The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

CategoryJeweller software

How a $1,474.50 voucher wins a customer for life

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IMG_9365 (1)The customer purchasing a $15,000.00 diamond ring is thrilled to receive a voucher offering $1,474.50 off their next purchase as it feels like a genuine discount off the ring they purposefully chose and an opportunity to save on another purchase.

The loyalty rewards mechanic being used here can win a customer for life for an engaged jewellery business.

While some shoppers will realise the cost of the discount is embedded in the pricing policy of the business, plenty of customers will not and will spend in a way that reflects delight a the opportunity.

The technology behind the serving of the VIP member voucher is comprehensive and powerful. It provides engaged retailers with tools that enable them to drive basket depth, shopper return and product stock turn.

While appearing to be simple, the software and supporting business practices are proving to be commercially valuable for many of the retail partners of Tower Systems.

Helping small business retailers cut theft in their shops

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Small business POS software company Tower Systems is running training tomorrow for small business retailers on how to cut theft in a retail business. This specialist delivered training will cover strategies and tactics for cutting employee theft and shopper theft in any type of small retail business.

‘Drawing on considerable experience working with retailers and the police, this free training from Tower Systems will help retailers mitigate the cost of theft in their businesses.

POS software knowledge base enhancements

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Tower Systems updates articles and resources on its Knowledge Base regularly. We advise customer by email, proving links to enhanced and new content. Recent enhancement of the knowledge base included:

Here is why Jewellers love the specialist jeweller management software from Tower Systems

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In a recent Q&A, Tower Systems was asked about its specialist jeweller management software and why the software is so popular with hundreds of jewellers in Australia and New Zealand.

The Q&A started with a query about what is unique about Tower in the jeweller space:

  1. We are a software company, not a consulting business using software as a mechanism for driving consulting fees.
  2. We are in your business. Not a contractor we hire, not over the phone, when we install the system we do it in your business, working with you.
  3. Second-hand goods. These facilities have been developed with jewellers and authorities so you have the right records on hand.
  4. These facilities have been developed to help you streamline workflow and keep in close contact with customers throughout.
  5. Manufactured goods. From concept to manufacture, you can manage and track what you make for whom and when. This is a billing and management asset.
  6. Our LayBy facilities have been developed in close consultation with jewellers, making them unique and comprehensive.
  7. We offer more facilities than any other system. These offer you flexibility for driving purchases in the current visit and for bringing shoppers back more often.
  8. You have access to extraordinary customisation through settings, enabling you to represent your business how you want.
  9. Embedded in our software are facilities for tracking how the software is used. This enables us to help you reduce employee theft.
  10. Retail focussed. The big challenge of retail is to uncover opportunities which you can still leverage them. We have smart reports which unlock for you information about your business which can help you here.

Next, we fielded some other questions about our jeweller software that may be of interest to readers here.

Is the software multi-store compatible?

Yes, you can use the software in multiple retail locations as well as retail and a warehouse plus from home and even on the road or at trade shows. Through the multi-store facilities you can see stock on hand in other stores, move stock between stores and report by store or the group.

Using the multi-store facilities, additional stores don’t need to have the software installed, saving time and management overhead.

Does a retailer need to be in-store to access their system?

No, jewellers and their managers can access the software from anywhere – with appropriate security options available to protect the business data.

The security around out of store access is comprehensive – ensuring that data is protected.

What type of reports can the system generate?

This question is kind of like how long is a piece of string. The software has more than 100 reports. Each report was either in the software because we wanted it there or because a business using the software asked for it. We have many jewellery business specific facilities such as fast seller reporting, stock turn, return on investment, supplier comparison, employee sales reporting, sales by time. The opportunities are considerable.

The valuations facility includes customer documentation necessary to serve a variety of valuation needs. The valuations facility has been developed closely with a variety of jewellers and their employees.

The Tower Systems Jeweller software also offers comprehensive manufactured goods, repairs and second-hand goods facilities – all of which have been developed with jewellers in a variety of situations from single operator to multi store group – in Australia, New Zealand and several overseas countries. Each of these three areas of the software – manufactured goods, repairs and second-hand goods facilities – is specific to the needs of jewellers.

We are proud to deliver specialist software for specialist small business jewellers, software on which you can rely to create more successful and valuable businesses.

Kudos for Tower Systems POS software – Xero interface

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Screen Shot 2015-08-20 at 5.01.22 pmRetail businesses connecting with the Xero cloud based accounting software through our POS software are growing in number as word spreads about the time saved as a result of the seamless link.

As users of Xero and our software in retail ourselves we are able to speak to the difference and share practical insights into the time saved and the mistakes eliminated through the elimination of what would otherwise be manual processes.

Being approved by Xero is not a simple process – as it should hot be. Their approval process is one reason some POS software companies don’t get to the point of partnership.

The Tower Systems POS software – Xero link has featured in a Xero approved promotion this month to retailers in the specialist retail channels in which we serve.

POS software for jewellers on show at Sydney International Jewellery Fair

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11954615_10155941710050142_4235377724170455486_nTower Systems is thrilled for the opportunity to demonstrate its latest Jeweller management software at the Sydney International Jewellery Fair that starts today at Glebe Island.

Running for three days, this fair is the preeminent jeweller trade show in Australia.

Serving more than 300 jewellers already, Tower Systems is market leader in numbers. Thanks to continuous development and guidance from its customers, Tower will today and for the next three days show technical leadership with new facilities released including cloud based told that will help in Jeweller business management.

The photo shows our trade show stand – already setup and ready for the show opening at 9:30am today. The stand itself speaks to the professionalism and consistency we bring to our service of jewellers.

Our work with jewellers in developing our specialist jeweller software helps our other marketplaces as they do jewellers. Trade shows are important as they providing us opportunities to expand our knowledge as well as make new friends.

New free small business POS software training opportunities launched by Tower Systems

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Screen Shot 2015-08-26 at 11.14.43 amSmall business POS software company Tower Systems is proud to have launched a new series of free online POS software training for retailers using its specialist POS software.

The latest training continues our commitment free weekly training opportunities for small business retailers. It is actions speaking loader than words.

We launched the training early this week. We are writing about it here after the launch to our customers.

Anyone can announce training. It takes commitment to deliver it week in week out.

We are grateful to our customers for their support.

Sunday retail management advice: track staff sales

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Have your staff members record sales by using their staff card barcode or some other unique code and report weekly on the sales achieved. Sharing this simple data point will encourage competition and this is good for all involved in the business including customers.

In one business where we guided this implementation revenue growth can be tracked back to the implementation.

We’d love to help any retailer do this.

Certification for POS software training achievement

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Screen Shot 2015-08-14 at 8.00.46 amTower Systems is thrilled to issue certificates to retail business employees who complete the structured curriculum based training in the use of our POS software.

Across several curricula developed y retail channel and retail business task areas, the training offers an opportunity to develop valuable knowledge not only in the practical use of our software but also in the business application of the software.

POS software training achievement certificates give retail employees a marker of their learning achievement, something of which they can be proud.

The image is of a certificate issued last week to another successful candidate in a business using our pet shop software.

Sunday retail management advice: leverage shop local

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IMG_9093The shop local movement has a good profile. Locals do tend to prefer to shop local. Retailers need to actively and consistently leverage this through a regular reminder but such a reminder is hollow unless you offer local benefits such as community engagement, hiring locally and sourcing locally made products. Actively engaging in the business through locally focussed decisions helps any retailer bring power and strength to their calls for people to shop local.

This is our advice today – if you pitch shop local, live in in your shop every day and show you yourselves believe in it.

Tower Systems helps retailers actively pitch and live the shop local mantra through its POS software and through the business support the company provides in its training and on its website.

POS Software Xero link saves time and money for small business retailers

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Screen Shot 2015-08-06 at 7.46.57 amAs an authorised software partner of Xero cloud based accounting, Tower Systems is delivering time and money saving benefits to retailers using its POS software.

We link to Xero ourselves in our own retail businesses using our POS software. This provides us with accountant level experience, experience we are happy to share as part of the support services we provide to help retailers get more value from our software.

Jewellers, bike retailers, gift shop owners, pet shop owners, newsagents, firearms retailers, discount variety store owners and garden centre owners cal all benefit from the Tower Systems POS software / Xero link facility as it is available in channel specific software.

While we do link to MYOB and Quicken, the Xero link is our favourite because of the way Xero operates and how the company itself serves partnerships like ours.

Being able to draw on personal experiences makes a difference in POS software company support.

Sunday retail management advice: live and be local

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IMG_8799Thanks to smart tools in the Tower Systems POS software, our small business retail partners are able to connect with, promote and support local engagement in a variety of valuable and sustainable ways.

We are grateful for the opportunities to help small business retailers engage locally in this way.

From actively supporting local community groups to promoting local events to supporting local suppliers, the Tower Systems POS software is ideal for small and independent retailers who want to pitch a genuine local message.

A successful local connection requires strategic planning and consistent execution. This is where the various facilities in our software can help retailers – we offer multiple touch points and the certainty of consistency. It is a valuable offering on which our retail partners can count.

As part of the Tower AdvantageTM our local credential

POS software helps small business retailers grow sales

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Our sales are up by 15% year on year and I put much of that down to your loyalty software.

This is a real retailer sharing their results for the 2014/15 financial year.

We started using discount vouchers a year and a half ago and in the last twelve months we have seen the biggest sales surge in our history.

A deep analysis of sales and other data shows the valuable extent to which Discount Vouchers are changing shopper behaviour and attracting new shoppers.

We have a point of difference nearby competitors don’t have. We love it.

In this business they call the Discount Voucher a Thank You Voucher. This is one of many benefits in our POS software – retailers can call the vouchers what they want. They also set how the voucher is calculated and the products it can be redeemed for.

Retailers from many channels are growing their businesses thanks to our unique Discount Voucher facilities. retailers implementing them following our advice can do so at no cost to the business. They can bank on a commercial result that will deliver excellent bottom line results.

The Discount Voucher facilities live up to our promise: we’re here to help.

Comprehensive new reporting in Jeweller Software enhancements

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Tower Systems has released comprehensive new reporting facilities in its Jeweller Software as a result of user community consultation – taking the software into deeper levels of personalisation and customisation to serve the needs of specialist jewellers.

The best way a specialist POS software company can serve its specialist retail customers is through its software by delivering enhancements that uphold the specialisation of the retailers.

This is what we do at Tower Systems not only for jewllers but for each marketplace in which we serve. Were engage in active consultation bringing retailers to the table to guide our enhancements and developments to ensure our software is relevant beyond expectation.

We think too many software companies get bogged down with being software companies by remaining at a distance from their customers. We know that the best ideas for software enhancement come from the shop floor. This is a place where we are comfortable and where we are actively listen.

The latest jeweller software is receiving good kudos.

Sunday retail management tip: leverage a point of difference on loyalty

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11800610_722882817857496_9022396491198622984_n (1)More and more retailers are switching from the old school points based loyalty programs to our discount vouchers. They are finding the vouchers are driving more immediate and more valuable outcomes for retailers – they are driving a better bottom line. We are hearing new success stories daily.

It is thrilling hearing success stories of how businesses have switched from points to $$ loyalty offers. It’s exciting and invigorating hearing of small and independent retailers achieving excellent outcomes for their businesses and knowing that we have played a role in this.

This is our retail management tip today – chase a point of difference, leverage new age discount vouchers and stop using the old points based loyalty offers.

Retailers can call the vouchers what they like. They can also choose how the value on a voucher is calculated and what it can be redeemed for.

Promoting our specialist jeweller software

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We have partnered with a jeweller magazine to pitch the latest release of our specialists jeweller software ahead of presentations to the marketplace. With more jewellers joining our user community thanks to wonderful referrals, we are thrilled to be growing in this important marketplace.

Here is the ad we are about to run:

jewellerad

 

Support for #smallbusiness #retail is vital for our POS software company

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Screen Shot 2015-07-23 at 7.19.59 amAt Tower Systems we live our support for small business retailers every day from practical help we provide through our POS software to the business management assistance we provide through a host of free resources any small business retailer can access.

The new free small business retail marketing collateral we sent out last week has been a hit with businesses contacting us appreciative of these local targeted resources they can use to promote their businesses.

What does this have to do with POS software? Plenty we say as our POS software helps make retail businesses more efficient and smarter. The marketing resources help them spread their message wider than they otherwise might. The two work hand in hand.

We are grateful for the opportunity to serve small business retailers in a variety of ways.

Smart POS software takes stock performance measurement and management to a higher level

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We are thrilled with the feedback on a new report we are trialling in our POS software. Developed with a senior business consultant for a group of retailers in the high ticket price item space, this report provides an alternative view on inventory performance, a view we think many of our customers will find useful as they look to extract more value from their businesses.

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This latest report reflects further enhancement of the Tower Systems software along a path of continuous improvement and in response to customer requests.

Engaging our development team direct with customers is a most useful exercise for any software company.

Another POS software training video from Tower Systems

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Screen Shot 2015-07-22 at 2.59.19 amWe have launched another training video for retailers using our POS software. This new video is not your usual training – no, it highlights a new feature of the software, something fresh for all users. It provides a high level introduction from one of the architects of the new facility. All customers have been provided free access to the video and plenty have viewed it already. We are thrilled for such terrific engagement.

More POS software training for the new financial year

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Tower Systems has kicked off the New Financial Year with the launch of fresh POS software user training opportunities for retailers who partner with us.

The free online new training is genuinely new: fresh, new topics … designed to help retailers get more from their Tower Systems relationship.

Our customers can book in for the free training now from our website. We send an email with instructions on how to get online.

Best practice stocktake advice for small business POS software users

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This advice is about the best business approach to undertaking a stocktake. Please refer to other Knowledge base articles on how to actually use the software. All retailers using our POS software have access to our knowledge base.

Please ensure you have the latest version of the Tower Systems Retailer POS software installed prior to undertaking a stocktake.

For the process to be as easy as possible you will need a wireless network – vital for OH&S reasons.

The best way to do a stocktake in your business is by using a laptop (or laptops) or tablet computer with a scanner attached. This enables you to do the stocktake live with no impact on sales and absolute integrity of your stock on hand data.

While using a laptop (or laptops) or tablet computer may seem cumbersome, it is our best practice advice for speed, data integrity and the ability to address data issues you may encounter on the shop floor. It enables you to do management work to ensure completely accurate data.

The alternative is to use a PDE. The challenges with this are the many different PDEs and it is challenging to be expert in all plus the PDE counts at that time and you load the data at a later time – meaning a gap in time in which sales could have been done. While PDE software is available for live to data updates, we have seen this be problematic and so we do not use it.

Given the advances in technology, our best practice recommendation is either a laptop of tablet computer as either offers a better solution than a PDE.

We suggest you setup a Laptop or tablet and use Team Viewer or the like to connect in and count this way. This approach means you do not need to purchase an additional software licence for the laptop. Team Viewer is easy to setup.

For the physical stocktake, we suggest you approach the business aisle by aisle, counting and rearranging stock as you go.

Once you have completed your first full stocktake, our advice is you engage in a rolling stocktake, doing parts of the business, through the year. The Tax Office does not require businesses with full sock control implemented to do a stocktake at the end of the financial year. They will accept data from your system if you manage stock through the year.

Sunday retail management advice: use your POS software well

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This advice seems simple, obvious – yet it is advice that must good POS software companies repeat daily. Here at Tower Systems we take this seriously we offer advice on how to use the software well, how to run a better business with the support of the software

Going beyond what is traditional in POS software support, Tower Systems helps its customers get more. Here are some of the ways retailers can use their POS software well:

  1. To track everything sold by item detail.
  2. To track all products returned.
  3. To manage gift vouchers.
  4. To run your Lay-By program.
  5. To create order for replenishment stock.
  6. To manage the employee roster.
  7. To track inventory theft.
  8. To track all sales.
  9. To stop employee theft.

This list is just a start on how to use your POS software well.  Too many retailers use their software as a glorified cash register and we don’t like that. There are plenty more ways retailers can use their POS software to run more efficient and valuable businesses.

Small business retailers love the time saved with POS software cloud backup service

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bupThe cloud backup service launched last year by Tower Systems is popular with retailers using our POS software. Backups are seamless, not taking any noticeable time thanks to the smart technology. The result is welcome double protection.

While Tower Systems has supported external and automated backup services for years, this new cloud-based service that offers excellent protection to users of our POS software.

Run on a subscription basis and backing up to the cloud real-time through the day, this is a comprehensive replacement of the old end of shift backup approach for small and independent retailers.

Xero cloud based accounting promotes the Tower Systems POS software

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Screen Shot 2015-04-15 at 1.26.18 amCloud accounting software company Xero features Tower Systems and its retail management software on the Xero website. This privilege is for software companies which have met compliance requirements set by Xero. Tower Systems achieved this status last year. Since then, we have worked with Xero on communication with small business retailers about the benefits of our Xero integrated POS software solution.

We have plenty of retailers using our software and our automated link to Xero … saving them time and money in the management of their financial records.

We use the Xero live and automated link for our own retail businesses and can speak to the benefits ourselves.

Good news from a retailer switching to our POS software

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Thank you for helping us switch to your software. I had no idea we could do what we are already doing with your software. For years I thought I had a good software program. The time saving alone pays for itself. Thank you.

We love feedback from retailers who switch to us as it encourages us to work even harder at leveraging our point of difference. This latest retailer to switch provided us with comprehensive insights into the weaknesses of the software they have switched from, insights we can leverage in our communication with other retailers in the channel.

Making good POS software is one thing. Guiding retailers to get the maximum commercial value from the software is something else. This is where Tower Systems excels.

 

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