Online keeps taking more of the toy market, and plenty of local toy shops are doing it tough. A parent can order a toy on their phone in under a minute. A box turns up, and that’s the end of the relationship.
A good family-run toy shop gives you more. Someone helps you choose. Someone remembers your kid’s name and what they were into last year. The gift goes home wrapped. If it breaks, someone looks at it instead of telling you to start a return.
It’s personal.
The hard part is delivering that on a flat-out Saturday in December, with a queue at the counter and two staff. Software built for a generic shop won’t help you much there. Software built for a toy shop will.
Made here, supported here
Tower Systems has been making retail software in Australia since 1981, and we’re grateful to serve many local independent toy shops across the country. When you call us, you talk to a real person here, someone who knows the software and knows how a toy shop trades.
We don’t treat a toy shop like a café or a clothing store, because it isn’t one.
Remember birthdays for your customers
Birthdays drive toy retail. Tower can record the occasions your customers care about and remind them when one is coming up. A grandparent who bought a birthday present last March hears from you in February, before they’ve started searching online.
Loyalty for people who only come in twice a year
Most toy shop customers aren’t weekly regulars. They come in for birthdays, Christmas and maybe a school holiday treat. Points programs built for supermarkets mean nothing to them.
Tower has loyalty options for occasional and one-off shoppers, as well as for your regulars. Give an occasional customer a reason to remember you, and they’re more likely to come back to you than to a website.
Age checks at the counter
Some products need an age check. Tower flags them at the point of sale, so a casual staff member on their second shift knows to ask.
Serial numbers and repairs
Remote control cars, electronic toys and ride-ons come back sometimes. Tower tracks serial numbers, so you can find the sale, check the details and sort it out quickly.
If you do repairs, Tower manages those as well. You can log the job, track where it’s up to and tell the customer when it’s ready. Very few online sellers will fix anything.
Bundles instead of discounts
Put the toy together with the accessory that makes it more fun, or the batteries it needs, at a fixed price. The customer gets a better gift with less thinking. You get a bigger sale without marking down half the shop.
Partner with a local school, club or playgroup
This is one of the most effective ways for a toy shop to find new customers.
You partner with a local school, kinder, sports club or playgroup. Members save a percentage when they shop with you, and a percentage of what they spend goes to the group. Tower handles both at the counter.
The group then promotes you to its members, because every sale helps them raise funds. Families who’ve never been in your shop now have a reason to visit. What happens after that is up to your service.
Know what’s actually selling
Tower lets you compare suppliers and categories, and report by brand, licence, age group and more. You can look at your shop the way you actually think about it:
- Which suppliers make you money, and which tie up cash in slow stock?
- Which licence is hot, and which one peaked six months ago?
- Have you got toddlers covered but nothing for tweens?
- What sells for birthdays, and what only moves at Christmas?
Licensed lines can go from bestseller to dead stock very quickly. Seeing that early saves real money.
Shopify and Xero, connected
Tower connects directly with Shopify and Xero. Your online store and your shop work from the same stock, and your sales flow through to Xero without anyone retyping them.
It comes back to service
Family-run toy shops that do well are known for something: the advice, the wrapping, the repairs, or remembering your kid’s birthday. The software’s job is to make that easy, even when you’re busy.
If you’d like to see how Tower would work in your toy shop, Tim and Justin are happy to take you through it. Call 1300 662 957 (AU), 0800 444 367 (NZ) or email sales@towersystems.com.au.
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