We are grateful and proud. This is us:
Aussie POS software for local Aussie specialty retail businesses
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Updated Charity Shop / Op. Shop POS software helps these community shops connect locally
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Tower Systems is grateful to work with a diverse and engaged mix of charities and community groups through providing charity shop / op. shop software.
Our work spans local op. shops, charity shops, community group shops, church bookshops, community groups with online shops and more. It is a diverse pool of businesses / shops / community groups we serve with our charity shop / op. shop software. The diversity helps in that it opens our eyes to more opportunities for service.
We were surprised when first approached years ago by a community group and, then, thrilled to discover that our specialty retail PO software has facilities embedded in the software that serve the needs of charity shops, community retail businesses and the quintessential Aussie Op. Shop.
Our op. shop software , opportunity shop software, charity shop software helps these businesses, these community run and community serving businesses, to run more efficiently, accurately and successfully.
We are used to dealing with committees and boards of management as software is assessed and consideration given to the needs of the shop in the context of the charter of the community group or charity. We offer to software the software multiple times so that all stakeholders are able to see what they need to see in order to make their own assessment.
From tracking inventory, rewarding shoppers, understanding sales performance and helping volunteers run the business, this POS software for charity shops and opportunity shops helps local charities in their mission of service. The software can sell items by barcode, inventory product code, price point grouping, description, PLU code or more. There is flexibility as to how a charity business tracks what it sells . This flexibility serves the data, time management and financial management needs of the business.
This op. shop software / charity shop software / social enterprise retail management software serves in a diverse mix of situations and offers facilities backed with flexibility. Indeed, this is what it is – social enterprise POS software made for the charity sector.
We can organise to show this software to those sunning the charity shop, the board or committee. To arrange this and tell us more about your needs, email: sales@towersystems.com.au or call 1300 662 957.
Australian made. Australian supported. We are grateful for people who shop local.
Advice for bookkeepers and accountants who are asked for POS software advice
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Accountants and bookkeepers are often asked for advice by retail business owners about which POS software to buy.
Unless an Accountant or bookkeeper has experience actually running the type of retail business, they may not know what the business needs in the shop. They will understand the accounting needs of the business, but what about the business operationally needs, the workflow needs, the specialty needs unique to that type of business?
Most accountants and bookkeepers we meet are accounting experts, not specialty retail operational and management experts.
Unless an accountant or bookkeeper has actually used the POS software they suggest how can they know if it is right for the job? Sure they will read about it and often talk to people about software from an accounting perspective, but this does not make them experts. Accountants usually know accounting software well, but not specialty retail POS software.
Good accountants and bookkeepers themselves use specialty practice management software to run their practices, to serve their customers. Why, therefore, would an accountant suggest a specialty retailer not use specialty software make specifically for they type of retail business? They shouldn’t. That’s right. In fact, they should suggest to their specialty retail clients that they use software for their type ion business.
Specialty retail businesses need specialty retail management software, software made for those businesses.
Bike shops need software made for bike shops.
Toy shops need software made for toy shops.
Homewares shops need software made for homewares shops.
Sewing shops need software made for sewing shops.
Game shops need software made for game shops.
Jewellers need software made for jewellers.
Firearms retailers need software made for firearms retailers.
Garden centres need software made for garden centres.
Pet shops need software made for pet shops.
Produce and farm supply businesses need software made for produce and farm supply businesses.
Fishing and outdoors shops need software made for fishing and outdoors shops.
Gift shops need software made for gift shops.
Newsagents need software bade for newsagencies.
Adult shops need software made for adult shops.
Accountant and bookkeepers need software made for accounting and bookkeeping practices.
Specialty retail management POS software provides opportunities for better workflow management, easier selling, better supplier connection and better service of customers. Bottom line: specialty software is more fit for purpose for specialty retailers.
Tower Systems only develops and sells specialty POS software in a selected number of niche retail channels. We are experts, selling expert software, to expert retailers.
While we like accountants and bookkeepers, and have a couple working full time in our software company, we think sometimes their advice to go with an generic simple POS package could be less than appropriate advice.
The federal budget missed an easy-win job creation opportunity
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The federal budget last night promised the spending of truckloads of cash on projects designed to create jobs. Almost all the forecast spending would be big business related.
While big projects do help the economy and deliver much-needed new or enhanced infrastructure, there are other ways the federal government could spend more to more immediately boost jobs, and boost the economy.
It’s in small businesses, like retail, local service businesses, local software companies and other local businesses where job creation is easy and fast.
The challenge for the government is that a small business focussed job creation investment would be based on many channel specific investments. They may see that as too hard. They could see it as spreading the risk and thereby spreading the reward.
Thousands of targeted investments could deliver more sustainable economic and jobs benefits than one big billion big project spend.
But … we are not against the big projects. What we propose is in addition to those big projects.
Let us unpack this from the small business software company perspective since that a space we know well. Our POS software business competes with a bunch of overseas businesses. While we are doing well, we’d be grateful to do even better.
A dollar spent with us provides more value for Australia than a dollar spent with an overseas competition, much more.
The government would say we benefit from the extension of the instant asset write off. They are right, we do. But, so do all software companies.
Personally, we’d prefer to see the government offer a financial incentive to retailers buying or renting Australian made and Australian supported software. This would see the government investment spent in Australia, more tax revenue for Australia and more job creation.
Let me break that down. In a company like ours, we respond quickly to demand and can hire for entry level help desk roles quickly, offering people new to software and tech entry-level roles. We could be creating jobs in months, and not years like the big projects funded in the budget. And, the jobs we create come with training that positions the new hires for long-term roles in tech.
We can offer a pathway for people with retail experience to develop good tech skills. We can also offer a pathway for older folks to develop a new career in tech. We can offer people with families and challenging schedules flexibility that is family-friendly. We are not alone in being able to do these things. Indeed, there are plenty of service related businesses that can do this.
Another benefit of supporting local specialty business software companies like ours is that they nurture better business efficiency, benefiting the businesses in which the software is used. This benefits the economy. And, since they are small businesses, they will be nimble in leveraging the improved efficiency within their community.
In both of these examples, the software company and local specialty retail, tax dollars stay in Australia, employment growth is more certain and faster, local communities benefit and the economy is, overall, stronger sooner.
Our example here is one of hundreds or thousands the federal government could employ to rapidly boost employment. They should look at businesses that can respond quickly to demand. They would be local businesses serving local communities.
Covid has proven the importance of local. Many who started working from home through Covid will continue, permanently. This presents opportunities for local infrastructure and this is where local small businesses can play a role – businesses that will make a more valuable tax contribution and businesses that can hire for demand more rapidly.
The federal budget is a missed opportunity in the job creation front. It reads like it’s from people who have little understanding how small business works – that we can respond quickly.
We get that politicians will say dealing with a small number of big businesses is easier than wrangling thousands of small businesses. To that we would say try it.
Small businesses in Australia are a resource that few politicians have ever successfully tapped. We are in federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s electorate. We have written to him about these things. He’s not responded. However, he continues to email us about all the good things he has announced.
We are confident that many investments in buy Australian initiatives with and for a variety of small business channels could deliver early job creation wins, a boost in tax revenue and welcome economic support for regional and rural Australian communities.
Antique shop software helps antique shops serve sellers and collectors
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The data management needs of antique shops are unique, beyond what is traditional in retail businesses. Often, the needs are unique to each business in niche ways.
Historically steeped in paper-based management, antique businesses rely on accurate record keeping for it is this that serves the needs of sellers and buyers and the antique business itself.
Tower Systems is grateful to offer POS software for antique businesses, software tuned to the needs of these businesses based on what we have seen and been told.
Our POS software for antique shops has evolved from our decades of work in the jewellers POS software space. We serve hundreds of retailers in the jewellery channel from everyday fashion to high end to bespoke to heirloom to repair and maintenance. Our work with a diverse community opt jeweller businesses has set us up to serve the needs of antique businesses through our antique shop POS software.
Managing secondhand goods, managing insurance purchases, providing valuations, documenting product provenance, storing product images, offering product care instructions, tracking buyers, tracking sellers … all of these facilities and more are part of the core POS software for antique shops from Tower Systems.
Our seamless connectivity to Shopify helps us serve online sale needs too, from the physical shop to online and back in terms of accurate and timely data management.
Using our POS software, antique shops can track sales of items provided by different sellers. You can easily report on sales at this level. you can also aggregate items for reporting or tracking across sellers, based on product type.
Often in antique shops, product knowledge is held by a few. Using our POS software for antique shops you can help more people in the business offer consistency in terms of product related knowledge. This is key for the business to be able to operate under management if that serves the interests of the business owners.
Our approach in dealing with antique shop opportunities is to understand the needs first. We’re not right for everyone. we will say so if we are not right, and wish you all the best with your search.
See what we offer antique shops through our POS software, contact us: sales @towersystems.com..au or 1300 662 957.
Bringing more retail experience to the POS software help desk
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Last week, we added a ne team member to our POS software help desk, someone with fifteen years retail experience, most of that using our POS software in business, not just one shop but several.
Their retail experience is terrific as is their knowledge of our software and their ability to train retail employees in the use of our software.
We are grateful to find this new team member and expand our head count to accomodate their position.
We are also grateful to our growing customer base for encouraging the head count growth. 2021 is just over four months old and already it is a terrific year for Tower Systems, and this plays well for our customer community.
We did let our customers know a couple of weeks ago about the new team member. Their support has been terrific.
Casual employee arrangements have changed in retail …
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Changes to casual employment in Australia are now in effect. Click here to see the details as pblished by the Fair Work Ombudsman.
Employers have to give every new casual employee a Casual Employment Information Statement (the CEIS) before, or as soon as possible after, they start their new job.
Small business employers need to give their existing casual employees a copy of the CEIS as soon as possible after 27 March 2021. Other employers have to give their existing casual employees a copy of the CEIS as soon as possible after 27 September 2021.
Also, the Fair Work Commission has issued a decision that impacts the award under which employees in newsagencies are paid. This from the Fair Work Ombudsman website:
Modern Award Review – Junior rates under the Retail Award
The Fair Work Commission has issued a decision that changes the way juniors are paid under the Retail Award. From the first full pay period on or after 1 May 2021, junior rates will only apply for classification levels 1, 2 and 3.
Use our Pay guides or Pay Calculator to find the new rates and allowances.
A junior is an employee under 21 years of age. Use our Pay Calculator to calculate junior pay rates.
Juniors get paid a percentage of the relevant adult pay rate unless the award, enterprise agreement or other registered agreement doesn’t have junior rates.
The percentages that apply are usually based on the employee’s age and increase on their next birthday.
These are important changes newsagents need to be across.
POS software for doll shops helps local doll shops help doll collectors and lovers
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Tower Systems is grateful to help doll shops with POS software that serves the unique needs of their businesses. Made in Australia for local businesses, this software has facilities that go beyond what is traditional for retail POS software.
Our doll shop POS software helps doll shops better serve their customers. It does this in plenty of ways. We only realised when we were shown by experts in the doll shop retail space.
Here are some of the facilities in our doll shop POS software that we have been told are especially useful in these niche businesses:
- Repairs management. Doll shops often offer repair and care services. Our software enables the tracking of repairs including parts and labour tracking. It also maintains customer contact, to keep them up to date with when the repair can be collected. The flexibility of the repairs / workshop management tools is ideal for the nature of repair / maintenance services offered in doll shops.
- Club marketing and support. Embedded in the doll shop POS software are facilities that enable the business to serve the members of clubs with offers and pricing. This nurtures the love of collecting and showing dolls and better connects the business to this community, ultimately growing the size of the community.
- Special orders. With many dolls made to order or sold on a pre-order basis, offering facilities in the doll shop POS software for managing these types of orders helps the business to manage opportunities and to capture revenue in advance of having items to sell. This level on unique record keeping is key for the doll collector businesses.
- Serial number tracking. Yes, plenty of collector dolls have serial numbers. Tracking them from within the software offers a service that doll shops can leverage.
- Anniversary marketing. Collectors love their dolls. To many, they are a member of the family. Remembering anniversaries can help a doll shop maintain a connection with their collector customers.
- Rare visit loyalty. The customer visit cycle for a doll shop is infrequent, patchy. Embedded in this software for doll shops are loyalty tools that respect this and encourage shoppers to provide more value to the business from each visit. It’s in doll retail where you see old-school loyalty as inappropriate.
Tower Systems is grateful to serve specialty doll retailers with our POS software, to help them run more successful and enjoyable businesses, to help them broaden the appeal of doll collecting and doll love.
Our specialty POS software is good at serving specialist retail business needs.
For more information: sales@tower ystems.com.au or: 1300 662 957.
Loving our mums
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Disaster planning advice for small business retailers
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No one wants to plan for disaster. It’s a negative activity, easily put off for more happy and optimistic pursuits. The reality is that most business owners will confront some form of disaster at some point in their business life. This advice is far-reaching, designed to act as a broad list of steps you can undertake to be prepared. Do it all or some, but do something … otherwise when you need good planning you will not have a plan on which to fall back.
Disaster planning is vital for any retail business. Too often, the need for good disaster planning is realised after a disaster has hit the business. This advice sheet offers business and computer related advice which is designed to mitigate the impact of a disaster on your business.
Insurance Protection
Insurance coverage is vital to helping a retail business overcome any type of disaster. In addition to ensuring that your insurance policy covers all disaster situations of concern to you, including flood, theft, water inundation, fire, earthquake, riot—be sure to carefully read the policy, ensure that your insurance policy / policies cover payouts for the following:
- Business interruption. The amount should equal your anticipated gross profit for whatever period you choose to be covered.
- Data recovery. Including the hiring of experts to recover data from backup sources or the manual entry of data which cannot be automatically recovered. It needs to ensure that you are covered to the point of recovered data being useable in transacting business.
- Lost stock. This is stock stolen, lost from the business.
- Damaged and unsaleable stock. This is stock which is water damaged, scuffed or dented and which will not attract full price.
- Dated stock. This is stock that you cannot sell by the due date.
- Many policies require explicit statement of glass coverage.
- Temporary trading premises. Business interruption may cover this. Ensure that it is explicitly stated.
- Key person injury and/or death. This will usually be a separate policy. Depending on the disaster, coverage may also be available through the overall business policy.
Ensure that the value of stock, fixtures and fittings covered by your policy is an accurate reflection of the real value of these items. Talk with your insurance company about the best approach to track this on an ongoing basis.
Insurance brokers can provide access to assessors who can advise on the appropriate level of insurance for your situation.
Use your Point of Sale system to track all stock movements in and out. The stock on hand in your software should be your coverage.
Ensure that your insurance policy protects for the seasonal nature of your business
Data Protection
Business data is one of the most valuable assets of the business. Like insurance, the value is often not understood until you need what you do not have. Retailers who are serious about protecting their business data in the event of any disaster follow these steps:
- Backup your business data every day, at the end of the day, without fail. Our recommendation: use a cloud based backup service that undertakes the backup as the day unfolds without you having to every do anything to cause a backup to be taken.
- Maintain a separate backup for each day of the week. Consider a separate backup for the last day of each month.
- Remove the backup medium, usually a USB stick, from the business premises each day – outside the business property.
- Store the backup in a safe, dry place.
- Check the usefulness of the backup by restoring and checking the data.
- Store original business software in a safe off-site location.
- Check the backup every three to six months – to make sure the backup is actually backing us current data and can be read. A backup you cannot read is a waste of time and money.
- Change your passwords regularly.
- Do not share passwords widely.
Disaster Planning
Here are some general suggestions on planning for a disaster in your business property.
- Keep off-site copies of: Business contracts and agreements; employee contact details, business account and other passwords, insurance details, recent photographs of fixtures, fittings and stock.
- For records you cannot easily copy or that may change as the trading day unfurls, consider having a go bag ready for you to grab if there is a risk to the premises such as a bushfire.
- Maintain a register of all employees in the business premises at any time.
- Prepare and place in a prominent place an evacuation plan.
- Maintain a professional grade OH&S compliant first aid kit. Have this checked regularly.
- Regularly maintain all fire extinguishers – check with your local fire brigade about this.
- Ensure that the business premises is safe and maintained to the local building codes and OH&S regulations.
- Have a trained first aid officer in staff. Your local St Johns or similar will be able to provide training.
- Use government resources such as the emergency planning kit at the federal government website: http://www.business.gov.au/business-topics/templates-and-downloads/emergency-management-template-and-guide/Pages/default.aspx
Feature rich POS software for local small business gift shops
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This POS software for gift shops packs a punch, a good punch, delivering for a few dollars a day valuable facilities and benefits:
- Get rid of manual books at the counter for LayBys, special orders, stock you need to order and more.
- Cut dead stock and re-order based on data facts.
- Cut theft by knowing what is being stolen.
- Eliminate LayBy and get you paid sooner with buy now pay later.
- Make price comparison harder with bundled packs.
- Easily and consistently pitch locally sourced products.
- Drive community group member engagement with group pricing.
- Get one-time-only shoppers spending more with loyalty tools.
- Bring customers back with reminders on dates important to them.
- Save money on bookkeeping by integrating with Xero.
- Leverage your knowledge on receipts and elsewhere. Sell you.
- Reach beyond your four walls with a directly linked Shopify store.
The latest version of our Aussie made and supported gift shop software, released recently, is visually and technically fresh. It’s made for Australian gift retailers to help you run a more valuable business.
Here is what your customers can access:
- Australian developed and supported jeweller business POS software.
- Unlimited computer licences for your location.
- Software updates as we release them.
- Tyro link – fast and easy EFTPOS link – plus access to our least cost fee.
- Shopify / Magento / Woo link. Easily sell online from your POS software.
- Xero link. Easing bookkeeping costs and streamlining accounting.
- Our OzBiz link. This helps you link to MYOB and Quicken through OzBiz.
- PC Eftpos link. This offers easy EFTPOS processing for the major banks.
- Easy buy now pay later options with Zip Pay and Humm.
- Support – help desk access.
- Training – unlimited one-on-one training over the phone.
- User documentation. Access to our searchable knowledge base.
Our goal is for you to enjoy valuable outcomes for you and your business from using our software. We’d love the software to be a genuinely useful partner for the long term, to help you and your business do well.
See the software for yourself. here is a short video in which we show some of what this specialty POS software offers:
Our gift shop POS software does much more than this. It is feature and function rich, easily learned and valuable at many touchpoiunts in the business.
The benefits of our local gift shop POS software …
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Okay, software are the tangible, bankable, useful benefits of the Tower Systems gift shop POS software? That’s a big question because, really, what differentiates this software from other software out there. Let;’s try and answer.
In our experience, here is what we think people find to be beneficial about our gift shop POS software…
- Get one-time-only shoppers spending more thanks to an easy to pitch loyalty system embedded in the software.
- Leverage you. If you believe your knowledge is a differentiator, offer it through structured opportunities in the software.
- Encourage customer happiness by serving product care info. on receipts.
- Easily handle special customer orders. Bring product in for a specific customer and have them notified automatically by email or text when the goods are in and ready.
- Easily sell online with a direct to Shopify / Magento or WooCommerce link from your POS software – including image flow.
- Go cashless if that is your goal – we make it easy and affordable.
- Save time with electronic invoices from suppliers.
- Use tags to get a fresh perspective, side-view, on stock performance.
- Bundle items together to make price comparisons harder and thereby increase sales.
- Business differentiating loyalty. Stand out from the crowd. Have customers coming back to you for this.
- Trade and club pricing profiles. Set pricing rules based on customer type.
- Make money from pre-orders – Easily pre-sell a delivery so that when the stock arrives you can manage distribution and billing efficiently.
- Differentiate with informative receipts. These can include product care, use and safety information based on what customers buy.
- Track who sold what.
- Say goodbye to LayBy – with integrated buy now pay later options.
- Market to customers based on past purchases.
- Save time by importing electronic invoices.
- Sell more with a direct connect to buy now pay later services.
- Cut mistakes with integrated EFTPOS.
- Cut accounting and bookkeeping fees with integration to Xero and others.
Sweet huh? We love this list because everything on it is good and because other benefits not on it are good, too. We are proud of our local business specialty retail gift shop POS software and the ben edits it delivers to the retailers with whom we work.
The thing is, the benefits in our gift shop POS software are there because of our customers. They have guided us and they guide us. This is a collaboration. It always has been. This software is awesome because we have awesome customers and for this we are sincerely grateful.
Aussie made POS software for local gift shops helps them leverage their uniqueness
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If you own a gift shop, let’s talk …
What’s unique about your business? Why should people shop with you over an online store, a department store or some other local or nearby gift shop? What sets you apart? What is memorable about your business? How consistent is the shopping experience in your shop? How efficient in your business? Does your gift shop make you happy?
So many questions, so much to unpack. And, maybe, you are wondering why a POS software company even wonders about these questions. Like, seriously, what does this have to with gift shop POS software? Why are nerds asking these questions.
We care.
Seriously, we care. Okay, we are nerds too, but we do care and have cared for many may years.
Our business relies on thriving local gift shops, small business gift shops, independent gift shops. We need you to be successful as much as you need your business to be successful.
This is why we have built and continue to build into our gift shop POS software facilities, tools and nuggets on which you can rely to bank better results.
If you are thinking of turning off because this reads as too salesy, too glib, please don’t. We are trying to show that we do care about local gift shops, businesses like yours.
In our Aussie made and supported specialty gift shop POS software you have access to cool and useful tools that can help:
- Encourage shoppers to spend more each visit.
- Take away the guessing of what to stock.
- Strengthen your negotiating position with suppliers.
- Streamline the shopper experience.
- Eliminate manual processes in the shop.
- Help you offer a more personalised service.
- Reduce the cost of theft.
This is smart gift shop POS software made solely for local independent gift shops. It has been made to help that channel of businesses compete with much bigger businesses. It does this by helping to leverage you and your people and your knowledge, by helping to consistently pitch local without shouting and by giving you tools that match and, in our view, pass what the big end of town retailers use to chase customers.
So, yes, we are nerds. But … we are nerds who understand retail, especially local retail, independent retail, gift shop retail.
We help you shine a light on what is unique. We help you sell in-store and online. We help you compete with big business. We help you shine a light on what sets you apart. We help you provide a memorable experience. We nurture consistency. We guide efficiency. We help you and those who work in your business enjoy it more.
This is locally made gift shop POS software we are proud to offer.
Catch a glimpse of what makes our gift shop POS software valuable
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Good POS software is valuable for a retail business, especially a small local business like a gift shop. Our gift shop POS software has been made to nurture value for any business using it. By value, we mean bankable results in terms of sales, margin and, ultimately, the valuation of the business itself.
Our gift shop POS software is made to focus on guiding you to nurture value from the business. It does this through facilities built into the software to help you on this path.
if you have a spare 22 minutes, here is a video in which we look at several of the facilities included in this gift shop POS software, facilities that differentiate it from other more generic POS software. We shot this video in August 2020. While the software continues to evolve, what we discuss in the video is in the software today.
This video is designed to briefly overview this gift shop POS software. Any of the Tower Systems sales team can show you more of the software, in as much detail as you would like. However, before they do that, they will want to know about your business needs as your software choice is 100% about you and what you need for your business.
We are grateful for the many hundreds of gift shop owners, managers and retail team members who have contributed and continue to contribute ideas and feedback on the software for it is their engagement that guides where we take this software.
Each year we release several gift shop POS software updates, bring new facilities and enhancements to the software to ensure its service to our customers grows … as you’d expect from any business.
This is specialty POS software made for gift shops, specific to their business needs. Too often we win business where a gift shop wen with a generic software product only to find that it does not serve their specialty retail needs.
If you think your retail business is unique in any ways, look for software that serves your uniqueness. This is important. Software sits at the heart of any retail business. It is critical to how you see your business that you match your view with tools up to the task.
Our gift shop POS software has been make for local specialty retail gift shops.
Gift shop software: Australian made for Australian businesses
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Tower Systems is grateful to offer local gift shops locally made and supported POS software for their niche retail businesses.
The needs of gift shops when it comes to gift shops POS software are unique. Too often, gift shop owners are told that any software can serve their needs.
The thing is, software can only do what it can do. A specialty retail business does not want to be limited in what it can do by the limits of the software it selects.
There is where the Tower Systems specialty gift shop POS software plays. It has been made for gift shops and is used by gift shops to serve unique and specialty needs of these specialty retail, businesses. It does this for physical businesses as well as online businesses thanks to a seamless integration with platforms like Shopify.
This gift shop POS software does not stand still. It is regularly enhanced to serve evolving marketplace needs. Gift shop owners often find ways to evolve their businesses thanks to opportunities in the software.
being locally made and supported helps local small business gift shops to serve their local communities. This is software made for your situation. It’s not from an overseas software chop shop that uses different lingo or from nerds who expect you to meet them on their nerd platform.
The Tower Systems gift shop POS software is make for local gift shops. But what does this mean? Fair question. It sounds like marketing spin. How is this gift shop software made for gift shops.
Okay, let’s explore that, let’s consider how this gift shop POS software is made specifically for gift shops. here are a couple of examples.
- Special customer orders. A good local gift shop will offer to get in items for specific customer needs. Often, the details are written in a book, starting a manual process. Using our software and the special customer orders facilities in our software, handling these is structured in a way to save a business time, better serve the customer and cultivate data that can inform business decisions to leverage customer requests and needs beyond the one sale. Plus, you are set up to encourage that customer to return through several operation embedded in the gift shop POS software.
- Infrequent shopper loyalty. Local gift shops tend to not have the daily or weekly visits from shoppers. Yes, shopper visits are usually less frequent. This challenges traditional loyalty offerings. In our gift shop POS software we offer a unique and easy to setup and run loyalty solution that targets these infrequent shoppers, to maximise the opportunity of their infrequent visit.
These are two of the many gift shop specific facilities in our POS software on which local small business gift shop owners can rely to leverage their businesses for greater local success.
Sunday vibes from our POS software co.
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Marketing tips for small business retailers
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Here at Tower Systems, through our work with our specialsist retail POS software, we get to see many different types and sizes of retail businesses. we are grateful for the insights they share and the inspiration they provide.
We have put together this collection of local small business retail every day marketing tips. These are tips that could work in almost any business situation. We hope you find it useful.
- Always unpack and price products on the shop floor and not in the back room or outside of shopper view.
- Always have a value-proposition offer just inside the entrance to the business. This should be a double-sided offer, one they see as they enter and as they leave. Ensure it is:
- Easily understood.
- Easily purchased.
- Broadly appealing.
- Something people will talk about.
- Fun, ideally.
- Always have an appealing impulse purchase offer at the counter. Change this weekly. Use the opportunity to learn more about what your customers will purchase on impulse.
- Always know your top selling items in the store and always place products next to the top selling item thoughtfully, to leverage the eyeballs looking for and at the top selling product.
- Run a generous loyalty program where the value is understood. This probably means not using points, because points have a questionable value thanks to the trashing of loyalty programs by big retailers.
- Create stunning window displays people would not expect to see in your type of business.
- Offer multi-buy opportunities unlocking savings for people purchasing more than would be usual in a single visit.
- Be brief in talking to customers about your products on social media: a single product per post. Two sentences. Short sentences. Make the post appealing beyond you trying to promote your business. Entertain them.
- Send customers a card for special occasions, a personal card to reinforce the personal relationship you have with them.
- Change the front two metres of your shop weekly, keep it fresh for your customers and your staff.
Our goal with this list is to give you ideas you can use right away as well as ideas that will get you thinking of your own ideas.
Go for it. Remember, if you do next week what you did this week you cannot expect any growth. Growth only comes from change.
Can your POS software help identify a gross profit problem in a retail business?
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Yes, it can!
Good POS software provides you with tools for checking / tracking GP% and thereby cross-checking to see if data errors have been made that result in inaccurate information as to the profitability of the business.
Our POS software helps mitigate against data errors by eliminating human touch of data as much as possible. However, not all human touch can be avoided, and this opens to possible data errors, which can play out to GP, business profitability reporting and, eventually, tax liability.
Our Tower Systems POS software helps small business retailers to identify and resolve data errors that feed an inaccurate gross profit reporting situation. Our help desk team also provide comprehensive support for any business chasing problematic data. Our retail business support team go further and provide help from an accountant perspective, where a issue may be revealed in the P&L – we work back to the source, which is usually inaccurately entered data in the POS where someone has not followed basic principles or, worse, someone has manipulated the processes to hide fraud.
We saw a situation recently where a local retail business using other software, not from us, was confronted by a tax bill that was considerably higher than expected. They had been trying to get help through the POS software company they were using. As that was not working ut for them, they sought our help. We showed how we track and manage GP fluctuation in our software and encouraged them to speak with their POS provider again, to ask for more useful help in getting to an understanding of what has happened.
Can your POS software help identify a gross profit problem in a retail business?
We are grateful to answer yes to this question – through our software, our help desk and our retail business support team.
POS software is only as useful as support provided by those who make and care for the software and its users. It is frustrating seeing a small business owner left with a challenging situation for which there should be answers in their business data, but, answers they cannot find for themselves as they do not have the requisite tools and knowledge.
Good software support is key for small business retailers using POS software.
Charity shop / op. shop software helps charities manage community retail businesses
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Tower Systems is grateful to work with a diverse and engaged mix of charities and community groups through providing charity shop / op. shop software.
We were surprised when first approached years ago by a community group and, then, thrilled to discover that our specialty retail PO software has facilities embedded in the software that serve the needs of charity shops, community retail businesses and the quintessential Aussie Op. Shop.
Our op. shop software , opportunity shop software, charity shop software helps these businesses, these community run and community serving businesses, to run more efficiently, accurately and successfully.
Thanks to unique tools, this charity shop software / opportunity shop software can track engagement with multiple community groups in several ways, making the software useful in a broader variety of community group settings.
Using this Aussie made and supported POS software, a local charity can manage secondhand goods if they are selling items above a trigger value that requires such tracking.
From tracking inventory, rewarding shoppers, understanding sales performance and helping volunteers run the business, this POS software for charity shops and opportunity shops helps local charities in their mission of service.
Tower Systems is grateful to serve charity / community businesses in regional, rural and suburban Australia from garden and produce related enterprises through to the more traditional op. shop situation. We have years of experience with church related groups as well as community groups.
This op. shop software / charity shop software / social enterprise retail management software serves in a diverse mix of situations and offers facilities backed with flexibility.
To see the software, speak with one of our sales people today. they can demonstrate the software to the charity shop manager, volunteers and / or board members. We are happy to to this, to see if our POS software made for op. shops is useful for your needs.
Sell online. Using this software, you can easily connect with Shopify to sell online thanks to our partnership with Shopify for a seamless integration.
Made in Australia and supported locally, this POS software is used by thousands of independent retail businesses, including charity shops and op. shops. being local and small business focussed keeps us grounded and targeted in a way that benefits the local focus of charity shops.
Small business retail advice: beware web developers and consultants offering to create a website for your retail business
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We urge small business retailers to take care when selecting an individual or business to undertake Shopify web development. Inside the Shopify web developer ecosystem there are people who take the money, do the bare minimum and run – failing the retail businesses that paid them.
How do you spot a Shopify web developer who is not likely to serve the needs of your retail business? Here is our advice …
Look at their quote. Is it professionally laid out? Is it well written? Is it understandable? Is it complete? If it is none or only some of these things they may not be the developer for you for if they take this approach representing themselves what approach will they take representing you?! we say … be particularly concerned about text based quotes.
Look for understanding. In their words there should be indicators that they understand your needs and that they want to understand your needs. The website is all about you and your business after all.
Speak to them. We have seen shonky web developers void this at all costs. Speak to them. Talk with them. Engage in conversation. You are looking for someone you can trust your business with. Speak to them.
Look at them. Ask for a Zoom meeting, so you can meet face to face. Ask them to show you sample Shopify sites in this meeting and to explain why each is a good sample site for you to consider. Sometimes we see web developers avoid Zoom meetings so they can hide behind typed words. face to face can be revealing.
Say you don’t understand. Tell them you don’t understand some or all of their pitch. Test their patience. See if they meet you at a tech jargon level that you are comfortable with. Challenge them. test them. It is vital they use words and terms you understand. They have to meet you, not you them.
Be in control. You are the customer. You choose the web developer you go with. Decide whether you accept their quote and their terms. You do these things when it suits you. Do not succumb to pressure as anyone pressuring you on timing may be serving their needs and not yours.
Website development right now is like the 1800s gold rush – fast, unregulated with a lot of people being negatively impacted along the way and only a few finding gold.
Take your time. Be sure of what matters to you. Choose the business you want to work with, they business you think can hell you achieve what you want.
Know that you get what you pay for. by that we mean … some web developers under quote as a business model either because they will cut corners or because they know they can charge extra for what they did not know at the start. Again, take your time, be sure of your needs, and remember the carpenter adage: measure twice, cut once. Time spent before you make a decision on your Shopify web developer could ensure that the outcome is better for you and your business.
If you are looking for a Shopify website for your retail business: Email sales@towersystems.com.au or call us on 1300 662 957.
Recently released websites we have developed for Tower Systems customers.
www.backobourkecollective.com.au
www.inspiretasmania.com.au
www.brindabellastockfeed.com.au
www.heavensabove.com.au
www.loavesrobe.com.au
www.masterjewellersonline.com.au
www.chitchatgifts.com.au
www.eidsvoldrural.com.au
www.forevergiftsandmore.com.au
www.funporium.com.au
www.goulburnstationery.com.au
www.rehfisch.com.au
www.merimbulaextra.com.au
www.morganpark.com.au
www.nextragiftsorange.com.au
www.northsideproduceagency.com.au
www.pamperedpetz.com.au
www.www.paperplayonline.com.au
www.parkesnewsandgifts.com.au
www.rivercitypets.com.au
www.smithstreettraders.com.au
www.sprengersruraltraders.com.au
www.hefeedshop.com.au
www.shop.newcastle.edu.au
www.toyworldcanberra.com.au
www.toyworldwauchope.com.au
www.reasureboxgifts.com.au
www.uncletomspps.com.au
www.warragulpetemporium.com.au
www.welbygardencentre.com.au
www.wollongongbikehub.com.au
Helping garden centres win from online sales through garden centre POS software e-commerce connection
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More and more garden centres are selling online and Tower Systems is grateful to help garden centres achieve this. Through our garden centre POS software, garden centres can easily connect to a beautiful Shopify website for easy selling online.
Thanks to the seamless connectivity within the garden centre POS software, product data including care instructions and images flow through to the website, with the retailer being able to control online pricing, freight settings and more. sales from the website flow back thrugh the POS software, making ti easy to sell from the business in-store as well as online and being able to manage inventory levels to meet shopper expectations.
Tower Systems offers a one stop solution for garden centres with its garden centre POS software as well as beautiful Australian-made Shopify websites – giving garden centres a valuable and connected solution for e-commerce.
Garden centres can rent our garden centre POS software for a few dollars a day. they can have a beautiful POS software connected website for their garden centre created and live for a fixed price, usually around $6,600.00 (inc. GST).
By getting the POS software and the website from the one business you have more certainty, better connectivity and a better business solution in our view.
Too often we see small business retailers pay a web consultant anything between $5,000 and $15,000 for an awful website, one not connected to your POS software. Our goal is to deliver what you want, for a fixed price of $6,600.00 (inc GST).
See some of the beautiful websites we have created: www.towersystems.com.au/Websites-we-have-created
Garden centres have unique needs when it comes to selling online. Our considerable work serving this channel has helped us develop a skill set in this space that is useful in helping garden centres get online in an efficient and successful way.
With many garden centres using our specialty retail garden centre POS software, we are well positioned from within the POS software to deliver websites that leverage what makes a garden centre special.
Before we start creating a website for your business, we want to know about what you need from the site, your competitors and how you’d like to handle things like shipping, payment methods and more.
Talk to us about our Specialty retail POS software or a fixed price Shopify website.
Sewing shop POS software helps local sewing shops serve their customers
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Sewing shops are genuinely specialty retail businesses. They offer valuable expertise, products and services for people who love sewing. They are appreciated local businesses.
Tower Systems is grateful to serve local specialty sewing, fabric and haberdashery businesses with our specialty POS software that has been found to serve the needs of sewing shops and the customers they serve.
Several sewing goods retailers have shown us how our POS software is suitable for the needs of these businesses. From handling special orders, to serial number tracking, to repairs management to selling by fractions, it turns out our POS software is good for sewing businesses and sewing machine and goods retailers.
Here is a short video we made recently in which we discuss our POS software for sewing shops and demonstrate some of its facilities.
It is our work in similar specialty retail channels such as bike shops, jewellers and similar that has seen us develop tools and facilities in our POS software that works for sewing shops. We were so happy to discover that our software is useful for sewing shops.
Since we make our own POS software, we are able to evolve the software to serve evolving needs, and we are able to fine-time our support of the software to ensure that it serves the needs of sewing shops and related businesses that decide the software is a good fit for their needs.
Take the selling of items by decimals or fractions. This is how fabric is sold. We make it easy and accurate. We even handle pricing that can vary based on the length of a fabric purchased. In other words, play less per metre the more you buy. This is handled by the software based on the settings created by those running the sewing shop.
Take repairs. This is a service many sewing shops offer. Our repairs management tools are terrific in supporting this service.
We are not saying that our software is perfect for any sewing shop. That decision must 100% be up to those making the POS software decision in the business. We will demonstrate the software and answer questions, so that the necessary assessments can be made, to determine if our Tower Systems POS software is a good fit for the needs of a sewing business.
Our POS software for sewing shops and sewing machine businesses is already in use. We have people to whom we can refer. It is their innovation that set us on this path. Hence, our gratefulness.
To see the Tower Systems software first hand, please contact us direct. Email is good at sales@towersystems.com.au.
We make, sell and support our POS software.
Quote and invoice management POS software facilities help local specialty retailers win more business
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Retailers love the quote and invoice management tools that are embedded in the Tower Systems POS software. They love them because they help them win more business.
See for yourself some of the highlights of these unique quite and invoice management tools available in the Tower Systems POS software in this new short video that we shot in-house last week.
Retail businesses of all sorts are benefiting from these tools, loving these tools. garden centres, farm supply businesses, jewellers, bike shops, whole foods businesses … any business that quotes for business can benefit from these quote and invoice management facilities that are part of the Tower Systems POS software solution.
Quote and invoice management sounds like a mouthful, sounds complex. The beauty of these facilities in the Tower Systems POS software is that they bring structure and certainty to the process of creating quotes for customers, presenting the quotes professionally and easily turning the quotes into actionable invoices for goods to be supplied or work to be done.
The quote and invoice management facilities in the Tower software provide to local small business retailers management facilities rarely seen in POS software, management facilities through which local retail businesses can differentiate.
Quote and invoice management facilities are just part of the broader Tower Systems software package. Also included are facilities such as:
- Special customer orders – get a sale today, before you order the stock.
- Loyalty rewards customers love. Encourage return visits and purchases.
- Sell you. Extended product descriptions help you offer plant care info.
- Bagging up. Bag bulk products smaller packs, with accurate stock data.
- Genuinely informative receipts. Share information that sets you apart.
- Repairs / workshop management. Strong, flexible, fit for purpose.
- Trade pricing profiles supporting pricing flexibility for your customers.
- Customer account management: Professional and accurate control.
- Catalogues. Easily manage special pricing for a date range.
- Pricing profiles. You can set pricing rules based on types of customers.
- Sell by weight, including fractions.
- Seasonal reordering. Easily reorder inventory based on seasonal sales.
- Weatherproof labels.
- Stock write offs – done in a structured way feeding into your accounts.
Quote and invoice management is a specialty area in this specialty retail POS software from Tower Systems. We are grateful to work with many specialty retailers to bring differentiating retail experiences to local communities across the country.
Competing with Vend POS software with a $99 a month POS software solution
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Plenty of local retailers consider the VEND POS software when looking for as POS software solution. here at Tower Systems we have an alternative the VEND POS software, a POS software alternative that is available to be rented for $99.00 a month.
Using this software, retailers can have tools like they would have with VEND POS software and more, including the ability to…
- Get rid of manual books at the counter for LayBys, special orders, stock you need to order and more.
- Cut dead stock and re-order based on data facts.
- Cut theft by knowing what is being stolen.
- Eliminate LayBy and get you paid sooner with buy now pay later.
- Make price comparison harder with bundled packs.
- Easily and consistently pitch locally sourced products.
- Drive community group member engagement with group pricing.
- Get one-time-only shoppers spending more with loyalty tools.
- Bring customers back with reminders on dates important to them.
- Save money on bookkeeping by integrating with Xero.
- Leverage your knowledge on receipts and elsewhere. Sell you.
- Reach beyond your four walls with a directly linked Shopify store.
These are some of the benefits available in our POS software, which competes with the VEBD POS software. Included with the software rental and embedded with software access is:
- Specialty Gift shop POS software developed in Australia.
- Software updates as we release them.
- Unlimited licences for your retail location. If you need an extra computer, there is no extra software cost.
- Shopify / Magento / Woo link. Easily sell online from your POS software.
- Xero link. Easing bookkeeping costs and streamlining accounting.
- Our OzBiz link – connect to MYOB and Quicken through OzBiz.
- Tyro link – safe, fast and easy EFTPOS link for streamlined sales.
- PC Eftpos link – easy EFTPOS processing for the major banks.
- Easy buy now pay later thanks to Zip Pay and Humm – that Boomers, Gen Y, Gen X and others are using more and more.
- Support – help desk access, unlimited training, updates and more.
- User documentation. Access to our searchable knowledge base.
We are local. Tower Systems serves 3,500+ specialty businesses. If you think we could help you, please call 1300 662 957 or email sales@towersystems.com.au.
The software continues to evolve, too. With updates released every eight weeks or so. The enhancements in these updates are guided by suggestions from customers, for which we are sincerely grateful.
We remember them
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