The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

Latest stories

The ethics of using POS software to hide income from the federal government

April 24, 2021
2 Min read
T

Many many years ago we were shown a function in POS software from another local software company that enabled a retailer using the software to take cash out of the business in a way that was difficult to detect.

Using a special password, anyone using the software could enter the amount they wanted to withdraw. the software adjusted records to hide the withdrawal, maintaining accounts records for any tax audit and a separate, hidden, set of records for the business owner.

We discovered the unique tax free cash accessing facility when we were asked many many years ago to add a similar facility in our software. The business owner wanted to remove $2,000 cash a week from their busy business. We refused. We lost that customer and some others who wanted such a facility.

Eventually, the knowledge of the facility in the other POS software reached state and federal government authorities. Several agencies from state and federal governments got together to look at the facilities. We were able to observe this first-hand. It was breathtaking. Their interest was in how a retailer was assisted in removing cash from a business without detection. This was demonstrated.

We have been asked since several times by some retailers to make it easy for them to remove cash undetected from the business. Our answer is as it has always been – you can’t do this with our software. To do so within the code of our software would be illegal, just as doing so in any retail business would be illegal.

With benchmarks and other data analysis tools, the federal government is especially well equipped today to detect such activity.

We have many ways we can lawfully help local retailers make more money in their businesses – through better decision making, faster decision making, tactical shop floor engagement, efficient online selling to shoppers they will never see. retail today is growing for many local retailers thanks to these and other engaging tools in smart POS software. This is where good business growth can be achieved and through which value can be cultivated to make a business worth more when it comes time for the owners to sell.

Bad business decisions can be a big burden in a retail business. make better business decisions and you can make more than any cash you may wish you could take form a business.

Read onRead later

Vape shop POS software helps manage local vape shops

April 23, 2021
3 Min read
V

The vape shop POS software from Tower Systems leverages specialty facilities that we are told by vape shop owners helps them run more successful and valuable businesses.

Here is a video we shop last week in which we discuss and look at some of the facilities offered by this vape shop POS software. See for yourself how this locally made POS software could serve the needs of your vape shop.

Our Vape Shop POS Software offers a range of facilities vape shop owners tell us they love. These are tools built to serve their needs and needs of businesses similar to their requirements.

Using our locally made Vape Shop POS Software you can benefit from …

  • Systematically managing an age check at the transaction point. Being able to demonstrate that you do this in a strutted way in your Vape Shop POS Software can help when checked by regulators.
  • Providing product use and other important notice information on receipts to ensure customers are fully informed.
  • Customising product labels with information you want on there.
  • Tracking the tastes of customers so that you can market to them if a new product emerges that may satisfy their interests, needs or tastes.
  • Selling by fractions. With some products sold in less than whole number units of measure, our Vape Shop POS Software allows inventory tracking at the fractional level.
  • Selling online through our Shopify link through which products managed in the POS software can be easily offered online through a beautiful website that is seamlessly connected to the Vape Shop POS Software for product details and images and with online sales details flowing back to the software.
  • Tracking who sold what and when.
  • Strong remote management tools for owners of businesses run under management.
  • Strong audit tools through which we respect the importance of accurate business data and the need to track behaviour that may compromise the integrity of the business.
  • Loading electronic invoices from suppliers.
  • Structure. Ultimately, that’s what this software is about – structure, business structure through which the business can safely and consistently operate to the benefit of the business and those who work in it.

The Tower Systems Vape Shop POS Software is made for vape shops, built on already successful locally made small business retail POS software used in retail channels where regulation and adherence to regulation is key for the retail business owner, retail business staff and the regulators themselves.

Our goal is developing specialty retail POS software, like our POS software for vape shops is to help these specialty retailers to better serve and through this to be more valuable to the owners of the businesses and all who rely on them.

Our POS software for vape shops, made here in Australia by us, is feature rich for specialty retail.

Tower Systems serves more than 3,000 small business retailers across a range of specialty retail channels.

Read onRead later

Repairs management software integrated with POS software for retailers

April 22, 2021
3 Min read
R

Tower Systems has been offering locally made repairs management software as part of its specialty retailer POS software for more than twenty years. the software it offers today is fresh, innovative and focussed on serving the efficiency and customer satisfaction needs of local small business retailers.

Thanks for wonderful advice from businesses offering repairs services, this software evolves to serve new opportunities.

See for yourself some of the highlights of this repairs software in this new short video that we shot in-house last week.

Integrated with the Tower Systems POS software, these unique and local business focussed repairs and workshop management tools are part of the software, not come add-on that you say extra for or that you rely on some other software company to support. being an integral part of the POS software helps make these repairs tools more valuable, more useful.

Made for jewellers and bike shops, these repairs and workshop management tools in our POS software are being used in myriad businesses today.

Some of the functions our specialist retail software’s repair features are being used for include:

  • In Jewellers: Jewellery and watch workshop repairs, dated manufacturing.
  • In Bike Shops: Bicycle and tricycle repairs, warranty returns.
  • In music shops: instrument repair.
  • In sewing shops: sewing machine maintenance and repair.
  • In Garden Centres: Landscaping services management.
  • In pool maintenance businesses: Pump and equipment planned maintenance as well as repair.
  • In Firearms Stores: Gunsmithy and equipment repairs, warranty returns.
  • In Pet Shops: Aquarium installations.

Repairs management software is flexible, serving a range of needs outside managing the actual repairs themselves. The flexibility in the software enables it to be used in different businesses for different purposes – from job management, to workshop management and traditional repairs management.

This specialty function software tracks the labour and resources used from a billing and inventory management perspective. It also handles allocation of repairs or parts of a repair to venues outside the business (for contracting and supplier exchanges or repairs for warranty issues, for example) and tracks repair staff and couriers used in shipping repairs.

Once the repair is ready for pick-up by the customer, the software finalises the billing and advises the customer by SMS or another preferred method. Customers love the contact they receive. It positions the business as professional and engaged.

Payments are processed with the usual depth of our retail software’s point of sale functionality – customers can make multiple payments against a repair or a specialist manufacturing, pay through cash, EFTPOS, PayPal or other methods.

Read onRead later

POS software for game shops helps these local businesses thrive

April 21, 2021
3 Min read
P

The POS software for game shops from Tower Systems is made for local and independent game retailers. It’s packed with facilities that help these local and loved game shops better serve customers and attract new customers.

This POS software for game shops is specialty in its facilities, just as local game shops themselves are specialty retailers.

Here is a short video we shot a few days ago in which the discuss and look at some of what is valuable in this game shop POS software.

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

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

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

Tower Systems only makes specialty retail POS software for niche retail channels. It’s game shop POS software grew out of its extensive work with toy shops through its unique toy shop POS software.

Game shop retailers can expect to benefit fin many ways. Here are five reasons to love this locally made POS software:

  1. Local matters. Local game shops make a vital contribution to local communities and families. Our software helps you leverage your localness, to genuinely differentiate your business from big competitors.
  2. You are a key asset. Only your business has you and your people. You can leverage you through our game shop software, to easily share your knowledge in ways big businesses cannot match.
  3. You can bank on loyalty. Points don’t reward loyalty. What is a point worth anyway? In our game shop software, you have fresh loyalty tools you can bank on to drive a deeper visit value and bring shoppers back sooner.
  4. The unseen can reveal opportunities. Knowing for sure what sells with what, knowing how suppliers compare knowing return on investment and return on floorspace … knowledge is power.
  5. Not every shopper will walk past your door. A smart and seamless connection between your software and a beautiful Shopify website can help you easily and with low overhead sell to people you will never meet.

Our game shop software offers many benefits, including:

  • Save time with electronic invoices from suppliers.
  • Easy special customer orders. Smart tracking and customer notification.
  • Make money from pre-orders – Easily pre-sell before release.
  • Community group pricing. Set pricing rules based on customer type.
  • Easy record keeping: serial number tracking of items with serial numbers.
  • Ensure compliance when required with structured age checking.
  • Business differentiating loyalty. Stand out from the crowd. Drive sales.
  • Differentiate with bundles. Make price comparison hard.
  • Say goodbye to LayBy – with integrated buy now pay later options.
  • Market to customers based on past purchases.
  • Cut accounting and bookkeeping fees with integration to Xero and others.
  • Easily sell online with a direct to Shopify link from your POS software.

We’d love to show this software to you.

Read onRead later

Insights help local toy retailers benefit from Toy Shop software

April 20, 2021
3 Min read
I

We are grateful to have been provided a copy of a comprehensive report into global and Australian toy sales in 2020 comparing to 2019. The data assessed in the repot is pulled from a large pool of toy and toy related retailers in Australia and globally. The assessment itself is undertaken by the NPD group.

The results are extraordinary. While we won’t share the report itself here, we can share high level data. we have shared even more with our customers.

Tower Systems is grateful to serve local toy shops with toy shop POS software made for their specific business needs. Our toy shop software is comprehensive. It is also connected to the Shopify e-commerce platform for selling online – offering local toy shops a true omnichannel retail opportunity and enabling them to compete effectively with much bigger businesses.

Deeper in the report is a list of top performing brands, some of which plenty of newsagents stock. This information and other information nearby is what we can leverage to further grow the toy category in our businesses.

Of particular interest are the Christmas results and the move, in 2020, to toys and games of >$50 in value. This is the fastest growing sub-category for the Christmas season. It interests me because too many newsagents focus on low price point toys while shoppers are happy to spend up on higher price point toys.

Looking at the results more broadly …

  1. Global Trends 
    1. 8/13 Countries grew sales revenue.
    2. Australia achieved strongest growth: 22% as shown above.
    3. Q4 growth was excellent.
  2. Australian Market 
    1. +22% Growth.
    2. 12out of 13 super categories grew revenue.
    3. Unlicensed Toys Grew +21% .
    4. Licensed Toys Grew +26%.
    5. 10 months of consecutive growth (adding $256m to Toy Industry).
    6. Consumers move to bigger box items > $50 items
  3. Christmas performance 
    1. +16 grow revenue/
    2. Unlicensed Toys grew 19%.
    3. Licensed Toys grew 11%.
    4. 12 out of 13 super categories grew.
      – 5 categories grew faster than the total category.
  4. Looking ahead into 2021 and considering early indications.
    1. Toys / games remain strong.
    2. Online in toys and games is growing faster.
    3. Movie licences are back.
    4. Puzzles and Games need to be watched / managed / promoted.
    5. Collectibles are showing a strong start to the year.
    6. Shoppers are looking for newness.

The toys / games / puzzle and related categories are good for plenty of retail businesses, not just toy shops. They can make a terrific contribution. I know of non toy shops doing more than $150,000 a year in these categories and achieving a 50% or more gross profit – making the GP value of the categories considerably greater than the contribution from products more traditional for a non-toy retail channel.

Read onRead later

We are grateful to help local Aussie newsagency businesses transform through our newsagency software …

April 19, 2021
3 Min read
W

The local Aussie newsagency focussed in newspapers, magazines, lollies, lottery products and cigarettes is fading, which is a good thing. petrol outlets, convenience stores, supermarkets and tobacco shops are taking over these low-margin convenience lines.

Aussie newsagents have been shedding tobacco products for years. They have been reducing space allocation for magazines and newspapers, too. The margin from print media is small and cover price decisions mean newsagents make less in real terms from each magazine sold today than ten years ago.

More newsagents, too, are not in the lottery space, having chosen to not engage with that highly regulated low-margin product category.

The local Aussie newsagency is evolving … and not in a network wide way, often not in a way that is easily identifiable.

While the local Aussie newsagency may still offer newspapers and magazines, it will most likely have an awesome range of products, which could include: gifts, homewares, books, self-care, nesting, toys, games, garden products, clothing, coffee, food and art … in addition to what you may expect in terms of cards, stationery and craft supplies.

There are plenty of local Aussie newsagency businesses that do not look and feel like a newsagency. Some shoppers don’t like this, they prefer the older style newsagency. The thing is, that old style business is not profitable in 2021. Newsagents can’t bank on the nostalgia pangs of some people. They need foot traffic, turnover and profit. This is why the local Aussie newsagency is changing.

Many newsagents have been chasing change for years and years, trying new products, experimenting to bold layout changes and shape-shifting their businesses to see what might work. What works in one location may not work in another location. This is why the unified and similar looking local Aussie newsagency of decades ago is lost today in 2021. The book and game focussed ‘newsagency’ in Inverloch, Victoria looks very different to the toy and game focussed ‘newsagency’ in Cooma, New South Wales, and both of these look very different to the gift focussed ‘newsagency’ in Sarina in Queensland.

While your local newsagency may still be there, expect it to be different because different is what helps them be there for the local haul, offering you access to magazines and newspapers along with a bunch of interesting and thoughtfully sourced products that work in your local community.

Indeed, in the newsagency retail channel in Australia right now you can see some of the most innovative retail in-store as well as online. It is an exciting time to be a newsagent.

If you haven’t been in your local newsagency for a while, check it out, be ready for a surprise.

Oh, and if you do pine for the nostalgia of the old-style newsagency, think about whether you’d preference one of those brick mobile phones fro the late 1980s or the smart phone you have today. Yes, the world changes. Retail changes, too. This is a good thing. So … check out your local, new, newsagency.

Read onRead later

POS software company satisfying …

April 17, 2021
1 Min read
P

One of the most satisfying parts of what we do here at Tower Systems is helping our small business retail customers see their businesses differently. Slicing data can help achieve this, revealing opportunities previously not seen. #SmallBusiness #Retail #POSsoftware #Help #ShopLocal #AustralianJobs

Read onRead later

Gift shop POS software helps local gift shops to more easily connect with local and online shoppers

April 16, 2021
2 Min read
G

The Tower Systems gift shop software offers many benefits from time saving to shoppe engaging to team member enjoyment. Delivering tangible benefits through our POS software is important to us, especially benefits beyond the traditional, beyond what people expect.

The top benefits from using the Tower Systems Gift shop software, as told to us by our customers.

  • Get one-time-only shoppers spending more thanks to an easy to pitch loyalty system embedded in the software. This is a genuinely unique, engaging and valuable loyalty platform.
  • Leverage you. If you believe your knowledge is a differentiator, offer it through structured opportunities in the software. We often see knowledge within the b business as a key differentiator for the business.
  • Encourage customer happiness by serving product care info. on receipts. That extra piece of information can make all the difference.
  • 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. Frictionless.
  • 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.
Read onRead later

Proud to launch more Shopify websites for small business retailers

April 15, 2021
2 Min read
P

We are grateful to have launched more POS software connected Shopify websites for small business retailers in our community. These sites, all developed by us here in Australia, deliver terrific new customer acquisition opportunities for our shoppers, helping them to sell 24/7 and sell as far afield as they would like.

Here are some of the recently made live websites from our web team:

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

If you are interested in a POS software connected website, please reach out to our sales team: sales@towersystems.com.au.

USEFUL, EVERYDAY WEBSITE ADVICE FOR SMALL BUSINESS RETAILERS.
Regardless of who you choose to create your website, here are tips we offer to help make setting up a Shopify site successful for you.

  1. Know why. Knowing why you want the website can answer plenty of other questions. For some it is to win new customers, for others it is revenue growth, while for ithers it is better service of existing customers.
  2. Know your narrator. Every website has a narrator, the person behind the scenes writing the text, responding to queries. Think about that person, how they speak, words they use, their manner. Think of this person as a character you create.
  3. Look at competitor sites online locally and overseas as it is beneficial to see what someone else is doing and learn from that.
  4. Only use unique images. If you use supplier supplied images, they may be on other sites and Google will know this. Google likes fresh content.
  5. Write your own product name / title. Use search keyworks in the name – that is, what people are searching for. Google likes fresh content.
  6. Write your own product description and think about what shoppers search for.
  7. Do not load everything. Too much stock makes a site hard to navigate.
  8. Consider using a website name that is different to your business name. Online can benefit from a different brand to your in-store situation.
  9. Be open to additional sites. You may make more money from having multiple.
  10. Support the site with active social media engagement.
  11. Promote the site with an email monthly at least, through MailChimp or similar.
Read onRead later

Workshop management software for jewellers and bike shops

April 12, 2021
2 Min read
W

The workshop management facilities in the jeweller POS software and bike shop software from Tower Systems offer support for managing customer repair and other jobs.

Embedded in the POS software itself, these tools have evolved over time to serve the needs particularly of bike retailers and jewellers … and long the way have been found to be useful in. myriad others retail businesses in which workshop management facilities have been found to be important.

From the moment a job is setup or opened, the Tower Systems POS software tracks work, parts and other aspects of the job. It also manages contacting the customer when collection c an be made, when the job is done.

Connected to our inventory management tools, this software really does help a retail business track everything used in a workshop job, giving a business an overall level of visibility and control, which is crucial to understanding the performance of that part of the business.

Having the workshop management tools embedded in the software offer bike shops and jewellers a low cost alternative for managing repair and product build jobs without the need to source additional software at an additional cost.

Growing out of our POS software connected workshop management software, our spare parts inventory software has become critical to accurately recording sale and use of spare parts in repairs as well as over the counter to customers.

Offering tracking by brand, use, supplier, barcode, SKU and more, this spare parts inventory software works in a range of situations and businesses. Motor bike businesses, trailer sale and repair businesses, bike shops, jewellers, outdoors businesses, farm supply businesses, pool maintenance businesses … they can all use this spare parts inventory software.

In addition to managing workshop jobs, this  software offers multiple reporting tools that enable various views of inventory performance. The flexibility in the reporting is useful and a key factor in the software serving needs across several types of spare parts related businesses. Accessibility to these and other reporting tools enables easier remote business management, which is a need that has come into its own in recent times.

Tower Systems is grateful to serve thousands of independent, local and small business retailers across a range of retail channels.

Read onRead later

Fixed price POS software connected Shopify sites for local retailers

April 11, 2021
3 Min read
F

The Tower Systems approach to Shopify website development and connection to our specialty retailer POS software is thorough. it includes …: For ease of reference and clarity, below is a numbered list of all work and tasks included in the above quote and work you will have to do. This is the complete list.

  1. Shopify account. We would use our development account until such time, as we deliver the live site to you. Once this has occurred you will need your own Shopify account and we will transfer the site to you.  We can help you get your own account.
  2. Template / theme selection. We will guide you through template / theme selection options. You will have free choice over any theme available at themes.shopify.com. Many templates have no cost while some have a cost, paid to Shopify. We will also fund the purchase of a paid-for theme up to US$250.00 in value if that is the theme you want.
  3. Overall design to be applied to the template selected to customise the look and feel of the site. While there is back and forth involved, the design process is not priced to be an extended back and forth process. Please be clear and concise in articulating our needs. We will listen to your brief and provide a design for your consideration. Adjustments can be made within the quote but any major diversion from the original brief may add to the cost.
  4. The site we create will have the following elements:
    1. Including text and images (which you are to provide), and site navigation. We would also include a business location map.
    2. Social media links to any business accounts you have for: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
    3. About page. Your text, describing you and your business. This will need to be between 150 and 350 words. Well written, clear as to what you and your business are about.
    4. Legal / Privacy Policy. We can use yours or you can edit ours and use it.
    5. Terms and conditions page: terms and conditions that you can modify.
    6. Contact us page showing your contact details as well as an enquiry form.
    7. Configured Product Page showing the images and details about products.
    8. Shopify Chat setup, if you want chat turned on.
    9. Blog feed. A blog allows you to publish your own news stories. These can be critical for helping people find the site through Google.
  1. The setup of loading of products into the site via a live link to the Retailer software. We would need you to have this data in Retailer ready for export.
  2. Interfacing to payment gateways: Shopify Pay, Apple Pay, Stripe and Paypal.
  3. OPTION: Interfacing to Humm, Zip and Afterpay. The work is all done at once for all 3 or for those of the 3 you go with. It is vital you do all at once.
  4. Training: over the phone and usually around two hours. We’d like 2 people from the business there as we have found this helps the business get the most from it.

There is more to the work we do than this. It is detailed, comprehensive and small business retail ourcome focussed. Oh, and all done in Australia for local Aussie businesses.

Read onRead later

Game shop POS software helps local game shops sell in-store and online

April 9, 2021
3 Min read
G

The Tower Systems POS software for game shops has evolved from our work with local specialty toy shops. We are grateful to have discovered that our toy shop POS software serves local specialty game retailers well, making it ideal POS software for game shops.

Using this Australian made POS software, specialty game retailers are able to serve the specialty needs of their specialty businesses. This is POS software for game shops that truly specialise. Proof can be found in some of the facilities offered by this software:

  • Easy selling by barcode, product code or touch button.
  • Serving your own notes with products sold – helping you to sell your specialisation with each product.
  • Categorising products to make searching easier than traditional. the TAGS facilities in our software help this with awesome side views.
  • A loyalty facility that is tailored to infrequent shoppers, facilities that help you make more from that visit, maximising basket depth.
  • Second hand goods – offering tools for good record keeping and product tracking.
  • Handling special customer orders.
  • Club pricing that helps you tap into members of local games clubs.
  • Linking to buy now pay later platforms.
  • Direct integration with Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce.
  • Brand performance insights.
  • What sells with what data insights that can help with shop floor placement and out of store marketing.
  • Theft mitigation through reporting on unexpected stock discrepancies – cal help with employee and shopper theft.
  • Bundling – enabling better serving of shoppers purchasing for special interests and occasions.
  • Easy loading of electronic invoices from suppliers.
  • Easy loading of stock files from suppliers.
  • Ordering based on stock on hand data.
  • Reporting on seasonal sales.
  • easy identification of dead stock.

Using this POS software for game shops you can expect to enjoy a valuable view of the performance of your game shop – from in the shop or afar – if you manage the business remotely.

Thanks to our work with local specialty toy shops we have developed solutions for some data situations that are unique to that channel that play our for specialty game retailers, too.

This POS software for game shops from Tower Systems could be an ideal solution for your specialty game shop. The easy way to determining if it is a good fit is for your to see the software for yourself through an obligation free demonstration. We are grateful for opportunities to do this and to understand your specific business needs.

The key with POS software for game shops is to see if it fits your needs. The Tower Systems commitment is to let you know if we think our software is not a good fit. We;’re not high pressure. We treat every demonstration as a learning opportunity for us.

Read onRead later

The team at Tower Systems is grateful to newsagents for their love of our newsagency software

April 9, 2021
3 Min read
T

We are grateful to serve close to 1,800 newsagency businesses with our newsagency software, double all other software companies combined.

The newsagency software we offer today is technically and visually fresh thanks to our investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars in leading-edge engineering to deliver to our current version software.

Our Australian made and Australian supported newsagency software is backed with personal experience.

Here are 5 reasons to consider our Tower Systems newsagency software …

  1. Being current matters. We meet connectivity standards including Indue welfare card, digital receipts, Epay, TitlePage, theLott, XchangeIT, Tyro, the banks, Newspower catalogues, GNS, Xero and more. Save time, cut mistakes and cultivate better business data.
  2. You can bank on loyalty. Our fresh and successful approach to loyalty can help you drive a deeper basket and bring people back sooner.
  3. Safe decisions make for a better P&L. While following your gut can see you catch wins, safe decisions, those based on the data, are bankable. From data feeds from suppliers through your POS to accounting software, we help you nurture data for the safe decisions.
  4. Not every shopper will walk past your door. A seamless connection between your software and a website can help you sell to people you will never meet. We develop websites for newsagents. Check out www.onebaby.com.au, www.backobourkecollective.com.au, www.heavensabove.com.au and www.goulburnstationery.com.au.
  5. You are a key asset. You and the people in your business are a differentiator to big business competitors. Our software helps you sell you in smart and engaging ways.

We also do the quarterly newsagency sales benchmark study and have done for 18 years. This is a valuable benchmark helps you see the future.

The Tower Systems newsagency software costs a few dollars a day. For on as many computers as you need in the business. There is no extra charge for extra computers.

There is no extra charge on top of this for support or updates. It’s all included.

How can we do this? We serve more newsagents than all other software companies combined. We leverage our size to save you money.

One-off installation, training and setup advice is priced as an up-front services package, delivering:

  • The latest newsagency specific software installed on your computers.
  • Remote, safe, installation by a newsagency business expert.
  • Personal, one-on-one training.
  • Data conversion, converting as much data as we can access.
  • 24/7 software support. Nothing extra to pay.
  • Software updates – released regularly. Nothing extra to pay.
  • Unlimited over the phone follow-up one-on-one training.
  • Access to an awesome online knowledge base with articles & advice.
  • Access to a private Facebook page where you can discuss any topic.

Call to find out more:  sales@towersystems.com.au or 1300 662 957

We are grateful for the almost 1,800 newsagency businesses that have installed our software. Their commitment and encouragement encourage us every day.

Read onRead later

Cloud POS software options for specialty retailers

April 8, 2021
2 Min read
C

Does your POS software run in the cloud? This is a common question we are asked.

Our answer … yes, our POS software runs in the cloud. We have many customers who do this. Some arrange their own hosting while others host through our secure off-site hosting infrastructure.

We also have many customers who choose to run our software on their own in-house desktop computers.

Our cloud POS software enables businesses to easily handle a single store situation through to a network of stores, 15, 20 … more. This is the flexibility of cloud POS software and we are here for it, helping small business retailers leverage cloud hosting to their advantage.

But, hey, if you run in a desktop situation, how can it be a cloud POS solution as well. Where the software runs, where it is hosted is 100% up to our customers. They choose the hosting platform that best suits their business needs and best suits their tech infrastructure access. This is important in that a business situation with poor internet access may not be ideal for a cloud hosted environment.

This is why offering flexibility for our customers as to hosting situation makes sense, it is why we provide our customers with choice.

Our POS software can be clod hosted or desktop hosted. You choose.

Big IT companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in marketing the term cloud. They have done this because they know buzzwords sell. The reality is, your software has to run somewhere. It has to be maintained. Whether it is running on computers in your business or in the cloud, the costs are not that different. The key difference is one approach feels sexier than the other, because of the marketing.

Our retail skilled account managers can talk with you to determine your needs and propose a solution that best serves your needs.

Whether you run cloud hosted POS software or desktop hosted POS software is best determined by your business needs, by your business situation. Take the time, do the research and decide what serves you, your location and your budget.

Tower Systems offers choice and that is what really does matter in the debate of cloud hosted POS or not.

Read onRead later

POS software helps small business retailers deliver memorable customer service

April 7, 2021
3 Min read
P

Memorable customer service is the most important point of difference a retail business can have, especially a business which does not make what it sells and therefore could have its products being sold by any other business apple to reach the same pool of shoppers.

We call it memorable customer service because it truly has to be that … memorable. So memorable that it is praised by your customers to others.

Good customer service should be the norm, the lowest hurdle any retail business can jump. Memorable customer service, the level of customer service that makes a shopper talk about the experience to their friends, must be the goal and it is the word of mouth from these customers that is a factor in driving traffic growth.

Memorable customer service is just as vital to Point of Sale software companies as it is for retail businesses. Since we own retail businesses as well as our POS software company we see it, live it and reach for it from both sides.

This is why we work hard to encode the ability to focus on customer service in our Point of Sale software.  That’s right, retailers using our software have touch points they can leverageusing software which help deliver the kind of memorable customer service we are talking about here.

Memorable customer service in retail, just as in a software company, is experiences which exceed expectations, it delivers benefits outside of what you expect even from a good business.  In our IT company we compete with big IT companies and small, like us, IT companies. While we want our software to be the point of difference customers notice and talk about positively, it is our customer service which is loved and mentioned to colleagues more.  Realising this was an epiphany for us.

We focus on building stronger, better and more valuable software. But we also surround this, completely, with customer service experiences which are the very best of the best. This gives us, and our customers, the best of both worlds. And we love it ourselves.

Given that most retailers do not have products unique to their businesses, delivering memorable customer service is critical to the business plan.  Small and independent retailers can do this more easily and effectively than big retailers. From the genuine smile to shoppers to product knowledge to that extra information which helps a shopper get more out of the product purchased than they would have had the purchased the product elsewhere. This added value is the key and it can be delivered in almost any situation and with any product from a stapler through to a high-end road bike.

So, beyond our software and as part of our customer service focus, we seek out opportunities to help our customers deliver memorable customer service.  Indeed, this was one topic we covered in the recent face-to-face user meetings we ran in capital cities and major regional centres around Australia.

As a Point of Sale software company, our mission is to deliver constantly improving retail management software backed with memorable customer service and going beyond this with business insights and assistance which helps our retailers themselves deliver exceptional and memorable experiences to their customers.

Read onRead later

Advice for small business retailers: helping employees understand where the money goes

April 6, 2021
3 Min read
A

It is easy for employees in a local retail business to think the owners are rich if all they have to go off is the money paid by customers to the business. In this article, we share an an approach on how a local retail business can better inform employees. Here is an information sheet we have seen work well in the back room of a shop as it explains each dollar.

WHERE THE MONEY GOES

Where every dollar we get from our customers goes.

Every dollar paid to us by our customers and put in the til or through the credit card terminals gores somewhere and quickly. Some of it goes right away, some of it in a few days and most of the rest by the end of the month.

Some of the money we are paid goes before we get it – like for stock we pay for before it arrives in the shop.

This graph shows where every cent of every dollar we earn goes.  The stock cost is the average cost of items we purchase. Some items cost us 90% of what we sell them for while others cost us 20% of what we sell them for. This is why we are using the overall business average for this illustration.

Based on our current numbers our profit is 4%. But we don’t get to keep that: we have borrowings to service, we don’t receive a salary for our time and any profit is taxed by the government.

We buy stock for the best price possible but with the price of many products we sell controlled we need to work elsewhere to improve things. This is why we look carefully at the roster. Even one hour saved can be like selling $100 in stock.

The best way to help the business achieve better results is for us to sell more of our stock to existing customers and for us to attract new customers.

We’d love your help in encouraging customers to buy more. You can do this with excellent displays, helping customers on the shop floor and giving customers awesome customer service.

We’d also love your ideas on attracting more shoppers.

Please don’t think we’re putting this notice up to cry poor. We share the information to give you a better understanding of what happens to each dollar we get from our customers because we believe that the more information anyone has the more informed their actions can be.

Read onRead later

Small business retail advice: take a walk

April 5, 2021
2 Min read
S

We work with many different retailers in different situations. We are grateful for what we have learned from our diverse community. Reflecting on this recently, it is the advice we share today that we have found to work well in almost any business type. It is basic, free to action and universally useful from what our customers tell us.

Here is that advice. We offer it today as recommended advice for any local small business retailer, as a terrific assist in terms of mental and physical health for business owners, managers and the business itself …

Take a walk.

It is tough work running a small retail business, working 70, 80 and more hours a week covering many tasks from business manager to cleaner to customer service to creating retail displays.

There is always something to do. Some days, often in fact, it can feel like no matter what you do you have more to do at the end of the day than when you started.

Regardless of how busy you are in your retail business, we urge you to take time out every day for a brisk 20 to 30 minute walk outside, in the sun (or the rain), alone.

Leave your phone behind – the shop won’t burn down.

Walk alone.

The best time to take the walk is when you feel most overwhelmed.

Walking, as a brisk pace can break the cycle of feeling overwhelmed, the negative feeling about what is confronting you in the business.

Getting your heart rate up will be good for your physical and mental health.

A good energetic walk is an excellent opportunity to reset.

Being away from the business, other people and the phone will give your body and mind time to process – even if you are not actively thinking about the business.

If you are like me, stepping back into the business after a brisk 20 or 30 minute walk, you see things differently, decisions are easier, progress is real.

Days with a walk are far better than days without.

Footnote: this advice for business owners and managers to go for a walk when feeling overwhelmed is consistent with advice from mental health experts around the world. Better still, following the advice costs nothing.

Read onRead later

Small business retail advice: a mental health plan is vital

April 3, 2021
3 Min read
S

Mental health challenges are often close by in small business retail. While not always seen, they are there, and in need of attention. Whether being experienced by customers, team members, suppliers or business owners, mental health challenges are impacting our businesses.

The test for any business owner is how it deals with mental health … identifying challenges, supporting those experiencing them and supporting those impacted in other ways.

While we are not trained professionals in the area, our years of working with small business owners confronted by mental health challenges have helped us develop some guiding principles.

  1. Mental health is not easily measured or understood. One’s mental health is not outwardly obvious.
  2. Judgement cannot be part of how mental health is viewed or dealt with.
  3. Action is essential to improve your situation for doing nothing will achieve nothing.
  4. While taking the first step to confront mental health challenges can be difficult, it is relieving and rewarding.

here are our thoughts specifically for business owners confronting their own mental health concerns …

Your general practitioner is an excellent person to speak with. Explain to them how you feel and how this impacts on your life. Ask them to prepare a Mental Health Treatment Plan. This is a government recognised plan. It can usually be prepared in a single double visit to the GP. This plan is the trigger to you gaining Medicare supported access to a psychologist for an initial number of visits, which can be extended depending on your situation.

Some people can feel a visit to a GP or psychologist is not warranted in their situation. While the medical professionals are the best to determine this, there are other resources you could explore:

Beyond Blue has published Business In Mind, a useful resource for small businesses on issues relating to mental health in the workplace. This is a good starting point for learning more. In the resource there are links to other resources that can help.

Finding mental health resources for small business owners dealing with mental health issues is not as easy as it is finding resources for managing the workplace for better mental health. It’s tough running any business and sometimes things can feel overwhelming. This is where networking can help as a first step, talking with others.

Small business owners feeling challenges within themselves need to treat themselves as employees and use the resources available such as:

We will help and support as much as we are able and to the extent we are made aware of any situation.

Read onRead later

Easter break

April 2, 2021
1 Min read
E

While our offices are closed for the Easter break, our customer service is accessible online as well as via our after hours phone network.

Read onRead later

Seriously, though …

April 1, 2021
1 Min read
S

Today, April 1, is a good day here at Tower Systems. We are grateful to our beta crew for the work they have done proving the latest release of our small business POS software. Their feedback is helpful, inspiring. The next update, and the one after that … they are awesome!

More good things are coming in our software thanks to our beta crew!

Read onRead later
The POS Software Blog

Categories

Categories

Categories

Recent Comments

Monthly Archives