The POS Software Blog
News from Tower Systems about locally made POS software for specialty local retailers.
As part of the continuous evolution of our online presence, we released enhancements to our website several weeks ago including new inspirational images.
Too often we see POS software4 companies focussing on technology ahead of people. Our view here at Tower Systems is that people come first as they are the focus of all we do through our software and the services we provide support in the software.
Th feedback from our customers following the latest evolution has been terrific. Thank you!
This photo shows a group from our Perth POS software user meeting late last week. Like all our sessions we had a good group of retail businesses represented. This works well as people learn from each other.
The latest round of face to face POS software user meetings have provided us excellent feedback on the latest software update and insights into next steps as well as wonderful learning opportunities for customers ho attended.
Offering these face to face user meetings its a genuine point of difference for us.
That we continue to offer the sessions today speaks to us honouring our commitment to our customers as well as our focus on providing personal customer service.
Too many POS software companies hide from their customers and make contact difficult. We don’t. We embrace are real human to human contact. The face to face user meetings are a good example of this and our commitment.
We appreciate the support form our customers and support for face to face training and engagement.
We are grateful for the support from our small business POS software customers for our online training workshops. The business management and engagement sessions are popular as customers learn more about the interface between our software and retail business operations.
Tower Systems has been running these weekly live training sessions for years and we will continue them thanks to the support of our customers.
We have just completed a sweep of Australian capital cities hosting face to face small business POS software group user meetings.
At these interactive sessions we demonstrated our soon to be released new software and provided a preview of our set new look and feel.
Across the country the responses have been terrific and valuable. The Q&A part of the user meeting series has ben particularly useful as we have been able to answer questions, learn from our customers and share in a practical and personal way with and for our customers.
The hosting of the user meetings is a real advantage for Tower Systems customers and a point t of difference for us. We could not have done what we have just done had it not been for engaged and connected customers who encourage us every day of the week.
Access to the sessions was free. In addition to terrific content we ensured easy access to parking. Plus we provided catering to keep attendees nourished.
By being in front of our customers through these meetings and offering face to face access to our leadership team in attendance, Tower Systems is making itself accountable to its customers. There is no more important task for a POS software company than this – than being practically accountable to those who use the software and rely on it day to day in their businesses.
Tower Systems has announced details of its first series of face to face user meetings for 2017. This is the company putting itself in front of customers in key locations.
We have scheduled sessions for Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne, starting March 27, 2017.
Our first meeting starts today, in Brisbane.
We will demonstrate the new look and feel of our Retailer POS software, our Shopify / Magento and Woo Commerce integrations, our Xero integration and much more. Plus there will be time for your questions. Free training. An opportunity to pitch your suggestions.
This is an excellent chance to leverage more from your relationship with us. Click here to book and see venue details. Yes, we will announce more dates soon.
This is an excellent opportunity to learn more about the software, discuss change requests and provide feedback on our services.
It is rare today that POS software companies offer sessions like this, except from Tower Systems – we do it regularly as a core customer service offering.
We ae grateful to our customers for their support.
Selling a an independent retail business is like selling a house, you need to prepare it so that it looks appealing to prospective purchasers.
The process of preparing a business for sale can take time, depending on the state of the business. It needs to start early and based on comprehensive planning.
Here is an overview of our advice and to what a small business retailer needs to do.
Success at selling your business depends in part on the work you do to prepare it for sale. Extra focus now can help you get timely price satisfaction.
This is another way Tower Systems helps small business retailers.
Tower Systems has been assisting small business retailers to apply to the Queensland government to tap into the next round of small business digital engagement grants.
The assistance from the team at Tower has been structured and comprehensive and delivered over the last two months leading up to the deadline on the next round of digital grants from the Queensland government.
As a full service small business support company with extensive business advice services, Tower Systems has the resources, experience and skills to genuinely help beyond the software so small business retailers can leverage this opportunity.
We are grateful to prospective and current customers for engaging with us on this.
Here at Tower Systems our mission is to inspire small business retailers through beautiful small POS software backed by business transforming support.
Tower Systems owns and operates retail businesses in part to provide us with practical experience on which we can draw to provide better software support experiences for our small business retail customers.
Here are my reasons, as owner of the company, for deciding to not embrace the Sunday penalty rates decision in my retail businesses:
This is not a permanent decision. It is possible I will modify my position as the marketplace situation evolves. If I did and thereby embraced a saving in labour costs, I anticipate through would be invested in more hours.
All business owners need to reach their own conclusions on this matter. Unfortunately, as a country we are bereft of leadership on broader issues that should be confronted in any economic setting adjustment as has been done with Sunday penalty rates.
Mark Fletcher
Managing Director.
The Tower Systems POS software Shopify link is another smart commercial link form Tower Systems. The link connects to this professional and popular e-commerce platform.
Retailers should only ever go with well-known internationally successful e-commerce platforms. Anything else can be problematic.
Shopify is one of the easiest ways to setup and run an ecommerce store. We think it provides you with the ideal place to create you first website and gain experience in the world of ecommerce. You have complete control over the look and feel of your online store and can instant access fantastic look themes to reflect the personality of your business. For more information visit www.shopify.com.au.
How does the link work?
The link works by using the TALink platform platform to connect to the shopify API and synchronise your data.
Stock
Retailer is your master stock database. You flag what stock items you want to appear on your shopify store.
Descriptions and extended descriptions are added as your titles and descriptions in Shopify. Newly flagged products are automatically added and if you edit items in Retailer you have field level control over how these are handled in Shopify.
Department and Categories
Your Retailer Departments and Categories become collections in Shopify. You can have a chose of either
Department level collections or category level, but not both. If you choose to synchronise either a department or category, your existing structure will be mirrored and managed in Shopify automatically. If, however, you decide not link your Department and Categories in Shopify, you can allocate collections manually to products once they are added.
Prices and Quantity On Hand
You have control over your webstore pricing from within the Retailer Stock Screen. Bulk updates of the webstore prices can be performed in Stock Manager. Once new prices are set, your web store is updated automatically. Quantity on hand is also managed automatically, when your sell or arrive an item into stock these adjustments are sent directly to Shopify. If the quantity on hand of an items drops to 0, the item is marked as out of stock in Shopify.
Images
The images you set against stock items in Retailer are automatically uploaded to your website. If images change, then old one is removed and the new one is added. You can upload as many images as you like per stock item.
Customers
Customers that purchase off your webstore are added as customers in your Retailer database, allowing you to track what they buy and market to them if you desire. Existing customers with an email address will also be added to your web store to facilitate easy sales if you choose.
Sales
Sales are downloaded on a periodic basis and imported into Retailer. They are imported into our Customer Invoice Maintenance facility allowing you to place orders and print invoices if needed. Once sales are imported it reduces your quantity on hand so you maintain accurate stock control. Sales can be allocated to a specific location.
Shopify is a dream too setup and connect with our small business POS software.
The most effective ways small business retailers can compete with big businesses and online is through efficient operation, accurate data and customer service touch-points that add appreciated value.
Tower Systems only sells its POS software to small business retailers.
We believe in small businesses, their importance to local communities and their broader economic value.
Through our software, our personal in-store training, 24/7 human and locally based help desk service, regional user meetings, weekly online workshops and other touch-points we help small business retailers beyond what is usual for POS software companies.
Our company motto is we’re here to help. We take this seriously. Everyday, out motto challenges us to help our customers in ways they do not expect, ways beyond the software itself.
Founded in 1981, Tower Systems has evolved as technology has evolved. The software we sell today is generations away from where we started. We are proud to have served some of our customers for decades.
More than 3,500 specialty small business retailers in Australia and New Zealand use our specialty POS software.
To us, a specialty retailer is one that offers services unique to the channel, services that define the business. We embed in our software for each retail channel facilities that serve needs unique to that channel. We take pride in doing this and enhancing these channel-specific facilities as the needs evolve.
We appreciate software cannot stand still. Every year we release significant enhancements, serving the needs of our customers.
RETAIL MARKETS
There are versions of the software serving the business specific needs of:
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.
With a CPA working full time in our business we are configured to provide a technical solution that has been overseen by our own Accountant, to ensure it is a viable solution for the small business retailers we serve.
INTEGRATIONS
Our Xero integration is one of many approved integrations provided by the software to serve the needs of retailers. Other integrations include:
CLOUD OR NOT
The Tower Systems POS software can run on the desktop or 100% in the cloud. Retailers decide what they prefer.
In its cloud offer, Tower Systems offers a 100% hosted solution running in a secure purpose-build location with high-level security and backup. This solution is offered on a SAAS (Software As A services) model with minimal on-boarding costs and a single monthly fee.
Retailers who prefer local control can purchase or lease-finance the software. Once acquired, there are no mandatory annual access fees.
This flexible approach to pricing provides retailers the maximum flexibility in acquisition model.
WHAT THE SOFTWARE OFFERS.
This is a comprehensive and flexible Point of Sale software package offering facilities in many areas of retail business operation.
PERSONAL SERVICE MATTERS.
Here are areas where the Tower Systems approach shines, where our personal service matters.
Our training is personal, one-on-one. It is delivered in-store, by someone with extensive retail experience.
Our help desk is based in hawthorn victoria. When people call, the call is answered by a human and not a computerised phone system. We believe in personal service.
Every week except at Christmas and Easter we offer free online training workshops where retailers can learn more and talk to each other about how they use the software.
Every customer has access to free one-on-one training year after year.
We regularly host user meetings around the country where people can meet our management and technical team in an open group setting for more free training and free assistance. We believe in making ourselves accessible.
WE ARE RETAILERS TOO.
We own and operate several retail businesses, providing us with experience every day that enables us to walk in the shoes of our customers. We also use these shops as test sites for early releases of software updates plus we are happy for customers and prospects to visit the shops and learn from what we do ourselves in leveraging the software.
THE CUSTOMERS ARE IN CONTROL.
At the Tower Systems website, click on Software Ideas to see our transparent approach to customer engagement on software enhancements. This is world-class.
Our customers can make suggestions. These are assessed to ensure they will actually work. All customers are then invited to vote on the suggestions. The more votes the faster we bring the suggestion to reality.
This is democratic software development in action.
We believe our customers know more about hat they need from their software than we do.
Many retail businesses are traffic and margin poor businesses. Such businesses high-risk businesses as most low margin products and services are delivering less traffic year on year … high-risk of financial failure.
In addition to low margin products and services experiencing traffic decline year on year, minimal or no retail price movement see a decline in margin in real terms. Further, too often we see the percentage cut by suppliers for selfish reasons, further diluting the value to the retailer.
But it is not all bad news with low margin products and services. If they are generating good traffic, the opportunity is to be proactive in leveraging that traffic. Here is a list of five must-do things to leverage this low value traffic in your business.
Our advice is do all five of these things. If you don’t do some or all you are most likely only benefiting from destination business from low-margin high-traffic products and services and there is no upside in that.
For the record, margin poor products and services are those with a GP percentage of less than 50% in our view.
Xero is selective about the POS software businesses. Not all POS software companies make the cut. We at Tower Systems are proud to have made it around two years ago and our Xero community has been growing since. The result is a time saving opportunity for our customers, winning for them and for us.
Using the Xero link our customers have direct and integrated access from our POS software to this world class accounting software that beats other accounting packages.
We speak highly of Xero as we user it ourselves in our own retail businesses. Our advice and support is based on our own experiences.
This personal experience as a retailer using our software and using Xero is any other valuable differentiator for Xero.
We are grateful to Xero for their support and appreciate the welcoming in their community.
Tower Systems is close to launching new fresh software for small business retailers with software for: gift shops, jewellers, bike shops, toy shops, fishing/outdoors businesses, garden centres/nurseries, pet shops, produce stores, firearms businesses and newsagents –
Book now for one of these free events. Any small business retailer is welcome. See the ne software. Engage in free training. Provide feedback.
We will have senior management and technical people attending so any question or feedback will reach the right person.
The benefits of these sessions is they are live, face to face and easily accessible.
These sessions are in addition to our weekly live online workshops and our extensive trade show engagement.
Tower Systems is thrilled to pitch enhanced toy shop software to Aussie small business retailers in the toy ship space. Our latest software streaks ahead in several areas, delivering even more benefits for toy retailers keen to compete with the majors in the rapidly changing toy retail space.
We help you shine a light on your point of difference.
For example, you can have product use and care information included automatically on receipts. This can be information you have written that sets your business apart from others.
You can use smart reports in the software to quickly gain a view of business performance:
Good data easily accessed guides better business decisions – we see this every day in our work with small business retailers.
We would love to show you the latest Toy Shop software, obligation free and to hear from you about the needs of your business.
We love the advice on HOW TO HAVE A LOVELY DAY written on the out the front of The Bra Bar in Perth.
This sign made a walk in Perth inspiring.
This is a lesson in how to market your business without directly promoting it. The advice could be provided by anyone in almost any situation. It is practical and accessible. The inspiration to have a lovely day is subtly connected to their business, not in your face.
Well done to the folks at The Bra Bar.
We have seen people use boards like this out the front of their shop for a word of the day or a quote or a joke. The Bar Bar sign is different, more personal – we guess as personal as the products they sell. They are speaking to you. That’s how it works for me.
Local retailers could do a sign like this have and wives under headings like:
Think of ideas for telling stories and sharing inspiration without overtly marketing your business. It’s a terrific way to get people on the street and in the mall to stop and notice you.
Our previews in recent weeks of our new POS software have been greeting with terrific feedback. We are both thrilled and grateful for responses from the customers we have been able to preview to for early feedback.
2017 is an exciting year.
New software offering fresh opportunities for small business retailers.
Tower Systems has announced details of its first series of face to face user meetings for 2017. This is the company putting itself in front of customers in key locations.
We have scheduled sessions for Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne, starting March 27, 2017.
We will demonstrate the new look and feel of Retailer, our Shopify / Magento and Woo Commerce integrations, our Xero integration and much more. Plus there will be time for your questions. Free training. An opportunity to pitch your suggestions.
This is an excellent chance to leverage more from your relationship with us. Click here to book and see venue details. Yes, we will announce more dates soon.
This is an excellent opportunity to learn more about the software, discuss change requests and provide feedback on our services.
It is rare today that POS software companies offer sessions like this, except from Tower Systems – we do it regularly as a core customer service offering.
We ae grateful to our customers for their support.
We are only one day in but already this has been a terrific event with new friends made and old friends reconnected with.
We are grateful for the opportunity to pitch what we do so exclusively to small business retailers.
Each of these five small business marketing tips has worked in a variety of retail businesses. They are fast to implement, easy to implement and are cost free based on the success they generate for small business retailers.
We have developed these five ideas through our many years only serving small and independent retail businesses. They are the best, easiest and fastest to engage:
Tower systems serves only independent small retail businesses in selected product niches. This is our mission and we are grateful every day for the opportunity.
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