The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

CategoryMusic instrument shop software

Small business POS software Q&A

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Here are answers to questions we are often asked:

Are you Australian based? Yes.

Do you make your POS software? Yes.

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

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

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

Do you have training videos? Yes

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

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

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

Can I run the software in the cloud? Yes.

Can I run the software on my desktop? Yes.

Can I backup to the cloud? Yes.

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

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

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

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

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

Can we promote things on receipts? Yes.

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

Can we remind customers about servicing or similar? Yes.

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

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

Can we create a quote for a customer? Yes.

Can we track / manage quotes? Yes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Can we email receipts? Yes.

Can we track where our customers come from? Yes.

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

Does the software handle LayBys? Yes.

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

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

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

Does it integrate with Xero? Yes.

Can the software age check on certain products? Yes.

Do you offer a business insights platform? Yes.

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

Do you offer a self checkout option? Yes.

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

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

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

Tower Systems supports Australian music instrument retailers and repairers

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At Tower Systems, we understand the unique needs of Australian music shops thank to the insights from existing customer sin this space. Their expertise has been a terrific help.

Our music shop POS software is designed to streamline operations and help retailers grow their business. Whether you sell instruments, sheet music, or offer lessons we have the tools to support your success.

Here are some of the features of our music shop POS software:

  • Easy to use and capable stock management: Track instruments, accessories, and sheet music with ease. Manage serial numbers, secondhand goods, and special orders.
  • Customer Relationship Management: Nurture customer loyalty with features like loyalty programs, service reminders, and personalised communications. You can capture details to make targeted marketing easier.
  • Point of Sale (POS) Solutions: Streamline sales processes with our user-friendly POS system, including integrated EFTPOS and Xero integration.
  • Online Sales Integration: Sell your products online through Shopify integration, expanding your reach to a wider customer base.
  • Repair and Service Management: Efficiently manage instrument repairs and servicing, including quotes, tracking,and customer communications.
  • Flexible Deployment Options: Choose between cloud-based or on-premise solutions to suit your business needs.

Here’s why we think we are worth considering:

  • Our software is developed and supported locally, ensuring a deep understanding of your business needs.
  • Our dedicated support team is available to assist you with any questions or issues.
  • We only serve local small businesses. No one big business dominates us.
  • Customise your software to match your specific workflows and preferences.

Now, here are some questions we get asked about us and our music shop POS software:

  • How do I contact your support team? You can reach our Australian-based support team by phone or email. Call us and a human answers.
  • Can I run the software in the cloud or on my desktop? Yes, we offer both cloud-based and on-premise options.
  • Is there a lock-in contract? No, you can cancel your rental at any time with no long-term commitment.
  • Can I offer discounts to specific groups or customers? Yes, our software allows you to create custom discounts and promotions.
  • Can I track sales for fundraising purposes? Absolutely, you can track sales to specific groups or organisations to support fundraising initiatives.

Join the many Australian music shops that trust Tower Systems. Contact us today to learn more about how our software can help you streamline your operations and grow your business. We’re on 1300 662 957 or sales@towersystems.com.au.

Music shop software hits the right note for local music shops

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Local Aussie made and supported music shop software you can rely on.

Tower Systems is based in Hawthorn Victoria. We make and support the software we offer.

We make and support software for 16 different retail channels and serve 3,500+ retailers. This matters because you can rely on us to be here for you.

Our music shop software offers facilities on which you can rely such as:

  • Managing special orders for customers.
  • Tracking repairs.
  • Club / school / music teacher grouping pricing: easily attract and service group members.
  • Bundle products to sell more.
  • Record product serial numbers.
  • Shopper loyalty tools tuned for your type of business.
  • Helping you market to customers based on past purchases.
  • Sell and manage services.
  • Link to a Shopify, Big Commerce or Woo website.
  • Low cost EFTPOS option.
  • No cost EFTPOS option.
  • Easily link to Xero for accounting.

This music shop software costs $205.00 a month (including GST).

There is no extra cost for additional terminals. No extra cost for access to the help desk.

Every customer has free access to a library of training videos, structured into a curriculum – making training easy, especially for new staff.

Click on this QR code to see a demo of our music shop software.

You don’t have to log in or provide any details. You can watch it right away. We’d also love to personally demonstrate the software to you, answering your questions about your business needs.

Call 1300 662 957 or email sales@towersystems.com.au.

We’d love to help you run a more enjoyable music shop, one that makes more money for you and those the business supports.

We offer more than our music shop software. For example, Every Tower customer has free access to our FindIt online marketplace, helping attract more in-store shoppers.

When you are ready, we’d love to show you our Music Shop Software and through that show you answers to other questions you have.

Are you Australian based? Yes.

Do you make your software? Yes.

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

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

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

Can I run the software in the cloud? Yes.

Can I run the software on my desktop? Yes.

Can I backup to the cloud? Yes.

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

Can we offer a special price to members of a club or students of a teacher or school? Yes.

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

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

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

Can we promote local music groups on receipts? Yes.

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

Can we remind customers about instrument servicing? Yes.

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

Help for MusiPOS software customers with Aussie made and supported software for music shops

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Tower Systems is grateful to offer software for music shops: shops selling and servicing music instruments, sheet music and offering music lessons.

Our Aussie made music shop software handles a range of products and services of interest to music shops including:

  • Instrument repairs tracking.
  • Rental of music instruments.
  • LayBy of music instruments.
  • Sales of sheet music.
  • Special orders.
  • Tracking product serial numbers.
  • Managing secondhand goods when it comes to music instruments.
  • Listing of products for sale on a searchable online database – to help you attract more shoppers.

This modern POS software for music shops has facilities included (without extra cost) music shop owners and team members tell us is important, like:

  • Easy selling.
  • Integrated EFTPOS.
  • Xero integration – cut keystrokes and mistakes.
  • Shopify integration for selling online.
  • Club / group fundraising / discounting .. encourages engagement.
  • Auto serving product care instructions.
  • Easy management of instrument service reminders.
  • Service / repair management.
  • Easy to setup and run LayBy.
  • Easy use of buy now pay later.
  • Customer special orders.
  • Pre-sell inventory.
  • Rare visit loyalty.  The customer visit cycle for a music shop is often infrequent. Embedded in this software are loyalty tools that nurture these shoppers to provide more value from each visit.

All these facilities and plenty more are included in this software. But, we don’t currently link to APIC. We’re working on it.

here are some common questions from music shop owners about us and our music shop software:

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

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

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

Can I run the software in the cloud? Yes.

Can I run the software on my desktop? Yes.

Can I backup to the cloud? Yes.

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

Can we offer a special price to members of a club or students of a teacher or school? Yes.

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

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

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

Can we promote local music groups on receipts? Yes.

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

Can we remind customers about instrument servicing? Yes.

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

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

Can we create a quote for a customer and manage this? Yes.

Tower Systems first with Linkly Cloud POS software integration

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We are grateful for the opportunity and proud to deliver a world first – a POS software integration with Linkly Cloud.

That’s right, we have retailers live with our Tower Systems POS software connected to Linkly Cloud for EFTPOS transactions.

Tower Systems makes POS software for specialty retailers in a range of local specialty retail channels.

Linkly is all about Making every payment seamless.

Together, we have delivered a solution that helps retailers save time, cut mistakes and more easily compete with big business.

Local retailers keen for a seamless payee its integration and needing a POS solution that is capable, functional, enhanced and reliable – the Tower Systems Linkly Cloud partnership is worth considering.

Tower Systems integrated EFTPOS, connects your Retailer Point of Sale with your EFTPOS terminal, making it the fastest and easiest way to sell.

Tower Systems is not prescriptive to its retail business customers as to what payment gateway must be used. We let our retailers choose what is right for them. There is no financial penalty flowing from their choice either. Payments is their choice. We focus on making money from our software.

Being the first in the world to deliver this solution sees us helping those who will come after us. We’ve made it easier for them. We love being the innovators and appreciate the opportunities this affords us along the way.

Our purpose is to empower local retailers to thrive.

Almost everyone working at Tower Systems has experience working in local indie retail. All of our customers get a say in software enhancements.

We know the more we help local retailers thrive the more they will help us thrive.

We know that our software can make a difference in businesses for which it is made, and that our training and support can help businesses thrive.

Our software is made for specialty retailers, retailers in a range of channels like jewellers, garden centres, bike shops, toy shops, newsagents, pet shops, music shops, sewing shops, clothing shops, pool maintenance shops, garden landscape businesses, produce businesses, stockfeed businesses and fishing and outdoor shops.

If you are looking for a secure, fast and time-saving payments integration, Linlkly Cloud connected to the Tower Systems POS software is worth considering.

It’s stocktake season and Tower Systems is helping small business retailers be ready

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Our advice to retailers re stocktake is first and foremost: never pay an outside party to do your stocktake and never do a stocktake outside of your POS software.

The most accurate stocktake result for any retail business is doing it yourself, using your POS software. The Tower Systems POS software offers easy to use and reliable stock facilities and workflow.

Last year (2022), we got together with one of the stocktake experts at Tower Systems to discuss this and answer common stocktake questions we are asked. Here’s the video.

Our help goes beyond this. We have written advice, and we offer personal training. We make stocktaking easy and reliable for local samall business retailers.

5 ways retailers can use the POS software from Tower Systems to pitch value to shoppers

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Plenty is being written about the economy at the moment and it is negatively impacting consumer confidence. There are things you can do with the Tower Systems POS software to show your business offering value to shoppers, and thereby nurturing more value for you.

And here in this post, value means the value shoppers perceive in dealing with your business. You could also use the term savings.

While value can be about price, it is often not as straightforward as that. Something could cost more but it could last longer or you might get more pieces than if you pay a lower price or there may be some other add-on that drives value.

While our POS software offers many ways retailers can pitch value to shoppers, here are 5 ways retailers can use the POS software from Tower Systems to pitch value to shoppers:

  1. Discount vouchers in Retailer are a perfect way to pitch value. A dollar amount discount is better understood than points. You can set the vouchers up in a way so costs are covered by benefits. Show your shoppers what they can save.
  2. Offer to fund raise for local charities, community groups and clubs. They could give their members a card that gets them, say, a 5% discount off purchasing from you while also earning for the charity a 5% donation. The goal here is to bring new shoppers into your business.
  3. Offering a coffee card type discount of, say, buy 9 and get your 10th free for habit-based purchases, like coffee, pet food, cards, magazines, fertilizer etc. can help nurture shopper stickiness to your business.
  4. Bundling products together into something that only your business offers can pitch a value proposition unique to your business.
  5. Volume pricing, where the cost of an item decreases as the quantity purchased increases, can help shoppers save and you sell more.

Your software offers more ways of pitching value to shoppers than these, and it helps you systemise pitching value. Being consistent about this is key to it working for you.

Consider this list of 5 a starting point, a jumping off point for exploring other ways for your business.

Tower Systems offers business management advice like this to all of its POS software customers, taking the POS software help desk experience beyond the technical and onto the shop floor, to help our local small business retailer customers to themselves get more value from their use of our POS software.

Updated POS software for local music instrument sale and repair shops

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Our Tower Systems music shop POS software is made for music instrument retailers. Actually, it was first made for bike shops and then we discovered that there were needs in music shops that were almost the same as bike shops. And here we are, locally made and supported POS music shop POS software.

We are grateful to be able to offer this software for music shops for 4145.00 a month. This includes GST, access to the software, access to the help desk and access to an awesome fresh catalogue of training resource and support materials.

From instrument sales to service and repair, this music shop POS software is made to help local music instrument shops sever their customers and local communities.

Easy to setup and run, this music shop POS software can evolve as the needs of the business evolve. For example, you could move from basic selling to instrument repairs to leveraging customer data to run email campaigns to attract shoppers back into the business. we say this based on what people working in music shops have told us.

Specifically, using our music shop POS software, you are set to benefit from a range of facilities including:

  1. Club / school / music teacher grouping pricing:Helps you attract community group members. The better your connection with these communities, the more business.
  2. Repairs:Easily track & manage repairs & communicate with customers. This works whether you repair the instruments in-store or not.
  3. Special orders:Easily manage special customer orders for musical instruments and other items that you bring in especially for them.
  4. Pre-orders:Pre-sell stock and be ahead of the game.
  5. Serial number tracking.Track for absolutely sure what you sell if it has a serial number.
  6. Product servicing and check-up reminders.
  7. Genuinely informative receipts:Include information they’ll appreciate, like how to care for a musical instrument purchased.
  8. Catalogues:Setup and manage date-based specials and offers.
  9. BOGO:Increase sales with buy this and get that  For consumables like regularly purchased items this can work a treat.
  10. Customised product labels:Include store name and contact details.
  11. Awesome loyalty:Guide one-time and regular shoppers to spend more.
  12. Seasonal reordering:Easily reorder inventory based on seasonal sales.

Connected to Shopify for easy online sales if you wish, Tyro for fast broadband EFTPOS, Xero for easy accounting management, this software has hooks designed to help run a more efficient and successful retail business.

From us you will receive no pressure. take a look and see if this music shop POS software may serve your needs.

the latest release of the music shop POS software from Tower Systems was out in early February 2023. This software is fresh, made for music shops.

See our POS software running live in one of our shops

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One of the benefits of us owning and running retail shops is that we can offer a live and behind the counter demonstration of our POS software.

Retailers considering our Tower Systems POS software can get in behind the counter, watch transactions, and even do transactions so that they get up close and personal with the software in a live situation. Better still, they can talk to our store managers and team members on a retailer to retailer level and ask any questions.

Typically, these visits happen without sales people there, offering a more authentic opportunity to see this POS software live.

We also have customer who watch from the customer side of the counter, to see how that plays out, the workflow and efficiency.

Some retailers like to look in the back room and see any back office management using our POS software – where stock bay be arrived into the business,s stock scanned out to be returned to suppliers or other more office related work undertaken.

Having shops available for retailers to visit is a unique situation. We are not aware of any other Australian POS software company that has this resource – shops they own and run where their POS software can be seen, used and observed first-hand.

POS software démonstrations are good and can show off the detail of how the software works. It is in-store where you get to see real life situations, how the software can help with queries, actually save time, genuinely cut mistakes and more. It is in smooth workflow in specialty retail settings that the Tower Systems POS software shines and we think our ownership of retail businesses is a factor on the tuning of our software to a level that it is easily seen as valuable.

We have more retailers going through our softens for personal in-store demonstrations and hands-on use this week. It’s all organised through our sales team: sales@towersystems.com.au or 1300 662 957.

We do have retailers who just turn up at one of our shops and look and while there is no barrier to this, it’s more respectful of our retail team members if we schedule the visit as in the shops we put the needs of our retail customers and our retail team members ahead of everything else.

So, come see awesome locally made and supported POS software live in one of our shops, serve some of our customers and see whether it suits your own business.

Small business retail advice: attracting new traffic

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Attracting new traffic, new shoppers, is vital for local retail businesses. Every new shopper adds value to the business today and into the future.

We are always looking for businesses that do this well, in ways not traditional for that type of business. We found one a few weeks ago in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin – the Avant Cafe & Cycle shop. Here is a new video from us in which we explore what we like about what the folks at Avant are doing, what we learned from them.

They offers are well defined, quality and complimentary, yet able to successfully stand along … and that is key to any business attracting new traffic for specialty products or services – they need to be able to stand alone as that strength enhances the value of the combined offer.

Pursuing new traffic is the single most important business management activity for you and your business.

We suggest pursuing new traffic is a meditation point for any local specialty retailer… new traffic, what it is, what it means and how you can attract it

When you approach any management or strategic activity in your business, think about what this task or activity will do to attract new shoppers.

It is not enough to do something in your shop for that is only seen by people in your shop.  What are you doing to promote this outside your shop?  … because that is where new traffic is to be found.

This is not something for your suppliers to do. It is up to you. Only you and your actions can attract new traffic.

Pursuing new traffic is about far more than putting new products in your store. Indeed, stock is only one of several steps that are all connected in pursuing new traffic. However, stock is the start. Stocking new lines never offered in the business are the best first step to take to bring in people who do not shop with you today.

What they are doing at Avant is attracting people who love and appreciate good coffee while at the same time attracting local cyclists and people wanting to purchase bikes or have their bikes serviced.  Each of these separate areas does well, and they compliment each other.

Serial number tracking in POS software

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Not all POS software tracks serial numbers.

The POS software from Tower Systems does track serial numbers, and here’s how:

This new short video is another in our series for our POS software customers and our sales prospects. It’s another way we remind local small business retailers the value of our locally made and supported specialty retail POS software.

Ideal for jewellers, pool maintenance businesses, firearms dealers, bike shops, pet shops, appliance businesses.

By tracking serial numbers using the Tower Systems POS software, retailers can provide a level of service to customers they will appreciate. Serial numbers are listed on receipts. They are recorded, too, for later use should the item be stolen from the customer and they need to do a claim.

Tracking serial numbers in this Tower Systems POS software also sets your business up for longer term tracking of the service history of an item. This can be a valuable way to differentiate the services provided by your business.

The serial number tracking tools are part of the POS software for specialty retail settings such as jewellers, bike shops, pet shops and more. It is included in these products at no extra cost, no additional monthly fee.

Embedded in the Tower Systems POS software for a range of specialty retail marketplaces, the serial number tracking tools are a genuine value-add without any additional cost., They are a core part of the Tower software, able to be used at any time. This is key in that retailers will appreciate not having to pay extra to use serial number tracking tools.

In the pet shop channel, the serial number tracking tools are used to record pet microchip details as they, in an of themselves, are a form of serial number. Being able to track pet microchips in this way, using the serial number tracking tools, helps pet shops to provide a service pet owners and lovers certainly appreciate.

The serial number tracking tools in this software are another differentiator, another benefit for local business retailers through which they can provide an appreciated level of service to customers.

Tower Systems is grateful to its customers for their support in helping us reach more local retail businesses.

It’s the add-ons that can cost more with POS software, but not at Tower Systems

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Here at Tower Systems we provide POS software for local small business specialty retailers rich in function, robust in structure and ever-evolving to serve changing needs.

Gift shops, garden centres, jewellers, bike shops, pet shops, toy shops, antique shops, sewing shops, nurseries, newsagents, mobility scooter businesses, farm supply businesses and fishing and outdoor businesses all use our specialty retail Australian made and supported POS software.

We bundle in with the Tower Systems POS software facilities that too many other software companies charge extra for or get to you go to a third party to access, which we think is not ideal for small business retailers.

By including these facilities and services in the one price, Tower Systems POS software customers know what they are in for, they can budget, they can rely on what we do and how we do it.

Take a look at this list of what is included with our POS software, what you done;t need to pay extra for.

  • Registers – no additional charge for additional registers.
  • Integrated payments for EFTPOS. Less mistakes. Less theft.
  • Accounting (Xero integration).
  • Ecommerce (Shopify / Magento / Woo).
  • Loyalty (points and discount vouchers).
  • Integrated LayBy.
  • Product care instructions on receipts.
  • Product box location tracking.
  • Integrated gift cards (your branding).
  • Community group pricing and local club pricing – to help promote your business locally.
  • Product bundling (hampers etc) – makes price comparison harder.
  • Was / Now pricing.
  • Special customer orders.
  • Seasonal sales tracking.
  • Targeted customer marketing.
  • Sell by weight.
  • Sell by length.
  • Sell by fractions.
  • Colour / Size / Style.
  • Digital receipts.
  • Secondhand goods.
  • 24/7 customer service. Staffed by humans, who are local. This is not an offshore call centre.
  • Launch services. To help you settle in and get running with the software.
  • API access.
  • Serialisation. Yes, you can sell products that come with serial numbers.
  • Dedicated account manager.

This is not a complete list, not by any measure. There are many more inclusions with our POS software that are marketplace specific, inclusions in terms of supplier integrations and more, that make this POS software specialist in nature for specific retail channels.

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

Find out more at www.towersystems.com.au Call 1300 662 957 or email sales@towersystems.com.au

Is our POS software right for your retail team members?

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In any local retail businesses, it is the people in the business who really make the business stand out, it is in the people working in the business that valuable differentiation can be found.

The right staff members can make or break a shop.

This is why we ask Is our POS software right for your retail team members? when we are talking with a retail business owner about our POS software. It’s a serious question, an important question, a question that helps local small business retailers in their assessment not only of Tower Systems but of any other POS software company they are considering.

In considering this, Is our POS software right for your retail team members? it is important to understand what your retail; business team members want out of POS software. It could be they have needs beyond what the business owner knows. It could be that they see opportunity beyond what the business does today. Including them in the POS software evaluation and consideration process brings them along, gives them some stake in the ultimate decision that is made.

Here at Tower Systems, when we demonstrate our Pos software, we record it, with your permission. We then share the link too the video so you can share it with your team members, so they can learn about our POS software and consider for themselves whether our Tower Systems POS software is right for them, and through that, right for your business.

We welcome the opportunity to demonstrate our POS software to your team members, so they can see the software in action, touch it and feel it. We often learn from these situations, which we love.

Front line retail team members know a lot about the business in which they work and its customers. Tapping into that knowledge is valuable for us and in our consideration of what we can develop in our POS software as we expand its reach.

So, we care about the question Is our POS software right for your retail team members?, a lot. We ask it ourselves and encourage small business retailers considering partnering with us to ask this too. In doing this we are able to nurture more valuable and appreciated partnerships. And, the businesses we say we are not the right fit to benefit as well.

Tower Systems makes and supports POS software for local specialty retailers.

New video: repairs software embedded in POS software helps local retailers

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If you offer repairs services in your retail business, the repairs management software offered by Tower Systems as part of its POS software solution could prove ideal for managing repairs for your business and for the customer experience.

Jewellers, bile shops, scooter businesses, music shops, fishing and outdoors shops, farm supply businesses and more all use the repairs facilities to help them manage customer repairs.

Here is a new video we shot in which we explore some of the features and benefits of our POS software integrated repairs software:

A Covid lockdown To-Do list for local small business retailers

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Here in Melbourne we are in our fifth Covid lockdown. As well as owning our POS software company and working with local small business retailers every day, I also own three retail businesses and several online businesses.

This Covid lockdown To-Do list for local small business retailers is practical advice you can action without cost, to make the most of the lockdown opportunity.

Whether your shop is closed or open but with less traffic, now is an ideal time to work on your business.

  1. List what’s not sold. Run a report listing all inventory in the business that has not sold at all this year. This list gives you a starting point for action. We did this last week for one customer and identified $15,000 worth of dead stock, stock the owner to that point was not focussed on.
  2. Act on what’s not sold. Dead stock is dead weight. If you have long since paid for it, cents in the dollar for it is better than nothing.
  3. Look at what’s been selling with what. Often the items in the same basket are not seen by retailers as items you can put together. This list, which you should be able to get from your POS software, can guide shop floor placement changes.
  4. Front to back clean. Literally, start at the front of the shop and work your want to the back. Clean every single product. We often find that the act of holding every product leads to decisions about some products, decisions we might otherwise not have made. We have just done this at one of our own Westfield shops and the decisions we made along the way have been liberating.
  5. Work on your roster. Look at what usually sells by day of week and by time. Your POS software should be able to help with this. Take time to review your roster to ensure it is set appropriately. Labour is usually the top or second highest cost in a retail business outside of inventory.
  6. Reset the front third of the store. Look carefully at that front third of your store. Make bold changes simply by moving things, so that when shoppers return they see things they’ve not noticed before.
  7. Prepare social media content that leverages you. Using your phone, film short videos of you or a team member talking about products. Prepare these to load over time on Facebook, Instagram and more. Have fun.
  8. If you have a website for the business, write blog posts as they are absolutely the single best thing you can do to attract traffic to the website. A blog post should be single topic, pitch a consistent keyword at least five times and be over 350 words. We have a lot of experience with this and note, again, this is the single most effective online marketing for a website. The only investment is your time – don’t outsource this.
  9. Learn something new. Ask your POS software company for the best report in the software to reveal what you are unlikely to know about your business. Run that report. Read it. Make a list of things you could do. Act on it.
  10. Be a shopfitter. Shopfitters are expensive. Look at an area of your shop that you want to change that you would usually hire a shoplifter to handle. Think through how you can do it yourself. I know many retailers who have done this and vowed to not use shopfitters for such changes in the future.
  11. If you are online, undertake a data driven review of your website. Look at your traffic and the traffic of your competitors. Review your site and theirs. Look for opportunities to attract more shoppers to your site based on the data. Whoever developed your website should be able to collate this data for you.
  12. Personally: refresh. If you can take a break from business, even for an hour a day, read fiction, listen to music you love, go for a walk outside. These nourishing things can help reset mood and that could help you discover new opportunities for your business.

We are a local Aussie POS software company serving 3,500+ local small business retailers with POS software and beautiful Shopify websites. Beyond this, we also offer retail business management advice and help to our customers every day.

Thanks for reading. have an awesome rest of your weekend …

Mark Fletcher | mark@towersystems.com.au.

The POS Software Blog

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