The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

CategoryPOS Software

Small business retail advice: how to promote your shop to the local community

July 19, 2022
2 Min read
S

If you own a retail shop, it’s important to let the local community know that you exist! Here are some tips on how to promote your shop to the people who live near you:

– Make sure your shop is visible from the street. Put up signs and make sure the storefront is clean and inviting. This may seem obvious. Our advice is, take a moment – go outside your shop, walk along the street and see what others see. Are you noticed? Dopes your shop look inviting? Is it clear what you offer?

– Get involved in local events and charity drives. This is a great way to meet potential customers and show them that you’re invested in the community. Being part of the community is a great way to reach the community.

– Sponsor a local sports team or another local organisation. This will get your name out there and make people more likely to support your business. Better still, sponsor a team you have a good personal connection with.

– Offer discounts or coupons to locals. This is a great way to attract new customers and show people that you appreciate their business. Using our specialty retail POS software you can connect with locals and community groups in a range of ways – raising funds for them, supporting their members, while at the same time benefiting your own business.

– Hold events at your shop. This is a great way to get people in the door and show them what you have to offer. make the events fun, enticing and community-focussed. get known as the fun shop where people gather.

By following these tips, you’ll be sure to promote your retail shop to the local community in no time! But … these tips are barely a start. There are so many other ways you can promote your local retail business your local community, including plenty of ways in our Tower Systems POS software that you can do this with easy and for success.

Tower Systems makes specialty retail POS software for local businesses like pet shops, jewellers, garden centres, bike shops, toy shops, gift shops, music shops, sewing shops, fishing shops, firearms dealers, and more. Local software for local retailers.

Read onRead later

How to motivate retail employees in a local small business shop

July 18, 2022
2 Min read
H

One of the most common challenges that small retail business owners face is employee motivation. It can be difficult to keep your team members engaged and enthusiastic, especially if they are dealing with bored customers or challenging tasks. However, motivated employees are essential for a successful business, so it’s important to find ways to keep them inspired. Here are a few tips to help you motivate your employees in a small retail business:

  • Encourage employee input and ownership: Make sure that your employees feel like they are part of the team and that their opinions are valued. Encourage them to take ownership of their work and give them the opportunity to contribute to decision-making.
  • Create a positive work environment: A positive work environment is essential for employee motivation. Make sure that your workplace is clean, comfortable, and organized. Encourage open communication and positive reinforcement.
  • Offer incentives: Offering incentives is a great way to motivate employees. Consider offering rewards for meeting sales goals, completing tasks, or providing excellent customer service.
  • Provide training and development opportunities: Employees who feel like they are learning and growing are more likely to be motivated. Offer training and development opportunities to help your employees reach their full potential.
  • Show appreciation: Showing appreciation is a simple but effective way to motivate employees. Take the time to thank your team members for their hard work and dedication. Let them know that you appreciate their efforts.

Most important, however, is how you motivate yourself. Retail; business owners are the leaders, they set the exam able, the tone and the pace of the business. Motivation can be picked up from watching them, working with them.  So we say the most important advice is to work on motivating yourself, so you can be an encouragement for others.

By following these tips, you can create a motivated and productive team in your small retail business.

Tower Systems can help local small business retailers motivate staff by providing software that encourages efficiency and facilitates day to day enjoyment working in the business. This is software that helps the business provide good customer service, which in itself is motivating.

Read onRead later

POS software company transparency

July 15, 2022
1 Min read
P

A few weeks ago we hosted another Zoom meeting for our POS software customers, which we recorded as the majority of customers from your 3,000+ strong community will access the video rather than be with us live. We shared the video and it;’s been a hit. Here now, for others to see, is POS software company transparency in action as we show a brand new software facility, take questions and feedback on it, and engaged in an open Q&A.

The update to which we refer is out, and getting plenty of love, for which we are grateful.

Read onRead later

Small business retailers don’t buy software any more, they rent it, for a few dollars a day

July 6, 2022
2 Min read
S

In mid 2019, our POS software company,  Tower Systems moved from the old software sales model to rental.

Today, 3 years on, the move has proven to be a hit with more than 30 newsagents switching to Tower Systems in the last 6 months and many more since mid 2019.

Whereas in the past newsagents would find around $8,000 up front for software, today the cost is $185.00 a month with the newsagent having the option to stop rental at any time. There is no lock-in contract.

This new approach to acquiring modern newsagency software is less of a strain on capital and cash flow in a newsagency business. It also bundles together software support access and software update costs into the single $185.00 a month cost.

Indeed, we made this move for all our POS software, for jewellers, garden centres, bike shops, sewing shops, gift shops, toy shops, pet shops, farm / produce businesses, firearms dealers, and more. Each has access too our specialty POS software for their marketplace under a rental arrangement for a few dollars a day.

With retail businesses now changing hands at a higher cost, the rental model is easy at time of change over as there is no longer a question as to the financial value of the software.

The software offered for rental is the 2022 release of the Tower Systems POS software, the software already in use by more than 3,500 specialty retailers in Australia and New Zealand  newsagents in Australia.

The rental model also provides retailers with access to the Tower Systems proprietary theft check service, the business performance analysis service and low cost ready to use website development services.

The software also provides local retailers with smart tools for engaging with community groups, helping them to deal with the challenge of donation requests in a way that benefits the community groups, shoppers, and the business.

With the goal of helping retailers run more efficient, profitable and valuable retail businesses, the Tower Systems newsagency software packs considerable value for the few dollars a day cost.

The small daily  cost was set in mid 2019 and has not changed since, offering locL retailers certainty when budgeting business tech. overheads.

Read onRead later

Tower systems offers a POS software alternative to MYOB Retail Manager

July 1, 2022
2 Min read
T

We are grateful to have switched more MYOB Retail Manager customers to our POS software so far in 2022.

We follow a structured process for retailers making the switch from MYOB Retail Manager, to ensure they are fully trained and as much data is converted as is possible. We are also careful to not pressure people to make the switch. Our pitch is we’re here if you need us.

We respect the place MYOB Retail Manager has played in serving small business retailers. As the alternative to MYOB Retail Manager, Tower Systems seeks to help those retailers lean into opportunities of change.

We are grateful for feedback from small business retailers who have switched from MYOB retail manager to our Tower Systems POS software …

  • We loved that we could start again with our data. We have used MYOB Retail Manager for many years and had not been ideal in our management of the data. The stock was right but the stock on hand was wrong. So switching allowed us to clean the data.
  • Tower were great. They took our MYOB Retail Manager, looked at how we used it and provided advice on how to take that generational leap we needed to shift our business up a notch or two, to make it more viable and competitive.
  • We loved that even though we moved on from MYOB Retail Manager we could keep using MYOB for our account ting software. That was important to us. Tower were great in respecting this.
  • Our data was a mess. We had used MYOB Retail Manager for many years over many different staff. The Tower people helped us get completely clean and accurate data and that has made a huge difference to our business.
  • The personal training was awesome.
  • I like that they didn’t pressure us.

We are grateful for the many former users of MYOB Retail Manager who have joined our user community.

With MYOB Retail Manager at end of life, research options that are out there. Take your time to choose software that serves your needs. If that is Tower Systems, we will do everything we can to make the move stress free for you and your team and commercially valuable for your business.

Read onRead later

Welcoming record numbers of POS software customers

June 29, 2022
1 Min read
W

Here at Tower Systems we are grateful for a warm winter welcoming so many new customers using our POS software.

We are grateful for every new customer, and even more so that we have welcomed new customers across a diverse mix of retail business channels: jewellers, sewing shops, garden centres, farm supply businesses, charity shops, community group businesses, toy shops, pet shops, bike shops and pool maintenance businesses.

All of our customer businesses are local and small (in a good way). This is the space in which we are most comfortable. We prefer to be working with those most invested in the business.

Our business is configured for growth from our pre-installation scheduling team to our new customer training team to our post-installation care team to our everyday help desk team. Each of these teams is configured and resourced to help our growing pool of new customers land happily and profitably with our locally made POS software.

2022 is already a bumper year. We are over the moon.

Thank you to every retailer in our community. Your faith and trust in us means the world to all of us here at Tower Systems.

Read onRead later

Live preview of POS software enhancements

June 24, 2022
1 Min read
L

We have just completed another live and interactive preview with our POS software customers of a major enhancement our POS software.

We appreciate those who could Jon us live, as well as those who will watch the video.

Software enhancements take time to plan, develop, test and release. Today’s session was another step for a centrepiece update to our tower Systems POS software for 2022.

Read onRead later

Church bookshops loving the Tower Systems church bookshop POS software

June 24, 2022
3 Min read
C

Tower Systems is grateful for the years of support from a diverse group of church bookstores, at the local church level as well as at the state level and the national level. The christian bookshop marketplace is strong both physically as well as online.

Our POS software for church bookstores has evolved over the years. It offers facilities unique to their operation and respects their role in the broader church life experience.

Our POS software for charity retailers fits in this space, too, serving secular as well as church related charities.

From serving through our POS software single christian bookshops to groups of christian bookshops to shops connected with local churches to shops connected with broader christian organisations, our POS software offers a broad based solution to inventory management, special order management, online sales, imp-store sales, shipping and more.

Church bookshop software is specialty by nature, like the businesses themselves. We work closely with those working in the businesses as well as those tasked with overseeing each business. We are grateful for opportunities to speak at conferences and to engage with church bookshop folk in a range of forums.

Dealing with tax in an appropriate way has been vital as has been the need to integrate with other platforms that are used in some church bookshop situations. Our software is flexible and constantly evolving as we discover other ways we can serve this vital part of church life.

From evangelicals to catholic to independent to Seventh Day Adventist, our church bookshop software is as diverse as the world of faith and we are grateful to what we have learned on this journey.

Christian bookshops are unique in that they are businesses and they are also part of church life, often staffed, at least in part, by volunteers. We understand the need for easy to use yet highly functional software. This is where we are proud to offer Australian developed and supported POS software for Australian church bookshop and christian bookshop needs. We make it easy for volunteers to learn and use our POS software.

From the practical such as pricing, bundling, customer accounts, inventory management and more to the complex such as managing a single online sale across multiple outlets and the proper accounting for freight, our church bookshop and christian bookshop POS software is robust and proven. We appreciate the advice and guidance of so many in getting us here and for supporting our work.

Tower Systems is grateful to offer locally made and supported POS software for local needs.

Read onRead later

How the Tower Systems POS software helps local retailers be frugal, and run more valuable businesses

June 21, 2022
2 Min read
H

2022 is proving to be a challenging year for retailers. Covid continues to disrupt product supply and labour access. It is also impacting shopper behaviour.

The retailers doing best are those managing their business data, leveraging data for insights that guide business decisions. There is where the Tower Systems POS software helps local retailers.

Using our POS software, local retailers are able to be more frugal. Being frugal is a local retail business is beneficial, if it is done based on data, with a focus of driving overall business value. Being frugal is a good thing if done thoughtfully and well.

Let’s be clear though, there is a difference between being frugal and being cheap.

Being frugal is about being careful. Spending based on evidence when nit comes to labour costs and inventory costs.

Too often we see retailers over-index with labour, eating unnecessarily into business profits. Likewise, too often, we see businesses buying poorly, not based on evidence, and negatively impacting on the profits of the business.

Our POS software helps local retailers in these two areas and more, we help them be frugal in their approach to rostering and frugal in their approach to buying … with the goal of adding measurable value to the business. This matters.

The stronger the financial base for a business, the lower its operational overheads, the lower poor performing inventory volume, the better for the business. This is where being frugal matters. Done properly, it provides the business with capacity to weather economic challenges, to actually make the business stronger in its financial foundations. Our POS software helps local retailers do this.

There is a gloss and excitement to owning your own shop. The real gloss, and value, comes from running the business well. This is one of our goals here at Tower Systems – to make POS software and back it with support that helps small business retailers run their businesses well.

Being frugal is good for business and good for all in the business who rely on it. Our POS software provides insights as well as mechanisms for being frugal, for driving the value of and for the business.

Read onRead later

Celebrating the Queen’s Birthday

June 13, 2022
1 Min read
C

Okay, we know it’s not her birthday and, yeah, we are keen for Australia to be a republic, but who would say no to a holiday? Not us!. No matter, our online businesses are open today, including offering Platinum Jubilee mint coin sets like these:

Read onRead later

POS software for spare parts retailers helps manage inventory, reduce theft and save time

May 26, 2022
3 Min read
P

Tower Systems is grateful to see its POS software serve spare parts retailers in an often neglected space of retail.

This opportunity has grown out of other specialty retail channels in which we serve. Tower Systems has served bike shops, jewellers and farm supply businesses with spare parts inventory software for many years.

Growing out of our workshop management software, our spare parts inventory software became critical to accurately recording sale and use of spare parts in repairs as well as over the counter to customers.

Offering tracking by brand, use, supplier, barcode, SKU and more, this spare parts inventory software works in a range of situations and businesses. Motor bike businesses, trailer sale and repair businesses, bike shops, jewellers, outdoors businesses, farm supply businesses, pool maintenance businesses … they can all use this spare parts inventory software.

Within the software, you can ember use and care instructions for each product. While this is optional, it offers the business the ability to be more than a seller of products. Selling products with information, intellectual property, can differentiate the business and this is key to return business.

Managing spare parts inventory in multiple locations can be handled. Pricing, too, is flexible with the ability to offer flexibility to shoppers based on purchases and other factors. This is software that has been road-tested in a range of retail settings.

Retailers are able to bundle multiple spare parts together into a package that you sell. This can make price comparison harder. It can also better serve customer needs if some spare parts are always bought with other spare parts.

In addition to managing inventory, this spare parts inventory software offers multiple reporting tools that enable various views of inventory performance. The flexibility in the reporting is useful and a key factor in the software serving needs across several types of spare parts related businesses.

Accessible in-store, online and through a remote POS solution, the spare parts inventory software from Tower Systems is a software solution for many different businesses.

The best way to see if the Tower Systems spare parts inventory software is suitable for your needs is to see it. The company can organise a demonstration easily, when it suits you. Send an email to sales@towersystems.com.au and one our skilled software advisors will get back to you and show you as much of the software as you would like to see.

Tower Systems serves more than 3,500 independent small business retailers across a variety of specialty retail channels. That several of these retail channels depend on spare parts inventory software positions Tower Systems well to offer service to others with this need.

Read onRead later

How local small business retailers can make the annual stocktake a thing of the past with smart POS software

May 25, 2022
2 Min read
H

Retailers can save thousands of dollars by using the Tower Systems POS software to undertake a stocktake rather than using in an external stock taker as retailers have traditionally used for decades.

It’s easy, efficient and accurate. Any retailer can do this. No external help is needed.

External stock takers often deliver s little outcome except a stock value for the end of the financial year. By using Retailer for the stock take retailers get accurate on-hand data which is vital for reporting on a range of retail performance metrics.

Using your data creates a more accurate result. too often, external stocktakers engage in estimates and assumptions, with the results being less than accurate.

Smart Point of Sale software offers a range of stock taking options from the portable to the hard wired. Regardless of the hardware technology you use, the result is the same: an accurate stock on hand count and value plus updated stock details.

Every time a stocktake count is done using smart POS  software you are dealing accurately, often there are anomalies discovered in the stock database.  The stock take is a good opportunity to address this.  A manual stock take loses this opportunity.

Our recommendation is that once a business has undertaken a full stock take once using their Point of Sale software and if they have good processes around receiving, selling and returning stock,  a process of rolling stock takes would serve the business well in maintaining an accurate stock on hand figures.

Through the stock take facilities in our software, our retail partners have access to a suite of tools with tremendous flexibility, allowing a retail store to count in a way which suits their operational needs.  many of our customers operate with a program of rolling spot stock takes.  These are designed to ensure accurate stock on hand figures in the system as well as identify theft situations.

Expensive and single purpose stock takes can be eliminated from any retail business with the proper use of quality Point of Sale software. Through our advice sheets, training videos, online training workshops and other opportunities, Tower Systems helps its retail customers to access the benefits of accurate stock on hand data.

Read onRead later

The best POS software help desk support comes from people who are local, people who understand your type of retail business and your local retail situation

May 16, 2022
3 Min read
T

Too often today, businesses situate their call centres and help desks off shore, in a place where labour costs less. The key requirement in those settings is that someone can read off a script.

Small business help should not come from a script. It should start with listening. From that flows questions and conversation.

Understanding the query or need is key to helping someone, anyone.

Here at Tower Systems, our POS software help desk is Australian based, serving retailers in Australia. We are proud to be local, to offer local support that is delivered by people who live here and understand local business. We also have a team member in New Zealand, where we also have customers.

Too many POS software companies selling to Aussie retailers do not have local help desk support.

We are grateful to be in the position of delivering local service and support to our local retail community.

We support shop local as a company and encourage retailers and others in business to shop local. This is why we pitch today that when you talk with our help desk you are talking with an Aussie, someone who knows local business, local retail and can speak to local needs. Yes, local really does matter.

To keep jobs in Australia and help the Aussie economy to come out the other side of the coronavirus pandemic, shopping local matters. This is why we urge retailers to ask the question abut the location of POS software help desk personnel. While we feel for call centre staff in India, Pakistan and elsewhere, now is the time when local matters.

Now, we do have one caveat for this. We have a help desk team member, an Aussie, living and working in New Zealand. But that’s okay as we have a ton of customers in New Zealand. And, hey, we consider Aussies to be Kiwis and Kiwis to be Aussies

If you are in a local retail business and considering POS software for the business, check out where there trainers and help desk team members are located. Make sure that the company you are considering doing business with is supporting the local economy as much as you want your local economy to support your business. These things matter in terms of the truth of your own shop local pitch.

Shop local and support the local economy. It ripples out from your business to the town to the state and to the country. That is how we see it an how we try and live our lives here at Tower Systems, a proud local Aussie POS software company.

Read onRead later

UPDATE: 5 things every retailer should know about their retail business but are usually not told by POS software

May 13, 2022
1 Min read
U

3 weeks ago we published this video: 5 things every retailer should know about their retail business but are usually not told by POS software. Across several platforms it’s had 1,000 views, for which we are grateful.

When our CEO made the video, it was spur of the moment, based on a comment made in a conversation at the Sydney gift fair in April. While the video was spur of the moment and not scripted, it drew on years of experience, years of service of local small business retailers.

We appreciate the feedback we have received, the appreciation.

To us, the video represents something different about Tower Systems. It presents that we want you to cultivate and harvest value from your business through the use of our POS software.

This is the difference of value.

Long after you start using our software, appreciating genuine value from its use.

Thank you for watching. Wr hope you found the video useful.

Read onRead later

How does the Tower Systems POS software compare with Retail Express?

May 12, 2022
3 Min read
H

The short answer is we don’t know. we have never used Retail Express in any of our software. We’ve not even looked at their software. Likewise, we are not aware of any Retail Express staff members looking at our Tower Systems POS software.

So, How does the Tower Systems POS software compare with Retail Express? … we don’t know.

This question is on our mind today because someone asked us. They had been told a view and wanted our reaction.

The best we can do is make it easy for you to see our software in a demonstration for your specific business, or across at our publicly accessible Tower Systems YouTube channel. You don’t have to give us your email address to access these videos. We believe in transparency and show it through easy access to this software we make and support.

We are even happy to arrange a personal Zoom meeting where you can see our software compared function for function with Retail Express.

What we want for every retailer we speak with is for them to find the software that best serves their needs.

If the Tower Systems POS software is not the right fit, we’ll say so and wish you all the best. We won’t pressure you or pitch to you. We let your needs guide what’s best, yes, your needs and how they match, or don’t, with our POS software.

From our sales team members to our leadership team to our help desk team members we are all about providing personal service in support of ever evolving POS software. We mention ever evolving since the Tower software today is very different to what we offers a year ago or two years ago. This continual improvement with which we engage is driven by customer suggestion, for which we are sincerely grateful.

Functionality is everything and comparing two POS software programs function buy function is useful to determine which better serves your needs. This is another reason for wanting the assessment to be done in your business, at a time of your choosing.

This is what good personal service is all about – putting the needs of your business first.

How does Tower Systems compare to Retail Express? Compare the two software programs in your business side by side and see for yourself.

Our 3,000+ local retail businesses that we serve help us create better software every day and for that we are grateful.

Read onRead later

$300 reward.

May 3, 2022
1 Min read
$

$300 reward. At the end of this financial year, make sure you have the right EFTPOS partner.

We’ve partnered up with Tyro for this special offer when you apply for a Tyro EFTPOS machine by 30 June 2022. Enquire with us now. For T&Cs see here: https://www.tyro.com/300-reward-2022-terms/

Read onRead later
The POS Software Blog

Categories

Categories

Categories

Recent Comments

Monthly Archives