The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

Tagspecialty retail POS

Generic POS Software Fits Everyone Loosely. Vertical Software Fits You.

September 27, 2026
2 Min read
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Walk into any specialty retail business and the specifics jump out. A garden centre manages living stock that changes with the seasons. A newsagency juggles hundreds of magazine titles on sale-or-return terms. A jeweller tracks repairs. A produce store sells by weight, by bag and by unit, sometimes for the same product.

Generic POS software treats all of these shops the same. That is its nature, and its weakness.

Tower Systems is a vertical market software company. It makes software for specific needs and specific retail channels. Not generic software with a settings page, but software shaped around how particular types of shops actually trade: their stock structures, their supplier arrangements, their seasonal rhythms, their customer habits.

The difference shows up everywhere. In a vertical product, the workflows a retailer needs are built in, not bolted on through third-party add-ons that each carry their own fee and their own point of failure. Reports speak the language of the channel. Support staff understand the business, not just the buttons, because they work with that channel every day. And when the channel itself changes, the software changes with it, because the software company has no choice but to stay current in the niches it serves.

Generic platforms make a different bet. They aim for the broadest possible market and rely on retailers to adapt themselves to the software. Some businesses can live with that. Specialty retailers usually cannot, and they discover it months in, when the workarounds pile up and the “flexible” platform turns out to be flexible for everyone except them.

There is a useful test for any retailer comparing options. Ask the software company to name the retail channels it serves. A vertical company answers in seconds. A generic one answers with the word “everyone”, which really means no one in particular.

Tower Systems develops and supports POS software for local specialty retailers in Australia and New Zealand. The focus is only on indie retailers, not franchises or chains. Specific software, for specific shops, is the whole idea.

Learn more at www.towersystems.com.au.

At Tower Systems, we’re here: 1300 662 957 or sales@towersystems.com.au. If you’re in NZ, call 0800 444 367. Contacting a human is easy.

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Small Business Retailers Understand Human Service: When Did Talking to Your POS Software Company Become So Hard?

September 21, 2026
2 Min read
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There is a disconnect between some software companies and their customers, and retailers feel it most when something goes wrong.

The pattern is familiar. A retailer needs help, so they visit the software company’s website. There is no phone number, only a form. Or there is a phone number, but it leads to a multi-layered menu that ends with an invitation to leave a message. Or the only channel is email, with a reply promised in one to two business days. Or the call connects to an offshore help desk where the staff, through no fault of their own, do not know much about the software itself.

None of that helps a retailer with a queue at the counter.

Tower Systems takes a different view. Support is personal, and it all starts with a conversation. Retailers who call Tower Systems talk to a human. Not a menu. Not a chatbot standing guard in front of the humans. A person who knows the software, because supporting it is their job.

That accessibility runs deeper than the help desk. Customers of Tower Systems can easily reach a human in support, in sales, and in leadership. Plenty of software companies keep their decision-makers well away from customers. Tower Systems does the opposite, and has for decades. It is a genuine differentiator, and retailers notice.

Why does this matter so much in specialty retail? Because context matters. A generic help desk can reset a password. It takes people who understand a retail channel to help with the question behind the question, the one about the business itself.

Tower Systems develops and supports POS software for local specialty retailers in Australia and New Zealand. The focus is only on indie retailers, not franchises or chains. That focus keeps the company close to the people it serves, close enough to answer the phone.

For any retailer weighing up POS software, here is a simple test: before signing anything, try to get a human from the company on the phone. The result tells you plenty. At Tower Systems, we’re here: 1300 662 957 or sales @towersystems.com.au If you’re in NZ, call 0800 444 367.

Learn more at www.towersystems.com.au.

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Ten questions produce, stockfeed and farm supply retailers ask

September 14, 2026
2 Min read
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Over the last fortnight Tower Systems published an answer a day to the questions produce, stockfeed and farm supply retailers ask most often about their systems. Each answer covers what the Tower Systems software for produce / stockfeed / farm supply businesses does about it. Every one came from a real conversation in a real store.

They are collected here.

  1. Selling by the kilo, the metre and the half bag. Getting bulk sales accurate, and why it decides whether margin reporting means anything.

  2. Buying raw material and bagging an own blend. Following stock from raw material through mixing to the bag on the floor, and finally knowing what an own brand earns.

  3. Two trucks, six drops. Managing dispatch in a system rather than on a whiteboard, and pricing delivery with the cost known.

  4. Farm accounts on 30-day terms. Statements out on time, ageing visible, and seeing the drift while it is still small.

  5. Chemicals over the counter. Records that can be produced later, and prompts that guide whoever is on the counter.

  6. Labels that survive the yard. Weatherproof labelling, and why readable labels are really about trusting the stock file.

  7. Selling off the truck and at the field day. Taking real sales away from the counter, including where there is no signal.

  8. Keying supplier invoices by hand. Electronic invoice links, what is realistic, and where the hours actually come back.

  9. One stock file for shop and website. Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce, with the Tower Systems software for produce / stockfeed / farm supply businesses as the single source of truth.

  10. End of month taking a weekend. Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks, and books that are current enough to make decisions with.

Any produce, stockfeed or farm supply business is welcome to use this material. Pass it to whoever else in the business would find it useful.

And if one of the ten is a live problem right now, let us know, ask us how the Tower Systems software for produce / stockfeed / farm supply businesses deals with it. The answer on fit will be honest. Being told early beats being sold something that does not suit the business. If we think we may not be right for you, we will say so.
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Contact us: sales@towersystems.com.au or 1300 662 957 or research us: www.towersystems.com.au. Locally made. Locally supported.

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Why gift shops outgrow Square and Shopify POS

June 13, 2026
3 Min read
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Square and Shopify POS are fine tools. They’re built for everyone, which means they’re built for no one in particular. That matters more in a gift shop than in most retail businesses.

A gift shop is not a cafe. It’s not a clothing store either.

You carry many items, sometimes thousands of items, often only one or two of each.

You buy from dozens of suppliers, some of them small and quirky. Your trade swings hard with the seasons: Mother’s Day, Christmas, Valentine’s Day. A generic point of sale system doesn’t understand any of that, because it wasn’t built for it.

Here’s where software made for gift shops earns its keep.

Supplier invoices load electronically. When a delivery arrives with 200 new lines, you don’t type them in. The invoice imports, items are created or updated, and you’re back on the shop floor. Retailers tell us this saves hours every week.

Loyalty built for occasional shoppers. Points programs suit businesses people visit daily – that’s their function, to get people in more often, which is easier in a cafe or supermarket. Gift shop customers might visit a few times a year. Our loyalty prints a dollar voucher on the receipt, something shoppers can see and spend. Retailers using it report customers returning sooner and spending more per visit. Now, if you want a points based system, it’s there, included.

LayBy done properly. Not a workaround, not a plug-in. LayBy is part of how plenty of people shop for gifts, and the software handles it natively, including payments, reminders and reporting.

Reordering based on evidence. The software shows what’s selling, by item, category and supplier, so you reorder winners and quit losers. In a shop where margin is made through buying decisions, this is gold.

Reporting that shows where you make money. Which suppliers perform. Which categories carry the shop. Which don’t. You can’t get that from a system that treats every retail business the same.

Developed locally. Your type of retail is local. Software developed locally is more likely to serve that local focus you have.

There’s one more difference worth naming. Square makes its money clipping the ticket on every sale you make. We’re a software company. We’ve served local Australian retailers since 1981, and when you call for help, a real person answers, here in Australia.

If your software was made for everyone, it wasn’t made for you. That’s the case for POS software made specifically for gift shops.

We are Tower Systems. sales@towersystems.com.au

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Five Reasons Generic POS Software Fails Specialty Retailers

May 14, 2026
3 Min read
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Generic POS software isn’t bad software. For many businesses — a coffee shop, a pop-up market stall, a simple fashion boutique — it does the job.

But for specialty retailers, it often creates a slow accumulation of frustrations. Workarounds that take extra time. Features that are almost right but not quite. Data that doesn’t reflect how your business actually works.

If you consider your business to be unique, you want to choose software that supports your uniqueness, that serves it well, for you.

Here are five ways generic software lets specialty retailers down.

1. It can’t sell the way you sell

Generic POS assumes you sell individual units at a fixed price. But a garden centre sells plants by pot size, bulk soil by the bag, and services by the hour. A fabric shop sells material by the metre or fraction thereof. A produce business sells grain by weight on a government-certified scale. A jeweller sells items with serial numbers that need to be tracked individually.

2. It doesn’t connect to your suppliers

Independent specialty retailers buy through buying groups and industry-specific suppliers. Newsagents use XchangeIT. Bike shops use Bike Exchange. Produce businesses use AIRR. Bookshops use TitlePage and Pacstream. These connections save hours every week. Generic POS doesn’t know these networks exist.

3. It doesn’t handle the service side of your business

Many specialty retailers also repair, restore, or service products. Bike shops, jewellers, music shops, and sewing businesses manage repairs with parts, labour, warranty, and customer notification. Generic POS has no concept of a repair job.

4. Its reporting doesn’t reflect your categories

A newsagent needs to track magazine returns, lottery income, and greeting card performance by range. A jeweller tracks sales by metal type, stone type, and occasion. Generic reporting gives you sales by product and date — useful, but not enough.

5. Support staff don’t know your industry

Generic POS support staff are trained on the software. They may not know what XchangeIT is, how a magazine return works, or why your scale integration is measuring incorrectly. Specialty POS support staff deal with your type of business every day.

The alternative

Purpose-built POS software for your specific retail type has these answers already built in. Not as upgrades. Not as third-party integrations. Built in.

Tower Systems serves 19 retail categories with purpose-built tools for each. We’ve been doing this for over 40 years.

Find your retail type →

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