CategoryPOS Software

If you choose POS software for your business that is made overseas, sold by an overseas company or supported from overseas, how will that go when you want to talk with someone about your situation?

Local businesses, like local POS software companies, understand local needs. They have local context. they are more likely to be easily contacted. They serve your local business needs.

We had a customer recently contact us with a business question that was not directly related to our software. One off the folks in our company with recent retail experience was able to have a conversation with them, live and in the moment, that helped our customer make progress on an issue worrying them. This type of off-book service and help is what local POS software companies can do.

But, most of all, a local POS software company is likely to care more about your business and this is what matters most … that they care. caring flows from understanding.

No offshore POS software company can understand your needs or care about your business in the overall context of their business.

We had a customer switch to us last month because they were tired of their support queries not being responded to. They had to put each query in writing, which did not work if the query was urgent and business impacting.

Here at Tower Systems, we are local. Our customers can call us, email us, send a message through our website or contact us via the socials. We are here, real, contactable and accessible. We are also available to our customers through Zoom meetings and other group chat platforms – making ti easy for our customers to connect with us where it suits them the most.

Whole comparing software products is important, comparing the contact points and methods of contact are important. You need to go with a tech partner that can prove themselves as reliable in the way you need them to be. If could be that an overseas company ticks those boxes. The key is to know what you want and then go with the company that best serves your needs.

There is a trend among POS software companies to get you signed up without looking at the software, their chasing a rooftop without first ensuring that the software and the retail business are a good match.

Here at Tower Systems, our preference is to demonstrate the software to you – once we understand your business requirements and what you personally want to achieve from POS software. It really does start with understanding your needs because it’s possible we are not a good fit for you.

Every one of our prospective customers has access to a personal live demonstration of the software. We do this at a time to suit. And, we record the demonstration and provide a copy of the demonstration to the prospective customer for them to share with others in their business.

We also offer access to pre-recorded demonstrations of the software. These are on our website and can be watched by absolutely anyone – without the need to login.

But, it’s the personal one-on-one demonstration that works best, that offers conversation about business needs and the exploration of these needs through the software itself. It is best to show an answer to a query rather than telling – anyone can tell, showing shows the real solution.

Anyone considering the Tower Systems POS software has access to a live demonstration without obligation or cost. Indeed, they have have 2, 3, 4 live demonstrations because we want to ensure that anyone choosing Tower Systems POS software makes an informed choice, a choice based on certainty that our POS software is a good fit for the needs of their business.

if you are considering POS software and the supplier is not keen for a live demonstration with you, if their approach is sign up and see if you like it, we suggest you pause and consider whether this approach serves your needs.

What is it you want? That is what matters most to your business. Signing up and using software through trial and error makes it harder for you. It makes you discover for yourself. It shows you what to expect from the POS software company down the track.

Here at Tower Systems we prefer a more personal approach, an approach that is rooted in the personal service we provide.

Through our POS software for toy shops, POS software for newsagents and Shopify connected POS software we help retailers sell many products, including these fun and joyful Squish-A-Boos from Ty.

These soft, cuddle and squish toys are a treat that plenty are loving right around Australia.

Howe the Tower Systems POS software helps sell these Squish-A-Boos is a story about software integration and software smarts that help the retailers to do better at serving the needs of customers, through serving product use and care information.

The link between the POS software and multiple Shopify websites as well as though to a professional and multi retail business connected Magento website makes these plush and squishy toys easily available right around Australia.

It’s our smart technology that enables this for retailers.

In addition to developing and selling POS software, we offer a tech. bridge to websites, awesome websites for immediate and easy selling by local small business retailers.

What’s key here is that we make it easy for people to find products and to purchase them, saving retailers time and hassle – by using best practice tech. like Magento and Shopify, platforms far superior to other platforms out there. More cost effective too.

Some software businesses think that selling online is all about putting products online, and that’s it. They are wrong. It’s about the words, the flow of data on a two-way basis, the ease of navigation of the website, the speed and accurate transacting of the purchase and the post-sale followup, through to fulfilment. This is where a smart POS software integration matters considerably to retailers.

We are often asked by retailers about POS software connected websites. here are some common questions, with our answers:

1. What’s the typical cost for a website? Tower offers a fixed price of $6,600.00, or $550.00 a month paid for 14 months.
2. How long does it take to get we website setup? If your data (stock descriptions and images) is all setup, it could be live in a few weeks.
3. Do I have to sell online or can the website show what I have in the shop? It’s easy to have the website show what you have in the shop but not sell online. Plenty of retailers do this.
4. Do I have to sell online what I have in the shop today? No, you can sell anything you want online, as long as it is legal.
5. Why Shopify? It’s easier to use ands maintain than WooCommerce and other platforms. But, WooCommerce developers will disagree as they make money maintaining sites. With Shopify it’s that easy that you can do it yourself.
6. How can I get my website to be ranked high in Google? Hard work, consistent hard work. There is no shortcut.
7. How much can I expect to make online? That all depends on your niche and the time (and money) you invest. We know retailers making $300,000 a year online, others easily making $50,000 a year and others making nothing.

Retailers selling cute online, like the Squish-A-Boos mentioned here, can find it easy and accurate with our smart webstore integration.

Retailers are loving the latest POS software update from Tower Systems. Here is some of the announcement email sent to customers weeks ago:

Insights Dashboard.

This new dashboard focuses on 6 critical areas of retail to assist you on making key decisions by representing data in a graphical & easy to understand format. We think these 6 metrics are among the most important metrics that Retailer should be focusing on to import the profitability of their businesses.

Where Are We Today – Gives you a snapshot of the overall sales & liabilities as it stands Today, this powerful tool can also be expanded to a desired time period.

What’s Not Selling – This gives you a visual understanding of what is not performing in your business.  Deadstock in any business is lost cash.  This report gives you the ability to make decisions on this underperforming stock whether it be discounting or other stock reductions strategies to unlock this lost cash.

What Am I Missing Out on – This give you a list of items that have sold out and potential missed opportunity. The visual sales history will assist in ensuring the right items are restocked to ensure future revenue is not missed out on.

What Sells With What – This gives you an insight to consumer basket analysis. Through this you will see exactly what stock items sell with other stock items and from this you will be able to leverage upsell opportunities, co-location and promotion opportunities.   This also shows the sold alone percentage so you can see item upsell efficiency.

Is Theft An Issue – This provides a in-depth visual overview of all the retailer audit log records by reason, number of occurrences by time day. This will assist in identifying staff theft/training issues that may need to be addressed within the business.

When Are We Busiest & Quietest –   This is a visual overview detect any quiet or peak times in your business by displaying over the week as well as detailed by hour

Making POS software is one thing. Helping local small business retailers leverage this for success in their businesses is another.

Tower Systems does this every day by going beyond the usual POS software training, by providing context for why this or that is done, bu explaining the business reason for data points and how they may or may not serve the needs of a business.

The new Insights Dashboard released recently in our POS software is an example of merging our business advice and support with awesome POS software to provide local retailers with easy and ready access to visually represented data they can leverage.

Showing a retailer opportunities lost could make a massive difference in a retail business. 

The Tower Systems POS software does this. It shows what a shop could have achieved has they had access to the stock that might have sold.

Showing a retailer possible theft situations could be revealing.

Too often small business retailers don’t catch theft early because they do not want to see it, they do not what to, for a second, think it could happen to them.

What’s not working?!

Stand in your shop and look around and ask yourself that question, ask what’s not working. What you see could be constrained buy how you view your business, by what you want to see. Software will not edit what it sees. The Tower Systems Insights Dashboard shows good and bad, it shows the truth, revealing what you need to know about the business. The what’s not working tab is revealing to the businesses we tested it on. Some were truly shocked to discover what they did not know about their business.

Good retail management is about making the right decisions for a business at the right time. This needs to be done without emotion, without fear, without bias. There is where good POS software can play a role and where the new Insights Dashboard is a true help for local retail businesses.

So, what’s our Friday advice for local small business retailers? Use your software, work it, leverage it, feed of the insights it provides. Revel in the facts is provides access to and make business decisions based on these facts. Doing this, rem moving emotions and feelings from plenty of the decisions you make in your retail business will make a difference.

Of course, we are biased. As an Australian POS software company we want to see Australian businesses thrive over overseas competitors, especially if their tax arrangements do a disservice to everyday Australians by minimising their contribution to government revenue.

But that aside, here is why we think Australian made POS software is important to local Australian retail; businesses and Australia more broadly …

1. Software is like storytelling. It helps retail businesses craft and serve their narrative. Local Aussie businesses craft and serve an Aussie narrative. Our software, being Australian made and supported, does this well, with focus. Software made overseas with have that focus – from simple terminology used through to retail strategic focus. retail is different country to country.
2. Retail in Australia is different, especially small business local retail. Software from a big US company is less likely to have the focus a local retailer will want, less likely to care about that shop turning over $300K – $500K a year when the software company itself counts its revenue in hundreds of millions of dollars. Local retail is about personal service. here at Tower Systems where we only focus on local specialty retailers, we understand personal service too.
3. Be heard. Retailers using the Tower Systems POS software have direct and easy access to our leadership team, to the top. It’s rare any POS software company offers this and even less so for big overseas POS software companies.
4. Retail is changing. And, the nature of change and pace of change varies country to country. This further reinforces that the needs of Aussie retailers will vary to those of overseas retailers.
5. Your voice matters. if you use software from a local Aussie software company you will matter more to them than if you use POS software from a massive overseas company. With the local company you can make suggestions that are more likely to make their way into the software.
6. Local software companies support local skills development. Software programmers flourish from real world experience and there is nothing like a local Aussie software company for gaining this. We have seen this at Tower Systems many times over the years.
7. Aussie taxes pay for education, health and infrastructure. Every dollar of revenue sent offshore diminishes the resources of federal and state governments.
8. Because you care. If you want your shoppers to shop local, it starts with you and the purchase choice you make for your business.

We could go on since there are many reasons for local Aussie and Kiwi retail businesses to use local Aussie and Kiwi made and Aussie and Kiwi supported software in their businesses.

Tower Systems makes world-class specialty retail POS software for selected marketplaces. We are not offering POS software for everyone. If we’re not right for you, we will say so and wish you all the best. If we feel we are right for you, we will make an offer and 100% leave the choice to you to make, in your own time.

We are proud to be a local Aussie POS software company with our supported locally by people who understand d local Aussie and Kiwi retail.

Local music shops have POS software needs beyond what is traditional in plenty of POS software solutions. For example, they provide repairs, undertake regular, programmed, servrvicing of instruments, work with local music clubs, and more.

Local music shops benefit from musing POS software tuned to their music shop needs.

This is what Tower Systems offers in its music shop POS software.

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

• Easy selling. Instruments can be bulky or small. selling either and all in between is easy.
• Service / repair management. This includes tracking parts and labour for in-house repairs as well as tracking outside of the business repairs.
• Easy management of instrument service reminders. You can suggest a customer return for a free tune or some other service.
• Club / group fundraising / discounting .. encourages engagement. If a community orchestra or music school community trades with you it can benefit your business and their organisation through easy tracking of their purchases.
• Integrated EFTPOS.
• Xero integration – cut keystrokes and mistakes.
• Shopify integration for selling online.
• Auto serving product care instructions.
• Easy to setup and run LayBy.
• Easy use of buy now pay later.
• Customer special orders.
• Pre-sell inventory.
• Rare visit loyalty.  The customer visit cycle for a music shop is often infrequent. Embedded in this software are loyalty tools that nurture these shoppers to provide more value from each visit.

All these facilities and plenty more are included in this software. But, we don’t link to APIC, created and managed by the MusiPOS folks. We have approached them without success several times.

You can rent this software for $145.00 a month, which you can cancel at any time. This includes:

1. Specialty music shop POS software developed in Australia.
2. Software updates as we release them.
3. Unlimited licences for your retail location.
4. Support – help desk access, unlimited training, updates and more.
5. User documentation. Access to our searchable knowledge base.

There is also a modest up-front cost to cover personal one-on-one training and software setup – so that you get the most out of the software.

Tower Systems offers local Australian support for this software as well as local training and easy access to up to date user documentation.

Music shops using the software can speak to its usefulness in their business.

Doll shops are unique and special businesses. Here are some of the ways our POS software for doll shops helps doll shops leverage their uniqueness:

1. Rare visit loyalty.  Customers visit a doll shop infrequently. This software offers subtle loyalty tools that encourage more value from each visit.
2. Pre-orders. Easily manage selling products before you have them in-stock. Collectors love these facilities.
3. Buy Now Pay Later and LayBy. Through our software you can have both.
4. Repairs management. If you do repairs, track them from the moment they arrive – for repairs done in-house and externally. Track parts and labour and easily advise customers when the repair is complete.
5. Club / collector marketing and support. Leverage clubs and collectors with offers and pricing. Nurture the love of collecting and showing dolls and connecting to this community, and growing the size of the community.
6. Special orders. With some dolls made to order or some ordered in for a customer request, managing these types of orders helps the business to manage opportunities and to capture revenue in advance.
7. Serial number tracking. Yes, plenty of collector dolls have serial numbers. Tracking them from within the software offers a service that doll shops can leverage.
8. Anniversary marketing. Collectors love their dolls. To many, they are a member of the family. Remembering anniversaries can help a doll shop maintain a connection with their collector customers.

Our Australian made and supported doll shop software does much more than this. Be sure to see it for yourself, live and obligation free, to see if it could serve you and your business.

What’s interesting is that a doll shop owner found us and educated us about how our software could work in their business and other doll shops in Australia. It was a wonderful discovery, for which we are truly grateful.

Our Doll Shop Software costs $155.00 for each 30 days. The $155.00 is for access from as many computers as you have in the business. There is a modest on-boarding fee to cover one-on-one training and setup support and assistance.

We understand the importance and value of local specialty retail like local doll shops …

• Local matters. Local doll shops make a vital contribution to local communities and families. Our software helps you leverage your localness.
• You are a key asset. Only your business has you and your people. You can leverage you through facilities in our doll shop software.
• You can bank on loyalty. Points don’t reward loyalty. What is a point worth anyway? In our software, you have fresh loyalty tools you can bank on.
• The unseen can reveal opportunities. Data, good data, is evidence on which you can expect to make better business decisions.
• Not every shopper will walk past your door. A seamless connection between your software and a beautiful website can reach them.

There aren’t many doll shops in Australia. We are grateful to serve them, to help them prosper.

What is POS software? It is a question for sure, one asked often in retail. Since we live and breathe it at Tower Systems we tend to not over think it, or get stuck on the POS acronym. Today, though, let’s unpack what is POS software for you …

POS stands for Point of Sale, and refers to the system that retail shops use in order to sell their products. But, POS is more than an acronym, it represents the beating heart of a business, the place where all business data is collected, curated and managed. It can be ore to the success or otherwise of a retail business.

POS software is a crucial part of the retail business because it helps automate retail operations and manage retail stock effectively. In retail, time is money and it’s very important for retail businesses to ensure they are getting the best value for their money when it comes to software.

But, don’t think of it as software. Rather, think of POS software as a business tool, something to learn and master, something to make your own, for your purposes of success for the business and those who rely on it.

As retail businesses evolve and / or grow, retail management systems are required in order to expand retail operations and retail staff will be needed to handle customer service duties. Retail management systems help staff customers better by providing information on retail products on receipts and other customer touchpoints.

Retail stock management is a retail best practice that retail professionals should follow because retail stock takes up retail space and it’s important for retail businesses to manage their retail stock effectively so they can avoid being stuck with excess retail product. Retail best practices also recommend that retail businesses have real time data on their retail sales, whether through data entry by retail staff or retail self service systems. This retail data can then be viewed through retail reporting software that retail managers can use to make decisions about how to effectively manage their retail business.

This is what smart POS software offers.

Retail best practice is in tune with technological retail innovation in order to handle the growth in retail customers, in particular online retail customers who are increasing in number every year. Integrating retail best practice and retail technology is a retail marketing strategy that retail businesses can follow to ensure they are offering retail customers the most up to date retail shopping experience possible.

Tower Systems offers innovative and continuously evolving POS software for local specialty retailers.

So, yes, POS refers to Point of Sale. In our world, it refers to software. In reality, it is about helping local retail business owners and others to run efficient, enjoyable and valuable local retail businesses.

POS is better than a cash register, even in the smallest of businesses.

We are grateful to the thousands of retail businesses we have served and continue to serve.

Tower Systems sales queries: sales@towersystems.com.au or 1300 662 957.

Tower Systems support queries: support@towersystems.com.au or 1300 662 911.