The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

Latest stories

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

February 22, 2024
3 Min read
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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.

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New easyEDI platform helps Xero engaged wholesalers offer retailers electronic invoices

February 21, 2024
2 Min read
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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.

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Reed Gift Fair Sydney success

February 20, 2024
2 Min read
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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.

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Software for sleep clinics and CPAP clinics

February 19, 2024
3 Min read
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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.

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

February 18, 2024
3 Min read
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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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Epos Now alternative POS software for Australian retail businesses

February 16, 2024
3 Min read
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Our Tower Systems POS software is an excellent alternative to the Epos Now POS software and here’s why we think that:

The Tower POS software is made and supported in Australia for Australian businesses. It uses Australian retail terminology.

We think a functional comparison of the Tower Systems POS software with the Epos Now POS software will show our software as overing more benefits through more facilities.

When we say we offer software for specialty retail channels, that software is packed with functions retailers in the channel use and rely on that can be unique to their types of businesses. It’s a claim as to functionality rather than a blanket marketing claim.

The Tower Systems POS software integrates with Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce and Magento.

Tower Systems has no lock in contract.

We do not engage commission agent to sell our software.

We will not spam or chase you. We’d rather local small business retailers considering our POS software to do so at the pace they prefer and in their own timing.

We are grateful to welcome Epos Now POS software customers switching to Tower Systems.

We’ve not used Epos Now in our retail businesses. We can’t speak to what it does. What we can do is speak to Epos Now customers who have switched to our Tower Systems POS software and to their experiences having made that switch. We’d be happy to connect verified retailers to these business owners for a retailer to retailer discussion.

If you are considering Epos Now POS software for your business, our advice is take your time, compare the software functionality and read the contract carefully. Do this and consider whether it is right for your business. If it is, sign up and proceed. If you are unsure, take a moment to look around at other POS software solutions.

Tower Systems is grateful to serve 3,000+ local independent retailers in a variety of specialty retail channels. We’re a solid and established POS software company, grateful to serve only local specialty retailers and no big businesses.

If you’d like to compare our software to that from Epos Now function by function we’d be grateful for the opportunity. There is nothing like this type of POS software comparison to work our what works best for a business. Too often POS software company sales people will refuse such a comparison. Not us here at Tower Systems. We know we are not right for everyone.

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Small business retail advice on how to reduce the opportunity of ransomware attack

February 15, 2024
2 Min read
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Ransomware / malware can come in many forms. Every computer connected to a network in any way is at risk. There is no guaranteed protection but there are important steps a business can take. This advice provides advice designed to reduce the risk to your business.

Here is best-practice advice from our POS software company for local small business retailers on ways to protect against Ransomware:

  1. Ensure you use professional, up to date, virus protection.
  2. Ensure you have a good firewall with strong settings.
  3. Do not click on emails or attachments unless you are sure of the sender.
    1. Be particularly wary of ZIP files in emails.
    2. The ATO will not email you.
    3. Your bank will not email you.
    4. Australia Post will not email you, not like the example I have posted.
  4. Ensure all passwords you use are strong.
  5. Consider using an email filtering facility.
  6. Do not allow remote access to your computer unless you are certain of the person accessing.
  7. Ensure you have strong passwords. A strong password should include: some CAPS, some numbers and at least one special character. Check your password at: https://howsecureismypassword.net
  8. Change your password regularly.
  9. Run an up to date operating system.
  10. Have rules on computer use: no games, no online gambling, no porn, no personal emails.
  11. Have an overarching rule: do not open any email or go to any website unless you are certain.
  12. Use a cloud backup service like the Tower backup service. This provides the fastest recovery.
  13. Have multiple backup devices for additional protection.
  14. Do not use automatic file replication programs / facilities such as Dropbox or Google Drive. If a file is encrypted with malware / ransomware it will upload to the account and infect other files.

Most ransomware attacks can be avoided by careful scrutiny of your emails and websites you visit.

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Small business retail advice: less is more when it comes to visual noise in your shop

February 12, 2024
3 Min read
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As retailers ourselves for decades, we have learnt first-hand that less is more works when it comes to visual noise in the shop.

Less signs, posters and other visual blocks can impede retail sales. Here’s our practical, no nonsense approach to reducing visual noise in pursuit of sales growth.

If you give your customers too many things to look at inside or outside your business, they will notice less.  Your choices show them what you want them to look at

Less is more. Have less visual noise, less visual pollution, and more will be noticed.

Show your customers what you want them to notice by giving that product, range or display fresh air (visually) around it.

Take a look today, right now, at the visual noise in your shop. It is easy:

Stand at the door of your business facing into the shop and scan around counting the signs you can read and displays you can see.

How many are there?

More messages, more signs = less noticing them.

Yes, less is more.

Here is advice for less visual noise in your business:

  1. Edit. Every few days stand at the front of the shop and review your signage and edit the mix.
  2. Posters and signs. Do not put up any poster or sign unless it is absolutely necessary.
  3. Housekeeping notices. Have all customer notices, such as your exchange policy, discount policy, minimum eftpos charge etc, all in the one unobtrusive place. Neat. Clean.
  4. Call to action signs. If you have items on sale or discounted, place them all in the one location, a designated sale location in your business, with simple and professional signage.
  5. Product signs. For product signage in-store, be consistent in style and look. Smaller signs next to products will work better than big signs from the ceiling – how often do your shoppers walk in looking up anyway?
  6. Colour block. Colour blocked product is more appealing to the eye, it looks less messy, less noisy.
  7. The counter.  Again, edit for clarity, edit for focus on the messages that really matter.
  8. Be clean. Look for clean sight lines, where your products are the feature. Use products themselves to tell stories.

It is common for retailers to say that shoppers don’t look in the shop. An alternative what to look at this is to say that you are going about trying to catch shopper attention in the wrong way.

Reducing visual noise will improve the experience for your shoppers and for those who work in the business. It will focus everyone on what you decide matters the most right now.

This visual boise advice applied to your front window if you have one. What’s the message? Is it clear? Is it focussed? Is it getting attention on the street? the answers will guide you as to what to do next.

…..

Thanks to our retail experience, we are able to provide suggestions b beyond the POS software. This is another differentiating factor for us, for which we are sincerely grateful.

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Smart POS software integrations help retailers achieve more

February 9, 2024
2 Min read
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Tower Systems offers integrations between its POS software and a range of external apps and platforms to help local small business retailers eliminate double entry of data and thereby reduce the opportunities for mistakes. We are proud of the range and nature of these integrations and the benefits they offer our customers.

We are grateful for the opportunity to integrate our POS software with a range of other applications and partners, enhancing the solutions available to0 our customers and those considering using our POS software.

Here are some of the POS software integrations from Tower Systems:

REMOVE.BG (OTHER)
REMOVAL.AI (OTHER)
CHAT GPT (AI)XERO (ACCOUNTING)
INTERNATIONAL BARCODE LOOKUP (FREE)
ABCIS (ACCOUNTING)
WOOCOMMERCE (ECOMMERCE)
SHOPIFY (ECOMMERCE)
MAGENTO (ECOMMERCE)
BIG COMMERCE (ECOMMERCE)
PCEFTPOS/LINKLY (PAYMENTS)
LINKLY CLOUD (PAYMENTS)
TYRO (PAYMENTS)
SMARTPAY (PAYMENTS)
HUMM (PAYMENTS)
ZIP (PAYMENTS)
CENTREPAY (PAYMENTS)
QUEST (PAYMENTS)
MX51 (PAYMENTS)
WINDCAVE (DPS) (PAYMENTS)
RAA MEMBER (DISCOUNTS)
PINPAYMENTS (PAYMENTS)
XCHANGEIT (EDI)
GNS (EDI)
EASTERN DISTRIBUTORS (EDI)
MAXWELL AND WILLIAMS (HAG) (EDI)
KONGS (EDI)
PERMIER PET (EDI)
MASTERPET (EDI)
AIRR / TUCKERS (EDI)
JUST FOR PETS (EDI)
EVERGREEN CONNECT (EDI)
MAILCHIMP (MARKETING)
MESSAGE MEDIA (SMS SERVICES)
BIKE EXCHANGE (EDI)
EPAY (ELECTRONIC VOUCHERS)
TABCORP (REQUIRES EXCHANGEIT) (LOTTERY)
POSTEC (FUEL)
TANDA (STAFF)
DEPUTY (STAFF)
ALLOTRAC (DISPATCH)
TREK (STOCK)
PACSTREAM (EDI)
TITLEPAGE (EDI)

We are often first with integrations, like our delivery of Linkly Cloud.

We are grateful for the opportunity and proud to deliver a world first – a POS software integration with Linkly Cloud.

That’s right, we have retailers live with our Tower Systems POS software connected to Linkly Cloud for EFTPOS transactions.

Tower Systems makes POS software for specialty retailers in a range of local specialty retail channels.

Linkly is all about Making every payment seamless.

Together, we have delivered a solution that helps retailers save time, cut mistakes and more easily compete with big business.

Tower Systems integrated EFTPOS, connects your Retailer Point of Sale with your EFTPOS terminal, making it the fastest and easiest way to sell.

When it comes to POS software integrations, here at Tower Systems we analyse requirements, talk with customers and consider whether a proposed integration serves the needs of all stakeholders. Then, if it’s a yes, we get about delivering and awesome integration.

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Retailers loving the 1% EFTPOS fee rate offer

February 8, 2024
2 Min read
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Many of our local retail business POS software customers have jumped on the 1% EFTPOS fee rate. This is an optional rate with the choice entirely up to our POS software customers.

Here at Tower Systems we do not require our POS software customers to use any particular EFTPOS or payments platform. We leave the choice to them without any cost or penalty applied. This is a difference we are proud of, that we do not charge customers based on the EFTPOS platform they use. There is no penalty, no demand they use a particular platform.

The 1% EFTPOS cost offer for Tower Systems customers is another way we have sought to reduce operating costs for our small business retail customers.

Customers are loving it.

We also make it easy in our POS software for our customers to pass on actual EFTPOS costs to their customers, making EFTPOS cost them nothing at all in their businesses. That they are passing on a low cost is another way they can differentiate their business.

This 1% EFTPOS cost is for a solution integrated with our software. This means a bunch of benefits, such as:

  • Reduced keystrokes.
  • Reduced mistakes.
  • Reduced accounting and bookkeeping overhead.
  • Faster sales processing.
  • Better sales counter workflow.
  • Lower business costs.
  • Easy refund management.
  • Easier customer query handling.
  • Single point takings balancing for the beguines.
  • Reduced employee fraud.

There are plenty of benefits of this POS software integrated EFTPOS solutions beyond the low 1% EFTPOS cost to businesses.

Local retail business management benefits from integrated solutions. They do save time, and they reduce operating costs. That the financial costs are low is a loved benefit too.

We are proud to have been able to leverage this 1% EFTPOS fee rate for our Tower Systems customers, all of whom are local independent retail businesses, small businesses. It’s another way we have been able to help these small businesses get benefits that are often only available to big and national businesses.

Tower Systems is a small business focussed POS software company developing, and supporting POS software for niche specialty retailers. Jewellers, garden centres, bike shops, toy shops, produce businesses, farm supply businesses, fishing shops, pet shops, charity businesses, landscape gardening businesses, antique shops, sewing shops, haberdashery businesses, newsagents and more benefit from this software.

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Small business retail management advice: map your GP by shop floor layout

February 2, 2024
3 Min read
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A few minutes spent analysing space allocation performance often reveals opportunities based on our years working with and helping local small business retailers.

With retail space usually costing between 11% and 15% of (non agency) revenue, it is usually the next highest cost outside of the cost of stock itself. The key is to make the space work well, to be financially efficient for the business.

Retailers often argue that rent should be lower. It could be that a different view of shop floor performance helps you achieve a better return.

Here’s a quick and easy way to assess your current use of your floorspace:

  1. Take a blank sheet of paper and sketch out the layout of your shop, marking in display units, shelving, the counter – everywhere you have product. Include your back room if you have stock there.
  2. Colour-shade the layout by department.
  3. List the departments on the side of the floor plan.
  4. Calculate the percentage of total space used for each department. This does not need to be accurate to two decimal places. List this next to each department you have listed.
  5. Use your POS software to report on gross profit dollars earned by each department over the last year, or calculate it from sales figures knowing the average GP% per department.
  6. Calculate the percentage of total gross profit contribution earned by each department and list this next to the floor space allocated to each department – on the floor plan map you have done.
  7. Circle in green those performing the best, where the GP% contribution is more than the GP% space allocation, and in red those performing the worst.

Typically, a business owner doing this for the first time will have an ah ha moment, seeing something they had not realised.

This is advice anyone can use, as any good POS software will report on GP by department. Getting this mapped on the floorpan of your shop lets you see the hot and cold spots, where you are making money, and where you are losing it.

This is retail management advice for any business owner, regardless of education level.

We have seen business owners make changes including to floor layout, quitting suppliers and increasing stock weight for some departments.

You can take the analysis a step further by looking only at one department and analysing performance by category within that department, using the method outlined above.

Our specialty retail POS software can help with this and more business performance analysis.

Our goal is to help you run a more appealing, successful and valuable retail business. As retailers ourselves, we use our software this way every day.

We can help if you are interested.

Find out more: www.towersystems.com.au 1300 662 957 sales@towersystems.com.au

Thanks for reading.

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New subscriptions facilities in POS software help retailers to sell and manage subscriptions

February 1, 2024
2 Min read
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Subscriptions can be challenging for POS software to manage on an on-going basis. The one-off transaction is easy. It’s the repeat transaction, to a timed cycle, that can be the difficulty … which is the very nature of a subscription if you think about it, they are repeat transactions for sure.

Managing subscriptions in POS software is. important. Thanks to some wonderful software development work by our team and advice from sone==me of our customers who sell subscriptions, we are delivering subscriptions management from within our POS software.

Using the subscriptions management facility in our Tower Systems POS software, retailers will be able to manage these repeat transactions, track the records, charges and payments.

For retailers who on-sell subscriptions on behalf of other parties, the subscriptions management tools in the Tower software will be especially useful.

There is no need for an app, or a plug-in or some other software as subscriptions are managed from within our Tower Systems POS software. This means Tower Systems POS software customers don’t have to pay another party a fee to manage subscriptions – it’s included in our software.

Tower Systems is a specialty retail POS software company. We help specialty retailers leverage what sets them apart. Our software continues to evolve in service of this.

By choosing our POS software, you’ll also benefit from a range of additional features, including software for unlimited computers, help desk support from Monday to Saturday, access to a knowledge base, and integrations with leading platforms such as Shopify, Big Commerce, Xero, and more. Furthermore, we provide access to our supplier invoice import tools, making inventory management a breeze.

We know that one category of retailer that will benefit from our subscription management tools is computer shops / IT businesses. These businesses offer to manage subscriptions to software for their customers. Our subscription tools can help them manage this by customer. Our software for these businesses also handles quote and invoice management, repairs management, integrating with online and plenty more. We have grateful to help plenty of computer shops and IT businesses with POS software that has bene found to be of service to them.

Made locally for local computer shops, this POS software for computer shops can help track computer builds, deals for computer / gamer club members, track stock, handle special orders and customers and more.

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Disaster planning for local small business retailers

January 31, 2024
5 Min read
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Whether it’s a natural disaster or not, businesses can be challenged by events that are outside the direct control of the business owners and managers. The key to successfully handling such events is the planning in place beforehand.

No one wants to plan for disaster, most don’t. Those who have encountered disaster, large or small, tend to wish they had better planned for it.

This advice is far-reaching, designed to act as a broad list of steps you can undertake to be prepared, or to at least get you thinking about steps you could take. Do it all or some, but do something … otherwise when you need good planning you will not have a plan on which to fall back.

Disaster Planning

Here are some general suggestions on planning for a disaster in your business property.

  1. Create action plans for different events so that those working in the business know exactly what to do. here are some examples of such events:
    1. Power blackout.
    2. Payments (EFTPOS) outage.
    3. Flooding or water ingress impacting the shop.
    4. Police incident directly impacting access to the shop.
    5. Serious health situation by a customer in the shop.
    6. Attack by customer against the business on social media.
    7. Loud complaint by customer in-store impacting other customers.
    8. refusal to supply by a regular supplier.
  2. Keep in one secure place off-site copies of: Business contracts and agreements; employee contact details, business account and other passwords, insurance details, recent photographs of fixtures, fittings and stock.
  3. For records you cannot easily copy or that may change as the trading day unfurls, consider having a go bag ready for you to grab if there is a risk to the premises such as a bushfire.
  4. Maintain a register of all employees in the business premises at any time.
  5. Prepare and place in a prominent place an evacuation plan.
  6. Maintain a professional grade OH&S compliant first aid kit. Have this checked regularly.
  7. Regularly maintain all fire extinguishers – check with your local fire brigade about this.
  8. Ensure that the business premises is safe and maintained to the local building codes and OH&S regulations.
  9. Have a trained first aid officer on staff. Your local St Johns or similar will be able to provide training.
  10. Use government resources, there are plenty at state and federal levels.

Insurance Protection

Insurance coverage is vital to helping a retail business overcome any type of disaster.  In addition to ensuring that your insurance policy covers all disaster situations of concern to you, including flood, theft, water inundation, fire, earthquake, riot—be sure to carefully read the policy, ensure that your insurance policy / policies cover payouts for the following:

  1. ‪Business interruption.  The amount should equal your anticipated gross profit for whatever period you choose to be covered.
  2. Data recovery.  Including the hiring of experts to recover data from backup sources or the manual entry of data which cannot be automatically recovered.  It needs to ensure that you are covered to the point of recovered data being useable in transacting business.
  3. Lost stock.  This is stock stolen, lost from the business.
  4. Damaged and unsaleable stock.  This is stock which is water damaged, scuffed or dented and which will not attract full price.
  5. Dated stock.  This is stock that you cannot sell by the due date.
  6. Many policies require explicit statement of glass coverage.
  7. Temporary trading premises.  Business interruption may cover this.  Ensure that it is explicitly stated.
  8. Key person injury and/or death. This will usually be a separate policy.  Depending on the disaster, coverage may also be available through the overall business policy.

Ensure that the value of stock, fixtures and fittings covered by your policy is an accurate reflection of the real value of these items.  Talk with your insurance company about the best approach to track this on an ongoing basis.

Insurance brokers can provide access to assessors who can advise on the appropriate level of insurance for your situation.

Use your Point of  Sale system to track all stock movements in and out.  The stock on hand in  your software should be your coverage.

Ensure that your insurance policy protects for the seasonal nature of your business

Data Protection

Business data is one of the most valuable assets of the business.  Like insurance, the value is often not understood until you need what you do not have.  Retailers who are serious about protecting their business data in the event of any disaster follow these steps:

  1. ‪Backup your business data every day, at the end of the day, without fail. Use a cloud based backup service that undertakes the backup as the day unfolds without you having to every do anything to cause a backup to be taken.
  2. Maintain a separate backup for each day of the week.  Consider a separate backup for the last day of each month.
  3. Remove the backup medium, usually a USB stick, from the business premises each day – outside the business property.
  4. Store the backup in a safe, dry place.
  5. Check the usefulness of the backup by restoring and checking the data.
  6. Store original business software in a safe off-site location.
  7. Check the backup every three to six months – to make sure the backup is actually backing us current data and can be read. A backup you cannot read is a waste of time and money.
  8. Change your passwords regularly.
  9. Do not share passwords widely.

Disaster planning is important. When you need it the most is when you face a disaster. Don’t be a business owner who realises that only then.

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New 2024 demonstration of POS software for garden centres, nurseries and landscape supply businesses

January 30, 2024
1 Min read
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We understand that garden centres and nurseries are unique retail businesses that require specialised software to meet your specific needs. That’s why we are thrilled to announce the release of our latest demonstration of our software for garden centres / nurseries / landscape supply businesses, designed and supported right here in Australia. Shot a few days ago by a couple of our experts, this software is loved already by hundreds of garden centres, nurseries and landscape supply businesses.

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POS software training when you want it, even overnight

January 26, 2024
1 Min read
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Imagine being able to learn parts of your POS software as and when it suits you, and that any of your team members can do this – even on a public holiday like today.

Tower Systems makes learning POS software easy thanks to an awesome comprehensive knowledge base and an ever-expanding library of POS software training videos.

Most of these videos have been shot in the last six months. As the software is updated, so are the videos – making the POS software training video library up to date and freshly valuable.

We are grateful to be able to provide this resource to our customers, to help them learn how to get the most out of using our POS software.

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ChatGPT AI POS software integration helps local retailers save time and shine

January 25, 2024
2 Min read
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A year ago, Tower Systems just released POS software with features that save local retailers time and boost sales. The integration of the POS software with ChatGPT was groundbreaking then, and it is loved today.

Here’s what’s what:

AI-powered product descriptions: Struggling to write captivating product descriptions? Enter ChatGPT, the world’s leading AI writing tool, now integrated with our Tower Systems POS software for small business retailers. Input your product title, and ChatGPT will whip up enticing descriptions for both print and online. This optional feature is a true time-saver, especially for busy shop owners.

Focus on capturing attention: This integration isn’t about replacing your creativity. Think of it as a helpful assistant who crafts descriptions likely to grab customer attention, especially online shoppers. You can still write your own descriptions if you prefer, but for those seeking a boost, AI is here to lend a hand.

AI in business: beyond the hype: Forget the headlines about AI writing essays or passing exams. The real magic happens in practical business applications like this. The innovative integration delivered by Tower Systems in its POS software shows how AI can be a valuable tool for any business, big or small.

More AI on the horizon: The Tower team is already cooking up more AI features, recognising the technology’s potential to streamline operations and improve the bottom line.

Embrace the AI revolution: Yes, there’s debate about AI, but Tower folks are clear: We build tools, and this is one businesses want. It’s about giving retailers the edge in a changing world.

Missing out on money? We can help: The new software also includes advanced business insights and management tools. One gem is the “what am I missing out on?” feature. By analysing your sales and inventory history, it pinpoints lost revenue opportunities due to stock shortages. Imagine identifying thousands of dollars in potential sales you could have made with the right stock!

Tower Systems is committed to empowering local retailers with innovative tools like this. With AI in their corner, small businesses can compete and thrive in today’s dynamic retail landscape.

Ready to experience the future of retail? Check out the new Tower POS software and see how AI can help your business soar!

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Tower Systems helps small business retailers recover EFTPOS costs with an auto-calculated surcharge

January 24, 2024
2 Min read
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We make it easy for local small business retailers to accurately apply a surcharge to a purchase based on the type of payment card presented.

With the cost of each card varying and some banks offering card specific costs to businesses, this approach by us makes it more certain for shoppers and retailers when it comes to a surcharge based on the type of card used.

Our POS software talks to the payments processor once the card is presented and instantly a surcharge is calculated and details provided to the shopper. We do this in the way the ACCC requires.

Certain rules apply when a business applies a surcharge to particular cards:

  • the surcharge must not be more than what it costs the business to use that payment type

  • the surcharge can only include costs that are for accepting that particular payment. For example, if a business pays an amount for gateway fees for processing credit card transactions only, the business cannot include this cost in its debit card transactions.

This approach meats with legal obligations of retailers in Australia. It also makes it easier for retailers to cover the cost of card payment, which can be considerable based on the type of card presented.

Using the Tower Systems POS software, local small business retailers can apply a credit or debit card surcharge with certainty, ease and confidence. They can provide good customer service and fully inform shoppers such that they may choose another method of payment.

The rules in Australia for applying the same surcharge for all payment types are that it must not be more than the lowest surcharge they would set for a single payment type. This is from their ACCC website. This is why applying a surcharge based on the actual payment type presented can matter – there is a huge different in payment type costs.

Our POS software makes it easy for small business retailers to apply a surcharge and manage toe collection of this and record keeping associated with it. We take care of business for our customers, make their job easier and provide a safe framework within which they transact with their customers.

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