The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

CategoryPOS Software

Five ways small business retailers can reduce labour costs

November 17, 2015
2 Min read
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Next to rent, labour is the next largest cost faced by small business retailers. Too often, retailers do hot manage labour as effectively as they can. In our work with small business retailers across a number of channels we have developed ideas on reducing labour costs. Here are five ideas we see work well:

  1. Roster by revenue. Plot revenue by hour and roster shop floor sales staff according to the sales volume.
  2. Roster to an hourly cost. Use smart roster software, like our free eziroster.com.au, and roster to a budget.
  3. Track sales by employee. Report on sales by employee by hour worked and assess the contribution they make to the business.
  4. Time shift tasks. Most away from rostered hours work that can be done without a labour cost. For example, backing up data or linking to your accounting software – both can be done without any labour cost.
  5. Eliminate manual processes. Get suppliers to provide electronic invoices, stop pricing everything you sell – use shelf labels, don’t count stock manually … to name a few tasks you can eliminate entirely.

These tips are offered as part of a series from Tower Systems, a POS software company serving more than 3,500 small business retailers with specialist POS software for a range of retail niches.

Every day through our software, advice, support and training we provide help beyond the software, help to make a genuine difference to the small retail businesses we serve.

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Five free forgotten marketing ideas for small business retailers

November 16, 2015
2 Min read
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Retailers often forget these marketing opportunities they have everyday in their businesses, opportunities to make a pitch at no cost that can have shoppers more engaged with a business.

  1. Pitch on your receipt. Sure, it is a record of a purchase. It is also a valuable advertising platform.
  2. Pitch by time of day. Some days are slower than others. Some times of the day are slower than others. Promote based on the low times to drive engagement.
  3. Add value. On the receipt with a purchase automatically include care instructions or other advice to add value to the purchase. Show your customers why purchasing from you is different, better, than if they were to purchase from elsewhere.
  4. Be smart with placement. Use your business data to see what sells with what. Place commonly purchased together items next to each other and drive sales.
  5. Thank your customers. Email customers a thank you note based on a recent purchase and they will be back. Your software can make this type of marketing easier.

These tips are offered as part of a series from Tower Systems, a POS software company serving more than 3,500 small business retailers with specialist POS software for a range of retail niches.

Every day through our software, advice, support and training we provide help beyond the software, help to make a genuine difference to the small retail businesses we serve.

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30 Christmas marketing ideas for any independent retail business anywhere – Sunday retail management advice

November 15, 2015
5 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. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. Make your shop smell like Christmas.
  9. 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.
  10. Host a Christmas party. For shops nearby. You are all in the season together – let your hear down before things get crazy.
  11. 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.
  12. Stocking stuffers. At your counter always have one or two stocking stuffers for impulse purchase.
  13. Offer gift vouchers – for someone to give when they are not sure what to give.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. Keep it fresh. Every week make significant change to your Christmas displays and promotions to keep your offer fresh.
  18. 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.
  19. Free wrapping. Sure, many retailers offer this. Make your offer better, more creative and more appreciated.
  20. This is essential in any business. Manage it through your computer system with strict rules.
  21. Work the floor. Increase time on the shop floor. Be present to manage shopper flow and to facilitate purchases.
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. Free assembly. If you sell items that require assembly. Offer to do this for free.
  25. Free delivery. Offer free Christmas Eve delivery for items purchased for kids for Christmas.
  26. Sell training. Leverage the specialist knowledge you have in your business by selling as gifts places at classes you run sharing your expertise.
  27. 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.
  28. 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.
  29. 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.
  30. 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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POS software for whole foods retailers helps drive sales and cut wastage

November 13, 2015
1 Min read
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Tower Systems is thrilled to welcome more whole foods retailers to its growing POS software user community.

Thanks to several unique facilities in the Tower software the company is able to serve needs unique to whole foods stores. Our service of the niche whole foods retail channel is another example of the value of small business POS software specialisation.

Specialisation is something we do well thanks to deep consultation with current and prospective customers in selected retail channels. This and not specialising too far and wind keeps the company focused on serving the needs of specialist retailers.

Whole foods retailers can rely on the Tower software to continue to develop to serve emerging needs in this important retail niche.

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How second hand goods software helps retailers manage and sell secondhand goods

November 12, 2015
1 Min read
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The secondhand goods management software within the Tower systems POS software helps secondhand retailers to meet their regulatory obligations in tracking these goods.

While developed initially for jewellers, the facilities have been enhanced over time to serve more retail channels offering secondhand goods. As the retail channels in this space have expanded so has the knowledge available to Tower systems to better serve the needs of the retailers.

From buying to shop floor management to selling, we track the goods in an accurate and data valuable way – serving the retailer and the customer through along the way.

Retailers benefit from time saved in record keeping as well as from maintaining best-practice records. This is invaluable in times of dispute.

Secondhand goods retail is a specialist field and Tower Systems is thrilled to bring its specialist POS software facilities to this specialist field.

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POS software helps retailers with scale integration

November 11, 2015
1 Min read
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The POS software scale integration facilities in the Tower Systems small business POS software are helping retailers across a variety of retail channels.

Produce stores, confectionery stores, whole foods stores, independent supermarkets, garden centres, greengrocers and other retailers are loving the seamless integration between the POS software and counter scale facilities.

Any store selling products by weight can rely on the integration with scales for producing accurate selling by weight.

The outcome is time saving for retailers. It also ensure reduces keystrokes and with every keystroke eliminated is the potential for a mistake eliminated.

The scale integration offered by Tower Systems has been tested to ensure it meets exacting requirements, to provide an accurate customer account of what is purchased and thereby charging correctly for items sold by weight.

Scale integration is another valuable point of difference provided by Tower Systems to its small business retail customers.

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How Xero is changing how small business retailers use POS software

November 9, 2015
1 Min read
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Small business retailers are loving Xero and retailers using the Tower POS software are loving our approved Xero integration. Saving time, cutting keystrokes and cutting accounting fees are some of the benefits being delivered to plenty of retailers partnering with us in the use of our POS software / Xero integration.

Using this ourselves in our own retail business, we have personal experience on which to draw when providing advice to our customers. It places us in a unique position for a software company and allows us to provide a level of service customers love.

Our own experience is that Xero does change a business forever. The time saving and other benefits claimed are real. We can speak to these and ensure our customers are able to leverage the time savings.

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POS software user meetings a hit with small business retailers

November 6, 2015
1 Min read
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Tower Systems has now completed the last round of regional group POS software user meetings for 2015. The engagement has been terrific, enabling us to learn plenty from our customers and to share insights that will help participants get more from the software.

We are grateful to all who participated and for the opportunity to show another example of the Tower Systems difference.

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Tough love helps small business retailers fall in love with data from their POS software

November 2, 2015
2 Min read
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We owe our customers the truth.

This is a mantra in Tower Systems. Truth trumps spin every time, especially the truth you see in business data.

If we see something in the retail business data collected and managed by our software, we share it with the customer involved. We do so in the belief that data will better inform their business decisions than opinions. the sharing is navigated respectfully and not in a smart-alee way.

We encountered this recently when a customer made a statement about the performance of a product category in their business that was not supported by the data. We showed them their own data and their understanding of their business changed. Buying decisions were reversed. Floorspace allocations were changed. More important than anything, employee training was provided to even better leverage the insights we shared through the truth of their own business data.

The experience went to the core of their business. It raised their awareness of the value of the data our POS software cultivated and set them on a mission to change their use of data and their use of our software.

We were thrilled to see the people in this business get it, to get the value of data they have at their fingertips and to love the insights accurate data can provide.

This small retail business will grow as a result of their new respect of and love for data.

We are excited and they are excited.

We could have operated in an average way for a POS software company, answered their questions and moved on. Instead, we took a risk and shared insights beyond the traditional software help desk engagement. We are glad we did. We are grateful for the reaction. We are excited for the benefits unleashed.

Every day in our business we get to interact with passionate small business owners and employees. It is a thrill because each contact is personal. As we found with this data experience, the result can be heartwarming.

The work we do goes way beyond the software. The software is a tool for far more valuable work.

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Five proven ways any small business retailer can reduce dead stock – Sunday small business retail management advice

November 1, 2015
1 Min read
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Based on our work with 3,500 retail businesses across a range of specialty retail channels, here are our five top ways any small business retail store can reduce dead stock in their business. These top ideas are all about ensuring the problem does not occur in the first place.

  1. Track everything that comes in and that you sell. Good data drives good business decisions.
  2. Order what sells. Use a re-order report from your POS software to order replenishment stock. And, yes, good POS software allows you to add to this for new items or extra stock you are certain you need.
  3. Set a budget. Use your software to control stock weight so you do not over order without thought.
  4. Track stock turn. Stock turn is the best indicator of efficiency of stock. Focus more on your best performers.
  5. Centralise buying. Ensure buying for the business is done by limited people who do use business data and who operate to a strict budget.

There are more ideas and tips on reducing dead stock. These suggestions are the best-practice starting point.

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POS software Xero integration loved by small business accountants

October 30, 2015
1 Min read
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With more accountants recommending the Xero cloud-based accounting software our POS software is reaching more people thanks to our xero approved integration.

Professional and thorough integration takes time to develop and have approved by Xero. We put in the work last year to achieve this and continue to maintain the integration today for our many retailers using Xero.

We are grateful to Xero for their support as well as to the many accountants who endorse what we do to ensure the usefulness of the Xero link in small retail business to facilitate accurate accounting data for little time investment.

We use Xero ourselves in-house and this helps us offer a more personal user experience.

Our Xero work helps us lead in our specialist retail channels.

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Warning about POS software pricing

October 29, 2015
1 Min read
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We helped a retailer recently not make a very expensive business decision. They were being courted by a software company based on price. It turns out that the price being promoted was not that great if the retail business wanted to sue the software beyond two years. Since the retailer would never own the software they would keep paying year after year, long into the lifetime of use of the software.

What was pitched as low cost became expensive.

Once the retailer realised this they held back making a decision.

Our advice to retailers is do your homework on the total cost of ownership of your POS software. Think about how long you would like to use the software. Ensure you fully understand all the costs associated with using the software.

Research deeply and long. Get the facts, in writing.

The claim from a company that their POS software is cheaper may not be true. Take your time to ensure you determine if it is true.

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POS software user meeting for Perth small business retailers

October 28, 2015
1 Min read
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Tower Systems is hosting FREE POS software user meeting in Perth next week at the Country Comfort Inter City Perth: 249-263 Great Eastern Highway, Belmont – Thursday starting at 9am for 2 hours. While set for existing user, those not using our software most welcome.

See new POS software release due out in four weeks time. Hear major plans for various specialist retail niches for 2016. Learn about business growth opportunities. Offer your suggestions on future enhancements. Engage in transparent Q&A.

I am the owner of Tower and I will be at all of these meetings with Gavin Williams, our Chief Operating Officer, with almost 20 years with the company, will be at every meeting too – along with local support staff.

While this is not a sales session, anyone is welcome to see how the Tower team interact with customers. Transparency at its best.

CLICK HERE TO BOOK.

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POS software helps small business retailers reduce hoarding

October 28, 2015
2 Min read
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Hoarders is a popular TV show around the world. You know the show – the one where people live in places so full of stuff that they can barely move around, stuff of questionable value, stuff that could be harming their lives.

Hoarders is addictive TV because maybe we like to see people worse off than ourselves.

There are hoarders in retail, retailers who hoard stock in their back rooms, garages, at home and at storage facilities, hoarders who chase the stock purchase deal and then forget that the deal is only useful if it is turned into cash.

Here at Tower Systems we are concerned about the hoarding in retail. We can help.

We have facilities in our software to reduce hoarding, facilities designed to help retailers manage buying, manage selling and to reduce the stockpile of inventory not on the shop floor, not in front of shoppers.

Beyond the software we have strategies and advice to help retailers to make the most of inventory and thereby to reduce the opportunity for hoarding in business. Our engagement goes beyond what is traditional from a POS software company. We have retail expertise and will visit a store to work with owners and employees to reduce hoarding and to setup, through the software facilities for eliminating the opportunity in the future.

To retailers we say – by all means watch the Hoarders TV show  don’t fall victim.

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Why small business matters to our #smallbusiness POS software co

October 27, 2015
2 Min read
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Tower Systems is your quintessential small business POS software company.

We only develop software for small business retailers.

It is all we have ever done.

Small business retail is what we know and love. It is what we believe in.

But our interest goes beyond small business retail. We are focused on specific retail channels. We are what is called a vertical market software company.

Our focus is narrow, on selected retail channels, developing software only for those retail channels. In fact, developing highly customised specialist software for those select specialist retail channels.

This narrow focus of ours reflects our interest in small business and our interest in the specific retail channels in which we serve.

Our goal is to help our small business partners to leverage more from their use of our software – to help them make their small businesses more valuable to their customers.

In reality, our focus is on the customers of the retail businesses we serve. Maintaining our eyes on these customers helps us develop more carefully targeted software for we know if our software serves the customers of our customers our customers will love us.

Serving 3,000+ small business retailers provides us with a wonderful customer base from which we can learn. It also insulates us against the type of impact a business may feel if there is a challenge with a large, dominant, customer. Here at Tower Systems we don’t have that. Indeed, our approach is transparent and democratic.

We love this world of many independent voices rather than a software company world dominated by one loud voice.

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Tower Systems explains why good POS software is better value and sometimes more expensive

October 26, 2015
2 Min read
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Developing good POS software is expensive.

Developing specialist POS software for a specialist retail channel like pet shops, jewellers, bike shops, garden centres, firearms businesses, toy shops, newsagents and gift shops is even more expensive.

Those offering cheap POS software may have cut corners in development or service.

Add personal Australian based customer support services, personal on-on-one in-store training and pet supplier specific electronic invoice and stock file support you have costs many web based software companies do not have.

Just as the service you provide is specialist in nature and personal in customer interaction, so, too, is the Tower Systems service of specialty retail.

We are not complaining. We choose to be the best software company for specialty retailers. We do this knowing we will not win on price but that we will win on the value we deliver to you and those who rely on your business.

Cheaper software targeting specialty retailers in Australia most likely does not come with the personal service, facilities developed for your type of business, live one-on-one training and pet supplier integration. These differences are valuable to you.

The thing is, what may look cheaper is likely to not be cheaper over time. With our software you have the option to pay for it once to own the software. In two or three years you could be saving money compared to others.

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Five ways small business retailers can pitch local: Sunday small business retail management advice

October 25, 2015
1 Min read
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Being local matters to shoppers today. There is a big difference, however, in saying you are local and being authentically local.

From our work in the trenches with more than 3,000 small business retailers here is our top five advice on successfully pitching local in your business.

  1. Be seen. Engage in local activities, alongside locals.
  2. Buy locally. Have a sign in your shop welcoming pitches from local suppliers of goods you can sell in your business.
  3. Talk local. On your business social media pages talk about local matters. Sow you care too.
  4. Support local. When deciding on your charity engagement, preference local organisations and be clear about this.
  5. Educate local. Make sure customers purchasing locally made product understand it is local.

Local, of course, can be different things to different people. It may mead a geographic proximity to your business. It could also mean products made by a family in another state. Nuanced appropriately and personally, this is a local pitch you could make.

We urge all small business retailers to engage with local and to do so with care and authenticity.

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Expanding the POS software help desk to help small business customers

October 24, 2015
2 Min read
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Personal service is a hallmark of the POS software help desk experience at Tower Systems. Personal service through phone and in-store contact to help our customers leverage the best benefits possible from investment in our POS software.

A recent study of call traffic revealed a different type of call at the end of the day compared to during the day. The data guided us to an opportunity to enhance our approach to customer service.

This is why we created a new help desk position, one focused on the service we provide at the end of the day, one designed to help small business retailers in a more operational focus than might be usual for POS software companies.

Unlike many help desks, our help desk experience is live and human. Our people don’t follow scripts. They do not provide canned answers to canned questions.

A support call is a discussion, two way, un-scripted.

Thanks to the new role we have created we will have more time at the end of the busy retail day to help our customers with personal service – to help them end their days on a brighter and less stressful note.

This is our goal as a customer service organisation.

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Amazing Tower Systems webstore integration a small business retailer first

October 23, 2015
1 Min read
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A Tower Systems exclusive multi independent retailer webstore integration is bringing small business retailers together in a fresh way, negating the need for small business stand along websites. In fact, this new approach is a game changer in several small business retail channels – delivering new traffic thanks to a high-profile national website than is achieving more than a local small business website might.

This is Tower Systems working for its small business customers in a fresh and exciting way.

Leadership.

No one has done what this site and the Tower Point of Sale software back end is achieving.

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9 ways #smallbusiness POS software from Tower Systems helps retailers

October 22, 2015
2 Min read
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The Tower Systems specialist retail POS software continues to evolve thanks to suggestions from retailers in a range of specialty retail channels in large, medium and small businesses, in shopping malls, on then high street and in rural towns.

The Tower Systems commitment is to provide POS software you can use to guide more profitable control over your business – without the need to hire a consultant or businesses advisor. Above all, the Tower POS software will empower small business retailers.

Here are 9 ways the Tower Systems Point of Sale software can help your business:

  1. Report smart. Our easy to read yet comprehensive reports help you better understand your business without having to hire an expensive consultant to do this for you.
  2. Receipts, invoices and other documents can be customised toreflect the taste and style of your business.
  3. From repairs to serial number tracking, we help you deliver consistently professional and personal service – in the specialty service area.
  4. Get customers spending more. Our loyalty facility tuned to the unique spending habits of customers improve the spend per visit.
  5. Easy LayBy. You can LayBy with certainty thanks to professional facilities backed by good documentation to your customers.
  6. Cut your bookkeeping and accounting fees. From GST reporting to having an up to date P&L, we can save time and money by linking to software like Xero.
  7. Connect your online with your shop. Our Web Store facility handles this.
  8. Cut theft. We you are not there, our software tracks behaviour. Our free Theft Check service has been successful to catching theft before it is too late.
  9. The Tower AdvantageTM. Our professional and friendly help from training to support to business advice. We are not your average software company.
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Tower Systems participating in university software development study

October 21, 2015
2 Min read
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Tower Systems is grateful to be participating in a university study into software development practices.

This comprehensive study  delves deep into the processes of professional software development from the top down. At the heart of the study is the desire for an understanding of what drives success for a software project.

Serving close to 3,000 small business retailers across several retail business niche channels, we are well skilled to speak on software development project success from inside our business and from there experience perspective.

While we are regularly approached to participate in software development studies, this request was particularly appealing given the depth of analysis being undertaken and the benefits that are certain to flow for other Australian / New Zealand software development companies.

We are a software development company first and foremost. Developing software sits at the heart of what we do. Getting this right is central of our business mission. Taking time to be introspective about what we do and how we do it is, of itself, beneficial to what we do. This is why we embrace opportunities to participate in research projects focused on our area of business specialisation.

Developing software is complex, challenging, exiting, exhilarating and complex all at once – especially with so many businesses already using the software you are continuing to develop and enhance. You need to bring existing customers along on the journey but in a way that does not harm their businesses. Plus you need to be building software that is exciting and fun for people who have never used the software before. The intersection between both types of customers – existing and new – is where real complexity lies.

University driven research studies help us step back and consider carefully what we do from a distance of valuable perspective. This, we think, helps us build better and more valuable software from which our customers and we benefit.

Tower Systems welcomes more studies like this latest one – through which we can see what we do from the perspective of others analysing us and our processes. Each engagement reminds us of our mission and the value of this mission to the economy, business families and our own families.

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#smallbusiness POS software on show in Auckland

October 20, 2015
1 Min read
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Tower Systems is hosting an open even in Auckland in two weeks showing off its POS software to specialist retailers in the local retail marketplaces. The company has shared details with prospects in New Zealand as well as with existing customers – to provide opportunities for retailers to connect with the company. Click here to book a time.

Here’s an introductory video outlining the NZ opportunity:

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