The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

Tagindependent retail

More newsagents switching to our Tower Systems newsagency software

November 28, 2025
4 Min read
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Okay, let’s address the elephant in the room: the traditional Australian newsagency model is being disrupted. Print media sales are declining, lottery purchases are migrating online, and the “old school” agency services are shrinking.

Yet, despite the doom and gloom headlines, plenty of local Aussie newsagency businesses are thriving.

We see it every day. We see it in the new businesses opening their doors, in established shops pivoting to new niches, and in the energy of new owners excited about the opportunity.

As the channel consolidates, smart business owners are realizing they need technology that does more than just scan barcodes. While there are currently eight software companies serving the channel, Tower Systems serves more newsagents than the other seven combined.

Why is the market voting with its feet? Here are 10 reasons newsagents tell us they made the switch to Tower:

1. Software That Actually Evolves Newsagents love our software because it doesn’t stand still. It is easy to use, but under the hood, it is incredibly advanced. We are the only vendor actively embedding AI tools to help you write product descriptions and manage data, ensuring your business stays ahead of the curve. No one else has what we have.

2. Reclaiming Your Time The most common feedback we get post-switch is: “I have my life back.” One newsagent recently reported saving 40 man-hours a month after switching to Tower. That is a full week of work saved, every single month.

3. Safety in Numbers Because we serve more newsagents than all our competitors combined, we have the resources to invest more in development and support. Our size provides stability and ensures we will be here for the long haul.

4. Lower Total Cost of Ownership  When you look at the cost over 3 to 5 years, newsagents who switch often find they pay less with Tower Systems thanks to our transparent pricing and lack of hidden module fees.

5. Human Training We don’t just sell you software and disappear. We offer extensive, human-led training opportunities to ensure you and your staff are confident using the system.

6. 24/7 Self-Paced Learning Need an answer at 10 PM? Tower newsagents have access to a vast library of training videos and knowledge base articles on our website, accessible anytime, from anywhere.

7. Real Business Partnership We provide more than just IT support; we provide business assistance. We help our customers unlock value by advising on retail strategy, helping them navigate the changing marketplace.

8. First to Compliance Tower Systems is consistently first to meet new newsagency industry standards. Whether it’s a change from a supplier or a new government regulation, we update our software proactively so you have peace of mind.

9. We Champion the Channel We give back. We have funded national TV commercials promoting newsagents, we produce free marketing collateral, and we actively support industry awards and events. We believe in the future of this channel.

10. Transparency Being the market leader makes us a target. Competitors often tell prospects that our software “can’t do” certain things. Newsagents who switch are often surprised to find those features not only exist but are better than what they had before. We welcome a function-by-function comparison any time.

The Verdict We are biased, but the numbers speak for themselves. As the newsagency channel changes, Tower Systems is working side-by-side with owners to enhance their businesses in pursuit of a bright future.

Don’t just take our word for it. Contact us today for a demonstration and let our software speak for itself.

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The right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business. Tower offers specialty retail business software made for local small business retailers. To see if we might help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today. 

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au. 

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How our POS software can help secondhand book shops

November 27, 2025
3 Min read
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The Unique Complexity of Selling Pre-Loved Goods (And How to Manage It)

The “circular economy” is booming. From high-end vintage clothing and antique jewellery to thrift stores (op shops) and consignment shops, selling pre-loved items has evolved from a niche hobby into a thriving, professional business sector.

Managing secondhand inventory is different from selling brand-new goods.

When you sell new items, you might have 50 units of the same SKU. When you sell secondhand, every single item is unique. It has a unique condition, a unique history, a unique cost price, and often, a unique acquisition story.

Trying to manage this complexity with a standard, “one-size-fits-all” POS system can lead to expensive mistakes and massive administrative headaches.

At Tower Systems, we understand that business is not a game. Every dollar you invest in unique inventory is done to achieve a return. To maximize that return, you need tight management and rigid processes.

That is why we have spent years developing specific tools within our POS software tailored to the secondhand market. The software we have in this space works well for anyone selling secondhand books, whether that’s the whole business or part of the business. In our POS software we have tools that help with managing the sale of secondhand books.

How We Handle the “Secondhand Difference”

Our software is designed to navigate the specific compliance, reporting, and tracking needs of secondhand retailers. Whether you run an Antique Shop, Pawn Shop, Jewellery Store, or Consignment Business, here is how we help you professionalize your operations:

  • Strict “Inwards” Tracking: In the secondhand game, who you bought the item from is just as important as who you sell it to. Our software records the details of the seller/customer you purchased the item from, which is a key part of record-keeping and police compliance in many jurisdictions.

  • Lifecycle Tracking: We allow you to meticulously track every unique item from the moment of purchase/intake through to the final sale. This ensures data integrity and simplifies your stocktakes.

  • Valuation Tools: Trust is the currency of the secondhand market. Our software allows you to generate professional valuation certificates (available in applicable versions), helping you build confidence with your buyers.

  • Repairs Management: Pre-loved items often need a little love before they can be sold. We track parts, labor, and repair history, ensuring you know exactly how much money you have poured into an item before you set the sell price.

  • Collector Management: Secondhand shoppers are often hunters. Our customer management tools let you tag customers by interest—whether they collect Victorian brooches or 90s denim—so you can market specifically to them when new stock arrives.

See It in Action

The best way to understand if our software handles the complexities of your specific shop is to see it.

We invite you to organize a personal demonstration. But don’t just watch—participate. Bring your specific needs. Bring your questions about margin schemes or acquisition recording. Ask us to show you exactly how we handle the problems that drive you crazy.

There is no pressure. Take your time. We want you to be sure that Tower Systems is the right partner to help you streamline your business and protect your margins.

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The right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business. Tower offers specialty retail business software made for local small business retailers. To see if we might help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today. 

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au. 

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Small Business Retailers – See for Yourself: Why We Put Everything on YouTube

November 26, 2025
3 Min read
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Buying software for your local small business or specialty retail business is one of the important decisions you will make. The websites all look the same. The sales pitches all sound the same. Everyone promises to save you time and make you money.

But how do you know what the software actually looks like before you sign on the dotted line?

At Tower Systems, we believe in radical transparency. We don’t hide our software behind a “Request a Demo” wall or slick, over-produced marketing trailers that show zero actual functionality.

We put it all out there.

If you head over to the Tower Systems YouTube Channel, you will find hundreds of videos that show exactly how our software works and how we support it, warts and all. No fancy editing. No Hollywood production. All made in house by us tech geeks who love helping small business retailers.

You can see it without telling us who you are. This is what we mean by radical transparency.

Here is what you will find (and what you won’t)

1. Full, Uncut Demonstrations We don’t just show you the “cool” bits. We have full-length demonstration videos for specific industries. whether you run a Garden Centre, a Jeweller, a Newsagency, a Bike Shop, or a Pet Store, you can watch a deep-dive video that shows how we handle the messy, complicated parts of your specific retail niche.

2. Real Training Advice You will see videos featuring our expert trainers, like Michael, walking through real-world scenarios. We recently uploaded a series on our Xero integration, showing exactly how to automate your bookkeeping. No fluff, just “click here, do this, save time.”

3. The New Stuff (AI and Automation) We are constantly updating our software, and we prove it with video. Check out our recent videos on AI tools built right into the POS. We show you how to use artificial intelligence to write product descriptions, import invoices from suppliers like Asmodee or Hunter Leisure, and clean up your data.

4. Zero “Paid Influencers” You won’t find paid actors pretending to be shop owners. You will find Mark (our owner) and our team discussing the real challenges of local retail. We talk about profit, efficiency, and the reality of running a shop in Australia.

Why we do it

We want you to be an educated buyer. We want you to see the buttons, see the layout, and see the workflow before you talk to us.

If you like what you see, great, let’s have a chat. If you watch a video and think, “That’s not for me,” that’s fine too! You have saved yourself a sales call.

So, if you are tired of guessing what a POS system actually does, stop reading and start watching.

Click here to visit the Tower Systems YouTube Channel.

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The right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business. Tower offers specialty retail business software made for local small business retailers. To see if we might help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today. 

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au. 

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What’s the best website platform for a small retail business Wix, Shopify, Woo Commerce or Squarespace?

November 25, 2025
6 Min read
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We are often asked this question by small business retailers: What’s the best website platform for a small retail business Wix, Shopify, Woo Commerce or Squarespace?

We have years of experience developing websites for small business retailers using Shopify, Magento, Big Commerce and WooCommerce. The advice we provide in this article is based on our years of experience serving thousands of small business retailers.

The best e-commerce platform for your business will depend on your technical experience, your budget, your position in your online journey and the goals you have for your website. Each of these platforms offers different benefits. from the outset, though, in our experience, Shopify is the best solution for easy of use, ease of change without technical skills, the ability to scale and ease of winning shoppers from the already considerable Shopify customer ecosystem.

Wix offers easy drag and drop, which can see like a big time saver for the novice. In reality, Wix websites can often become messy, overloaded. It can be a good platform to figure out what you want but our experience is that it’s not ideal once you are up and running and building your online business. We think it’s unlikely you’ll find hero websites for small business retailers based on Wix. If you need a site up in an hour and want total freedom to drag things around the screen, Wix could be a good choice today.

WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress. It’s made for use by technically skilled people. You do the work, and once you;’ve done that you will tend to have to do more work. This tech work can distract you from running your retail business. Woo is terrifically flexible, which comes as a labour cost for you or for the web developer you hire. If you already have a WordPress site and want to avoid monthly subscription fees, this offers the most freedom, provided you have the technical skills and truckloads of time to manage it.

Squarespace is offers beautiful looking websites with an easy to use back end for adjustment. It’s heavily image-focused. You can’t “break” a Squarespace site as easily as a Wix site because the editor forces you to stay within a grid. Squarspace lacks some of the finesse of Shopiufy for businesses that need more, especially when it comes to shipping flexibility. fI selling “the vibe” is as important as selling the product, Squarespace might be your answer.

Shopify is the best solution for local small business retailers in our experience. Shopify themes make it easy for you to change the look and feel of your website without hiring a web developer. Shopify integrates with terrific local shipping options (Sendle, My Post Business etc) and Shopify validates Australian addresses incredibly well at checkout, which saves you money on “return to sender” errors. It is the industry standard for a reason. If your goal is to grow, Shopify handles the “boring” stuff (hosting, security, checkout compliance) better than anyone in our experience.

We have years of experience using Shopify ourselves – when we offer advice to retailers on e-commerce, it comes from a place of personal experience as well as extensive technical experience and years building Shopify websites for so many different retailers.

Now, we’re not saying Wix, Squarespace and WooCommerce are bad. What you choose for your business needs to be what you want/need.

What we are saying is do your research – choose the ecommerce platform that serves your technical skills, budget, business plans and how you see your business living online.

Low cost websites may be low cost because of the work you have to do to manage and modify them.

Fast to setup websites may be fast because they don’t go as deep within your business.

Key to success is you knowing what it is that you want / need for yourself and for your business. Saying you want a website is not enough. What do you want from it?

Take your time. Figure out what you need, want and can afford. Look at examples of websites for your type of business. Consider web developers local to you, people who understand your business, people you can speak with. Ask why they recommend what they recommend.

We recommend Shopify for speed to launch, ease of change, non technical back end management, ease of scale, wonderful integrations and access to a huge ecosystem of shoppers. It’s what we use and what many of our local small business retail customers use.

Web development is unregulated. Be careful. There are some who know the words to say to dazzle less technically literate folks into spending money with them only to never deliver what the business wants / needs. Get any promises in writing – including delivery timing and website functionality.

Be sure you know the business you are dealing with. Often, we developers are not local as they may pitch.

Do your due diligence before you sign any contract or pay any money. We’ll say again: take your time.

This decision rests entirely on your business’s ultimate ambition. If you view your online store as a serious, scalable retail channel, one that you need to easily manage alongside your physical operations, integrates effortlessly with local logistics, and provides a reliable, secure foundation that won’t require a developer every time you want to make a change, then Shopify is our recommended investment.

While Wix and Squarespace offer beautiful simplicity for the start-up, and WooCommerce offers technical control, Shopify is purpose-built for the commercial rigor of a growing retail business, offering the best balance of ease-of-use, power, and a vast ecosystem of apps and support designed to help Australian retailers move more stock with less technical overhead.

Shopify is a good small business e-commerce solution, which can grow as you grow. We had one customer using Shopify go from $50,000 in their launch year to $2.5 million by year four. The growth came from their smart business decisions. Shopify made it easy to manage the growth.

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If you are considering a website for your retail business, consider Tower Systems. Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au. If we feel we are not right for you, we will say so.

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Can you trust a list that claims to name the top POS systems for retailers in Australia in 2025?

November 25, 2025
4 Min read
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Can you trust a list that claims to name the top POS systems for retailers in Australia in 2025? No, we don’t think so.

Sure, we are biased. We are Tower Systems (www.towersystems.com.au), a POS software company serving local small business retailers, specialty retailers.

It’s likely we are not on a list of the best POS systems for 2025, because we don’t pay to be on such lists.

In case you didn’t know, many of these best of lists are paid advertising. Companies pay to be listed. The publishers of such lists typically don’t, themselves, do any thorough research on what makes what’s on the list the best. It’s advertising. we know because we have been approach to advertise, by plenty of them. They had no interest in the details of what our software does, or what our customers think.

So, to the question Can you trust a list that claims to name the top POS systems for retailers in Australia in 2025? we think the answer is no.

The danger  is that these lists often prioritise generic, one-size-fits-all solutions over the specialised tools your business actually needs. “Best” is a subjective term. The best POS for a high-volume café is likely the worst POS for a garden centre handling complex inventory, or a jeweller managing repairs and serial numbers.

Most of these “Top 10” lists are populated by the giants of the industry that need to sign up many users a month to satisfy their investors. Their business model relies on volume, not on the depth of functionality required by a specialty independent retailer.

If you look closely at the links provided in these articles, you will often find they are affiliate links. The publisher isn’t just getting paid to list the software; they are often getting a kickback every time someone clicks through and signs up. This financial incentive fundamentally breaks the objectivity of the recommendation. They aren’t recommending the software that will help you grow; they are recommending the software that pays them the highest commission.

So, if you can’t trust the lists, how should you choose?

We believe the best research comes from your peers, not paid publishers.

  1. Look for depth, not breadth: Does the software handle the specific quirks of your industry, your business? Can it handle your specifics? Can it manage bike repairs? Can it handle green-life stock for a nursery? Can it handle selling by fractions? Can it handle product returns? If a “Top 10” list doesn’t ask these questions, it’s useless to you.

  2. Check real verified reviews: Go to Google Reviews or Facebook. Look for detailed feedback from business owners who actually look like you. Look for comments about support, about human interaction, and about how the company behaves when things go wrong.

  3. Ask the community: Talk to other shop owners in your niche. Ask them what they use, what they hate about it, and what they love about it.

At Tower Systems, we are comfortable not being on the “paid-for” lists. We would rather spend that marketing budget on developing new features for our garden centre, toy shop, pet shop, jeweller, produce business and newsagency customers. We would rather be the “best” for a specific family business or a specialised retailer in regional Australia than a generic bullet point on a meaningless global list.

Choose software that chooses to understand you.

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The right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business. Tower offers specialty retail business software made for local small business retailers. To see if we might help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today. 

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au. 

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Streamline Your Retail Bookkeeping: A Look at Tower Systems’ Xero POS Integration

November 24, 2025
4 Min read
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In local small business retail, every minute counts. From managing inventory to serving customers, business owners are constantly juggling multiple tasks. One area that often consumes valuable time is bookkeeping – specifically, reconciling daily sales and invoices. Automating these tasks saves time and money, and it sets the business up for better business decisions.

Tower Systems offers with a seamless Point of Sale (POS) software integration with Xero accounting software. In a recent video featuring Mark and Michael from Tower Systems, they demystify this powerful tool, highlighting how small business retailers can revolutionize their financial management.

At its core, the Tower Systems Xero integration is a direct link, designed to transfer vital financial data from your POS directly into your Xero account. What makes this particularly appealing to small business owners?

  • No Extra Costs: Unlike many solutions that charge for integration modules, Tower Systems includes this Xero link to its small business focussed POS software as a standard feature for all its customers. This means no hidden fees or third-party expenses to worry about.

  • Effortless Data Transfer: Imagine finishing a busy day and, with a few clicks, having all your sales, invoice, and even inventory data automatically populate in your accounting software. The integration handles cash taken,invoices generated, and more, ensuring a comprehensive transfer of financial information.

One of the most impressive aspects discussed in the video is the speed and accuracy of the integration.

  • 30-Second Daily Updates: Michael demonstrates how quickly a day’s worth of financial data can be exported to Xero – in about 30 seconds or less! This means what once took manual entry and reconciliation can now be done in the blink of an eye.

  • Weekly Batches Made Easy: For those who prefer weekly reconciliation, the system is equally efficient. A full week’s data can be transferred in under three minutes, providing flexibility for different business workflows.

  • Eliminate Human Error: Manual data entry is inherently prone to mistakes. By automating the transfer, the Xero integration significantly reduces the chances of human error, leading to more accurate financial records and greater peace of mind.

While the daily process is incredibly simple, getting the integration set up correctly is crucial. Tower Systems emphasizes the importance of a collaborative approach for the initial configuration.

  • Bring Your Bookkeeper/Accountant: This is perhaps the most critical piece of advice from Michael. Having your bookkeeper or accountant present during the initial setup ensures that the integration aligns perfectly with your specific accounting practices and tax requirements. They can guide on mapping accounts, setting up liability accounts for things like gift vouchers, and ensuring compliance.

  • A Team Effort: The ideal setup involves the Tower Systems trainer, the retail business owner, and the bookkeeper/accountant. This triumvirate ensures that all perspectives are considered, leading to a robust and perfectly tailored integration that serves your business needs from day one.

In a world where efficiency is king, tools that save time and enhance accuracy are invaluable. The Tower Systems Xero POS integration stands out as a powerful solution for small business retailers looking to modernize their bookkeeping,reduce administrative burden, and focus more on what they do best: serving their customers and growing their business.

Ready to see how you can reclaim hours and gain better control over your finances? We’d love to help.

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The right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business. Tower offers specialty retail business software made for local small business retailers. To see if we might help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today. 

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au. 

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Retail Automation: Why the Tower Systems & Xero Link is a “No-Brainer” for Business Owners

November 22, 2025
4 Min read
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Okay, yes, for sure, we are biased. This is a blog post pitting our POS software Xero integration. We think it’s awesome. We made it to be awesome, for local small business retailers. We first made it back when we had our own shops and used our POS software ourselves and our in-house CFO needed to save time and gain access to accurate data. That was years ago. The Xero POS software link we have today are as good, as useful – and solely made for local small business retailers.

Running a retail business often means wearing multiple hats. One moment you are on the floor serving customers, and the next you are in the back office trying to make sense of spreadsheets. In a recent discussion between Mark and Michael from Tower Systems, they explored how the Tower Systems POS integration with Xero is changing the game for retailers—specifically by removing the headache of manual bookkeeping.

Here is why this integration is rated an “11 out of 10” by the experts.

1. Tested in the Real World

Michael isn’t just a software trainer; he’s a former retail business owner who managed his shop remotely from another state. He relied entirely on the data flowing from his POS to his accounting software to run the business.

For Michael, the integration wasn’t just a feature; it was a necessity. It allowed him to trust that the financial data being used for BAS and tax reporting was 100% accurate without him needing to be physically present to check the till every day.

2. Accuracy Over Manual Entry

The biggest takeaway from their conversation is the elimination of human error. When you manually enter daily sales figures, mistakes happen. By automating the flow of data between Tower Systems and Xero, you ensure that your books are pristine.

As Michael notes, “We didn’t have to pay someone else to input any of our data manually… it was just there”. This automation frees up business owners to make better decisions based on accurate, real-time data rather than fixing data entry errors.

3. It’s Included (Yes, Free)

A common pain point in the software industry is the “hidden cost” model, where essential features like loyalty programs or accounting integrations cost extra.

Mark highlights a key advantage of the Tower Systems approach: the Xero link is included at no extra cost. Whether you are a small startup or an established store, you get the same professional-grade integration without paying for an additional module.

4. The “Golden Rule” of Setup

If you are ready to set this up, Michael offers one crucial piece of advice: Wait until you have been trading for a week or two.

It might seem counter-intuitive, but it is impossible to test a data link if there is no data to export. By waiting a short period, you can perform a “catch-up” export for those first few weeks, ensuring everything lines up perfectly.

Furthermore, always bring your bookkeeper or accountant to the setup meeting. While the software is easy to use, having a financial professional present ensures that your tax codes, liability accounts, and ledger mappings are compliant from day one. As Michael explains, he can translate the “software speak” into “bookkeeper speak,” bridging the gap so you don’t have to.

Summary

If you are still doing your retail books manually, you are losing time and risking accuracy. As Michael puts it, why wouldn’t you use a tool that saves you hours of work and helps you sleep better at night knowing your data is correct?

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The right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business. Tower offers specialty retail business software made for local small business retailers. To see if we might help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today. 

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au. 

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Helping local small business retailers find optimism in their businesses

November 21, 2025
4 Min read
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Every day can be tough in small business. You can feel like the big competitors are winning and that you can’t climb the mountain to compete. You may not know where to start.

There are green shoots of good news and opportunities in every small and independent retail business. The key is to find these and to leverage them for more success.

A green shoot is a product or a category of products or a supplier performing above average in the business. Often, these successes have gone unnoticed.

We were working with a retailer recently who said business was down by 20% and they did not know what to do. It turned out that the best performing product category in their business was ‘failing’ for six months because they had not replenished stock.

They invested, instead, on new lines that had not gone as well as the successful product.

They, in part, created their own downward spiral and had not looked at their business data to understand that contributed to the problems they were confronting.

Once they realised the situation, they re-stocked the successful range of products and numbers started to improve. More important, their confidence level grew and with this their business decisions improved.

There are opportunities for optimism in every business.

Finding optimism is like mining, you have to look for it, sometimes for a long time. It is there, though, in every retail business.

As soon as you hear yourself talking your business down, our advice from years of working with small business retailers is STOP. Look at your data, look for the good news. That is what you need to think and talk about.

By looking at your data, we mean looking at year on year, quarter on quarter or month on month comparison data for departments, categories, suppliers or even individual products. Look for growth and once you see growth, think about what you can do with and around the products achieving growth so that you can achieve other growth.

Any product achieving year on year increases in unit sales is a product to be appreciated, nurtured and used to help grow other products that can sell to the same customer.

This is how you nurture optimism. Find those small green shoots, leverage them with some small steps and, over time, build more success for your business.

While overall revenue, traffic count and profitability may be down, growth even at the smallest data point, such as for one or two products, could be enough to get you looking at your business differently.

In the Tower Systems POS software, the insights dashboard is a wonderful place to discover good news and opportunities you can cultivate. That’s where we suggest anyone start.

We’re here to help you find the good news in your business. Your business data is the key.

If you’ve got this far, thanks for reading. We have many years experience running shops of our own in a few different retail channels. Plenty of our people here have worked in retailer. then, there is our decades of service of local retail. All of this helps us have the knowledge and experience on which we can draw to provide advice such as we share here.

We hope it is useful.

Today could be a good day if you go looking for that good news.

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The right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business. Tower offers specialty retail business software made for local small business retailers. To see if we might help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today. 

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au. 

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Advice on helping small business retail staff understand where the money goes

November 20, 2025
3 Min read
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If you’re a small business retailer and feel people working for you may not understand the business numbers, here’s something you could put up in your back room, or your relevant version of it at least. Work your numbers. be accurate. help everyone working in the business understand your numbers.

Sometimes, retail staff think you get to back the thousands in sales revenue you take in, in a day. Sure you do get to bank it. But out of that comes so much. That’s why we created this when we ran shops ourselves.

Here it is, the advice we provided to our own staff, in our shops back then. It’s relevant today.

WHERE THE MONEY GOES.

Where every dollar we get from our customers goes.

Every dollar paid to us by our customers and put in the til or through the credit card terminals gores somewhere and quickly. Some of it goes right away, some of it in a few days and most of the rest by the end of the month.

Some of the money we are paid goes before we get it – like for stock we pay for before it arrives in the shop.

This graph shows where every cent of every dollar we earn goes.  The stock cost is the average cost of items we purchase. Some items cost us 90% of what we sell them for while others cost us 20% of what we sell them for. This is why we are using the overall business average for this illustration.

Based on our current numbers our profit is 4%. But we don’t get to keep that: we have borrowings to service, we don’t receive a salary for our time and any profit is taxed by the government.

We buy stock for the best price possible but with the price of many products we sell controlled we need to work elsewhere to improve things. This is why we look carefully at the roster. Even one hour saved can be like selling $100 in stock.

The best way to help the business achieve better results is for us to sell more of our stock to existing customers and for us to attract new customers.

We’d love your help in encouraging customers to buy more. You can do this with excellent displays, helping customers on the shop floor and giving customers awesome customer service.

We’d also love your ideas on attracting more shoppers.

Please don’t think we’re putting this notice up to cry poor. We share the information to give you a better understanding of what happens to each dollar we get from our customers because we believe that the more information anyone has the more informed their actions can be.

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As noted, we created this for shops we owned and ran a short while back. You are welcome to use it, or your version of it, to help bring your own people on your ride with you.

We’re a POS software company passionate about local small business retail, specialty retail.

Our ideal customer is a small business with anything from 1 to 10 shops, operating in a specialty retail area in which we have experience. We don;t serve big businesses, or franchises.

While the right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business, Tower Systems serves local small business specialty retailers. To see how we can help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today. 

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au. 

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Software made for local gift shops helps them shine

November 19, 2025
5 Min read
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Local gift and card shop owners in Australia and New Zealand  need to be careful when considering a computer system for their business.  While some computer companies claim to have software suited to gift and card shops, few actually do.

There’s an overseas company claiming free software. What they want is a percentage of every sale you make. Support is offshore. Software is developed offshore. Value is not obvious for local small business retailers who want to pitch local.

There is another overseas software company chasing business here but not offering any local sales people or support. For businesses where local matters, we think this will matter too.

Gift shops are specialty retail businesses with specialty retail needs. That’s where we play here at Tower Systems, we make POS software for specialty retailers, in Australian and New Zealand.

Just as you would not go to a general practitioner for specialist medical advice, gift and card shop owners ought to be wary of buying from a general computer business.

While generic software programs may handle general aspects of the business, they will most likely not link to card companies, provide industry specific reporting or handle other aspects unique to your business like special orders or loyalty tuned to your local business needs.

The card company link is important since key card companies in Australia provide electronic invoices and receive returns data electronically – saving considerable time in-store.  There are other benefits from a deeper card company relationship through specialty software that can make a big difference.

Another area where specialist gift shop software will help is with the tracking of boxes.  For example – imagine a computer system which tells you where the box for an item you have just sold is located.  No more searching drawers or shelves in the back room.  A specialist gift shop software package will tell you where the box is instantly and save your time for customer service.

Specialist gift shop point of sale software can do more than track boxes or track your sales.  It can drive the business on many fronts – increasing sales, reducing costs and enhancing the sale value of the business.

Good software will also help you operate in your individual way – many gift shop owners have expressed that they do not want to become a clone business since if they wanted that they would have bought a franchise.

Gift shop owners ought to consider specialist gift shop facilities when considering the best IT solution for their business. For example, consider these facilities:

Rewarding Customers.  With the fuel and other loyalty programs around today it is important for a gift shop to have a loyalty offer.  The best loyalty offers are those which bring people back to your shop to accrue rewards which can then be spent in store.  Good gift shop software will track customer purchases and allow you to build a reward system which builds your business.

Special orders.  Imaging having a system which sends your customers a text message advising if an item ordered in specially has arrived.  This saves you time and ensures the customer if reminded to collect the item.

Basket analysis.  Knowing what customers are buying with what helps you analyse your business beyond raw sales success.  For example, if you sell a range of glassware it may be that one item, not the top seller, is sold more often with other items and thereby is more ‘efficient’ for the business.  While strong single sales are good, sales with multiple items are more valuable for a gift shop as it boosts the margin per sale.  Good basket analysis tools can be gold in the hands of a goof business operator.

Fast Seller Tracking.  It is challenging to watch every item in the shop.  Fast Seller tools do this for you and alert the owner when an item is moving faster than in the past or faster than other items in the category.  Knowing this allows the business to respond and use this traffic to build other sales.

Employee sales tracking.  Knowing who sold what and when allows the business to pay incentives for success.  Major retailers use commissions very effectively to get employees from behind the counter and into the body of the shop guiding customers to purchase.

Analysing sales.  Unlike other retailers, gift shops are individual businesses, often carrying items which are one off.  Sales therefore need to be coded so that the owner can track the department, category and supplier equally with the individual items.  This enables buying to be within the successful categories if not the exact same item.  Armed with this information at trade shows helps nurture better buying.

Ratios.  Good business starts with good measurement and good measurement is all about ratios – return on floor space, return on investment and stock turn.  While a gift shop may look attractive and have friendly staff, if the stock is not turning the business will fail.  .

Good software can make or break any business.  This is why gift and card shop owners need to ensure that the software they choose is suited to their business.  Settling for a general software program may cost less in the short term but the saving may be false if it does not help the business grow.

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The right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business. Tower offers specialty retail business software made for local small business retailers. To see if we might help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today. 

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au. 

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How a local small business bike shop can compete with online retailers and prosper in today’s economy

November 18, 2025
3 Min read
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While there is plenty of media coverage about online retailers taking sales from high street retailers and how tough retail is, there are retailers, including local small business bike retailers, who are growing stronger, more valuable businesses.

How are these retailers growing?

It’s simple:

  1. Be accessible.
  2. Be noticeable.
  3. Be valuable.

Be accessible.

This is about being in a good location, in a shop that is easy to access, opening the right hours and offering a shopping experience that is easy – accessible.

Be noticeable.

This is about a shop window and online presence that people notice for its uniqueness. Average will deliver average. You need to deliver unexpected to be notice.

Be valuable.

This comes down to what you sell, how you sell and how people feel about that as they experience what you have sold to them.

So, let’s dig deeper in our advice for local bike shops and other local small business retailers. This advice is based on decades of service in this space.

Growth in retail requires planning and commitment throughout the business.  It is vital that attention is paid to consumer touch points, placing the unique points of difference of the business in the spotlight.

Good businesses grow faster when growth strategies are encoded in business processes from the sales counter to the back room and are at the heart of supplier and employee relationships.

By leveraging in-store knowledge, experience and personal service, a high street bike shop can convert a browser into a shopper.  The keys are attention to detail, memorable personal service and a value proposition.

This is where good POS software, implemented professionally, can help.  It can also help drive operational efficiency  and performance consistency and thereby give the business the financial means to be competitive.

There are bike shops doing this today, large and small, city and country.

But how can bike shop software do this?

  • Sales processes can be structured to drive consistency.
  • A loyalty program encourages your shopper to shop more frequently.
  • A contact follow up program can bring a customer back more often.
  • Marketing can be driven by email, mail and fax.
  • Mistakes at the sales counter, in ordering and in management can be reduced, freeing cash.
  • Selling can be made easier, thereby improving the shopper experience.
  • New marketing platforms are created: on receipts, at the counter and elsewhere.
  • Employees can be rewarded for above average sales – aligning their rewards with those of the business.
  • A common inventory file for an online store and a high street store.

Good bike shop software can help a bike retailer compete with online businesses and prosper in any economy.

Growth begins with deciding that this is what you want for your business. The next step is pursuing it relentlessly.

People looking for their first bike are encouraged by bike shops to talk to an expert. Bike shop owners wanting greater success should, likewise, talk to an expert.

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The right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business. Tower offers specialty retail business software made for local small business retailers. To see if we might help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today.

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au.

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3 things small business retailers are shocked to discover about their business from our POS software

November 17, 2025
4 Min read
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From serving small business, local, independent retailers for decades, there are three things that stand out as the things that shock retailers the most when they discover them using our POS software.

The 3 things that shock small business retailers are, however, things these retailers tend to not want to know about, because of how the discovery makes them feel. This is why we say they shock them.

Dead stock.

Every retail business has underperforming stock, many have dead stock, that is, stock not selling, stock that is sitting there doing nothing for the business. Dead money. Wasted space. Missed opportunities. Dead stock can kill a business.

In a typical independent small retail business, dead stock accounts for 15% and more of the total investment in stock. In a business with $100,000 in stock, that is $15,000 dead, wasted, lost.

Our POS software shows the value of dead stock easily, quickly, continuously. It is easy for retailers to see the value of dead stock. Most don;t look. Most don’t want to know.

For us, when helping a retail business, dead stock is an easy win. See it. Make a plan. Act. Stop making decisions that result in dead stock.

Theft.

Every retail business experiences theft – employee theft and customer theft. Most retailers don’t look for theft, don’t use tools in POS software that can show theft may be an issue.

Theft in retail is one of those things – if I can’t see it, it’s not happening, which is nonsense, of course.

In a typical small independent retail business, theft costs between 3% and 5% of annual turnover. A shop turning over $1M a year in sales experiences theft to the value of at least $30,000 a year is occurring in the business between employee theft and customer theft.

In our experience, retailers tend to obsess about customer theft and ignore employee theft. The thing is, employee theft is usually hitting a business at a higher cost.

Every retail business needs a consistent focus on theft.

What am I missing?

Every retail business has opportunities they miss. The easiest one to see and understand is the cost of sales not achieved because the business did not have the stock available when a customer was in and wanting that stock.

In our work with retailers across many retail channels, but small business retailers, independent retailers, we see that in the top 20% of inventory items, businesses are out of stock of these enough of the time to be able to predict a value loss to the business.

In our research across a number of businesses, we can see the cost of what am I missing? hitting between $15,000 and $20,ooo in revenue in a year. The question for any retailer is – do you want that $15,000 to $20,000 in additional revenue each year? We hope the answer is yes.

In our POS software we answer the question of what am I missing out on? without if having to even be asked.

These are just three things we know small business retailers are shocked to discover.

In a business turning over $1M a year in sales, these three things can combine to be worth $60,000 a more in a year. Every retail business we know would like an extra $60,000 in revenue value, especially if it is easy to put in place processes to lock that revenue in.

These are easy wins in retail businesses that our Tower Systems POS software can deliver for small business retailers. To facilitate the delivery, we back it with training and business insights support – so that using the POS software to leverage the 3 easy wins in, well, easy.

If you run a local retail business: know your dead stock and fix it, understand the cost of theft and fix it, be sure of what you are missing out on and fix it.

This is easy action advice for small business retailers today. These three things offer small business retailers easy wins.

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The right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business. Tower offers specialty retail business software made for local small business retailers. To see if we might help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today.

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au.

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How Specialty Retail POS Software (Like Ours) Provides Cleaner Data than a ‘Generic’ POS

November 14, 2025
4 Min read
H

Our Tower Systems POS software connects direct to Xero, enabling accurate and on-time data flow from the POS software to Xero.

  • Saving time.
  • Reducing costs.
  • Reducing mistake opportunities.

Made in Australia for specialty small business retailers in Australia and New Zealand, our POS software helps small business retailers and their bookkeepers and accountants have a hassle free life with our Xero connectivity.

Call us on 1300 662 957 or on 0800 444 367 from New Zealand. You can email us, too, at sales@towersystems.com.au. Tell us about your Xero / POS software connection requirements and we will help if we can, and let you know right away is we cannot.

Being made for specialty retailers, our POS software serves retail channel specific needs:

  • Bike shops can manage repairs and the work, and parts, associated with each.
  • Our jeweller software can manage the components that go into a beautiful ring.
  • Our bookshop software can manage book reruns.
  • Our garden centre software facilitates repotting when plants grow, helping the bis==business maximise revenue.
  • Our pet shops software helps with reminding customers about working.
  • Our newsagent software manages magazines the way suppliers and newsagents require.
  • Our supermarket software allows selling by weight.
  • Our hardware and similar business software allows selling by length, and fractions.
  • Our gift shop software tracks customer dates that matter and can help you bring them back for anniversaries and more.
  • Our produce / farm supply business software helps them sell on the road.
  • Our charity shop / op. shop software works easily with volunteers doing limited hours each week.
  • Our firearms dealer software captures customer details for accurate record keeping.
  • Our fishing and outdoors software helps them serve folks looking for the best location.
  • Our computer shop software helps them track product serial numbers.
  • Our fashion shop software helps them track inventory by colour, size and style.

Each of these businesses is specialist in nature. Their needs are well served by software made for them, software that supports their specialisation. The more their POS software does this the better the business and the more useful the business data collected and curated by the POS software.

A generic POS can’t handle any of this. This leads to staff using “workarounds” that corrupt the data you receive. A specialty POS is built for these functions, ensuring the data is captured correctly at the source.

A specialty retail POS (like ours) understands the business logic behind every transaction.

Generic does not cut it for specialty business needs – unless a retail business sees themselves as generic, basic, average. Of course, specialty retailers see themselves and their businesses as anything but generic, basic or average.

This philosophy is at the core of what we do at Tower Systems. Our POS software is built for the specialty retailers that small business focussed accountants and bookkeepers serve, the newsagents, jewellers, bike shops, pet shops, and toy stores. Our Xero integration is deep, accurate, and designed with advisors like accountants and bookkeepers in mind, ensuring clean data, every time, and on time.

By only serving independent small business retailers, we have ensured we serve a customer community of like-minded retailers. There is no whale in our community dominating software development. All voices are equal. All needs are considered. We gate keep our community by being clear if we think a business is not a good fit for us – respectfully and gently, of course.

If you are an accountant or bookkeeper serving small business specialty retailers, check us out. www.towersystems.com.au.

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The right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business. Tower offers specialty retail business software made for local small business retailers. To see if we might help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today. 

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au. 

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WATCH NOW: A step-by-step demonstration of AI tools for small business retailers in POS software

November 13, 2025
3 Min read
W

Yesterday, we recorded a 45 minute live demonstration of the AI tools available in our POS software right now.

Embracing the show, don’t tell approach we demonstrated, with love data, the AI tools small business retailers are using in our POS software right now.

Here is a video of that session – no login required, watch anywhere, anytime, anonymously.

Tower Systems has been delivering access to POS software embedded AI tools for years. This year, in 2025, we have enhanced those tools further, and in the next few weeks we have more innovation being delivered, as we discuss in the video.

It you are looking at POS software for AI innovation, ask them to demonstrate the tools to you. It;s easy to make a pitch and harder to actually deliver.

Imagine receiving a supplier invoice and, instead of spending hours manually entering product codes, descriptions, and pricing, the entire process is completed in seconds. Our industry-leading AI Invoice Import reads any supplier PDF—no matter the format—and automatically populates your inventory. This powerful tool handles new products and updates existing items, giving you back invaluable time.

Optimise stock data and prep for marketing

  • Easy stock record creation: Add new items instantly using our Barcode Lookup integration, which pulls product details and images from a database of over 1.5 billion items.
  • Compelling content, instantly: Generate professional, SEO-friendly web descriptions and engaging blog posts for any product with a single click.
  • Professional imagery: Utilise the in-built background removal tool to create clean, web-ready product photos without needing third-party software.

Our POS software embedded AI tools offer tis and so much more.

Move beyond static reports. Receive an AI-generated analysis of your daily performance, sales trends, and staff activity emailed to you at the end of every shift.

Our intelligent Insights Dashboard helps you answer critical questions like “what’s not selling?” and “where am I missing opportunities?”

We are continuously innovating. Our next frontier is natural language reporting, which will allow you to simply ask your software complex questions about your business data and receive immediate, intelligent answers.

This is such a rapidly evolving space and we are grateful to our small business retail customers, our development team and others who are helping is deliver such value to our customers and those they serve.

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The right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business. Tower offers specialty retail business software made for local small business retailers. To see if we might help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today. 

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au. 

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Xero accounting link in POS software helps small business retailers

November 12, 2025
3 Min read
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The Xero accounting link in our Tower Systems POS software delivers terrific benefits to small business retailers like garden centres, jewellers, newsagents, pet shops, music shops, bike shops, toy shops, camping and outdoors businesses, produce businesses, irrigation supply businesses and feedstock businesses.

Our Xero link to our POS software was developed following Xero’s requirements. We are listed in their App Store, for which we are grateful.

Using our POS software Xero link, small business retailers reap terrific benefits.

Reconciliation & reporting focus from our Xero link:

  • Automatic daily sales sync: This is an easy win – daily sales, payments, and GST figures flow automatically.
  • Payment type breakup: Another win – reporting makes bank reconciliation easy by separating payment types (Cash, EFTPOS, Credit Card, etc.) to match bank deposits.
  • Supplier invoice & inventory stock on hand (dept. level) data: Our POS software offers these – key for any business for Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) reporting.

The Xero link in our POS software is loved by many small business retailers.

Best of all, access to our Xero link is included in Nour low monthly rental cost. That’s right, there is no extra charge to access this.

Back when we owned and ran local small business retail shops we used the Xero link regularly, to manage the accounting side of our businesses. Our CPA at the time relied on this for accurate data with which to assess business performance. These years walking in the shoes of our customers paid off as we delivered benefits for our customers and ourselves in the same moves.

Our message for local small business retailers is simple: save time, eliminate bookkeeping costs, cut mistakes and make better business decisions sooner with the Tower Systems POS software Xero integration.

If you are an accountant or bookkeeper and would like to see our POS software and talk our Xero link, we’d love to connect with you and talk, obligation free. If we we feel we are not right for the needs of your customers, we will let you know. If we think we are a good fit, we will demonstrate this to you, live – so you can see for yourself.

The POS software Xero link we offer is robust, proven and ready to be of service to more small business specialty retailers in Australia and New Zealand.

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The right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business. Tower offers specialty retail business software made for local small business retailers. To see if we might help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today. 

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au. 

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POS software for independent small business retailers in New Zealand

November 12, 2025
4 Min read
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Okay, we’re an Australian POS software company, based in Australia. We are grateful, though, to serve plenty of retailers in New Zealand, small business retailers, independent retailers, specialty retailers.

Our software for jewellers, garden centres, bike shops, farm supply businesses, toy shops, bookshops, music shops, gift shops, homewares shops, nurseries, convenient fence stores, our software for these and other specialty retailers can serve the needs of New Zealand based retailers.

Contact with us is easy out of New Zealand. Our customers can call is direct on 0800 444 367. They can email us on sales@towersystems.com.au for a sales query or on support@towersystems.com.au for a customer service query. But we love phone calls too.

While we are an Australian business, our folks are spread across Australia and New Zealand. At the time of writing this, November 2025, one of our help desk folks lives just outside Christchurch, a beautiful part of New Zealand. One of our software programmers lives in Auckland, another wonderful city.

If ours is a small retail business in New Zealand, consider Tower Systems.

There is no lock-in requirement on payments processing.

We link direct to Xero.

Customer service is easy to access.

Best of all, though, is our software – it’s awesome. See for yourself though is it might serve your needs.

  • Easy and accurate selling including by weight and length.
  • Money making business insights.
  • Search products by title or author.
  • Special orders for customers.
  • Club / group pricing to win more sales. Some retailers are using this powerful facility to turbocharge sales.
  • Free integration with FindIt local marketplace.
  • Easy online selling thanks to seamless SHopify, Big Commerce and WooCommerce integration.
  • TitlePage integration.
  • PacStream integration.
  • Time saving supplier links.
  • Sales winning loyalty facilities.
  • Dispatch management including Allotrac integration.
  • Easy bulk material management.
  • International barcode direct connect forfor easy lookup.
  • ChatGPT integration for smart product descriptions designed to help with customer searching.
  • Returns management. Returning unsold products can be time consuming. Using our software, you can identify titles that can be returned based on arrival in-store, sales and current quantity on hand.
  • Weatherproof product labels.
  • Personal training.
  • Locally based human delivered support.

There is so much more to this software.

As well as answering the phone when you call, our customers have access to regular online customer forums – genuine open Q&A sessions to which all customers are invited. These are recorded so those unable to attend can watch.

We understand that running an independent specialty retail business in New Zealand comes with unique challenges and opportunities. The features listed above, from our powerful loyalty and club pricing tools to seamless Shopify integration and smart supplier links, are more than just functions. They are practical, money-making, and time-saving tools, built over years of close partnership with retailers just like you. Our software is designed to help you reduce busywork, delight your customers, and give you the data you need to grow your business with confidence.

We don’t just serve specialty retailers; we understand them. Whether it’s managing by-weight items for a garden centre, handling special orders for a jeweller, or tracking titles for a bookshop, our software has the deep, specific functionality your unique business actually needs to thrive.

We back the software with helpful retail advice, based on the experiences of many here at Tower Systems who have worked in and run small retail businesses. Those lived experiences provide empathy, a solid grounding for engaged customer service of our POS software customers.

If you are a small business retailer in New Zealand looking for POS software for your business, consider Tower Systems.

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The right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business. Tower offers specialty retail business software made for local small business retailers. To see if we might help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today.

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au.

 

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Bookshop software for book retailers in Australia and New Zealand

November 11, 2025
4 Min read
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Tower Systems makes and supports POS software for bookshops in Australia and New Zealand. We also build POS software connected websites for bookshops in Australia and New Zealand.

The Tower Systems bookshop software is always evolving. Many enhancements in the software are as a result of customer suggestions, responding to changes in retail and changes brought on by tech advance =ment opportunities. The AI advancements are an example of this. Three updates already in 2025 have ensured the software is fresh and commercially relevant. With AI playing such an important role in small business retail today. the Tower Systems bookshop software embedded AI tools are leading-edge, loved by customers.

Our focus is on local independent bookshops.

Our bookshop software has plenty of features:

  • Easy returns management. Streamline your returns process, optimise inventory and maximise your return on investment.
  • PacStream and TitlePage Connectivity: Access the powerful PacStream platform and TitlePage directly from our software for simplified supply chain management and potential cost savings.
  • AI-Powered Efficiency: generate good product descriptions that can improve search results and save time, easily import just about any invoice, write and publish blog posts and price compare easily and quickly.
  • Book Club Management: Effortlessly manage your book club memberships, offer rewards, and simplify fundraising initiatives. This feature helps you connect with your reading community, cater to their interests, and foster loyalty.
  • Efficient Special Order Handling: Seamlessly process and track special orders from placement to customer notification upon arrival.
  • Advanced Inventory Search: Quickly locate books by searching for an author’s full or partial name, or by title.
  • International Barcode Integration: Connect directly to international barcode databases for efficient and accurate product lookups.

Flexible, supportive:

Helping local independent bookshops in New Zealand and Australia thrive, our bookshop software offers the flexibility of cloud-based or desktop deployment. Our expert local support team is here to ensure a smooth transition and provide ongoing assistance.

Reach online:

Sell online with the platform that best suits your business, whether it be Shopify, BigCommerce, or WooCommerce. We provide the flexibility to choose, ensuring you are never locked into a single solution. Our software also offers free integration with the FindIt local marketplace.

 Rely on:

  • Easy and accurate selling processes
  • Advanced search functionality by title or author
  • Streamlined special orders for customers
  • Club and group pricing to help secure more sales
  • Locally developed software with a local help desk
  • Comprehensive training resources

We are committed to the success of local independent bookshops and are grateful to our customers who collaborate with us to ensure our software remains relevant in this rapidly changing market. This system is exclusively crafted for independent businesses, not for chains or large corporations.

By choosing our bookshop POS software, you are investing in a tool that supports your community and strengthens your business, helping you create a vibrant and engaging space for book lovers.

While our office is in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, we have one of our software developers based in Auckland and one of our help desk crew based out of Christchurch, New Zealand. We’re a remote business though with many of our team members preferring to work from home. This cuts the commute time and gives more time to their families.

If you are looking for software for your bookshop, consider Tower Systems – we’d love to show you the software and let you see if it fits your needs.

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The right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business. Tower offers specialty retail business software made for local small business retailers. To see if we might help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today.

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au.

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“A Game-Changer”: Why Australian Retailers are Embracing AI in their POS Software

November 10, 2025
4 Min read
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The term “AI” is everywhere. For a busy small business owner, it can sound less like a helpful tool and more like another complicated buzzword, something for big corporations, not for a local gift shop, garden centre, or newsagency.

The thing is, small business retailers have, right now, easier access to AI tools than big businesses.

It’s not complicated. AI tools, built directly into the POS software available for independent small business retailers, working in the background, helping in everyday practical ways, saving time, helping you make more money, giving you support for better decision making.

This is real. It’s available today for small business retailers.

At Tower Systems, we’ve embedded practical AI tools into our software, and the feedback from our customers—real, independent Australian retailers—has been incredible.

We’re not talking about abstract concepts. We’re talking about real results.

What Our Customers are Saying

Wa are grateful for the positive messages from our retail partners. Here’s a glimpse of what they’ve told us:

  • On Saving Time: “I’M SAVING 8 HOURS A WEEK, EVERY WEEK, WITH YOUR AI TOOLS!” – Small Garden Centre Owner
  • On Increasing Profit: “I’M MAKING MORE MONEY IN MY SHOP THANKS TO YOUR AI TOOLS!” – Gift Shop Owner, Regional Australia
  • On Usability: “I’M 76 AND I LOVE THESE AI TOOLS. THEY ARE A GAME-CHANGER FOR US.” – Newsagent, Regional Australia
  • On the “Wow” Factor: “I’M SHOCKED AT HOW GOOD THE AI TOOLS ARE. I’LL NEVER GO BACK.” – Toy Shop Owner, Suburban Australia

These quotes aren’t from tech start-ups. They’re from garden centres, gift shops, and newsagents. They’re from regional and suburban business owners, people who need technology to work for them, not create more work.

So, how are they achieving these results?

️ How Our AI Tools Deliver Real Results

This isn’t a “magic wand.” These results come from specific, practical tools designed to solve the biggest headaches in retail – and from support we provide to help small business retailers understand our AI supported POS software.

1. How to Save 8 Hours a Week

For the Small Garden Centre Owner, that extra full day of work isn’t coming from magic. It’s coming from our AI-powered invoice processing.

  • The Old Way: Manually entering every single line item from a supplier’s PDF invoice. It’s tedious, time-consuming, and prone to human error.
  • The New Way: Our AI scans the PDF invoice, intelligently converts it into a digital format, and loads it directly into your system, ready for review. That’s hours of data entry, every week, given back to you.

2. How to Make More Money

For the Gift Shop Owner in Regional Australia, making more money is about working smarter. Our AI tools act like a marketing and pricing assistant, 24/7.

  • Better Online Sales: Our AI generates meaningful, SEO-ready product descriptions for you. This helps your website and products get found more easily on Google, driving online traffic and sales.
  • Smarter Pricing: The software includes AI tools that allow you to compare pricing locally. This ensures your margins are optimised and you remain competitive, helping you make better profit-driven decisions instantly.

3. How to Be a “Game-Changer” for a 76-Year-Old Newsagent

This might be the feedback we’re most proud of. Our AI isn’t intimidating; it’s empowering. For the Newsagent in Regional Australia, the “game-changer” is accessibility.

  • It’s Embedded: The tools aren’t in a separate, complex program. They are buttons and features inside the Tower Systems software they already use every day.
  • It Solves Real Problems: It simplifies complex tasks like marketing and data entry, making powerful technology accessible to everyone, regardless of their tech background. When you can save time and make more money with a simple click, it truly changes the game.

The Verdict: “I’ll Never Go Back”

The Toy Shop Owner who said they’ll “never go back” perfectly captures the feeling. Once you’ve experienced a smarter way of working—where tedious tasks are automated and your profitability is actively boosted—the old way of doing things seems impossible.

This is the power of practical AI. It’s not about hype; it’s about giving independent retailers the “unfair” advantages to not only compete but to thrive.

Are you ready to see what our AI tools might be able to do for your business? The experience of every business is different. We’d love to show you our software so you can decide for yourself the benefits that may be available to you.

While the right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business, Tower Systems was p local small business specialty retailers. To see how we can help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today. 

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au. 

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Holiday season help for small business retailers from POS software

November 9, 2025
2 Min read
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In the Tower Systems POS software, small business retailers can tap into terrific Christmas season help. This can be in the form of inventory buying guidance, marketing help, co-location assistance and shopper nudging support … plus more.

Helping small business retailers with holiday season facilities is an important role for any POS software. It is something Tower Systems has offered it’s thousands of small business retailer POS software customers for decades. Over time, the holiday season advice and tips have evolved, as have economic and consumer needs.

Leveraging holiday season inventory guidance, for example, retailers can make more informed purchase decisions that better serve the needs of the business based on prior holiday season experience and taking into account trends from this year.

Oh, and when we are talking here about the holiday season in retail, we are talking about holiday seasons like Christmas, Easter, Black Friday, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas in July, back to School.

A holiday season in retail is any season that a retail business can respond to in any to leverage the business opportunity and serve niche customer need.

Holiday seasons in retail do not necessarily have to be the holiday season you think of in a traditional sense.

Using our POS software, beyond knowing what to stock for a holiday season, our retail business partners are able to make shop floor decisions that guide shopper engagement with the holiday season product opportunity ties. These could be loyalty, price, packaging, bundling or post purchase re-visit invitation. these and more can be leveraged thorough the Tower Systems specialty retail POS software.

Leveraging the surge in traffic that a retail business sees from the holiday season can be key to through the year growth, benefiting the business between holiday season shopper traffic peaks. This is key to any retail business achieving a smoother sales flow. While a spike in shopper traffic and revenue are good, less of a spike makes management of a retail business easier and more cost friendly.

Tower Systems, using its collective lived retail experience, can help small business retailers cross the divide between tech and real world to offer a better and more beneficial holiday season experience. That is our goal in the software we develop and the advice we provide through our customer help desk.

Our focus is on local independent small business retailers, in Australia and New Zealand.

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The New Wave of AI Innovation for Small Business Retailers, It’s here, Now

November 8, 2025
4 Min read
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The conversation around Artificial Intelligence in retail is no longer a futuristic projection; it is a present-day reality, delivering practical tools that are fundamentally changing how independent businesses operate. While large enterprises make headlines, the real innovation is happening at the small business level, with AI integrations empowering retailers to save time, make smarter decisions, and enhance profitability.

Tower Systems has been working with and for small business retailers on there AI front for years. In 2025, the innovation delivered has grown, for which we are gratefully proud. Embedded in our POS software are awesome Ai tools.

This shift is moving beyond simple automation and into the realm of intelligent partnership, where AI acts as a co-pilot for the business owner. Here’s a video of a customer meeting we hosted a couple of days ago:

Current Tower Systems POS Software AI Capabilities in Action

For many small retailers, AI is already embedded in their daily operations through sophisticated Tower Systems POS software integration. These tools are already delivering tangible results by:

  • Generating Marketing Content: Creating optimised product descriptions and blog posts directly from the software, leveraging models like Google Gemini and ChatGPT.
  • Narrative Reporting: An “end of shift” email, for example, is being reimagined. Instead of a list of numbers, AI provides a text-based summary of the business day, highlighting what’s important.

The Evolving AI Roadmap

The innovation, however, is not standing still. The next wave of development is focused on deeper integration and more powerful analytics, including:

  • Broader Model Integration: Adding new AI models, like Claude, to give retailers more choice and to support all existing AI functionalities.
  • AI-Powered Report Analysis: Soon, retailers will be able to run standard reports through an AI, which will provide a synopsis of trends and key data points. The AI will use a dedicated knowledge base to understand the context of the reports, how to read them, and where the data comes from, ensuring accurate analysis.
  • Fundamental Invoice Handling: A significant “under the hood” rework is underway to advance AI-driven invoice processing. As AI models evolve, the software must evolve with them to maintain pace. This includes enhancing the capability to handle complex invoices, such as those with serial numbers, and integrating those workflows seamlessly into the software.

The Next Frontier: Natural Language Interaction

The most exciting development on the horizon is the integration of Model Context Protocol (MCP). This open-source standard will allow AI models to interact directly and securely with a retailer’s local systems, like their database.

In practical terms, this will revolutionise how owners access their data. Instead of running complex reports, a retailer will be able to use natural language to simply ask their software questions like, “What are my top five selling products this month?” or “Which customers are generating the most revenue?” The AI will translate this question into a machine query, retrieve the live data, and present the answer. This removes the final barrier between the business owner and their data, making deep insights instantly accessible.

AI is Not a “Fad,” It’s a Foundation

The adoption of AI is proving to be a bigger shift than the introduction of microcomputers. Retailers who were once hesitant are now becoming converts, loving the time-saving benefits and the new lens through which they can view their business.

The focus is not on technology for its own sake, but on its tangible value: saving time, enabling better decision-making, and driving profitability. The speed of change is rapid, and the tools available today are only just scratching the surface of what’s to come.

…

While the right POS system for any retail business depends on the specific needs of the retail business, Tower Systems was built to serve  Australian and New Zealand local small business specialty retailers. To see how we can help you…, request a free, no-obligation demo today. 

Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au. 

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