The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

Latest stories

Free small business retail advice: Bing Business Profile. Steps you can take to be more easily found.

September 12, 2023
6 Min read
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Further to our advice in recent emails on how to setup your Google Business Profile, here is advice on doing the same for Bing:

How to set up Bing Places for Business and Connect it with Google My Business

Yes, Bing is a thing. It is growing in popularity as a search engine. It’s leading on Ai integration and that is one reason for growth in its use.

Now, the why: Establishing a strong online presence is crucial to being found, especially by people nearby, searching on their phone. One effective way to ensure your business gets discovered by potential customers is by leveraging local search platforms like Bing Places for Business and Google My Business. In this article, we guide you through the process of setting up Bing Places for Business and offer advice on connecting it with Google My Business to maximise your online visibility.

Here is our advice, which we have followed for our Malvern store.

Part 1: Setting Up Bing Places for Business

  1. Create a Microsoft account: To get started, you’ll need a Microsoft account. If you don’t already have one, visit the Microsoft account creation page and follow the instructions to sign up.
  2. Access Bing Places for Business: Once you have a Microsoft account, navigate to the BingPlaces for Business website (https://www.bingplaces.com/) and sign in using your account credentials.
  3. Claim your business listing: On the Bing Places for Business homepage, search for your business using its name, address, or phone number. If your business appears in the search results, claim it as your own. If not, proceed to create a new listing by selecting the “Add new business” option.
  4. Provide accurate business information: Fill out the required fields with accurate and up-to-date information about your shop, such as the name, address, phone number, website URL, and category. Make sure to be consistent with the details you provide across different online platforms.
  5. Enhance your listing: Bing Places for Business allows you to enhance your listing by adding photos, business hours, descriptions, and other relevant information. Utilise these features to make your listing more appealing and informative to potential customers. These details also help when people search.
  6. Verify your listing: After submitting your business information, you’ll need to verify your listing to prove that you’re the rightful owner. Bing Places for Business offers various verification methods, including phone verification, email verification, or postcard verification. Choose the method that suits you best and follow the instructions provided. We used the phone verification and it was fast, and easy.
  7. Keep it up to date. This is important. It’s also why we outline advice on connecting to Google My Business.

Part 2: Connecting with Google My Business

  1. Sign in to Google My Business: If you haven’t done so already, sign in to your Google account and visit the Google My Business website (https://www.google.com/business/) to access the platform.
  2. Add your business: Click on the “Manage now” button and enter your business name in the search field. If your business appears in the results, select it and proceed to claim it. If not, click on the “Add your business to Google” option.
  3. Provide accurate business details: Fill in the required information about your shop, including the name, address, phone number, website URL, and category. Ensure that the information matches what you’ve provided on Bing Places for Business.
  4. Verify your business: Google My Business requires verification to confirm your ownership. Similar to Bing Places for Business, you can choose from various verification methods, such as phone verification, email verification, or postcard verification. Follow the instructions provided to complete the verification process.
  5. Optimise your listing: Take advantage of the features offered by Google My Business to optimise your listing. Add high-quality photos, specify your business hours, provide a detailed description, and encourage customers to leave reviews. The more complete and engaging your listing is, the better it will perform in search results.
  6. Link Bing Places for Business and Google My Business: To connect the two platforms, visit the Bing Places for Business dashboard and locate the “Connect to Google My Business” option. Follow the provided instructions to link your Bing Places listing with your Google My Business account. This connection enables seamless sharing of your business information across both platforms.

Here are some additional tips to consider:

  1. Consistency is key: Ensure that the information you provide on both platforms is consistent and matches the details displayed on your website and other online directories. This includes your business name, address, phone number, and website URL. Consistency helps build trust and avoids confusion for customers.
  2. Utilise keywords: Incorporate relevant keywords in your business description, category selection, and other fields. This helps search engines understand the nature of your business and improves your chances of appearing in relevant search results. And, you can adjust these as you go.
  3. Monitor and respond to reviews: Regularly check and respond to customer reviews on both BingPlaces for Business and Google My Business. Engaging with your customers demonstrates excellent customer service and shows potential customers that you value their feedback – even if it is negative.
  4. Add additional business attributes: Both platforms offer the option to add extra attributes to your listing. Take advantage of these features to highlight special offerings, amenities, accepted payment methods, or any other relevant details that may attract customers to your shop.
  5. Share photos and videos: Visual content plays a crucial role in attracting customers. Add high-quality photos and, if possible, videos that showcase your products, services, and the ambiance of your shop. This visual representation helps potential customers get a better sense of what to expect when visiting your business.
  6. Monitor analytics: Both Bing Places for Business and Google My Business provide analytics and insights on how users are interacting with your listings. Monitor these analytics regularly to gain valuable insights into customer behaviour, popular search terms, and the overall performance of your listings. Use this information to optimise your strategies and improve your online visibility.

Remember, maintaining an active and updated online presence is an ongoing process. Regularly review and update your information, respond to customer inquiries, and adapt your strategies based on analytics to stay ahead in the competitive online marketplace.

By following these steps and implementing effective strategies, you can leverage the power of BingPlaces for Business and Google My Business to enhance your shop’s visibility, attract more customers, and boost your local presence.

We get that this can feel daunting, time consuming and not necessarily immediately valuable. Our advice is that it is valuable, and well worth doing.

Do not pay someone to do this work for you. It’s your business, your digital shop front, your responsibility to set your own narrative.

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New free POS software training videos for small business retailers

September 11, 2023
2 Min read
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We are grateful to have published plenty more POS software training videos to our free to access training library. Each video is on a separate topic and compact in time – to get to the point, cover it and provide customers an opportunity to try for themselves.

We have found these short videos to work very well in training local retailers in the use of our POS software.

Here are some of the new videos we have published:

  • Monthly Sales Comparison – the best report for ay retailer looking to understand and grow their business. 
  • Ranked Sales Report – so many options for discovering what’s working and what’s not.
  • Installing Retailer Updates – how, when, where and what.
  • General Stock Listing Report – for those who like old-school.
  • Supplier Stock Listing Report – when you want to hone in on a supplier.
  • Sales Transaction Log – the guts of sales history.
  • Detailed Takings Report – everything you want to know.
  • POS Touch Screen Advanced Settings – make your POS screen your own.
  • How to access and find knowledge base articles (including using F1) – the easy way to get help when you want it.
  • Access Support – Understanding Priority and Logging Support Tickets – tips for the best customer service experience.
  • Importing a Supplier Stockfile – we make it easy, and certain.

These videos and the many others released this year are designed to help you get more from the software for your business. We are grateful for customer feedback on the videos.

POS software training can be a challenge in a retail business with a staff turnover or a roster of casual staff. Our video training library with, now, around 70 new videos offers a resource set that retailers can use to ensure staff are well trained to get more form their Tower Systems POS software.

In publishing this list of most recent training videos produces by us for our POS software customers, we are showing our commitment to customer service. It would be easier to tell, but we prefer to show. facts matter and this list of training videos is real and fresh training content that our small business retailer customers are telling us they love, and we are sincerely grateful for that.

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Helping local small business retailers save time and improve efficiency

September 2, 2023
2 Min read
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Labour costs are under the spotlight in businesses around the world. The obsession with AI is, in part, because it reduces reliance on labour. In San Francisco 3 autonomous (driverless) car companies now operate taxis. We saw them when there on business just a week ago. 7-Eleven in Australia is trialling just walk out type tech. several shops where registered shoppers can walk in, take items off the shelf, and walk out. WH Smith now has self-checkout terminals in most of its Aussie c-store businesses.

We are working on several fronts for you in related areas.

  • Our ChatGPT AI integration is saving time on writing product descriptions and has been since January this year. Retailers are loving it – the time saving and the improvement in product descriptions.
  • Our free version of Retailer Roam makes it easy and fast to photograph products using your phone or tablet, load these into Retailer and sync with your website. In seconds you can take and load images of products via your phone, or tablet.
  • We are trialling our new Retailer Self-checkout facility using a new shopper-friendly portrait checkout screen. It’s an easy for shoppers to self check out, a labour saver in some settings.
  • Qjump, our new mobile customer-accessible true self-checkout facility is in trial. Think the new 7-Eleven app but for local indie small businesses without the weirdness of capturing shopper images and the high tech implementation cost.
  • Our new EasyEDI platform offering easy access to time-saving electronic invoices is in early trial with a supplier who, until now, has not offered these.

We are working on more innovations in our small business focussed Retailer POS software to help improve your efficiency. Time saving is a key focus, as is data accuracy.

It’s in these areas of work that we genuinely differentiate for our local small business retailer customers.

We are grateful for the support of our customers. Thank you. We hope you have an awesome lead into the Christmas retail season.

Oh, one more thing … Google has released a core update, which will impact website rankings. We shared advice by email with our customers about this in the last week of August.  Let’s know by email if you’s like a copy. sales@towersystems.com.au

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The easy way to learn how to use POS software

September 1, 2023
2 Min read
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Learning how to use POS software can be a pain, especially if you are new to a business that has been using the software for some time. Usually, in that case, you are trained by someone who has been trained by someone else in the business who may have been trained by the software company – if you’re lucky.

Here at Tower Systems we take a different approach. We make it easy for everyone using our POS software to tap into good professional and current content training.

Our library of training videos is regularly enhanced. each video is single topic, short and accessible regardless of level of technical skill.

We make it easy for any retailer or retail staff member to learn how to use our POS software.

We understand the value and power of knowledge, that’s why we make accessing training easy, and free for our customers.

Each of our videos is what we call snackable. By that we mean they are like a snack – quick and easy to digest. we have found this approach to training to be more useful, more appreciated, more valuable to the business. The shorter form videos are also more easily maintained y us, and we know our customers appreciate this.

Our approach to POS software training means that someone can join a business where our software has been used for several years and get free access to our training rather than relying on colleagues for training. We know this is differentiating for us, we have made it so, and we are proud of it.

The better retail employees know how to use our software the more value they are to the retail business and the customers it serves, also, the better they could feel about their work, their own value. It’s a genuine win win here.

With more than 16 hours of fresh training content available in video form and more than 600 searchable articles, our POS software customers can rely on being able to learn and refresh easily and without extra cost. We think this approach to accessible and free POS software training is key to serving the needs of local small business retailers.

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Retailers loving the latest POS software update

August 31, 2023
1 Min read
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We released a major software update around 10 days ago following a comprehensive beta release program. This update delivers net new facilities in our POS software, across a range of vertical markets in which we serve.

We are grateful to the many customers who engaged with us through the pre development consultation process and those who submitted their businesses to the beta release program. Your help has resulted in a wonderful product.

It is a buzz seeing how many of our customers have loaded this update already and started using it.

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Retail management advice: Small Business Loyalty Programs: Don’t Mimic the Big Guys

August 30, 2023
3 Min read
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Many small business retailers copy the loyalty programs of big retailers, too many in fact. Here at Tower Systems, based on years of experience working with retailers and running our own shops, we think this is a mistake.

Big retailers can afford to offer generic rewards like points, which mean what anyway (?), but small businesses need to be more creative and offer rewards that are relevant to and understood by their customers.

Here are a few tips for creating a loyalty program that will wow your customers:

  • Make it personal. Don’t just offer generic rewards like points. Instead, offer rewards that are specific to your business and your customers.
  • Make it easy to participate. Your loyalty program should be easy for customers to understand and participate in. The last thing you want is for customers to get confused or frustrated.
  • Make it rewarding. The rewards you offer should be valuable enough to keep customers coming back. Don’t just offer small discounts or coupons. Instead, offer rewards that your customers will actually want, like free products, exclusive experiences, or early access to new products.
  • Make it understood. Cash is what people understand the best. A dollar is worth a dollar.

If you follow these tips, you can create a loyalty program that will help you attract and retain customers.

Here are some specific examples of loyalty programs that small businesses can offer:

  • Discount vouchers: This is a simple but effective way to reward customers. You can offer discount vouchers for a percentage off their next purchase, or for free shipping or other perks.
  • VIP card: This is a great way to show your most loyal customers some extra love. VIP cardholders can enjoy exclusive rewards, like early access to new products or special discounts.
  • Bundled package offerings: This is a great way to encourage customers to spend more money. You can offer bundled packages of products or services at a discounted price.

No matter what type of loyalty program you choose, make sure it’s something that your customers will actually want to participate in. If you do that, you’ll be well on your way to building a loyal customer base.

Here are more thoughts on loyalty programs for small businesses:

  • Be creative. Don’t be afraid to get creative with your loyalty program. The more unique and interesting your program is, the more likely customers are to participate.
  • Be flexible. Your loyalty program should be flexible enough to change as your business grows and evolves. Don’t be afraid to make adjustments to your program as needed.
  • Be social. Promote your loyalty program on social media and other channels to reach a wider audience.

By following these tips, you can create a loyalty program that will help you grow your small business.

Now, our preference is discount vouchers because we know they work, we see it in business data from many hundreds of local small business retailers. Shoppers love them, and spend as a result.

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Aussie small business retailers love using AI to create better product descriptions

August 29, 2023
2 Min read
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ChatGPT integrated POS software from Aussie company Tower Systems auto-generates more meaningful products descriptions, saving time and removing a pain-point for small business retailers.

Released in February 2023 and fine-tuned since, the ChatGPT integration is loved by retailers.

The product descriptions are concise and tuned for search engine success.

“We run 3 shops ourselves and love the time this saves,” commented Mark Fletcher, Managing Director of Tower Systems. “The ChatGPT integration generates the description based on simple prompts. The retailer can review the text, and adjust if necessary.”

“Local small business retailers are time-poor so anything we can do to save time is a win.”

In a typical shop, coming up with a description for a new product can take several minutes with a range of factors to be considered. The ChatGPT integration eliminates this. The feedback from customers using the new facility are encouraging and motivating to the software developers as it recognises the practical value of their focus on productivity enhancements.

“Looking at product descriptions from many small business retailers, we found many were overwritten and not tuned to search engine needs, thereby denying sales opportunities to these businesses.”

The ChatGPT integrated POS software update was provided to the Tower customer community for no cost. Retailers using the software have the option to not use the AI integration.

It is part of a suite of POS software enhancements that targeted productivity improvements for local small business retailers who use the Tower Systems POS software.
Here is what the ChjatGPT integration looks like live:

…

Tower Systems serves more than 3,000 local specialty retailers in Australia: newsagents, pet shops, jewellers, garden centres, farm supply businesses, bike shops and gift shops.

The company also owns and runs 3 high street shops in Melbourne and 6 online retail businesses.

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Advice for retailers following the Google core update

August 28, 2023
3 Min read
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Four days ago, Google announced that it had released a core update. This has implications for all businesses that are found via Google searches.

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Whenever Google updates its search ranking algorithms, your website can do better or worse in the search results. It is important to watch how your website is impacted.

Google offers useful advice on dealing with the implications for a core update, including this excellent and practical advice:

We suggest focusing on ensuring you’re offering the best content you can. That’s what our algorithms seek to reward. To learn more about how to create content that’s successful, see our help page on how to create helpful, reliable people-first content. It has questions that you can ask yourself when assessing your own content.

This is key for any local small business retailer with a website: ensure your contact is unique, fresh, and valuable to the reader.

Our advice to retailers for whom we have developed websites connected to our POS Software is to ensure content is fresh, useful and updated as appropriate. 

We recommend against paying content farms, AI platforms or others to write content for you. If you are an expert, be the expert. Consider using your name, as a byline, on pages you have written.

Consider deleting pages that are out of date. Quality matters more than quantity.

Ensure product descriptions are your text and not that supplied by a supplier to all retailers they supply. Unique content matters.

Consider questions you answer. Do your answers on your website make you an authority? What changes could you make to be more of an authority?

Make sure page headings are relevant to the content.

Think about the humans you want to attract to your business, write for them and not for a search algorithm.

Every page on your website needs to have a human related purpose, the Google algorithms consider this.

If your business website contains any pages written by others, especially if those pages were created offshore, review them thoroughly and ensure your voice is heard, ensure the pages reflect what you want said about your business and its offers.

Here at Tower Systems we create and support POS Software for specialty retailers, and we create websites for retailers using our software. 

We are grateful to serve more than 3,000 local and independent retailers in Australia and New Zealand.

If you’re looking for new POS Software, we’d love to find out more about your needs:
Australia: 1300 662 957
NZ: 0800 444 367
Email: sales@towersystems.com.au
Website: www.towersystems.com.au – where you can easily access videos of software demos and our pricing.

Thanks for reading.

Mark Fletcher
Managing Director
Tower Systems International (Aust.) Pty Ltd
ABN 61 007 009 752
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-fletcher-tower/

PS. Your web developer may say that they will update the content on your website to leverage the Google changes. While that may appeal as a time saver, it is important that the content in your website reflects your expertise.

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The most important competitor a local small business retailer has is themselves

August 28, 2023
1 Min read
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Too often in local retail business we get in our head about big business competitors when the most important competitor any local small business retailer has is themselves.

Here at Tower Systems we develop and support POS software for local specialty retailers. We are retailers ourselves, too.

We’ve worried too much about big business competitors ourselves when wonderful opportunities can be seen when we look at ourselves as our own competitor.

This short video speaks to this opportunity.

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Tower Systems POS Software: Designed to Help Local Clothing Shops Thrive

August 25, 2023
3 Min read
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Tower Systems makes POS software for local independent clothing shops and fashion retailers. This software is designed to help these businesses succeed by providing them with the tools they need to manage their inventory, track sales, and provide excellent customer service. It has wonderful tools for leveraging local.

Some of the features of Tower Systems POS software for local independent clothing shops and fashion retailers include:

  • Inventory management by color, size, and style
  • Management of alterations (if done in-house or outsourced)
  • Easy inclusion of clothing care instructions on receipts
  • Bundling options for shoppers who may purchase a whole outfit
  • Loyalty tools that can help businesses differentiate themselves from the competition
  • Reporting on sales by brand, in addition to tracking sales by wholesaler/supplier

Tower Systems POS software also integrates with a variety of other popular platforms, such as Shopify, Xero, Deputy, Tanda, and Slyp. This makes it easy for businesses to manage their online sales, accounting, staff schedules, shipping, and digital receipts.

There is no requirements to use a specific payments platform for EFTPOS. That choice is up to you and there is no extra cost for your choice.

The software is priced at $195 per month, and there are no extra fees for more terminals, advanced reporting, loyalty tools, or personal support. Businesses can cancel the rental at any time, so they’re not locked into a long-term contract.

To make it easy for new employees to learn how to use the software, Tower Systems provides a library of short, topic-specific videos. This ensures that everyone in the business is using the software effectively.

The monthly rental cost for Tower Systems POS software includes:

  • Software licenses for unlimited computers in the location
  • Help desk support (by phone or email) 6 days a week (including Saturday)
  • Access to a comprehensive support knowledge base
  • After-hours support call access for urgent system down queries
  • Access to Shopify, Xero, and other integrations
  • Access to supplier invoice import tools

Tower Systems POS software is a comprehensive and affordable solution for local clothing shops and fashion retailers of all sizes. It’s the perfect way to manage your inventory, track sales, and provide excellent customer service.

Here are some additional benefits of using Tower Systems POS software:

  • It can help you increase sales by providing you with insights into your customers’ buying habits.
  • It can help you improve your customer service by making it easier to track orders and provide refunds.
  • It can help you save time and money by automating tasks such as inventory management and reporting.

If you’re a local clothing shop or fashion retailer, consider the Tower Systems POS software. It could be the perfect solution for your business.

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Why hundreds of jewellers use the jeweller POS software from Tower Systems

August 24, 2023
2 Min read
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We are grateful here at Tower Systems to serve many hundreds of jewellers with our jeweller POS software. Plenty have been with us for more than 15 years and plenty have joined us just this year.

Thank you to all, we are grateful.

We’re not connected with any marketing group, we don’t pay a commission for referral. We also don’t lock you in to any particular EFTPOS platform.

Here is some of the benefits in our jeweller POS software that jewellers tell us they like:

  • Sell accurately by weight or measure – by whole numbers or fractions.
  • Load electronic invoices from suppliers.
  • Sell on the road.
  • Leverage you. If your knowledge is a differentiator, offer it through structured opportunities in the software.
  • Easier record keeping with serial number tracking of items sold.
  • Ensure compliance with structured age checking.
  • Easily handle special customer orders. Bring product in for a specific customer and have them notified automatically by email or text when the goods are in and ready.
  • Business differentiating loyalty. Stand out from the crowd. Have customers coming back to you for this.
  • Maximise the basket with easy to use one-time shopper loyalty tools.
  • Trade and club pricing profiles. Set pricing rules based on customer type.
  • Pre-orders – Easily pre-sell a delivery so that when the stock arrives you can manage distribution and billing efficiently.
  • Differentiate with informative receipts. These can include product care, use and safety information based on what customers buy.
  • Differentiate with bundles. Selling items bundled together makes price comparison hard.
  • Track who sold what.
  • Time saving invoicing and account management – manage accounts in a way tailored to your
  • Market to customers based on past purchases.
  • Save time by importing electronic invoices.
  • Sell more with a direct connect to buy now pay later services.
  • Cut mistakes with integrated EFTPOS.
  • Cut accounting and bookkeeping fees with integration to Xero and others.
  • Easily sell online with a direct to Shopify / Magento or WooCommerce link from your POS software.

This is Aussie made and supported POS software, locally made for local businesses. We are passionate about helping local businesses compete with big business chains when they want to and to stand out in their local community by running a best practice business.

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POS software for produce, farm supply and local feedstock businesses

August 23, 2023
3 Min read
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The Tower Systems POS software for produce, farm supply and local feedstock businesses is Australian made for businesses in Australia and New Zealand.

We are focussed on local independent businesses. This is where we thrive.

Our software works in-store, on the road and for online sales. But whether it is right for you is up to you. We’d love to understand your needs and see if our software could serve you. Here are some of the benefits our customers using our POS software for produce, farm supply and local feedstock businesses tell us they love:

  • Time saving invoicing and account management – manage accounts in a way tailored to your You can easily account for freight, produce picking slips, manage accounts, feed data to Xero and MYOB and do more.
  • Delivery platform integration.
  • Sell accurately by measure – by whole numbers or fractions.
  • Special orders. Bring product in for a specific customer and have them notified automatically by email or text when the goods are in and ready.
  • Business differentiating loyalty. Stand out from the crowd. Have customers coming back to you for this.
  • Pre-orders – We make it easy for you to pre-sell a delivery so that when the stock arrives you can manage distribution and billing efficiently.
  • Bagging up feed – Easily manage bagging up a bulk feed delivery into smaller, saleable lots, while keeping accurate stock on hand data.
  • Making your own feed mix. We help you track managing bulk quantity ingredients and mixing these into saleable packs of your own brand of seed mix. What an awesome point of difference for your business!
  • Pricing profiles. You can set pricing rules based on types of customers.
  • Sell by weight. in whole numbers or fractions. Accurate billing and stock levels, which customers love.
  • Differentiate with informative receipts. These can include care, use and safety information based on what customers buy.
  • Be accurate with all-weather product labels.
  • Differentiate with bundles. Selling items bundled together makes price comparison hard.
  • Market to customers based on past purchases.
  • Save time by importing electronic invoices.
  • Sell more with a direct connect to buy now pay later services.
  • Cut mistakes with integrated EFTPOS.
  • Cut accounting and bookkeeping fees with integration to Xero and others.
  • Easily sell online with a direct webstore link.

Tower Systems is not an average POS software company. We are a small business, indie business, focussed POS software company developing software in Australia and New Zealand for Australian and New Zealand based specialty retailers.

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How do I find the best POS system for my business?

August 22, 2023
2 Min read
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Don’t rush it. Take your time. Make decisions when you are ready.

Many POS software companies and sales people will want you to rush. Some will apply financial pressure. Others will say it’s easy, start today, be selling today … and they will often say this without understanding your business needs.

Take your time. Make decisions when you are ready.

The goal has to be to choose the POS software that best serves your needs. So, start there, with your needs. Think about them, what matters most to you, what’s not negotiable. Start there and cast aside any software company that is not interested in starting with your needs.

Some will offer a free trial, some will even push hard at this. That’s lazy selling. They want you to use their software to see if it is suitable, and knowing that some customers will stick because of concerns that it could be hard to switch software. We think free trials are a crock.

Some will offer you free software. There is no such thing. Software developers don’t work for free, nor dog help desk people, the accounts office in the software company, the sales team. Since they don’t work for free, the company has to make money so, no, there is no such thing as truly free software.

All the sales claims can make it challenging.

Take your time. Make decisions when you are ready. Start with your needs.

If this sound like hard work, it is. Good software can make you a lot of money, it can save businesses. Spending time getting this decision right could be worth a ton of money to your business. But the work has to come from you, not the sales person.

The best POS system for your retail business is the one that covers the most of your needs at a price you are prepared to pay.

No software company can claim theirs is the best, although plenty do. They can speak to customer numbers, of course, which is fine, but not a measure of best.

Here at Tower Systems. we start with you, and your needs. We want to understand them first. If we think our software is not right for you, we’ll say so.

How do I find the best POS system for my business? Don’t rush it. Take your time. Make decisions when you are ready.

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Game store POS software helps local game shops thrive

August 21, 2023
3 Min read
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The game store POS software from Tower Systems helps local game shops thrive by nurturing:

  • Better and more valuable business decisions.
  • Connecting with and serving local clubs.
  • Reducing dead stock.
  • Accurately and easily managing sales.
  • Bringing shoppers back sooner.
  • Guiding more items each purchased each visit.

This POS software made for game shops has facilities that go deep into the unique needs of game shops.

Game shops are unique and special businesses. Here are some of the ways our game store POS software helps local game shops leverage their uniqueness:

  1. Rare visit loyalty.  We are told that customers visit a game shop infrequently. Our software offers subtle loyalty tools that encourage more value from each visit.
  2. Pre-orders. Easily manage selling products before you have them in-stock. Collectors love these facilities. It works really well for items that are hard to find.
  3. Buy Now Pay Later and LayBy. Through our software you can have both.
  4. Club / collector marketing and support. Leverage clubs and collectors with offers and pricing. Nurture the love of gaming and connecting to this community, and growing the size of the community.
  5. Special orders. With some items ordered in for a customer request, managing these types of orders helps the business to manage opportunities and to capture revenue in advance.
  6. Consignment selling. For customers who ask you to sell their items, you can track this inventory and any sales.
  7. Sell online. It’s easy with our Shopify integration.

Our Australian made and supported game store POS software does much more than this.

We are grateful to the game shops already using our software for their advice and feedback is key to helping us to continue to evolve this game store POS software.

Here’s what’s included in the monthly rental cost: software licences for unlimited computers in the location, help desk support (by phone or email) 6 days a week (including Saturday), access to a comprehensive support knowledge base, after hours support call access for urgent system down queries, access to our Shopify, Xero and other integrations, access to our supplier invoice import tools.

Of course, the game shop POS software from Tower Systems offers much more than this.

Customisable thanks to many user-selectable options, this software helps game shops differentiate from big box retailers. It helps retailers highlight their difference, leverage their specialty knowledge and compete in unique and proven valuable ways.

This POS software is not average POS software that you’d see widely used. It really has been made for local specialty retail, like game shops, to help them leverage being specialty.

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See the gift shop software made in Australia for local independent gift retailers

August 21, 2023
3 Min read
S

The Tower Systems gift shop POS software is made for local indie gift shops. It is 100% small business focussed, local business focussed.

This is important.

Every customer matters to us. Every customer is equal.

In a big software company that serves big retailers with many stores, the local gift shop can be forgotten, lost.

We have learnt so much over the years from local gift retailers, so many business insights that we have been able to encode in our software, to help other local indie gift retailers.

Our 3,000+ local retail business user community is terrific like that.

In our gift shop software you will find facilities designed to help you with all the usual POS software stuff like transact accurately, and to help you with insights designed to help you run a more enjoyable and successful retail business, help you reduce mistakes and help you thrive.

The Tower Systems gift shop software is made for this and much more. Here’s a list of the benefits gift shop owners and staff love using in this gift shop software:

  • Get one-time-only shoppers spending more thanks to an easy to pitch loyalty system embedded in the software.
  • Leverage you. If you believe your knowledge is a differentiator, offer it through structured opportunities in the software.
  • Encourage customer happiness by serving product care info. on receipts.
  • Easily handle special customer orders. Bring product in for a specific customer and have them notified automatically by email or text when the goods are in and ready.
  • Easily sell online with a direct to Shopify / Magento or WooCommerce link from your POS software – including image flow.
  • Ensure compliance when required with structured age checking.
  • Save time with electronic invoices from suppliers.
  • Use tags to get a fresh perspective, side-view, on stock performance.
  • Bundle items together to make price comparisons harder and thereby increase sales.
  • Business differentiating loyalty. Stand out from the crowd. Have customers coming back to you for this.
  • Trade and club pricing profiles. Set pricing rules based on customer type.
  • Make money from pre-orders – Easily pre-sell a delivery so that when the stock arrives you can manage distribution and billing efficiently.
  • Differentiate with informative receipts. These can include product care, use and safety information based on what customers buy.
  • Differentiate with bundles. Selling items bundled together makes price comparison hard.
  • Track who sold what.
  • Say goodbye to LayBy – with integrated buy now pay later options.
  • Market to customers based on past purchases.
  • Save time by importing electronic invoices.
  • Sell more with a direct connect to buy now pay later services.
  • Cut mistakes with integrated EFTPOS.
  • Cut accounting and bookkeeping fees with integration to Xero and others.

But the heart of it is that this software is made for local indie gift shops. Every customer is equal at Tower Systems.

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10 jokes about software programming

August 20, 2023
2 Min read
1

We’re sharing these to show we can laugh at ourselves (we’s a software development company):

  • How many software programmers does it take to change a light bulb? None. It’s a hardware problem.
  • Give a person a new software program, and frustrate them for a day. Teach a person to program, frustrate them for a lifetime.
  • It’s not a bug, It’s a feature!
  • Software undergoes beta testing shortly before it’s released. Beta is Latin for ‘still doesn’t work.’
  • Why did the programmer quit their job? because they didn’t get arrays.
  • What did 0 say to 1? You’re a bit too much.
  • What’s the difference between a vegan and a computer programmer? One is disgusted by rack of lamb and the other is disgusted by lack of RAM.
  • What do you call a group of programmers? An argument.
  • Why do programmers get Halloween and Christmas mixed up? Because Oct31 = Dec25
  • A programmer is asked to go to the shop and pick up a loaf of bread, and if they have eggs, get a dozen. They returned home with 12 loaves of bread. When asked, they said “they had eggs”

Humour, like any art form, is subjective.  We hope you had a laugh, or a chuckle at least.

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