The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

Latest stories

Tower Systems is a good alternative to Lightspeed and here’s why

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Tower Systems develops software locally for local retailers in Australia and New Zealand. Our customer service is local too.

Our focus is solely on local small business retailers.

We have no requirement as to the payments platform you use. We don’t charge a percentage of each transaction.

We’re not chasing big businesses. We’re not chasing massive franchise networks.

Every customer matters.

No business is too small.

We believe in human-to-human contact. You can easy call us, or email. Humans respond.

Every one of our POS software customers gets to vote of software enhancement suggestions. Our consideration process is transparent and accessible to those who care about this.

Are you a Lightspeed user frustrated with their recent push towards their own payment processing platform and the associated fees? You’re not alone. In our direct experience, many Lightspeed software customers are looking for alternatives that offer more freedom and flexibility.

Tower Systems could be the aternative to Lightspeed you’ve been looking for.

Here’s why Tower Systems stands as an alternative to Lightspeed:

  • Freedom of Choice with Payment Processing: Unlike Lightspeed, Tower Systems doesn’t restrict you on your payment processing solution. You can choose the EFTPOS platform that best suits your needs and budget, without incurring any penalty fees.
  • Focus on Retail Expertise: Tower Systems is a specialist solution for niche retailers, including jewellers, garden centers, toy shops, bike shops, game shops, fishing and outdoors shops, gift shops, produce businesses, firearms dealers, music shops, coin dealers, and pet shops. The Tower Systems POS software is designed with the specific needs of these businesses in mind, potentially offering a more tailored user experience compared to Lightspeed’s broader approach.
  • Competitive Pricing: While a direct cost comparison requires investigating both vendors based on your specific needs, Tower Systems positions itself as a budget-friendly option compared to Lightspeed, especially if you factor in the potential savings from choosing your own payment processor.

Ultimately, the best POS system for your business depends on your specific needs and priorities. Tower Systems offers a strong alternative to Lightspeed, particularly for those seeking more freedom in payment processing and a potentially more specialised feature set for certain retail sectors.

Do your research, compare the functionality of different software products. Learn about the total cost of ownership. Understand any costs associated with transactions in your business.

If you are Lightspeed customer, what Tower Systems offers may be of use to your business. Our promise is that we will not pressure you to choose us, ever.

Why we Think Shark Tank Sends the Wrong Message to Small Business Owners

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Shark Tank is an award-winning show where entrepreneurs pitch ideas to a panel of wealthy investors. The focus is often around the opportunity for scaling the pitched business, as if this is the key measure of success.

A profitable small business is likely to be more satisfying for the owners than a business pursuing scale.

Chasing scale is risky, and expensive. The ones who make money from the pursuit of scale are service providers along the way: speakers, authors and gurus who talk up scale, consultants who ‘help’ others scale and myriad businesses engaged in helping businesses scale.

There is an industry that supports scale because it is profitable for them. We’d put Shark Tank in the mix here.

We get that some people start their businesses to be uber successful so they can sell for a high price.

We are more interested in people who start a business because of a belief in what their business will do, what it does for and offers others, how lives benefit from and because of it. Often, these businesses are small, local.

The obsession on Shark Tank with profit and scale gives would-be entrepreneurs the wrong message. We’d rather see a show about local small businesses that make a difference locally. The thing is though, it may not be watchable TV. It may not have the pot of gold allure.

We need to celebrate successful local small businesses. The owners of those businesses are likely to be happy, satisfied.

Tower Systems serves local small business retailers. We are grateful to serve thousands of them, helping them be efficient, profitable and enjoyable. We see the value they bring to local communities every day and the employment they offer so many. In these businesses we see a terrific contribution to the economy.

Local small business retailers are vital to local towns. They make a difference. Kudos to them for this.

Stocktakes are unnecessary in retail thanks to smart POS software tech.

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While our Tower Systems POS software for small business retail has stocktake facilities to enable fast and accurate counting of inventory, it really is necessary for businesses to do them at the end of the financial year. The better approach is to:

  • Track all inventory arriving in the business at the point of arrival.
  • Track all sales, at the point of sale.
  • Track all returns at the point of return.
  • Spot stocktake parts of the business to get a read on theft.

These things alone, done with consistency and accuracy will provide the business with a stock listing, what you’d usually get from a stocktake, that is accurate for your financials and accurate for your taxation return purposes.

By having a consistent approach to stock management at all appropriate gate points in the business and doing this work daily on stock movements, you negate the need for end of financial year work. This saves time, labour cost and results, actually, in more accurate business data.

Stocktakers, of course, will criticise this as this post makes the point that they are not necessary. the thing is, their manual processes, have been found to be inaccurate and, often, inappropriate.

For those who do want to do a stocktake, we make stocktake easy.

No, we are not talking about cutting corners or avoiding important and vital work for the business. Rather, we have a stocktake process that could save you time and help you know what you need to know today.

While doing a stocktake of the whole business is the traditional way, if you break it up and do sections of the shop when it suits, you could, through a rolling stocktake process, have more accurate data with a lower labour cost for the counting of stock.

The Tower Systems POS software lets you do part of the shop if you wish. That could be a shelf, an aisle, a section of the shop or even a single item. Of course, you can do a stocktake for the whole store too.

By doing a stocktake of a section or segment of the business, you can concentrate on high moving items, items more likely to be stolen or for some other reason. You can also schedule these sectional / spot stocktakes in a way that suits your labour availability. Finding half an hour to do a section in a daily roster could save the business money compared to bring people in especially to stocktake.

Having worked with 3,500+ local retail businesses for many years and participated in many stocktakes across a variety of product categories, our advice is that the rolling stocktake approach is usually more time efficient and financially beneficial to a business. This approach does provide you an earlier indication of possible theft challenges.

Good POS software gives you stocktake flexibility and this helps you drive value for your business.

Now, some quick fire stocktake questions, which we answer from the perspective of the Tower Systems software.

Can my shop be open while I stocktake? Yes.
Can I stop and start the stocktake? Yes.
Can I use multiple terminals to stocktake? Yes.
Can I use a hand help PDE or PDA? Yes, many brands are supported.
Can I use a laptop? Yes.
How long will it take? It all depends on your products, store layout and staff training. Time improves as they go usually.
How often should I do a stocktake? Once a year for the whole business or weekly in manageable time bites if doing the rolling approach.
Will you train us? Yes, we have excellent self-serve and one-on-one training resources and options.

Our advice to local small business retailers about stocktake is ditch the end of financial year grind, manage stock better through the year and you will make better business decisions through the year as a result.

A retail theft story that does not end well

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I DON’T BELIEVE YOU.

That’s what a retail business owner told us years ago when we told them that employee theft had cost their business more than $100,000 in the previous 12 months.

When we asked who worked four specific shifts each week and who had two weeks off a month prior, they knew we might be on to something, but since th person in question was family, they trusted them more than they trusted us.

The thing is, data are facts, they don’t lie.

PROVE IT.

They told us to prove it.

We asked for more data, dug deeper, and proved it, expect that the amount that had been stolen went up the further back we looked. We showed them that $350,000 had been stolen from the business through systematic actions and because they had given the employee full security access and because they id not use the theft tracking tools in the software – and the employee knew this.

This all started because of what they thought was a bug in our software. There was no bug.

It ended with the police laying charges.

Our POS software collects data that can be analysed to look for patterns of use that could indicate theft behaviour.

In a typical independent retail business, theft costs between 3% and 5% of turnover. Our software backed by our Theft Check service seek to reduce the financial imp[act on the businesses owned and run by our 3,000+ customers.

We are grateful to help independent retailers reduce the cost of theft in their shops.

Helping local small business retailers discover and manage theft situations is just one way we help our retailer community.

Our Australian sales number is 1300 662 957.

Our NZ sales number is 0800 444 367.

WE’RE NOT YOUR AVERAGE POS SOFTWARE COMPANY AND HERE ARE 3 EXAMPLES WHY:

  • Dead stock often represents between 5% and 12% of stock on hand in local indie retail businesses. Our software proactively helps retailers identify dead stock and stop making decisions that lead to dead stock.
  • We provide a free theft check service where we look at data patterns that can indicate theft. Our evidence has been used by police, prosecutors and accepted ax expert evidence in court.
  • Copying big retailers is not smart. Our software offers genuinely unique, and successful, ways you can differentiate to nurture deeper baskets per purchase and more frequent return of shoppers.

Sure, we do the usual of scanning products, tracking sales, supplier electronic invoice import, linking to Xero for accounting and linking to Shopify (and more) for online sales. It’s what we do outside the usual where our retailers can leverage real value, like our insights dashboard.

Retailers should choose the payments platform that serves their business

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Payments is a hot topic for retailers, especially local small business retailers. There is a big difference between payments platforms in terms of cost and operational benefits.

Plenty of noise has been made about unified payments, payments integrated with the POS software. Some of the talk has referred to this as groundbreaking.

The reality is that integrated payments was groundbreaking when launched sixteen years ago. It cut keystrokes, cut mistakes, reduced fraud and saved time at the sales counter. Since its launch in Australia in 2008 it has continued to improve.

Tower, software companies like Tower Systems offer unified (integrated) payments wth all the major banks and plenty of others.

We provide retailers with choice.

Being able to choose the payments platform that suits your specific business can result in a payments cost that is a third or more lower than the typical cost.

We have retailers today paying .7% for payments. This is nice and low, and it is via our Tower Systems POS software payments platform.

We don’t lock our customers in. We believe they should be able to choose the payments platform that best suits their needs. We believe that as a POS software company we should make our money from our POS software and not as a percentage of each transaction processed by our customers.

In our opinion, software companies that make money off of each transaction processed by a retailer is wrong, unfair. The retailer has worked hard to win the business. Charging a percentage for the POS software company is like a tax, a revenue grab for a tech business that did not win the shopper in the retail business.

Tower Systems offers:

  • Integrated EFTPOS payments.
  • Support for all major banks and financial institutions.
  • Integrated payments for buy now pay later.
  • Time saved.
  • less mistakes at the counter.
  • Easy record keeping.
  • Streamlined workflow.

We have been doing this since integrated payments began. We offered choice then and continue to offer choice today. Our sole focus is to provide access to software retailers love.

Tower Systems is grateful to serve more than 3,500 local small business retailers in Australia, New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

TheLott integrated POS software helps retailers manage lottery ticket sales

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Tower Systems has offered integration with The Lott lottery terminals since the tech option became available years ago.

This integration between POS software and The Lott makes managing lottery ticket sales easier, more certain, for the retail businesses. sales counter workflow improves as does record keeping. This is a win for any retailer selling The Lott lottery tickets.

Tower Systems is grateful to have assisted with early development and to have maintained the tech to deliver on the needs of The Lott lottery retailers connecting with their smart POS software.

Already serving close to 1,800 retailers in this space, Tower Systems is well established serving newsagents and other types of lottery retailers with its POS software. bringing lottery sales / POS software integration to life adds value to these relationships. It helps these businesses in terms of counter workflow, sales achievement and overall business data integrity. This is good news all round.

Following standards set by Tabcorp years ago, the Tower Systems POS software development team delivered a POS software integrated solution for The Lott that cuts keystrokes and delivers a fresh in-store lottery customer experience. This helps small business retailers to better understand the broader value of lottery product shoppers and to do this without undertaking additional management or data collection work. The data curated through the integration will help engaged small business retailers to further drive outcomes for their business.

Tower Systems has a track record of delivering terrific  integrations for retailers using its POS software. Xero, Tanda, Deputy, Planday, Allotrac, EverGreen Connect, Shopify, magenta, Big Commerce, WooCommerce … these are just some of the many integrations delivered, tested and approved.

We work with suppliers and retailers to deliver outcomes that serve all parties to transactions and to do this in a technically professional way, without losing site on small business retailers being our customers and the most important people at the table on projects like this.

Tower Systems is grateful to serve 3,500+ retailers across 16 different retail channels with Aussie made and supported POS software.

Retailers love the POS software / The Lott integration and here’s why:

  1. Saves time.
  2. Eliminates manual processes.
  3. Reduces mistakes.
  4. helps the business make more money.
  5. makes balancing the register at the end of the day easier.
  6. Reduces stress.

If you are a lottery retailer, check it out.

POS software for coin dealers helps in-store and online sales

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Tower Systems makes POS software for a range of specialty retail channels, including coin dealers. We have found our POS software has facilities that serve the needs of coin dealers such as serial number tracking, appropriate security levels, age-checking, online store integration, extended product descriptions and free access to international barcode lookup.

The coin dealer POS software also enables dealers to use extended product descriptions, which can be helpful for recording comprehensive details for products.

Being able to track sales by mint is an advantage when comparing the performance of different mints.

A big benefit of the Tower Systems POS software for coin dealers is the handling of secondhand goods – tracking secondhand goods from the moment they arrive in-store. We can also track coins that a coin dealer may hold on consignment for others.

Selling at local markets is easy too thanks to the ability to sell from anywhere thanks to our Roam facility that enables this.

We have also built an online mint coin shop that is connected to / integrated with our POS software for a retail shop we own and run ourselves.

This coin dealer POS software can be demonstrated to anyone interested, to help them assess whether it suits their needs. There is no obligation for this one-on-one demonstration. There is no pressure, we know our Tower Systems POS software for coin dealers is not for everyone. It’s 100% up to you.

Coin dealers are unique and special businesses. Here are some of the ways our POS software for coin dealers helps leverage that uniqueness:

  1. Rare visit loyalty.  The customer visit cycle in coin dealers is infrequent. Our loyalty tools nurture shoppers to provide more value each visit.
  2. Pre-orders. Easily manage selling products before you have them in-stock. You might be asked to source a piece. These tools help you lock that in.
  3. Valuations. provide a professionally presented valuation certificate if you offer this for customers.
  4. Second-hand goods. Track details into a digital register for easy data management and record keeping.
  5. Leverage buyer and seller interests. Through easy to leverage database management you can connect people through their special interests.
  6. Buy Now Pay Later and LayBy. Through our software you can have both.
  7. Repairs management. For those dealers who do repairs or cleaning, track labour and parts for each repair, from the moment of the request. Advise the customer when the repair is complete.
  8. Group marketing and support. Leverage groups and clubs with offers and pricing. It’s easy to serve multiple special interests.
  9. Product care. Product care knowledge can be differentiating. Sharing this in a systematic and consistent way can separate your business.
  10. Serial number tracking. If products have serial numbers, track them.
  11. Anniversary marketing. Collectors love their coins. Remembering purchase anniversaries can help maintain a connection with collectors.

Our Australian made and supported coin dealer shop POS software does much more than this. Be sure to see it for yourself, live and obligation free, to see if it could serve you and your business.

Managing subscriptions using your POS software

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Managing subscriptions, or recurring billing, our Tower Systems POS software can handle it for you. Subscriptions can be handled daily, weekly, monthly or yearly – you choose by individual stock item customer.

A customer can have multiple subscriptions.

You can set different prices for a subscription of a product on a per customer basis. The pricing flexibility of this new POS software integrated subscription solution is awesome.

We think this subscriptions management software in the Tower Systems POS software will be an ideal solution for firearms dealers, computer dealers selling anti virus, Office 360 and similar subscriptions or any business doing any form of regular, locked-in, billing of customers.

Subscription management software helps businesses track manage the sale of subscription-based products. While software as a service (SaaS) is the most popular subscription type that businesses handle, plenty of businesses provide digital and physical products as a subscription model. The new subscription sale facilities from Tower Systems helps retailers in this area.

One popular form of subscriptions is the sale of sample and boxes, sent monthly or quarterly to customers. The Tower software can handle this, making it easy for businesses to offer these and thereby to expand the reach of their business.

The subscriptions facilities in the Tower Systems POS software are available for no additional charge.

While the company has a decades-long history of managing regular orders for customers using its newsagency POS software, the new subscriptions management tools go further for unique products, they have grown out of growth in the Tower Systems user community into new specialty retail areas.

Managing subscriptions and any form of recurring billing can be a challenge in retail businesses as they seek to streamline operations and manage associated labour costs. These new subscriptions management facilities in the POS software from Tower Systems have been tested with retailers in this space and gives resounding support.

Managing subscriptions using POS software without incurring additional costs for additional software facilities sis a big win for local small business retailers. Tower Systems is grateful to be of service to these retailers.

The new subscriptions management facilities were released as part of a regular software update and done so after considerable in-house testing along with comprehensive beta testing.

How much does a POS system cost?

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This is a good question, one that needs to be asked and answered.

The cost of a good POS system should be easy to understand, straightforward. The think is, too often it is not straightforward to see what a good POS system costs. Some POS companies have hidden costs, extra costs and transactional costs based on sales you put through the system.

Today, in February 2024, a POS system would typically cost no more $250 a month. This should include access to the software, customer support, access to online training videos and access to a searchable knowledge base, which is like a manual.

So in answer to the question of what does a POS system cost, the answer is no more than $250.00 a month. There should be no charge or fee related to the transactions done by the business using the POS system. The software company should make money from the software rental itself, leaving the retail business to make its money from its retail sales.

When considering the cost of a POS system you have to look at any and all costs a software company may levy on you, directly or indirectly. Here are some things to consider:

Does a POS software company require you to use a specific EFTPOS payments platform? If so, what are they making from it? And, what are the financial consequences for you if you do not use the platform?

Does your POS software company need the use of external apps and resources to do what you want and if so are there costs associated with these?

What is the pricing history for POS software you are considering? Has it gone us and if so when and by how much?

Is the price for the POS system quoted inclusive of GST? Not everyone quotes including GST.

Can you choose your own hardware? Good POS software companies encourage this.

Does your POS software company require you to sign a long-term contract? They should not. You should be able to rent the software for as long, or shot, as you like. You should be able to end the rental at any time. One company requires you to sign an agreement for at least two years but it is not usually evident that they are doing this.

How much does a POS system cost? Our advice is to ask questions, do your homework and only go with a company that has the right software for you at a price you are prepared to pay.

1% EFTPOS fee helps local small business retailers save money

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When it comes to EFTPOS provider choice, this is a decision each retailer should make for themselves.

Good POS software seamlessly connects with a range of EFTPOS solutions, making the choice easy for the retailer. Good POS software lets you choose the EFTPOS payments processor that suits your business.

Tower Systems does not require retailers using its POS software to deal with any specific bank or any specific EFTPOS payments processor. Tower Systems customers can choose the bank for EFTPOS that best serves their needs. There is no charge whatsoever levied against customers related to business transactions.

Transacting EFTPOS payments through CBA, NAB, Westpac, ANZ, Suncorp, Tyro and others is easy with the integrated EFTPOS solution available to retailers using the Tower Systems POS software.

  • Fewer keystrokes = faster and fewer mistakes.
  • Integrated EFTPOS means easier accounting and easier transaction reconciliation.
  • Integrated EFTPOS through Tower Systems means the retailer chooses what is right for their business.

When choosing POS software for your business it is vital that you ask the question about integrated EFTPOS and discover whether you have choice and whether there are any fees associated with EFTPOS transactions, fees that flow to the POS software company. This matters because it is best that your POS software company makes money from POS software and not from the transactions that you put through your business -0 your growth, your success, is yours to enjoy and celebrate.

Now when it comes to choosing EFTPOS payments processing for your business it’s important to consider your specific needs and budget. Factors like business size, transaction volume, and POS software compatibility should be taken into account. Tower Systems offers excellent compatibility with its POS software when it comes the EFTPOS payments processing for your business.

Tower Systems offers local retailers access to wonderful benefits:

  • Fast checkout: Eliminates manual data entry, as the transaction amount automatically transfers from POS to EFTPOS terminal, leading to faster transactions and shorter queues.
  • Reduced errors: No manual keying, cutting human error and ensuring accurate transactions.
  • Improved staff productivity: Staff can focus on customer service instead of manually entering payment details.
  • Seamless payment experience: Customers can tap, swipe, or insert their card directly at the EFTPOS terminal without switching screens, creating a smooth and intuitive experience.
  • Reduced contact: Cost the need for customers and staff to handle physical terminals, enhancing hygiene and potentially aiding social distancing efforts.
  • Enhanced security: Data transfers directly between POS and EFTPOS, reducing the risk of data breaches and unauthorised access.

Tower Systems is grateful to offer retailers choice when it comes to EFTPOS payments processing from within POS software and to do this without penalty cost.

Xero POS software helps retailers save time and cut mistakes

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The Tower Systems Xero POS software is POS software designed to integrate with the awesome Xero accounting software.

Made is Australia and supported by a wonderful and knowledgeable Australian help desk team, this POS software helps local retailers save time thanks to its Xero accounting software integration.

The Tower Systems POS software Xero integration reduces time spend on bookkeeping and accounting thanks to the seamless, neat and accurate data flow from the POS software to Xero. This also reduces the opportunity for employee fraud.

There is no additional cost for the Xero POS software integration from Tower Systems.

It is easy to get up and running thanks to a wonderful training video, excellent knowledge base articles as well as live, one-on-one support and more from the Tower Systems POS software crew. This content and support for easy use of Xero POS software is exclusive to Tower Systems.

Tower Systems developed this integration with Xero many years ago. It have been enhanced as the Tower software and as Xero have been enhanced – to ensure the software is current for the needs of today.

We use Xero ourselves in our own retail businesses, our advice comes from this place of personal experience. This enables us to provide practical advice on how to benefit the most from Xero and our POS software working together.

Connect the Tower Systems POS software with  Xero in minutes and keep everything in sync. Simply connect the tow and map your accounts. Our crew of retail experts can help;p you do this.

Once connected, your Tower systems POS software will upload your chosen key financial data to Xero – saving time on admin and cutting data mistakes.

This is an ideal local retail solution from Tower Systems that genuinely cuts keystrokes, saves time and protects retail businesses against fraud thanks to less touching of business data.

Tower Systems is a unique Australian based and supported 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.

You’re welcome to see the Xero POS software link any time, to see if it could be a good solution for your business.

Local POS software matters to local retailers and here’s why

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Local retailers understand the importance of being local. As locals ourselves, we understand what this can mean for our customers who consider our POS software made for local retailers.

Our Aussie made and supported bike shop software is software to love for local retailers and here’s why …

  1. Local matters. Local shops make a vital contribution to local communities and families. Our software helps you leverage your localness, to genuinely differentiate your business from big competitors. We have ways in the POS software for doing this.
  2. You are a key asset. Only your business has you and your people. You can leverage you through our local shop POS software, to easily share your knowledge in ways big businesses cannot match.
  3. You can bank on loyalty. Points don’t reward loyalty. What is a point worth anyway? In our local shop POS software, you have fresh loyalty tools you can bank on to drive a deeper visit value, bring shoppers back sooner and genuinely leverage their lifetime value opportunity.
  4. Service, service, service. Offering service and managing this for the benefit of your customers and your business can genuinely differentiate thanks to our POS software management tools. You can bank on this difference.
  5. Not every shopper will walk, or rides, past your door. A smart and seamless connection between your software and a beautiful website can help you easily and with low overhead sell to people you will never meet.

Local shops shops are vital in local communities. We are committed to helping you run a more enjoyable and successful local business.

While all of us in local retail want more local shoppers and tell people to shop local, here at Tower Systems we are helping you pitch local with locally made and locally supported POS software that is configured to leverage your localness for commercial success and local community appreciation. We think that ia a big factor in being able to pitch local.

If local does matter to your local retail business then considering our Tower Systems POS software and how it can help you more actively pitch and show local is something we’d be grateful to discuss with you.

Local small business retail advice: how to partner with local community groups to better serve the local community

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Talk about a win, win, win. This tip helps local retailers win new local customers, your customers save money and a local community group raise funds. Engagement is measurable, so you can assess the return on your investment.

Find a locally loved and trusted community group in need of funds, a group that has a reasonable number of members who do not currently shop with you.

Offer the community group a percentage from each purchase made by members of the group and their family members.

Offer each member a discount for each purchase.

The amounts offered need to be considered in the context of your business, your margin and the value of the anticipated additional purchases.

Consider a timeframe for the offer. For example, it may be useful to trial the offer for a limited period so you can assess engagement and then adjust as appropriate. It may also be an offer only open to certain days of the week, your quietest days.

Consider the products to be included in the campaign. It may be appropriate to exclude products categories where your margin is not enough to justify inclusion.

To manage the offer, see if your Point-of-Sale software can help. I know the software from my own software company can manage this. You give each community group a member a card, which when scanned ensures they get the discounted price and the donation to the community group is tracked.

The card becomes valuable itself, something talked about, sought after.

The commercial goal of this campaign has to be net new shopper traffic for the business delivering revenue the business would otherwise not have achieved. If this is the case, a discount off the usual margin achieved is acceptable as it is effectively a cost of acquiring the additional business.

Key to the success of this campaign is the active engagement of the community group in rallying members to visit the shop, to encourage them to support you so that you support the group they love.

Make an event of handing over the donation to the community group. Get photos. Talk on social media about being grateful for the local support that has enabled you to make the donation.

Share stories on social media about the activities of the group as your support of them can encourage their support of you.

We love the campaign outlined here as it represents the circular nature of the local community: people living locally, shopping locally, enabling local shops to thrive locally and support loved local community groups.

Tower Systems makes POS software for local retailers that helps facilitate what we have described here.

New easyEDI platform helps Xero engaged wholesalers offer retailers electronic invoices

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Retailers love electronic invoices. They save time and money, and they help reduce data mistakes.

If faced with a choice, retailers will choose the supplier offering electronic invoices over the supplier of similar product who does not offer electronic invoices.

Australian POS software company Tower Systems has created easyEDI, an approved app for the Xero accounting software, which creates electronic invoices for retailers and facilitates emailing them to retailers.

easyEDI will create either a CSV file or a DD2 file, commonly used by newsagencies and card and gift stores. You can also link it with the popular Unleashed inventory management system we know plenty of suppliers use or supply your own product list so your files are even more useful by containing barcodes and/or RRP prices.

easyEDI costs $55 a month, which includes 500 invoices sent per month for no additional cost. Each invoice beyond 500 costs 12 cents.

There is no lock-in contract, you can cancel at any time.

Setup is easy for the supplier. easyEDI is a Xero approved integrated app.

Suppliers ready to sign up should go to www.easyedi.com.au.

Having been approved by Xero as an integrated app for their accounting software, easyEDI by Tower Systems is easy and safe for trade wholesalers to access for creating electronic invoices.

While electronic invoices have been around for decades, many suppliers are yet to embrace the opportunity for their retail business customers. This easyEDI innovation specifically helps smaller wholesalers to be more of service to their retail business customers. It makes them more appealing to these customers.

If you use Xero in your wholesale business, easyEDI is easy to setup and use. You can be sending your first invoice in minutes. Retailers will thank you for this.

Tower Systems first engaged in EDI (electronic data interchange) invoice creation by developing standards that were adopted for the Australian newsagency channel more than thirty years ago. Those standards formed the basis of file formats in use ion that channel today.

Tower Systems currently serves 3,000+ local independent retailers in Australia and New Zealand across 16 different retail channels.

Making software that helps local small business retailers run more efficient is core to the purpose of Tower Systems. We believe in local small business retail and honour its service of local communities. All of our customers are local small business retailers, independent retailers.

Reed Gift Fair Sydney success

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We are grateful for the opportunity to pitch our POS software at the Reed Gift Fair in Sydney these last few days. As the only POS software company on show at Reed, we made the most of the opportunity to talk local small business retail efficiency – to retailers as well as to suppliers.

The first three days were busy and we already have some bookings for today, the final day of this trade show.

Our stand made it easy for people to sit and chat.

On show at the Reed Gift Fair in Sydney was not only our POS software but our time saving integrated EFTPOS solution, our Xero integration as well as our roster software integration. This kit of solutions and plenty more from us appealed to retailers keen to leverage business efficiency.

That’s our focus as a POS software company, helping retailers derive more value from their local retail businesses, leveraging our POS software to do this.

What is interesting to us, and valuable for us, is the diversity of retailers through this trade show. we serve so many of them, with specialty software for their business. The retail channels represented at the Reed Gift Fair that we serve include gift shops, jewellers, garden centres, newsagents, homewares shops, travel destination shops, community enterprises and plenty more.

While the collateral on our stand talked about gift shop software, it was easy taking with trade show attendees about so much more.

Our purpose is to empower local retailers to thrive.

By empower, we mean to give them tools and training in the use of the tools to help them thrive.

The tools are our Aussie made and supported POS software.

By local retailers we mean independent retailers, specialty retailers, small business retailers. We believe in local. We know local matters to locals and that local is where community flourishes.

By thrive we mean to be profitable, and happy. A profitable business is good for all who rely on the business, including customers, and the community.

We know that our software can make a difference in businesses for which it is made, and that our training and support can help businesses thrive.

Software for sleep clinics and CPAP clinics

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We are grateful to be growing a customer community of businesses in the sleep clinic and CPAP sales space for our POS software.

We were surprised to discover that our POS software suits the need of sleep clinics and CPAP retailers operating in this space. It’s a new market for us and one we are entering thanks to wonderful word of mouth support from our customers.

Our specialty and comprehensive software being used in sleep clinics and CPAP sales businesses offers many benefits embedded in the software without needing to rent third-party tools, including:

  1. Member or pricing: Helps you attract community group members, and in the sleep care space there are plenty of groups you can serve.
  2. Repairs: Easily track & manage repairs & communicate with customers, even for repairs not done in the business.
  3. BOGO: Increase sales with buy this and get that bundling.
  4. Warranty: Track details and leverage this for customer service.
  5. Colour, size and style: Easily track sales at a granular level. This can be used for variations on equipment too.
  6. Bring them back: Target market based on past services.
  7. Sell anywhere: Using our Retailer RoamTM sell anywhere app.
  8. Sell anytime: With our Shopify / Magento / Woo integrations.
  9. Special orders: Easily manage special customer orders.
  10. Awesome loyalty: Guide one-time and regular shoppers to spend more.
  11. Seasonal reordering: Easily reorder inventory based on seasonal sales.

This software for sleep clinics and CPAP machine sales has facilities that help streamline the business operation and guide success for the business in a range of areas. Plus, it is not standing still. This Aussie software continues to evolve.

Easily handle supplier invoices, repairs, second-hand goods, spare parts stock management, special orders, tracking customers by purchases, reducing employee and customer theft and more. Link to Xero, Tanda, Deputy and Planday for rostering, Slyp for digital receipts, Shopify and Big Commerce for online, ChatGPT for product descriptions and RemoveBG for photo background removal.

Are you Australian based? Yes.

Do you make your software? Yes.

How do I contact your help desk? By phone or email. Our help desk is Australian based with one team member working from New Zealand.

When can I contact you for help? Weekdays: 7am through 6PM AEST, Saturdays 7:30am through 3PM AEST. After hours for urgent calls: 24/7.

What if I am unhappy with support? You can escalate to our Chief Operating Officer or our Managing Director – every customer is given their direct numbers and email addresses.

Can I run the software in the cloud? Yes.

Can I run the software on my desktop? Yes.

Can I backup to the cloud? Yes.

How long am I locked in with software rental? There is no lock-in. You can cancel rental at any time and billing stops immediately – once the current month is completed, there is no further charge.

We are grateful to offer our software for sleep clinics and CPAP retail sales businesses.

We think the Lightspeed EFTPOS payments pitch is inaccurate and here’s why

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A big competitor of our our Aussie POS software company, Lightspeed, a big Canadian company, is promoting Lightspeed Payments as being revolutionary, delivering to retailers new benefits. We heard them pitch at a trade show in Sydney today that they are leaders on time-saving integrated EFTPOS, helping retailers save time, cut mistakes and do more.

Check out this pitch, which they published via Inside Retail.

At the forefront of this transformation, new payment systems are now advancing the way retailers handle transactions and manage their businesses. Instead of manually inputting sales into separate payment terminals after processing them on their point-of-sale (POS), retailers are now increasingly turning to systems that sync their POS with their payment processors, allowing transactions to seamlessly flow between the two platforms. These setups are commonly referred to as integrated payment systems.

What Lightspeed offers with integrated EFTPOS is goof tech, but it is no advance, no new technology.

Tower Systems has offered integrated payments for more than 16 years.

The difference with our offer is that our customers can choose the bank they go with. This can result in lower EFTPOS fees than the retailer may have to pay if they use the Lightspeed Payments platform.

Here at Tower Systems we also offer access to a 1% EFTPOS rate if customers would like to go with that.

As a software company, we do not have any charges for our customers that are based on retail transactions. From the Lighspeed marketing material, they do have such a charge – meaning as your business grows, you pay Lightspeed more for access to their software.

If you are Lightspeed customer and you choose to not use their payments platform Lightspeed has started charging customers a fee to compensate for them not making payments revenue from you.

In our opinion, what Lightspeed claims is an advance in its technology solution for retailers via Lightspeed Payments is, in fact, a price increase in the use of its software, something imposed on retailers but dressed as some great advancement.

Here at Tower Systems we believe that retailers should get to choose the payments platform that is right for their business. This choice can lead to significant savings in the cost of payments. We know of retailers paying way less than if they were using Lightspeed and were locked into the Lightspeed Payments platform.

Lightspeed is a successful company.  In our opinion, the claims being made in relation to Lightspeed Payments are inaccurate and shallow.

Our advice to retailers is to do your homework, look at the total cost of ownership, and, choose the software that serves your needs best as functionality and customer service are the two most critical factors. All good POS software puffers integrated payments, what Lightspeed claims as an advance is not – they are late that party.

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