The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

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What is the best POS software for retail?

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What is the best POS software for retail? This is a good and often asked question. Unfortunately, it is often asked of the wrong people.

Only you can know what good POS software for your business looks like for it is only you who truly knows and understands your needs. This is where the answer starts – with your needs for it is those that must be served if the POS software you select is to be of service to your business. So, if you are wondering What is the best POS software for retail? start with the needs.

Plenty of POS software sales people will tell you that their POS software is the best for retail. Not here at Tower Systems. we think that our POS software is good for the marketplaces in which we serve, but, only those using the software can speak to the question of whether it is the best for the need.

If you ask us, we will say let’s help you find out. We will do that by first wanting to know more about your needs. This can sound like had work, but … it is about reaching the best outcome for your retail business and that starts with your needs. We want you to find the best POS software for your retail business. We’d love to help you on what is a personal journey centred within your business needs.

Whether something is best is subjective. That’s why you won’t read of us saying our POS software is the best. What we think doesn’t matter. What you think, once you have used it, is what matters. This is also why people who have not used our software cannot comment as to whether it is the best software for a situation.

We strive to make and maintain good POS software for specialty retail situations, and to back this with timely and professional customer support. If this is seen by specialty retailers as being the best POS software for their business we are grateful. With so many long term customers, we have a sense that we are doing things right here.

What is the best POS software for retail?  We hope to explore your needs with you.

In Covid lockdown #5, we’re open

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As a business that meets the criteria for being essential, our office is open. This is being run with around 20% of the usual office based staff, which the majority of our people are working from home, as they have done from the start of 2020.

Having the office open helps us provide better service to customers as we have access to a broader suite of tools than can be provided from a pure home office model.

We are grateful to our customers for their support and we appreciate the new customers we are welcoming every week.

Newsagents switching to $185 a month newsagency software rental.

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The newsagency software rental option launched by Tower Systems in late 2019 is now the preferred newsagency software access approach in the channel.

Under this model, the capital cost is spread over the years of the use of the software rather than through a bulk up-front cost.

There is no credit check and no long-term contract. Newsagents who sell their business or close can stop paying and that ends the licence. This is one aspect of what newsagents like.

The other aspect newsagents like is that of being part of a large community of newsagents. With more than 1,700 newsagents using this software it is, based on user numbers, the industry standard. Working together, Tower newsagents have been instrumental in setting standards all newsagents benefit from today.

The latest version of the Tower newsagency software was released in the first week of July 2021. This delivered access to new look and feel benefits as well as access to better supplier reporting tools for newsagency specific suppliers. This is key to more useful category and segment level performance reporting.

Included in the $185.00 (inc. GST) a month rental fee of the Tower Systems newsagency software is:

  • Software access.
  • Run in the cloud or on a desktop or tablet computer.
  • Unlimited licences – on an many computers as you want.
  • Help desk access for customer services.
  • Software updates as released.
  • XchangeIT access for magazine invoices.
  • Direct link to Shopify for online selling.
  • Direct link to Xero for easy accounting.

Working with community groups.

Using this software, newsagents are able to work with local schools and community groups to offer fund raising opportunities that benefits people in those communities as well as the groups themselves. The approach in the software has been found to be a useful way for newsagents to address the vexed issue of community groups asking for donations.

Mitigating employee and customer theft.

The Tower newsagency software and the team at Tower have been instrumental in newsagents dealing with theft in their business. Early identification of theft is possible with the software thanks to hidden, owner accessible only, tools. These tools have been key in helping police and prosecutors deal with people who have stolen from newsagencies.

In one newsagency, $35,000 worth of theft was uncovered and recovered for the business thanks to the Theft Check service offered by Tower Systems. In another newsagency, long-term systematic theft by a manager helped remote owners confront theft that had cost the business several hundred thousand dollars.

In addition to software tools, Tower Systems offers newsagents theft mitigation advice, including a suggested Theft Policy for a business, which has been found to be key in reducing the opportunity for theft in a business.

Software rental is the future.

These facilities, theft mitigation, newsagency supplier connectivity and more are core to the $185.00 a month newsagency software rental from Tower Systems.

The rental cost is an immediately deductible expense. There is no credit check. It is easy to setup. Many newsagents have embraced it already this year.

You can find out more at www.towersystems.com.au

Valuable advice from small business retailers: make every day your pay day

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This advice is something we have shared before. But, it’s been updated for today. We have found, over many years, this to be the most useful, beneficial and appreciated advice for small business retailers.

Make every day tour pay day.

There was a time when small business retailers could rely on selling their business for a handsome increase on the price they paid thereby providing a good pay day, when businesses sold for a good multiple of net earnings.

Today, the best way to extract financial value from our businesses is to make every day your pay day, to not rely on your pay day being the day you sell the business.

If you do this, if you focus on making money every day, you get ahead, in small steps and increments for sure, but you do get ahead, and long before you actually sell your business.

Our advice is that you look at your business differently. This starts with the mindset of every day being your pay day. Each decision needs to be considered in this context.

Focusing on profit today will give you a better result today and make your business more valuable tomorrow.

Here are some suggestions for making every day your pay day:

  1. Make sure the shop feels happy. People will spend more in a happy business.
  2. Buy as best you can. If you better than usual, keep the additional margin for yourself.
  3. Take every discount opportunity. Paying COD or taking settlement discounts. If you have the capacity to do this, the extra margin adds to your pay day.
  4. Run with the leanest roster possible. Note, however, there is a fine balance between too few and too many.
  5. Always have successful impulse offers at high traffic locations. If something is not working, try something else.
  6. Have your best people working the floor, helping customers spend more.
  7. Make sure the shop looks appealing from outside.
  8. Charge more every time you can. Loyalty programs such as discount vouchers, bundling into hampers, multi buys such as 2 for 3 and other opportunities enable you to do this by blocking price comparison.
  9. Promote outside your store using online and social media opportunities.
  10. Leverage adjacency. Chase a deeper basket – people purchasing more each visit.

Be responsible for the profitability of your business. Don’t blame your suppliers, your landlord, your employees or some other external factor … it all comes down to you – the decisions you make and the actions you take.

If you relentlessly pursue profit with a clear focus you are likely to see profit grow. That’s better than waiting to make money when you sell because that’s less likely to happen in this market.

Doing all this relies on your measuring the performance of your business. The Tower Systems POS software helps with this. It is easy.

Helping local Aussie authors get their stories published – book shop POS software

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We are grateful to serve Shawline Publishing and, in particular, their local retail bookshop, The Independent Bookstore, with our specialty retail POS software.

In our POS software we offer a range of facilities to bookshops, facilities that help them with customer service, sales as well as back of hour management of the business.

From feeding scan sales data to accessing comprehensive title information to loading electronic invoices from suppliers, our POS software made for bookshops has facilities that serve these local businesses and through them serve local Aussie authors seeking to get their writing works out there and into the hands of readers.

Connecting to TitlePage and other book retailing assistance tools, this POS software for bookshops is packed with opportunities, workflow smoothers and revenue drivers, which work well in bookshop situations.

The bookshop POS software from Tower Systems helps local bookshops in myriad ways from the sales counter to the back office to the website driving online sales. There are two ways, however, where the bookstore inventory management software from Tower Systems provide practical and beneficial help to the local book shop.

  • Returns management. Returning unsold books can be time consuming. Using our bookshop software, booksellers can identify titles that can be returned based on arrival in-store, sales and current quantity on hand. We provide the insight and the structured approach for handling the return, in a publisher friendly way. The approach in our software has been tested with booksellers, toe snare it is genuinely useful and in line with what is required from suppliers.
  • Titlepage Integration. Our software has connected to Tiotlepage fore years. Our latest integration is even better and more useful for book retailers. This will evolve further as the Titlepage software itself permits.

We serve local booksellers with POS software made to help them serve their local communities. Our software helps them position their businesses as locally focussed in unique ways and touchpoints from reader loyalty to special interest focus to local club support to bundle offers. We help local bookshops better serve local readers and those who buy for them.

We are grateful to the folks at Shawline publishing for believing in our POS software and using it in their Ballarat business, The Independent Bookstore, to help raise awareness and sales of Australian stories from Australian authors.

Grateful to serve local op. shops with our Australian made and supported op. shop software

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It is a thrill to see the different ways our op. shop software is able to serve different op. shop situations. From handling corporate level requirements to bringing structure to a single local small op. shop situation, our POS software made for op. shops is helping these vital community groups serve their respective communities in myriad ways.

We are grateful to have made and to serve software that serves their needs.

From presenting to committees to making training more accessible to volunteers to handling the unique pricing arrangements of goods in some op. shops, our op. shop software serves day in, day out. It is flexible, resilient and capable, bringing structure to op. shops where often there was none.

Australian op. shops are unique and loved businesses, providing valuable service to the local community and to those supported by their work. Using our specialty software for op. shops, you can expect to tap into a range of benefits, including:

  1. Easy shopper loyalty.  Yes, loyalty matters in these situations. While the software offers a loyalty points system, we have found the cash-off approach in our loyalty tools works better in local retail. People understand money. A receipt showing an amount they can save on their next purchase gets, usually, at least 20% of people spending more that visit.
  2. Manage inventory your way. yes, everything sold in an op. shop is inventory, to be tracked and managed. You can sell by barcode, products code, department, category within department, price point. You can sell, measure and report at the level point appropriate to your needs.
  3. Easy to learn. We have found that in community enterprises easy to learn / easy to use really does matter. Volunteer turnover makes this essential. We can record training specific to your needs and make these videos available for future volunteers.
  4. Secure. You can lock down parts of the software to secure them for management access only.
  5. Check and balances. This software guides processes. It also provides hidden tracking so you can investigate should the need arise.
  6. Club / group marketing and support. Leverage clubs and community groups with offers and pricing just for them.

Our Australian made and supported  op. shop POS software does much more than what’s on this list. See it for yourself, live and obligation free, to see if it could serve you and your business. We’d be glad to show it to all involved in the operation.

POS software for Australian firearms dealers helps meet regulatory obligations and run more efficient and enjoyable businesses

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The POS software for firearms dealers developed by Tower Systems for this specialty retail channel is serving the needs of these businesses beyond the traditional for POS software.

Using our firearms dealer POS software, business owners, managers and staff can expect to benefit from workflow, transactional management and operational facilities that are tuned for these specific types of businesses.

Developed with people who work in firearms dealer businesses, our firearms dealer POS software has unique facilities that serve the needs of retailers in the channel.

Here are some of the benefits of our firearms dealer POS software:

  1. Track product sales by serial numbers. From the moment items with serial numbers arrive in-store. Customers love it. It can also help with insurance claims.
  2. Easily and consistently age check. This is instigated from within the software.
  3. Easily handle special customer orders including one-off orders. The software tracks the details, helping guide fewer mistakes.
  4. Easily handle pre-orders.
  5. Track and manage repairs. from the moment an item is Brough in for repair to collection.
  6. Offer club pricing. Set pricing rules to drive business from club members.
  7. Sell accurately by weight or measure – by whole numbers or fractions.
  8. Manage inventory so that you have accurate records on-hand.
  9. Leverage you. Your knowledge is a differentiator, leverage it. By this we mean that you can have your knowledge about products included on receipts and more.
  10. Differentiate your business through smart and unique loyalty. With shoppers visiting less frequently than other retail, use these tools to drive more from each visit.
  11. Maximise the basket with easy to use one-time shopper loyalty tools.
  12. Load electronic invoices from suppliers.
  13. Easily link to Shopify, Magento and Woo including images.

The Tower Systems firearms dealer POS software is in good use in a range of business situations from large to small, in the city to the country, from owner-operator to run under management. We can share advice and insights we have learned from a variety of business situations, to offer you options for your business as you work on its operation.

For the $199 a month to rent this firearms dealer POS software you get:

  1. Australian developed and supported firearms business POS software.
  2. Software updates as we release them.
  3. Unlimited computer licences for your shop. Extra licences are free.
  4. Shopify / Magento / Woo link. Easily sell online from your POS software.
  5. Direct to Xero link. Easing bookkeeping and accounting costs.
  6. Our OzBiz link. This helps you link to MYOB and Quicken through OzBiz.
  7. Tyro link – safe, fast and easy EFTPOS link for streamlined sales.
  8. PC Eftpos link. This offers easy EFTPOS processing for the major banks.
  9. Support – help desk access, unlimited training, updates and more.
  10. User documentation. Access to our searchable knowledge base.

We are grateful to serve professional firearms dealers and to offer them a solution for serving their business needs.

Advice for NSW small business retailers in their 2nd lockdown … from the Victorian experience

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It was the second Covid lockdown in Victoria that was a defining moment for many small business retailers. Whereas first lockdown was a national experience, the second lockdown was unique to Victoria back then.

While there were many media stories about businesses doing it tough, the reality is that many of us had a good Covid, through all four lockdowns in Victoria. Here’s what worked for us and many of the local small business retailers I have spoken with:

  • Be safe. Have the perspex screens at the counter.  Place your credit card terminal on the customer side.
  • Be frugal. Spend what you must but hang on to as much cash as you can. You don’t know how long this will go on for.
  • Make shopping easier, safer. Bring what people will want the most to the front of the shop, to reduce browsing. In a newsagency where papers have been put to the back of the shop, for example, bring them to the front of the shop.
  • If you’re not online, get online.
  • Be practical. Now is not the time for pretty displays.
  • Preference card payment. The less cash you have to handle, the safer the business.
  • Be flexible. Be available for shoppers where they want to shop: online, on the phone, via social media. Offer delivery or curbsibe pickup.
  • Offer what they want. What people will purchase through a lockdown will be different to other times.
  • Bundle. People who want to send gifts will appreciate you offering bundles ready to be delivered or posted.
  • Co-operate locally. If you are open and a nearby shop is closed, maybe you could sell some of their stock for them.
  • Clean, clean and clean. Showing this being done builds confidence.
  • Be grateful. You will see many good deeds and hear about many too. Share them on social media.
  • Look after your team. Have a good supply of masks and anti-bacterial gel. Given them breaks to refresh and wash their hands.
  • Think about beyond Covid. The experience will help you see your business differently. Lean into that for opportunities on the other side.

Regional, rural and high street newsagents are likely to have a better lockdown than those in shopping centres. many Victorian shopping centres are yet to recover from lockdown 2 and beyond. We mention this as one consequence of extended lockdown for shopping centre businesses is to find opportunities outside the centre.

We have three physical shops in Victoria as well as an office and several online only businesses. What we have suggested in this post we have done in our businesses, and we continue to do them today. For example, as part of the be frugal advice, we made some decisions that we expected to be temporary, decisions we still follow today, decisions that continue to save money.

While things seem grim in NSW right now, at the local small business level you have an opportunity to make your own success, your own good situation out of a bad situation.

If your shop is open and not busy because people are staying at home, use the opportunity to make changes. Be bold, but frugal. Use the time, too, to plan for what’s on the other side – promotions, marketing, re-casting.

Footnote: through our work with newsagents and with the Tower POS software community more broadly, only a very few businesses did not make it through. We think this is because small business retailers are resilient and flexible, doing what is necessary. Good luck everyone!

Thank you to our customers!

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What a thrill to have so many customers join our live POS software Q&A this morning. We were proud to show off some soon to be released POS software enhancements, discuss opportunities and more. In addition to the live meeting, there was live chat.

Sessions like the one we hosted this morning are regular for us as we connect with our customer community outside of the usual help desk and other one-on-one engagement.

We have a commercial licence for the Zoom platform. This enables us to record the session for wider release to those unable to participate.

To those at the meeting today, thank you. To those who will watch the video and provide feedback, thank you, too!

POS software helps small business retailers with Christmas in July

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Christmas in July is a terrific retail tradition in Australia. It is an excellent opportunity to clear stock, boost foot traffic and reset the shop floor of any retail situation.

Using our POS software retailers can easily manage the Christmas in July. In particular, our POS software can help with:

  • Identifying what inventory you can pitch in Christmas in July to quit stock.
  • What sold at this time last year, and the year before.
  • Bundling items to given them a fresh look.
  • Managing the pricing offer between nominated date and time periods.
  • At the register pitching up-sell opportunities from the Christmas in July campaign.
  • Tracking the success of the campaign.

Christmas in July is a wonderful opportunity in almost any retail setting. We say this based on our experience working with a broad variety of specialty retailers. The key is to have a strong offer, well situated, pitched well, understood of all team members and targeted to sell what you need to sell. That’s the key here – the commercial outcome for your retail business.

Here at our POS software company we can help you make the most of the Christmas in July opportunity.

Here is a refreshed list of tips for making Christmas in July a success.

  1. Run the Christmas in July campaign over no more than two weeks in July. One week could be enough.
  2. Choose dates which are away from any other promotion – it works best with little competition.
  3. Get all team members engaged.
  4. Set aside spoke front of store, in their face.
  5. Dress the team and the store to suit the Christmas theme.
  6. Display any spare Christmas stock from last year.
  7. Play Christmas music.
  8. Choose a day for an extra special celebration and make this an all-out focus.
  9. Have a competition for the kids around the theme.
  10. Create a giant Christmas stocking which one lucky customer can win.
  11. Use the event to discount any slow moving items. It its a perfect opportunity to quit stock.
  12. Promote on social media.

Christmas in July is an excellent opportunity to get suppliers on board.  Maybe they could provide products for you to give away as gifts – I.E. every shopper gets spending over $10 a ‘Christmas’ gift.  Suppliers could use your promotion as an ideal time for trialling products and getting your customers engaged.

Retail express checkout with Tower Systems POS software

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Retail express checkout is something we offer with our locally made and supported POS software.

What does it mean though, this retail express checkout?

It’s about safe speed, accurate speed. It’s about a customer experience they love and trust. It’s about retail express checkout.

In our POS software our customers can offer checkout online, on the shop floor, over the phone or at the sales counter. This is what retail express checkout looks like and feels like – what you need, where you need it and when you need it.

  • We help retailers transact with fewer keystrokes, which improves speed and accuracy.
  • We help retailers connect to various EFTPOS platforms, which improves speed and cuts mistakes.
  • We help retailers manage workflow in the sales process, which helps all involved.
  • We help retailers with a broad variety of selling processes.

Designed for high volume retail as well as specialty, comprehensive and often slower, retail. Our approach to selling provides retailers with facilities they can love as they trade in their businesses.

Our approach to retail express checkout is designed to help retailers provide the solution that works for them and for their customers.

We get it that speed is important in many retail settings. So is accuracy. As is integration with other business processes. This is why businesses benefit from a broader view of their processes.

In our installation, setup and training process we help small business retailers to integrate the POS software within their businesses, to tap into the solution in a way that benefits the business the most. It is this setup work that is key to helping a business leverage what it needs from within the POS software.

While Tower Systems offers POS services for all retailers, our core business is the provision of specialist software packages for fishing and outdoors businesses, bike shops, jewellers, gift shops, newsagents, pet shops, garden centres, firearms shops, health and nutrition businesses, bike shops and toy shops.

Many of our POS software co. team members have terrific retail experience and our software is informed by what happens in real world business – not from what happens behind a desk.

The company’s strong management infrastructure champions the small business, independent culture of Tower Systems.

Serial number tracking in POS software

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The serial number tracking facilities in our POS software are appreciated across a range of specialty retail situation.

Having been first developed and jewellers, they were found to be useful in bike shops, too. Since then, they have been found to be useful in a range of specialty retail including firearms dealers, mobility scooter businesses, produce businesses, high-end game shops, sewing machine businesses and more.

Our serial number tracking tools are, we think, comprehensive and flexible.

By tracking serial numbers using the POS software, you can provide a level of service to customers they will appreciate. Serial numbers are listed on receipts. They are recorded, too, for later use should the item be stolen from the customer and they need to do a claim.

Tracking serial numbers in this POS software also sets your business up for longer term tracking of the service history of an item. This can be a valuable way to differentiate the services provided by your business.

Join Justin in a video that we shot recently on serial number tracking. Justin shows some of the benefits of the serial number tracking tools and answers some questions about these.

In the pet shop specialty retail channel, the serial number tracking tools within our POS software are used to record pet microchip details as they are a form of serial number. Being able to track pet microchips in this way, using the serial number tracking tools, helps pet shops to provide a service pet owners and lovers certainly appreciate.

Made here, locally, for local business needs, these serial number tracking tools are made to serve the needs of a variety of specialty retail businesses. Serving multiple retail channels is useful in that a need discovered in one is often of value to another. It is a key factor in the valuable evolution of what the software offers and how it works.

Tower Systems is grateful to its customers for guiding us on the needs in this serial number tracking space. They are the experts  and we appreciate their suggestions and guidance.

If you track serial num bars in your retail business, this could be for you.

Why should anyone buy from your retail business?

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A question for local small business retailers …

Why should people buy from your business over another business?

You have a few seconds to answer.

It can’t be price because anyone can sell on price.

In most cases it can’t be products as other businesses can stock what you stock.

It can’t be opening hours because any business can match that.

It could be location. Location used to be a thing. But not as much today with online.

You, you and everyone working in the business is the reason. You are the difference.

What you do and how you do it. What you know and how you share it … these are the differences your business has over competitors. These are the differences you can leverage.

Our POS software can help you leverage you.

Made In Australia for local specialty retailers like bike shops, garden centres, produce businesses, gif shops, jewellers, fishing businesses, toy shops, sewing margin businesses, fabric shops, music shops, charity shops, newsagents and more.

Our POS software helps you leverage you.

We see this every day in our interaction with successful retailers in our community of 3,000 or so local specialty retailers. People do matter. It is the people who provide the difference in so many cases.

We are grateful that in our specialty retail POS software we help these local retail businesses to leverage their knowledge and their skills to deliver a differentiating experience and through this to help these businesses to prosper and grow.

Our POS software helps these local specialty retail businesses to show at the transaction level why people should shop with a business. We do this in a systematic, structured way that benefits the customers and through this benefits the business.

This is the answer to the why. Leverage your people and what they know and a competitor will be challenges to match you, especially a big competitor where people are blended into a large corporate backdrops and, all to often, lost within their big business systems, so that the big business provides a consistently average experience. It may work for mass, but it’s not what shoppers love in specialty retail areas.

People should buy from your business because of the value-add from your people.

Previewing new POS software update for customers

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We are hosting a live preview of our latest POS software update this week, sharing a live demonstration of the latest software vis a customer-only Zoom meeting.

At this session we will be showing some new facilities as well as other enhancements in the software, including a new fast-tech reporting solution that is sure to be loved.

This Zoom session is the next in our series of customer / software development team engagement through which our customers can ask questions, provide feedback and play a more active role in what is considered in our POS software update process.

We are recording the session and making it available by way of registered private link for customers unable to be with us live to view.

There is no doubt here at Tower Systems as to the value of these customer engagement sessions. We are thankful that customers embrace the opportunity.

Fast selling with our smart POS software

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Selling quickly at the counter and from anywhere in the shop is critical in retail today. Selling accurately is even more important. Combine the two and your retail business is able to offer a lever of service that customers will love.

What helps us offer smart fast and accurate selling through our POS software is our work with a ton of different specialty retail businesses.

  • Jewellers.
  • Garden centres.
  • Bike shops.
  • Bookshops.
  • Toy shops.
  • Pet shops.
  • Newsagents.
  • Produce businesses.
  • Sewing shops.
  • Antique shops.
  • Firearms dealers.
  • Pool maintenance businesses.
  • Fishing and outdoors businesses.
  • Repairs businesses.
  • Homewares businesses.
  • Convenience businesses.
  • Music shops.

All of these and more have influenced what we offer in our POS software. A specialty need for one becomes a useful add-on for another, helping them to broaden the appeal of their businesses, by being smarter, faster and more comprehensive in function.

It is this breadth of work that has enabled us to offer fast and accurate sales management at the retail sales counter through our Point of Sale software. We are grateful for this, for the guidance of our customers into these areas, to help grow our business and what we offer our customers.

A point of sale system is a software, training and services package that enables a retail business to manage sales, inventory data and customer data in a way that makes the business more successful and profitable, more able to compete locally and online. It is a holistic package serving the business.

Our approach at Tower Systems is to demystify the POS software and the system itself. We try and make it easy to learn and understand, to ensure that anyone can use the software to their advantage without having to be technical. This is done through plain English training, without jargon or nerd-speak. We back this up with extra training as needed, to help our customers top up their knowledge when they want.

Fast selling at the sales counter and from the shop floor is part of what we offer. We make it easy for small business retailers to achieve this and to do so with accuracy, for it is data accuracy that matters most in retail today. Good data feeds good business decisions.

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