New in the Aussie made and supported Tower Systems POS software:
Roster integration solutions direct connected to our POS software: Tanda, Deputy and Planday (by Xero).
Digital receipt platform Slyp – for businesses and customers who prefer a digital record over paper receipts.
Shopper self-checkout using indie-retail focussed hardware and a new release of our software.
Plus, Tower Systems customers have free access to our FREE online marketplace: www.findit.com.au, a place designed to drive in-store shopper traffic. Simply tick a box and your products are listed at FindIt, helping you be found by more people.
FindIt is a marketplace where you will find a broad range of products from local small business retailers. If you prefer to shop local and shop small, FindIt is a platform sure to interest you. Retailers connect to FindIt through their Tower Systems POS software.
Local shopping is good for the local community since local businesses tend to hire locally, spend locally, source inventory locally and engage locally.
Those who care about the local community will; tend to support local businesses for these reasons.
Local shopping is a win for everyone given the circular nature of the local economy.
The more we shop where we live the more those businesses can support local community groups and hire locally.
We all benefit from this.
The other benefit of local shopping is that it tends to be at local small businesses. These businesses tend to h
Our goal is to help local independent retailers run healthier, happier and more valuable businesses. We nurture this through our POS software, our engaged customer service and through free enhancement opportunities, like FindIt.
We have demos publicly available for each specialty retail channel at www.towersystems.com.au. You don’t have to register, give your email or your phone number to watch.
Our www.findit.com.au free marketplace for retailers using our POS software is gaining traction with Google and Bing.
We have more than 100,000 items not currently showing because of lack of images of images. Google wants images. What you can see live is products with good images and good descriptions.
We are grateful to retailers who have used Lightspeed POS and vend POS software who are considering our Tower Systems POS software on the back of being told that they would face additional charges if they do not use the Lightspeed Payments platform for customer payments.
Here’s a short video about our alternative to Vend and Lightspeed for retailers frustrated by their decision to charge extra if you choose to not use their payments platform …
We don’t run a payments platform, we’re a POS software company. We leave all that to the banks.
We link to the big 4 banks via Linkly as well and direct to Tyro and to SmartPay if you like their fee-free EFTPOS solution.
If you’re looking for an alternative POS software solution to Lightspeed and / or Vend, we’d love to learn more about your needs, to see if our software could be a good solution. Our promise is – we will tell you if we think we’re not right for you. This is important as it’s critical you do your research into what is right for your business.
We have successfully tested our Vend POS data conversion software that brings across Vend inventory data, including variants.
Here’s what’s included: software licences for unlimited computers in the location, help desk support (phone or email) 6 days a week (incl Saturday), access to a knowledge base, after hours support call access for urgent support, Shopify, Xero and other integrations, access to our supplier invoice import tools.
NZ and Aussie based customer service by us. No call centre.
Humans answer our phones.
Email us and a retail knowledgable human responds.
Our office is open Monday through Saturday.
Month to month rental – no lock in contract.
No lock-in EFTPOS contract. You choose the EFTPOS that suits you.
Self serve training videos and knowledge base.
Low cost training for those who want it.
The listed prices are genuinely monthly – not annual paid up front.
We have a crew of awesome software developers, caring customer service people and a business support crew skilled in serving local indie retailers.
If you type tower systems into Google and click search, this ad comes up:
The thing is, if you click on the ad, there is no comparison to or with Tower Systems.
The headline of the ad reads to us as misleading.
They have not looked at our software, investigated our software, compared our software.
Yet, here is the compare POS quotes website, which is run by Comparison Advantage Pty Ltd, an Australian company with the ACN 626 309 073. The comparison website they run is an ad platform. Products are listed by them for companies that pay to have their products listed.
It needs to be called out for what it is and their headlines, that we claim in our opinion are misleading and deceptive need to be see for this.
It frustrates us that they pay Google to come up as an ad when people are searching for our company.
We can’t figure out why software companies pay to be listed with Comparison Advantage and their compare POS quotes website. Imagine paying to get a lead when someone is actively looking for a competitor product.
We know we should ignore it. But then we see the deliberate and in our opinion misleading ad today and it frustrates us. We have done good work to build our reputation and here they are trying to trade off of that for customers of theirs, for businesses willing to pay to get in front of retailers looking for our POS software. Talk about desperation.
We think the folks at Comparison Advantage know what they are doing and that they have deliberately calibrated ads for their compare pos quotes website to pitch businesses looking for us and for other businesses they name in their ad keyword campaign with Google.
Our advice to anyone using comparison websites is – be aware that companies listed on these websites are there because they have paid to be there. There has been no assessment, no consideration, no effort at all to be considered appropriate. Comparison suggests assessment,. You won’t find that here.
Compare POS quotes by Comparison Advantage is an ad website and in our opinion it’s not worthy of consideration.
Newsagents using the industry-standard Tower Systems software for newsagents are leveraging the software to help transform their businesses to drive relevance in a changing marketplace.
But first, let’s talk about the industry standard. there are around 2,800 retail newsagency shops in Australia. Tower Systems serves in excess of 1,700 of these with its newsagency software. The choice of the majority of newsagents to choose Tower Systems makes it the industry standard, for which we are sincerely grateful.
The local Aussie newsagency has been evolving for years. This picked up pace ten years ago. We have newsagents using our software to serve other retail categories in what were once traditional newsagencies. Here are some examples of how newsagents are relying on our software to evolve, here are some of the new categories we’ve helped with:
Coffee shop.
Baby shop.
Gift shop.
Camping and outdoors shop.
Repair shop.
Bookshop.
Toy shop.
Cafe with table service.
Tourism product rental.
Local artist consignment.
Yes, these are all categories we have seen different local newsagents embrace as they evolve their businesses to ensure relevance to new shoppers. They have been able to do this with our software as it is flexible in terms of facilities and services. And, the software curates a valuable dataset that can provide guidance as to business evolution opportunities.
In addition to finding new opportunities and walking the path to implementing these, the newsagency software itself helps guide improved business efficiency by eliminating keystrokes and laying down workflows that anyone can follow, freeing up more skilled resources in the business for looking over the horizon.
Our Tower Systems newsagency software also directly integrates with Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce and Big Commerce. Plenty of newsagents use these integrations to sell online and online is where the local Aussie newsagency can be very different to what is usually seen on the high street. We develop the websites, connect them to the newsagency POS software and offer advice on how to drive traffic to them.
The local Aussie newsagency is changing, playing outside what has been traditional for newsagency businesses. We are grateful for the opportunity to be engaged with these transformations.
Like every day here, we are writing today for local small business retailers, independent retailers, specialty retailers.
As a local independent small business retailer in Australia, you know that you need to be on top of your game in order to compete with the big competitors. One way to do this is to invest in a POS (point of sale) system. A POS system can help you to streamline your operations, improve customer service, and boost your bottom line.
Here are some of the things that local independent small business retailers in Australia can do with POS software from us, from Tower Systems:
Streamline your operations. A POS system can help you to streamline your operations by automating many of the tasks that you currently do manually. For example, a POS system can easily track inventory from when it arrives to when it sells, provide guiding insights, and process payments. This can free up your time so that you can focus on other aspects of your business, such as customer service.
Improve customer service. A POS system can help you to improve the customer experience by providing a more efficient process for transactions at the counter. From keystrokes eliminated to processes streamlined, good POS software guides efficiency and this can boost sales.
Boost your bottom line. A POS system can help you to boost your bottom line by providing you with accurate data about your sales and inventory, and packaging these items in an insightful and decision-guiding way. This information can help you to make better pricing decisions, identify trends, and optimize your inventory levels. This can lead to increased sales and profits.
In addition to these benefits, POS software from Tower Systems offers other features that can be helpful for local independent small business retailers in Australia. These features include:
A user-friendly interface that is easy to learn and use, something retailers rely on.
Payment options, including cash, credit cards, and contactless payments.
Integration with popular e-commerce platforms, such as Shopify and WooCommerce.
A robust reporting system that can help you to track your sales, inventory, and customer data. Better still, an insights platform to guide decision making.
If you are a local independent small business retailer in Australia, consider the POS system from Tower Systems. Call 1300 662 957 or email sales@towersystems.com.au.
Take care:
Do your research. Choose the one that is right for your business.
Consider your needs. Know what matters to you.
Talk to other business owners. Talk to other local independent small business retailers who have used a POS system and get their recommendations.
Get a free demo. This should be tailored to your needs.
Here at Tower Systems we make and support what we sell. We’d love to find out more about your needs.
We are grateful to be featuring our Aussie made and supported POS software for gift shops at the Reed Gift Fair in Melbourne.
This awesome trade show started yesterday and already it’s been terrific for us with new customers signing up on the stand. It is terrific meeting these folks face to face and live demonstrating the software to them.
Our stand has been busy, which we love of course.
At the trade show we are showing our Gift Shop POS software as well as our cloud based and truly portable POS solution, Retailer Roam. This product can run anywhere, any time, with or without Net access. Version 2.0 of this product is packed with features retailers are loving
Our gift shop software features:
Easy and accurate selling.
Integrated EFTPOS and you choose the bank or EFTPOS partner that suits you.
Instant access to money making business performance insights.
Less time spend on setting up new stock thanks to supplier partnerships.
Less mistakes with reordering thanks to ordering based on past history.
A deeper average shopping basket thanks to marketing and other tools.
More frequent shopper visits thanks to loyalty solutions shoppers love and engage with.
We’re a POS software company. We make money renting our POS software to retailers. We’re not relying on you going with any particular payments platform or buying from any particular supplier. This matters because it keeps us focussed on making sure you gain value from our POS software.
Gift shop owners who want to make more money from their businesses can benefit from our business insights and labour saving tools. We know that the more our retail partners make more money using our software the more customers we will attract thanks to word of mouth. We really are all in this together with our gift shop oner customers.
Not all gift shop POS software his the same. Not all POS software companies are the same.
We are grateful for and proud of our differences. Our Tower Systems gift shop POS software is a stand out, a product on which you an rely to run a more successful and enjoyable business, a business that’s easier to run and delivering the benefits you want, and need.
From sales to special orders to pre-orders, from Xero integration to Shopify integration, from loyalty that works to easy shopper postcode tracking, from smart ways to pitch shop local to featuring locally made products … our gift shop software is made for gift retailers, made to help you thrive.
There is no lock-in contract, no requirement for you to pay up front for a year.
Get rid of manual books at the counter for LayBys, special orders, stock you need to order and more.
Guide shoppers to spend more with loyalty tools we think you will love.
Nurture community group member engagement with group pricing.
Pre-sell hot items – get paid before the stock arrives.
Leverage your knowledge on receipts and elsewhere. Sell you.
Reach beyond your four walls with a directly linked Shopify store.
EliminateLayBy and get paid sooner with buy now pay later.
Cut dead stock and re-order based on data facts.
Cut theft by knowing what is being stolen.
Make price comparison harder with bundled packs.
Easily and consistently pitch locally sourced products.
Bring customers back with reminders on dates important to them.
Save money on bookkeeping by integrating with Xero.
As a software company, our focus is on locally owned small business retail. We’re not after big retailers with 20 or more shops. It’s in local indie retail where we thrive and where we help our retailer partners thrive.
If you’re at the Reed Gift Fair, drop by and say hi. If you’re not, call is on 1300 662 957 or email us at sales@towersystems.com.au. Or, check out our gift shop software: www.towersystems.com.au/gift.
Here are our answers to some common questions we are asked about our gift shop software:
Are you Australian based? Yes.
Do you make your software? Yes.
How do I contact your help desk? By phone or email. Our help desk is Australian based with one team member working from New Zealand.
When can I contact you for help? Weekdays: 7am through 6PM AEST, Saturdays 7:30am through 3PM AEST. After hours for urgent calls: 24/7.
What if I am unhappy with support? You can escalate to our Chief Operating Officer or our Managing Director – every customer is given their direct numbers and email addresses.
Can I run the software in the cloud? Yes.
Can I run the software on my desktop? Yes.
Can I backup to the cloud? Yes.
How long am I locked in with software rental? There is no lock-in. You can cancel rental at any time and billing stops immediately – once the current month is completed, there is no further charge.
Can I sell gift cards for my business? Yes.
I sometimes sell from a market stall. Can the software do this? Yes, our Retailer RoamTM option manages selling from anywhere.
Does the software handle club member pricing? Yes, this can be a great marketing tool, getting local community group members support the business and fundraising at the same time.
Does the software have a facility for encouraging infrequent shoppers to spend more? Yes, it’s proven to work well at achieving this.
Does the software let me buy in bulk and break up to retail packs? Yes.
Does the software produce WAS / NOW price labels? Yes.
Does the software manage time-based catalogue pricing? Yes.
Can I include product care instructions on the receipt? Yes.
Does the software track where I have stored a box for an item? Yes.
I have similar items from several suppliers. Can I compare suppliers? Yes.
Does the software handle LayBys? Yes.
Can the software manage special orders for customers? Yes.
Can I bundle items together, like into a hamper, and easily sell that? Yes.
My business is seasonal, can I report on last season when planning for the next? Yes.
Can you reach out to customers based on what they previously purchased? Yes.
Fabric shops help those who love sewing to make the most beautiful and functional clothing for family, friends, and customers. Local fabric shops help people express themselves.
From handling the sale of fabric by length, or weight, our POS software for fabric shops and for sewing shops helps these specialty retail businesses to leverage their specialisation, to feature what makes them different, and valuable.
Here are some of the ways our POS software for sewing shops helps fabric shops:
Sell easily, including by length.
Sell accurately.
Know what’s working, and what’s not.
Reduce time on paperwork.
Get accurate insights into business performance, easily.
Rare visit loyalty. We are told that customers visit a fabric shop infrequently compared to other retail settings. Our software offers subtle loyalty tools that encourage more value from each visit.
Sell online. Connect your fabric shop POS software to a beautiful Shopify website offering your fabric and other products to shoppers anywhere.
Pre-orders. Easily manage selling products before you have them in-stock. Someone planning a project can order through you and pay prior to the fabric arriving in-store.
Buy Now Pay Later and LayBy. Through our software you can have both.
Manage browser shopping. Fabric shoppers can wander, ask you to hold an item, wander some more, bring something else back to hold and this cycle can go for a while. Our Fabric shop POS software tracks these purchases.
Repairs management. If you do repairs type work, like dressmaking in house, track the project from the moment it starts.
Club / collector marketing and support. Leverage clubs and collectors with offers and pricing. Nurture the love of home sewing and connecting to this community, and growing the size of the community.
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.
Serve fabric care details. You can code care details by product and include this on receipts.
Sell by length. This may seem basic. It’s not in some software. In the Tower software, you can sell by length, including fractions.
Our Australian made and supported fabric shop software does much more than this.
One of the biggest benefits of our fabric shop and sewing shop software is the inventory management facilities. With inventory, like fabric itself, being the biggest investment in the business, it takes time and effort to manage this well and effectively for the business to be successful.
In our fabric shop POS software we track all products that come in and go out. We can instantly report on the value of inventory, what’s working, what’s not working and show trends. All of this information can feed into better business decisions, and make the fabric shop more successful.
From managing inventory to tracking customer engagement to selling online to leveraging community groups and clubs, the fabric shop software from Tower Systems is fit for service and ready to help your business thrive.
We are grateful to serve local fabric and sewing shops and thank the owners and staff members for their advice and support.
Security is important in any retail business. Over the years, in our work with local small business retailers and in our own shops we have collected advice on shop security. Here are some built point tips you may find helpful from the basic and simple to the more tech. oriented:
Know how many keys there are to your premises and who has them.
Keep a spare key is a safe place away from the business.
Change the most powerful / valuable password for your computer software monthly and share it sparingly. Passwords should be complex. Check the strength of your password here: https://howsecureismypassword.net
Keep a current data backup off site, in the cloud preferably. Regularly check that you can restore the data from your backup and that the data is current.
Regularly check the use of your business software for the deletion or alteration of sales as this could indicate employee fraud.
Have current reputable virus protection on all your computers.
Have current reputable firewall installed on your network.
Never open a zip file sent by email.
Never open an email from a bank, the ATO or the police.
Be discrete when talking about the business and its performance.
Do not do the banking at the same time every day or every few days. Do not follow the same route. Do not carry the same bag.
Have a camera system installed to get a good shot of the faces of everyone entering and leaving the business.
Consider registering your CCTV with the local police – this is an option in some jurisdictions.
Ensure customers can see they are being filmed.
Train employees to make eye contact with customers.
Train employees on emergency procedures for handling: theft, aggressive people, shoplifters.
Use the full stock control facilities of your software to understand the financial cost of shoplifting.
When doing magazine returns, check discrepancies weekly to understand magazine theft.
Ensure your windows are not cluttered. The police advise cluttered windows are a security risk because of what they can hide.
Ensure there is good lighting outside if the store is locked up when it is dark.
Ensure you have the best possible sight lines of the shop from the counter.
Have a no personal items at the counter policy.
If you catch someone in the act of shoplifting ask them to wait in the store, and call the Police. Also (advice from NSW govt. Crime prevention):
Tell them who you are.
Tell them why they have been asked to stay in the store. o Advise them that Police have been called
Ask the person to surrender any property that doesn’t belong to them. Remember, retailers and other citizens have no legal right to search a person.
Most importantly, do not put yourself at risk.
Have a clear refund processing policy and ensure all employees are trained on this.
Track all sales by employee code.
When hiring: ask if applicants agree to a police check, check their references, do not hire friends of employees, explain your commitment to zero tolerance re employee theft.
Have an employee theft policy in full view.
Some of this may read like common sense. We continue to be surprised when hearing of a business that has experienced a security breach that has not considered most of what is on this list.
Develop your own list. Check it regularly. Follow your own advice.
We are a POS software company, making and supporting POS software for specialty retailers in Australia and New Zealand.
Every retail business needs rules of this business, rules everyone working in the shop is asked to follow, rules to guide behaviour.
Business without rules can function okay, until that one time when someone behaves in a way that is unacceptable.
here are some suggested rules that we have used in our shops over the years. they include some rules we have seen others use successfully in their local small business retail settings.
Customers come first. Please treat them with respect. Appreciate them.
We value your opinion. If you think there is something we should stock that will sell, please tell us. If you think we are making a mistake in running the business, please tell us. if you see a colleague misbehaving toward work colleague please tell us. If you see theft, please tell us.
This is a safe place. Thank you for helping us ensure that.
No staff member is permitted to serve themselves, ever. If you do purchase from then business, purchase from the customer side.
Any staff discount is not to be added to already discounted items unless a manager agrees.
If you want to buy something you do not take it off the shelf until you are ready to pay for the item. NO setting items aside.
You are not permitted to buy something on a staff discount for someone else.
No personal mobile phones at the counter.
No reading behind the counter.
No bags at the counter.
Do not sit behind the counter.
When a sale is over, COMPLETE THE SALE. Shut the cash drawer. Do not leave a completed sale on the screen.
Only a manager permitted to remove money from the register during trading.
Never put anything aside for someone who calls unless you know them and they are a regular shopper.
The computers in the business are not to be used for personal use unless approved by the owner or manager.
This is a retail business.
Customers are our only source of revenue. Greet them with a smile. Thank them for shopping with us when they leave. This means the shop floor is the hub of our operation. Your focus on the shoo floor and our customers helps the business and this helps you.
If there is anything we can do to help you enjoy working here more, please let us know.
Every day we try and help our 3,000+ POS software customers beyond the software itself. We know that the stronger our own retail community the stronger we are as a company.
Engaged local small business retailers know that everyone’s got an opinion on how to run a shop. But what’s the best advice for small business retailers?
Here’s our top 7 tips, based on our own experience and decades of working with small businesses in providing POS software and even running shops ourselves:
Use your data. Your POS software can tell you a lot about your business, from what products are selling to how often your customers visit. Use this data to make better decisions about your inventory, marketing, and staffing. yes, this sounds boring. But, it’s true. How your business has performed can be the best guide as to how it could perform.
Connect your systems. The more you can automate your processes, the less time you’ll waste on manual tasks and the more accurate your data will be. less keystrokes = less mistakes = time saved = better business decisions.
Look under the hood. Good POS software can give you insights into your business that you might not even know you need. Ask your POS software company what kind of data their software can track and report on.
Set goals and measure performance. What do you want to achieve with your business? Once you know your goals, you can track your progress and make sure you’re on track. Our POS software can measure and report on valuable local retail business goals.
Reorder what sells. Don’t waste time and money on products that don’t move. Keep an eye on your sales data and reorder the products that are selling well.
Place products together. People often buy products that go together, so place them near each other in your store. This will make it easier for customers to find what they’re looking for and increase your sales.
Train your staff. Make sure your staff know how to use your POS software and how to provide excellent customer service. This will help you create a positive shopping experience for your customers and keep them coming back.
Following these tips can help you run a more successful and profitable small business. Use your data, connect your systems, and look under the hood!
Now, for some extra advice:
Be customer-centric. Put your customers first and everything else will fall into place.
Be innovative. Don’t be afraid to try new things and experiment with different marketing strategies.
Be persistent. Success doesn’t happen overnight. Keep working hard and never give up on your dreams.
Tower Systems is grateful to serve 3,000+ local independent small business retailers in a variety of specialty retail channels.
Dead stock has no value in any retail business. Indeed, it has a cost as it takes up space and needs labour to keep it clean at least. It sits there, occupying this space, not being bought, paging with each day.
What constitutes dead stock will vary by type of retail business. In some, stock has an expiry date, making that the drop-dead date for the stock. In other businesses, stock is dead when a new version or new release of an item is out.
For the purpose of the advice we provide here, our definition of dead stock is that which has not sold whatsoever in six months or more. The is, you have a quantity of an item on hand and have not sold any of then in six months.
Knowing what stock is dead in your small business shop is critical. It is the start, the beginning, of resolving the issue of dead stock.
Our Tower Systems POS software helps local small business retailers easily identify dead stock. You can decide what constitutes dead stock in your business and list it, bring it up on the screens for attention.
Start there, start with your definition. next, use your software to identify what’s dead. Once you have this information you need to jump, what for some, is a hurdle … you need to decide to quit that stock.
Some retailers are adamant that they need to make a profit on everything they sell. These retailers don’t like discounting to quit dead stock. The thing is, the stock on the shelf is worthless until someone pays you something for it.
In our pragmatic view, getting something, anything just about, is for stock that is dead is better than waiting longer and getting nothing for that same dead stock.
Quitting dead stock is best considered a freeing cash move. That’s what we say getting anything at all is better than the stock sitting on the shelves and not moving.
Use your POS software to identify the dead stock and then jump that hurdle and quit it, quickly, freeing the space and allowing you to focus on what’s next.
In our Tower Systems POS software, the Stock manager tool is best for identifying stock that is dead. You can easily see when you last arrived stock, what’s on hand and when it last sold. In seconds you can have a hit list of stock that could benefit from action. Stock manager operates in a way that any retailer could use it. It’s not complex, not daunting. We have a terrific video showing how to do this with Stock manager. We also have a wonderful advice sheet.
Retail businesses exist to support those who rely on them for income. Dead stock is not helping with this.
Unfortunately, too many small business retailers do not actively engage with the opportunity of dead stock.
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We are grateful to serve more than 3,000 local and independent small business retailers here at Tower Systems. Our POS software community is diverse and very much appreciated by us for their support and feedback.
The advice we share here comes from our years of engagement with them and our own experience as engaged retailers ourselves.
Requests from schools, charities, and other local community groups can be a challenging, difficult, for small business retailers. If you don’t have a structured approach, you’ll end up giving away a lot for little or no return.
Guilt is a powerful emotion, and some representing charities and community groups know this. Take a beat and think through how you want to handle such requests in advance of them coming your way. If you have a process you can deal with the requests consistently and with less stress.
Here’s our advice for local small business retailers on handling community group donation requests:
Manage your philanthropy like any business activity. Decide how much money you’re willing to donate each year, and then stick to that budget.
Get on the front foot. Write to community groups at the start of the year and ask them to submit a proposal if they’d like your support. This way, you can choose the groups that are a good fit for your business and your community.
Support the groups that support you. Look for groups that have members who are also your customers. This way, you’re helping both the group and your business.
Let your shoppers choose. If you offer discount vouchers, you could let customers donate their vouchers to a local group. This is a great way to get your customers involved in your community giving.
Reward engagement. You could offer a discount to customers who are members of a local group. This would encourage them to shop at your business, and it would also support the group. This is critical advice. There has to be a commercial benefit for your business if you are to be able to help these community groups into the future.
Educate groups about good engagement. Let groups know that you’re looking for ways to work together to benefit the community. You could ask them to do things like promote your business on their social media pages, or write about you in their newsletters.
Write about your engagement. Once you’ve chosen the groups you’re going to support, write about it on your website and social media. Don’t be boastful or arrogant, be grateful. This will help to raise awareness of the groups, and it will also show your customers that you’re committed to giving back to the community.
Remember, your giving should serve both your heart and your business. By following these tips, you can make sure that your donations are a valuable investment for both you and your community.
Here are some additional tips:
Be clear about your expectations. Let groups know what you’re looking for in a partnership, and what you expect from them in return.
Be professional. Even if you’re dealing with a small community group, it’s important to be professional in your dealings with them.
Be grateful. When a group partners with you, be sure to thank them for their support.
By following these tips, you can build strong relationships with community groups and make a real difference in your community.
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Why this advice from our POS software company matters.
Every day we connect with small business retailers about their businesses, through our help desk, in sales situations and elsewhere. Owning and running a local small business retail shop is challenging, time-consuming. Coming up with fresh ideas is hard. It’s necessary though. The ideas we share here are things we have tried, and found to work.
Let’s talk about happiness in retail, in local small business retail especially.
There’s no doubt that being happy in your work makes a big difference to your overall wellbeing. And in retail, it’s especially important to be happy, because your mood can rub off on your customers and your colleagues.
But happiness isn’t something you can just decide to feel. It takes desire, planning and commitment.
Here are a few tips for finding, nurturing, and managing happiness in your local small business retail shop:
Create a happy place. From music to scent to shop layout to lighting to things shoppers can engage with, make decisions that lean into happiness. These are physical things you can control, things that can easily tell everyone in the shop that this is a happy place. In our view, this first tip is by far the most important.
Have good data. This might sound boring, but good data is essential for making informed decisions about your business. And when you make good decisions, you’re more likely to be happy with the results.
Be in control. Don’t let suppliers or other people push you around. Use your data to make your own decisions, and don’t be afraid to stand up for yourself.
Price for margin and turn. This means setting prices that will give you a good profit margin, but that will also sell quickly.
Lean on others. Don’t try to do everything yourself. Build a team of happy and talented people who can help you run your business.
Set your narrative. In your marketing and social media, be positive and optimistic. This will help to create a happy and welcoming atmosphere for your customers.
Of course, there are also some more practical things you can do to create a happy retail environment.
Happiness is good for business, and it’s good for you. So make sure you’re taking steps to find and nurture happiness in your retail shop.
Cheers! 🍻
P.S. Don’t forget to smile! 😃
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Why this advice from our POS software company matters.
Every day we connect with small business retailers about their businesses, through our help desk, in sales situations and elsewhere. Owning and running a local small business retail shop is challenging, time-consuming. Coming up with fresh ideas is hard. It’s necessary though. The ideas we share here are things we have tried, and found to work.
We know that low margin, high volume businesses can be tough. The traffic is good, but the profits are slim. And it can be hard to know how to make the most of those low-margin products and services.
How do we know this you ask? Here at Tower Systems we serve thousands of local small business retailers. This provides us with broad experience. It is surprising the crossover value of knowledge across retail channels. As well as helping retailers leverage our POS software we are grateful to share this business management advice.
No, back to low-margin products and how dealing with them can feel challenging for small business retailers.
Don’t worry, we’re here to help. We’ve put together a list of five must-do things to leverage your low value traffic.
Place at least one offer or stand at the door. This is a great way to catch people’s attention as they’re leaving. Make sure the offer is clear and relevant to people walking in or walking by.
Use a portable table for pricing stock. This is a great way to keep your stock looking neat and tidy, and it also gives you a chance to upsell other products to customers as you are pricing items.
Pitch other products to customers who are buying low-margin items. This is a great way to increase your average order value. Like, use the traffic of low-margin product to sell other things.
Have an offer at the counter that’s unrelated to the low margin purchase. This is a great way to tempt customers into impulse buys.
Establish a floor unit to guide counter traffic. This is a great way to showcase your products and services, and it also helps to keep your customers moving through your store.
Oh, here’s a bonus tip. Offer a sample, a taste, or a feel (if appropriate). People engaging with a product are more likely to purchase. We have seen this happen in a. range of different types of retail businesses.
We know that these tips might seem like a lot of work, but they’re worth it. By following these tips, you can increase your profits and make your low margin, high volume business more successful.
If you need any help, we’re here for you. We have awesome tools to help low margin, high volume retailers, and we’d be glad to give you some practical advice.
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Why this advice from our POS software company matters.
Every day we connect with small business retailers about their businesses, through our help desk, in sales situations and elsewhere. Owning and running a local small business retail shop is challenging, time-consuming. Coming up with fresh ideas is hard. It’s necessary though. The ideas we share here are things we have tried, and found to work.
You know what’s important, especially in local small business retail? Coming up with fresh ideas. Big ideas, small ideas, ideas for new traffic, products, and services.
But it can be tough to come up with new ideas, right? Sometimes you feel like you’re stuck in a rut. Sometimes you feel alone. Sometimes you feel like you are growing in … stuff!
Well, we’re here at Tower Systems to help you out. We serve thousands of retailers and have experience in local small business retail ourselves.
Here are some suggestions for ways to clear that blockage, to discover fresh ideas:
Try a sensory deprivation tank. It’s weird at first, but it’s a great way to relax and let your mind wander.
Cook a complex meal that you’ve never cooked before. Or bake a cake. Or do a jigsaw puzzle. Or build a model. Just do something that you’re not used to doing.
Go to a ballet or opera. Or a comedy show. Or a walk in the forest. Or sit in front of the ocean and look out to the horizon.
Shut yourself in a dark room and put on your favourite music and sing along. Or try yoga, or meditation, or have a massage.
Read a novel from cover to cover without interruption. Or do some gardening or other backyard work, or go for a long drive.
Have a romantic dinner with your partner at a place you’ve never been before. Or take an unexpected day off and treat yourself to some guilty pleasures.
The point is to get lost in experiences that are unrelated to your business. By getting lost, getting truly lost, ideas have a better opportunity of surfacing.
So go out there and have some fun! The great ideas will follow.
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Why this advice from our POS software company matters.
Every day we connect with small business retailers about their businesses, through our help desk, in sales situations and elsewhere. Owning and running a local small business retail shop is challenging, time-consuming. Coming up with fresh ideas is hard. It’s necessary though. The ideas we share here are things we have tried, and found to work.
We love trying new things as we have found that in those unknown places creativity thrives.
How decisions are made in local independent retail businesses can determine the value of those decisions, the consequences on those decisions.
Too often in our work with small business retailers we have seen decisions based on emotion rather than evidence.
The POS software we make for specialty small business retail collects and curates business data that can inform decisions. New have seen wonderful and valuable success flow in retail businesses that make decisions based on evidence is this data.
A common situation of poor decision making is buying stock. Too often we see small business retailers buying because they like a sales rep or because they like the look of something when their own business data indicate that buying that stock is not the right move for their retail business.
In our POS software we make it easy for local retailers to access this data about stock performance, we make it easy for them to have the evidence of their own data to better inform decisions they are considering. retailers who do this, who rely on the evidence in their own business data, tend to run more successful and valuable retail businesses. They tend to enjoy their businesses more too.
Buying stock has to be black and white: will this decision make money for the business in the time that the business needs? As a retail business trades using POS software like ours it builds up knowledge in its trading, knowledge that can be accessed, analysed and understood by the POS software itself to make it easy to see the right stock buying decisions to make.
We upset a retailer a while back when they happened to mention that products from a supplier were not working for them. They were unhappy when we showed them their own data that disagreed with their opinion. It turns out that their opinion was based on a dislike of the manager of the supplier business. They were letting their emotion get in the way of facts. The situation turned out well, the business made more money as a result.
If you are in retail to be successful, we urge you to make decisions based on your business evidence. Our POS software can help. We back its facilities with terrific training and customer support materials that are easily accessible.
We love helping local small business retailers make good decisions. It’s something that makes us feel good.
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We are grateful to serve more than 3,000 local and independent small business retailers here at Tower Systems. Our POS software community is diverse and very much appreciated by us for their support and feedback.
The advice we share here comes from our years of engagement with them and our own experience as engaged retailers ourselves.
Running an antique shop can be a lot of work. There’s inventory to track, customers to keep happy, and payments to process. Often, depending on the type of antique business, there are many suppliers, collectors, to track and report to. Our Tower Systems Antique Shop Software helps streamline your operations and save time.
This software has sone terrific features, including:
Inventory tracking: Tower Systems Antique Shop Software makes it easy to track your inventory, from individual items to entire collections. You can easily see what you have in stock, what you’re low on, and what you need to order. Plus, you can see the people who have provided this inventory to you, even if it is on consignment.
Sales management: Tower Systems Antique Shop Software also makes it easy to manage your sales. You can track sales by item, by customer, or by period. This information can help you identify trends and make better decisions about your business. It’s easy to learn and therefore useful in a situation where different people work the dealership on different days.
Customer tracking: Tower Systems Antique Shop Software helps you keep track of your customers. You can store their contact information, purchase history, and preferences. This information can help you provide better customer service and target your marketing efforts.
Sell online: Tower Systems Antique Shop Software can also be integrated with Shopify, magenta, Woo and Big Commerce. Easily sell online.
Benefits:
Increased efficiency: Tower Systems Antique Shop Software can help you streamline your operations and save time. You can easily process transactions, track inventory, and manage sales. This frees up your time so you can focus on other aspects of your business.
Improved customer service: Tower Systems Antique Shop Software can help you provide better customer service. You can easily track customer orders and preferences, and you can send them reminders about upcoming appointments or events. This can help you build stronger relationships with your customers and keep them coming back.
Increased sales: Tower Systems Antique Shop Software can help you increase your sales. You can easily sell your products online, and you can target your marketing efforts to specific demographics. This can help you reach a wider audience and boost your sales.
Our Tower Systems Antique Shop Software is easy to use, efficient, and can help improve your customer service and increase sales.
Call 1300 662 957 or email sales@towersystems.com.au for more details and to outline what it is you are looking for in Antique shop software.
Here are some additional benefits of using Tower Systems Antique Shop Software:
Reporting: Track your sales, inventory, and customer data. This information can help you make better decisions about your business.
Remote management: You can access your software from anywhere with an internet connection. This means you can manage your business from home or on the go.
Helpful support: Tower Systems offers human delivered support, so you can get help you need.
If you’re looking for a powerful and easy-to-use POS software for your antique shop, then Tower Systems Antique Shop Software could be a good fit for you.
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