The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

CategoryPOS Software

POS software update feedback

June 11, 2017
1 Min read
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We are thrilled with the feedback we are receiving for our latest POS software update. Here is one message we received this week.

We love the update. Thank you for acting on our suggestion. When I put it on Software Ideas and saw others voting it made me feel good, that other people using the software liked my suggestion. I love that you listen to us.

Software Ideas is a publicly accessible place where our customers can make suggestions for software enhancements and have others vote on these suggestions. This is an exclusive platform of which we are most proud.

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More retailers using our POS software integrated websites

June 1, 2017
1 Min read
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We are thrilled to welcome more websites that are integrated with our small business POS software, offering real-time stock on hand data.

Each new site we bring on enhances the portfolio and further demonstrates our capabilities of linking online and offline retail and bringing to life facilities small business retailers look to offer from their websites:

  1. Online LayBy, interest free.
  2. Paypal payments.
  3. Click and collect.
  4. Single stock data feed, showing g real time in-store stock.

Mastering these and other facilities for single store and multi store situations is a powerful solution. Doing it also for multiple businesses to one site is stunning.

This is all part of the Tower Systems web development / POS software integrated solutions package. It is another Tower AdvantageTM.

Note, all our web development is done using e-commerce platforms that are widely used. Indeed, the three we use account for three quarters of retail e-commerce sites in the world.

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One POS software user travels twelve hours to attend face to face user meeting

April 7, 2017
1 Min read
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Just about every day recently we hear a story of wonderful customer engagement with our POS software and services we provide.

Today we have a story about a customer who drove for twelve hours for the free training we provided at a recent face to face user meeting. They did this to tap into the training, to learn more about the software, ask questions and help plan the next steps for their business through the software and services we provide.

The commitment of a twelve hour drive is extraordinary. We are grateful for this.

We learnt so much from such a unique and remotely located businesses. Plus we were able to add value by training them in parts of the software they had time to investigate. It was a terrific joint experience.

This story shows the commitment of a good POS software / user relationship, how both parties benefit and respect each other through time and others commitments.

Here at Tower Systems we love the passion of our customers. Our commitment is to serve and help…

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The value of one on one training for small business POS software users

April 4, 2017
1 Min read
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This photo shows a group from our Perth POS software user meeting late last week. Like all our sessions we had a good group of retail businesses represented. This works well as people learn from each other.

The latest round of face to face POS software user meetings have provided us excellent feedback on the latest software update and insights into next steps as well as wonderful learning opportunities for customers ho attended.

Offering these face to face user meetings its a genuine point of difference for us.

That we continue to offer the sessions today speaks to us honouring our commitment to our customers as well as our focus on providing personal customer service.

Too many POS software companies hide from their customers and make contact difficult. We don’t. We embrace are real human to human contact. The face to face user meetings are a good example of this and our commitment.

We appreciate the support form our customers and support for face to face training and engagement.

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How our POS software company uses Facebook to help small business users

February 20, 2017
1 Min read
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Tower Systems embraces a range of touch points for connecting with small business retailers. One such touch point is Facebook. We have a private group where our users can ask questions and talk through opportunities. We use this platform to share support and other announcements.

The Tower Systems user private Facebook page is proving to be a useful touch point, transparent too.

Customer service today requires change and here at Tower Systems we embrace change happily.

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In a cloud environment what happens when the Internet is unavailable? The offering is for an external cloud provider, can we leverage our own cloud provider? How are hosting charges calculated, i.e. data storage charges?

February 9, 2017
2 Min read
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Our Tower Systems POS software system is very configurable. Users have the ability, if they wish, to run without being hosted. This solves any Internet stability questions, particularly for rural/regional Australian where this may be an issue.

The other challenge with cloud is the costs. Our experience is some small business owners are not happy with the monthly hosting cost for a cloud service.

These are the reasons we have configured our software to suit whatever situation a customer prefers.

Alternatively, if users want, we can host the system in the cloud. This can be hosted on our secure dedicated infrastructure (additional costs will apply) or on infrastructure of their choosing. We will provide guidance on the configuration so the ideal environment is created.

If hosted on our infrastructure customers are charged on a per user per month basis.

If the user runs in a hosted environment and the internet drops out the user can switch to a facility we call Outpost Mode.

Outpost mode allows for basic trading, scanning sales, until such time as Internet access is restored.

This is another example of the help we provide to our customers for a broad variety of situations in which they find themselves.

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Enhancing the online POS software user manual

January 21, 2017
1 Min read
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Software user manuals are out of date. Years ago Tower Systems switched to a user searchable online knowledge base. This resource is regularly enhanced, along with the software.

In our weekly email we let our customers know about the enhancements.  Here are some of the POS software knowledge base enhancements from a week ago:

  1. List Of Approved / Supported Hardware
  2. Errors When Starting Retailer On MAIN / SERVER Computer
  3. Errors When Starting Retailer On POS / CLIENT Computers
  4. Stopping / Clearing Print Jobs
  5. Refunding a Sale
  6. Adding / Editing Reasons For Refunds
  7. End of Shift Reports
  8. Setting Up Customer Categories and Interests
  9. Using Marketing Tools0
  10. Undo Billing and Statements for Customers / Subagents
  11. How To Stop A Customer’s Order(s)
  12. Creating and Printing a Customer Invoice / Quote
  13. Finalizing & Paying a Customer Invoice / Quote
  14. Entering Additional Details for Customer Invoice Sales Made Through POS Screen

We publish a list like this most weeks in ur weekly customer service email.

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How the Tower Systems gift shop software helps small business gift shops attract more shoppers and increase sales

January 11, 2017
2 Min read
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Small locally owned gift shops exist in most high street shopping situations. They are locally owned and run gift shops, the quintessential small business, usually a family business. Competition is tough for these small businesses.

Tower Systems helps small business gift shops through its gift shop software. Using our software, gift shop owners are able to trade more efficiently and successfully. They are able to build a stronger and more valuable business.

Here are some of the ways the Tower Systems gift shop software can help any small indie gift shop:

  1. Easier selling.
  2. Faster selling.
  3. Less mistakes thanks to fewer steps in the sales process.
  4. Automatic handling of EFT processing thanks it integrated EFTPOS.
  5. More accurate selling.
  6. Easy to run LayBys including managing the terms and conditions, collecting payment and locating lay-bys.
  7. Easy handling of sales over a date and time range.
  8. Structure around product returns.
  9. Easy finding previous sales.
  10. Easier management of staff rosters.
  11. Visibility of business performance when you are not in the shop.
  12. Access to a range of shopper loyalty options from points based to a cash amount off the next sale.
  13. Easy bundling of products into a package deal offer – this makes price comparison harder.
  14. Easier selling online through a connected website.
  15. Tracking sales by staff member.
  16. Tracking business performance by supplier – driving suppliers to facilitate your business success.
  17. Tracking business performance by key seasons.
  18. Easy management of special orders for customers.
  19. Creating orders for suppliers.
  20. Easily loading electronic invoices from suppliers.
  21. Comparing trading periods for quick spotting of business performance trends.
  22. Selling by measure.
  23. Selling by weight.
  24. Managing the repairs process if you offer that type of service.
  25. Running customer accounts and managing the collection of these accounts.
  26. managing sopper gift cards including tracking balances.
  27. Managing multiple retail outlets.

The Tower Systems gift shop software helps small and independent gift shops in many ways. This list here is just some of the ways. This software has been developed with and for gift shop owners and their employees. It is already widely used.

As specialty retail software designed and developed in Australia, this is software fit for purpose for small and independent gift shops. 

Tower systems continues to evolve the software to ensure it meets the evolving needs of gift retailers in Australia.

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In retail today

December 24, 2016
1 Min read
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IMG_2339Being Christmas Eve it has been crazy busy in the shops today with last minute shopping.

Since we are a POS software company that owns retail shops we have been personally and practically involved in retail today, behind the counter, using our software serving shoppers with last-minute Christmas purchases. This photo is from our shop at Knox City in Melbourne today before we opened for customers. Thankfully it is the only time of the day the shop was empty.

We are grateful for another busy day in retail and another day of retail experience that inform some choices we make in our software.

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Small business retailers love our new POS software

December 3, 2016
1 Min read
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The latest version of ur small business POS software is gaining a terrific reaction from our customers.  We are getting calls, emails and messages from customers grateful for the update and that we have introduced enhancements they have suggested.

Here are some of the feedback notes we have received:

  1. I love this update. Thank you Tower Systems.
  2. Thank you for including my suggestion. I know it was a bit weird but I know it will save time if people use it.
  3. I appreciate that you let me choose who to install the update. This is one of the reasons I switched to you guys.
  4. I like that you tell me exactly what is in the update in advance. There is nothing worse than find out out something has changed after the new software has been installed.

Our process of determining the content of software updates is transparent and inclusive. From online forums to calls to emails to face to face user meetings around the country we talk with our customers as we develop each software update.

We are grateful to our customers for their engagement in the crafting of each software update.

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40 Christmas marketing ideas for any independent retail business anywhere

November 20, 2016
8 Min read
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Tower Systems works with more than 3,500+ small business retailers in speciality retail niches including jewellers, garden centres, bike shops, toy shops, gift shops, newsagents, pet shops, adult shops and more. We offer these ideas as our Christmas gift to you.

  1. Make it easy. People often talk about how hard Christmas is. Be the local business that makes it easy. The ways to do this are with easy Lay-By, free wrapping, better shop floor help, guide buying advice or tips on perfect gifts no one else will think of. Consider making Christmas easy as being a key part of your messaging.
  2. Be thrilled people are in your shop. Your personal smile or greeting is something they may not see in a big business where employees are less invested in each shopper and where the owner is usually thousands of kilometers away.
  3. Make the giving easy. If people purchase items from you to send somewhere else. Offer a one-stop shop. Save them the trip to the post office.
  4. Make the shop less about Christmas. Consider pulling back on the Christmas visual noise. Go for something simple, muted, respecting the season but making a calm statement. Consider declaring the shop a Christmas carol free zone – not because you hate carols but because you want to help customers take a break.
  5. Help people rest and recharge. Create a Christmas shopping rest and recovery zone. Offer free tea, coffee, water and something to eat. Encourage people to take a break in your shop – without any obligation for them to spend money with you.
  6. Let your customers help each other. Setup a whiteboard or sheets of butcher’s paper, yes keep it simple. Get customers to write gift suggestions under different age/gender groups. For example: Girls 18 – 25, Boys 55+. Encourage your customers to help each other through their suggestions.
  7. Make price comparison difficult. If you sell items people are likely to price compare with other businesses, package them so price comparison is not easy. Put items into a hamper as a perfect Boy 8 to 12 bundle for example. Or offer the item with pre packages services if appropriate for an item.
  8. Less is more.  The stack em high watch em fly mantra can be wrong. Indeed, it is often wrong in retail. Shoppers can be store blind because a shop is too full or a display is too busy. Consider creating simpler less cluttered displays and window promotions. Draw attention to what you want people to see by promoting that one thing. Every time someone asks if you have something that you think through should be able to find easily – take it as a challenge for you to address rather than a commentary on a facility of the customer.
  9. Change. Christmas season in your shop should evolve. Major change weekly is vital for people to see what you have that they could buy.
  10. Be socially engaged. On Facebook, Instagram, twitter and elsewhere, be the calm voice, the person people enjoy reading or seeing photos from. Provide entertainment this Christmas rather than the usual retailer shrill of come and shop here!
  11. Be community minded. Choose a local charity or community group to support through Christmas. Consider: a change collection tin at the counter; a themed Christmas window display; promotion on your social media pages; a donation to their work; a collection point for donations from customers.
  12. Facilitate sharing stories. Find space in your shop for customers to share their Christmas stories. It could be a story wall inside or in front of the shop. This initiative encourages storytelling by locals and better connects the business with the community.
  13. Award a prize at a local school. Fund a year-end prize at a local school. Attend a school assembly to award the prize. Work with the school leadership on a prize appropriate to your business.
  14. VIP preview. Host a VIP shopper preview night when you show off your Christmas ranges ahead of being available to the general shoppers. Respect and reward your local shoppers with deals and the opportunity to preview ahead of others.
  15. Leverage Christmas traffic. Encourage the Christmas shopper traffic surge in after Christmas. Give them a reason to come back. A coupon promotion or a discount voucher on receipts could be the enticement to get shoppers back in-store. Note: the Tower POS software produces discount vouchers to rules you establish.
  16. Become a gallery. Work with a school, kindergarten, community group or retirement village to bring in local art for people to come and see through Christmas. A small space commitment can drive traffic from family and friends of those with art on show.
  17. Dress the shop. Fully embrace Christmas. Create a Christmas experience such that shoppers know they have stepped into somewhere special this Christmas. Go for more than some tinsel and a tree. Fully embrace the opportunity.
  18. Make your shop smell like Christmas.
  19. Send cards. Send Christmas cards early in the season to suppliers, key customers and local community groups. This connects you with Christmas. Invite all team members to sign each card.
  20. Host a Christmas party. For shops nearby. You are all in the season together – let your hear down before things get crazy.
  21. Ensure you have gifts targeted at occasions. For example: Kris Kringle, by price point and by recipient. Make it easy for people to know what they could give.
  22. Stocking stuffers. At your counter always have one or two stocking stuffers for impulse purchase.
  23. Offer gift vouchers – for someone to give when they are not sure what to give.
  24. Be local. Ensure you have a selection of locally sourced products available for purchase. Make it clear in-store that these products are sourced locally.
  25. Tell stories. On your Facebook page, talk about what is important to you at Christmas. Personalise the season and deepen the connection with those who could shop with you.
  26. Offer a free gift. Bulk purchase an item to offer those who spend above a set amount. For example, spend $65 and receive XX where XX may have cost $5.00 but could have a perceived value of $20.00.
  27. Keep it fresh. Every week make significant change to your Christmas displays and promotions to keep your offer fresh.
  28. Share Christmas recipes. Each week for, say, four weeks, give customers a family Christmas recipe. This personalises Christmas in your business, creates a talking point and makes shopping with you different to your bigger competitors.
  29. Free wrapping. Sure, many retailers offer this. Make your offer better, more creative and more appreciated.
  30. This is essential in any business. Manage it through your computer system with strict rules.
  31. Work the floor. Increase time on the shop floor. Be present to manage shopper flow and to facilitate purchases.
  32. Christmas is crazy busy I most retail situations. Give yourself and your team members sufficient time to recharge so the smile greeting shoppers is heartfelt.
  33. Keep a secret. If yours is a business selling gifts a partner may purchase for their loved-one, create some mystery with a closed off display for the shopper to see the products.
  34. Free assembly. If you sell items that require assembly. Offer to do this for free.
  35. Free delivery. Offer free Christmas Eve delivery for items purchased for kids for Christmas.
  36. Sell training. Leverage the specialist knowledge you have in your business by selling as gifts places at classes you run sharing your expertise.
  37. Hold back. Don’t go out with everything you have for Christmas all at once. Plan the season to show off what you have as the season unfolds. This allows you multiple launches.
  38. Share a taste. Regardless if your type of business, bake a family recipe of Christmas cake, Christmas pudding or Christmas biscuits and offer tastings to shoppers on select days. This personalises the experience in your shop.
  39. Offer hampers. Package several items together and offer them as a hamper. Time-poor shoppers could appreciate you doing this work for them. We have seen this work in many different retail situations.
  40. Buy X get Y. Encourage people to spend more with a volume based deal. Pitched right, this could get customers purchasing items for several family members in order to get the price offer you have. Use your technology to manage this.

Christmas is the perfect time to plan for next year. It is the time to do everything possible to leverage bonus Christmas traffic to benefit your business through next year.

Tower Systems offers Point of sale / retail management software tailored for your specific type of retail business. Our software can help you leverage Christmas traffic for year-long benefits.

We provide you with loyalty facilities that are fresh and small-business focussed, loyalty facilities through which you can pitch a point of difference compared to big business competitors.

One of our retail experts can help: Please call our sales team at 1300 662 957 or email them at sales@towersystems.com.au.

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Small businesses winning online sales thanks to Tower Systems POS software webstore integration

November 10, 2016
2 Min read
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Screen Shot 2016-11-07 at 7.58.15 AMTower Systems is thrilled to be helping small business retailers win valuable online sales through its suite of websites across multiple retail categories.

The image shows how far one package purchased through one of our our POS software integrated websites travelled this week. Thanks to site design and marketing by us, the Queensland based business found a valuable new shopper in Victoria, delivering revenue from this sale and establishing a relationship that is certain to benefit in the long term.

Connecting local small business shops with customers located on the other side of the country is helping these local town retailers find new shoppers.

Every day we are seeing excellent sales processed through the sites, valuable sales … and they are growing.

There are multiple layers to this success: the websites we created, the POS software integration enabling genuinely live stock on hand data and the guidance through sales processing to help retailers make sure they leverage the opportunity.

Delivering e-commerce revenue to small business retailers without them needing to have their own websites is an achievement of which we are most proud. We have been doing this for months across multiple website platforms and the result is terrific for our retail partners.

While there is no doubt of the value of a business being online for itself, there is even greater value for a business to be in an online community with like minded retailers, leveraging the group for each of the local stores. This is the unique delivery from Tower Systems.

We love helping small business retailers win new customers.

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Free small business training on the Gold Coast today

November 10, 2016
1 Min read
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We are thrilled to be providing free face to face training for small business retailers on the Gold Coast today through another of our social media masterclass sessions.

This training fits well with our POS software and its opportunities for helping retailers to attract new traffic shoppers.

It leverages our experience in starting and running several successful social media presences for small retail businesses we run ourselves. The session draws on that experience and demonstrates live how we are using social media to attract new customers to our own businesses.

This free training is another way we put the Tower Systems message or empowerment for small business retailers out there for more to see and feel.

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NZ POS software user meeting series completed

November 4, 2016
1 Min read
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We are grateful to our NZ customers who met with us in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch this week as we presented our latest software as well as our Xero, Shopify and Magento integrations.

We will be back with more NZ user meetings in 2017 as we continue to reach out for more face to face opportunities with our customers.

This year, Tower Systems has delivered more than fifty in-person face to face user meeting opportunities, demonstrating a commitment to personal POS software support that small business retailers appreciate.

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POS software update rolling out

October 31, 2016
1 Min read
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We are well into the roll our of our latest POS software update for small business retailers.

Following a comprehensive beta release cycle, the update was cleared a week ago for release. We started emailing customers, in  batches, releasing access to the update.

This batched approach to the release helps us manage the help desk load.

Giving our customers control over when they install an update is important to us and appreciated by our customers.

We are thrilled to be delivering a comprehensive update that is packed with enhancements suggested and voted on by our customers. We are grateful for the engagement of our customers in achieving this.

What a terrific bounce for the last quarter of 2016.

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How our hiring process helps us find proactive POS software help desk team members

October 28, 2016
1 Min read
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We have a new position to fill on our POS software help desk and have been running a campaign at Seek that from the outsets seeks to attract people with an attention to detail and who are proactive. We have done this by embedding in the ad two requirements, the responses to which have helped us easily separate the candidates.

Here is the ad:

Screen Shot 2016-10-28 at 6.34.43 AM

Interviews are well under way with the final round expected Monday.

We are excited for the opportunity to expand the experiences within our help desk team.

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POS software Shopify website integration solution

October 26, 2016
3 Min read
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What is Shopify?

Shopify is one of the easiest ways to setup and run an ecommerce store. We think it provides you with the ideal place to create you first website and gain experience in the world of ecommerce. You have complete control over the look and feel of your online store and can instant access fantastic look themes to reflect the personality of your business. For more information visit www.shopify.com.au.

What is the Retailer to Shopify Link?

The Retailer to Shopify Link uses the Tower Advantage Link platform to allow retailers using the Tower Systems POS software – Retailer – to connect directly to your Shopify store. The Tower Advantage Link platform is a subscription-based service that acts as an intermediary between Retailer and the Shopify API.

How does the link work?

The link works by using the TALink platform platform to connect to the shopify API and synchronise your data.

Stock

Retailer is your master stock database. You flag what stock items you want to appear on your shopify store. Descriptions and extended descriptions are added as your titles and descriptions in Shopify. Newly flagged products are automatically added and if you edit items in Retailer you have field level control over how these are handled in Shopify.

Department and Categories

Your Retailer Departments and Categories become collections in Shopify. You can have a chose of either Department level collections or category level, but not both. If you choose to synchronise either a department or category, your existing structure will be mirrored and managed in Shopify automatically. If, however, you decide not link your Department and Categories in Shopify, you can allocate collections manually to products once they are added.

Classifications

Shopify does not have a mechanism to manage classifications.

Prices and Quantity On Hand

You have control over your webstore pricing from within the Retailer Stock Screen. Bulk updates of the webstore prices can be performed in Stock Manager. Once new prices are set, your web store is updated automatically. Quantity on hand is also managed automatically, when your sell or arrive an item into stock these adjustments are sent directly to Shopify. If the quantity on hand of an items drops to 0, the item is marked as out of stock in Shopify.

Images

The images you set against stock items in Retailer are automatically uploaded to your website. If images change, then old one is removed and the new one is added. You can upload as many images as you like per stock item.

Customers

Customers that purchase off your webstore are added as customers in your Retailer database, allowing you to track what they buy and market to them if you desire. Existing customers with an email address will also be added to your web store to facilitate easy sales if you choose.

Sales

Sales are downloaded on a periodic basis and imported into Retailer. They are imported into our Customer Invoice Maintenance facility allowing you to place orders and print invoices if needed. Once sales are imported it reduces your quantity on hand so you maintain accurate stock control. Sales can be allocated to a specific location or merged to you main sales data, giving you excellent control over how you report on your webstore sales.

I don’t have a website but want one. Can Tower help?

Yes! We can build and customize a basic Shopify website for you if you like. Please talk to your local sales representative for more information.

We love Shopify. It is a terrific starting point for any retailer looking to get started online. We are thrilled to be connected with Shopify.

 

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