The POS Software Blog

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

Latest stories

It’s Saturday and we’re helping small business retailers

August 22, 2020

1 Min read

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It’s pouring rain in Melbourne and snowing in Canberra right now. In this kind of weather it’s good being inside, and warm. Oh, and safe, being safe at this point in 2020 is good. In fact, it’s fantastic.

But … we’re focused on what matters to our customers. Today is a business as usual Saturday. We are providing live support for our small business retail POS software customers. Offering help, advice and training.

Like all Saturdays, we’re here, working from home, but here providing the services we promise.

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Small business support through COVID-19 from our POS software co.

August 22, 2020

2 Min read

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Tower Systems is grateful to be able to continue to help Australian and New Zealand small business retailers through COVID-19.

For us, it has been business as usual with no interruption to software development, support and POS software user training.

We continue to offer a full service POS software help desk service, releasing POS software updates and delivering our much-loves free one-on-one training to our retail business owners and their staff.

In offering business as usual, our customers have continuity of service. This helps them have what they need to work on their businesses … as that is what plenty of small business retailers have been doing through COVID-19, working on their businesses, re-calibrating, adjusting and, for some, pivoting. Indeed, we have helped some exciting pivots and we are grateful to have seen this and been part of it.

We are grateful to our own team of software developers, help desk experts, POS software trainers and our back office infrastructure support in that it is this group of people that has delivered for your customers through COVID-19 every day.

With small business retail at the forefront of community support through COVID-19, helloing them serve and grow is important to our customers and to us.

Our customers continue to haver access to a range of opportunities and benefits to help them best run their businesses in this situation.

Free licences for home software access.
Free unlimited training.
No surcharge credit card use.
Free access anywhere reporting tools.
Pivot advice.
Capped price low cost Shopify sites.
Business performance analysis help.

So, here at Tower Systems, it is business as usual and, through this, we are helping our POS software customers achieve a business as usual experience. We know this is comforting to our customers, helpful for their business planning and operations.

But back to the pivot opportunity. We see plenty of this in a range of retail channels. By see we mean in business data. data show pivot opportunities and we can help our retail partners to explore these and consider whether they are useful. 2020 is a terrific year for a pivot and having the right software with flexibility can be helpful.

We hope your 2020 is going well too.

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POS software update delivers more benefits to small business retailers

August 21, 2020

2 Min read

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last week Tower Systems released another POS software update, providing access to enhanced facilities and other benefits for retailers who partner with is.

This update is part of our regular software enhancement program. This latest POS software update delivered almost 50 enhancements to our software, many of which were suggested by customers through our transparent Software Ideas process.

In the advice to our customers about the update, we listed the enhancements and provided further information.

The POS software update was commercially released following a comprehensive alpha and beta test release process, ensuring that what we delivered passed all necessary QA processes to provide our customers with a software update they will value and appreciate.

By providing our customers with the details of what is in the update, we provide them the opportunity to decide whether they want the update. We do not force POS software updates on our customers. Nor do we automatically install updates as we believe that our customers have the right to choose. They appreciate this, too.

Like each update to our POS software, our advice email has installation instructions as well as advice on how to contact us for help by phone, email, Facebook, chat and more. We make contact as easy as possible to help people be in contact with us.

2020 is proving to be a significant year for our Tower Systems POS software user community with major software enhancements and changes already delivered and more under development. This is serving our specialty retail channels els, helping retailers to work on their businesses to drive efficiency, profitability and enjoyment.

With small business retail playing an enhanced role in serving local communities we are proud to help these vital local businesses with better software, more finely tuned POS software that is even more reflective of the specific needs they tell us of.

Our customers have access to us to discuss change requests. There is no wall between us. From the development team to the support team to the leadership team, our customers have access to Tower Systems team members for discussion about software enhancements and usability as we know that this dialogue helps us make better software and that benefits our customers, and us.

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Live training workshops for POS software users

August 20, 2020

1 Min read

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We are hosting another series of live POS software training workshops for our small business retail customers. These sessions are run through our secure commercial Zoom account and are recorded and packaged for easy 24/7 access by thine unable to make the sessions.

Here is the schedule:

Friday, August 21 @ 10am. XchangeIT data fails. How you can avoid these, save money and stop physical returns. This is a newsagent specific session.
Monday, August 24, @ 10am. How to identify dead stock – taking a fresh look at this smart report.
Tuesday, August 25 @ 10am. How to restructure your stock file to drive better value for you. With stock manager, this is easy if you know how. We will show you.
Wednesday, August 26 @ 10am. Shopify / Woo website sync. What to check if you have an issue.
Thursday, August 27 @ 10am. How to setup discount vouchers. And how to use them to differentiate your business.

All Tower Systems customers have free access to this training. each session will include Q&A time on any topic.

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Affordable POS software for gift shops helps these small business retailers compete

August 20, 2020

3 Min read

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The gift shop POS software from Tower Systems is made specifically for gift shops in Australia and New Zealand. Designed to serve needs unique to gift shops, this software is specialty in nature, as these retail businesses are specialty too.

This gift shop software delivers a range of benefits for easy rental at $72.50 a month…

Get rid of manual books at the counter for LayBys, special orders, stock you need to order and more.
Cut dead stock and re-order based on data facts.
Cut theft by knowing what is being stolen.
Eliminate LayBy and get you paid sooner with buy now pay later.
Make price comparison harder with bundled packs.
Easily and consistently pitch locally sourced products.
Drive community group member engagement with group pricing.
Get one-time-only shoppers spending more with loyalty tools.
Bring customers back with reminders on dates important to them.
Save money on bookkeeping by integrating with Xero.
Leverage your knowledge on receipts and elsewhere. Sell you.
Reach beyond your four walls with a directly linked Shopify store.

This list is a taste of the benefits delivered through the Tower Systems gift shop software.

We are grateful to the hundreds of gift shop POS software retailers we serve today for their support, advice and guidance.

Using the Gift shop Point of Sale software from Tower Systems, retailers can expect to:

Cut costs. Thanks to electronic invoicing, the cost of processing new stock is lower than with manual processes. This can help cut your labour bill.

Increase sales: reward customers. A good loyalty program works. Not like FlyBys which is of dubious financial value to customers. No, a serious loyalty program which guides your customers to spend more money with you. I have see stores grow sales by 10% on the back of a well constructed loyalty program, a good POS software package will run this for you, points and all.

Increase sales: easy lay-by. Lay-by run properly and using technology can be highly profitable. The software can manage the rules and ensure that your shop operates as professionally as a national retailer. You set your own rules and the software manages the paperwork.

Increase sales: market to your customers. A coupon on your receipts, an email newsletter, a printed newsletter or up-sell script at the sales counter for staff – these are all ways you can use your point of sale system to help guide your existing customers to spend more money with you.

Increase sales: social responsibility. Connect with a local charity. Use your gift shop software to make it easy for a local charity to promote your retail business shop and raise money for themselves at the same time. Each sale earned for you by the charity can be tracked so that you are able to reward them with an accurate donation at the end of the campaign.

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Repairs / job management software for retailers offering on-store repairs to customers

August 19, 2020

2 Min read

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The repairs / jobs management facilities in the Tower Systems POS software help jewellers, bike retailers and other businesses offering repairs facilities in their business to manage the repairs process, to better service repairs customers.

The repairs tools in the POS software provide management and service from the moment a repair is brought in to when it is collected.

The repairs tools in the POS software can handle situations where items are made from scratch as well as genuine repairs.

Using the repairs tools / jobs management facilities in the Aussie developed POS software, retailers can serve customers professionally, accurately and in a timely manner.

Track customer details and the full repair / make request. You can load comprehensive text details of what is required, images and sketches – so that everything needed is recorded against the job.
You can print a copy of the details for the customer including the terms and conditions.
The software manages receiving and recording a deposit.
The software can SMS text message the customer when the item is ready for collection.
The repair / job information is stored for as long as you want. This is good where wedding rings and other event jewellery items are made.
Track raw materials used.
Track labour used.
Understand full job costing.
You can manage internal and external repairs.
Receive progress payments.
Print job cards, which you can customise.
Report on repairs to understand work in progress, profitability and more.
Track work by repairer.
Maintain a current jobs list, including due dates.

These are just some of the facilities in this locally made repairs management / jobs management software that is part of the specialty POS software from Tower Systems.

The repairs management and jobs management facilities have been developed in consultation with retailers, in service of their evolving needs. They are part of our off the shelf solutions for retailers serving their repairs management and jobs management needs, to help them better serve their customers.

Tower Systems serves a range of specialty retail channels in Australia and New Zealand, with 3,000+ customers using its software from the counter to the back office to the workshop. We are grateful to these customers and proud to be in their service.

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Alternatives to Afterpay that small business retailers love

August 18, 2020

2 Min read

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Through our Tower Systems POS software small business retailers have access to two buy now pay later platforms that they love.

Humm, which is part of the Flexirent group and ZipPay / ZipMoney that are part of the broader Zip platform. These two buy now pay later offerings are integrated with our POS software and retailers love them. Both are viable alternatives to Afterpay.

Sure, Afterpay has brand recognition. However, Afterpay has a cost to retailers, which can fall as a cost to consumers, that is higher than the cost of Humm and ZipPay for retailers.

The lower the cost of the buy now pay later platforms the better it is for a retail business.

Afterpay works fine. Shoppers love it. Humm and ZipPay work fine too and shoppers using them love them too.

Thanks to smart POS software integration, Humm and ZipPay offer good and viable solutions for over the counter retailers looking to replace the old-school LayBy with something that works better for them and their customers.

We have experience integrating with Afterpay and feel no ill toward the company. The purpose of this blog post is to note for retailers that there are alternatives that offer similar services, that help shoppers make purchases today that otherwise might be delayed and could leak to other retailers.

On our own retail business websites we offer solutions across Afterpay, Humm and ZipPay. That’s right, all three are available and in serving of customers based on their own preferences. We have the experience and accounting data through which we can determine the viability for the business of Afterpay and its costs versus those of Humm and ZipPay.

Like anything in business, do your homework, determine what works best for you and for your customers.

Buy now pay later is a boon for shoppers and retailers, helping drive purchases at a time when retailers are keen for these. The integration brings to life another payment method that is easy to transact at the counter and useful for a local business in service of its local community.

Replacing LayBy is something small business retailers have loved about the buy now pay later movement. We are glad to be part of this.

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8 reasons we’re happy this Monday morning

August 17, 2020

1 Min read

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We love Monday mornings at our POS software company for these reasons and more:

There is the excitement for a new week.
We get to hear good stories from the weekend from our team members and customers.
We set the agenda for the week in terms of deliverables for our customers.
We have a team meeting and catch-cups are always fun.
We welcome our first new customers of the week.
We look for opportunities of change.
Our latest software update is being well received.
Especially today, we have a new team member joining our help desk.

While 2020 is an unusual year, we’re grateful for what it is bringing to us.

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Handling any holiday season is easy with good POS software

August 17, 2020

2 Min read

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A holiday season can be a challenge in an indie retail business, a local small retail business for a holiday season presents management challenges, marketing challenges and positioning challenges.

How do you leverage the holiday season to achieve the best outcome for a business?

Today when we are writing here about holiday season we are referring to any season local to a business that can change traffic flow up or down and can result in a change, a spike, in what sells, how it sells and when it sells. It can also relate to difference shoppers, folks who are in town because of the holiday season.

Using our small business specialty retail POS software…

Retailers can average the holiday season opportunity. they can do this by tapping into data from previous similar seasons.
Retailers can also easily adjust loyalty settings, to make the most of the seasonal visitor opportunity.
Retailers can bundle items to be more relevant to the opportunity of the season.
Retailers can market to the seasonal opportunity based on past shopper engagement. This marketing can be started out of the POS, leveraging the curated POS data.
Retailers can share local knowledge and thereby better serve those not usually in down regularly.
Retailers can set pricing to serve the needs of a season. This can be date and time set for auto management.
Retailers can tag items so as to track the performance of seasonal items outside of usual reporting modes in the POS software.

These are just some of the ways our POS software helps small business local retailers to drive holiday season opportunities.

Small business retail management is all about leveraging opportunities and doing this in service of shoppers local and online. Knowing what, when and how to leverage is a function of POS software curated data. The Tower Systems POS software can help with this.

Serving small business retailers in seaside towns, tourist destinations, outback locations, small country towns and elsewhere, we have years of experience helping small business retailers to make the most of opportunities, like holiday opportunities.

Holiday seasons present wonderful and valuable opportunities to retailers. Our software helps retailers make the most of these opportunities.

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Chasing sunrise every day

August 16, 2020

1 Min read

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Sunrise, to us, is optimism for a new day, hope for what it brings, happiness at being fresh for what it brings.

We think about it like some retailers think about opening the door to their shop. Everything is in place, everything is ready … let the day begin, let’s see what the day brings.

Chasing sunrise every day is about chasing that excitement and happiness. It is about loving what you do.

We love what we do here at Tower Systems.

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How our POS software helps gift shops, homewares shops and more to compete in 2020 and beyond

August 15, 2020

2 Min read

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Our POS software is packed with benefits tailored to the needs of indie small business retailers, specialty retailers on the high street.

Be calm. At the heart of any retail business often is frenzy, stress, even chaos. A core benefit of our small business POS software is the focus on calm, calm that comes from data that is at the heart of the business, on which sound business decisions are made. We help retailers and those who work in retail to be calm as they make the big and small decisions, as they pivot and embrace challenges and opportunities in the path ahead and to the side. We see good decisions made in the calm.
Get rid of manual books at the counter for LayBys, special orders, stock you need to order and more.
Cut dead stock and re-order based on data facts.
Cut theft by knowing what is being stolen.
Eliminate LayBy and get you paid sooner with buy now pay later.
Make price comparison harder with bundled packs.
Easily and consistently pitch locally sourced products.
Drive community group member engagement with group pricing.
Get one-time-only shoppers spending more with loyalty tools.
Bring customers back with reminders on dates important to them.
Save money on bookkeeping by integrating with Xero.
Leverage your knowledge on receipts and elsewhere. Sell you.
Reach beyond your four walls with a directly linked Shopify store.

The latest version of our locally made and supported specialty retail POS software, released two months ago, is visually and technically fresh. It’s made for Australian gift retailers to help you run a more valuable business.

Because we make what we sell we provide more relevant training and support. We work with customers on requested changes, too, leveraging the democracy of the entire user base to guide changes, to help us see what is possible through what we can all do together.

This is where the calm comes in. By providing certainty to underpin business decisions, we are able to help businesses calmly move through necessary decisions, to improve their situation and to add value at every opportunity. data is the key and we help in the cultivation and harvesting of business data.

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New hire for POS software help desk

August 14, 2020

1 Min read

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We are pleased to have been successful in hiring another person to join our help desk. This is a second net new position for the customer facing side of our business in the last two months. It is a testament to growth in rooftops that we are expanding our head count in times that are seeing reductions elsewhere.

We are glad to welcome new experience and skills that Eric and Matt a month ago bring to our team in service of small business retailers.

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How to take your retail business online, useful advice for people starting out

August 14, 2020

1 Min read

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Here’s a video of another online session we hosted yesterday with several retailers on taking a business online:

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Updated POS software released for small business retailers

August 14, 2020

2 Min read

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We are pleased to announce that earlier this week we released updated POS software for small business retailers.

This latest update delivers benefits requested by customers and voted on by customers. Yes, we have a transparent democratic process to guide the content of the software updates we develop.

Even though corona is impacting plenty of businesses, here at Tower Systems our POS software development, testing, documentation and support teams are busy delivering access to ur customers, helping them to benefit from constantly evolving software.

This latest update has been made available at no additional cost to current POS software customers.

The update has been released with comprehensive support notes including information on installation and use.

The update is part of our regular enhancement program offering regular small format updates enabling the faster evolution of the software following the major release early this year that reflected a generational shift in the tech underpinning our POS software and a similar shift in the tech at the heart of our database management.

With retail changing rapidly in 2020, it stands to reason that the tools retailers get the most from are those that are evolving, too, to maximise emerging opportunities.

For any with questions about what’s in the software update, in addition to excellent documentation, we offer one on one training as well as personal support from knowledgeable team members. This is the personal human service we have known for, delivering access to helpful tools our retailer customers can rely on, bank on.

As this POS software update was released we are advanced in developing the next update with several streams of enhancement underway across the multiple development projects under way.

This is how good software is developed, multiple streams at once, bringing them to market as they pass QA and beta and are ready for wide commercial release. It’s a tried and true structured process that results in stable software for our customers.

Tower Systems serves small business retailers in niche channels. We are a specialty POS software company serving businesses in Australia and New Zealand. Being across multiple channels in multiple situations broadens our experience and everyone benefits from this diversity.

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Helping small business retailers offer POS software connected click and collect

August 13, 2020

2 Min read

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Click and collect is now universally understood and embraced as a consequence of corona. This is especially true in Victoria Australia where in metro melbourne there is a 6-week hard hard lockdown in place. Click and collect is a lifeblood for retailers in the large lockdown area.

Here at Tower Systems we have been serving small business retailers with click and collect enabled POS software connected to Shopify and other websites all through this. Indeed, click and collect is something shops working with us have been offering for years.

Through Magento, Shopify and Woo POS software connected websites, our click and collect solution can be for drive by curbside contactless pickup, home delivery and traditional click and collect the flexibility is powerful, appreciated and easy for small business retailers as they play in this now important space for small business retailers.

Click and collect is here to stay and even more important, shoppers and retailers understand it. They understand how it works, the opportunities it brings and the health and safety imperative. It is good news for newsagents.

We are proud to have helped many small business retailers bring the click and collect opportunity to life in their businesses and to do this through a seamless connection between our POS software and their e-commerce site.

We do it ourselves in our own websites, too, offering click and collect in the shops we run, where we use our software and websites that our web team have developed, to show off our tech and business operational skills.

retail has fundamentally changes thanks to corona and wee are grateful to the thousands of retailers who partner with us, embracing software we develop and leveraging the tech integrations that we support in the work we do across a range of specialty retail channels.

While corona is challenging for so many, if we can provide income certainty for small business retailers and those who rely on these businesses then it is one less stressor for them. This is where click and collect plays a vital role, in offering an alternative and safe path to revenue for a retail business.

2020 is a year of massive change with tech being at the core of so much change. It’s not done yet as more changes are coming. Our message to small business retailers is that we are here, we have your back through these changes.

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What is epos software and is it relevant to Australian small business retailers

August 12, 2020

2 Min read

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Epos is a term usually used in the UK by companies selling POS software to small business retailers.

So, when you read about epos software here in Australia you are usually reading about POS software. A company using the term epos software is likely to be a UK company promoting, maybe overseas developed software for Australian retailers.

We would say that any software business using the epos term is a company to be wary of if you are an Australian retail business looking to purchase Australian software for. In our experience, epos software is not Australian POS software for Australian businesses. Now, that may not matter to you. If it does not matter, okay. However, if you own an Australian retail business and you want Australian developed software then it may well matter. hence us dropping your attention to the definition of epos software in this blog post.

Knowing what you buy really does matter. Epos software could be good for your business. Locally developed POS software could be good for your business, too. This is why we say do your homework, understand where the software is developed, where it is supported, the terminology that is used in the software, to be sure if it is software for your local needs, using terms that make sense to you. This is critical in the usefulness of the software.

It comes back to the term epos. If you don’;t feel comfortable with that, if it is not immediately recognisable to you, then maybe the software itself will have th same challenge. Phrases and terms do matter in the sense of ease of learning and ease of use when it comes to business management software, especially small business software.

Here at Tower Systems we make, sell and support POS software. We are a local company doing this for local retailers.

Take your time. Ask questions. Do your research. You being satisfied matters and that is why we say look into anything that feels like uneasy, like the term epos if it is not a term that is common to you.

We serve more than 3,500 small business retailers and everyday we are grateful for their support.

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Free workshop: taking your retail business online

August 11, 2020

1 Min read

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For any small business specialty retailer.

Wednesday August 12 @ 10:30am.

We make awesome specialty POS software for speciality retailers.

We make awesome Shopify and Magento 2 websites connected to our POS software.

Join us Wednesday August 12 @ 10:30am AEST for a free live and interactive and secure Zoom workshop on taking your business online.

We will share insights, advice and experience from websites we run for our own shops and sites we have created for others.

We will talk design, smart text, SEO, SEM and other buzzwords, but we won’t use buzzwords. This will be a plain English workshop. We will be honest about the hungry beast that is a website.

The workshop is free. Just turn up. Click on this link:

https://zoom.us/j/92448828358?pwd=cllQSWFaRitJSkQwSUNYYy9ZTks1dz09
Meeting ID: 924 4882 8358 Passcode: 196319
Wednesday August 12 @ 10:30am AEST.

Or, talk with one of our sales people: please call 1300 662 957 or email sales@towersystems.com.au.

They can also show you websites connected to our POS software.

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Specialty retail POS software for specialty retailers

August 10, 2020

2 Min read

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Our specialty POS software offers many specialty retail benefits for specialty small business retailers, including:

Colour, size and style: Easily track sales at a granular level.
Club pricing: Helps you attract community group members.
Repairs: Easily track & manage repairs & communicate with customers.
Sell by weight. Sell by fractions. Yes, this software is integrated with scales.
Smart loyalty. While you can use points, we also have something better. In fact, the software offers multiple loyalty options for flexible and engaging loyalty with shoppers.
BOGO: Increase sales with buy this and get that bundling.
Age checking. Giving you the operational structured protection to ensure your front line people are guided to trade within the rules.
Chemical risk notification by products.
Product care information. This is where you can personalise advice to products and thereby better serve your customers, and differentiate your retail business.
Local location product use information.
Warranty: Track details and leverage this for customer service.
Bring them back: Target market for birthdays, anniversaries and more.
Sell anywhere: Using our Retailer Roam^TM sell anywhere app.
Sell anytime: With our Shopify / Magento / Woo integrations.
Image flowing to online websites – flowing from the POS software.
Special orders: Easily manage special customer orders.
Jeweller specific product labels.
Outdoor, weatherproof, product labels.
The ability to design your own product labels.
The ability to design your own receipts.
Awesome loyalty: Guide one-time and regular shoppers to spend more.
Seasonal reordering: Easily reorder inventory based on seasonal sales.
Integrate direct with Xero.
Integrate direct with Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce, this includes the feeding of images of inventory items to these platforms for easy online selling.

This is not the complete list. Our POS software is packed with specialty tools through which indie small business retailers can differentiate and deliver more useful outcomes to the business, those who work in the business and to customers of the business.

Our goal is to empower small business retailers with tools that encourage and nurture, tools that are at the core of the business, appreciated, loved and respected. Those are our goals for our POS software and the services we offer our specialty retail customers.

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Click & collect easy for small business retailers with Shopify connected POS software

August 9, 2020

2 Min read

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Click & collect is the buzzword retailers are talking about and have been talking about for several years. Too often, the talk is ignorant.

What is click & collect? It is when a shopper makes a purchase online and they travel to a store and collect the item. The online purchase is the click and the in-store pickup is the collect.

Click & collect is fundamental in any retail business today as it enhances the shopper experience and shopper efficiency. It also enables retail businesses to better manage time and resources in-store.

\Also, in 2020, being the year that it is, click & collect makes for safe retail, contactless retail.

In a click & collect scenario, the shopper chooses what they want online, browsing store inventory and making their selection. They pay on line, too. The goods are gathered together and set up ready for the shopper to collect in-store or even through curbside collection arrangement, meaning they might not even have to leave their vehicle. This is the ultimate click & collect situation, the ultimate convenient shopping experience.

Click & collect is something we have offered in our small business POS software for years, thanks to our integrations with Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce. We have helped many retailers bring this experience alive in their single shop situations as well as their multiple shop situations, where shoppers purchase online and can select, if they wish, the location from where they make the collection.

Click & collect is fundamental in retail today, it is a core service, a core consumer expectation and core to the revenue model of many retail businesses. It can be easily managed from the online purchase through to the back end store management.

Tower Systems is pleased to serve small business retailers in the click & collect space, pleased to help these businesses offer this useful and beneficial service as these businesses trade in evolving and unique retail circumstances.

Click & collect has come into its own in 2020 through the greater need for contactless retail. Making it accessible to and understood by small business retailers has been another part of the Tower Systems small business focussed mission, where we help small business retailers more effectively compete with big business.

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Sleepy Saturday feels

August 8, 2020

1 Min read

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Busy day on the POS software help desk

August 7, 2020

1 Min read

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We had extra people working on our POS software help desk today. It’s a crazy busy time for us, in a good way, as small business retailers are working on their businesses. Add to this plenty of new customers joining our POS software user community and people going live with new websites from us … it makes us busy. So, to manage this we added to our usual Saturday team and it paid off.

We are greatful to our help desk team members who worked today their service was appreciated by our customers and by the rest of the Tower Systems team.

Even on the middle of stage 4 lockdown in Melbourne, our service of small business retailers continued, unimpeded. We are glad to have our customers.

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Hiring for the POS software help desk

August 7, 2020

2 Min read

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We are adding another role, a new role, to our POS software help desk, the second net addition in the last month. This is necessary given a solid trajectory of new rooftops in our POS software user community.

We are looking for someone with small business retail experience as understanding the needs of our customers from their perspective is helpful. Excellent communication, a knowledge of tech, including software, and a desire to genuinely help are also key attributes we are looking for.

Serving only small business retailers, personal service matters. We will be looking particularly at candidates who can demonstrate a desire in this area.

We offer excellent training and support for this new role, a full time role, in our Melbourne based business.

If you know someone interested, please have them email me at mark@towersystems.com.au asap.

We get that there is a lot of challenging news out there right now thanks to corona and the mess than is 2020. Here at Tower Systems we serve a diverse pool of specialty retail businesses and this diversity has been key in enabling us to stay open and to add to our customer community.

With the current situation in Victoria, we would on-board the new hire remotely and provide comprehensive training through our considerable remote infrastructure. We may supplement this with some time in the office, occasionally.

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Newsagency retail sales benchmark study results

August 7, 2020

4 Min read

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Tower Systems has completed another in its series of newsagency retail sales benchmark studies. We have been doing these quarterly for more than 15 years, serving newsagents, their suppliers and others.

We gather the data, collate it, analyse it and share the results widely, in pursuit of a stronger and healthier newsagency channel.

It is a free process for all involved, transparent, too.

This study, like all we have undertaken, reveals trends, from which we and newsagents can learn. Here it is…

The results of the June 2020 quarter newsagency retail sales benchmark show the extent to which COVID-19 is impacting businesses.

There are winners and losers.

The winners are regional and high street retailers.
The losers are shipping centre based retailers.

Looking at comprehensive retail sales data from 137 newsagencies for April – June 2020 compared to April – June 2019, the results underscore the value of the retail newsagency channel to local communities. This is a same-store comparison, making the results meaningful. FYI, I removed stores that were closed for any time in the reporting periods.

Data include a mix of rooftops from several brands. The benchmark includes data from businesses using the Tower newsagency software and several who are not.

Given the extraordinary gap in performance, I share the results separately, because reporting them as one dataset does not make sense.

Shopping centre based retail newsagencies.

Transaction count change: down 42%.
Revenue change: down 36%.
Basket size change: up 11%.
Newspaper unit sales: down 15%.
Magazine unit sales: down 21%.
Cards revenue: down 27%.
Stationery revenue: down 11%.
Gift revenue: down 45%.
Toy revenue: down 42%.
Puzzle revenue: up 5%. A quarter of reporting businesses sell puzzles.
Instant lottery revenue: up 9%. Half reporting businesses have lotteries.
Lottery revenue: down 5%.

A note about shopping centre data. The dataset in small, just under 10% of respondents. However, the gap between respondents is small.

High street newsagencies.

Transaction count change: down 5%.
Revenue change: up 27%.
Basket size change: up 20%.
Newspaper unit sales: down 5%. early din, there was a jump, which has disappeared.
Magazine unit sales: up 5%.
Cards revenue: up 7%. There are pockets of success – female birthday and thank you cards, in particular.
Stationery revenue: up 13%. Homeschooling and home office, of course.
Gift revenue: up 25%. Some categories are down while others, like nesting products, are in triple-digit growth.
Toy revenue: up 13%.
Puzzle revenue: up 150%. Less than half reporting businesses sell puzzles.
Instant lottery revenue: up 16%. Just over half reporting businesses have lotteries.
Lottery revenue: up 4%.

A note about this high street data: it includes regional and rural as well as suburban high street. The performance of regional and rural is considerably better than suburban high street for the most part. How much, you ask? Around 33% better is my response.

Embarrassed.

Plenty of regional and high street newsagents are embarrassed to be reporting such good numbers. Their growth while other businesses nearby are struggling makes them not want to be too open about their success. Even within the newsagency channel there are those in growth who do not want to talk about it with newsagents who are way down.

A moving feast.

Looking at early July data, I’d note that it would be wrong to lock the April – June results into a view for the long term. We are certainly in a period of significant change. The next quarter results could be different again.

What have we learned from the last 3 and 6 months?

Shopping local has been embraced.
The high street feels safer than a shopping mall.
Newsagencies are trusted and appreciated businesses.
Our channel is essential.
A newsagency is a good business to own overall.

While we have learned more, this list is my key points.

Finally, we are grateful to all newsagents who shared their data for inclusion in this study.

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What’s working in small business local retail through the second lockdown in Victoria?

August 6, 2020

2 Min read

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We are grateful to see sales data from a range of different Victorian retail businesses using our POS software. Here are trends from the latest Victorian lockdown:

Relaxing products. The jigsaw surge from March and April is back but in an expanded form – adult colouring, art and craft, journaling, cross-stitch, knitting, games and art. Smart retailers are selling these items as well as offering customers opportunities to connect with others doing this.
Nesting. This category is surging not only in Victoria but nationally. Nesting includes candles, diffusers, essential oils, rugs, cushions, homewares, pets, cooking and related.
Tactile products. We have seen a surge in cuddleable (not a word I know but it best describes it) products. This segment includes plush and other soft toys, pets, rugs, blankets, pillows and similar. With touching and hugging discouraged, it stands to reason that people seek out alternatives.
Easy shopping. We have seen retailers gain sales by making shopping easier through packaging items often bought together and having these placed front of store and at the counter.
Postable gifts. People are loving that they can easily send a gift to people they are unable to see.
Working from home. For some, this is now a permanent arrangement. Many retail channels have offers they can make to those working from home and businesses with employees working from home. The opportunities are usually broader than retailers think.
Contactless retail. Having the EFTPOS machine shopper facing and situated for easy tap and having in place arrangements for the lowest cost possible to the business for EFTPOS.
Online. Having an online offer matters. While people like the safety of having goods shipped, they also like click and collect and they like to use the website to ensure you have something in stock before they visit the shop.
Online events. More retailers are hosting events to show off new products and offer education – Zoom, Facebook live and similar events. Unboxings, educating on new products meet the maker and more.
Christmas has started early. Yes, we are seeing Christmas purchases already in businesses that are offering Christmas stock.

While the pandemic has disrupted business, in that disruption are opportunities. The Victorian situation is a reminder that disruption is not temporary. We think history will show that winners will be those businesses that adapted early and were able to finesse their offering and processes as the market demanded.

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