Thank you for shopping local
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Our Contract is Our Commitment: Why We Make It Easy for Our POS software to Leave
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In the world of retail software, the long-term contract is standard practice. Twelve, twenty-four, even thirty-six-month agreements are common, locking small business retailers into a platform regardless of whether it continues to meet their evolving needs. At Tower Systems, we have a different approach. Our commitment to you isn’t written in a lengthy, binding contract; it’s proven every day in the value our software delivers.
That’s why we make it easy for our customers to leave.
With just 30 days’ notice, any retailer using our POS software for small business retail can terminate their rental agreement. There are no financial penalties, no hidden clauses, and no difficult conversations. This isn’t just a policy; it’s the bedrock of our entire business philosophy.
Putting Our Skin in the Game
This 30-day notice period is our differentiator, but more importantly, it’s our daily motivation. By giving our customers the freedom to leave, we place the onus squarely on ourselves to give them compelling reasons to stay. It keeps us accountable and relentlessly focused on what truly matters: delivering tangible value to the small, independent retailers we serve.
We back ourselves and our software. We are confident that our product, our support, and our continuous innovation will earn your business month after month. If we fail to do that, you should have the freedom to choose a solution that does.
How This “Easy to Quit” Policy Drives Us
This commitment shapes every facet of our operation:
- It Drives Continuous Innovation: We can’t afford to become complacent. Knowing that our customers can leave at any time pushes our development team to constantly enhance our software, release meaningful updates, and respond to the real-world needs of modern retailers.
- It Demands Excellent Support: When a retailer calls for support, they aren’t just a contract number; they are a partner whose trust we must re-earn with every interaction. Our support team understands that responsive, effective, and knowledgeable service is critical to customer retention.
- It Fosters a True Partnership: The traditional software contract creates a power imbalance. Our model fosters a partnership. We are in it together. Your success is the only metric that guarantees our success, creating a relationship built on mutual trust and respect, not contractual obligation.
The Power of Freedom for the Retailer
For a small retail business owner, agility is everything. The retail landscape can change in a season, and your business needs to pivot quickly. Being locked into a multi-year software contract that no longer fits your workflow stifles that agility.
Our 30-day policy provides you with:
- Reduced Risk: You can adopt our powerful, specialised POS software for your local specialty retail business with the confidence that you are not making an irreversible, long-term financial commitment.
- Ultimate Flexibility: As your business grows, diversifies, or changes, you have the assurance that your core operational software can change with you.
- An Empowered Choice: You stay with Tower Systems because you want to, not because you have to. You are in control.
We believe the best way to keep a customer is to deliver so much value they wouldn’t dream of leaving. That’s our promise. The 30-day notice isn’t an exit clause; it’s our commitment to upholding that promise every single day.
About Tower Systems
Tower Systems has been providing specialised POS software for small and independent retailers across Australia for over 40 years. We pride ourselves on creating practical, feature-rich software backed by industry-leading support. To learn more about our commitment to local retail, visit us at www.towersystems.com.au.
We imported a PDF of a 16 page invoice with 480 stock items into our AI enabled POS software in no time at all with 100% accuracy
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Manual data entry is the silent thief of productivity in local small business retail. Every business owner knows the feeling: a thick supplier invoice lands on your desk, and you know that hours of tedious, soul-destroying typing lie ahead. It’s a process prone to errors, where a single misplaced decimal or incorrect product code can lead to stock discrepancies, pricing mistakes, and ultimately, lost revenue.
We decided to put a definitive end to that.
We took a real-world, complex challenge: a 16-page supplier invoice containing 480 individual stock items with a freight charge and including some stock items not stocked before. The kind of document that would typically take a staff member hours to process, with a high likelihood of human error.
The result? Our AI-powered POS software ingested, read, and processed the entire document in moments. Not minutes, moments.
- Pages processed: 16
- Line items: 480
- Time taken: Seconds
- Accuracy: 100%
How is this possible?
This isn’t simple Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Our Tower Systems small business POS software AI has been trained to understand the structure of an invoice. It doesn’t just see text; it identifies columns and comprehends data, intelligently mapping product codes, descriptions, quantities, costs, and taxes directly into your inventory system.
What this could mean for your business:
- Reclaim your time: Free up yourself and your staff to focus on what truly matters—serving customers and growing the business, not acting as data entry clerks.
- Eliminate costly errors: 100% accuracy means your stock levels are correct from the moment goods arrive. No more pricing errors or chasing phantom inventory.
- Get stock on shelves faster: The delay between receiving a delivery and having it available for sale is drastically reduced. In a fast-moving retail environment, this speed is a competitive advantage.
- Improve staff morale: Removing the most tedious tasks from your team’s plate is a guaranteed way to boost job satisfaction.
The days of manually processing supplier invoices are over. Technology should work for you, simplifying complexity and giving you back your most valuable asset: time.
The Tower Systems AI enabled POS software is proving to be a game changer for local and independent small business retailers. Find out more at www.towersystems.com.au or call 1300 662 957 or email sales@towersystems.com.au.
We love helping local small business retailers thrive!
Looking for an MYOB Retail Manager Alternative? A Guide for Australian Retailers
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Here at Tower Systems, we respect the significant role MYOB Retail Manager has played in helping countless Australian retailers over the years. We are also grateful to have welcomed many of its former users into our community, providing a comfortable and welcome new home for their business operations and data.
If you’re currently using MYOB Retail Manager and exploring what else is out there, we’d like to introduce ourselves. We specialise in creating powerful, user-friendly POS software specifically for local specialty retailers in Australia.
The Tower Systems difference is about more than the software
When you partner with us, you’ll discover some key differences. We’ve built our service around the unique needs of small business owners. Here’s what you can expect as a Tower Systems customer:
- Easy One-on-One Training: Get personalised training on our POS software to ensure you and your team are confident from day one.
- AI tools embedded. Yes, AI tools in our POS software ready to help you work faster, smarter and more profitably.
- Local, Experienced Support: Our friendly help desk experts are all based in Australia. Many have retail experience themselves, so they understand the challenges you face.
- Regular, Tested Updates: We don’t just push out updates. We thoroughly test them before release, using valuable user feedback to guide the development of new features. Plus, your voice is heard when considering enhancements to our POS software.
- Learn at Your Own Pace: Dive into our extensive knowledge base with over 600 step-by-step guides and access a library of fresh training videos anytime you need a refresher. Awe also have easy to access free training videos that are kept up top date.
- Seamless EFTPOS Integration: We integrate with your preferred bank, ensuring smooth and reliable transactions for you and your customers. Plus, we don’t lock you in on payments.
- Grow Your Customer Base: With so many tools and opportunities.
- A Connected Community: Join our private Facebook group to connect with other retailers, and participate in our regular customer Zoom meetings to learn tips and ask questions directly.
- Direct Access to Leadership: We believe in transparency and accessibility. You can talk directly with our key decision-makers.
- Advanced Theft Check Service: Protect your bottom line with our secure service that analyses transaction data to help identify and prevent potential fraud.
Since 1981, we’ve grown to serve over 3,000 local businesses across various specialty retail channels. Our technology is cutting-edge, efficient, and developed entirely by our in-house team. We also provide all our own support, ensuring a consistent and high-quality experience.
Considering a switch from MYOB retail Manager? Here’s our honest advice
Changing your core business system is a big decision. If you’re considering a move from MYOB Retail Manager, we first recommend contacting them to see if they can address your concerns. Sometimes, staying with a familiar system is the best path forward.
However, if you’re committed to making a change, the best first step is to create a list of your absolute needs and wants in a new POS software and provider.
At Tower Systems, we’re a no-pressure company. We would be delighted to learn about your business needs, provide a comprehensive, no-obligation demonstration of our software, and then give you the time and space to consider it at your own pace.
Let’s connect
When you’re ready, we’ll be here – in person, not through an offshore call centre. Our service is personal. Call us, and a real person will answer. Visit our head office, and we’ll welcome you in. Email us, and you can expect a prompt reply.
We can’t guarantee we’re the absolute best alternative for everyone, but we’re confident we can show you a robust, supportive, and forward-thinking option for your retail business.
Check us out and see if Tower Systems is the right fit for you:
- Website: www.towersystems.com.au
- Sales:
sales@towersystems.com.auor 1300 662 957
Thanks for reading!
P.S. We specialise in working with local small business retailers in Australia. This ensures our focus is always on serving your specific needs, not those of large corporations.
Customers are loving being able to ask POS software questions in any language
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Our Tower Systems small business retail customers are loving the ability for our Intercom FIN chatbot to answer POS software queries in languages other than English. There is no switch for them to turn on. All our small business retail customers need do is start by speaking or typing in their language of choice. The interaction is a joy to watch.
Check out this interaction from the other day.
French, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch, German, even Pidgin English.
All one of our POS software customers need do is to ask a question in their preferred language.
Our ChatBot responses only come from the knowledge we have provided. This closed approach provided a quality interaction for even the most complex of questions put by our small business POS software customers.
Now, our ChatBot has been live for years. Its skill is growing daily. And, more of our POS software customers are using it. Their productivity is up as a result, as is ours.
What’s interesting is that our staffing of the help desk has not been cut as a result of the AI ChatBot that’s in place. rather, team members are freed to be more efficient in other ways, and this benefits our customers for ore complex queries and other work that benefits our goal of helping local small business retailers thrive.
By handling routine and repetitive queries, the ChatBot frees up our help desk staff to tackle more complex and nuanced customer issues. This shift allows our team to focus on the truly human aspects of support, building relationships, providing in-depth guidance, and offering personalised solutions that the AI cannot. It means our human team members can dedicate their time to high-value interactions, ensuring that our small business customers feel heard and supported, ultimately strengthening our commitment to their long-term success.
We continue to provide human oversight of the ChatBot responses, to ensure they are correct and to look for ways we can improve the knowledge feed to the ChatBot so that its response are even better.
Ai is not a replacement for good customer service. Rather, it is an enhancement to customer service in so many ways.
Key to the success our ChatBot has at providing responses to our small business POS software customers is the structured knowledge source we provide. This has been a hallmark of our company for decades and continues to evolve today. This is not your regular user manual or other documentation software companies produce. rather, it is structured step-by-step information, knowledge, peer-reviewed and checked to ensure its accuracy and understandability by people and by tech that have no retail reference point yet for which retail context is vital.
At the heart of the C hatBot advice is human knowledge and here at Tower Systems that’s not going anywhere. We know that retail is all about the personal experience, especially local small business retail.
We are grateful to our POS software customers for engaging with our ChatBot, providing feedback and engaging as we continue to evolve this smart tech service.
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While the right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business, Tower Systems was built to serve Australian and New Zealand local small business specialty retailers. To see how we can help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today.
Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au.
See how our pet shop software serves Indepet retailers and other pet shop owners
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Empowering Independent Pet Shops: More Than Just a POS System
Independent pet shop owners run a business and they nurture a community of pet lovers. They compete with passion and expertise, but to truly thrive against large chain stores, they need tools that work as hard as they do. A Point-of-Sale (POS) system should be more than a cash register, it should be a central hub for growth, efficiency, and customer engagement.
At Tower Systems, we’ve developed specialised pet shop software designed to empower local and independent retailers, including proud members of the Indepet group. Our platform helps you compete effectively by saving time, enabling genuine omnichannel sales, and providing the data you need to make smarter business decisions. See for yourself in this new video from us:
Create Unbeatable Customer Loyalty
In a competitive market, customer loyalty is your greatest asset. Our software is packed with features designed to build lasting relationships and keep your customers returning.
Imagine a system that automatically manages multi-buy promotions, like a “buy 10, get one free” offer on pet food, without the need for flimsy punch cards. The POS prompts your staff when a customer is eligible and prints their progress on their receipt, creating a seamless experience.
Go a step further by adding a personal touch:
- Celebrate pet birthdays with special offers.
- Send automated reminders for worming and other treatments.
- Track pet microchip numbers for your records.
- Share your own specialty care and product use information directly with customers.
Streamline Operations and Drive Sales
Our goal is to help you spend less time on administration and more time with your customers. The Tower Systems pet shop software is a complete tool for both your front-of-store and back-office needs. It helps you differentiate your business and grow your bottom line with powerful, integrated features.
Key Features for Your Pet Shop:
- Save Time: Process electronic invoices directly from suppliers and slash bookkeeping fees with seamless integration into Xero and other accounting platforms.
- Boost Loyalty: Implement automated multi-buy promotions and flexible club or group pricing to reward your best customers.
- Increase Sales: Easily manage pre-orders, create unique product bundles to make price comparisons difficult, and market to customers based on their specific purchase history.
- Embrace Omnichannel: Sell online with ease through a direct link from your POS software to a Shopifywebstore.
- Modernise Payments: Move beyond outdated lay-by systems with integrated Buy Now, Pay Later options.
- Gain Insights: Use product tags to get a fresh perspective on stock performance and track sales data by employee.
A Platform That Evolves With You
The pet retail industry is constantly changing, and your software should too. The Tower Systems platform is continuously evolving, with regular updates that include enhancements suggested directly by our customers. When you choose our software, you’re not just buying a product; you’re gaining a partner dedicated to your success.
Ready to take your pet shop to the next level?
Discover how Tower Systems can help you save time, build lasting customer relationships, and grow your business.
Website: www.towersystems.com.au Phone: 1300 662 957 Email: sales@towersystems.com.au
Small business retailers can influence POS software enhancement at Tower Systems
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Small Businesses Can Directly Shape Their Point-of-Sale Software
For a small business retailer, the right Point-of-Sale (POS) software is crucial. But what if you could do more than just use it? What if you could actively influence its development? At Tower Systems, we provide our customers with a direct channel to do just that through our Software Ideas platform. Here’s a new video from us about this:
A Customer-Driven Process
Inspired by the principles in Jeff Jarvis’s book What Would Google Do?, we launched the Software Ideas platform 16 years ago to make our development process more transparent and driven by real-world customer needs.
The process is simple and democratic:
- Suggest: Our retail customers can submit any suggestion for a software enhancement through the platform.
- Assess: Our team assesses each idea for its technical feasibility and cost.
- Vote: If a suggestion is viable, we open it up for a community vote where all of our POS software customers can have their say on the features they want most.
This entire process is managed by team members like Mitch, who ensures that valuable customer feedback moves from an idea to a tangible feature, humanising and adding transparency to our development cycle.
Real Results in Every Update
This isn’t just a suggestion box—it’s the core of our innovation strategy. We are proud that every single update to our POS software includes enhancements suggested by our customers through the Software Ideas platform.
For example, our most recent software release in September 2025 contains eight new features that originated directly from this customer-driven process. We even highlight these user-suggested enhancements in our update notes to show the power and impact of our community’s engagement.
The result is a powerful POS system that is continuously refined to serve the real-world needs of retailers. This collaborative approach has not only enriched our software but has also built stronger, more trusting relationships with the businesses we serve.
POS Software for Specialty Retailers
Tower Systems is a POS software company focused on developing and supporting solutions for a wide range of niche specialty retailers, including:
- Jewellers
- Garden Centres
- Bike Shops
- Toy Shops
- Produce & Farm Supply Businesses
- Fishing & Pet Shops
- Charity & Antique Shops
- Sewing & Haberdashery Businesses
- Landscape Gardening Suppliers
- Newsagents
- And many more.
By choosing Tower Systems, small businesses gain more than just software; they gain a voice in its evolution.
The power of a $2 Discount: Unlocking bonus revenue you didn’t know you had
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In a shop using our Tower Systems POS software the other day, we saw first-hand the valuable difference $2 can make. A customer completed their planned purchase and received a discount voucher on their receipt offering $2.00 off their next purchase. They glanced at the voucher, paused, turned around, and picked up a leather purse for $99.95.
“Why not treat yourself,” they said almost to themselves.
This single, small moment perfectly illustrates the powerful psychology of a simple, tangible reward. The $2.00 wasn’t just a discount; it was the permission the customer needed to indulge. It transformed a completed transaction into a brand-new, high-value sale.
This is something we have seen and heard about from retailers since we first launched discount vouchers in our POS software twelve years ago.
This powerful sales-driving tool isn’t a future feature or a costly add-on. Discount Voucher facilities are built into our Tower Systems POS software right now. They are easy to set up, effortless to manage, and continue to deliver bonus revenue for a minimal, often zero, cost.
Why these simple vouchers work so well
The effectiveness of this feature lies in its straightforward and honest approach. In a world of complex loyalty schemes, the direct discount voucher cuts through the noise.
- Transparency is key: We all know what a dollar is worth. When you offer
$5.00off, the value is immediate and universally understood. This clarity is more compelling than abstract points systems. Who knows how much a point is worth? The customer has to do mental gymnastics, recall the rules of the program, and wonder about the true value. A dollar discount is instant gratification. - It feels like ‘found money’: A voucher printed on a receipt feels like an unexpected gift. This positive emotional response creates goodwill and encourages the customer to spend their newfound “cash” immediately, just as our purse-buyer did.
- It drives immediate action: The voucher creates a compelling reason for a customer to either return to your store soon or, even better, to continue shopping right there and then. It turns a single purchase mission into a browsing and discovery session.
Putting vouchers to work in your business
Your Tower Systems software provides the flexibility to tailor voucher campaigns to your specific business goals. You can set them up in minutes to:
- Reward every customer: Set up a simple “catch-all” voucher that prints on every eligible receipt, offering a small discount on their next purchase. This is a brilliant way to encourage repeat business.
- Drive larger sales (spend & get): Configure vouchers to be issued only when a customer spends over a certain amount. For example, “Spend
$100and get a$10voucher for your next visit.” This incentivises customers to increase their basket size. - Move specific stock: Need to clear out last season’s items or promote a new product line? Create vouchers that are only valid for specific departments or categories (e.g., “
$5.00off any purchase from our new giftware range”). - Re-engage lost customers: Use your customer data to identify shoppers who haven’t been in for a while and send them a targeted “We Miss You” email.
The setup is simple, the impact is real
Activating this feature is straightforward. Within your Tower Systems POS software, you can easily define the voucher’s value, set an expiry date to create urgency, specify a minimum spend for redemption, and control when and how it is issued. The POS automates the entire process—from printing the offer on the receipt to tracking and redeeming it—ensuring it’s a seamless experience for both your staff and your customers.
Don’t underestimate the power of a small incentive. The story of the $2.00 voucher and the $99.95 purse is not an anomaly; it’s a repeatable strategy. We have seen this ourselves.
Explore the discount voucher facilities in your Tower Systems software today. Start turning every transaction into a compelling opportunity for your next sale.
Are you looking for an alternative to Shopify POS?
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If you are looking for an alternative to Shopify POS for your shop, our Tower Systems POS software could be worth considering.
Now, to be clear, what we are talking about there is POS software for a physical shop.
Shopify started life as an e-commerce platform and that remains the core focus of their business. The Shopify POS app or service is an add-on for the physical shop.
Like many POS software companies, years ago we went through an approval process with Shopify to be an approved integrated POS software solution for Shopify – to offer in-store POS that’s integrated with their e-commerce platform. we continue to offer this today with many of our POS software customers using this.
What’s different about our POS software offering and how we compare to Shopify POS is that we are an in-store first solution, a physical retail first solution. That’s our specialty. In our software we go deep into serving the needs of retail businesses, workflow needs, operational needs, business growth needs. We also go deep into the needs of specific vertical retail channels: jewellers, bike shops, music shops, bookshops, pet shops, firearms dealers, camping shops, gift shops, newsagents, produce businesses, farm supply businesses, garden centres and many more.
This deep specialisation in our POS software matters because it addresses unique, real-world workflows that generic systems cannot. For a bike shop, it means seamlessly tracking serialised inventory from purchase to sale and managing workshop repairs. For a jeweller, it involves handling intricate repairs, managing consignment stock, and tracking precious metals. For a garden centre, it could be integrating scales to sell bulk landscape supplies by weight or it could be managing price changes to products when repotting or it could relate to producing product labels on weatherproof labels. These are not edge cases; they are the core, daily operations for these businesses, and our software is built from the ground up to make them efficient and profitable.
The needs of a physical shop are different to online, especially a retail business in an area of specialisation.
We think that a physical shop will be better served by something made first for their type of business and that any online business they have will be better serves by software made for the online business. That’s why we see our Tower Systems POS software as a viable alternative to Shopify POS for a physical store.
Make your own decision though. Do your research. Be sure to test all of your business specific needs against any POS software you are considering, including Shopify POS. And when you are dong the research, talk to the company, see how they handle your queries – some POS software companies are hard to talk to, you can’t pick up the phone and speak to someone. If personal contact will matter to your and your business, the availability of it should be a factor in your consideration as to the best POS software for your business.
When looking for an alternative to Shopify POS be clear about any doubts you have re Shopify POS (if any) and ensure the software alternatives you are considering do adequately address these doubts.
If you are looking for an alternative to Shopify POS for your retail business, consider Tower Systems. Our POS software might fit your needs. We’d be grateful for an opportunity to do this.
Now, here are some features and benefits with our Tower Systems POS software that customers tell us they love:
- The transparent approach to suggesting software enhancements.
- Easy access to support.
- Easy sales processing.
- Smooth counter workflow.
- Specialty retail functions for a range of specialty business types.
- Built-in AI tools.
- Loyalty tools customers love.
- Easy customisation options.
- The ability to sell anywhere, including on the road.
- Theft mitigation tools.
- Built in business insights.
- Scale integration.
- Selling by fractions.
- Selling products in kits.
- Comprehensive local delivery / dispatch tools.
- Roster integration.
- The ability to suspend sales.
- Easy import of supplier invoices without needing to use some EDI tool.
- Tracking and leveraging customer events.
- Integrated with Xero for accounting.
- No locked-in payment platform requirement.
- No cost based on each transaction.
- No lock-in contract.
Our POS software is about much more than this list.
Our extensive feature set is a direct result of our ‘in-store first’ philosophy. Functionality like direct scale integration for selling by weight, tools to handle fractional quantities for items sold by length, or the ability to seamlessly suspend a sale to serve another customer are born from decades of working directly with retailers on their shop floors. These are not just items on a checklist; they are robust solutions to real-world, physical retail challenges. While an e-commerce platform may eventually add such features as an afterthought, for us, they are foundational because the success of your physical shop is our foundational purpose.
Tower Systems in-store POS software solution integrated with Shopify for e-commerce gives you the best of both worlds with a single source of truth as to inventory and all transactions. While we integrate with Big Commerce, Woo Commerce and Magento, the majority of our online retail businesses integrate through our PSO software with Shopify for e-commerce.
We’d be happy to connect you with existing customers so you can talk retailer to retailer about the Shopify integration. We can also connect you with retailers who have switched from SHopify POS to our Tower Systems POS software. They can speak for themselves as to why and how it has gone for them.
If you are looking for an alternative to Shopify POS, Tower Systems might be a good choice. Let’s talk to explore that for you. No pressure. If there is anything you need that we don’t cover, we will tell you.
Before we go, here’s what we don’t have that Shopify does have when it comes Shopify POS – a huge marketing budget. We’re not paying to come first in search listings or to run billboard ads on social media. Most of our business is won by word of mouth – local small business retailers pitching us to their fellow retailers, for which we are sincerely grateful.
When we see someone ask the question what’s the best POS software for my business? or the question what’s a good alternative to Shopify POS?, we say: hey consider us here at Tower Systems. We will gladly show you what our software offers and let you experience the personal service we provide.
We’re not right for everyone, we know that. We might be right for your business. Let’s find out.
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While the right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business, Tower Systems was built to serve Australian and New Zealand local small business specialty retailers. To see how we can help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today.
Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au.
#SmallBusiness #Retail #POSsoftware
What’s the best loyalty solution for small local retailers to offer to drive sales?
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Cash IS king when it comes to rewarding shoppers. We say that based on the results of the discount voucher facility in our small business targeted POS software. Launched in February 2013, this facility continues to outperform a traditional loyalty points offering, which is also available in our POS software.
In a typical shop, 20% of cash discount vouchers provided are redeemed with 33% redeemed the day of, 33% within 7 days and 33% within 28 days.
Businesses with less regular (weekly) shopper engagement benefit the most: garden centres, bookshops, gift shops, jewellers, outdoors shops.
Businesses that attract one time or very infrequent visitors benefit the most.
Guys tend to want to redeem immediately while girls will redeem over time. If they have the opportunity, girls are more likely to put two or more vouchers together for a better redemption.
Smart retailers calibrate financial support for the loyalty program in their pricing model.
The biggest discount voucher we have seen produced is $2,500 with the purchase of a jewellery piece. In that business, the typical voucher value almost always results in another purchase. In a smart move, the business rules require the voucher to cover a third or less of the purchase price.
At the other end of the scale, in newsagencies, tourist shops and discount variety shops, cash discount vouchers of $1 or less continue to drive incremental business.
The most interesting data to us is the cross product category drift: where a shopper accrues voucher value from one product category and redeems the voucher in a different product category. Newsagents offer the best example of this with accrual funded through the purchase of cards and redemption for magazine purchases.
This is all on our mind today because of the news this week that the Cashrewards program is shutting down immediately. In my experience, cash rewards offered shoppers to nurture loyal engagement help local small business retailers grow.
While we can see why some might say the Cashrewards news is a shake up for loyalty, I think it’s too early to say, especially given so many local and independent retailers are growing by offering their own self-managed cash rewards.
When it comes to shopper loyalty, Tower Systems is here to help local small business retailers to offer a loyalty solution over which you have easy and active control, to grow your business and to help your shoppers feel love from you.
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While the right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business, Tower Systems was built to serve Australian and New Zealand local small business specialty retailers. To see how we can help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today.
Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au.
Talking about theft in local small business retail and ways we help
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Giving back: Empowering Community and Charity Shops with Tailored POS Software
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We are proud and grateful, here at Tower Systems, to serve a wonderful variety of local op shops, charity shops, and community-owned enterprises. We appreciate the vital role these organisations play in our communities. We are dedicated to supporting their success by providing Point of Sale (POS) software specifically tailored to their unique needs.
Designed for a Volunteer Workforce
A core challenge for many community enterprises is a workforce comprised of dedicated volunteers who may only work a few hours each month. Recognising the frequent turnover and varying levels of computer proficiency this entails, we have prioritised ease of use in our software. Our intuitive interface is straightforward to learn, ensuring that new team members can become confident and effective quickly.
To further support this, we have developed a curriculum of short-format training videos made specifically for charity enterprises. This design makes it easier for volunteers to learn the system at their own pace and supports the valuable work of their charity.
Features to Help Your Organisation Thrive
Our charity shop POS software is more than just a tool for processing sales; it’s a comprehensive system designed to help you manage, grow, and focus on your core mission.
- Flexible Inventory Management: You decide the level of detail you need. Track stock at a high level by product type, or drill down to size, colour, style, or even individual items. This flexibility provides valuable data-driven insights to optimise stock management and make better decisions.
- Effective Customer Loyalty: While our software offers various loyalty options, our cash-off loyalty program has proven particularly effective in a local retail setting. A simple receipt showing an amount a customer can save on their next visit is a powerful incentive, encouraging return visits and increased spending.
- Security and Control: Protect your organisation with robust security features. You can lock down specific parts of the software for management access only, while built-in checks and balances guide processes and provide hidden tracking for peace of mind.
- Community Engagement: Strengthen your local connections by leveraging our software to create targeted offers and special pricing for local clubs and community groups. You can even track purchases by members as a fund-raising tool for their organisation.
- Expand Your Reach: In today’s world, not every shopper will walk past your door. Our POS software offers seamless integration with professional website platforms like Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce, helping you connect with a wider audience.
Our Commitment to Giving Back
We believe in the important work that charity and community organisations do. As part of our own commitment to give back, Tower Systems offers these enterprises our POS software and any training at half price. This is a long-standing practice we are thankful to have been able to offer for decades, ensuring our solutions are as affordable as they are useful for these tight-budget businesses.
By providing the essential tools for inventory management, sales tracking, and customer engagement, we empower your organisation to operate efficiently and sustainably, allowing you to focus on what matters most—serving your community.
Let Tower Systems help you transform your charity shop into a thriving hub of community support.
To find out more, please visit www.towersystems.com.au/charity.
Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au.
Small business retail advice: Surviving the Squeeze: Practical Strategies for Managing Cash Flow Amidst Rising Costs
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2025 is proving to be a tough year for some. If your retail business is finding it tough, the advice we share here may be of interest. We put it together following a discussion with a couple of our POS software customers a few days ago. They are doing it tough and wanted to discuss their business.
From supplier price increases and increased freight charges to rising wages and rent, the pressure on the bottom line is coming from every direction fort plenty of local small business retailers. While you can’t control the broader economy, you have direct control over the most critical element of your business’s survival: your cash flow.
Proactive cash flow management is the key to building resilience in a tough economic climate. It transforms you from a passenger to the pilot of your business’s finances. With the crucial Christmas trading period just around the corner, now is the perfect time to implement these practical strategies to strengthen your position.
1. Get Forensic with Your Finances
You can’t manage what you don’t measure. It’s a cliché, and it’s true. A vague sense of your finances is not enough when every dollar counts. True visibility is your first line of defence.
- Action: Create a 12-Week Cash Flow Forecast. This is non-negotiable. A simple spreadsheet that maps out your expected income against your fixed and variable expenses over the next three months will be your most powerful tool. It helps you anticipate shortfalls, identify opportunities to delay non-essential spending, and make informed decisions about stock purchases for the festive season. You don’t need accounting experience to do this. You know your income and your expenses.
- Action: Review Every Single Expense Line. Scrutinise your bank statements and profit and loss reports. Are you paying for software subscriptions you no longer use? Can you get a more competitive rate on your insurance, EFTPOS terminal, or internet plan? Small, recurring savings compound over the year into a significant sum.
2. Optimise Your Stock and Suppliers
For a retailer, inventory is cash sitting on your shelves, and your supplier relationships are your lifeline. Products not selling are dead cash-wise. Managing both effectively is critical.
- Action: Identify and Liquidate Slow-Moving Stock. Run a stock turn report in your POS software. Any item that hasn’t sold in over 90 days is tying up cash that could be used elsewhere. A strategic clearance sale now, before you’re flooded with Christmas stock, can provide a vital cash injection.
- Action: Renegotiate with Your Suppliers. Your suppliers are facing pressures too, and most will prefer a collaborative partner over losing a customer. Have an honest conversation. Ask if you can get a small discount for early payment or, conversely, if you can extend your payment terms from 30 to 45 days on core product lines to ease pressure. Consider placing smaller, more frequent orders to avoid large, upfront cash outlays.
3. Diversify Your Revenue Streams
Relying solely on traditional product sales can make your business vulnerable. Creating new, high-margin income sources can provide a valuable buffer.
- Action: Introduce a Service or Experience. Can you offer a paid workshop, a product repair service, or a personal styling session? These services often have low overheads and bring new customers through your door who may then purchase products. The question is: what else could you sell that you’re not selling today. Dopn’t bind yourself to only what is typically sold in your type of business.
- Action: Promote a Strong Gift Voucher Program. A gift voucher is essentially an interest-free loan from your customer. As we head into the gift-giving season, ensure your vouchers are well-promoted both in-store and online.
4. Make Getting Paid Faster
Closing the gap between making a sale and having the cash in your bank account is a simple but effective way to improve your cash position.
- Action: Review Your Payment Processing Fees. A fraction of a per cent difference in your EFTPOS or e-commerce gateway fees can add up to thousands of dollars over a year. Shop around to ensure you are on the most competitive rate available.
Managing cash flow is not a one-time task; it is an ongoing discipline. By taking these proactive steps today, you can navigate the current squeeze and build a more resilient, stable, and profitable business for the future.
We have served local small business retailers for decades, and we’ve run our own shops. The advice here is advice we have given ourselves.
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While the right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business, Tower Systems was built to serve Australian and New Zealand local small business specialty retailers. To see how we can help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today.
Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au.
2025 is different: retail, especially small business retail, is adapting at speed
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As we move through the later half of 2025, it’s clear that the landscape for Australian retail is changing at a pace that feels unprecedented. For years, we and others have talked about the evolution of retail, but the changes occurring now feel less like a gradual evolution and more like a rapid, necessary revolution.
In our work with local small business retailers in a bunch of different retail channels and in different settings in Australia and New Zealand, we are seeing an acceleration in strategic adaptation. The trends themselves: pivoting business models, driving efficiency, and automating tasks, are not new. What is new is the speed at which they are being implemented. Decisions that might have taken years to consider are now being executed in a matter of months.
Here are some of the areas where we are seeing this acceleration in action:
The strategic pivot from transaction to destination
Successful retailers are no longer waiting for the market to force their hand; they are proactively redefining their purpose. We are seeing a decisive shift away from being a simple point of transaction to becoming a true destination. Think immersive retail that nurtures a longer dwell time in-store and online.
This involves a fundamental pivot in focus. For example, a shop adjust their footprint to become a curated hub for premium products that are not necessarily products they have sold before. The old rules of what was traditional for your shingle appear to matter less today.
The key is a move towards both diversification and specialisation, and service. Retailers are analysing what makes them unique and doubling down on it, creating a compelling reason for customers to visit in person. This strategic narrowing of focus is happening faster than ever, as business owners recognise that trying to be everything to everyone is no longer a viable strategy.
The urgent pursuit of efficiency
Alongside the strategic pivot is an intense focus on operational efficiency. With rising business costs, eliminating friction and wasted time is no longer a “nice-to-have”—it’s a core survival strategy. Smart retailers are leveraging technology to streamline every possible process.
We are seeing a rapid move to eliminate previously manual tasks that consume valuable hours. This includes:
- Automated Inventory Management: Using modern POS software to sync stock levels between physical and online stores in real-time, eliminating manual stock-takes for web sales.
- Data-Driven Ordering: Moving away from guesswork and using sales data to automate purchase orders with suppliers, reducing both overstocking and missed sales opportunities.
- Integrated Digital Operations: Ensuring e-commerce, accounting, and marketing platforms talk to each other seamlessly, saving countless hours of manual data entry and reconciliation.
The goal is simple: automate the mundane so that the owner and their team can focus on high-value activities like customer engagement, marketing, and strategic planning.
The defining characteristic of retail in 2025 is not change itself, but the velocity of that change.
The local small retail businesses thriving today are those that have embraced this new pace, making bold decisions and implementing them with purpose and urgency. They understand that in this new era, standing still is the greatest risk of all.
2025 in local small business retail is different, faster, more tech-forward.
Father’s Day connects people with local retail
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Father’s Day is one of those retail seasons that reminds shoppers of local retail. It’s a season for which people tend to buy in the last few days and buying last-minute sends more people local.
The thing is, many local retailers have changed so much in recent years that a Father’s Day shopping visit can reveal local retail to a standard not expected by local shoppers. That’s why so many local retailers shine for seasons like Father’s Day, it’s an opportunity to showcase what’s fresh and innovative about their local retail businesses.
From data we see, local real gets a traffic spike of 20-% and more in the lead up to Father’s Day. This traffic spike is one reason we urge our local retail business customers to present week for the day, to shine.
The Father’s Day (and other season) opportunity extends far beyond the weekend. A positive and surprising shopping experience plants a seed for future business. When these last-minute shoppers leave with a gift the want to give and a fresh view of the local shop, they are more likely to return.
A single, well-executed seasonal rush, like for Father’s Day, can reset a customer’s shopping habits, converting a visit of convenience into a deliberate choice for future needs and fostering a loyal base that will support the business year-round.
We care about this here at Tower Systems since we only service local independent retailers. We are small business focussed, local retail focussed, and have been since the day we began. In our software and in the advice were provide, we encourage local retailers to lean into opportunities to thrive.
This is why we see today not as a single sales event, but as a vital opportunity for community connection. Every thoughtfully curated display, every helpful recommendation, and every friendly interaction during this rush strengthens the bond between a shopper and their local high street. These personal touches are the irreplaceable advantage that local retailers hold over online giants and big-box stores, turning a simple transaction into a memorable experience that reinforces the unique and essential value of shopping local.
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If you’re a local retailer and keen for software made for your type of business, check us out at www.towersystems.com.au. We’d love to find out more about your business.
Advice for small business Australian retailers on how to choose the best POS system for your business
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Choosing a POS system is something that you don’t do that often. If you do find yourself doing it often in your business something is wrong with your process. We have some advice specifically for small business retailers on how to choose the best POS software for a business. It is advice that will stand up to scrutiny, advice others will judge as fair and reasonable.
Yes, we are a POS software company. No, our advice is not to go with Tower Systems. While we love welcoming new customers, we only want customers for which our POS software is a good fit.
Here is our Advice for small business Australian retailers on how to choose the best POS system for your business.
It’s simple really. You don’t need to read a book about it or go to hours of seminars. This is easy and straightforward.
- Be sure of what matters operationally today to you and those who work in the business. For efficiency. For profitability. For enjoyment.
- Understand what will matter tomorrow and into the mid future. For efficiency. For profitability. For enjoyment.
- Reflect on what matters to you from a social responsibility persecutive. Like, does Australian made and supported matter? Does dealing with a business that pays fair tax in Australia matter? Or, does dealing with a business focussed on personal customer service matter?
- Now, do the work. Yes, you, do the work. Don’t outsource it. If you own the business and the final decision, do the work. That way, you’re responsible.
Okay, the four steps are more complex than we make them out. They are the headlines though. Focus on them. Flesh them out for your type of business. Own each step. Do the work. The result will be a decision that is right for the business today and tomorrow.
Don’t rush. Work at the pace you choose. Always be in control. Watch out for a pitch of a deal that seeks to get you to act sooner. Watch out for claims of functionality in the POS software they have not shown you. Actions speak louder than words. Anyone can say yes to a question or say the software has some facility. Only believe those who show you as showing is the truth.
Take notes, lots after notes. Record meetings (with permission).
Oh, and beware the companies that want to take you to lunch or who buy you gifts. The gift you want is profit from having made the right POS software choice for your business.
If you are not sure of something, go back over it again, and again – until you are sure you understand.
Choosing the right POS system can make you a lot of money. Conversely, choosing the wrong POS system can cost you a lot of money. Put in the work. Take your time. Only choose what feels best for your business.
That’s it, that’s our advice.
Now, why are we writing about this today, on a Saturday morning of all things. Well, this morning we heard from a business owner who looked us and ultimately went with another POS company. Now they are locked in paying for software that;’s not a good fit, software that is not helping them operate efficiently and happily. They asked if we could help them get out of their contract. We can’t Some contracts are like that. And that brings us to more advice: read the contract. In the small business space, a lock in contract if more likely to favour the software company than the retailer. You want a contract that lets you out at 30 days notice.
Anyway, that’s it, that’s our advice on how to choose the best POS system for your retail business.
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While the right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business, Tower Systems was built to serve Australian and New Zealand local small business specialty retailers. To see how we can help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today.
Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au.
We are grateful to serve local small business retailers
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We are grateful, thankful and appreciative to serve local small business retailers in many ways:
Tower Systems offers an alternative to the Univex POS system
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We have not used the Univex POS system and have not even seen the software. We do have customers who have switched from the Univex POS system to our Tower Systems POS software. From this we have gained experience we can leverage for any retailer looking for an alternative to the Univex POS system.
To see if our Tower Systems POS software and to customer support services we provide present as a good alternative to Univex, book a demonstration. We are happy to compare facilities side by side and to show, first-hand, what our customer service looks like.
Our Tower Systems POS software is made and supported by us. We have a comprehensive crew of software developers, training people, support people and retail business experienced advisers who can help retailers leverage our POS software for maximum value.
The depth of ur retail business support team is considerable, offering a variety of voices, experience and knowledge from which our retailers can benefit.
A modern retail business is a connected business. Our Tower Systems POS software is built to integrate seamlessly with a range of best-in-class platforms. We offer robust, tried and tested links to leading e-commerce websites like Shopify, Big Commerce and WooCommerce, popular accounting packages such as Xero and MYOB, and a variety of integrated EFTPOS providers. This ecosystem approach ensures your data flows effortlessly, reduces manual data entry, and provides a single source of truth, empowering you to run a more efficient and profitable retail operation.
Integrations are core to our offer as is support for vertical market communities like Just For Pets, AIRR, Indepet, Evergreen Connect, XchangeIT and plenty more across a range of retail verticals.
The AI tools embedded in our POS software are proving to be a winning differentiator for our customers and for us as well. The are helping retailers save time, make good quality business decisions faster and fun businesses moving at a pace hitherto unavailable for local small business retail. These Ai tools we have delivered are game-changing – that’s what Tower Systems customers tell us.
Like Univex, our POS software is made for specialty retailers. We are grateful to serve pet shops, garden centres, bike shops, jewellers, toy shops, bookshops, newsagents, fashion shops and more.
If you are a Univex POS system customer and are considering change, make a note of what you love about your current software and what you would like changed. Doing this o=homework first is key to you making the right decision for your business. The best move may be to keep using Univex. Our advice is to be open to what’s best for your retail business based on the evidence.
If you decide to switch from Univex, we’d love to learn about your needs and explore these in the context of what our Tower Systems POS software offers and our easy-to-access customer service.
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While the right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business, Tower Systems was built to serve Australian and New Zealand local small business specialty retailers. To see how we can help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today.
Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au.
Scale integration, serial num bar tracking and Repairs: specialty POS software tools for specialty retailers
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Many independent retail businesses are wonderfully complex. It’s what makes the unique and sought out. Specialty retail needs often go far beyond a simple transaction at the counter. You might sell bulk pet food by the kilo, track the unique serial number of a valuable item, or manage an intricate in-house repair service. In a specialist business, the details matter, and your Point of Sale software should be built to handle them with precision and ease.
Our specialty retail POS software is made to help specialty retailers lean into their specialisation, to transact efficiently in this space of specialisation. For decades we have delivered and fine-tuned the specialty retail facilities in our POS software.
Selling by weight
If your business sells products by weight, you know that speed and accuracy are crucial. Manually pre-packing items or double-typing prices at the counter wastes valuable time and increases the risk of mistakes that can affect your bottom line.
Our POS software offers automatic scales integration that meets government standards, ensuring compliance and efficiency. From bulk foods and animal feed to soil and confectionery, any store selling products by weight can rely on our integration for fast, accurate selling. This simple feature saves time, reduces errors, and improves customer satisfaction.
Serial numbers tracking
For businesses dealing in specialised goods like firearms, bicycles, or high-value jewellery, tracking individual items is essential. Our software allows you to easily and consistently track the serial numbers of your inventory. You control the process, choosing whether to track items from the moment they arrive in your business, at the point of sale, or both.
This provides a higher level of service that customers appreciate. Serial numbers are printed on receipts, creating a record they can use for warranty or insurance claims. It also sets your business up for longer-term tracking of an item’s service history, creating a valuable point of difference.
Streamlined repairs management
Made first for jewellers and now used in so many specialty retail business settings. Managing repairs can be a significant operational challenge.
Whether you’re managing a jewellery workshop, a bicycle service centre, gunsmithing jobs, or even landscaping projects, our software streamlines the entire process. The system provides:
- Detailed Job Tracking: Follow every job from initial receipt to completion, with real-time tracking of staff actions.
- Accurate Billing: Precisely track labour and parts used for accurate inventory control and billing.
- External Repairs Management: Efficiently manage items outsourced to contractors, including warranty claims.
- Integrated Customer Communication: Keep customers informed with automated SMS or email notifications when their repair is ready for collection.
By streamlining the repairs process from start to finish, our software helps you deliver a professional, efficient, and personalised service that builds customer trust and loyalty.
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While the right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business, Tower Systems was built to serve Australian and New Zealand local small business specialty retailers. To see how we can help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today.
Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au.
Retailer Roam: POS software helping you sell from anywhere, including Pop-ups
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Modern retail is not within four walls and a fixed counter. Sales can be conducted anywhere from the shop floor to a pop-up to off the back of a truck to a local market.
Retailers know the smart move is to sell where the customers are.
Our Retailer Roam POS software solution is a calm, capable, and cloud-based tool in our Tower Systems software suite, designed to give you the freedom to sell anywhere, anytime.
Portability, uninterrupted sales
As a tablet-based app for Apple iPads and Android devices, Retailer Roam acts as a powerful extension of the core Tower Systems Retailer POS software. It’s designed for small retail businesses on the move, allowing you to transact with confidence whether you’re connected to WiFi or working completely offline.
This is a key strength. We understand that internet access isn’t always guaranteed at an event or in a temporary location. Retailer Roam is built to work seamlessly even when a connection is not available. Sales and customer data are securely stored on the device in a queue and then automatically synchronised back to your main system as soon as you’re back online. This offers peace of mind, ensuring you never miss a sale due to a sketchy connection.
Retailer Roam has been built with retailers, for retailers. years in the field show the value. Customers love it.
Powerful retail features – in your hands.
Retailer Roam provides a comprehensive suite of tools, giving you the power of a full POS terminal in a portable format. You can:
- Transact with ease: Process Cash and EFTPOS sales, create invoices, set up a LayBy, and handle refunds. Integrated EFTPOS ensures smooth, professional payments.
- Manage stock: Sell items with serial numbers, conduct stocktakes, and manage re-ordering on the go.
- Engage customers: Accrue and redeem loyalty points, strengthening your customer relationships wherever you are.
- Customise workflow: Adapt the POS screen to suit your specific needs for faster, more intuitive service.
How Retailer Roam works.
Behind the scenes, a secure and reliable three-phase process keeps your data accurate and synchronised with your main business database.
- Initial Setup: On start-up, the app performs an initial transfer of your base stock information, setting you up to begin selling immediately.
- Live Updates: The app then receives ongoing product updates, such as changes to pricing or stock on hand levels, ensuring your data is always current.
- Sales Sync: Finally, all sales, customer, and inventory data from the Roam terminal is sent back to your main Retailer software, giving you a complete picture of your business performance across all locations.
Retailer Roam is a proven solution for any retail business that needs to be agile. It’s easy to use, secure, and built to serve the real-world needs of Australian small businesses.
The most recent release of Retailer Roam was released last month, August 2025. We continue to evolve Roam to ensure it is a viable and loved software solution for local small business retailers.
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While the right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business, Tower Systems was built to serve Australian and New Zealand local small business specialty retailers. To see how we can help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today.
Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au.
Be everywhere all at once: multi-store POS software for small business retail
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We are grateful here at Tower Systems to serve many local small business retailers with our multi-store POS software. It’s made for multi-store situations and settings, bringing network level visibility and management to small businesses with multiple retail outlets. We’ve been doing this for years across a range of specialty retailers: jewellers, bike shops, garden centres, newsagents, pet shops, gift shops and more.
Retail business owners with multiple retail outlets can’t be in two, three, or ten places at once. With our Tower Systems multi-store POS software, you gain the control and oversight to manage all your locations as if you were physically present in every single one.
If you’re running a small business with multiple retail sites, you need flexible, powerful software to manage each location with confidence. We know this from experience serving these businesses. We first built our multi-store functionality in 2007 out of necessity while running our own four gift shops. You can rest assured that we’ve faced your challenges and built the answers you’re looking for.
Imagine a customer asks for a product that’s out of stock. Instead of losing a sale, your staff can instantly check stock levels across all your other stores. In a moment, they can tell the customer exactly where to find it or arrange to have it transferred. This seamless connectivity empowers your team to provide exceptional service, turning a potential disappointment into a positive customer experience. This same functionality makes managing stock between a warehouse and your retail stores effortless.
The freedom of a multi-store setup is the ability to manage your business remotely. All you need is an internet connection to connect to your business from any device, at any time.
- Check out daily sales data for all your stores over your morning coffee.
- Process invoices for one location while grabbing lunch at a café.
- Handle stock maintenance for your entire business from home in the evening.
- Adjust staff rosters for each shop from the backseat of a taxi.
This is the level of control and flexibility our multi-store package delivers, giving you more time to focus on the big picture.
We believe in supporting local small business retail growth, which is why we offer a simple, transparent pricing model. While many other software platforms charge a monthly fee for every single terminal, we price our multi-store package per physical location. Whether your shop has one computer or three, the price for that location remains the same.
Our small business POS software is scalable. You can start with one store today and have complete confidence that when you’re ready to expand, we can seamlessly connect your new location. We do have a cap since we are focussed on small businesses. Let’s discuss that further with you.
Our POS software multi-store functionality has been built to link multiple stores and give you unparalleled control. Let us help you connect your locations and grow your business with confidence.
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While the right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business, Tower Systems was built to serve Australian and New Zealand local small business specialty retailers. To see how we can help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today.
Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au.
Your business, your POS, your way: flexible software for Aussie small business retailers
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In the diverse landscape of Australian local small business retail, a one-size-fits-all approach rarely works. A boutique on a bustling city laneway has different needs and technical realities than a hardware store in a regional town, and different needs to a produce business in a rural setting. At Tower Systems, we understand this. That’s why our Point of Sale software offers genuine flexibility, putting you in complete control of how you run your business.
We believe your POS system should adapt to your business, not the other way around. Ask any of our thousands of local small business retail customers. They can speak to flexibility, the ability to conduct retail their way.
Love the Cloud? We’ve got you covered.
If you want the freedom to access your business data from anywhere, at any time, you can choose to run your Tower Systems POS software 100% in the cloud. This setup is perfect for the modern retailer on the move, allowing you to manage stock, run reports, and keep an eye on sales whether you’re at a trade show, at home, or on holiday.
Prefer to keep it local? No worries.
For many retailers, the top priority is rock-solid stability at the counter. If the internet goes down, you still need to serve your customers. We get it. That’s why you can run our POS software entirely on local computers in your shop. Your sales, stock management, and day-to-day operations continue seamlessly, completely independent of your internet connection.
Got sketchy Internet? We’ve built for it.
This is where our commitment to Australian small business shines. We know that internet reliability can be a challenge, especially outside of major metro areas. If your business operates with a less-than-perfect internet connection, our software provides the perfect solution.
You can run your core POS functions locally, ensuring the till is always operational, and have the software sync your data to the cloud, if thats’s what you want, whenever a stable connection is available. It’s the ultimate safety net, offering the resilience of a local system with the convenient backup and remote access benefits of the cloud. No more stressing when the internet drops out during a busy Saturday rush.
You choose.
Your business is unique, and your POS software should reflect that. Whether you want a pure cloud, strictly local, or a hybrid setup that gives you peace of mind, Tower Systems provides a flexible solution that is appropriate for your specific needs.
We empower you to run your business, your way.
Now, if all this sounds a bit shiny, let us show you. We love talking one-on-one with local small business retailers. We’d also love to connect you with some of our customers.
Your voice, our code: how our small business retail customers shape our POS software
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Having the right tools is crucial for success, especially in local small business retail. At Tower Systems, we believe that the best people to help us shape our Point of Sale (POS) software are the ones who use it every day: our customers. That’s why we’re proud to showcase our groundbreaking Software Ideas platform, a revolutionary tool that puts you in the driver’s seat of our software development.
Back in 2009, inspired by Jeff Jarvis’ book What Would Google Do?, we embarked on a mission to open up our software development process. The result was the launch of Software Ideas, a proprietary platform we created that empowers our Tower Systems POS software customers to suggest and vote on software changes. This world-first in the POS software space continues today in 2025 to be a cornerstone of our commitment to genuine and transparent cooperation with our small business retail customer community.
The Software Ideas platform is a simple yet powerful tool for collaboration. Here’s how it works:
- Suggest: Have an idea for a new feature, function, or report in our Retailer software? Submit it through the Software Ideas platform.
- Vote: Browse the ideas submitted by other users and vote for the ones you’d like to see implemented. Each customer has one vote, making every voice heard.
- Collaborate: Add your own notes and comments to existing ideas, fostering a community of innovation.
Our software development manager reviews every submission, combining similar ideas, contacting customers for further input, and putting them up for public voting. This transparent process allows us to prioritise the features and functions that are most requested by you, our valued customers.
We are proud to say that every update to our POS software includes enhancements suggested by our customers through the Software Ideas platform. In fact, our latest update, currently in the final stages of quality assurance, contains eight enhancements that originated from this very process. We make sure to identify these user-suggested enhancements in our update notes to demonstrate the power of your engagement.
Every idea is thoroughly costed and evaluated, and the list of live ideas is considered for each software update package we create. This is not just a suggestion box; it’s a dynamic and influential part of our development cycle.
The Software Ideas platform is more than just a feature; it’s a testament to our belief in a two-way partnership with our customers. It’s a unique service that encourages retailers to join our community, knowing that their voices will be heard and their needs will be met.
We are committed to acting on the will of our customer community, within the development budget funded from support fees and sales revenue. We are also committed to complete transparency. If a change request is not feasible for technical reasons, we will explain why.
Sixteen years on from its launch, we are proud to point to the valuable success of Software Ideas. It has not only enriched our POS software but has also strengthened our relationship with the retailers we serve. We want our customers to tell us what to do, to help us make our software better. The launch of Tower Systems Software Ideas is a direct result of trusting our customers to help us innovate and grow.
If you have an idea for how we can improve our software, we encourage you to visit our website and become a part of the conversation. Together, we can continue to build a POS system that is truly by retailers, for retailers.
Thank you to our customers for their ideas and encouragement – their engagement is the heart of Software Ideas.
We love helping local retailers bloom
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We help local Aussie newsagencies transform
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We are grateful to serve close to 70% of all Aussie newsagencies with our newsagency software.
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