The POS Software Blog
News from Tower Systems about locally made POS software for specialty local retailers.
Let’s talk about XchangeIT, the deci platform for newsagents in Australia.
We are grateful to have helped bring XchangeIT to life by sharing lived experience in newsagency management back in the day.
A POS system reflects what you put into it. Feed it bad data and every report it produces is wrong. That might sound obvious, but in a busy retail environment — where stock arrives daily, staff turn over, and returns pile up — inventory data degrades faster than most retailers realise.
Poor data costs real money. It means stockouts on best-sellers, cash locked up in product that will not move, and numbers you cannot make decisions from. You do not have to guess whether your stock-on-hand figures are right. There are practical ways to check, and the right tools make staying accurate far less work than most people expect.
The stocktake: still the gold standard
Nothing confirms inventory accuracy like a physical count. Closing the shop for a full weekend count is not necessary anymore.
Tower Systems supports targeted rolling stocktakes on a specific shelf, category, or supplier group. Run them during quiet trading periods — before opening, after a delivery, or during a slow mid-week afternoon. Small, frequent counts catch discrepancies early, before they distort your buying decisions and margin reports. A full-store stocktake a couple of times a year, combined with regular section counts, gives you a solid base to work from.
Stop errors at the back door: AI invoice import
A lot of bad retail data enters at inward goods. Manual entry of cost prices, supplier codes, and product descriptions from paper invoices introduces typos. Every time. It is not a staff problem — it is a process problem.
Tower Systems has an AI Invoice Import tool built directly into the software. It reads digital PDFs, spreadsheets, supplier accounting exports, and even photos of printed invoices, then matches items and imports the data without manual entry. Fewer keystrokes means fewer mistakes, and fewer mistakes means stock counts you can trust.
Two daily habits that hold it all together
Systems help, but discipline matters too.
Track every sale individually. Generic open-department keys destroy stock counts over time and make category reporting worthless. Process returns at the time they happen — scanning them back in later means the numbers are wrong in the gap, sometimes for days.
Neither habit takes long. Both make a material difference.
The bottom line
Every manual entry is a risk. Every workaround compounds the problem. Rolling stocktakes and automated invoice importing reduce human handling of data, and less handling means fewer errors. When the data is right, you buy better, you waste less, and your reports tell you something useful.
Find out more at www.towersystems.com.au.
Show, don’t tell. Right?! See for yourself how easy it is to load invoices from Asmodee (VR Distribution) using the AI tools in our POS software for small business retailers.
As you’re out shopping for Mother’s Day, it’s likely you’ll encounter a mum working in or running a shop, juggling work, the business, family, home and more. Plenty of mums we see in local retail are mentors to others in their business. Plenty are champions in their local community. See them. Celebrate them. Appreciate them. #Local #SmallBusiness #retail #grateful
ABC News recently ran a story suggesting the future of the local Australian newsagency was in trouble because it had not kept up with the times. We know of many local Aussie newsagencies that have kept up and are more relevant today than any time in their past.
This video showcases a few of these awesome local businesses, shops that look nothing like the old Aussie Newsagency.
These newsagencies offer products outside of what the old Aussie newsagency carried. Gifts feature along with clothing, handbags, gourmet cooking items and more. These are businesses serving a diverse mix of shoppers – far away from lottery, newspaper and magazine customers.
Smart newsagents started transforming their businesses 20 years ago. Moving into gifts, homewares, toys and more – attracting new shoppers and selling products at margins four and five times more than newspapers.
The easiest local newsagency to transform today is one in a small country town. This setting presents opportunity, and I am glad to say that many newsagents have embraced it.
This is the story ABC News should be covering, a story of a channel navigating extraordinary change with plenty of local retailers, local newsagents, evolving their businesses to be relevant, vibrate and valuable.
We made the video because we know a picture is worth more than a thousand words. This video is worth thousands of words showing off transformed local Aussie newsagencies that aren’t newsagencies in the historic sense of that label.
While news outlets and suppliers consider newsagents a channel, newsagents are not a channel and have not been for many years. You can’t go into a newsagency expecting they will have what you want if your expectation is rooted in decades ago.
We don’t think the shingle matters. What matters is what shoppers feel when they enter a retail businesses. If they step into a shop that nurtures a feeling of comfort and happiness and offers them a treasure hunt retail experience they will tell others, and they will come back. The shingle above the door is irrelevant.
Tower Systems is a small business focussed POS software company developing, and supporting POS software for niche specialty retailers, like newsagents.
We are grateful to serve close to 1,800 newsagencies with our industry-standard newsagency software.
There is no evidence as to which programmer or software business invented and released the first newsagency software in Australia. Here at Tower Systems we can only speak to what we know, that for which we have evidence.
Tower Systems released its first newsagency software for Australian newsagents in late 1981. This software was for the management of newspaper home deliveries and accounts, newsagent sub-agent deliveries and accounts and for a range of over the counter retail sales functions in a typical Australian newsagency. It was written for a Apple micro-computer.
The functionality of our first newsagency software was determined by the owner of the company, Mark Fletcher, who had two years experience working in a newsagency. This, coupled with years of experience learning programming while working at the CSIRO, provided technical skills with practical knowledge, which were key to developing such a retain marketplace specific software solution. Knowing several newsagents helped in rounding out the practical knowledge of that a local newsagency needed.
This first release newsagency software from Tower Systems was completely replaced in early 1983 following a full re-write of the software in a more flexible and powerful software programming language that provided more options for the company as it expanded its reach of newsagents to use the software. This new release was delivered for the CP/M operating system on a range of different computers that ran it. The software soon expanded to be accessible beyond CP/M to cater to more complex business needs, such as access from more than one computer.
Already well established with plenty of newsagency customers, we are grateful for these early years in laying down a solid foundation for the business.
Back in these days the software was called by its acronym, NAPS, which stood for Newsagency Accounts Processing System.
Each year saw enhancements to the software small and large. Indeed, in the years between 1981 and 1999, the newsagency software from Tower Systems was re-written from scratch four times to leverage new software programming language technology and new database management technology. Each re-write unlocked new technology advances that helped newsagents broaden what they could do in their businesses with this software.
The Tower Systems newsagency software had evolved far beyond the scope of what was originally a newsagency home delivery and sub-agent accounts and delivery management solution, and this was still in the early years of the company.
Through the 2000s and the 2010s the newsagency software continued to evolve apace. Tower Systems expanded into a range of other vertical markets, each complementing the other, facilitating local small business retail expansion and all through this Tower Systems continued to serve newsagents.
Today, in June 2024, Tower Systems is proud to have more newsagents as customers than all other newsagency software companies combined. This is important as a software company needs more than 500 users of its marketplace specific software for the software to be commercially viable. Tower Systems today has close to four times this number in newsagency software customers alone.
While we have come along way from those early days in 1981, we remember them clearly. We appreciate and respect the support of our early-adopter customers. We are thankful for the many different colleagues who have contributed over the decades. We are grateful for the knowledgeable and caring crew at Tower Systems today. At our core we thank newsagents for it was their very unique needs that started us on this journey. Had we not encountered them at first behind the counter in the early 1970s we might to have understood the data opportunity of automating in our first newsagency software accounting and home delivery functions that we could not find automated by anyone else.
So, who wrote the first newsagency software in Australia? There is no evidence as to which company was first despite claims of being first. If you lay out incorporation dates and dates of the first customer, you can see by these facts enough to know who was not first.
Here at Tower Systems our focus is on serving local independent small business retailers with specialty needs. We have feature-rich software that is continuously evolving in service of these specialty retailers. We try and help our customer businesses grow, become more valuable and be more appreciated in their respective local communities.
Beyond the 1,843 newsagents who now use the Tower Systems software for newsagents and the customer service that supports this community, there is functionality for newsagents deep within the software, including:
| Newsagents | |
| Quote and invoice management: comprehensive tools | ●︎ |
| Catalogue: create and manage pricing based on time/date range | ●︎ |
| Refund management: maintaining data integrity | ●︎ |
| Marketplace integration: www.findit.com.au (free) | ●︎ |
| Insights dashboard: pushing actionable business insights | ●︎ |
| Theft tracking: early detection of employee theft | ●︎ |
| Stock reorder by min / max requirements | ●︎ |
| Stock Management: easily make changes in bulk | ●︎ |
| Easily manage LayBy (Lay Away) purchases, payments and more | ●︎ |
| Produce gift receipts (price not shown) | ●︎ |
| Gift Vouchers: manage sale and redemption easily | ●︎ |
| PreOrders & Special Orders: sell products before you have the stock | ●︎ |
| Automatic sales based replenishment with supplier connectivity | ●︎ |
| Easy purchase order generation (supplier ready) | ●︎ |
| Include images on receipts for easy promotion / marketing | ●︎ |
| Manage product box / package location | ●︎ |
| Attach product data/info sheets | ●︎ |
| Age check for products you select | ●︎ |
| Easily bundle & Manufacture products for package sale | ●︎ |
| Manage magazine inventory where an item has multiple issues | ●︎ |
| Manage products with different prices on different days (papers) | ●︎ |
| Manage the regular home delivery of products daily / weekly | ●︎ |
| Manage sale & return of products to other retailers | ●︎ |
| Recall customers based on purchases | ●︎ |
| Special customer orders | ●︎ |
| Manage product returns | ●︎ |
| Easily train casual staff | ●︎ |
| Kiosk/Self-Serve mode | ●︎ |
| Aird group EDI integration | ●︎ |
| Club / group member pricing for products | ●︎ |
| Product classifications for easy online product management | ●︎ |
| Product tags for easy horizontal product management | ●︎ |
| Comprehensive customer accounts management | ●︎ |
| Reorder based on past sales | ●︎ |
| Average cost price maintenance | ●︎ |
| Record customer details for certain products | ●︎ |
| Batch payments: easily import a payments file | ●︎ |
| Track stock by author for bookshops | ●︎ |
| Surcharge management: EFTPOS fees to customer | ●︎ |
| Customer display content management | ●︎ |
| Multiple customer delivery address support | ●︎ |
| Click and collect management | ●︎ |
| Pick slips for efficient product picking | ●︎ |
| Proforma invoicing | ●︎ |
| Account credit limits | ●︎ |
| Easy supplier stock file importing | ●︎ |
| Reporting to Excel | ●︎ |
| Managing tax free items (set by item) | ●︎ |
| Manage tax free / duty free sales (entire transactions) | ●︎ |
| Multibuy price breaks (pet food, coffee etc) | ●︎ |
| Multiple suppliers supported per stock item | ●︎ |
| Static quantity Items (no stock control tracking) | ●︎ |
| Product weight per item (flows to e-commerce) | ●︎ |
| True landed cost price for stock tracking | ●︎ |
| Insurance claim related sales management | ●︎ |
| Google maps address autocomplete | ●︎ |
| Microsoft365 and Gsuite email Integration | ●︎ |
| Customer loyalty cards for easy engagement | ●︎ |
| Staff rostering | ●︎ |
| Staff permissions manage function access | ●︎ |
| Manage stock at multiple locations, transfer stock easily | ●︎ |
| Manage newspaper home delivery | ●︎ |
| Manage sales to sub-agents (wholesale) | ●︎ |
| Manage magazine putaways | ●︎ |
| Integration: XchangeIT | ●︎ |
| Integration: TheLott | ●︎ |
| Integration: Pacstream | ●︎ |
| Integration: Titlepage | ●︎ |
| Integration: ePay | ●︎ |
| Integration: Centrepay | ●︎ |
| Integration: POSTEC forecort controller. Sell Fuel | ●︎ |
| Integration: Cashless Debit Card, Product Level Blocking | ●︎ |
This software for newsagents is more than average, it’s industry standard, and we have our customers to thank for this.
Hey happy Sunday Afternoon. My name is Mark Fetcher. I own Tower Systems and, since 1996, I’ve also owned and run a few newsagency businesses. I guess you could call me a newsagent. But I see the terms newsagent and newsagency as loaded with assumptions in the minds of listeners. Too many people think they what they were decades ago.
They are not.
If you think the local Aussie newsagency is dead, dying or has no future, I am writing this for you. Please take a moment to see that the reality may not match your assumptions.
Oh, and before we get too far, my POS software company makes software for newsagents to help them run more successful and relevant Newsagency businesses. We’re good at it too with three times more newsagents using our software than any other software company.
Now, back to my thoughts about how newsagents are changing their newsagency businesses.
Sure, some newsagencies have closed. The channel remains the biggest independent retail channel in Australia with 2,500+ retail outlets.
Today’s Aussie newsagency is more of a gift and homewares shop than ever before. It offers fun and on-trend gifts from impulse items to collector pieces worth thousands. Yes, there are newsagencies selling items worth thousands of dollars.
You’re still likely to see papers and magazines somewhere, but they are not the traffic drivers they once were. Also, the margin newsagents make from these is paltry as publishers have not kept up.
Some newsagents are big in coffee, and often it’s the best coffee in town. Some are big in pop culture, often being the local go-to shop for licensed product like Pokémon, Harry Potter, Disney and more.
Some are big in self-care, often bringing new brands to town and offering ethically sourced products from small makers.
Some are bookshops more so than newsagencies.
Some sell clothing.
Some are the best toy shop around offering fresh new toys and traditional family-loved staples.
One I know is an awesome baby shop in country Victoria.
Many have online shops that often are not selling the same products as you’ll find in the physical shop.
The local Aussie newsagency has changed, evolved. It’s most likely not what you think. But it is sure to have the best range of cards in town, in the entire region. And, many of these cared are designed and printed in Australia, with words from Australian writers. This matters because the local Aussie newsagency continues to help local Aussies express themselves, provide a hug well into the future as those cards given are usually kept.
If you think the local Aussie newsagency is dead, an old business or out of date, seek some out, see for yourself, and while you may find the odd one out of touch or challenged, most you visit will be vibrant, relevant, fun and appreciated. You’re likely to find businesses that challenge the expectations of the newsagencyshingle. That’s okay. What’s in a name anyway?!
Please don’t let your memory of years ago cloud what the local Aussie newsagency is today.
In other news, Tower Systems, has delivered more websites for newsagents. Here are some of the recent new websites:
In my own shops we have a number of websites doing terrific business:
All of these are connected to our newsagency software for syncing of inventory and sales between the physical and online shops.
See, the local Aussie newsagency has changed, often thanks to smart tech helping newsagents lead these changes.
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.
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.
Retailers in local small business shops can feel alone sometimes when working on their business. They can sometimes get lost in a cave of thoughts without seeing a way out.
We thought about this and considered the thousands of different retailers in our POS software user community, and we developed the Insights Dashboard in our POS software, to deliver easy access to local small business retail insights that any retailer could leverage, regardless of size, location, specialty area or setting.
We wanted to ensure that what we delivered would be useful regardless of level of business management literacy and financial management literacy. We wanted to deliver the insights without the retailer having to seek them out. We wanted to genuinely add value to what a local small business retailer could gain from using our POS software.
So, via the Insights Dashboard in our POS software, we provide insights in six broad areas – with the insights delivered visually.
We love the Back to School voucher initiative by the NSW state government as it supports families of kids in school, helping them fund vital school related purchases.
Since Tower Systems serves the majority of local small business newsagents around Australia, with many hundreds in NSW, the company has ensured that its local retail newsagent customers know how to accept the NSW state government Back to School vouchers for payment through the Tower Systems newsagency software.
Newsagents have been provided advice on setup in their software to accept the vouchers as well as advice on how to handle a voucher in a customer purchase.
By making it easy for newsagents to accurately and correctly accept and process the NSW state government back to School vouchers, Tower Systems is helping its small business newsagency customers to connect with the government program.
The Tower Systems advice is also useful for shoe shops, uniform shops, bookshops and other local retail businesses eligible for accepting the vouchers as a method of payment.
You will need to create a payment type for your online vouchers.
Tower Systems nationally is grateful to serve close to 1,800 local small business newsagents with its newsagency software. With a national newsagency community of 3,000, Tower Systems serves more newsagents than all other software companies serving that channel and while that may sound bratty, it’s not our intent. The Aussie newsagency channel is, from time to time, targeted by slick salespeople making claims. Facts matter. We share our results because they are fact based.
We will help any newsagent in our Tower Systems newsagency software community setup for the NSW state government Back to School vouchers and transact safely and properly with them.
The newsagency software rental option launched by Tower Systems in late 2019 is now the preferred newsagency software access approach in the channel. We say this based on new rooftop acquisition compared to the old-school approach.
Under this more modern and financially appropriate model, the capital cost is spread over the years of the use of the software rather than through a bulk up-front cost.
There is no credit check and no long-term lock-in contract. Newsagents who sell their business or close can stop paying and that ends the licence. This is one aspect of what newsagents like.
The other aspect newsagents like is that of being part of a large community of newsagents. With more than 1,700 newsagents using this software it is, based on user numbers, the industry standard. Working together, Tower newsagents have been instrumental in setting standards all newsagents benefit from today.
The latest version of the Tower newsagency software was released late in October 2022. This delivered more enhancements that benefit newsagents and other retailers using the software.
Included in the $185.00 (inc. GST) a month rental fee of the Tower Systems newsagency software is:
Working with community groups.
Using this software, newsagents are able to work with local schools and community groups to offer fund raising opportunities that benefits people in those communities as well as the groups themselves. The approach in the software has been found to be a useful way for newsagents to address the vexed issue of community groups asking for donations.
Mitigating employee and customer theft.
The Tower newsagency software and the team at Tower have been instrumental in newsagents dealing with theft in their business. Early identification of theft is possible with the software thanks to hidden, owner accessible only, tools. These tools have been key in helping police and prosecutors deal with people who have stolen from newsagencies.
In one newsagency, $35,000 worth of theft was uncovered and recovered for the business thanks to the Theft Check service offered by Tower Systems. In another newsagency, long-term systematic theft by a manager helped remote owners confront theft that had cost the business several hundred thousand dollars.
In addition to software tools, Tower Systems offers newsagents theft mitigation advice, including a suggested Theft Policy for a business, which has been found to be key in reducing the opportunity for theft in a business.
Software rental is the future.
These facilities, theft mitigation, newsagency supplier connectivity and more are core to the $185.00 a month newsagency software rental from Tower Systems.
The rental cost is an immediately deductible expense. There is no credit check. It is easy to setup. Many newsagents have embraced it already this year.
You can find out more at www.towersystems.com.au
While retail continues to change apace, the scope and speed of change for retail newsagents is greater for theirs is a marketplace surrounded by change.
There is print media disruption, lottery purchase disruption driving core changes. But it’s more than that.
Tower Systems helps Aussie newsagents with the Tower Systems newsagency software packed with facilities that help newsagents navigate changes, attract new shoppers and help existing shoppers love the business even more.
If you appreciate up to date newsagency software, easy access to live software support, free training and time-saving and mistake-reducing supplier links, Tower Systems could be the software company for you.
With more than 1,700 newsagents using this newsagency POS software it is backed by the industry support and resources key to help ing it continue to evolve, and this matters in a retail channel where change is everywhere.
This locally made and supported software for newsagents offers plenty, including:
What newsagents need in their software now is fundamentally different to a year ago. You need software that is evolving from a company strong enough to support you when you need it.
We do all the important newsagency stuff in our newsagency software like XchangeIT, links with Nine (Fairfax) and News and Are Direct and XchangeIT. We have worked with TLC/Tabcorp on changes they wanted to implement as well as with GNS, ACCO, the federal government cashless card, greeting card companies and a raft of others.
We handle unique needs too such as website integration, more supplier connections and awesome marketing tools through which you can differentiate your business and attract new shoppers.
Being able to expand into new product categories can help you attract new shoppers and grow overall business GP%. Our experience in multiple specialty retail channels helps leverage opportunities.
Being able to sell from anywhere is critical. We have seen newsagents grow their businesses by engaging at local markets and on the road. Our new and exclusive Retailer Roam product is portable POS software made for this. It’s in the Apple App Store now.
Being able to get customers spending more and bringing them back sooner is also critical. Our discount voucher solution, launched in 2013, is now used in hundreds of newsagencies with many success stories. Better than points and easily understood by shoppers, this loyalty solution is next gen.
Being able to reduce dead stock is vital. This starts with buying better, which flows from fact driven conversations with suppliers.
Being able to cut labour costs without cutting revenue is essential. Our data insights help you do this with confidence. Our newsagency retail experience using our own newsagency software in our newsagency businesses offers you practical advice.
Tower Systems serves more newsagents than all other POS software companies combined. It’s not a brag, even though we know it might read that way. We are sincerely grateful to the many who have switched to us already in 2022. Their faith in us is genuinely appreciated.
Even though we are big, our service is personal. Our customers get to know our team members and like that they can speak directly with us, including our leadership team.
As you work on your business to make it more valuable to you, we’d love to help. Our connections to the newsagency channel go beyond our software. We own the newsXpress newsagency marketing group and we own and run three newsagency businesses ourselves. We walk in your shoes.
The Tower Systems newsagency software costs $185.00 a month to rent. For on as many computers as you need in the business – no extra cost per computer.
Beyond the software, here are features of a relationship with Tower Systems…
Tower Systems is not an average POS software company. We are a small business, indie business, focussed POS software company developing software in Australia and New Zealand for Australian and New Zealand based specialty retailers.
Too many small business retailers focus on their business name ahead of what they sell when designing a website for their shop.
The online shopper cares more about outcome. In this video we share exampled of this, evidence of this:
While brands will tell you their brand is what is searched for, shoppers can be broader than brand in search. You only have to look at keyword variations around a brand or some other keyword to understand this.
We hope this business from Tower Systems is helpful in your planning for online.
If you want revenue from online shoppers, our advice is that you seek it from multiple channels: your own website, websites connected with your marketing group, social media and more.
How, when and where people shop has fundamentally changed. This was happening long before Covid. But, Covid, has sped things up.
A challenge when it comes to online is trust. Plenty of people and businesses make claims. Ask for evidence supporting any claim. Their response to you asking for evidence could indicate a simple mistake, deliberate misleading or ignorance … it could also provide evidence that their claim was accurate, which would be ideal.
Online is like to gold rush era of the 1800s in Australia. It’s a rush with people of varying skills and experience our there, in the rush. take care to make informed decisions.
And, yes, it is vital you join the rush. Too much business today is transacted online for you to not engage. Engage now and expect to sell to people you’ve not sold to before.
Here it Tower Systems, it’s about more than POS software every day.
Tower Systems offers specialty newsagency software that has been chosen by more than 1,700 newsagents. It is the most widely used newsagency software in Australia.
Using this software, newsagents have at their fingertips industry-leading tools and insights that are key for business success from the traditional of newspaper and management management and lottery sale integration through to leading-edge online sales, accounting integration and more.
This newsagency software helps newsagents achieve terrific outcomes and find commercial joy in their shops.
Here are 5 reasons to consider the Tower Systems exclusive newsagency software …
We also do the quarterly newsagency sales benchmark study and have done for 18 years. This is a valuable benchmark helps you see the future.
We are the only newsagency software company to own and run newsagencies, which we have done since February 1996. Here are 6 reasons to consider our newsagency software …
Our software costs $185.00 a month. For on as many computers as you need in the business.
There is no extra charge on top of this for support or updates. It’s all included.
How can we do this? We serve more newsagents than all other software companies combined. We leverage our size to save you money.
The newsagency software rental option launched by Tower Systems in late 2019 is now the preferred newsagency software access approach in the channel.
Under this model, the capital cost is spread over the years of the use of the software rather than through a bulk up-front cost.
There is no credit check and no long-term contract. Newsagents who sell their business or close can stop paying and that ends the licence. This is one aspect of what newsagents like.
The other aspect newsagents like is that of being part of a large community of newsagents. With more than 1,700 newsagents using this software it is, based on user numbers, the industry standard. Working together, Tower newsagents have been instrumental in setting standards all newsagents benefit from today.
The latest version of the Tower newsagency software was released in the first week of July 2021. This delivered access to new look and feel benefits as well as access to better supplier reporting tools for newsagency specific suppliers. This is key to more useful category and segment level performance reporting.
Included in the $185.00 (inc. GST) a month rental fee of the Tower Systems newsagency software is:
Working with community groups.
Using this software, newsagents are able to work with local schools and community groups to offer fund raising opportunities that benefits people in those communities as well as the groups themselves. The approach in the software has been found to be a useful way for newsagents to address the vexed issue of community groups asking for donations.
Mitigating employee and customer theft.
The Tower newsagency software and the team at Tower have been instrumental in newsagents dealing with theft in their business. Early identification of theft is possible with the software thanks to hidden, owner accessible only, tools. These tools have been key in helping police and prosecutors deal with people who have stolen from newsagencies.
In one newsagency, $35,000 worth of theft was uncovered and recovered for the business thanks to the Theft Check service offered by Tower Systems. In another newsagency, long-term systematic theft by a manager helped remote owners confront theft that had cost the business several hundred thousand dollars.
In addition to software tools, Tower Systems offers newsagents theft mitigation advice, including a suggested Theft Policy for a business, which has been found to be key in reducing the opportunity for theft in a business.
Software rental is the future.
These facilities, theft mitigation, newsagency supplier connectivity and more are core to the $185.00 a month newsagency software rental from Tower Systems.
The rental cost is an immediately deductible expense. There is no credit check. It is easy to setup. Many newsagents have embraced it already this year.
You can find out more at www.towersystems.com.au
We are grateful to the Channel magazine published by ALNA for their double page spread this month.
We are grateful to serve close to 1,800 newsagency businesses with our newsagency software, double all other software companies combined.
The newsagency software we offer today is technically and visually fresh thanks to our investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars in leading-edge engineering to deliver to our current version software.
Our Australian made and Australian supported newsagency software is backed with personal experience.
Here are 5 reasons to consider our Tower Systems newsagency software …
We also do the quarterly newsagency sales benchmark study and have done for 18 years. This is a valuable benchmark helps you see the future.
The Tower Systems newsagency software costs a few dollars a day. For on as many computers as you need in the business. There is no extra charge for extra computers.
There is no extra charge on top of this for support or updates. It’s all included.
How can we do this? We serve more newsagents than all other software companies combined. We leverage our size to save you money.
One-off installation, training and setup advice is priced as an up-front services package, delivering:
Call to find out more: sales@towersystems.com.au or 1300 662 957
We are grateful for the almost 1,800 newsagency businesses that have installed our software. Their commitment and encouragement encourage us every day.
Tomorrow, at 2pm, we are hosting a free workshop for any newsagent interested in taking their newsagency business online.
This, itself, will be an online session, which you can access from anywhere with this link:
https://zoom.us/j/91031390280?pwd=LzFKYXFqdVJueS9iNWhNbWRJUndBUT09
Meeting ID: 910 3139 0280 Passcode: 323615
We won’t be trying to sell you anything in the session. Rather, we will share experience insights, lay out the steps involved, discuss online platform options and answer all questions.
Being online is critical to every retail business. We saw that last year and already see value from that this year. Business experts, accountants, mentors … everyone agree that being online is critical.
The hope we have for this session is that it offers a useful learning opportunity for newsagents, to encourage them to get online and to lay out several pathways through which they can achieve this.
And, if the 2pm timing does not work, let me know and we will do my best to schedule another session at a time that suits.
Your local Aussie newsagency can serve your Back to School stationery and textbook needs. We are proud to say that our POS software company serves many of these local newsagency businesses, we help them offer quality Back to School products at competitive prices and in a way that supports local school and community groups.
Back to School is a competitive space in Australia. The local Aussie newsagency is often calls upon by school and community groups for support. The best way to help them support community group and school group fund raising is to shop for Back to School from these local newsagency businesses.
Too often we see Back to School purchases going to companies outside Australia and national retailers who chase on price and often neglect the all important product quality.
Your local newsagency delivers quality goods since they are local and easily contacted is the quality of a product does not stack up. Big businesses tend to not have this local care. This local accessibility is another reason to shop for back to School locally.
For Back to School stationery needs, start at your local newsagency. Supporting them helps them support your local school community. You see that every day through local newsagent support for school students, school groups. Every day newsagents are asked for support and donations for local community groups, including school groups. They can only do this if there is robust local support for their businesses.
Please don’t be duped by the truckloads of cash poured into advertising by competitors chasing your back to school spend. They have the cash to do this, to make it look like they have good products and good prices. Often, when they say they will price match, they don’t sell the same brands, often selling cheap imported products only available through them.
Your local newsagent is a perfect place to shop for back to school for quality, service and community connection.
Tower Systems is proud to support 1,750+ local Australian newsagency businesses with newsagency software that helps them deliver a good Back to School experience and through which they can support local community and school group fundraising.
For Back to School 2021, please shop local, shop with the locally owned and run business that supports the local community.
Tower Systems released Epay access from within its newsagency software earlier this year. It’s been a terrific success with newsagents loving the easy and direct access to wonderful voucher products from Epay.
Today, Tower Systems released a product update to its Epay integration, expanding the products available to newsagents to sell, offering them more revenue opportunities in their businesses.
This latest update is another step in the on-going enhancement of the solution, to serve the expanding needs of retailers, including local Aussie newsagents.
Tower Systems has completed another in its series of newsagency retail sales benchmark studies. We have been doing these quarterly for more than 15 years, serving newsagents, their suppliers and others.
We gather the data, collate it, analyse it and share the results widely, in pursuit of a stronger and healthier newsagency channel.
It is a free process for all involved, transparent, too.
This study, like all we have undertaken, reveals trends, from which we and newsagents can learn. Here it is…
The results of the June 2020 quarter newsagency retail sales benchmark show the extent to which COVID-19 is impacting businesses.
There are winners and losers.
Looking at comprehensive retail sales data from 137 newsagencies for April – June 2020 compared to April – June 2019, the results underscore the value of the retail newsagency channel to local communities. This is a same-store comparison, making the results meaningful. FYI, I removed stores that were closed for any time in the reporting periods.
Data include a mix of rooftops from several brands. The benchmark includes data from businesses using the Tower newsagency software and several who are not.
Given the extraordinary gap in performance, I share the results separately, because reporting them as one dataset does not make sense.
Shopping centre based retail newsagencies.
A note about shopping centre data. The dataset in small, just under 10% of respondents. However, the gap between respondents is small.
High street newsagencies.
A note about this high street data: it includes regional and rural as well as suburban high street. The performance of regional and rural is considerably better than suburban high street for the most part. How much, you ask? Around 33% better is my response.
Embarrassed.
Plenty of regional and high street newsagents are embarrassed to be reporting such good numbers. Their growth while other businesses nearby are struggling makes them not want to be too open about their success. Even within the newsagency channel there are those in growth who do not want to talk about it with newsagents who are way down.
A moving feast.
Looking at early July data, I’d note that it would be wrong to lock the April – June results into a view for the long term. We are certainly in a period of significant change. The next quarter results could be different again.
What have we learned from the last 3 and 6 months?
While we have learned more, this list is my key points.
Finally, we are grateful to all newsagents who shared their data for inclusion in this study.
Aussie newsagents have been critical in local towns and cities through COVID-19. While plenty of businesses have closed or gone into hibernation, the local newsagency, or newsagents as many call them, has been open, trading and supporting the local community.
The thing is, the newsagents is not what it used to be. News has taken a back seat in these evolving retail businesses as other products have come to the fore, making the local newsagents more valuable and useful to people in local communities, especially regional communities.
Sure, newspapers and magazines still play a role and they are the news part of the name, the reality is that in terms of overall business contribution and value, they lie outside of news, our side of that part of the newsagents name.
Many newsagency businesses have evolved deeply, into gifts, homewares, home office solutions, games, toys, jigsaws, nesting products, comfort products, art supplies and more. The local newsagency is less about the news and the agency and more about helping people enjoy themselves, helping them relax, helping them create and helping them find their voice.
The newsagents of yesterday is the place of happiness, joy and communication today.
Whether it is a greeting card, journal, art supplies, a candle, a thro rug, a scarf or local Aussie essential oils, a newsagency is a fresh and innovative business delivering local town access to a diverse range of products in service of local community needs.
Tower Systems is proud to serve more than 1,700 newsagents with its newsagency software, software used by more newsagents than all other software companies combined. We take that leadership role seriously and respectfully, helping newsagents to reach the potential of their local area opportunities.
Whether it is in-store or online, our newsagency POS software is helping newsagents to transact where there need to and when they need to, accurately, efficiently. It is also helping them to find new shoppers as new shoppers are the lifeblood of any business. Indeed, we are grateful to smart newsagents for walking this path of innovation and opportunity with us.
The 2020 of corona is challenging. For newsagents it has been a year of opportunity and it is a thrill to see so many step up to that opportunity in service of their local communities.
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