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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Small business retail advice: Unique Selling Proposition

December 14, 2020
2 Min read
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We work with more than 3,500 small business retailers in our POS software retail community. We are retailers ourselves.

One thing we know to be true – being unique matters. It gives people a reason to consider your business, to shop with you.

Today, we share updated advice on the importance of being unique in any retail business, but especially in local small business retail.

In his 1960 book, Reality in Advertising, Rosser Reeves, a respected US advertising executive, introduced the world to the concept of the Unique Selling Proposition, USP for short.

Reeves defined USP in an advertising context:

  1. Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer: buy this product and you will get this benefit.
  2. The proposition must be one that the competition either cannot or does not offer.
  3. The proposition must be so strong that it changes consumer behaviour.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the concept of a unique selling proposition evolved from being essential to advertising to being essential in business. Finding your business USP was considered mission critical to businesses, retailers especially. Businesses drifted however and forgot about the importance of a USP.

Jack Trout told us just a few years ago that it was as relevant today. In 2000, he said that a Unique Selling Proposition was mission critical in business in his aptly titled book Differentiate or Die.

Differentiate of Die. There is no doubt about the call to action in the title, no doubt about the consequences of inaction.

You reflect the uniqueness of your business in 2020 through your inventory mix, shop floor storytelling, your online presence, your social media presence, and, how you reflect your own intellectual property, your own knowledge with and through what you sell. Indeed, you are the key, in many retail businesses, you are the USP.

A good USP will not require an advertising campaign to communicate. It will become obvious through the decisions you make and the actions that follow.

By living the USP in every facet of the business you soon become seen as unique by shoppers and this can drive excellent word of mouth and success for the business.

So, what us your USP and how is it reflected in your business in-store, online, on socials and elsewhere?

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Small business retail advice: handling community group donation requests

December 11, 2020
5 Min read
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This article is another in our series of advice for small business retailers. The advice comes from ur experiences helping small business retailers with POS software and from years of running our own shops, places where we learn retail ourselves from inside out.

Advice for small business retailers on dealing with donation requests from local charities and community groups.

Requests from schools, charities and other community for donations can be a challenge for any size business. If you do not take a structured approach to this you will find yourself giving away plenty for little or no return.

Requests are often loaded with guilt.  People can be passive aggressive in their approach. Often, people requesting help leverage pester power. It can be hard to say no. There are too many stories of retailers giving a gift as a prize, receiving the Thank You poster and achieving no benefit for the business.

Our advice is to manage your philanthropy as you would any business activity.

THE PRIZE / GIFT

Decide the amount in cash or product value or both that you are prepared to donate in a full year, calendar year or financial year.

Our recommendation is you give away cash, but in the form of a voucher to spend in your business. This ensures that value of the gift or prize is greater than the cost of it to your business.

The best mechanism for giving away cash or an amount to spend in-store is to do it  by way of a gift voucher. Use your software to manage this as any manual approach is dangerous and time-consuming.

YOUR PITCH, NOT THEIRS

Get on the front foot and write to local community groups outlining that you budget a year in advance. Seek their submissions. With this advice sheet we have included the text of a suggested letter. Please read the letter as it outlines the approach we suggest and why. It is important you communicate this with all community groups.

On the page after the letter is a suggested notice for use in-store when you are asked for donations.

HOW TO PICK GROUPS TO SUPPORT

Focus on community groups that support you. That is, groups with members who support you. The more they support you the better you are able to support the community.

Be prepared to ask where people shop for the items you sell in your business. Ask if they will change in return for your support.

Asking these questions underscores to you the importance of approaching the decision as a business decision.

Be thoughtful and deliberate. Support the groups that support you. This is important as it helps you stay within a budget.

LET YOUR SHOPPERS CHOOSE

If you run discount vouchers and if customers say they don’t want the voucher, invite them to contribute the voucher to a local group – one of three you setup for in the business. Every month, two months or three months, tote up the vouchers and give the group a parentage of the total voucher value ‘voted’ for them.

This idea could be in addition to any giving program you run in the business. It offers a daily reminder of your commitment to local giving.

Grill’d burgers for years ran a program kind of like this where each shopper is given a bottle cap, which they place in a tub to vote on a group to receive a cash donation for the month. The process of groups submitting to be considered is onerous.

REWARD ENGAGEMENT

In addition to any direct gift, consider an offer whereby anyone who is a member of the group who shops with you accrues an amount you donate to the group. You could manage this through your software. It could be you offer a discount to the shopper as well as accruing a value for the group.

This type of program could also be in addition to your core giving program as the value here is driven by sales – hopefully, incremental sales.

EDUCATE GROUPS ABOUT GOOD ENGAGEMENT

Here are things groups you support can do to help your business. You should ask them to do these things:

  1. Tell members to buy from you.
  2. Write about your business on their Facebook page.
  3. Distribute flyers of your offers.
  4. Have you speak at a meeting.

WRITE ABOUT YOUR ENGAGEMENT

Once you have a decision on which groups you will support, write about this in your newsletter and on Facebook. Not just once but multiple times. Invite them to provide you with content to publish too. Talk about their good works.

Ask them to write about you too.

Your giving must serve your heart and serve your business. Going about it in a structured way will ensure you meet your objectives.

Here is suggested text for a notice about giving by the business:

OUR POLICY ON HANDLING COMMUNITY GROUP DONATIONS.

We receive requests to support local community groups and charities regularly. As a small family business with loans, rent, wages and other costs, we cannot say yes to everyone. We wish we could but we cannot.

To help us better connect with and serve the groups we do support, we now decide at the start of the financial year the groups we will support over the next year. The selection process is based on written submissions from groups.

Our decision to select the groups we support at the start of the year means we cannot take on additional donation requests through the year.

We hope you understand and respect this.

Please consider applying in advance of the start of the next financial year.

But all is not lost…

If your group can bring in new customers to our business to purchase items they want we may have another way we can help. Ask us for details.

Thank you and we wish you all the best in your community group.

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Small business retail advice: how to take on a local competition

December 10, 2020
3 Min read
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This article is another in our series of small business retail management advice. It comes from a deep well of experience helping small business retailers, local retailers, as well as our own experience running successful retail businesses.

How to take on a local competitor with care and respect.

If you want to grow your retail business it is likely that at some point in time you will need to take on a local competitor. By take on, we mean compete with, head-on, in a category or on a whole of store basis.

While it can sound cold-hearted suggesting you take on a local business colleague, it is survival of the fittest in the world and, especially, in business. Better you than them.

The time you might consider taking on a competitor could be when you are looking at taking on a new product category, something sold in another business nearby. Such a move could likely be seen as an attack on the other business – hence the need for careful planning and management … BEFORE you make the move.

Here is advice on how to approach taking on a local competitor.

  1. Ensure there is a need in your business or the community for you to move against a local competitor. The need could be in your business – the need for more traffic and / or revenue. The need could be in the community for better products because the competitor is doing a bad job or overcharges. Ensure you know what the need is and that it is enough to fuel your commitment for what is ahead.
  2. Make sure that the new product category fits with your business and how you and your customers see your business.
    1. The move must make sense in terms of what you sell and what you are known for.
    2. The move must have a story backing it for you and your customers to believe in the move.
  1. Thoroughly assess risks you and others working with you see.
    1. How the competitor and / or community might react publicly.
    2. How the competitor and / or community might react privately.
    3. What the competitor might invest to fight.
    4. Whether they can take on what you plan to stock and directly compete.
    5. How people might perceive you taking on a local business.
    6. To you and your health – competing takes stamina.
    7. Do you have sufficient resources for a long-term plan?
    8. What if the competitor closes? Are you ready to deal with that?
  2. What will be your Unique Selling Proposition, what will separate your offer apart from the competitor(s)?
    1. You must have a genuinely unique proposition: range (deep into a niche for example), quality, brands, price, customer service or a combination of these.
    2. The differentiating proposition must be obvious and valuable to local shoppers for it is this that will justify you taking on a competitor.
  1. DO IT BETTER. On all fronts. This is the most important factor of taking on a business.
    1. You must do it better, from the outset.
    2. Better products, better brands, better displays, better service, better marketing. Price does not have to be a factor if you are better in all other areas.

Taking on a competitor by introducing new products or product categories in your business can be tough anywhere. The goal of our advice is to have you plan for the move for good planning is a key factor in success.

We often see businesses take on a competitor without thought and eventually retreat having lost money. Avoid retreating by taking time to research and plan.

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Small business retail advice: how to manage an employee theft situation

December 9, 2020
5 Min read
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This article is another in our series of advice for small business retailers. It comes from our experience running a POS software company that serves small business retailers and from running our own retail shops.

How to deal with an employee theft situation in small business retail

Discovering theft by an employee can be debilitating and destabilising. To help you through this, we provide here our advice on what to do once you discover employee theft. The goal is to offer straightforward steps to help you get through as it is on the other side of this where you can find the opportunity to move on from the feeling of violation that often accompanies employee theft in small business.

  1. Be sure of the facts, gather the evidence. Evidence could include, video footage of cash being take from the business, business records being modified to cover tracks, stock being stolen and more. Evidence does not include gossip, feelings and opinions. Without evidence you have nothing to proceed with.
  2. Once you have all available evidence and if this clearly implicates one or more employee, quickly work out what you want.
    1. If you involve the police, they and, subsequently, the courts, will control the process including getting your money or goods back, an apology and more.
    2. If you don’t involve them, think about if you want the money or goods back, an apology, the person to stop working for you without negative impact on you – or a mixture of these.
    3. Check your insurance policy. Be sure you understand what you might be able to claim and in what circumstances. For example, your policy may require a police report. This could determine your next steps. If you are not sure what your insurance policy says, call the insurance company for advice. Knowing your insurance situation early is vital.
  3. If the person committing the crime is a minor:
    1. Advise their parents or guardian by phone. Invite them to the shop or an independent location to see what you have. Have someone else there with you, as an observer. This meeting needs to happen quickly.
    2. Present the evidence.
    3. Listen for their response.
    4. If they (their parents) ask what you want, be clear.
    5. If agreement is reached, put it in writing there and then and all involved sign it, so there is clear understanding.
    6. If agreement is not reached you need to decide your next steps and engage them with haste.
    7. A return of the money, likely by the parents, should be in a lump sum, immediately. I have seen a parent pay $22,000 where a uni student studying psychology stole and out their career at risk by being caught. I have seen another situation where a 75-year-old mum repaid the $12,000 stolen by her adult daughter so the daughter did not have to tell her husband about her gambling problem.
  4. If the person committing the crime is not a minor:
    1. Get an opportunity to speak with them face to face, ideally with another person there as a witness.
    2. Tell them you have evidence of them stealing from the business.
    3. Ask if they would like to see it. If they say no, ask what they propose.
    4. If they do want to see the evidence, show it and ask what they propose.
    5. If there is an offer of a full refund, an immediate resignation and never entering the business again it could be a good practical outcome. The challenge is you may not know the value of what has been stolen. Experience indicates that someone stealing cash will understate the amount considerably. I was involved in one case where they said they stole $10,000. The irrefutable evidence showed it was $75,000.
    6. Get any agreement in writing. If there is an offer to repay, our advice is to only accept an immediate lump sum. If the proposal is payment of, say, more than $10,000 over time, involve the police.
    7. If the person denies any wrongdoing, go to the police immediately.
  5. If you have suspicions and do not have the evidence, put in place opportunities to gather the evidence without entrapping the target, without setting them up. I have seen situations where local police have provided advice and support for this. It could be worth asking them if you are in a regional or rural situation.

If you are nervous about meeting the person or their family, write down what you plan to say. Keep it short. To the facts. No emotion. Having a script prepared can be useful even if you do not read it.

If there is any risk of violence, do not have a meeting. Go straight to the police.

Time is of the essence here. The longer you know about the situation and the longer you do not act the less useful the outcome is likely to be.

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Advice for small business retailers on selling higher priced items

December 8, 2020
2 Min read
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This article is another in our series of advice for small business retailers. While we are a POS software company, we are retailers too. Often, we are asked for advice from retailer colleagues. Here is an example of advice we provide:

That won’t sell in my shop, it is too expensive for my customers.

Before you say something will not sell because it is too expensive, consider the actions you can take that could make the product work.

It could be that you are a factor in something not selling as in your placement, visual  merchandising, business marketing and more you set the price expectation.

When you think something will not sell because it is expensive, consider that it might sell in another business. What does that business look like? Is there an opportunity for you to connect with shoppers who might shop at that business?

Here is how you influence higher price acceptable of an item or group of items in your business.

  1. Display to the target shopper. Treat the product as special, something of quality, away from the usual cheaper products on the shelves. Respect the higher price, the higher quality.
  2. Do not place the higher price items with cheap products. Location is everything. Set aside a location that reflects the difference of these products.
  3. Price / product signs. Make them. Handwritten. Explain the product. Reflect quality.
  4. Use lighting, or darkness, to draw attention.
  5. Know the product. It is more expensive for a reason – quality, source location, rarity. Know the reason and ensure all staff can speak to it.
  6. Don’t be scared of the price.
  7. Remember you are not your customer.
  8. Know if if you don’t sell this someone else nearby might or at least products in the same price bracket. Beat them.
  9. Treat the higher priced product with respect, through your actions show that the price is worth it.

Here is why you would do this: new traffic plain and simple.

Every new item that appeals beyond the usual, the average, for your business is an opportunity to attract a new shopper.

Attracting new shoppers is, in our view, the single most important business activity for you every day.

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Advice for small business retailers on running a pop-up shop

December 7, 2020
4 Min read
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As part of our small business retail management advice series, in this article we offer suggestions on what to consider about a pop-up shop opportunity.

While we are a POS software company, we are retailers too. We are often asked by small business retailers to comment on opportunities, like pop-up shops.

Definition: a pop-up shop is a temporary shop, one that is open for a limited period of time, usually around a month, rarely more than three months.

WHY?!

Like any business decision, a decision to open a pop-up retail location needs to be based on good research and the business itself needs to have a purpose. So, before you begin, think about why.

Here are some reasons to do a pop-up shop:

  1. To test new product categories.
  2. To supplement your income.
  3. To help quit slow moving stock.
  4. To enhance your retail experience.
  5. To experiment with a plan b where you might land if you close your main shop.
  6. To engage in targeted, temporary, competition.
  7. To compete with yourself.

LOCATION.

With a pop-up shop you don’t have time to find your customers. The location needs to already have good traffic passing daily, traffic you can easily leverage. Even more so than in fixed-location retail, location is critical.

The best locations are shops that have good passing traffic that is of interest to you and that have been vacant for a while where a landlord might be happy with something rather than nothing.

OCCUPANCY COST.

Negotiate the lowest rent cost possible. Some landlords see pop-up offers as a reason to charge a premium. Only sign up for a price you are 100% happy with. If it is expensive and does not work financially, don’t sign hoping it works out, because in retail it rarely does work out better. In a pop-up business you have less time to see if it works out. Also, preferably, no contingency deposit.

LABOUR COST.

Staff the business with a lean roster. This shop is about selling. that means, products placed for a price proposition rather than beautiful displays that take time to maintain. Every staff member is there to sell and maximise revenue from every shopper visit. There is no room in the roster for fat.

FIXTURES AND FITTINGS.

Don’t spend a cent on fixtures and fittings. That needs to be your starting position. It’s a pop-up shop. People expect it to be  efficient, cost-effective. Using tables and boxes adds to the feel of the shop feeling low-cost and that can help drive sales. Suppliers can be a good source for loaned fixtures.

INVENTORY.

Ask suppliers to offer consignment stock or special clearance deals they’d like to move fast. Go for items that can be sold out of a box, to make display and ranging easier. In-box displays of particularly cheap items can work very well.

PRICING MODEL.

Price to sell. This means being below usual retail. Price to understandable price points. For example, you might have a $10 table, a $20 table and so on. Consider bundling items into packs, which make price comparison difficult.

PROMOTION.

Don’t spend money on sign writing or marketing. Use social media and bargain websites and anywhere similar where you can list the store and its products.

Host an opening party. List this as a local event on Facebook.

MANAGEMENT MINDSET.

Your mindset in managing the pop-up shop needs to be different to a fixed-location retail situation. Pop-up shops are about low cost, low overheads, low prices. Be ready to do deals. Those working in the pop-up shop needs to be different to how they would be in the fixed-location retail business.

SPEED.

You need to move fast. From the moment you sign a lease or agreement, the clock is ticking. Ideally, you’d open within 24 hours and when you are done, closing and clearing out the shop is done in 24 hours or less. This is all about maximising the time for income-production.

TRACK PERFORMANCE.

Cultivate good data that can guide business decisions for your next moves.

Is a pop-up shop worth doing? Only you can determine that. We have seen plenty of pop-up shops work well for the retailers, contribute good GP, help move slow stock and help open to the owners category opportunities not previously considered.

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Shopify POS software solution for small business retailers

December 6, 2020
2 Min read
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Aussie POS software company Tower Systems is grateful to offer a Shopify POS software solution for small business retailers.

As a Shopify partner, the Tower Systems Shopify POS software solution it seamless between the in-store POS snd the online store, with one central dataset for inventory as well as for managing sales – in-store and online.

It’s a complete solution, a proven solution in stores across many different retail niches.

Developed in Australia and delivered first years ago and enhanced regularly since, the Shopify POS software solution is robust and first for purpose for gift shops, jewellers, bike shops, toy shops, newsagents, games shops, pet shops, garden centres and plenty more. This is a robust solution for a range of vertical market businesses.

The Shopify POS software solution from Tower Systems works beautifully both at the sales counter as well as  through the online shopper experience. Tower Systems is grateful to own retail businesses with strong online sales where this Shopify POS software solution has been tested by the business itself.

By walking in the shoes of our retailers we have been able to fine-tune the Shopify POS software solution to ensure it genuinely is a solution. We bring together both sides – the POS software side and all it manages for the retail business and the Shopify side, through beautiful websites that we develop to capture online sales. By building both for our small business retail customers we are able to deliver a wholistic Shopify POS software solution.

As one of the world’s most popular eCommerce platform, Shopify is the perfect tool for selling online. With a customisable template that can be edited with ease, and a powerful backend allowing monitoring of store data, Shopify is optimal for the growth of your business.

Through the Tower Systems Shopify POS software solution link, your business can sell online with very little additional effort. The website becomes a reflection of your physical store, allowing online sales with no change in everyday trading.

We are grateful too be able to help small business retailers transact online in a seamless and data safe way, with one data set, one place to manage critical business data. This ihas been brought about through our Shopify POS software solution, something that is Australian made, for Australian businesses.

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Small business retail management advice: how to stop your business data being useless

December 5, 2020
2 Min read
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Too often in small business retail, there is insufficient care for business data. Data is an asset and needs to be cared for as such. Disrespect data and data will not serve you.

This advice is for retailers, it is offered to encourage respect for data so that the business may benefit.

There is no doubt: poor business data = poor business decisions.

If you ever hope to sell your retail business, accurate business data is vital, it will determine the price you achieve for your business.

Don’t be one of those business owners who only cares about accurate business data when you decide to sell as that could be too late.

Here is all you need to do to ensure you have accurate business data.

  1. Ensure you have a good department and category structure. This helps ensure the reports are useful. By good we suggest no more than fifteen departments and no more than fifteen categories within each department.
  2. Arrive all stock into your POS software. The best way to do this is to receive and import into your software electronic invoices from suppliers. This is done in Invoice Arrivals.

The slower way is to manually enter invoices into your software item by item. This is done in Invoice Arrivals.

If you created an order using the software and this order subsequently arrives, you can receive the order – to save time.

  1. Scan all stock you sell at the point of sale. Resist excuses like items are too small or too big or it takes too long or it is impractical. All these excuses can be countered.
  2. Scan all stock you return to suppliers. Use the Returns facility.
  3. Scan all stock you write off. Use the Write-off Stock facility.

Very simple, right?

Accurate business data is up to you. Not your software company, not your suppliers.

Accurate business data is 100% up to you.

Once you have accurate data, track business performance. Use the accurate data to see trends in your business, to guide better quality business decisions.

It is easy to create accurate business data. The operational and financial benefits are extraordinary.

How Tower Systems can help. Through our personal training, help desk support and knowledge base articles we offer advice, guidance and support on creating more accurate business data.

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Ideal gift shop POS software for local gift shops

December 4, 2020
3 Min read
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More and more gift shops are finding our POS software ideal in serving their gift shop POS software needs. This is fit for purpose POS software, made especially for gift shops.

From a benefits perspective, here is some of what gift retailers tell us they like about this software:

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

Best of all, this gift shop POS software is ideal for retailers who want to differentiate their business from other retailers of gifts. This is software designed to help retailers differentiate on pricing, service, bundling and loyalty rewards. It is smart POS software that any local small business gift shop can use to pitch their differences compared to other gifts retailers.

Gift shops can rent this software easily for a few dollars a day. They can cancel at any time. There is no long term contract.

For a few dollars a day, gift shops get…

  1. Specialty Gift shop POS software developed in Australia.
  2. Software updates as we release them.
  3. Unlimited licences for your retail location. If you need an extra computer, there is no extra software cost.
  4. Shopify / Magento / Woo link. Easily sell online from your POS software.
  5. Xero link. Easing bookkeeping costs and streamlining accounting.
  6. Our OzBiz link – connect to MYOB and Quicken through OzBiz.
  7. Tyro link – safe, fast and easy EFTPOS link for streamlined sales.
  8. PC Eftpos link – easy EFTPOS processing for the major banks.
  9. Easy buy now pay later thanks to Zip Pay and Humm – that Boomers, Gen Y, Gen X and others are using more and more.
  10. Support – help desk access, unlimited training, updates and more.
  11. User documentation. Access to our searchable knowledge base.

With more than 3,500 local retailers in our community, we are grateful for customer recommendations that help drive our success.

If you are a gift retailer, consider Tower Systems. We’d love to talk with you.

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Loving the POS software update

December 3, 2020
1 Min read
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We released last week a POS software update last week with new facilities that extend the reach of what our POS software delivers.

The reaction has been terrific.

One of the benefits of enhancing the core technology on which our POS software is built is the ability to deliver more and more benefits to our 3,500+ small business retail customers.

We are grateful to all of ur customers who encourage us and participate in our beta program.

Thank you.

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Helping retailers sell bundled gift packs this Christmas

December 3, 2020
2 Min read
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Using our POS software it is easy for retailers to sell bundled gifts at Christmas time and any time of the year. Our POS software makes it easy to bundle multiple items together for single scan selling. This can be done in-store as well as online though a Shopify website or a Magento website.

Take this Christmas Beanie Boo pack:

This is a special pack of 8 Christmas Beanie Boo stock items bundled together with several special freebies thrown in, put together in a special pack with some Christmas cheer tissue and tinsel and delivered anywhere in Australia for $64.99.

Online, a bundle like this plays well in that with a couple of clicks, a Christmas gift for a child, niece, nephew, related family or the child of a friend can be handled. Shopping is easy and fast and the purchase is presented in a nice way ready for giving.

Better still, a bundle like this makes price comparison hard because of the various items in the pack and because of the freebies included, which while free, have value to the recipient.

Packs like this can change shopper perspective and this can help drive sales.

Using our POS software, local retailers can easily bundle items for in-store and online sales and through these cleverly differentiate their businesses.

Through our work with local retailers we provide advice on how to use the POS software to create the bundle and how, with one click, to have its details and image loaded onto a website for easy online sales.

In the bundled product space this is where online can be particularly helpful as this is where time poor shoppers shop, especially late at night. having an appealing mix in a bindle for easy purchase can drive terrific incremental business. Key is finding ways to add value to the bundle that help you to differentiate your offer from the offer of others.

As retailers ourselves, we bring to the conversation about using POS software in local retail to sell bundled gift packs real life experience and knowledge and through this to help retailers make the most of the opportunity. We willingly share our knowledge and experience to help retailers in our community to make more informed business decisions.

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POS software support – help for small business retailers

December 2, 2020
2 Min read
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POS software support can be hard to access in some retail business situations. It could be due to technical, language or other factors.

Here at Tower Systems, our goal is to make POS software support easy to access, genuinely helpful and cost effective for small business retailers.

Our POS software support team is professional, capable and friendly. We offer access through several languages, too, to make the support experience more useful for customers where English is not their first language.

The POS software support team at Tower Systems is all in-house. That is, the company does not outsource POS software support to a cheap labour destination, there is no call centre in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, China, the Phillipines or similar, no the Tower help desk team works for the company 100% and is staffed by full time professionals.

POS software support here at Tower Systems starts with listening as this leads to understanding. get that right and we are more likely to get the customer service experience right. This is at the heard of POS software support engagement that people love.

POS software support is accessible by phone, email, text message, Facebook, Twitter, online chat and more. It is live and available through the company 24/7 given the time zones our retail partners operate through and the needs of the various niche retail channels in which we serve.

In addition to the human based support, all Tower Systems customers have access to our knowledge base. This is a deep well of resources packed with advice on how to use the software. It can be searched through a natural language query and is accessible for our customers 24/7. This easy access to updated and peer-reviewed advice about how to use our POS software makes self serve access to support a dream.

We publish to our knowledge base advice and articles based on what people tell us they want to know. We have made sure that our knowledge base articles are structured in a way that serves the immediate needs of our customers, packing articles with step by step guides into using the POS software.

We take providing POS software support seriously and do our best to provide our customers with engagement to a level and accessibility that best serves their local retail business needs.

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How much does a POS system cost?

December 1, 2020
3 Min read
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How much does a POS system cost? This is a common question from local retailers considering POS software for their business. It is often the first question asked: how much is your POS software?

Let’s get to it. here at Tower Systems, our POS software can be rented. Rental provides access to the software, updates, 24/7 support and other valuable assistance.

You can rent our gift shop software for $99.00 a month.

You can rent our garden centre software for $185.00 a month.

You can rent our jeweller software for $185.00 a month.

You can rent our bike shop software for $185.00 a month.

You can rent our toy shop software for $155.00 a month.

You can rent our pet shop software for $155.00 a month.

You can rent our newsagency software for $185.00 a month.

You can rent our fishing and outdoor business software for $185.00 a month.

You can rent our firearms dealer software for $185.00 a month.

You can rent our farm supply and produce software for $199.00 a month.

You can rent our adult shop software for $155.00 a month.

These prices include GST.

For sure, you can purchase outright, or lease, too. rental, though is the most popular approach. There is no locked-in contract. You can cancel at any time and the next month;’s billing stops.

So, how much does a POS system cost? Probably not as much as you thought when you consider you get the software, software updates, support access as well as access to an extensive online documentation platform of hundreds of articles guiding you in ow to use the software.

Tower Systems does not provide software to all types of retail businesses. Our software varies marketplace by marketplace. Each version of the software is fine tuned to serve the needs of the retailers in that marketplace. This is why the price varies by marketplace, it reflects the complexity for each type of business.

How much does a POS system cost? In addition to the software, there is the hardware. Tower Systems can help with this as a supplier or through advice you can take to a local computer shop or a friend for alternative supply.

Our goal is to help you find the answer to the question of how much does a POS system cost and to do so in a way you are happy with.

Footnote: for billing purposes, at Tower Systems a month is each 30 days.

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Where to buy computer hardware for your retail business

November 30, 2020
3 Min read
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Buying computer hardware for a retail business can be daunting. There are plenty of people who will offer advice and plenty of sources for acquiring hardware for a retail business.

The hardware retail businesses need is specialty in nature. You can’t put in a regular computer. Likewise, you can’t hop on eBay and buy any barcode scanner you find.

No, you need to purchase hardware that is fit for purpose for your retail business, you need hardware that is designed to work with the specialty POS software you have chosen for your retail business.

Take your time, do your research and know that you get what you pay for. Go cheap and you most likely buy hardware for your retail business that is not ideal or may not last as long as quality hardware lasts.

Not all barcode scanners are the same.

Not all receipt printers are the same.

Not all cash drawers are the same.

Not all computers are the same.

With computer hardware, you get what you pay for.

Our advice is think about your shop and what you say to people who say to you that your prices for what you sell are too high. What response do you give them. Think about whether you give yourself that same response if you are looking to buy cheap hardware for your retail business.

We have seen people buy cheap scanners who need to replace them with better and more suited scanners.

We have seen people buy cheap printers for their business only to replace them with printers that actually work in their type of business.

Yes, there really is specialty hardware for specialty retail. It sometimes costs more, but it usually saves money in the long term.

We run an online shop offering computer hardware for retail businesses. It is a small sideline for us, something we got into in service of retail businesses trading on our POS software and looking for quality hardware they could trust, hardware that we ourselves back.

The computer hardware that we recommend to retail businesses is quality hardware, recommended as ideal for the customers we serve. It is hardware backed by good manufacturer warranties, hardware with which we are personally familiar.

Our advice to retail businesses looking to buy hardware, barcode scanners, receipt printers, cash drawers, customer displays and more is take your time, do your research, do not be driven by price, make sure that the hardware you are considering is right for the software you use in your business.

Take care and buy what is best for your business.

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Buyer beware: hidden costs can make POS software expensive

November 27, 2020
3 Min read
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That cheap POS system you might be considering m ay not be as cheap as you think by the time you add the four or five optional facilities that, with our Tower Systems POS software, are included in our everyday transparent price.

Too often right now we are seeing POS software offers, especially from businesses based outside of Australia, where the price quoted and the initial price signed for is not the price you pay foe what you want to do.

The pitch is appealing, hey start here for this price, sure it is cheap wbut it is a perfect place to start.

Soon, though, yonce you try and do what is core to your business, you need extra modules that cost more and, soon, you are paying more than the other software you decided against because it was too expensive. But, since you have invested time in your data, you don’t switch. Then, a year down the track, prices go up and there is something else that is an add-on cost and by then you are paying 50% more than the then price of the other POS software product you decided against because it was too expensive.

Buyer beware, take your time, get all the facts, ensure you understand the full cost, the total cost and the trajectory of the costs and then compare this across POS software packages.

Cheap POS software is not cheap. What may appear to be cheap POS software today will, for sure, be found to not be cheap at some point down the track. We hear this often.

We urge people to shop around, to look at other software, to compare functionality and to compare price. However, this has to be done based on the facts and not marketing spin. It has to be done thoroughly so that you as the customer are not let down. Only the facts matter.

This is why we say, don’t rush into a free trial because, that’s how they get you. They want you to become time and data invested and thereby less likely to actually look around what is genuinely best for your business.

Cheap POS software is like any cheap product, they have either cut corners, paid less for professional work than is the market rate or included less in the product. Its;s business 101. Sure, there is cheap POS software out there, it is not, in our experience, good for most retail.

Buyer beware. The hidden costs of POS software can make cheap POS software look expensive.

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Serial number tracking in POS software helps small business retailers better serve customers

November 26, 2020
2 Min read
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The POS software from Tower Systems offers serial number tracking of products sold. This is a powerful point of difference for the POS software as serial number tracking is not common in software.

Using the Tower Systems POS software, retailers can record the serial numbers of all items arriving in-store that have unique serial numbers. These can be tracked at the point of sale. They can also be tracked for warranty, servicing, valuation and insurance purposes. Stores can also record serial numbers only when they sell – when they record, at arrival or sale, is up to them.

The serial number tracking facilities in the POS software become valuable in almost any retail situation in which they are used.

Thera are some retail sectors where suppliers require the tracking of product serial numbers at the point of sale. There are some regulatory situations where tracking serial numbers is key. Doing this through the POS software brings certainty and consistency to retail businesses.

Tower Systems is proud to offer serial number tracking in its POS software. We are grateful to the many suppliers and retailers who have guided us on this over the years, keeping us on top of the needs of all stakeholders in this serial number tracking space.

Serial number tracking in our POS software has been available for many years. Sure, it has been enhanced over time as needs have evolved, but we first started offering it in software we sold close to 20 years ago. Of course, the software we sell today is completely different, made for today, for today’s needs.

Using the serial number tracking tools in our POS software, retailers can also maintain good records that are useful for themselves in their own management of their businesses.

From the moment stock arrives in the business we manage serial numbers, recording each serial number. alternatively, you can enter the serial number of the item when it is sold – the retail business decides on the appropriate time for them to manage the recording of a serial number. This is a local management decision they can make.

Tower Systems is grateful to serve more than 3,500 small business retailers across several niche retail channels – with specialty POS software offering facilities like serial number tracking covered here.

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Can your POS software handle different terms for different customers?

November 25, 2020
2 Min read
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We were asked the other day by a produce / farm business whether your POS software can handle different terms for different customers? Our answer is yes, using our produce business software retailers can offer customers different trading terms.

Using our produce business POS software, a business could have 3 different customers with each having their own trading terms. The extent to which you can set trading terms is set by the business, based on parameters in the software.

There is no requirement that all customers have the one consistent set of trading terms.

This is critical in the produce business / farm supply business space.

We are grateful to offer our retailers the opportunity for flexible trading terms using our POS software. In so many situations we see this and key, essential, necessary to safe and sound business management.

Serving in excess of 3,500 small business retailers in specialty retail channels, we have built into our locally developed and supported POS software facilities like this that enable flexible retail business management.

In the complex and demanding produce business space we find facilities like these to be key and differentiating for Tower Systems. We are able to serve our customers with solutions they love, thanks in part the the maturity of tools like these that we offer our customers.

We were so thrilled when we said yes, we can handle several customer account terms in our POS software for produce and farm supply businesses. The business folks we were answering were happy too. It is wonderful being able to serve niche and key business needs like these.

In rural and regional business situations we particularly find requirements for flexibility like this. It is interesting seeing how business owners leverage this flexibility in customer accounts management to drive business outcomes. Seeing first-hand how flexibility in the software plays for their business is a thrill, it encourages to help in more ways.

This is what POS software is all about, helping local small businesses compete, and through this to become more valuable for all who rely on the businesses.

Tower Systems serves retail businesses across more than 10 retail channels and each is specialty in nature, each encouraging more from the software, each offering wonderful learning opportunities for us and those we serve.

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