The POS Software Blog
News from Tower Systems about locally made POS software for specialty local retailers.
Check out www.morethannews.com.au and see how newsXpress Kenmore in Queensland has transformed online to a wonderful gift shop offering plenty, including Aussie made Hegs Pegs, Soap Bar Soap and coin sets. We are grateful to provide their POS software and their Shopify website.
Don’t rush it. Take your time. Make decisions when you are ready.
Many POS software companies and sales people will want you to rush. Some will apply financial pressure. Others will say it’s easy, start today, be selling today … and they will often say this without understanding your business needs.
Take your time. Make decisions when you are ready.
The goal has to be to choose the POS software that best serves your needs. So, start there, with your needs. Think about them, what matters most to you, what’s not negotiable. Start there and cast aside any software company that is not interested in starting with your needs.
Some will offer a free trial, some will even push hard at this. That’s lazy selling. They want you to use their software to see if it is suitable, and knowing that some customers will stick because of concerns that it could be hard to switch software. We think free trials are a crock.
Some will offer you free software. There is no such thing. Software developers don’t work for free, nor dog help desk people, the accounts office in the software company, the sales team. Since they don’t work for free, the company has to make money so, no, there is no such thing as truly free software.
All the sales claims can make it challenging.
Take your time. Make decisions when you are ready. Start with your needs.
If this sound like hard work, it is. Good software can make you a lot of money, it can save businesses. Spending time getting this decision right could be worth a ton of money to your business. But the work has to come from you, not the sales person.
The best POS system for your retail business is the one that covers the most of your needs at a price you are prepared to pay.
No software company can claim theirs is the best, although plenty do. They can speak to customer numbers, of course, which is fine, but not a measure of best.
Here at Tower Systems. we start with you, and your needs. We want to understand them first. If we think our software is not right for you, we’ll say so.
How do I find the best POS system for my business? Don’t rush it. Take your time. Make decisions when you are ready.
The integration of our Tower Systems POS software with the Slyp digital receipt platform is helping local small business retailers demonstrate their engagement with leading tech ology to enhance the shopper experience.
In today’s digital age, shoppers like seeing good tech used to enhance their shopping experience. Shoppers want a seamless, convenient, and tech-savvy shopping experience.
That’s where Tower Systems and Slyp come in. Our two companies have partnered to create a solution that helps local small business retailers deliver on these expectations.
Tower Systems makes, sells and supports POS software for local specialty retail businesses. Our software is used by thousands of businesses to manage their sales, inventory, and customer data and plenty more.
Slyp is a digital receipt platform that allows businesses to send receipts to customers’ mobile devices. Slyp receipts are more than just a digital version of a paper receipt.
The integration of Tower Systems POS software with the Slyp digital receipt platform is a game-changer for local small business retailers in our community. It allows businesses to:
Our POS software Slyp integration has been live for some time, under the radar, under beta release. This followed comprehensive live acceptance testing. Through the beta release we enhanced the integration, to reach a point of delivering something we are truly proud of. The POS software Slyp integration is terrific, useful and differentiating for our local small business retailer community.
If you are a local small business retailer, you should consider using Tower Systems POS software with the Slyp digital receipt platform. It is a great way to enhance the shopper experience and stay ahead of the competition.
We are grateful to retailers who have used Lightspeed POS and vend POS software who are considering our Tower Systems POS software on the back of being told that they would face additional charges if they do not use the Lightspeed Payments platform for customer payments.
Here’s a short video about our alternative to Vend and Lightspeed for retailers frustrated by their decision to charge extra if you choose to not use their payments platform …
We don’t run a payments platform, we’re a POS software company. We leave all that to the banks.
We link to the big 4 banks via Linkly as well and direct to Tyro and to SmartPay if you like their fee-free EFTPOS solution.
If you’re looking for an alternative POS software solution to Lightspeed and / or Vend, we’d love to learn more about your needs, to see if our software could be a good solution. Our promise is – we will tell you if we think we’re not right for you. This is important as it’s critical you do your research into what is right for your business.
We have successfully tested our Vend POS data conversion software that brings across Vend inventory data, including variants.
Let’s talk: sales@towersystems.com.au, 1300 662 957 (Australia) 0800 444 367 (NZ toll free).
Here are the specialty retail marketplaces we serve:
Here’s what’s included: software licences for unlimited computers in the location, help desk support (phone or email) 6 days a week (incl Saturday), access to a knowledge base, after hours support call access for urgent support, Shopify, Xero and other integrations, access to our supplier invoice import tools.
We have a crew of awesome software developers, caring customer service people and a business support crew skilled in serving local indie retailers.
Newsagents using the industry-standard Tower Systems software for newsagents are leveraging the software to help transform their businesses to drive relevance in a changing marketplace.
But first, let’s talk about the industry standard. there are around 2,800 retail newsagency shops in Australia. Tower Systems serves in excess of 1,700 of these with its newsagency software. The choice of the majority of newsagents to choose Tower Systems makes it the industry standard, for which we are sincerely grateful.
The local Aussie newsagency has been evolving for years. This picked up pace ten years ago. We have newsagents using our software to serve other retail categories in what were once traditional newsagencies. Here are some examples of how newsagents are relying on our software to evolve, here are some of the new categories we’ve helped with:
Yes, these are all categories we have seen different local newsagents embrace as they evolve their businesses to ensure relevance to new shoppers. They have been able to do this with our software as it is flexible in terms of facilities and services. And, the software curates a valuable dataset that can provide guidance as to business evolution opportunities.
In addition to finding new opportunities and walking the path to implementing these, the newsagency software itself helps guide improved business efficiency by eliminating keystrokes and laying down workflows that anyone can follow, freeing up more skilled resources in the business for looking over the horizon.
Our Tower Systems newsagency software also directly integrates with Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce and Big Commerce. Plenty of newsagents use these integrations to sell online and online is where the local Aussie newsagency can be very different to what is usually seen on the high street. We develop the websites, connect them to the newsagency POS software and offer advice on how to drive traffic to them.
The local Aussie newsagency is changing, playing outside what has been traditional for newsagency businesses. We are grateful for the opportunity to be engaged with these transformations.
Dead stock has no value in any retail business. Indeed, it has a cost as it takes up space and needs labour to keep it clean at least. It sits there, occupying this space, not being bought, paging with each day.
What constitutes dead stock will vary by type of retail business. In some, stock has an expiry date, making that the drop-dead date for the stock. In other businesses, stock is dead when a new version or new release of an item is out.
For the purpose of the advice we provide here, our definition of dead stock is that which has not sold whatsoever in six months or more. The is, you have a quantity of an item on hand and have not sold any of then in six months.
Knowing what stock is dead in your small business shop is critical. It is the start, the beginning, of resolving the issue of dead stock.
Our Tower Systems POS software helps local small business retailers easily identify dead stock. You can decide what constitutes dead stock in your business and list it, bring it up on the screens for attention.
Start there, start with your definition. next, use your software to identify what’s dead. Once you have this information you need to jump, what for some, is a hurdle … you need to decide to quit that stock.
Some retailers are adamant that they need to make a profit on everything they sell. These retailers don’t like discounting to quit dead stock. The thing is, the stock on the shelf is worthless until someone pays you something for it.
In our pragmatic view, getting something, anything just about, is for stock that is dead is better than waiting longer and getting nothing for that same dead stock.
Quitting dead stock is best considered a freeing cash move. That’s what we say getting anything at all is better than the stock sitting on the shelves and not moving.
Use your POS software to identify the dead stock and then jump that hurdle and quit it, quickly, freeing the space and allowing you to focus on what’s next.
In our Tower Systems POS software, the Stock manager tool is best for identifying stock that is dead. You can easily see when you last arrived stock, what’s on hand and when it last sold. In seconds you can have a hit list of stock that could benefit from action. Stock manager operates in a way that any retailer could use it. It’s not complex, not daunting. We have a terrific video showing how to do this with Stock manager. We also have a wonderful advice sheet.
Retail businesses exist to support those who rely on them for income. Dead stock is not helping with this.
Unfortunately, too many small business retailers do not actively engage with the opportunity of dead stock.
…
We are grateful to serve more than 3,000 local and independent small business retailers here at Tower Systems. Our POS software community is diverse and very much appreciated by us for their support and feedback.
The advice we share here comes from our years of engagement with them and our own experience as engaged retailers ourselves.
How decisions are made in local independent retail businesses can determine the value of those decisions, the consequences on those decisions.
Too often in our work with small business retailers we have seen decisions based on emotion rather than evidence.
The POS software we make for specialty small business retail collects and curates business data that can inform decisions. New have seen wonderful and valuable success flow in retail businesses that make decisions based on evidence is this data.
A common situation of poor decision making is buying stock. Too often we see small business retailers buying because they like a sales rep or because they like the look of something when their own business data indicate that buying that stock is not the right move for their retail business.
In our POS software we make it easy for local retailers to access this data about stock performance, we make it easy for them to have the evidence of their own data to better inform decisions they are considering. retailers who do this, who rely on the evidence in their own business data, tend to run more successful and valuable retail businesses. They tend to enjoy their businesses more too.
Buying stock has to be black and white: will this decision make money for the business in the time that the business needs? As a retail business trades using POS software like ours it builds up knowledge in its trading, knowledge that can be accessed, analysed and understood by the POS software itself to make it easy to see the right stock buying decisions to make.
We upset a retailer a while back when they happened to mention that products from a supplier were not working for them. They were unhappy when we showed them their own data that disagreed with their opinion. It turns out that their opinion was based on a dislike of the manager of the supplier business. They were letting their emotion get in the way of facts. The situation turned out well, the business made more money as a result.
If you are in retail to be successful, we urge you to make decisions based on your business evidence. Our POS software can help. We back its facilities with terrific training and customer support materials that are easily accessible.
We love helping local small business retailers make good decisions. It’s something that makes us feel good.
…
We are grateful to serve more than 3,000 local and independent small business retailers here at Tower Systems. Our POS software community is diverse and very much appreciated by us for their support and feedback.
The advice we share here comes from our years of engagement with them and our own experience as engaged retailers ourselves.
In 2023, embodying the essence of local in the retail become more vital than ever. Big businesses are engaged in local, but they are using systems, processes and tech. The conundrum for genuinely local small business retailers lies in authentically cultivating a local identity.
The term local means different things to different people. It isn’t restricted to geographic proximity. Local can be perceived as the degree of personalised care you offer to your customers, the supplementary advice you give, living within the locality yourself, sourcing products locally, or serving the community on a personal level. It may also be linked to the availability of locally sourced products.
For instance, a product produced anywhere within Australia could be deemed as locally sourced. Narrating the story of where a product originates, along with the family involved in its creation, can add a local touch to it, distinguishing it from similar overseas products. This narrative is crucial because it underlines the local aspect.
Small retail businesses can leverage Tower Systems’ retail POS software to effectively promote their local attributes in various ways:
There are plenty of ways local small business retailers can authentically pitch local. In this post we have covered just some of them. We are a local POS software company ready to help you pitch local.
Here at Tower Systems we are grateful to serve a diverse mix of specialty retailers in different marketplaces. These include:
Here’s what’s included in the monthly rental cost: software licences for unlimited computers in the location, help desk support (by phone or email) 6 days a week (including Saturday), access to a comprehensive support knowledge base, after hours support call access for urgent system down queries, access to our Shopify, Xero and other integrations, access to our supplier invoice import tools.
Tower Systems currently serves more than 3,000 local small business retailers.
It may be that our software is not right for you. Let us organise a personal live demonstration by Zoom. We’ll record it with you and give you a copy so you can show colleagues and others you’d like to consult.
If we think we are not a good fit for you we will say so and wish you all the best.
Email us: sales@towersystems.com.au.
Call us: 1300 662 957 (Australia) 0800 444 367 (NZ toll free).
We have a crew of awesome software developers, caring customer service people and a business support crew skilled in serving local indie retailers.
At our website, we have easily accessible recent demonstrations of our POS software, which you can access immediately and without sharing any personal contact details whatsoever. The transparency we demonstrate on our website reflects how we operate as a company.
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.
The Xero accounting software integration with POS software from Tower Systems helps local independent retailers save time, save money, reduce mistakes and make better informed business decisions.
Using the Xero link with our POS software retailers can streamline their processes, connecting POS software and Xero accounting software, removing double entry and cutting mistakes.
The Tower Systems POS software offers:
The Xero accounting software solution offers:
The Tower Systems POS software Xero integration is a solution made for local small business retailers, to save time and money, to help nurture stronger and more valuable retail businesses.
Connect the Tower Systems POS software with Xero in minutes and keep everything in sync. Simply connect the tow and map your accounts. Our crew of retail experts can help;p you do this.
Once connected, your Tower systems POS software will upload your chosen key financial data to Xero – saving time on admin and cutting data mistakes.
Tower Systems is proud to deliver the advanced Xero POS integration local specialty retailers deserve for the complexities and competitiveness of modern retail.
Tower Systems is grateful to support thousands of Australian and New Zealand retail stores with our comprehensive POS software. We give retailers the tools they can understand and use to run more valuable, enjoyable and successful local retail businesses.
Tower Systems only serves local specialty retailers. This ensures that every customer matters. Are are thankful that more than 3,500 retailers have already chosen to partner with us.
Our service is local, from Aussie and NZ based retail experts. Our software is local, too, made here, for you.
The Xero integration with our POS software is one example of the value of integration relationships that we bring to life for our local indie retailer community.
Small and independent retailers can sometimes feel helpless when a big national retailer opens up nearby. There is no match for their range, buying power, advertising coverage or even news coverage.
The sheer size of a national competitor is what scares many smaller retailers. It can feel overwhelming.
Here at Tower Systems, all of our customers are local small business retailers, indie retailers, because that is the community we seek out.
Here are 5 practical tips for small businesses on how to face and deal with a national retailer moving into the area:
1. Don’t compete. By not talking about the competitor, pricing against them or pitching your business in any way, you separate yourself. While they may have similar products, it is unlikely that they are targeting your specific business so why target them? Focus instead on your own business. Not competing should include not advertising price comparisons, not focusing on the competitor at staff meetings, not expanding your range to sell more of what they sell and not obsessing about them.
Know why you are different and lean more into that, and, it’s likely that price is not a significant difference in your mind.
If you know why customers shop with you, you have the opportunity of not giving up margin out of fear.
2. Run a better business. From the moment you hear about a new national retailer coming to town, look at every aspect of your business for opportunities for improvement. From the back room to the front counter fine tune your processes, employee training, stock buying and the look of the business. Dramatically improve your business from the inside out. This will improve your business health and help you weather challenges which may lie ahead.
Too often, independent retailers wait until the national retailer is open to react. This is probably a year or two too late.
3. Be unique. Look for ways to make your business unique. It could be on product range, operating hours, add-on services or something else. Embrace any opportunity to make your business unique.
Even a unique niche range of products can give you traffic a big competitor will not chase. Try and focus on products which require a level of retail skill and knowledge to sell – national retailers have challenges hiring and retaining retail employees with specialist knowledge and skills.
4. Engage the community. Like, really engage. Support local groups, speak at functions, get known as someone and a business who care deeply about the local community. Subtly make the connection that you are fortunate to be able to help because of your local business.
Being smaller and independent you are better able to personally engage with the community. You and your team are the business whereas a national chain will always be the corporate. They can throw money around locally, you can throw time, knowledge and more flexible assistance.
5. Tell your stories. Your retail narrative, your stories, connect you with the local community. Tell these through the people you contact, your own blog, a Facebook page and in the pages of the local newspaper. Tell human stories about your business, the people who work in it and the local stories which connect with it.
Your stories could be about local community connection, convenience of shopping, commitment to range, personal customer service, product niche knowledge … there are many different narratives with which an independent retailer can connect. It is important that one you have your narrative you stick to is, that it inhabits your decisions, marketing and public presentation.
Local indie retailers can compete against with any big business by not acting as a big business would. This is the key. Be yourself. Have faith in yourself. Sell yourself.
Now, why is a POS software company sharing something like this? That’s easy – we care about our customers, we care about local indie retail. We’ll embrace any opportunity to help local indie retailers shine.
Local small business retailers are short on time and challenges in competing with well-resourced big businesses.
The ChatGPT AI integration delivered by Tower Systems in its local specialty retail POS software early this year is being used by small business retailers to create for search friendly product descriptions.
Using this optional and free facility, retailers are able to describe products faster and in search friendly terms. Here’s a short video we made for our customers to show how it works:
No, we’re not going all AI is replacing the world on our customers. Rather, we are providing access to optional time saving tools. Feedback from our local retailer community has been wonderful, for which we are thankful.
Many Aussies think of the local Aussie newsagency as a papers, magazines lotteries and car shop, around the corner, close, a bit dark, run by someone old, carrying a bit of everything, expensive for some things, probably out of date for today.
That’s the narrative pitched in too many stories. It’s out of date, many years out of date.
The local Aussie newsagency, the one serving where you live, is most likely not like that old narrative. It’s changed.
We made this video Tuesday for one of our own newsagency shops, to promote it on social media as well as YouTube. Below we explain how we made the video and, more important, why we made the video.
We took the photos on my iPhone and used promo.com to assemble these, add text and lay music underneath. All up it took less than 10 minutes. I share these details to illustrate how easy it is for anyone to make a video like this.
This video is important as it is us pitching a narrative for this shop. For decades, the narrative of the local Aussie newsagency has been controlled by others. Today, in 2023, the narrative about our shops is rooted in decades ago. It is out of date. It challenges our relevance. It does not help us.
We wanted to have a crack at recasting the narrative for this one shop in a suburban Westfield centre in the bayside area of Melbourne. While for sure we are biased, we think it’s a good video that does re-cast the narrative for this newsagency, while at the same time making a statement about the channel, calling for others to see us differently and not as others so wrongly and ignorantly pitch us.
We’d love to see more newsagents do this, make videos and other social media content that pitches our businesses with a fresh and relevant to 2023 narrative. Points about lottery jackpots and the major seasons are predictable, expected. The more we play outside of what is expected the better for us, the more we are likely to attract new shoppers to our businesses.
As we noted above, this video took less than 10 minutes all up. There are plenty of platforms you can use to make videos just like this one. While we pay a commercial licence for promo.com, there are others out there that are free.
As for the products we chose to highlight, plenty are made in Australia. In fact, half the air time of the video features Australian made, small business sourced, products.
We want to call out the final frame. This features a pair of colourful stud earrings on a card that says you inspire me. That is a very deliberate choice to pitch that message at the close of the video.
Hopefully all this background is helpful enough that other newsagents create content to recast the narrative of not only their newsagency businesses but the channel more broadly.
But back to the video. In 24 hours it passed 20,000 full views thanks to a nudge through the YouTube ad platform. Tonight, Friday night, it’s at 37,000 full views. That’s 37,000 people in the area of Melbourne I targeted who watched the video in maybe the first newsagency pitch they had seen in years.
We appreciate it’s not call to action advertising. It’s not intended to be. As we wrote above, this is about the narrative relating to the Aussie newsagency.
Here’s a footnote about why we’re writing about this here at a blog for our POS software company.
Tower Systems is not your average POS software company. This video speaks in a small way to that, it shows us engaged beyond the software, in service of one of the local small business retail channels in which we serve.
The advice in this post could relate to any of the specialty retail channel s in which we serve.
Tower Systems offers help to local small business retailers to help them save time and money. We do this through training, written advice and easy to access and follow video advice.
A couple of weeks ago we shared with our small business retail POS software customers this video on how to convert a PDF file to a CSV file that can be imported to our POS software.
By converting the PDF invoice to a CSV file the retailer saves time, improves data accuracy and helps the business have a better handle on business performance.
Tower Systems is grateful for the opportunity to help retailers convert PDF invoices into CSV files foe EDI import into POS software
We also connect with many suppliers for importing electronic invoices and more, making importing invoices easy and fast. But some suppliers have challenges implementing this. hence, this solution for converting a PDF invoice into a CSV file.
This snackable video is one of many offered to all of our POS software customers. We produce the regularly and share them in our email and print newsletters, and as part of our video training curriculum.
We are grateful to local small business retailer customers for their feedback on these videos as that informs our weak developing more useful training and support solutions.
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:
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.
When we talk about the value of a retail business we mean what the business is worth when it comes time to sell, which is dependent on the profitability of the business as reflected in the profit and loss statement.
Value is the key business measure here and while there can be non-monetary value perceived by the owners and other stakeholders, it is the value as seen by others, as through P&L results that is the common measure.
Using POS software from Tower Systems, retailers can drive value. Here are 7 ways they can do that:
This list is incomplete as our POS software can help cultivate value in plenty of other ways. We created this list to provide our customers with a starting point, some low hanging fruit.
We shared the advice with our customers via our regular customer email and our regular print newsletter. This is another example of the proactive approach we take to guiding our customers to achieve more from their use of our POS software.
While, for sure, our help desk answers support questions and helps with technical queries, we often go beyond with business advice that crosses the intersection of the technical; aspects of the software and the use within a retail business of the software to better serve the business and its owners.
7 ways retailers can use POS software from Tower Systems to help improve the value of their business is all about showing our POS software user community ways they software they already have can be used to help cultivate business value.
We are grateful to serve more than 1,700 local Aussie newsagents with our newsagency POS software. This small business community of retailers is dear to our heart. Right now, they are offering wonderful Mother’s;s Day cards.
If you are looking for a Mother’s Day card this year for sure shop your local newsagency because there you are likely to find the best range of Mother’s Day cards.
There’ll be cards for mum, mother, grandma, nan, granny, and more. There’ll also be cards for people who have been like a mum to you. And, there are likely to be cards from the cat or the dog.
If you like to see the best Mother’s Day cards around, if you want a range from which to choose, your local newsagency is the place to shop.
Now, if you are thinking a text message might do, mum can’t put the text message on the mantlepiece, she can’t keep it with her other cards to look at every few years. A card is a keepsake that lasts, it nurtures memories she will love. And the cards at your local newsagency give you choice to get it right.
The range of Mother’s Day cards out now at your local newsagency really is good. There are many new designs, many cards to brighten mum’s day.
We understand you have a range of shops from which to choose when buying a Mother’s Day card. Your local newsagency is the card specialist. You’re not pressured. The cards are not mixed in with groceries. Browsing is easy and you know, for sure, that you have many wonderful cards from which to choose.
Once you have the awesome card, from a newsagency of course!, here are 10 text ideas for what you could write in the card. Consider them prompts to kick off your own thinking:
Remember, what you write will last for years. Mum will look back on your words and the warmth you share today will matter in the future.
Newsagents understand Mother’s Day. We’re local retailers serving local communities and as such we are close to our shoppers. You buying a Mother’s Day card from us, from any newsagency, means so much to us.
Now, get out there and buy your mum an awesome Mother’s Day card, from a newsagency of course!
If you are looking for free POS software, Tower Systems is not the right company for you.
We don’t offer free POS software.
Typically, free POS software comes with payment made in other ways, such as being required to use a particular EFTPOS platform or service or being committed to some other cost in the business.
So, you can see, free is not really free. There is no such thing as free POS software.
What any retail business really wants / needs is the best POS software for their business. The best POS software will provide benefits in time and money that make the POS software truly valuable for the retail business.
Now, to be clear, we don’t know if our Tower Systems POS software is the best POS software for your needs. Only you can know that by comparing what our software does to what it is you need from POS software.
Our message today is buyer beware. Don’t get suckered in by a claim of free POS software because, for sure, it will not be free, and it may not be best for you.
We mention this today as we see many retailers in Australia searching for free POS software. It is worrying because every bad experience someone has with POS software.
Here at Tower Systems we want relationships with value at the core. We want to partner with customers we value, and who value us. This mutual respect helps both businesses prosper and if we do prosper then it’s the classic win win. That can’t happen with free as the starting point.
Software developers and help desk professionals cost money. And, you want that because you want good outcomes for your business. These good outcomes flow from good POS software that ids backed by good customer service.
If you look at it from a retail business perspective, you want people in your shop prepared to pay money for what you have on offer. If they don’t have money they are not customers you want. If their wage growth is flat their capacity to spend more is non existent.
All of this feeds into what is a circular economy.
But on price, we are fair, with a modest cost, which has not changed since 2019. So even though we do charge for our POS software, it’s modest and reflective of what we think the good businesses in our target marketplaces can afford.
Community connection is vital in local small business retail, authentic community connection at a level that is loved by folks in the community.
Back in the day, sponsoring a local sports club, donating prizes for a raffle or helping the local Rotary or Lions were the go to ideas for retailers. And while those ideas continue today, there are another local small business retailers can engage in providing community support that is funded buy the community itself.
Through our loyalty tools and, in particular the discount voucher tech we offer, local small business retailers can reward shoppers and they can offer in store a way for these shoppers to pay it forward, to support a local charity or community group organisation.
The Grill’d burger chain was an early adopter of something similar with their bottle caps and giving customers the caps to vote for one of three local charities the store would donate cash to.
Our suggestion is to invite shoppers to donate their discount voucher to one of several local charities in your business, which you could have every month or so, accruing the value of the vouchers for a gift card donation to the charity, or you making a cash donation of a portion of the voucher value to the charity.
It pitched well this could see people who support the local charity shopping with you so that funds are raised for the charity.
We know form years of data that around 20% of all vouchers handed out to shoppers are used by those shoppers within 28 days. This means there are other vouchers that expire unused. A nuanced campaign in-store connected with loved local charities and community groups could drive engagement, do good in the community and show the business as community connected in a fresh and loved way. That is the goal here.
Of course, the execution will be different in each location. Our job as a tech company is to provide opportunity. Our job as retailers ourselves is to share what we have seen work well, and what we have learned.
Your job as a local small business retailer is to make decisions that are right for you and your situation.
Using the discount vouchers generated by the software in this way, to support loved local community groups and charities, could be the reset you want, the engagement driver the business needs. The beauty of it is that it is low cost, self funding and truly community focussed.
We are grateful to the feedback from our customers and this has guided our own activity in this space of local community group connection.
Tower Systems is grateful to be able to launch a weekly POS software user Q&A session fort all comers, all users of the software, from any business using the software.
This session is a natural progression from our regular live Zoom sessions for customers. It not schedules as weekly’s every week of the year, so customers have certainty that it’s on.
Each session will be open for at least 45 minutes every Thursday. One of more of our POS software specialists will be in the Zoom room to answer questions and share insights. The goal is for open two-way discussion. Having the right people from our team there will drive the value of the sessions. We will demonstrate local retail knowledge and the value of local support compared to offshore call centre support.
We are open to covering POS software training, answering support queries and exploring enhancements in our POS software.
By offering the sessions via Zoom with no cap on attendees we demonstrate, again, our openness and transparency and the ease of accessibility for all of our customers regardless of location, support coverage status and more.
By making this open to everyone, those who like to listen to the queries of others and the answers provided will be satisfied. We think this openness will help us explore topics way beyond what me might set if we were in control of the agenda ourselves.
The goal is an enhanced customer service experience, something unique among POS software companies.
We know the closer we are with our customers the better the experience for them and the better for us. This is why our leadership team will regularly be available for these sessions, as they have been for our other customer Zoom meetings.
These weekly customer meetings will differentiate our Aussie POS software company and offer our customers another free training opportunity that will help them get more from their investment in our technology.
People participating will not have to register or jump through hoops. Accessing the session will be easy, fast and secure.
Tower Systems serves several thousand local retail businesses today. This new weekly customer free training and Q&A meeting initiative is another way we are demonstrating our commitment to engaged and easily accessible customer service.
The Aussie newsagency today in 2023 is a very different retail business than what you may have found in 2019 or earlier. The Aussie newsagency today often sells unique gifts, collectibles, sensory items and more. Some don’t sell lotteries. Some even don’t have papers or magazines.
Mount Lawley News in Western Australia is a small shop located a ten minute or so drive from Perth CBD. We mention that to reflect that this shop is surrounded by competition.
What was a traditional newsagency has been transformed by new owners Matt and the team over the last year. This is a good example of what I’d love journalists and other who talk or write about Australian newsagencies to think of.
What an awesome looking business.
A year ago this shop looked very different. Today, it is attracting new shoppers. New shoppers are the lifeblood of retail. Better still, the change in mix of products drives a change in the GP% of the business. These are factors that play into the strength and value of a newsagency, or any retail business for that matter.
We see too many stories about newsagencies closing. Sometimes, photos accompanying those stories do not reflect the best practice retail we are seeing from plenty of newsagents, like Mount Lawley News.
Tower Systems is proud to serve more Aussie newsagency shops than all other Aussie newsagency software companies combined.
Good software keeps changing, evolving, needing emerging needs and embracing new opportunities.
The Tower Systems POS software continues to evolve. What we offered a few months ago is not what we offer today.
In good engaged software companies, change is normal. This matters because needs change, opportunities change. Evolving POS software is all about local businesses keeping up.
The latest POS software update from the Tower Systems development team delivers access to:
These are just some of what is delivered in the latest POS software update from Tower Systems.
We are grateful to the customers who suggested some of these enhancements and to the customers who engaged in testing them as part of our comprehensive beta release program.
For this first update of 2023 it is considerable. Especially once you add the many other changes / enhancements not included in the list above. This update is the result of hundreds of man-hours of development investment. And, while our customers are embracing this update, we are advanced in our work on the next update, which we are excited for.
Engaged software developers are always working on their software products. That is our commitment here at Tower Systems – continual improvement based on continually evolving tech, market conditions and other factors.
We invest on behalf of our customers son that they can be sure that their Tower Systems POS software does evolve and can embrace opportunities of value and usefulness in the local small business retail settings in which we serve.
Included with this latest POS software update is advice for our retailer customers about data security. This refreshed advice is in the light of hacks in the last months of 2022. We have explained steps local retailers could consider taking to better protect data they are entrusted with. We have backed our advice with software tools to equip retailers with useful tech for better data protection.
Here at Tower Systems we get to work with and learn from many local small business retailers across many different retail channels who use our POS software. Here’s a list of some of the advice we have provided to retailers facing tough times. It’s offered as a resource for any in need. we also offer personal assistance based on specific circumstances.
No situation is impossible. No business is dead until the doors are closed for the last time.
Never give up. Fight hard and fight smart to turn your business around.
Facing tough circumstances in retail can be like the deer in the middle of the road facing an oncoming vehicle. Don’t freeze. Take action to mitigate your situation. A series of small steps could be the difference between closure and trading out of the problem.
Recent Comments