The POS Software Blog
News from Tower Systems about locally made POS software for specialty local retailers.
We all look forward to dog day at the office as it makes for heaps of fun and lots of warm feelings. We are sure our customers sense that dogs are in the house and helping us enjoy our days even more. This is our tip for today. Welcome pets into your shop for a fun day.
The truth about your retail business is how it is performing now compared to the same time a year earlier. Not how you think it is performing or how you feel it is performing but how it is actually performing.
You are your most important competitor.
Report on the last period, usually three months, and compare this with the same period a year earlier. Look at revenue, units sold, traffic count, average sale value and basket depth.
Let your data be your truth, your only truth.
If someone in the business makes a statement about business performance, take a look at the truth for yourself and rely only on this for your planning.
If a supplier makes a statement about the performance of your business, take a look at the truth for yourself and rely only on this for your planning.
Next time you tell someone how business is doing, base it on the facts as facts are a currency on which you can bank and off of which you can plan.
Gut feel and opinion are nice, but they cannot be relied on as such as your own business data.
In the Tower Systems POS software there are excellent reporting tools that report the truth of business performance. We can help you access these and we can help you understand them.
We’re here to help.
The Tower Systems POS software xero cloud based accounting link is ideal for small business retailers keen to cut accounting fees – and who doesn’t want to cut accounting fees.
We use the xero cloud based accounting link ourselves in our own retail businesses so we live the benefits every day and can speak to ease of use, ease of setup and the value of strong results for the business from immediate access to up to date accounting data.
Developed to the exacting requirements of Xero cloud based accounting and established on the Xero cloud based accounting website as an approved partner, the Tower Systems POS software Xero cloud based accounting link makes it easy to feed sales data and other data direct from the POS software to xero cloud based accounting for a small business.
Setup is easy.
Use is seamless, in the background.
We have our own cloud based server as the bridge between our software and xero.
Data is accurate.
Speed is brilliant.
Reporting results are valuable.
This is a link small business retailers keen save time and money on external accounting will love. The link saves accounting fees by doing some work your accountant or bookkeeper might otherwise be doing for you. The link from within our POS software feeds data to xero seamlessly and in the background. No keystrokes required. Yes, real time is saved here.
We have accountants who have recommended us to their customers because of the xero link, accountants who themselves wholeheartedly endorse xero. We are grateful for these opportunities.
Xero as a company does not automatically bring on all software companies that connect to them. We are aware of they rejecting at least one POS software company. So, we are thrilled to be a partner and appreciate their engagement with us and their listing of us as a partner on their website.
What we are doing here with the xero link is another part of what we dub the Tower AdvantageTM, yes something we have trademarked because it is unique to us. Indeed, something so unique in our specialty retail channels and niches that we have protected it with a trademark.
While Australian politicians whip themselves into a frenzy during the eight week long election campaign, Tower Systems continues to deliver genuine time-saving Point of Sale software on which small business retailers can rely to save time and cut red tape in their businesses.
Using the Tower POS software, small business independent retailers are able to save time on everyday transactions in their businesses. This time saving is thanks to red-tape cutting facilities in the software, facilities designed to streamline processing, eliminate paperwork, reduce double handling and provide a smoother customer experience in store.
Whereas politicians talk about cutting red tape, here are Tower Systems we are delivering red tape reductions for small business retailers. The time savings delivered cover plenty of areas in small business retail including these.
In each of these areas and more we focus attention on cutting keystrokes, reducing mistake opportunities and processing faster to save time for the business and its customers. What we help our customers save results in tangible benefits for each engaged business. This is a bottom line benefit.
Our savings come from careful analysis of workflow in the business, watching how people use the software and how they engage on both sides of the counter. The result is efficiency, real efficiency and not just the type of promise you get from politicians who talk and do not act.
On a table top function by function comparison, we are proud of how our software compares, of the benefits and efficiencies we deliver in the area of streamlined processing. The differences, time saved, mistakes eliminated and streamlined operation all mean a red tape busting benefit delivered by Tower Systems. This is what we dub the Tower AdvantageTM, yes something we have trademarked because it is unique to us. Indeed, something so unique that we have protected it with a trademark.
So when you hear politicians speak about cutting red tape, think about Tower Systems and the real difference it makes for small business retailers when it comes to cutting red tape for real. We are proud of what we do for our retail partners.
Here is advice you can use to ensure computers in your retail business are used for their intended purpose:
Retailers want, need, year on year revenue growth. Here is a story of how one small business independent retailer followed our advice, used the smart loyalty facilities in our software and for one product category increased revenue by 114%. Elsewhere in the business benefits flowed too, rich benefits, bottom line benefits.
For within our POS software is a suite of smart loyalty tools that ensure you get shoppers spending more each visit. That is what this retailer has achieved. In this one department of plush items, they achieved $9,459.14 (ex GST) in revenue in April. That is up 114% on April 2015. Here is one line from the management report comparing April 2016 with April 2015. But beyond this one line, across four pages, this business is reporting excellent year on year growth – on good GP items, not low margin agency lines … and it is doing it on the back of smart loyalty facilities that are unique to the Tower Systems software.
This is what matters in a small and independent retail business, good year on year growth for high margin product. This unit sales and revenue year on year comparison is vital as it is the truth of this retail business, raw data on which they can rely to measure success and guide next steps.
Our role, beyond providing excellent POS software, is to provide training and support for small business retailers to help them get the best possible value from the software and to understand the data on which we report.
Change is the order of the day for retail as it has been since the first shops opened. What is different in 2016 is that the pace of change has picked up. Indeed, the pace of change today is greater than at any time in the past. Technology is playing a key role in that: online and offline technology is facilitating, pushing and even forcing change.
Staying up to date is a challenge, especially in small and independent retailer businesses where having the time and resources to stay open can be difficult.
Tower Systems tries to insulate its customers from some of the challenges of change by leveraging changes in the software without needing to change hardware infrastructure.
In software updates we bring to the businesses of our customers tools and resources they can use to be more competitive. Tools and facilities through which they can enhance the relevance of their businesses in a changing retail landscape.
We think and work strategically on such technical changes, always thinking about what we can do to help our customers drive their relevance for we know if you customers feel more relevant and are more successful as a result of our software then a need of our business plan is satisfied.
What we do is more than about the software though. Enhancing our POS software is only part of what we do. The even more important aspect of helping our small business retailers compete is how we communicate with them about the enhancements. Our live training workshops, regional user meetings, training videos, advice sheets, personal training and other touch points help our customers learn about and embrace opportunities for change in their retail businesses through what we deliver in our POS software.
In our latest work we have helped retailers redefine the over the counter sales experience, leveraging important touch points, driving value from shopper engagement. For retailers, changes like these are money in the bank.
Our work directly linking with Magento, Shopify, Xero and other respected and widely used platforms is an example of us delivering on our commitment to help our small business retail community to embrace change and leverage change for their commercial success.
Tower Systems is proud to offer specialist software for independent pet and produce stores, software tailored to the needs of pet stores and software tailored to the needs of produce stores, software for independent retailers and not mass or chains.
Tower Systems is an Australian software company that develops, sells and supports software for selected specialty marketplaces including pet and produce businesses.
We only serve independent retail businesses.
Our mission is to help retailers run more successful businesses. Our definition of success is a business that is making money, where the owners and employees enjoy what they do and where suppliers enjoy transacting.
Good software can play an important role in nurturing business success as it sits at the heart of the business: transacting sales, managing stock, tracking customer activity and shining a light on business opportunities.
At a store level, here are some of the benefits pet and produce retailers can expect from using our pet shop software and our produce store software:
We have excellent reference sites that can speak to our achievements for their businesses and our living up to the sales pitch of providing easy to use professional software built for purpose in these two specialist retail channels.
We were asked recently to explain our mission in a way small business retailers not familiar with technology will understand.
Tower Systems is an Australian POS software company that develops, sells and supports software for selected specialty marketplaces.
We only serve independent retail businesses.
Our mission is to help retailers run more successful businesses. Our definition of success is a business that is making money, where the owners and employees enjoy what they do and where suppliers enjoy transacting.
Good software can play an important role in nurturing business success as it sits at the heart of the business: transacting sales, managing stock, tracking customer activity and shining a light on business opportunities.
What makes us different is how we engage. We go beyond what is traditional software company.
This is what we stand for.
Tower Systems is thrilled to announce the addition of the following training sessions due to demand for the original sessions:
We are grateful to our customers for embracing our free training program. We know those attending training make better users of the software and better retailers.
Produce stores including farm produce stores, stock feed businesses, equine supply businesses and other businesses supplying pet and produce supplies are embracing the Tower Systems Produce Software to get a better handle on many aspects of business management.
With so much work being undertaken away from the business base, using software that enables easy tracking while on the road is important, just as tracking requirements by customers for bulk through to single pack shipments.
Being able to bring product in by bulk and breaking this down to saleable and deliverable packs is important as produce stores sell to a variety of situations. The Tower software has proven usability in this area of handling multiple pack sizes and easily enabling service of this and other produce business specific requirements.
Better still, enabling a seamless link between the Tower Systems Produce Store Software and e-commerce platforms such as Magento and Shopify provides produce businesses with mechanisms for reaching a broader community of shoppers without the usual old-school business overhead. This is particularly useful for produce businesses serving customers who may live in the city and be on the farm on the weekend.
There is a certain type of shopper keen for transacting business online. Tower Systems makes it easy for those businesses to connect with the online shopper while at the same time providing tools for serving the needs of the offline shopper, the shopper who prefers personal service. This flexibility in entry points to the business through the software make doing business easy and help produce stores to win more sales from more types of shoppers.
Our work in the pet retail space with our Pet Shop Software has leveraged us into the produce store space and the result is good for both retail channels thanks to our approach to business specialisation.
Customer accounts, scale integration, hamper facilities, integrated EFTPOS and more enable produce business owners to offer state of the art tools in their businesses to improve customer service and business efficiency.
Produce businesses can rely on the Tower Systems software enhancement program to deliver more comprehensive tools as the needs of the marketplace evolve. Tower engages with customers in their businesses to ensure the software evolves to meet their evolving needs.
To see the latest Produce Business Software, talk with a local Tower Systems expert: Contact: Please call our sales team at 1300 662 957 or email them at sales@towersystems.com.au.
Security is important in any business but especially in a small independent retail business. Here is a list of actions we recommend you consider to ensure your business is secure.
A major update to our POS software has moved to beta release following extensive testing in house and an alpha live release.
This latest update delivers enhancements in the areas of fast retail sales, loyalty management and marketing, catalogue management and handling special customer orders.
The update delivers new functionality, genuine enhancements to the software, enhancements that continue the lead of the Tower systems software in selected specialty retail channels.
Retailers on our beta release panel have been contacted with details on how to access the update and provide feedback leading into the commercial release program.
Who do you talk to about your retail business? Are they sympathetic, pandering almost? Or, do they challenge your perception of your business?
Do they agree with everything you say? Do they offer pity as a response for you explaining your situation?
Good friends will challenge what you say. They will ask tough questions to test what you say about business performance. They will not put up with a victim mentality. They will want to know what you are doing to improve your situation and that your actions are rooted in your business data.
If your friends don’t challenge you when you talk about your business consider seeking out others you can talk to who do challenge you.
Owning a business of any size can be tough and lonely. In the business it is rare you will be challenged. In your immediately family, too often, you will not be challenged. This is why you need to seek out those who could and will challenge you. You need to be challenged. Your plans need to be tested through tough questioning. While some good friend will do this for you many will not.
So, do you need to change your friends?
Seek out people who will give you truthful assessment of what you say, people who will have an opinion and be unafraid to share it. You want people who will actively listen to you and give you their insights.
Seek out people who will want the same from you. The ideal friendship is one that is equal, open and honest in conversation. This is what retail business owners need – people who can help them see what they may not be seeing for themselves.
The introduction of tags in the Tower Systems POS software last year added to an already powerful reporting suite for our retail customers.
Using tags our retailers can take a horizontal slice through their business data across departments, categories and suppliers, linking items based on a licence or sole other connection relevant to the business.
Tagging is smart easy and powerful, providing small business retailers a fresh view of their businesses, one unique to Tower Systems.
We have been demonstrating the value of tags in our user meetings, [providing our customers with ah ha moments when they see it, get it and realise the power for their businesses through the unique view of business performance available to them.
Tagging inventory items is another point of difference we have been able to leverage for growth among our small business retail user community.
We have used MYOB, Quick Books and xero in retail businesses we operate. It is this experience with all three from a bookkeeping through to a finalized accounts perspective that has helped us reach a view that xero is the best solution.
Each professional position in our company agrees from bookkeeper to management to our in-house CPA. xero is the best accounting solution for small business retailers.
There is an ease of use backed by excellent support as well as an easy and direct integration between our POS software and xero that helps us save time and money.
Retailers using xero can see this for themselves.
So this is how we came to our preference, our recommendation, through our own experience on a range of levels.
While our software supports MYOB, Quick Books and xero, our experience with xero is roe complete and our integration more direct. It is an integration tested and endorsed by xero, something the company gives out only after it is satisfied.
The above commentary from us aside, xero don’t just connect with any POS software company. They check out the business and their software. They research whether they want to partner with a business. I am aware they say no, that they reject proposals of integration. That we are integrated is a valuable point of difference for us.
2016 is barely to months old and already we have published many additional articles of advice, training and help to our knowledge base for our POS software customers. These new articles reflect us being true to our commitment to continue to evolve the support and assistance we provide the small business retailers using our POS software.
Each week in our customer email we list new articles and we can see from click activity flowing from those weekly emails the articles of most interest. We use that data to guide development of further articles supporting the timely and professional use of our software.
Our knowledge base is a living growing thing, something on which our customers can rely to get more from their partnership with Tower Systems. From comprehensive how-to and training articles to high level business management advice, the Tower knowledge base resources are valuable to small business retailers.
We were thrilled with the participation at our first Melbourne retailer POS software user meeting yesterday. This was day three of a tour that will cover every state and territory, capital cities and major regional centres, offering free training, small business retailer networking and open-ended Q&A sessions.
Every session is different thanks to the mix of attendees. We are loving it.
The best way to assess a POS software company is to see first-hand how they interact with their customers.
Starting next week, Tower System is hosting its first round of free face to face retail business user meetings for users of its POS software.
We invite you to attend – without obligation or cost – to check us out. CLICK HERE TO BOOK.
Come and see how we work with small business retailers from a range of channels to help them drive more value from their technology investment. At these sessions we will talk about shopper loyalty, business intelligence reporting. webcore integration and retail trends we have seen overseas.
Launceston User Meeting
Date: 07/03/2016 Time: 8:00am
Venue: Quality Hotel Colonial Launceston
Address: 31 Elizabeth St Launceston TAS 7250
Breakfast: Coffee, Tea and Egg & Bacon Muffins on arrival
Parking: Limited Free onsite parking
Hobart User Meeting
Date: 08/03/2016 Time: 8:00am
Venue: Hotel Grand Chancellor
Address: 1 Davey St Hobart Hobart TAS 7000
Breakfast: Tea, Coffee and Swiss cheese and ham croissants on arrival
Melbourne User Meeting
Date: 09/03/2016 Time: 8:00am – 11:00am
Venue: Hawthorn Art Centre, Mayor’s Room
Address: 360 Burwood Rd Hawthorn VIC 3122
Breakfast: Tea, Coffee and mini tomato and cheese croissants on arrival
Brisbane User Meeting
Date: 10/03/2016 Time: 8:00am – 11:00am
Venue: Quality Inn Airport Heritage
Address: 620 Kingsford Smith Drive Hamilton QLD
Breakfast: Tea, Coffee, selection of biscuits, slices, cakes and muffins on arrival
Adelaide
Date: 11/03/2016 Time: 8:00am – 11:00am
Venue: Rydges South Park
Address: 1 South Terrace Adelaide SA 5000
Breakfast: Tea, Coffee, egg and bacon muffin as well as fresh fruit served on arrival
Parking: Limited Free onsite parking as well as 2 to 3 hour free street parkingSydney User Meeting
Sydney
Date: 15/03/2016 Time: 8:00am – 11:00am
Venue: Novotel Sydney Olympic Park
Address: Olympic boulevard Sydney Olympic Park NSW 212
Breakfast: Tea, Coffee and ham and cheese croissants on arrival
Parking: Hotel car park fees apply: All day rate $25.00, or $13.00 for 1 hour, every additional hour charged at $5.00.
Canberra
Date: 16/03/2016 Time: 8:00am – 11:00am
Venue: Mercure Canberra
Address: Cnr Ainsille & Limestone Ave Braddon ACT 2612
Breakfast: Tea, Coffee and a chefs selection of breakfast items on arrival
Perth User Meeting
Date: 17/03/2016 Time: 8:00am – 11:00am
Venue: Assured Ascot Quays Apartment Hotel, Marina Room
Address: 150 Great Eastern Highway Ascot WA 6104
Breakfast: Tea, Coffee, whole fruits and warm muffins served on arrival
Gold Coast User Meeting
Date: 05/04/2016 Note date change.
Time: 8:00am – 11:00am
Venue: Mantra Twin Towns
Address: Wharf Street Tweed Heads NSW
Breakfast: Coffee, Tea, Mini ham and cheese croissants and mini Danish on arrival
Geelong User Meeting
Date: 06/04/2016
Time: 8:00am – 11:00am
Venue: Mercure Geelong
Address: Cnr Gheringhap & Myers St
Breakfast: Coffee, Tea and Breakfast muffin on arrival
Several weeks ago Tower Systems launched a direct Magento e-commerce platform link, in addition to the excellent web-store link in our smart POS software.
The Retailer to Magento Link uses the Tower Advantage Link platform to allow Retailer to connect directly to Magento. The Tower Advantage Link platform is a subscription-based service that acts as an intermediary between Retailer and the Magento API.
What is Magento?
Magento is one of the world’s most popular e-commerce or webstore platforms. Being built on open source technology provides a flexible shopping cart system, giving you control over the look, feel, content and functionality of your online store. Magento offers powerful marketing, search engine optimization, and catalog-management tools. Find out about Magento at www.magento.com
How does the link work?
The link works by using the Magento API allowing the TALink platform to connect to Magento and synchronising on a periodic interval or request basis.
Stock
Retailer becomes your master stock database. You flag what stock items you want to appear on your web store. Descriptions and extended descriptions are added as your product names and descriptions in Magento.
Department and Categories
Your Retailer Departments and Categories become Categories and Sub-Categories in Magento. If you choose to link these, your existing structure will be mirrored and managed in Magento automatically. If, however, you decide not link your Department and Categories in Magento, you can allocate Categories manually to products once they are added.
Classifications
Retailers Classifications are treated as Attributes in Magento. If you choose to link these in Magento your existing Classifications will be mirrored and managed in Magento automatically. If, however, you do not want this to occur you can manually manage your own Magento Attributes.
Prices and Quantity On Hand
You have control over your webstore pricing from within the Retailer Stock Screen. Bulk updates of the webstore price can be performed in Stock Manager. Once new prices are set, your web store is updated automatically.
Quantity of hand is also managed automatically, when your sell or arrive an item into stock these adjustments are sent directly to Magento. If the quantity on hand of an items drops to 0, the item is marked as out of stock in Magento.
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.
Sales
These are downloaded on a periodic basis and imported into Retailer. These are imported into our Customer Invoice Maintenance facility allowing you to place orders and print invoices. 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 added to you main sales data, giving you excellent control over how you report on your webstore sales.
This is just some of the information we have to share about this exciting and leadership innovation from Tower Systems.
Tower Systems is proud its pet shop software and produce software were on show yesterday at a major invitation only buying group event. Our stand was buys right through with excellent opportunities flowing as well as terrific catch=up time with ur existing customers in this proactive group of business owners.
Good POS software gives you a range of options for managing, tracking and engaging employees using the software itself. In the Tower Systems POS software, there are plenty of employee touch points. Here are five we want to call out today as part of our Sunday tip series.
Yes, retail can be tough.
What are you doing about it?
Here is a letter we sent to retailers recently who have said it is tough. It is part of a confronting education campaign based on a truth that even in the toughest of circumstances, retailers can grow their businesses – yes, even small business retailers who are facing tough competition from big businesses.
We have used this letter to try and jog people to see their businesses differently…
I’d love a dollar for every retailer who has told me how tough it is in the last few years. Heck I’d retire with the money I’d have.
The thing is, retail is tough, especially small business retail like a gift shop. It’s always been tough for the little guy. I know because I own a small retail business myself.
We really do think we need to stop saying retail is tough and start challenging ourselves. Hence the question: What are you doing about it? Put another way…
These are the four most important things for a retailer to act on. They sit at the core of every retail business failure and success.
Taking small steps in each of these areas can help you weather tough times. These same small steps can help you find success with less effort.
Tower Systems is a software company for small business retailers like you. We’re retailers too. We combine retail experience with tech smarts and a passion for small business to help our colleagues to grow their businesses. We’d like to help you.
Using our Point of Sale software for gift shops like yours we can help you
Big claims yes … we have existing customers who will tell you that we do this.
Our system can cost as little as $7 day. Besides great software, hardware you can trust, friendly training and software support, you have access to our business skills, acumen and passion. We have your back, helping where we can with advice and ideas to help you grow your retail business.
We’re not your average software company. Tower Systems is a full-service passionate and engaged software company that wants you to succeed. We firmly believe…
In business, through our own actions we make our own success.
POS software company Tower Systems is proud to announce the release last week of a new software platform for small business retailers.
This new platform is a completely new product from the Tower development team. It leveraged data cultivated by the Tower Point of Sale software and makes it available anywhere, in a stimulating visual form and in a way than encourages the discovery of business performance insights.
Introducing The Visual Deck.
Retail business performance, seen differently.
The Visual Deck is a platform through which you can see the performance of your business, visually. Graphs replace reports, making trends obvious and a path ahead clearer to follow. Graphs that change with time and through which you can dive deeper into what is happening in your business.
Why did we call it the Visual deck? It is visual because, well, your business data is presented in a visual way. It is a deck because it is a platform off of which you can see far and wide. It is a perfect place to see what you cannot see when you are on the ground.
Retailers can access the Visual deck from anywhere, anytime, and through this access their business data in a way not previously accessible ninth small business retail world. You can compare periods, graph using a broad selection of formats, dive deep into the data as well as focus on data points that matter including transactions, revenue, grow profit and more.
Better still, the visual insights can easily be shared with colleagues.
The Retail Visual Deck is a fresh approach to sharing business intelligence and business performance insights with small business retailers. It is mass retailer computing in a small business retailer’s hands. This is the tool join which you can rely to grow your business.
This is 100% Tower Systems innovation.
Having been tested with data from a range of businesses and trialled for months on many different platforms, the Visual deck is ready for small business retailers to engage, to use it to better manage and grow their businesses.
Footnote: If things go as usual, at least on competitor will claim they had this before us and that we copied them. Such a claim is not true. Prior to our launched last week we checked all our competitors in each specialty marketplace in which we live and not one has a product like this.
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