We are grateful for the opportunity to help small business retailers sell online through our Shopify connected POS software.
Helping small business retailers sell online
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Helping small business retailers with safe contactless selling through smart POS software
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Using our POS software, contactless selling is easy for small business retailers:
- Sell from the front of the shop using our portable Roam POS solution.
- Separate your register from the counter with our Roam solution.
- Sell from your van or car, taking your business to the people using Roam.
- Sell online for click and collect – through Shopify, Magento and Woo.
- Sell online for safe, curbside pickup.
- Sell online for delivery anywhere.
- Sell in-store and get contactless payment.
We are grateful to offer software that facilitates these benefits. We also also grateful to be welcoming new customers to our community as they gear-up their businesses for a fresh and safe approach to retail in what is a new-normal economy.
Offering retailers the ability to sell from anywhere, at anytime and using multiple payment methods as well as product pick up and delivery options is 2020 in motion. We have brought retailers to this contactless world who had previously never considered needing such an option.
To have the contactless, potable and remote accessibility to the POS software and full inventory stock away from the counter is liberating for small business retailers as they found new ways of doing business, new ways that help them find new customers.
Freeing retail staff from the counter, helping them sell from ut the front of the shop[ or on the road is providing retail businesses opportunities beyond what they had been doing. This gives customers confidence that the business is safe. It also helps SME retailers to connect with shoppers they may have never met previously.
We offer POS software specifically developed for:
- Jewellers.
- Garden centres.
- Produce / farm supply businesses.
- Bike shops
- Toy shops.
- Gift shops.
- Firearms businesses.
- Pet stores.
- Newsagencies.
- Convenience stores.
- Homewares stores.
- Adult shops.
In addition to awesome POS software, we develop POS software connected websites to help 0ur retailers make the most of the opportunity of selling and winning new customers online, leveraging their Hugh street store infrastructure to sell to more the those in town.
Tower Systems serves in excess of 3,000 small business retailers with POS software that is made for niche specialty retailers.
Free online workshops for small business retailers: selling online
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Thanks to the seamless connection between our POS software and Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce and our awesome in-house and local web development team, we are able to share personal experiences in these workshops for small business retailers keen to sell online:
Let’s research some of your competitors, popular keywords and more as part of understanding what selling online could look like. Come armed with questions and details of your competitors you’d like us to stalk.
2 sessions: Apr 23, and 24 2020 10:00 AM Melbourne time.
https://zoom.us/j/96727738375?pwd=ZUprQzJKRDAxL3Z2YXNWTE80c2ZOQT09
Meeting ID: 967 2773 8375 Password: 004633
Advice for small business retailers in COVID-19 world
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Small business retailers are getting stuff done in this COVID-19 world. rather than sitting on their hands or staying home, many are in their businesses, working on their businesses and prepping for life on the other side.
Here are some of the things we are seeing retailers in our POS software user community doing in these COVI(D-19 impacted days. each of these ideas presents what we call a covid pivot opportunity.:
- Getting online – connecting the POS software to an online store. We seamlessly connect to Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce. It’s fast, k easy and safe. Product descriptions, price and images flow easily to online.
- Stock take. Getting it done now and out of the way for the year. We offer multiple approaches to serve a variety of needs.
- Doing a Marie Kondo of data – getting rid of data that no longer sparks joy. Decluttering data is refreshing and commercially valuable for retailers.
- Culling suppliers. Taking a deep dive into supplier performance data and paring back. Suppliers not pulling their weight have no place in a retail business.
- Using the software. Finally going beyond using it as a cash register, unleashing the power! This makes us happy.
Of course, there are plenty of retailers in our community of 3,000+ not affected by COVID-198. Indeed, we have retailers trading up with some as much as 30% up year on year.
Working on your business and to in it has been a mantra for ages. It’s cliche, yet true. The opportunity right now to get stuff done is present and wonderful and the payback for small business retailers is excellent.
Tower Systems is helping retailers to work on their businesses with unlimited free training. This can be done in a group or one on one. Making training and guidance this accessible is key to helping the Tower Systems,ms small business POS software community make the most of the COVID-19 situation, to make the other side look even better.
We are grateful to our customers for embracing the opportunity to turn the challenge of COVID-19 into a learning and productive opportunity in so many independent and small retail businesses.
This is good news, a silver lining, and we are grateful to be able to be part of this.
Tower Systems helps small business retailers access rent relief and JobKeeper
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We are grateful to be helping many Australian small business retailers access the JobKeeper support package released by the Australian government as well as practical and appreciated rent relief from retail tenancy landlords.
Through our POS software we report on business performance in a consistent and safe way that authorities can trust. We deliver to our retail business partners access to reports that can be audited if need be, proven to offer accurate and unadulterated data on which the tax office, other government departments and landlords can make decisions.
As was proven in the 1990s and the early 2000, the data managed by our software is safe, secure and tamper proof. We do not provide retailers with a back door through which they can manipulate data to serve a narrative they prefer, which may differ from the truth. We are grateful to the ATO for the work we did with them on this during a fraud investigation of another. As tech advisors we helped and gained a terrific insight.
Our retailers can trust that through our software we report safe and good data that can be used to provide evidence for JobKeeper, through accurate BAS preparation, and thereby tap into rent relief options thanks to the national cabinet code of conduct agreed over a week ago.
We work with our retailers on these fronts, to help them achieve the outcomes that are financially key to their businesses on these fronts. We are doing this while doing what is traditional for our POS software co: making good software, supporting it, selling it to new businesses, delivering training and offering business level help to any customer who asks.
We understand the test requirements for JobKeeper and that accurate BAS data is key. Our POS software is POS software that authorities can trust and because of this small business retailers can trust. being a local Australian PSOs foetar4e company developing and supporting local Australian software we are geared to help right now when it is needed most -0 accurate reporting to Australian standards is critical.
This is our help for small business retailers. It is real and made for these times. Shonky POS software businesses have no place in business today. Sadly, there are some still around.
Personal local support key to Aussie retailers in POS software selection
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Here at Tower Systems, our POS software help desk is Australian based, serving retailers in Australia. We are proud to be local, to offer local support that is delivered by people who live here and understand local business.
Too many POS software companies selling to Aussie retailers do not have local help desk support.
With Aussie retailers pitching buy local to their local communities, we are grateful to be in the position of delivering local service and support to our local retail community.
We support shop local as a company and encourage retailers and others in business to shop local. This is why we pitch today that when you talk with our help desk you are talking with an Aussie, someone who knows local business, local retail and can speak to local needs. Yes, local really does matter.
To keep jobs in Australia and help the Aussie economy to come out the other side of the coronavirus pandemic, shopping local matters. This is why we urge retailers to ask the question abut the location of POS software help desk personnel. While we feel for call centre staff in India, Pakistan and elsewhere, now is the time when local matters.
Now, we do have one caveat for this. We have a help desk team member, an Aussie, living and working in New Zealand. But that’s okay as we have a ton of customers in New Zealand. And, hey, we consider Aussies to be Kiwis and Kiwis to be Aussies
If you are in a local retail business and considering POS software for the business, check out where there trainers and help desk team members are located. Make sure that the company you are considering doing business with is supporting the local economy as much as you want your local economy to support your business. These things matter in terms of the truth of your own shop local pitch.
Shop local and support the local economy. It ripples out from your business to the town to the state and to the country. That is how we see it an how we try and live our lives here at Tower Systems, a proud local Aussie POS software company.
The online strategy for small business retailers from Tower Systems helps these businesses win online sales
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Tower Systems has been leading retailers to online sales in small business retail channels for years. Many Australian retailers are making good money from online sales thanks to the work and advice from Tower Systems.
Thanks to the seamless connection between Shopify and Magento with then Tower Systems small business POS software, retailers are transacting online safely and efficiently.
Backed with expert advice on search engine optimisation and targeted keyword and other website design help, Tower Systems has helped many retailers play ahead of the curve of impact of social isolation. We have retailers in many different retail channels running successful second businesses online, fulfilling out of their high street businesses efficiently, safely and for profit.
Jewellers, garden centres, newsagents, bike shops, pet storers, toy shops, produce businesses and fishing and outdoors businesses are some of the niche retail businesses using the smart Tower Systems POS software connected to Shopify for seamless online sales.
Our Shopify and Magento interfaces are direct, seamless – eliminating data double handling, eliminating the use of bespoke software. By following international standards we have helped retailers win terrific business.
While other local retailers are struggling to get online, Tower Systems is proud to have delivered online solutions for many and done so for a fixed cost at a level that is respectful for small business retailers with limited budgets. Leveraging the data managed by our POS software to help retailers sell online is a time and money saving move, one we have gladly helped many small business retailers make.
Through our POS software we make website data management easier, faster and safer.
Leading by example, we have been doing this ourselves for our own websites selling sought after products to Australians.
There are plenty more examples beyond these from our own shops and from the shops within our wonderful POS software user community. We are grateful to be helping many small business retailers get online and make money selling online – connecting with customers they would otherwise not get to see in their businesses.
Our smart POS software is calibrated for online sales thanks to years of back office work to deliver a platform made for this.
New free Shopify connected POS software training
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We have released a new video training resource for small business retailers contemplating connecting their POS software to Shopify. It is accessible at no cost.
Using live examples from a range of businesses our team talk through the how and why. This training is another example of our diverrse mix of training opportunities for small business retailers.
Free online POS software training this week
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We are grateful to our customers who connect with our free POS software Shopify workshop on Saturday. New have another running today at 11am. These Shopify sessions are popular.
We are also hosting a free online training session on Xero on Thursday.
These sessions are in addition to the free one-on one training sessions we are providing to our customers.
We record each session and make the recordings available to our customers. It’s interesting to see strong viewer counts for the videos, meaning the reach of the sessions is considerable.
It is terrific seeing people embrace the opportunity to learn for free.
Retailers loving POS software video meetings
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We are grateful for the terrific feedback from the regular on-line video meetings we have been hosting for the last few months.
While online training has been part of our pitch for years, the increased frequency in this COVID-19 impacted world has helped many retailers stay connected.
From discussing our Shopify and Magento integrations to training in our new software to talking general business topics, we are helping small business retailers connect and this is critical in this shut in world we have right now.
Leveraging our commercial resources to help independent and small business retailers like this is core to what Tower Systems stands for. We will keep it up. We appreciate the terrific support from current and future customers.
This week we have more sessions scheduled including a general COVID-19 discussion among business owners.
POS software connected websites, made locally
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Next generation POS software for specialty retailers
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2020 has been a huge year for us, and not because of the coronavirus. No, earlier this year we released R3, next generation POS software for independent specialty retailers. R3 delivers on a new tech platform, a new database platform and a new look and feel. The reaction from our 3,000+ customer community has been terrific.
How our POS software company is supporting small business retailers through COVID-19
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We are grateful to our 3,000+ small business retail customers for their support.
Today at Tower Systems it is business as usual with the majority of our retailers open for business as essential services. Farm supply, produce, garden (veggie) centres, fishing and newsagency businesses are all providing healthy, safe and appreciated services to local.
To help them in unique times we have:
- Make our Retailer Roam portable POS software free.
- Made it free to relocate to a home office.
- Free extra licences for an additional location.
- Frozen support fees.
- Maintained full help desk services.
- Introduces a fast track service for POS software connected websites.
- Started delivering even more free online training.
- Moved our operations to team member homes for maximum safety.
- Guided retailers on ways to work on their business during a slow time.
- Hosting live small business retailer meetings – enabling retailers to connect with each other as a mental health support.
- Offering more personal support to indie retailers.
All of these things and more help our small business retailer community and right now there world is depending on small business retailers, they are genuinely the backbone of the economy, providing work, produce and other necessary items for sustenance – physically and emotionally.
We are helping in other ways, too. For exam please, we are working with several retailers on their covid pivot opportunity – pursuing new traffic opportunities through online, leveraging product categories that are new to their businesses.
Thanks to our advanced remote support and training services we are thrilled to be installing new rooftops through this, expanding our customer base as retailers select software made for their type of business. Our experts can train people in our software using smart tools – we have been doing this for years.
2020 is the year of small business. While big businesses are shutting, small business retailers are trading with safety and certainty. They are doing this as a community service first. Not profiting. Not being greedy., many are doing it with the owners themselves running the businesses. This is what small business owners do – they serve their communities in times of need.
Safety is the key. We see small business retailers being careful about customer contact in-store. Many are offering curbside pickup or home delivery – our software works a treat supporting this.
To our customers and our team members, thank you. All of us in small business are helping many people in our communities.
How our POS software encourages optimism in small business retailers
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Every day in our POS software company we are grateful to see and hear wonderful examples of optimism in small business retail.
From a boost in foot traffic to an increase in sales revenue to an increase in the overall average gross profit percentage achieved in a business, the stories are inspiring.
These are stories backed by good business data, data cultivated in the POS software.
We are thrilled to play a part of helping independent small business retailers realise their dreams through our software. We are grateful for the opportunity to share optimism among our customers.
These good and optimistic stories help others navigate change and lean into opportunities through which they can themselves find good news, find optimism.
There is plenty of good news out there for small business retail.
Optimism matters because it fuels small businesses, retail businesses that are independent of the usual support networks big businesses can access. We preference small businesses and do work hard ton help and encourage them to be stronger, better and happier laces, more optimistic places.
In one situation we learned how a retailer using our software achieved thousands of dollars of incremental business in a three month period by using a facility they had never used before. By turning on this facility in their software, for no additional cost, they were able to achieve sales they were up until then losing. This was done with no increase in inventory investment.
Small business retailers can increase sales through smart shopper engaging tools in our software. Beyond the usual help desk facilities, we enjoy talking business management with our customers – to help them leverage even more value from their relationship with us.
Here at Tower Systems our focus is solely on independent small business retailers in a select number of retail channels. This helps us provide specialist advice to our specialist retailers.
We are grateful to be able to help small business retailers cultivate and harvest business data for optimistic business outcomes. Beyond the software, we help businesses and the people who rely on the businesses for shelter and food on the table. It’s the small business way.
Xero connected POS software helps small business retailers cut mistakes
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Every keystroke in business is a possible mistake. Cutting keystrokes cuts mistakes. This is one reason our POS software integration with Xero is awesome for indie retailers. It cuts keystrokes, saving time and cutting mistakes.
Thanks to the POS software Xero link and thanks to the supplier connected EDI facilities in our POS software, retailers are able to arrive invoices and have these pass through to Xero without the need to key invoices into the POS software or into the accounting software.
Accuracy is everything is business. Tower Systems helps facilitate accuracy through supplier relationships as well as through the Xero link from within the POS software
The Xero integration designed by Tower Systems, working with the folks at Xero, makes it easy for small business retailers to cut accounting paperwork and thereby tap into time and money saving benefits.
We use our Xero integrated POS software ourselves. This enables us to provide practical advice on how to benefit the most from Xero and our POS software working together.
Our customers have access to our in-house accounting services, to provide a professional accounting perspective on the link and how to get the most from it.
Our POS software Xero link is well established and widely used. We are grateful to our retail business customers for their faith and support in using this link in their businesses daily.
Tower Systems is a unique POS software company. In addition to serving 3,500+ small business retailers, we own and operate several retail businesses as live test sites. Our in-house CPA manages the accounts for these retail businesses.
There are versions of the software serving the business specific needs of:
- Bike shops.
- Garden Centres.
- Book shops.
- Gift Shops.
- Homewares Shops.
- Produce businesses.
- Fishing and Outdoors shops.
- Toy Shops.
- Confectionery Retail.
- Stationery retail.
- Pet Shops.
- Pet Grooming.
- Newsagencies.
- Whole Foods Grocers.
- Swimming Pool Supplies.
- Firearms Retail.
- Adult Shops.
Linking directly to Xero enhances the time-saving gained through the software as well as facilitating the accuracy of data managed by the software.
Our Xero link provides for a data feed of sales as well as purchases.
Shopify connected POS software
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Here’s a new video from us from a week ago overing advice on POS software connected websites:
Online user forum brings together small business retail POS software users
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Today we are hosting an online user forum for independent small business retailers across Australia and New Zealand to talk business.
This free ranging and open forum is another enamour series of facilitating opportunities for small business retailers to talk to each other. That it is online makes it easier for these retailers to connect without a cost or disruption of travel.
Today’s online forum will include discussion on:
- Life after the bushfires.
- The economy and its impact on local small retail businesses.
- The Coronavirus challenge.
- Ideas for stimulating your retail business.
- The single most effective tool in the POS software to drive sales.
- Free POS software training.
Open to any retailer using our software, the meeting will be recorded and made available to all Tower Systems customers.
We are grateful to all who will participate as it is contributions from everyday retailers that makes meetings like this useful for all.
Small business retailers love unlimited free POS software training
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Tower Systems is proud to provide small business and indie retailers using our POS software with to free one on one training in the use of the POS software regardless of the version of the software they are using.
Yes, that’s right. Free training. Free one-on-one training. In our POS software. Delivered anywhere in Australia or New Zealand.
We do this because we know that free training makers for more knowledgeable POS software users and more knowledgeable POS software users are happier users and that is good for us too.
There are no strings to this free POS software training offer for small business retailers.
This is a genuine offer by the POS software company to help indie retailers using the Tower Systems software to get more from the software, to unlock tangible benefits for their businesses and for themselves.
It is rare that a POS software company provided free training to any customer, especially those who might have bought the software years ago and not paid for software support for many years. But that is what Tower Systems has delivered with this offer. That is what the company now has available for its customers.
To book for a free training session, all Tower Systems POS software customers need do is email bookings@towersystems.com.au and our training booking team will find out the topics you would like covered in the training, determine the best person to co9ver these areas of the software for you and arrange a time for the free training session.
Our hope its to drive business efficiency, business profitability and business enjoyment for all involved. We know that these are common outcomes from the POS software training that we have provided and can provide in a variety of business situations.
We create, sell, support and enhance POS software for specialty retailers: jewellers, garden centres, produce, toy, firearms, fishing, outdoors, newsagents, pet, gift, book, bike and adult. The free training offer is for retailers in these retail channels, regardless of the age of their POS software, regardless of whether they are covered by a software support agreement.
We are grateful to be in a position to make this investment in our small business user community.
If you know a business using our POS software, please let them know about this free offer from us. Everyone is welcome!
Here’s a practical, local, small business economic stimulus package for suburban and regional Australia
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Every election, politicians say that small business is the lifeblood of Australia. Then, after the election, they forget about small business. No wonder trust in politicians by Australian voters is low.
Small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy. Not just retail businesses, but all small businesses. Oh, and by small, we mean locally owned businesses turning over $2M or less that are not part of a larger group.
Small business retailers are nimble and able to lift local economies faster than big businesses and certainly better than online businesses.
Here are six tips for politicians on steps they can take, decisions they can make to help lift retail, especially small business retail, as well as those local businesses with which small business retailers can quickly connect.
- Local shops refresh grant. Give every local retail business a grant of at least $25,000 with the stipulation that it is spent locally on capital works for the shop, to improve the shop. It could be for paining, carpentry, electrical, staff training or similar. Proof of local spending is to be in the form of an invoice from a local tradesperson or small business company with and ABN and more than a year of trading as recognised by the ATO – to avoid fraud. Spending could be focussed: painting, electrical, carpentry, flooring, repairs. The management of this should be online with quick approval and payment. Note: the $25,000 is suggested to provide sufficient local economic stimulus.
- Local visual merchandising supports. Keeping in-store displays can be a challenge for small business retailers. Fund a network of merchandisers to make a 2 hour call weekly on qualified independent small retail businesses, sub $1M turnover, ABN registered, trading for six months or more. With each visit to be about visual refresh of the shop. Cap the cam pain at three months assess the economic value. Only local merchandisers to be used – i.e. to an overseas agency who hires local contractors.
- Direct all politician electorate spending to be with local small businesses. For printing, subscriptions, gifts, parties, cards, everything for a year. Have the results assessed independently. Ensure that spending is fair, too, to benefit a variety of local businesses, and not dolled out as political favours. Shop local, shop small.
- Run a national shop small shop local ad campaign. Make it educational, smart, encouraging …, guiding Aussies on the value to them from shopping local, shopping small. Help to understand the true value of shopping local, shopping small compared to the alternatives. The ad campaign should run regionally across multiple media platforms, giving preference to locally owned platforms with a track record for not managing their business to minimise tax.
- Local artists grants. Offer cash grants to fund buskers for local high streets, to make shopping locally more entertaining. Make the application easy. Focus on local artists entertaining in their local community. This serves the dual purpose of injecting cash locally as well as fostering the local arts. The application process should be online, approval fast and payment immediate.
- Establish local currency systems. These work overseas on regional towns where local currency has more value than the national currency. It supports shopping local through a smart value structure. the government role could be on the tech back end to manage the currency – taking away capital cost from local councils. To find out more ab9out this, read up on the Bristol Pound.
This list could be much longer. It is offered here as a start, to gets people thinking of practical ways to support shopping small, shopping local.
The current disinterest by politicians in practical support for local small businesses has us on a path of business closures. Urgent action is needed to engage locals in supporting local businesses.
Awesome POS software loyalty tool helps local small business retailers differentiate from big businesses and online
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Points are dead in retail loyalty rewards. They have dubious value. Everyone offers them. They serve the businesses more than the shoppers.
While our awesome specialty retail POS software offers points based loyalty, it is our other loyalty offer that retailers and shoppers love. It’s unique, based on real value, able to be setup for no cost and is easy to adjust as the business needs change.
Better still, this unique and game-changing approach to loyalty offers one-time or rare shoppers an opportunity to spend more in a visit, making that one-0time list more valuable to the retailer. It encourages greater spending. It shows the way.
Big businesses don’t copy this unique approach to loyalty because it does not work for their selfish business model. It is differentiating for indie retailers, especially local retailers who are competing with big businesses.
Tower systems pioneered this fresh approach to loyalty in 2013. We have tweaked the loyalty tool in pour POS software since, keeping it fresh and ensuring that it serves the needs of our retail partners.
In competing with online, this loyalty tool is an easy winner. It appreciates the shoppers in-store in a way that online cannot do. It encourages, respects and appreciates those in your shop today and that alone can be the trigger to get them even more engaged with your shop.
It is that simple and successful. We have hundreds of success stories with this tool.
Points are dead if you want your business to compete. Tower Systems offers tech built into our POS software and we back this with business training and advice on implementation. It is genuinely a game changer, a unique loyalty solution fort small business retailers.
Loyalty systems have been around in retail for decades. Too often, small business retailers copy big business, and fail.
A good loyalty system will get shoppers spending more, doling more than is usual, and doing this at little or no cost to a retail business.
A good loyalty system will be loved by shoppers.
A good loyalty system offers shoppers flexibility.
A good loyalty system has little or no management overhead.
A good loyalty system reveals insights about your business that are helpful, impactful and revealing.
A good loyalty system helps you grow your business, helps you make your business more valuable.
This is about Loyalty 2.0 – a fresh approach to shopper loyalty for small business retailers.
What we offer embedded in our Tower Systems POS software is an awesome solution, ready for use in any type of shop.
More POS software connected Shopify sites live
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We are grateful for the opportunity to deliver more POS software connected Shopify websites to our community of indie small business retailers. Our work has continued apace through the Aussie summer, bring more sites live and helping retailers to leverage the online opportunity.
While we have skills with PHP development as well as WooCommerce, Magento and Shopify, it is our Shopify work that is delivering terrific rapid results for indie retailers.
From pet shops, to jewellers, to garden centres to produce businesses to gift shops and more, our POS software connected Shopify sites are delivering solutions to our retail business partners that they leverage into new shopper traffic opportunities. At core here is our focus to help our customers make more money, to make their businesses more valuable.
The Tower Systems web development team is skilled in WooCommerce, Magento and Shopify. The company has plenty of sites it can show in a live portfolio of successful e-commerce sites, serving shoppers in Australia and internationally.
Small business retailers can benefit from the retail management experience at Tower Systems experience that helps deliver a more retail focussed solution.
The Tower web team is also skilled at SEO and SEM services that help raise the website rankings in key search engines, ensuring the site is found ahead of others.
But best of all, Tower Systems provides professional advice and guidance to small business retailers keen to build their online presence. Our commitment is honest transparent advice on which any small business retailer can rely.
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
The Retailer POS software to Shopify Link uses the Tower Advantage Link platform to allow our Retailer POS software 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.
The link works by using the Tower platform platform to connect to the Shopify API and synchronise your data.
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.
Advice from our POS software co. on how local retail businesses can be more local
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Being local in retail is more important in 2020 than ever. The challenge is how to be local authentically.
Local can mean different things to different people – it does not necessarily mean proximity. Being local could be about the level of care and attention you provide customers, the additional advice you provide, that you live locally, that you source locally or that you serve the local community personally. It can also be about locally sourced products.
Locally sourced products could be products made anywhere in Australia. For example, detailing where a product is made and the family behind it pitches local compared to a similar product imported from overseas. The narrative matters as it plays into local.
Small business retailers can use the retail POS software from Tower Systems to pitch local in a range of ways:
- Include notes on receipts. Add product care instructions, use instructions or other useful information automatically on receipts – making your receipt a useful information platform.
- Tell people where you source products. For a product made by a family or small business in Australia, include details on the receipt. Shine a light on this local product – provide extra information so your shoppers can feel more locally connected.
- Include a SHOP LOCAL pitch. Add an image of a poster or some other promotion of the benefits of shop local to every receipt, reinforcing the value of shopping local. Tower Systems has images you can use for free – in the downloads section of our website.
- Thank your customers. Include text personally thanking customers shopping with you. Put our name to the message. Include your mobile. Big businesses do not do this.
- Track local product sales. Be aware of suppliers of locally made products and report on the performance of these through various reporting tools.
- Thanks for shopping local vouchers. You can use the discount voucher facilities in the software and call them Thanks for shopping local or Local shopping reward. This reinforces a value for shopping with a local business – offering $$ discount off the next purchase based on rules you establish.
It is not enough to tell people to shop local, you need to demonstrate the value of this, you need to live it transactionally in your retail business. The best way to do this is through systems and processes in your POS software.
Scale integrated POS software helps small business retailers sell by weight
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Tower Systems has offered federal government approved POS software scale integration for several years. This makes it faster, easier and more accurate to sell products by weight.
Pet shops, price businesses, farm supply businesses, toy shops, garden centres and fishing shops are some of the types of businesses that use scale integrated POS software for easier and more accurate selling.
Scale integration makes sense for these businesses. It’s smart for the business, smart for the customer and smart for the suppliers of products to the business. Data accuracy is key these days and scale integration facilitates data accuracy.
We have plenty of indie retail customers using our tools to sell easily, accurately and seamlessly, through their scale integrated POS software.
The authorised and government approved integration of scales with the Tower Systems POS software enables us to deliver a beautiful solution to small business and independent retailers in many situations.
Our Tower Systems POS software talks with the scales, reducing the opportunity for data entry mistakes, making the sales process faster and delivering business outcomes that enable small business retailers to benefit.
Delivered years ago and maintained since, our POS software scale integration is a fine solution for retailers that sell products by weight: candy stores, pet stores, produce businesses, garden centres, butchers, supermarkets and more. We can connect scales to the POS and enable sales by weight. It is easy and fast.
Any retail business selling products by weight can rely on our scales integration for fast and accurate selling at the counter or anywhere in this business.
Although there are alternatives to selling by weight such as splitting and pre-packing stock and double-typing prices at the counter, these methods waste keystrokes and time while increasing the risk of avoidable data entry mistakes that can impact a business bottom line.
We work with each of our customers to deliver a solution tailored through settings and other opportunities to serve the needs of the business. Our experience over the years from our extensive work on POS software scale integration has enabled us to provide a flexible and valued solution to our customers in this area.
POS software
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POS software is Point Of Sale software. That is, software that a retailer operates at the point of sale, or point of purchase, at the counter, where the cash register used to be.
The thing is, today, in January 2020, POS software is much more than Point Of Sale software. Good software that is. Good, current, smart POS software is about much more than the point of purchase. It is about helping business owners and people who work in retail to better serve customers and through this to earn more business through which the business becomes more valuable.
That is the definition of Point Of Sale software today, in January 2020.
The Tower Systems POS software is smart POS software, portable POS software, shop local focussed POS software.
Accessible from the cloud, the Tower Systems small business POS software helps indie small business retailers compete with big business. It leverages the point of difference of each small business, serving these to the benefit of the businesses using the software.
In addition to the in-store cloud based or desktop versions of the software is Retailer Roam, a truly portent POS software solution that can run anywhere, any time – from a car or truck, a market, a garage or a pop up store.
So, as you can see, the definition of POS software is evolving, just as retail itself is evolving. The inshore and online experiences are merging. Our software serves this from web sales to in store sales to fulfilment to genuine omnichannel solutions. This is what retail needs to offer today.
In 2020, small business retailers want POS software that is flexible, adaptable and capable of helping the businesses better connect locally in ways that are relevant. This is where Tower Systems shines. Sine we only sell, rent or lease our POS software to indie small businesses our retail community is populated with retailers with the local community focus that is differentiating. This helps us help our customers, especially new customers, to serve authentically and deeply.
Good POS software does not stand still. It does evolve. Through regular software updates, Tower systems demonstrates this evolution. We are grateful to our many customers for their suggestions as they offer us a pathway for the continuous evolution of our POS software.
Claims of a retail apocalypse are grossly overstated
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We’ve all seen the headlines, because news outlets are drawn to the drama of retail closures and challenges. Terms like retail apocalypse and retail armageddon have appeared in stories in recent weeks on the back of a series of challenging news about retail.
These headlines are, in view, inaccurate and unhelpful.
News outlets are quick to run stories forecasting doom and gloom. Often, the stories skate close to the surface without much analysis as to the reasons for closures. This bothers me as understanding the details can be helpful for context, and for mental health for those in retail.
Here are some of the stories already from this year (2020) with notes from usher at Tower Systems offering context:
- Harris Scarfe is closing 21 stores. They have been in trouble before. It is a second tier department store with modest critical mass. It found it hard to be competitive in a marketplace;axe that does not favour depatrment stores. I think their problems are due to department stores overall being in trouble and that they are a small group and therefore less able to weather changing times.
- EB Games is closing 19 stores as a first step in an international review of physical store retail. I expect there will be more closures. There has been a fundamental shift in how games are sold. {physical stores are not as important as they used to be.
- Bardot is closing 58 stores. This is a fashion brand that has not maintained relevance.
- Curious Planet is planning on closing 63 stores. Ever since they list the Australian geographic branding the future has been in doubt.
- Jeanswest is in administration and is reportedly likely to close 146 stores. Jeanswest sells discount jeans. The biggest group of jeans consumers are looking for more engaged brands than Jeanswest offers. Their differentiation was minimal. They as a business had not kept with the times.
- Bose is closing 119 stores. They have figured out the commercial benefits of direct online engagement. Offering a 30 day no questions asked money back guarantee and costing shipping and other challenges, the company will make more money by closing 199 stores (leases, labour etc) and investing some of that into stronger online marketing.
The Bose move is what we should expect to see more of from international brands consumers trust. They will make more from direct consumer relationships and we think that this has been considered by Bose in their decision making to close physical retail.
Rather than being drawn to the doom and gloom, which is a natural human response on reading reports like these, our time and energy is better spent on ensuring our retail businesses are relevant today.
How do we do that?
Yeah, it is the million dollar question … for which there is no one size fits all answer for every situation.
Here are some tips that we know work from our experiences helping indie small business retailers:
- Be the boss. It’s your business. You choose what you sell, who works there, how the business looks and how the business is marketed. Make those decisions like you are in charge.
- Be relevant to today’s shopper. It’s likely the shopper is not like you. Too many stores stock what the owners and staff like. That is not a model for the future.
- Be different. The more your shop looks like others the less it will stand out.
- Provide solutions. It is much harder to convince someone to buy something they do not need, do not like, do not want or do not understand. It is much easier to get them to buy what they like, want, need or understand.
- Embrace change. Know that what works today will be different tomorrow.
- Treat data as cash. Small business retailers are notoriously bad at managing data. This leads to poor business decisions, which put businesses at risk. Treat data as a valuable asset and make better decisions as a result.
Sure there is tough news out there about retail. There is plenty of good news too.
Tower Systems is a small business focussed POS software company.
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