The POS Software Blog
News from Tower Systems about locally made POS software for specialty local retailers.
It’s national rescue dog day in some countries as we thought it was a good moment to declare our love for dogs and to share some rescue dog facts…
We are grateful to offer locally made and supported POS software for pet shops.
Tower Systems is grateful to help more small business retailers get live with beautiful Shopify websites connected to their POS software. Our work doin g this has evolved over the years, from sites we have developed for our businesses to websites for many of our customers across many different retail channels.
Our work in this area is considerable and diverse. It starts with understanding the needs of our customers. Our approach is comprehensive and transparent.
We also host online workshops for retailers interested in considering Shopify web development. Here is one such workshop from a few weeks ago. It is one of many we have hosted already this year.
We share the video of this meeting is it demonstrates our openness without pitching sales. We genuinely want to help small business retailers make informed decisions about web development, so that the money they invest in a website for their business us useful for the business and for its stakeholders.
When considering a POS software company for your retail business, consider accessibility. While the software itself is important, knowing how to drive it and how to leverage it matters as it is this that will determine how much value you get from the POS software.
Transparency is key. Here are examples of POS software company transparency, in areas where customer value is the core focus. These are all things we offer here at Tower Systems:
Why do these points matter? It’s simple, really … the value you derive from the POS software in your business is more likely to be determined by the level of service from the POS software company than the software itself. Not always is this the case, but often it is. Good software backed by poor and non-trans[parent service will not be good software for you.
This is why it is vital to thoroughly investigate the company behind the POS software, to fully understand the people and their service model. This will guide your decision and help you see if the company is as helpful as it needs to be in service of your business needs and goals.
Here at Tower Systems we are grateful to offer a viable alternative to the MYOB Retail Manager POS solution. Having switched plenty of MYOB Retail Manager customers to our POS software, we have good experience on which to draw to help more businesses make the switch.
We don’t claim to be a copy of MYOB Retail Manager. No, our POS software solution is ours and ours alone. We made it, maintain it, evolve it and support it. We also provide training in how to use our software. We don’t rely on third p[arty businesses to do this.
Our POS software solution is comprehensive and specialty. It is made for specific retail channels with a version of our software for each of our target retail channels such as bike shops, jewellers, garden centres, toy shops, pet shops, homewares stores, gift shops, sewing shops and more. Ours is specialty retail POS software made for these and more specialty retail channels.
MYOB Retail Manager users have in the Tower Systems POS software an alternative worthy of consideration. Thanks to the OzBiz link to MYOB and the direct integration with xero, accounting system links are easy.
Here is a video of the Tower Systems sales team, shop on January 20, 2021, talking about MYOB retail manager and the alternative POS software solution offered by Tower Systems.
From data conversion, to customer training to specialty retail functionality the Tower Systems POS software sales team can help you check out our MYOB Retail Manager alternative, so that you can determine for yourself whether what Tower Systems offers is right for your business.
The in-house produced video shares some initial insights and information. For a more comprehensive demonstration, reach out to our sales team at sales@towersystems.com.au.
In converting a retail business from MYOB Retail Manager to the Tower Systems POS software, the company follows a structured process for data conversion, system setup, user training and on-going personal customer support. Tower Systems does this work itself, using its own people. It does not rely on external contractors or third-party businesses. This matters as it shows Tower Systems accepts responsibility for customer achievement and satisfaction. While we appreciate tech experts out in the field, we think using our own people maintains a closer customer relationship.
Winter can be tough for retail as traffic is often down. Local indie retail businesses have an opportunity to leverage the season, to make it more enjoyable. Here are six suggestions to get you thinking abut winter differently:
If your shop is in a really cold area consider an outer door to keep the warmth in. They do this a lot in Europe and the US in Winter.
These ideas are all about relaxing things, bringing opportunities for joy to the business and evolving the narrative associated with the business. This is what having fun through Winter is about. It’s abut the less obvious, you doing things you can and that a bigger business are less likely to try.
We are grateful and proud. This is us:
Tower Systems is grateful to work with a diverse and engaged mix of charities and community groups through providing charity shop / op. shop software.
Our work spans local op. shops, charity shops, community group shops, church bookshops, community groups with online shops and more. It is a diverse pool of businesses / shops / community groups we serve with our charity shop / op. shop software. The diversity helps in that it opens our eyes to more opportunities for service.
We were surprised when first approached years ago by a community group and, then, thrilled to discover that our specialty retail PO software has facilities embedded in the software that serve the needs of charity shops, community retail businesses and the quintessential Aussie Op. Shop.
Our op. shop software , opportunity shop software, charity shop software helps these businesses, these community run and community serving businesses, to run more efficiently, accurately and successfully.
We are used to dealing with committees and boards of management as software is assessed and consideration given to the needs of the shop in the context of the charter of the community group or charity. We offer to software the software multiple times so that all stakeholders are able to see what they need to see in order to make their own assessment.
From tracking inventory, rewarding shoppers, understanding sales performance and helping volunteers run the business, this POS software for charity shops and opportunity shops helps local charities in their mission of service. The software can sell items by barcode, inventory product code, price point grouping, description, PLU code or more. There is flexibility as to how a charity business tracks what it sells . This flexibility serves the data, time management and financial management needs of the business.
This op. shop software / charity shop software / social enterprise retail management software serves in a diverse mix of situations and offers facilities backed with flexibility. Indeed, this is what it is – social enterprise POS software made for the charity sector.
We can organise to show this software to those sunning the charity shop, the board or committee. To arrange this and tell us more about your needs, email: sales@towersystems.com.au or call 1300 662 957.
Australian made. Australian supported. We are grateful for people who shop local.
Accountants and bookkeepers are often asked for advice by retail business owners about which POS software to buy.
Unless an Accountant or bookkeeper has experience actually running the type of retail business, they may not know what the business needs in the shop. They will understand the accounting needs of the business, but what about the business operationally needs, the workflow needs, the specialty needs unique to that type of business?
Most accountants and bookkeepers we meet are accounting experts, not specialty retail operational and management experts.
Unless an accountant or bookkeeper has actually used the POS software they suggest how can they know if it is right for the job? Sure they will read about it and often talk to people about software from an accounting perspective, but this does not make them experts. Accountants usually know accounting software well, but not specialty retail POS software.
Good accountants and bookkeepers themselves use specialty practice management software to run their practices, to serve their customers. Why, therefore, would an accountant suggest a specialty retailer not use specialty software make specifically for they type of retail business? They shouldn’t. That’s right. In fact, they should suggest to their specialty retail clients that they use software for their type ion business.
Specialty retail businesses need specialty retail management software, software made for those businesses.
Bike shops need software made for bike shops.
Toy shops need software made for toy shops.
Homewares shops need software made for homewares shops.
Sewing shops need software made for sewing shops.
Game shops need software made for game shops.
Jewellers need software made for jewellers.
Firearms retailers need software made for firearms retailers.
Garden centres need software made for garden centres.
Pet shops need software made for pet shops.
Produce and farm supply businesses need software made for produce and farm supply businesses.
Fishing and outdoors shops need software made for fishing and outdoors shops.
Gift shops need software made for gift shops.
Newsagents need software bade for newsagencies.
Adult shops need software made for adult shops.
Accountant and bookkeepers need software made for accounting and bookkeeping practices.
Specialty retail management POS software provides opportunities for better workflow management, easier selling, better supplier connection and better service of customers. Bottom line: specialty software is more fit for purpose for specialty retailers.
Tower Systems only develops and sells specialty POS software in a selected number of niche retail channels. We are experts, selling expert software, to expert retailers.
While we like accountants and bookkeepers, and have a couple working full time in our software company, we think sometimes their advice to go with an generic simple POS package could be less than appropriate advice.
The federal budget last night promised the spending of truckloads of cash on projects designed to create jobs. Almost all the forecast spending would be big business related.
While big projects do help the economy and deliver much-needed new or enhanced infrastructure, there are other ways the federal government could spend more to more immediately boost jobs, and boost the economy.
It’s in small businesses, like retail, local service businesses, local software companies and other local businesses where job creation is easy and fast.
The challenge for the government is that a small business focussed job creation investment would be based on many channel specific investments. They may see that as too hard. They could see it as spreading the risk and thereby spreading the reward.
Thousands of targeted investments could deliver more sustainable economic and jobs benefits than one big billion big project spend.
But … we are not against the big projects. What we propose is in addition to those big projects.
Let us unpack this from the small business software company perspective since that a space we know well. Our POS software business competes with a bunch of overseas businesses. While we are doing well, we’d be grateful to do even better.
A dollar spent with us provides more value for Australia than a dollar spent with an overseas competition, much more.
The government would say we benefit from the extension of the instant asset write off. They are right, we do. But, so do all software companies.
Personally, we’d prefer to see the government offer a financial incentive to retailers buying or renting Australian made and Australian supported software. This would see the government investment spent in Australia, more tax revenue for Australia and more job creation.
Let me break that down. In a company like ours, we respond quickly to demand and can hire for entry level help desk roles quickly, offering people new to software and tech entry-level roles. We could be creating jobs in months, and not years like the big projects funded in the budget. And, the jobs we create come with training that positions the new hires for long-term roles in tech.
We can offer a pathway for people with retail experience to develop good tech skills. We can also offer a pathway for older folks to develop a new career in tech. We can offer people with families and challenging schedules flexibility that is family-friendly. We are not alone in being able to do these things. Indeed, there are plenty of service related businesses that can do this.
Another benefit of supporting local specialty business software companies like ours is that they nurture better business efficiency, benefiting the businesses in which the software is used. This benefits the economy. And, since they are small businesses, they will be nimble in leveraging the improved efficiency within their community.
In both of these examples, the software company and local specialty retail, tax dollars stay in Australia, employment growth is more certain and faster, local communities benefit and the economy is, overall, stronger sooner.
Our example here is one of hundreds or thousands the federal government could employ to rapidly boost employment. They should look at businesses that can respond quickly to demand. They would be local businesses serving local communities.
Covid has proven the importance of local. Many who started working from home through Covid will continue, permanently. This presents opportunities for local infrastructure and this is where local small businesses can play a role – businesses that will make a more valuable tax contribution and businesses that can hire for demand more rapidly.
The federal budget is a missed opportunity in the job creation front. It reads like it’s from people who have little understanding how small business works – that we can respond quickly.
We get that politicians will say dealing with a small number of big businesses is easier than wrangling thousands of small businesses. To that we would say try it.
Small businesses in Australia are a resource that few politicians have ever successfully tapped. We are in federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s electorate. We have written to him about these things. He’s not responded. However, he continues to email us about all the good things he has announced.
We are confident that many investments in buy Australian initiatives with and for a variety of small business channels could deliver early job creation wins, a boost in tax revenue and welcome economic support for regional and rural Australian communities.
The data management needs of antique shops are unique, beyond what is traditional in retail businesses. Often, the needs are unique to each business in niche ways.
Historically steeped in paper-based management, antique businesses rely on accurate record keeping for it is this that serves the needs of sellers and buyers and the antique business itself.
Tower Systems is grateful to offer POS software for antique businesses, software tuned to the needs of these businesses based on what we have seen and been told.
Our POS software for antique shops has evolved from our decades of work in the jewellers POS software space. We serve hundreds of retailers in the jewellery channel from everyday fashion to high end to bespoke to heirloom to repair and maintenance. Our work with a diverse community opt jeweller businesses has set us up to serve the needs of antique businesses through our antique shop POS software.
Managing secondhand goods, managing insurance purchases, providing valuations, documenting product provenance, storing product images, offering product care instructions, tracking buyers, tracking sellers … all of these facilities and more are part of the core POS software for antique shops from Tower Systems.
Our seamless connectivity to Shopify helps us serve online sale needs too, from the physical shop to online and back in terms of accurate and timely data management.
Using our POS software, antique shops can track sales of items provided by different sellers. You can easily report on sales at this level. you can also aggregate items for reporting or tracking across sellers, based on product type.
Often in antique shops, product knowledge is held by a few. Using our POS software for antique shops you can help more people in the business offer consistency in terms of product related knowledge. This is key for the business to be able to operate under management if that serves the interests of the business owners.
Our approach in dealing with antique shop opportunities is to understand the needs first. We’re not right for everyone. we will say so if we are not right, and wish you all the best with your search.
See what we offer antique shops through our POS software, contact us: sales @towersystems.com..au or 1300 662 957.
Last week, we added a ne team member to our POS software help desk, someone with fifteen years retail experience, most of that using our POS software in business, not just one shop but several.
Their retail experience is terrific as is their knowledge of our software and their ability to train retail employees in the use of our software.
We are grateful to find this new team member and expand our head count to accomodate their position.
We are also grateful to our growing customer base for encouraging the head count growth. 2021 is just over four months old and already it is a terrific year for Tower Systems, and this plays well for our customer community.
We did let our customers know a couple of weeks ago about the new team member. Their support has been terrific.
Changes to casual employment in Australia are now in effect. Click here to see the details as pblished by the Fair Work Ombudsman.
Employers have to give every new casual employee a Casual Employment Information Statement (the CEIS) before, or as soon as possible after, they start their new job.
Small business employers need to give their existing casual employees a copy of the CEIS as soon as possible after 27 March 2021. Other employers have to give their existing casual employees a copy of the CEIS as soon as possible after 27 September 2021.
Also, the Fair Work Commission has issued a decision that impacts the award under which employees in newsagencies are paid. This from the Fair Work Ombudsman website:
Modern Award Review – Junior rates under the Retail Award
The Fair Work Commission has issued a decision that changes the way juniors are paid under the Retail Award. From the first full pay period on or after 1 May 2021, junior rates will only apply for classification levels 1, 2 and 3.
Use our Pay guides or Pay Calculator to find the new rates and allowances.
A junior is an employee under 21 years of age. Use our Pay Calculator to calculate junior pay rates.
Juniors get paid a percentage of the relevant adult pay rate unless the award, enterprise agreement or other registered agreement doesn’t have junior rates.
The percentages that apply are usually based on the employee’s age and increase on their next birthday.
These are important changes newsagents need to be across.
Tower Systems is grateful to help doll shops with POS software that serves the unique needs of their businesses. Made in Australia for local businesses, this software has facilities that go beyond what is traditional for retail POS software.
Our doll shop POS software helps doll shops better serve their customers. It does this in plenty of ways. We only realised when we were shown by experts in the doll shop retail space.
Here are some of the facilities in our doll shop POS software that we have been told are especially useful in these niche businesses:
Tower Systems is grateful to serve specialty doll retailers with our POS software, to help them run more successful and enjoyable businesses, to help them broaden the appeal of doll collecting and doll love.
Our specialty POS software is good at serving specialist retail business needs.
For more information: sales@tower ystems.com.au or: 1300 662 957.
No one wants to plan for disaster. It’s a negative activity, easily put off for more happy and optimistic pursuits. The reality is that most business owners will confront some form of disaster at some point in their business life. This advice is far-reaching, designed to act as a broad list of steps you can undertake to be prepared. Do it all or some, but do something … otherwise when you need good planning you will not have a plan on which to fall back.
Disaster planning is vital for any retail business. Too often, the need for good disaster planning is realised after a disaster has hit the business. This advice sheet offers business and computer related advice which is designed to mitigate the impact of a disaster on your business.
Insurance Protection
Insurance coverage is vital to helping a retail business overcome any type of disaster. In addition to ensuring that your insurance policy covers all disaster situations of concern to you, including flood, theft, water inundation, fire, earthquake, riot—be sure to carefully read the policy, ensure that your insurance policy / policies cover payouts for the following:
Ensure that the value of stock, fixtures and fittings covered by your policy is an accurate reflection of the real value of these items. Talk with your insurance company about the best approach to track this on an ongoing basis.
Insurance brokers can provide access to assessors who can advise on the appropriate level of insurance for your situation.
Use your Point of Sale system to track all stock movements in and out. The stock on hand in your software should be your coverage.
Ensure that your insurance policy protects for the seasonal nature of your business
Data Protection
Business data is one of the most valuable assets of the business. Like insurance, the value is often not understood until you need what you do not have. Retailers who are serious about protecting their business data in the event of any disaster follow these steps:
Disaster Planning
Here are some general suggestions on planning for a disaster in your business property.
This POS software for gift shops packs a punch, a good punch, delivering for a few dollars a day valuable facilities and benefits:
The latest version of our Aussie made and supported gift shop software, released recently, is visually and technically fresh. It’s made for Australian gift retailers to help you run a more valuable business.
Here is what your customers can access:
Our goal is for you to enjoy valuable outcomes for you and your business from using our software. We’d love the software to be a genuinely useful partner for the long term, to help you and your business do well.
See the software for yourself. here is a short video in which we show some of what this specialty POS software offers:
Our gift shop POS software does much more than this. It is feature and function rich, easily learned and valuable at many touchpoiunts in the business.
Okay, software are the tangible, bankable, useful benefits of the Tower Systems gift shop POS software? That’s a big question because, really, what differentiates this software from other software out there. Let;’s try and answer.
In our experience, here is what we think people find to be beneficial about our gift shop POS software…
Sweet huh? We love this list because everything on it is good and because other benefits not on it are good, too. We are proud of our local business specialty retail gift shop POS software and the ben edits it delivers to the retailers with whom we work.
The thing is, the benefits in our gift shop POS software are there because of our customers. They have guided us and they guide us. This is a collaboration. It always has been. This software is awesome because we have awesome customers and for this we are sincerely grateful.
If you own a gift shop, let’s talk …
So many questions, so much to unpack. And, maybe, you are wondering why a POS software company even wonders about these questions. Like, seriously, what does this have to with gift shop POS software? Why are nerds asking these questions.
We care.
Seriously, we care. Okay, we are nerds too, but we do care and have cared for many may years.
Our business relies on thriving local gift shops, small business gift shops, independent gift shops. We need you to be successful as much as you need your business to be successful.
This is why we have built and continue to build into our gift shop POS software facilities, tools and nuggets on which you can rely to bank better results.
If you are thinking of turning off because this reads as too salesy, too glib, please don’t. We are trying to show that we do care about local gift shops, businesses like yours.
In our Aussie made and supported specialty gift shop POS software you have access to cool and useful tools that can help:
This is smart gift shop POS software made solely for local independent gift shops. It has been made to help that channel of businesses compete with much bigger businesses. It does this by helping to leverage you and your people and your knowledge, by helping to consistently pitch local without shouting and by giving you tools that match and, in our view, pass what the big end of town retailers use to chase customers.
So, yes, we are nerds. But … we are nerds who understand retail, especially local retail, independent retail, gift shop retail.
This is locally made gift shop POS software we are proud to offer.
Good POS software is valuable for a retail business, especially a small local business like a gift shop. Our gift shop POS software has been made to nurture value for any business using it. By value, we mean bankable results in terms of sales, margin and, ultimately, the valuation of the business itself.
Our gift shop POS software is made to focus on guiding you to nurture value from the business. It does this through facilities built into the software to help you on this path.
if you have a spare 22 minutes, here is a video in which we look at several of the facilities included in this gift shop POS software, facilities that differentiate it from other more generic POS software. We shot this video in August 2020. While the software continues to evolve, what we discuss in the video is in the software today.
This video is designed to briefly overview this gift shop POS software. Any of the Tower Systems sales team can show you more of the software, in as much detail as you would like. However, before they do that, they will want to know about your business needs as your software choice is 100% about you and what you need for your business.
We are grateful for the many hundreds of gift shop owners, managers and retail team members who have contributed and continue to contribute ideas and feedback on the software for it is their engagement that guides where we take this software.
Each year we release several gift shop POS software updates, bring new facilities and enhancements to the software to ensure its service to our customers grows … as you’d expect from any business.
This is specialty POS software made for gift shops, specific to their business needs. Too often we win business where a gift shop wen with a generic software product only to find that it does not serve their specialty retail needs.
If you think your retail business is unique in any ways, look for software that serves your uniqueness. This is important. Software sits at the heart of any retail business. It is critical to how you see your business that you match your view with tools up to the task.
Our gift shop POS software has been make for local specialty retail gift shops.
Tower Systems is grateful to offer local gift shops locally made and supported POS software for their niche retail businesses.
The needs of gift shops when it comes to gift shops POS software are unique. Too often, gift shop owners are told that any software can serve their needs.
The thing is, software can only do what it can do. A specialty retail business does not want to be limited in what it can do by the limits of the software it selects.
There is where the Tower Systems specialty gift shop POS software plays. It has been made for gift shops and is used by gift shops to serve unique and specialty needs of these specialty retail, businesses. It does this for physical businesses as well as online businesses thanks to a seamless integration with platforms like Shopify.
This gift shop POS software does not stand still. It is regularly enhanced to serve evolving marketplace needs. Gift shop owners often find ways to evolve their businesses thanks to opportunities in the software.
being locally made and supported helps local small business gift shops to serve their local communities. This is software made for your situation. It’s not from an overseas software chop shop that uses different lingo or from nerds who expect you to meet them on their nerd platform.
The Tower Systems gift shop POS software is make for local gift shops. But what does this mean? Fair question. It sounds like marketing spin. How is this gift shop software made for gift shops.
Okay, let’s explore that, let’s consider how this gift shop POS software is made specifically for gift shops. here are a couple of examples.
These are two of the many gift shop specific facilities in our POS software on which local small business gift shop owners can rely to leverage their businesses for greater local success.
Here at Tower Systems, through our work with our specialsist retail POS software, we get to see many different types and sizes of retail businesses. we are grateful for the insights they share and the inspiration they provide.
We have put together this collection of local small business retail every day marketing tips. These are tips that could work in almost any business situation. We hope you find it useful.
Our goal with this list is to give you ideas you can use right away as well as ideas that will get you thinking of your own ideas.
Go for it. Remember, if you do next week what you did this week you cannot expect any growth. Growth only comes from change.
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