Tower Systems helps retailers offer over the counter buy now pay later
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Kudos for Amazon Go store insights
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We are grateful for the feedback from people who have seen our recent video where we share insights gained from visiting the Amazon Go store in Seattle twice this year. This is an extraordinary shop, built by an extraordinary business.
- No sales counter.
- No cash or credit cards processed in-store.
- Choose what you want, and leave.
In this video we explain what we saw and try for context for small business retailers.
The hidden costs and dangers of offshore website development for small business retailers
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We have been helping another small business retailer deal with the fallout of their use of an offshore web developer to create their e-commerce site. The costs have been significant and the hurt to the business considerable.
Anyone who asks us is told: our advice for website development is to use a local web development business, one you can meet with, one you can visit, once you can call locally, one who understands your needs and situation.
Offshore web development can appear cheaper. In our experience, it is not cheaper for once you have got everything right and fixed, the cost can be considerably higher. Here is where costs can escalate, here are issues we have resolved with offshore developed websites:
- Failure to serve the actual needs of the local retail business.
- Poor design.
- Inappropriate design.
- Poor English.
- Out of date technology.
- Delays due to difficulty accessing the developer in local time.
- Broken for use in mobile devices.
- Inability to connect with other software such as POS software.
Like business software, with website development you get what you pay for. So, we say, let the buyer beware.
Our web development approach is local, structured, transparent and engaged with the customer at all steps. Being a POS software developer and a web developer, through separate teams in our business, we are skilled to bring to market an integrated and valuable solution, based on local business needs.
To find our more about our web development services, speak with a local Tower Systems sales person. They can point you to successful sites from us that are live and transacting today.
Here are some of the store linked websites we have developed:
- www.beanieboosaustralia.com
- www.popvinylsinaustralia.com
- www.willowbears.com.au
- www.willowbearsworldwide.com
- www.ittybittysinaustralia.com
- www.charliebearsinaustralia.com
- www.ezitask.com
- www.sendmytask.com
This is a selection of sites created by Tower Systems. Our web development skills are diverse. Our SEO and SEM skills are fine-tuned, to help you get the notice for your website.
Professional web development takes time. Time has a per hour cost. IT professionals are paid well. Going for the cheapest price for website development could mean that you have gone with a business that cuts corners or has most of the work done offshore.
Since your website is your business calling card to the world it is not something to cut corners with, it is not something to take offshore for a saving today. A good source of business for us is replacing offshore developed sites.
The quote we will provide will be comprehensive and completely based on the needs you outline to us.
Major software update released for small business retailers
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Tower Systems is thrilled to announce the commercial release of a major software update that is packed with valuable software enhancements, some of which will help small business retailers to find new opportunities.
Every one of our customers can choose when they install the update. They can do this with the full and complete knowledge of what is in the update. No surprises. No unexpected changes. They are 100% in control. We think this is important.
Fyll documentation of what is in the update has been released along with training and management advice. All accessible 24/7, so our customers go into this with will and focus.
This is how we do business: transparency, clear communication, with our customers in control.
It is a Tower Systems difference.
Included in the information pack on the update is videos we have shot in house explaining some of the new facilities, how they work and the commercial leverage they offer.
While our customers engage with the latest update, we are well into working on the next release. Good software constantly evolves.
We are grateful to our customers for their engagement and feedback.
Proudly local POS software for small business retailers
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Tower Systems one sells its POS software to independent small business retailers. This is one of our strengths. We are proud to be local and small business focussed.
Loyalty marketing in small business retail: How Tower Systems helps retailers get shoppers back sooner
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All retailers, want shoppers to spend more in each visit and to come back more often.
Yet most retailers are uncomfortable overtly engaging with shoppers to get spend more in a visit or come back sooner.
Years ago, the thought was that a shopper VIP card or points based loyalty program was the way to go. Today, with such programs commonplace, their value is diluted.
There is talk among shoppers of loyalty fatigue – they are doubting the value of cards and programs where real rewards are not what was first offered.
Change the game: front-end loyalty
Instead of making shoppers accrue points that are then converted for cash at some future stage, why not offer cash-based rewards earlier, from the first purchase?
This approach is called front-ending loyalty. It brings a reward to the front in an effort to engage shoppers in additional purchases sooner.
It’s an approach that can encourage those who do not shop with you to purchase something else right away, to get the value of the cash discount offered.
Regular shoppers can spend the cash discount right away or come back within any time limit you set.
We started trialling this front-end loyalty strategy in February 2013 in several retail businesses. We did it using the Discount Vouchers facilities in the Tower POS software.
Building the basket
From the first day, in my own shop, we saw shoppers changing behaviour.
One customer came in to purchase a specific item. When I handed him the receipt I point out the voucher offering $2.00 of his next purchase. He was not a regular and so spent the $2.00, and more, right away on another item. He received another voucher and so purchased a third item. In all, he spent three times as much as the original purchase – all because of the Discount Vouchers he received.
Around 33% of all vouchers redeemed are used the day they are received. This shows customers building the basket – adding to their purchase that day as a result of the voucher. This makes each visit more valuable to us.
Bringing shoppers back
33% of redeemed vouchers are used within seven days and the remaining 33% are redeemed up to four weeks after issue, bringing shoppers back.
There is real evidence now from hundreds of retailers supporting these claims.
Here’s another real story: A few months ago, a customer came in and used a voucher she had picked up a couple of weeks earlier. She was happy to get $5.00 off a $65.00 item she wanted. This purchase resulted in another voucher so she bought another item for $29.95.
This customer said her friends had been recently talking about VIP cards and how they were useless. She then told them about us.
Changing how shoppers interact.
In another instance a customer was considering a $250.00 item but decided they could not justify the expense. They purchased some smaller items, spending $25.00.
On receiving a $5.00 voucher they turned around, immediately, and bought the $250.00 item.
We asked what happened. The answer was I don’t know. I needed permission I guess and the $5.00 did it.
This is a true story and there are many more like it in hundreds of retail businesses.
The key about discount vouchers is they change shopper behaviour, usually immediately and valuable for the business.
Indeed, discount vouchers are a game changer for many retail businesses, large an small, city and country.
We love hearing the stories of success from your customers.
You control the business rules
Like any good loyalty program, you need good levers with which to drive shopper engagement and to deliver the benefits to justify the investment.
The Discount Vouchers facilities have this.
You control the amount of each sale you are prepared to give away on the voucher.
You control the products the voucher can be used for.
You control how long the voucher is live for. I suggest 28 days but I have some retailers setting this at 90 days.
Helping your business
With most retail businesses running a loyalty program using a points based approach and only targeting long-term customers, adoption of this front-end loyalty approach can provide you with a genuine point of difference.
It is easily managed through the Tower Systems software and is backed by excellent management reports. This makes implementation and management easier than the old approach.
I’m confident this fresh approach to loyalty is a game changer for any retail business. The control you have enables you to easily manage the cost and the value you gain from the program.
This really is a new approach to bringing shoppers back sooner and getting them to spend more with you.
The success we have described here continues today, in 2018. Excellent incremental growth, wonderful business rewards, leveraged through shopper rewards.
Tower Systems is not your usual POS software company
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POS SOFTWARE IS ONLY PART OF OUR STORY.
We help retailers grow their businesses.
When I started Tower Systems I wanted it to be more than a regular POS software company. I knew we would only sell to independent small retail businesses and only develop software for specific retail niches.
I also knew I wanted us to help beyond the software itself.
On an average day, we help retailers buy better, discover theft, improve efficiency and increase the average basket size.
We train our front line people in business so they can help your business. They are not your usual POS software help desk people.
We also help by creating marketing collateral, like this new poster we created in-house for fishing and outdoor businesses that use our software:
Or this one for pet stores:
Let us show you our POS software. Email sales@towersystems.com.au or call for an obligation free demonstration: Please call our sales team at 1300 662 957 or email them at sales@towersystems.com.au.
We are proud to serve 3,500 specialty retailers with our software.
Meeting small business POS software customers in Auckland next week
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We are in Auckland next week meeting with customers and potential customers in New Zealand. We are regularly in NZ thanks to a strong user community of small business retailers using our software.
Our NZ customers have easy access to on-site training as well as support, through a toll free number provided to all.
Handling all New Zealand Inland Revenue reporting and tax requirements, our NZ POS software is terrific for retailers in the various specialty niches in which we serve. It has been thus for many years, since we first entered the NZ marketplace.
While we are in Auckland next week we will meet with business partners who provide local hardware sales and support, offering small business retailers the comfort they want for the maximum uptime.
Retail in New Zealand is different to Australia in several interesting ways. While we will not detail them here for competitive reasons, the differences are valuable to us as in meeting them we make our software more valuable in Australia and other countries in which we work.
We are grateful to our NZ customers for their engagement and support. They help make us a better POS software company.
Why small business retailers no longer need to pay for a stock take
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The annual stock take in retail businesses has been a thing of the past for years. While plenty of shops run stock take sales, there is no need for the annual count that the sale is supposed to make easier.
The ATO agrees that a business does not have to do a stock take as long as it consistently follows structured business processes that track all incoming and outgoing stock and that there are scheduled checks to ensure the accuracy of stock on hand data.
There was a time when small business retailers would have to bring in external stock takes and pay hefty fees for counting, sometimes needing to be closed while this was done.
Today, however, with good POS software and good business practices the business can provide a stock listing that meets ATO reporting requirements and saves the business that end of financial year time soak.
Tower Systems can help small business retailers with the software and the business processes that support the software in its accurate and timely use.
Following the businesses processes we train small business retailers on also helps reduce dead stock and cut other costs businesses find when stock is not managed professionally.
Tracking goods as they come in and are returned or sold is an effective part of a stock take. As is an ad-hoc stock take of part of the business. These and other tools in ur software make it easy for a retail business to be able to produce an accurate stock on hand list in a format required by the ATO.
For our customers who li certainty of a stock take we have excellent facilities in the core of the software for achieving this. We make it easy and certain. We do it in a way that any retail employee can participate in undertaking a stock take. Plus we do it so that the business can trade while the stock take is under way.
No matter how you approach ensuring stock on hand data is accurate, Tower Systems is able to help any small business retailer … save time, save money and feed better business decisions.
POS software for small business retailers who are scared of computers
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POS software for church and christian bookshops in Australia
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For years now Tower Systems has helped church and christian bookshops run more efficient businesses with smart POS software that serves some unique needs in these businesses.
Thanks to the flexibility in our POS software we are able to offer solutions in areas that everyday POS software does not cover.
Serving in this way helps the church and christian bookshops serve those they help – back in their organisations as well as in the businesses where they offer a unique range of products backed by specialty knowledge and experience.
Offering this through POS software and backing it with web connect opportunities, Tower Systems is able to deliver a specialist grade service with software for these unique organisations.
We have customers in the christian / church bookshop space around Australia and have had for some years, with new customers joining ing us in this unique and valued area.
This is another example of our speciality POS software that is small business and locally focussed. Our openness to enhancement helps us serve these organisations and we gratefully engage at every opportunity. This leads to recommendations of our software between organisations, for which we are most grateful.
From handling GST appropriately to providing added value at the transaction level to supporting flexibility in payment options, we help church and christian organisations serve their flock with smart POS software that is fit for purpose in their business operational areas.
Tower Systems is used to working with community focussed organisations that are run by committee and under a tight budget. We work with them in a way that is appropriate to their structure and in a timely manner that suits their local needs. We have reference sites that can speak to this and what we have done for them in this area. Groups like these are another niche in which we serve.
Our personal training and 24/7 support access are also appreciated buy this community of POS software users.
See the software live. Contact us for an obligation free demonstration: Email: sales@towersystems.com.au. Please call our sales team at 1300 662 957 or email them at sales@towersystems.com.au.
Another POS software integration to help small business retailers
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We are thrilled to have just passed acceptance testing for another major integration between our POS software and a very significant service provider in Australia.
This is a new integration for us and them. We are in a small pool of first to market POS software companies.
More will be announced after easter when their corporate marketing campaign kicks into gear.
We are thrilled to be innovating for our small business retail customers in a part of their business that is ripe for enhancement.
#WatchThisSpace
Beautiful POS software connected websites for small business retailers
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Does your website display nicely across mobile devices of all screen sizes? If not, you could be losing sales to frustrated users | #retail #webdesign #smallbusiness #smallbiz #retail #local #POS | www.towersystems.com.au
Free POS software training for small business retailers
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Tower Systems has announced details of free POS software training for April 2018 for retailers using its smart POS software:
Meeting Name: 10 ways to save time and money using retailer
Date: Wednesday 4th April
Time: 2pm
Description: 10 different ways you can free up time and money in your business using retailer.
Meeting Name: Understanding the End of Shift Reports.
Date: Wednesday 11th April
Time: 2pm
Description: Why is the End of Shift important? How do I check my settings are correct? What do the reports mean? And what parts of the report do I need to use for my accounting.
Meeting Name: Top 10 mistakes in Retailer and how to fix them
Date: Wednesday 18th April
Time: 2pm
Description: Let us show how to fix some common mistakes in Retailer quickly and easily.
The last Wednesday in the month is Anzac day so have not scheduled a session.
How discount vouchers help small business retailers compete with big business
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Awesome POS software connected websites for small business retail
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Australia POS software company Tower Systems is proud to offer POS software connected websites developed using Shopify, magento or Woo Commerce for specialty small business retailers in the retail channels in which we serve.
We have developed plenty of websites for different types of businesses in different situations.
we ovvero a one stop shop for POS software and web development.
Not offshore. Our websites are 100% developed in Australia. This is important. There is no middle person. You deal with us before, during and after.
The websites we develop are to your needs, covering the tech, aesthetic and other attributes that are important in your business. We sit with you to learn abut your needs, to ensure we get it right.
We also promise honesty through the process – this is better than promising something that may not be able to be delivered.
We welcome the opportunity to quote on stand-alone web development, where our sole service of your business is the development of a website.
Our POS software integrated websites serve a single inventory database between physical store and online store.
The Tower Systems web development team is skilled in WooCommerce, Magento and Shopify. The company has plenty of sites it can show in a live portfolio of successful e-commerce sites, serving shoppers in Australia and internationally.
Small business retailers can benefit from the retail management experience at Tower Systems experience that helps deliver a more retail focussed solution.
The Tower web team is also skilled at SEO and SEM services that help raise the website rankings in key search engines, ensuring the site is found ahead of others.
But best of all, Tower Systems provides professional advice and guidance to small business retailers keen to build their online presence. Our commitment is honest transparent advice on which any small business retailer can rely.
The Tower Systems web development team is Australian based, working out of the company’s head office in Hawthorn. This is important as many web development businesses are overseas. While you might have a locally based contact person development too often is done overseas, leading to challenges with delivery and usefulness.
Tower Systems is committed to local development for local businesses. Our developers understand retail in Australia and New Zealand. We leverage that to deliver practical and valuable business outcomes.
From simple websites to complex multi business solutions, the Tower Systems web development team for retailers is skilled and capable of delivering valuable solutions.
To find our more about our web development services, speak with a local Tower Systems sales person. They can point you to successful sites from us that are live and transacting today.
Here are some of the store linked websites we have developed:
- www.beanieboosaustralia.com
- www.popvinylsinaustralia.com
- www.willowbears.com.au
- www.willowbearsworldwide.com
- www.ittybittysinaustralia.com
- www.charliebearsinaustralia.com
- www.ezitask.com
- www.sendmytask.com
This is a selection of sites created by Tower Systems. Our web development skills are diverse. Our SEO and SEM skills are fine-tuned, to help you get the notice for your website.
If you are not happy with your POS software you can switch
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Switching POS software is easy. If it is not easy then the POS software company you are with is probably offering poor software or poor service – backed by a strategy that makes switching hard as a mechanism of protecting their business.
If switching from your POS software is hard then you have even more reason to switch.
Good POS software companies with good service and good software make it easy to switch, as part of their commitment to being the best at what they do.
Here at Tower Systems we want you to stay with us because you like our software and enjoy the customer service experience. We do not want you to stay because we have a technical lock on you. That is false economy in your view.
Customer service in small business matters, especially in business to business situations, such as we are in offering and supporting specialty retail POS software as we do here at Tower Systems.
For us, the best pressure we can apply to ourselves to provide a good customer service experience is to make it easy for you to switch software. This puts you at the hear of what we do. It keeps us 100% customer focussed as we don’t want you to switch. This is why we continually improve our software and professionally manage the customer service resources – to provide you the best outcome possible, to deliver on the promises we make in ur sales process to you.
We have seen POS software companies that lock people in, make it hard to extract data. The customers hate it and it costs them plenty. In the end it hurts the POS software company because small business retailers talk to each other about their experiences and how they feel blackmailed into sticking with software they do not like.
Tower Systems is an Australian POS software company serving specialty retailers in a range of market channels. We only sell to independent retailers, delivering beautiful software backed by awesome customer service. We serve more than 3,500 small business retailers with software that is regularly and professionally updated.
We are grateful to our user community for their support and guidance.
Free small business POS software e-commerce workshops start today
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How to win new customers and increase revenue with a POS software connected website for your type of business
At this practical, jargon-free, workshop we will show through, several live case-studies, the value of a POS software connected website. We will:·
- Show how a good website / POS solution can land more shoppers in your physical shop, more than you think, and help you sell 24/7.·
- Explain how to get to the top Google results, and stay there.·
- Share how a website we launched a year ago did more than $500,000 in sales. We will unpack for you everything we did to drive success.
- Compare Shopify / WooCommerce and Magento and explain why each is good in their own right.
- Share practical experience on order fulfilment using Australia Post and others and how to handle freight costs.
- Explain payment options and how to leverage them for more sales.
- Demonstrate the commercial value of the right POS software / website connection.·
- Explain photos, descriptions and other things, day to day things, which web developers often miss.·
- Answer all your questions.
The knowledge we will share will enable you to compete better online and in-store. Click on your preferred city location to book now.
- MELBOURNE: Feb. 28, 10am @ Pullman Hotel East Melbourne
- HOBART: Mar. 1, 10am @ Rydges Hobart.
- BRISBANE: Mar. 2, 9am @ RiverView Hotel, Kingsford Smith Drive.
- ADELAIDE: Mar. 7, 10am @ Rydges South Park
- PERTH: Mar. 8, 10am @ Crown Towers.
- SYDNEY: Mar. 9. 10am Sydney Hilton, George Street. Level 1.
We are inviting any retailer in the channels in which we serve with POS software for that channel: gifts, jewellers, bikes, toys, fishing/outdoors, garden centres, pet shops, produce, firearms, adult shops and newsagents.
If you are actively in the market for new POS software and / or a website for your business, we would consider flying you in for one of these workshops at no cost to you.
To qualify for a free flight, drop us a line at sales@towersystems.com.au and one of our expert account managers will have a chat with you.
In addition to owning Tower Systems, we also own and operate retail businesses and through these seven different public-facing websites.
This practical session leverages our personal web connected retailer experience to help you navigate in-store and online opportunities. I promise, it will not be death by PowerPoint. Rather, the focus will be on real examples, live examples, as they will be more valuable to providing understanding.
Proud to support small business retailers in Australia
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Tower Systems is proud to support small business retailers in Australia with collateral they can use on social media and elsewhere to pitch the value of small businesses to the economy.
Tower Systems helps small business retailers relax
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Great POS software, easy to use yet powerful for specialty retail.
Small business retail advice: steps to successful stock management
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Retailers using our POS software have access to a deep and wonderful suite of advice on how to use the software to the best advantage of the business and those who rely one it. Here is an example of business management advice we provide. This one is on SIMPLE STEPS FOR SUCCESSFUL STOCK MANAGEMENT IN RETAIL
Small and independent retail businesses too often lose stock through inadequate processes. This simple, practical and free to implement advice seeks to reduce the opportunity for stock to be lost and mistakes to be made.
- Always receive stock into a consistent location in the business set aside for the purpose.
- Check boxes as they arrive. Only sign for receipt if the box count is accurate and the boxes are not damaged.
- Only move stock from the receipt / arrival location once the contents have been checked and counted, entered into your computer system and are trackable with a barcode you add or that is already on the product.
- Scan everything you sell
- Scan everything you return to a supplier as damaged or returned for some other reason.
- Scan out everything you write off or throw away.
- Do spot stock checks (a mini stock take) regularly to determine if there has been shop floor theft. Use the right gear to make this efficient and accurate.
- Order using your computer system as this will soon highlight employee or other theft.
- Stock should only ever be in the business in one of four locations:
- Goods inwards.
- Goods outwards: returning to a supplier, going to charity or going to trash.
- On the shelves in-store.
- On the shelves in the storeroom or warehouse.
The most important advice in this list is having locations set aside for goods inwards and goods outwards and strict processes in place for handling goods into and out from these locations. Get this right and you will find inventory more under control.
Tower Systems is committed to helping small business retailers to get more from their POS software experience than is usual. We leverage our own retail experiences to help our customers way beyond what is usual.
All Tower customers have access to this advice and more.
More POS software connected websites for small business retailers
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We are amazed at the new customers the website is attracting to our business.
This is a comment from a retailer using a website we created and connected to our POS software.
We love that while we are closed we can sell. It really is 24/7.
This is comment from another customer with our POS software connected to a website created by us.
I love that I have one place for managing inventory tory data and images. It is the same in my shop and on my website. It saves so much time and makes us more consistent.
This is from another shopper who switched their website to one from us, connecting to our POS software.
We are grateful for these and other opportunities to help small business retailers bring their businesses online through beautiful and functional websites, which are connected to store-based POS software. We are helping small business retailers to compete.
No minimum card transaction promotion
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Small business retailers need to be aware of a growing push by credit card companies around a no minimum for card use. When it comes to card use, thanks to smart integration our retailers have plenty of control over how cards are used and any charged applied to their use. Here is one of several promotional videos circulating on this no minimum campaign.
Tower Systems makes Christmas easier for small business retailers
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The best response to Amazon arriving in Australia: stay calm, be engaged
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We are frustrated with the world is ending type reporting relating to the arrival in Australia of Amazon. More stories have been published recently. Most stories are not reporting. Rather, they are ignorant fear-mongering. Unfortunately, the wrong people are often quoted, like the ever-shrill Gerry Harvey.
We shot this video to provide some thoughts on the arrival of Amazon and to offer suggestions for small business retailers.
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