in different businesses for different purposes – from job management, to workshop management and traditional repairs management.

We have customers who start off with our Point of sale software and once they have this working well for them they switch on repairs. We make it easy to phase in an installation, so that people working in a business are not overwhelmed.

Using our repairs management software, a business can track the labour and resources used from a billing and inventory management perspective. It also handles allocation of repairs or parts of a repair to venues outside the business (for contracting and supplier exchanges or repairs for warranty issues, for example) and tracks repair staff and couriers used in shipping repairs. Once the repair is ready for pick-up by the customer, the software finalises the billing and advises the customer by SMS or another preferred method. Payments are processed with the usual depth of our retail software’s point of sale functionality – customers can make multiple payments against a repair or a specialist manufacturing, pay through cash, EFTPOS, PayPal or other methods.

Tower Systems is thrilled to work in the repairs management space, to serve the needs of small business retailers in this niche and him lever customer service area.

Read onRead later

Awesome Aussie developed jeweller software helps local jewellers reach more customers

October 19, 2018
1 Min read
A

Our specialty jeweller software has been designed for and with jeweller businesses. It can help you compete with big businesses and online businesses. We’d love to show it to you. We can do this, obligation free, in your shop or through an online demonstration.

Here are the details for our sales team: Please call our sales team at 1300 662 957 or email them at sales@towersystems.com.au.

Read onRead later

How webstore connected POS software helps retailers in a group and independent retailers win more sales

October 19, 2018
3 Min read
H

As well as offering POS software designed for your specific type of business, Tower Systems provides websites seamlessly connected to the shop floor, giving you a single management view.

We develop websites for our customers, in Magento, Shopify or WooCommerce.

Our websites are live POS software connected, offering 24/7 selling with payments through PayPal, Oxipay (interest free buy now pay later) and credit cards.

Our websites leverage online purchases as well as click and collect. They also drive basket depth with up-sell options and handling coupons for special deals.

If you are in a banner group or a marketing group, we can provide a single website to represent all stores in the group. We do this today for one group, through five websites we created – each easily found through Google thanks to our SEO work.

Each store in a banner or marketing group gets their own page, which they can easily promote. For a single business, the POS connected website promotes their business.

We know from experience that:

In some businesses, around 75% of key in-store purchases have an online search component. POS connected websites are important for winning online sales and even more important for driving in-store purchases.

45% of purchases in many categories are when retail shops are closed.

10% of purchases are click and collect in higher-end product categories.

14% of purchases are done with buy now pay later financing.

Shoppers like certainty that a store will have in stock they want to purchase – stock on hand by item can be viewable for each store.

We network stores from a banner or marketing group into a single website. Thereby leveraging the power of the group of independently owned small businesses to be stronger and more useful than a big business competitor. This is how small businesses can win online.

Let us show you how together we can do this, how we can bring single stores online as well as whole groups online … through webstore connected POS software.

Not only do we create the website and the POS software, we ensure they can be found. This is key as a website that cannot be easily found through Google is a waste of money.

We would love to show individuals privately or members of your group, if you are in a group, the POS software connected websites we have created. We would take you behind the curtain, showing not only the tech. but explaining the business approach, outlining what we have done to create successful online businesses.

Fulfilment can be a challenge.We can help here too thanks to our integration work with Australia Post, Sendle and others. We can help you reduce friction with fulfilment and see you benefit from incremental online business.

Online is about a race to the cash. By this we mean that an online shopper is more likely to be ready to purchase. The first business to take their cash wins. This is where POS integrated websites can win. We can show you how.

The latest release of our POS software introduces a web dashboard to help in-store online sales fulfilment. This, coupled with inventory integration, accurate stock on hand data, professional image handling and smart SEO work helps you create and run an efficient, integrated physical and online business.

Whether you run a single store or operate as part of a marketing or banner group, Tower Systems has a track record of success you can leverage for your success. Let us show you how.

Read onRead later

POS software for independent jewllers

October 16, 2018
4 Min read
P

In the same way that you need the right tools to craft the clearest diamond, the warmest gold and the sharpest ruby, so you need the right tools to grow your business.  You need software that will help you make the most profitable, appropriate business decisions for your circumstances without violating your privacy.  Your software should not make these decisions for you: it should help you make them yourself.

Our specialty software for jewellers is here to help you.

We’ve crafted our software in-house, line by line of code. Just like your jewellery pieces, our software is more than the sum of its parts.   It is feature-rich and fast.  It is endorsed by hundreds of jewellers across Australia.  But what makes it special is the dedication surrounding it: the passion of the team behind it, the culture of Tower Systems.

We are small.  We have been a vertical-market, specialty retail software developer for thirty-four years and we are proud of it.  Being small means being real.  We answer the phone when you call.  We sell you software directly.  We give you our honest opinion.  Our software is steeped in this culture: personal service meeting the needs of independent jewellers like yours.

You know about jewellery.  You don’t need a large software company looking through your business data without your permission.  What you need is to be empowered.  You need a company on the level with you, an Australian business immersed in the challenges of running an independent business.  Tower Systems is that company.

We empower you through our software to sell more and sell better.  We empower you to create cutting edge business intelligence reports from yourdata, when youwant to.  We provide features and functions to help you to perform valuations, manufacture goods, perform stocktakes, sales, catalogues, promotions, customer marketing, to link with a webstore, accounting or payment platform, to customise receipts, send anniversary reminders and more.

If our software could perform better for you, we’ve built a community where you can share your ideas and be part of the development process yourself.  Straight up, openness.  This has led to the development of an industry-leading loyalty facility and business analytics reports based on benchmarks most jewellers do not consider or have access to.

We do not hire sales people.  Our state based account managers are ex-training & support staff. They are experts.  Experts who have worked their way up through the ranks of Tower Systems.  They fielded customer phone calls in the support room.  They installed computer systems in jewellery stores across the country. They earned their detailed knowledge of the jewellery industry in the field, with hard work and experience.  They are the only people who can sell you our software, because product knowledge beats sales technique any day.

When a customer buys a watch from you, they initiate a relationship with you.  When you buy our specialty POS software, you join our family.  We look after you with real support.  Every morning our support team – across offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane – is ready for your phone calls and emails.  When you call, they pick up the phone.

Tower Systems does not employ robots.  We hire real people with diverse experiences.  We don’t hire smart-arses: we save our jobs for communicators.  Customer support is crucial to empowering your business. You need to know you can rely on your computer system – and if the power goes out or a staff member does something unexpected, you need to be certain we’re here for you.  You need to be sure that the company who developed your POS software has your needs at heart.

We do.  And we’re here to help.

Read onRead later

Web strategy helps independent retailers in a marketing group leverage online sales

October 15, 2018
2 Min read
W

Tower Systems was the first POS software company in Australia to launch a web strategy for locally owned independent retail businesses that are in a marketing group though which these local businesses can benefit from a national online presence.

Delivering valuable sales to local shops from anywhere in the country, the web strategy has proven to be beneficial to helping retailers who otherwise might not have had access to the customer served.

Today, the Tower POS software web strategy for franchises and small business marketing groups has evolved to be broader, more complete and more valuable.

There are currently nine websites operating under the banner of the tower Systems franchise and marketing group web strategy. Each focusses on a different brand. each works at driving online sales for small business retailers. Each features…

  1. Click and collect.
  2. Buy now pay later. Better than LayBy.
  3. Paypal Express.
  4. Credit card payment.
  5. Bundled offers.
  6. Auto freight management.
  7. POS software Integration.
  8. In-store inventory on hand certainty.
  9. Pre-orders.
  10. National footprint leveraged for local shopping.

What we have done, bringing together indie retail businesses under a national website, is unique in that it maintains accurate stock on hand data at the store level, applies sales based on shopper location, permits purchases from multiple stores in a single transaction and provides each store a local mini-site page for locally focussed transactions.

Internationally, the Tower Systems e-commerce strategy launched more than two years ago was regarded as unique in the world. The advances since launch have maintained the position of the company in this area of working with and for independent small business retailers in franchise and marketing groups for the benefit of each sore and the benefit of the overall group.

What Tower delivers through the platform is a proven and valuable solution, especially for rural and regional businesses where foot traffic can be a challenge. The Tower Systems approach attracts new shoppers who do not need to live near the business. It does this efficiently for each participating business.

Tower Systems is leveraging its experience and knowledge in this area to help others, to grow stronger small retail businesses.

Read onRead later

Good POS software for small business retailers

October 10, 2018
3 Min read
G

A good Point of Sale system pays for itself every day by helping retailers increase customer spend per visit, bring customers back more regularly, reduce the cost of slow or dead stock, reduce mistakes and make better business decisions.

Following a consistent approach to in-store technology within the group enables retailers to leverage more benefits from being part of the group.

Consistent stock files, electronic invoices, easier business-to-business comparison and more targeted business development assistance are just some of the benefits you can expect from a more consistent solution.

But being independent businesses we understand you need a computer system over which you have absolute control and security.

That is what the Tower Systems solution offers – locally run software in your business over which you have control yet.

Tower Systems has a strategy for helping small business retailers.

Tower Systems is an Australian software company that develops, sells and supports software for selected specialty marketplaces including pet and produce businesses.

We only serve independent retail businesses.

Our mission is to help retailers run more successful businesses. Our definition of successis a business that is making money, where the owners and employees enjoy what they do and where suppliers enjoy transacting.

Good software can play an important role in nurturing business success as it sits at the heart of the business: transacting sales, managing stock, tracking customer activity and shining a light on business opportunities.

What makes us different is how we engage. We go beyond what is traditional software company.

  1. We welcome working with suppliers to create data links that save you and them time, data links that improve data accuracy, data links that feed more accurate business reports.
  2. We provide business insightsbased on data cultivated through the software – to business owners who ask. This is a free service.
  3. Our help desk provides contextfor advice. Rather than the turn it off and turn it onadvice, our help desk team members explain the why, why from a business perspective the advice they are providing matters.
  4. Our software updates contain enhancements suggested and voted on by customers. You can have a direct say in the evolution of the software.
  5. Our communication is in plain English.While we are a company of IT geeks, when talking with customers we keep it simple. We know technology scares people. We don’t want it to scare our customers.
  6. We are accessible.You get to talk with real people all the time, including our leadership team.
Read onRead later

Why we like Tyro broadband EFTPOS for our POS software customers

October 8, 2018
2 Min read
W

We were an early adopter of Tyro broadband EFTPOS many years ago. The relationship remains strong today. Here is why we recommend Tyro broadband EFTPOS to small business retailers who use our POS software:

  1. Speed. Tyro transactions are fast.
  2. Keystrokes cut. Tyro is integrated with our POS software. The details of the sale are fed to Tyro. There is no data entry required.
  3. Mistakes reduced. Every keystroke we eliminate is a possible mistake avoided.
  4. Low merchant fees. Tyro has been the first in Australia to bring to market an approach to merchant fees that is smart and technology driven, that cuts fees from what would expect.
  5. Brilliant support. Fast. Friendly. Genuinely helpful. Real resolution.
  6. Excellent reporting. Know what you need to know, easily.
  7. Innovation. Tyro innovates and as a result of this we participate as appropriate at the small business POS software level.
  8. Partnership. We work closely with Tyro, meeting with key people in their company regularly, engaging with them on strategy and related innovation opportunities.
  9. Help. Tyro is a wonderful help to small business retailers.
  10. Business help. Through a range of services, Tyro helps small business retailers. We have encouraged this and genuinely support it.

Compared to big banks in Australia, we see Tyro as a small, fast moving opportunity for small business retailers, helping them compete and be relevant and helping them provide an over the counter EFTPOS solution that is competitively positioned for small business retailers.

We are a small business focussed POS software company serving in excess of 3,700 small business retailers. We have been doing this for decades, constantly evolving what we do and what we offer, to make sure that what we are doing is relevant and valuable. Tyro fits with what we do, with our focus as a company. This fit matters to us.

We are retailers too. We use Tyro in our retail businesses and have done for many years.

Having said all this, we also support direct POS software access to big bang EFTPOS offerings. We do this because we are committed to ensuring that or customers can access the banking solutions they deem appropriate to their own local businesses. That is, we don’t let our opinions get in  the way of what our customers may prefer for their businesses.

Read onRead later

Events facilities enhance the small business POS software experience for retailers

October 2, 2018
2 Min read
E

The new events facilities in the Tower Systems POS software expand and enhance the experience for small business retailers.

Using events, retailers using the Tower Systems software can track traditional events connected to shoppers as well as events related to the type of business and type of shopper using the business. Here are some examples of events that can be tracked and leveraged through the software:

  1. Birthdays.
  2. Anniversaries.
  3. Dates items were purchased.
  4. Due dates for services such as bike maintenance, working for pets and more.
  5. Valuation dates for jewellery.
  6. Release dates for licenced products customers love.

The thing is, our events facilities are flexible and powerful, most valuable to retailers in all kinds of situations and for many business circumstances.

We have built a valuable tool here, something retailers can use to grow their businesses.

We had facilities like this in the past. The new events facilities take the opportunity to a new level. Plus we have put it in the software for any type of retailer partnering with us to use. This way, our customers can show us the potential rather than us telling them what to do.

This week we are providing more FREE training for all our POS software customers on events, through a group online live training session we are demonstrating events, explaining how to use it and taking all questions.

This free training, plus our offer of one on one training, plus our wonderful documentation makes the events facilities accessible to any of our customers in any situation. we make it easy for people to access and easy for them to learn.

We think this is what being a good and engaged small business POS software company is all about. We create awesome software, based on customer needs, and back with with training and support on  which our customers can rely and enjoy in their partnership with us.

Tower Systems is grateful to the many small business retailers in our community who provided advice and insights that we leveraged to create the new events facilities in our POS software. Working together like this makes better software for everyone.

Read onRead later

What is POS software and why is important in my independent retail business?

September 28, 2018
2 Min read
W

POS software, Point of Sale software, is software that turns a computer into a cash register.

But it is much more than that.

Smart POS software for your type of retail business is about much more than being a glorified cash register. The right POS software for your business will help you:

  1. Reduce operating costs.
  2. Sell more.
  3. Bring shoppers back sooner.
  4. Get shoppers spending more in a visit.
  5. Reduce employee theft.
  6. Reduce shopper theft.
  7. Reduce loss from non-performing stock.
  8. Plan better.
  9. Enjoy your business more.

While these may sound like marketing claims, they are real benefits on which you can rely if you choose the right POS software from the right POS software company for your business.

No, we don’t think POS software from Tower Systems is right for every business.

Just a customers assess us and our software to determine if our software and we are right for them, we do the same when considering customers. We want the choice to be right too, we want to do business with customers and businesses that are a good fit.

We take this approach knowing that a good fit works for both parties. We see selling our software as a mutually respectful relationship, one that has to benefit both sides. This is why we take care in partnering with new customers.

If someone does want a glorified cash register for a simple business operation, we will suggest they look elsewhere as there are cheaper simpler systems that serve that need. Our focus is outside of this. Our focus is on retail channel specific POS software that serves very specific needs in retail niches.

This is why we say we are a vertical market POS software company. We deep-dive into the needs of each retail channel in which we serve, working with retailers, suppliers and others to deliver solutions unique to the needs of the retailers in each channel, to be specialist. This is where we can make a real difference beyond basic POS software.

Being specialist matters to independent retailers in their local communities as well as to our own POS software company as we serve specialty retailers with specialty POS software for each of these retail channels.

Read onRead later

Customer service matters when choosing small business POS software

September 26, 2018
2 Min read
C

Customer service is a critical factor when choosing POS software for amy independent or small retail business.

That sounds like a motherhood statement so we can understand if you say Duh!

We agree 100%.  Our focus is on delivering the level of customer service we would expect ourselves. To us, it needs to be personal, professional, human, knowledgable, engaged and relevant.

These are the principles of the POS software customer service here at Tower Systems. This is what we train our help desk and other teams in when we meet to work on what we do and how we do it. We see these pri cripples as being differentiating for us.

In a practical sense, our customers see how we operate through:

  1. A human based phone system. there is no automated phone system requiring you to press a bunch of buttons.
  2. An unmoderated and transparent Facebook page where customers can open discussions with us or other customers on any topic.
  3. Regular face to face regional use meetings where we meet with our customers to listen, learn and train.
  4. Unlimited free training long after the POS software is installed.
  5. Easy 24/7 access to an awesome knowledge base where our customers can learn and provide feedback ion the knowledge shared.
  6. An escalation process. We make mistakes inn our help desk processes. We’re human. We offer a structured process for responding to these, to address them and provide rectification. We seek to learn from mistakes, and not repeat them.
  7. Leadership team access. Contacting anyone from the leadership group within Tower Systems is easy. Our customers have our contact numbers and email addresses. We make sure we are accessible.
  8. Knowing us. When you are in contact with someone at Tower Systems you know their name, their real name. You know the person and can be sure they are the person who will follow up.

When you are looking at POS software companies, see if they are similar. We think these eight, and other, personal touch points that we offer here at Tower Systems are differentiating and empowering for our small business retail customers. We think what we do in providing personal and reliable service to our customers matters as much as the awesome POS software itself.

Read onRead later

Why you can’t trust POS software Google reviews

September 24, 2018
4 Min read
W

Google reviews can hide the truth of POS software support as people can write them for malicious reasons. Take this Google review by Ashley tester posted to our Google page:

I have been using Tower Systems “Retailer” POS system for about 2 years now and if i was able to go back in time i would never had bought it. The system offers plenty of potential but is incredibly buggy with quite a bit of stuff missing from the program. I have had multiple things go wrong with the program and the customer service attitude with it is “we’re working on it” with no communication on progress of fixing the issues. As we speak i am still waiting on a bug fix that currently has my website looking quite messy as product that has been sold from my POS in store is not displaying correctly on my E commerce website. This issue was brought to their attention a week ago, i phoned again 2 days ago and have still heard nothing. I was originally told it was a day to fix the issue. Many more examples like this have happened over the past two years. I would STRONGLY recommend not buying this product. There are better options out there but i am too invested in the software, not only with the initial 11k outlay but the hundreds of hours of data entry that i have done now.

Here is the response from our Managing Director, Mark Fletcher.

My name is Mark Fletcher, I am the owner of Tower Systems. My mobile number is 0418 321 338. My email is mark@towersystems.com.au. What sucks about Google reviews is there is no vetting and no right of reply to a specific review. The review by Ashley Tester is false and misleading. Ashley had an issue with our software that was resolved the day it was reported to the help desk. 100% resolved. However, that is not my core point here. At Tower we have a structured documented and promoted escalation process, because people do sometimes make mistakes. At no time did Ashley tester use our escalation process. Ashley Tester complained here without our knowledge, in an effort to harm our business, and based on false and misleading information. Many people work at our POS software company. They rely on the company for income and professional development. As the owner, I will not abide an unwarranted attack that, by extension, seeks to attack those we serve.

As mark is connected with the page, Google would not publish the response.

Everything published in the Tower response is verifiable by our CRM data records. The claim made by Ashley tester is false and misleading, as he would have known at the time of publishing.

There is another review at the page by a Ryan Farrow:

Overcharge for their product and services, owners are aggressive and unhelpful, and will charge for every single feature that comes standard with most products. System is often down for extended periods with most features essentially in Beta and not working as intended. Staff are uneducated in their own product and charge a premium for lacklustre support.

Ryan is not a customer of Tower Systems and never has been. Ryan is a web developer. he developed a website for a Tower client. Rather than follow our published advice for connecting the website to our POS software, Ryan demanded it be done how he wanted.

As with any engineering where you build a bridge to connect two sides of a river, there are professional processes to follow to ensure the bridge meets in the middle. Ryan did not see it this way.

We can’t change the reviews. What we can do is point to our current 3,500+ customers, our years in business and our transparent engagement. We established a private Facebook page for our customers where they can ask anything any time, where they can provide feedback and do so without moderation by us. This level of customer driven transparency reflects on our commitment. neither Ryan nor Ashley Tester used this customer forum. Instead, they sought to hurt us publicly.

Read onRead later

Why we think small business retailers should beware POS software onboarding

September 21, 2018
2 Min read
W

Onboarding is a term some POS software companies use to describe their process of bringing on new customers.

Onboarding is a corporate term, a big business term, for detached remote setup and installation. It is not personal. It is not small business.

Small business is personal. Most small business rely on providing personal local service.

That is what we do at Tower Systems through our POS software.

We don’t onboard, not in the big business corporate sense. No, we work personally, face to face, in your business. We setup our software in your shop, leveraging installation options to provide you with as much of a tailored solution as we are able. We do this working alongside you.

Not on the phone.

Not by email.

Not via Skype.

Our service is personal, like small business retail is personal.

Of course, if you would rather we did the work remotely we will happily do this. However, this is not our recommendation.

So, here at Tower Systems, no impersonal onboarding, no distance learning. We work with you, in your business, personally and engaged with your Like a conversation. Friendships develop. Understanding of your needs develop. This makes it better for you and for us.

We are confident that the personal in-store approach to setting up your POS software provides you with a better outcome. It is calmer and more engaged. We think you will learn better by our experts working with you in your business. And isn’t learn ing better vital to you and your business? For sure!

Every time we are in a retail business we learn. This is another reason we are keen to install and train on-site, in retail businesses. Working remotely on the phone denies this learning opportunity. It means the outcomes are less appropriate and useful. This is another reason onboarding is not a smart move in our view.

Small business retail is personal. Tower Systems gets that and delivers on the through its personal POS software installation  and training approach.

We are grateful to serve in excess of 3,000 small business retailers today, retailers we have learned from by being in their businesses.

Read onRead later

Bulk image import to POS software helps retailers setup e-commerce websites

September 20, 2018
2 Min read
B

The bulk image import facilities in the Tower Systems POS software make it easy for small business retailers to update their e-commerce websites with accurate image data.

We won’t go into much detail here about the bulk image import as it is clever, fast and accurate. It is part of our intellectual property that we leverage for our small business POS software customer base.

The bulk image import tools make it easy for customers to bring in images accurately and with little time investment. It makes it easy for small business retailers to offer image ric h website experiences to customers. This is a massive difference, something that we leverage exclusively for Tower Systems customers.

We work with retailers as well as their suppliers to manger this connection work to the advantage of our customers. We have experience already with many websites where we have done this work.

Looking around at others and what they offer in this area, we are grateful to have a point of difference in our facilities that give Tower Systems customers a commercial advantage on the bulk import of images to websites through our POS software.

We reached this point because we needed it ourselves for websites we created for our own retail businesses. We knew first hand the importance of the fact and accurate bulk image import. However, we found suppliers challenged ing to deal with. Then, we developed a process. We tested this and refined it and got it to a point where it is working a treat.

We can help our customers and their suppliers work together to bring in images to the POS in bulk that are then loaded to websites according to rules established by the retail business, working with us, leveraging our experience and expertise in this field.

We make it easier for small business retailers to get images loaded onto their websites. This helps them move online and leverage the online sales opportunities.

This is another example of the whole of business solutions offered by Tower Systems from the POS to e-commerce and back again.

We are grateful to ur customers for their support and the continual improvement opportunities they present.

Read onRead later

How poor POS software rips small business retailers off through missed revenue

September 18, 2018
2 Min read
H

We switched a small business retailer to ur POS software recently from another package that was costing their business money.

Using the other software package, the retailer could scan a series of items and there was no warning, no sound, no error message if the item scanned did not exist in the stock file. This was costing them money on a daily basis. 

If a stock item is not found in the stock file, the sale should stop there until the issue is resolved. This is the only ay to stop the business from losing certain  money.

Our Tower Systems POS software is strong in managing inventory and rob just in reporting data problems, such as scanning a bar code that is not recognised. An error message appears. The transaction cannot proceed until the error is resolved somehow.

Getting data right is vital in any retail business. Otherwise, what is the point.

Here at Tower System s we work with retailers to get data right, to ensure mistakes are minimised, to help make the flow of shoppers through the sales process easy, fast and accurate. If something does go wrong, we do not ignore it, as this other POS software that we recently replaced was doing.

We want small business retailers to have tools and processes that protect their businesses, which ensure good business performance. This is why we back our wonderful software with strong retail management training, that is delivered in store in a face to face situation, with business owners and team members.

This personal service that we provide from our skilled retail experts is what can make a difference for successful POS software integration.

Tower Systems is staffed by retail experienced people. For sure we are a tech company, but we are also retailers with solid retail experience and this is a big difference as we can speak to experience and leverage this for better outcomes in retail customer situations.

Our retail first approach helps small business retailers get more value from their technology investment with us. It is what makes partnering with Tower Systems different and valuable.

Read onRead later

Small business retailers should not have to export stock data to excel spreadsheets to make changes

September 17, 2018
2 Min read
S

We were shocked to discover small business retailers using some other POS software needing to export stock data to excel for manipulation and then importing the changed data back into the POS.

We think this reflects poor design of the POS software.

Our Tower Systems small business POS software has an awesome stock manager tool that enables you to make bulk safe changes to data without the need to export. Our stock manager tools are ideal for small business retail where data changes are common, especially bulk data changes as the business moves online or deals with new suppliers.

Indeed, there are myriad reasons bulk data manipulation is needed.

Exporting data to an excel spreadsheet is nuts in our view. It is old school from twenty years ago. If POS software requires it we suggest you look elsewhere as in the export and import problems can happen, damage can be done, data integrity can be lost.

By being able to make any data change necessary from within the POS software and without having to export the data makes sense to us and to our small business customers. That this can be done with a tool that is easily and safely used by a non tech person in a retail business is key. We make sure this can happen.

With more than 3,000 customers, Tower Systems understands small business and the needs of people working in small business. We make sure you are protected while at the same time proving tools necessary to enable you to run the business how you want.

Never export data to excel from your POS software for manipulation again. If a software company rep asks you to do this, ask why? Ask why they are not providing the tools necessary for you to do the data work needed from within the POS software. If they are honest the answer will most likely be a technical restriction in their software, something that does not allow the software to serve the reasonable needs of your business.

Tower Systems can help. Our POS software is ideal for small business retailers. It is robust, l capable and safe.

Read onRead later
The POS Software Blog

Categories

Categories

Categories

Recent Comments

Monthly Archives