The POS Software Blog
News from Tower Systems about locally made POS software for specialty local retailers.
Decades ago software companies like us would run user meetings around the counter. They provided an excellent forum for dialogue between software users and developers.
We have continued our commitment to user meetings. Today, they are run online. They are an open and inclusive as ever. We find them invaluable.
In a few hours we are hosting our next POS software user meeting. Our 4th so far this year. we are grateful to customer engagement with these.
Tired of endless paperwork getting between you and your retail customers? We hear you! At Tower Systems, we know your time is precious. That’s why we created easyEDI, an absolute game-changer for sending invoices electronically.
Retailers rejoice! No more manually entering data or chasing down invoices. easyEDI delivers invoices straight to your inbox, saving you heaps of time and money. Plus, say goodbye to typos and errors – electronic invoices are super accurate.
Suppliers, take note! Standing out in today’s competitive market is key. By offering easyEDI’s slick electronic invoicing,you’ll become the supplier retailers love to work with. Win more business and keep your customers happy!
Here’s the easyEDI magic:
Tower Systems: Champions of Local Businesses
We serving Aussie retailers, small business retailers, local retailers. Our POS software is made for them, as is our easyEDI platform. We saw a need and made a solution to fill it.
While electronic invoices have been around for decades, many suppliers are yet to embrace the opportunity for their retail business customers. This easyEDI innovation specifically helps smaller wholesalers to be more of service to their retail business customers. It makes them more appealing to these customers.
If you use Xero in your wholesale business, easyEDI is easy to setup and use. You can be sending your first invoice in minutes. Retailers will thank you for this.
Tower Systems first engaged in EDI (electronic data interchange) invoice creation by developing standards that were adopted for the Australian newsagency channel more than thirty years ago. Those standards formed the basis of file formats in use ion that channel today.
Tower Systems currently serves 3,000+ local independent retailers in Australia and New Zealand across 16 different retail channels.
Ready to join the easyEDI revolution? Head over to easyEDI and get started today!
In our busy and always connected online world, it’s easy to forget the amazing stores we have right on our doorstep. But shopping local isn’t just about convenience, it’s about supporting the heart and soul of our communities.
That’s where FindIt comes in, a free online marketplace created by Tower Systems. FindIt shines a light on our amazing local, independent retailers. We have been serving Aussie communities for decades and are grateful to work with over 3,500 local retail businesses!
FindIt bridges the gap between local shoppers and local retailers. It brings local stores to local devices. It’s like a treasure chest filled with goodies from independent retailers across Australia. Whether you’re looking for the perfect birthday gift, a one-of-a-kind homeware piece, or a treat for yourself, FindIt lets you browse and discover hidden gems from local businesses – all from the comfort of your couch!
What makes FindIt special? It’s all about ease!
Here’s what makes FindIt great for both shoppers and shopkeepers:
For the shopper:
For local retailers:
FindIt’s a win-win for everyone!
You get fantastic local products, and retailers gain a platform to showcase their goodies and reach new customers. It’s a brilliant initiative that strengthens Aussie communities and supports the backbone of our commerce – our amazing independent retailers.
Getting your product info (text and images) onto FindIt is a breeze thanks to the Tower Systems POS software integration.Tower even helps retailers with advice, training, and support to get connected.
The ultimate goal? To get more people like you walking through the front doors of our fantastic local shops! So, what are you waiting for? Discover the hidden gems at FindIt.com.au today!
Good newsagency software is software that:
And so so much more than this list. Good newsagency software is all of this and more. It is flexible too, and constantly evolving given that the needs of the Australian newsagency channel are constantly evolving.
Tower Systems is grateful to offer the most widely used newsagency software in Australia, serving now 1,800+ newsagents and adding more each week. This helps us have the resources and capacity to serve newsagents and their evolving needs and to work with suppliers on time saving opportunities for newsagents.
Running a successful newsagency requires juggling a multitude of tasks. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Tower Systems understands these challenges as we own and run newsagencies too. We are unique like this. We use our newsagencies as places to experiment and learn, in service of newsagents.
Tower Systems recognises that software is just one piece of the puzzle. We offer a range of support services to help you get the most out of your investment. This includes:
Tower Systems’ newsagency software is a powerful tool that can transform your business. By automating tasks, improving efficiency, and providing valuable insights, it empowers you to focus on delivering exceptional customer service and growing your newsagency.
We are grateful for local Aussie newsagents and are committed to helping them thrive.
Tower Systems is proud to offer Australian made and supported POS software for jewellers. In a market with imported software, offering locally made and supported jeweller software is a win for businesses that like a good shop local pitch.
By focussing only on independent jewellers, Tower Systems is able to well serve the unique needs of these local businesses. Whereas franchise and chain jewellers focus on a cookie-cutter approach where everything is the same, local jewellers provide personal service and, often, personal products. This is what being local is all about – being engaged in ways that serve local needs well.
In the Tower Systems software for jewellers there are plenty of ways jewellers can provide local services, such as:
This jeweller software from Tower Systems is deep in jeweller functionality and robust in service. It can transact from the counter, the shop floor, local markets and elsewhere.
Jewellers can run their businesses efficiently:
Tower Systems understands that jewellery stores are about more than just transactions. We have served jewellers for 24+ years now. Our software for jewellers is designed to empower you to focus on what matters most – providing exceptional customer service and creating beautiful pieces. With Tower Systems, you’ll have the tools and support you need for your jewellery business.
There is huge change occurring in the pet shop space right now with Bunnings positioning their hardware shops now in the pet space and Woolworths acquisition of PetStock. Added to the big business moves, the churn (change of ownership / store openings / store closures) within the pet shop retail space is considerable.
Good pet shop software helps local independent pet shops navigate these and other changes. It helps local pet shops reinforce local relevance, which matters to locals who do care about their pets. The best pet shop software does not copy what big businesses do.
Our Aussie made and supported pet shop software offers many benefits, including:
You can rent our our pet shop software for a modest monthly cost, and you can cancel at any time.
Tower Systems goes beyond just the software. We offer:
Tower Systems is grateful to serve hundreds of local independent pet businesses.
Local computer shops need more than basic point of sale software when it comes running their businesses efficiently. Their needs are specialist and complex and hard to solve for many POS software solutions.
Tower Systems is grateful to serve many local computer shops with its computer shop software. This is software made for these businesses, software rich in functionality in service of helping local computer shops have the flexibility their customers demand. It is software the continues to evolve. For example, a complete re-write of the quote and invoice management facilities have delivered net new functionality to computer shops that enables them to offer customers expanded services and thereby making their businesses more appealing.
We understand some of the unique challenges faced by computer shops. From managing intricate builds and special orders to tracking inventory and streamlining customer service, Tower Systems POS has all the features you need. We don’t understand everything though. We are grateful to computer shop owners and staff who show us new needs as we can learn from these to deliver better solutions.
Here are some ways the Tower Systems computer shop software has been found to benefit:
Tower Systems goes beyond traditional POS systems. We offer additional features specifically designed for computer shops, such as:
At Tower Systems, we believe in supporting local businesses. Our software is designed and developed right here in Australia, with the specific needs of Aussie computer shops in mind.
Our Tower Systems Garden Centre software continues to evolve, delivering more facilities and benefits to garden centres with the latest release delivering enhanced solutions in association with Evergreen Connect.
This year, we introduced subscription facilities for garden centres, significantly expanded quote and invoice management tools and more dispatch options, including integrations garden centre owners love.
We help local independent garden centre owners run valuable and enjoyable businesses. Our software helps you evolve your customer mix and grow business performance.
Our software handles so much: linking to Evergreen Connect, tracking inventory in a garden centre specific way, managing price changes as you repot plants, weatherproof product stickers, importing supplier invoices, sell by fractions, sell by weight and / or length, track product variants, special customer orders, tracking customers purchase history, reducing employee and customer theft and more.
We are grateful to our hundreds of garden centre customers who have helped us with a swag of enhancements for garden centre and nursery businesses.
Rental includes: software for unlimited computers in the location, help desk support Monday to Saturday, knowledge base access, integrations with: Shopify, Big Commerce, Xero, Deputy, Tanda, Planday, Slyp, Tyro, major banks, SmartPay and access to our awesome supplier invoice import tools.
We help you target market to customers based on past purchases.
We have released other changes that are getting cheers from our customers:
There is so much ab9out this Garden Centre software that is calibrated to help local Aussie garden centres thrive.
If you or a retailer you know are finding economic conditions tough for your business you can complain, do nothing or make changes. Only one of these has any hope of improving the situation. My advice is to pursue change every time.
Here are 13 free and easy to implement action items any local small business retailer could consider to improve their situation.
My POS software company, Tower Systems, makes and supports POS software for local specialty retailers in Australia and New Zealand. I also own and runs shops.
I share practical advice like covered here because I love helping local independent retailers thrive.
Mark Fletcher
Managing Director
Tower Systems International (Aust) Pty Ltd
ABN 61 007 009 752
M | 0418 321 338 E | mark@towersystems.com.au
Sales: 1300 662 957 sales@towersystems.com.au
First published: June 27, 2024.
Join us on a quick walk through one of the retail shops we own, where we play with the POS software we make, to help us provide better software to our small business retail customers.
We bought our first shop in February 1996, to provide practical experience to all in our POS software company. We’ve owned newsagencies ever since. It’s been wonderfully useful, and enjoyable.
Filmed June 19, 2024, this video is a walk through newsXpress Mount Waverley, a small format high street shop focussed on gifts.
This business used to identify as a newsagency. Not any more. Today, it’s a place where people can find hugs and celebrate those they love. What it offers is covered in the website we built for the shop: www.hugsandlove.com.au.
From Squishmallows to Jellycat to ravensberger jigsaws to awesome blind boxes to Nee Doh, this shop is packed with many categories of adorable and fun items people can buy for themselves and for others.
We have used this shop as a test bed for developing a range of software enhancements designed to help local independent small business retailers run more successful businesses.
We use our POS software in this Mount Waverley business to guide the evolution of the business, picking trends, guiding product adjacencies, determine floorspace allocation, selling online and plenty more. This everyday use of the software ourselves helps inform software development decisions – not to replace user guidance and feedback though. Our own shop sometimes helps us see first-hand what others describe and this can speed the path of enhancement.
Lots of POS software companies claim to have bene started because there was not software there to serve a need. While it’s a nice story, there is usually little evidence of the search undertaken.
Our approach of entering retail ourselves started in 1996 and continues today, beneficially for us and for our customers. We have three physical shops today and seven online businesses. Each of these helps us create better software, provide more meaningful customer service and serve our local communities.
Tower Systems is a small business focussed POS software company developing, and supporting POS software for niche specialty retailers. Jewellers, garden centres, bike shops, toy shops, produce businesses, farm supply businesses, fishing shops, pet shops, charity businesses, landscape gardening businesses, antique shops, sewing shops, haberdashery businesses, newsagents and more benefit from this software.
Find out more at www.towersystems.com.au Call 1300 662 957 or email sales@towersystems.com.au
We are grateful to have been accepted into the Auckland Gift Fair in August this year. We are looking forward to catching up with existing customers and making new connections.
This is not our first Gift Fair in Auckland. It’s been a good trade show for us over the years and New Zealand is home to many retail businesses we are grateful to serve.
This year at the Auckland Gift Fair we will be showing off new tech solutions for retailers:
These facilities and more will feature on our stand and in our discussions with New Zealand retailers who visit the Auckland Gift Fair.
We are thankful to our New Zealand based POS software customers for their advice, and for their active participation in the constant evolution of our POS software.
From online POS software user meetings to local New Zealand user meet-ups, to trade show catch-ups (like the Auckland gift fair), to one on one contact, we offer many connection opportunities with retailers using our POS software.
And while we are an Australian company, our service of our NZ retailer customers is the same as it is everywhere. This is thanks to our extended operating hours and the comprehensive kit of resources we offer our POS software customers for learning, suggesting enhancements and connecting with our help desk team.
We have done New Zealand specific integrations to enable our POS software to better serve New Zealand business needs. The Smart Pay EFTPOS integration was one such project. This was delivered free to our customers once we passed the rigorous certification and in-field testing. There are other examples like this – New Zealand retailer let integrations with our POS software.
If you are a New Zealand retailer keen to find a POS solution for your retail business, we’re here for you. Our toll free number is 0800 444 367.
A couple of weeks ago we recorded a free SEO advice session with several of our customers and shared it within our wider community. This session is another example of free services we offer our POS software customers to help them run more valuable retail businesses.
There is no evidence as to which programmer or software business invented and released the first newsagency software in Australia. Here at Tower Systems we can only speak to what we know, that for which we have evidence.
Tower Systems released its first newsagency software for Australian newsagents in late 1981. This software was for the management of newspaper home deliveries and accounts, newsagent sub-agent deliveries and accounts and for a range of over the counter retail sales functions in a typical Australian newsagency. It was written for a Apple micro-computer.
The functionality of our first newsagency software was determined by the owner of the company, Mark Fletcher, who had two years experience working in a newsagency. This, coupled with years of experience learning programming while working at the CSIRO, provided technical skills with practical knowledge, which were key to developing such a retain marketplace specific software solution. Knowing several newsagents helped in rounding out the practical knowledge of that a local newsagency needed.
This first release newsagency software from Tower Systems was completely replaced in early 1983 following a full re-write of the software in a more flexible and powerful software programming language that provided more options for the company as it expanded its reach of newsagents to use the software. This new release was delivered for the CP/M operating system on a range of different computers that ran it. The software soon expanded to be accessible beyond CP/M to cater to more complex business needs, such as access from more than one computer.
Already well established with plenty of newsagency customers, we are grateful for these early years in laying down a solid foundation for the business.
Back in these days the software was called by its acronym, NAPS, which stood for Newsagency Accounts Processing System.
Each year saw enhancements to the software small and large. Indeed, in the years between 1981 and 1999, the newsagency software from Tower Systems was re-written from scratch four times to leverage new software programming language technology and new database management technology. Each re-write unlocked new technology advances that helped newsagents broaden what they could do in their businesses with this software.
The Tower Systems newsagency software had evolved far beyond the scope of what was originally a newsagency home delivery and sub-agent accounts and delivery management solution, and this was still in the early years of the company.
Through the 2000s and the 2010s the newsagency software continued to evolve apace. Tower Systems expanded into a range of other vertical markets, each complementing the other, facilitating local small business retail expansion and all through this Tower Systems continued to serve newsagents.
Today, in June 2024, Tower Systems is proud to have more newsagents as customers than all other newsagency software companies combined. This is important as a software company needs more than 500 users of its marketplace specific software for the software to be commercially viable. Tower Systems today has close to four times this number in newsagency software customers alone.
While we have come along way from those early days in 1981, we remember them clearly. We appreciate and respect the support of our early-adopter customers. We are thankful for the many different colleagues who have contributed over the decades. We are grateful for the knowledgeable and caring crew at Tower Systems today. At our core we thank newsagents for it was their very unique needs that started us on this journey. Had we not encountered them at first behind the counter in the early 1970s we might to have understood the data opportunity of automating in our first newsagency software accounting and home delivery functions that we could not find automated by anyone else.
So, who wrote the first newsagency software in Australia? There is no evidence as to which company was first despite claims of being first. If you lay out incorporation dates and dates of the first customer, you can see by these facts enough to know who was not first.
Here at Tower Systems our focus is on serving local independent small business retailers with specialty needs. We have feature-rich software that is continuously evolving in service of these specialty retailers. We try and help our customer businesses grow, become more valuable and be more appreciated in their respective local communities.
We are grateful to have been able to welcome a bunch of Computerlink POS software customers to the Tower Systems POS software community recently. We’;re not sure why, but the recent surge has been something our customer service team has handled with care and professionalism.
When a Computerlink POS software customer switches to Tower Systems we help them navigate their new software as well as our customer service resources like the fully staffed help desk, our extensive video training library and our knowledge base packed with information on how to use the many facilities in our software.
While the Computerlink POS software community is primarily made up of newsagents as we understand it, we have discovered some other business customers in the recent contacts.
To help all our new POS software customers land well with us, including Computerlink customers, we have a new customer service role that works only with new customers, helping them learn, helping them become confident in using our POS software. Being able to contact them outside of the usual help desk provides gentle and easy to access assistance.
The software available to Tower Systems customers today is our latest release. It’s been out now for a few weeks. It’s the latest update to our POS software – we release three major updates each year to keep the software current and to enhance the software in line with requests from our customers. Several former Computerlink customers have told us they like our update approach.
We understand it can be challenging considering switching software. From us, there is no pressure to do this. If someone enquires, we will answer their questions and provide them with information. We won’t push to close a deal. We will leave it with them as we think it’s a decision they need to make when they are ready and only then. We are confident in what we offer and in our longevity to be here when a business that we could serve needs us and wants us.
Here is some advice we have for anyone considering switching software:
Here at Tower Systems we are proud of our track record of helping retailers switch from other POS software to our POS software. If this interests you, we’re at sales@towersystems.com.au or 1300 662 957.
Here is stocktake advice from our POS software company for our 3,000+ customers:
We have shared stocktake advice for many years. Our POS software customers have access to video training, text based advice and human to human training and support. Our goal is to help them manage stock efficiently and profitably.
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