The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

Easy and fast setup POS software for Australian retailers

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Retailers who want to get up and running with good POS software quickly have a solution in Tower Systems.

We help retailers get live with smart POS software quickly in their businesses.

You can sign up today and be transacting today, that to our smooth, fast and professionally supported POS software ramp-up opportunity.

We help retailers across a range of retail channels with awesome POS software. Jewellers, garden centres, bike shops, sewing shops, pet shops, newsagents, gift shops, fishing and outdoors shops, produce businesses, firearms dealers, antique shops, charity shops, bookshops … and more.

The easy POS software setup road is smooth, safe and ready for local small businesses to get live with awesome Aussie made and supported POS software.

Our installation, training and setup professionals are in-house, they work for us, helping you. We don’t use third party companies. We don’t tell you to find someone for yourself to setup the software and train you.

Good POS software companies do do this themselves, working with you, helping you, encouraging you and guiding you to get live with the new POS software as quickly as you want. Yes, you can work at the pace that best serves your needs.

The fast setup and go-live pathway for the Tower Systems POS software helps businesses that need it now, need to be live today, need to be transacting sales right away. All of us here at Tower Systems will do our best to make this happen for you, to satisfy your needs and make what you ant and need a reality in the way you want.

While our POS software is off the shelf, and available to rent for a few dollars a day, it is very flexible. This is why we guide you in terms of systems settings and setup, to help you make sure the software is tuned to meet the needs of your business. Yes, the off the shelf software can work differently in different retail businesses.

If you need good POS software up and running in your shop quickly, talk to the team at Tower Systems and find out if this software serves your business needs. You can see demonstrations of the software at our POS software YouTube channel. You can call our sales team on 1300 662 957. or, you can email them at sales@towersystems.com.au.

We won’t chase you or push you or drive you to make a decision. What you decide, when you decide it and what happens from there is 100% up to you. This is how Tower Systems operates. We offer a smooth and certain road towards getting live with our POS software – if that’s the software you choose for your local retail business.

The software itself is comprehensive and tailored for each of the marketplaces in which it serves. But, at its core, this POS software offers access to a range of loved benefits, including:

  1. Say goodbye to LayBy With our buy now pay later options.
  2. Customers will love your product use and care instructions on receipts.
  3. Make more money offering special orders that you can easily track from the counter and notify shoppers by email or text when the goods arrive.
  4. Get one-time-only shoppers spending more with an awesome and differentiating loyalty facility.
  5. Sell online easily, direct from your POS software.
  6. Bring customers back with reminders on dates important to them.
  7. Save money on bookkeeping by integrating with accounting software.
  8. Make more money from the one time only shoppers.
  9. Save time, load electronic invoices from suppliers.
  10. Cut mistakes with integrated EFTPOS.

This is software that handles, easily and if you need:

  1. Selling by touch button, barcode scanning or product code entry.
  2. Selling by fractions.
  3. Selling by weight – this software is government approved for scale integration.
  4. Creating barcodes for items that don’t have a barcode.
  5. Tracking the location of a box for an item.
  6. Tracking products baby serial number if they have them.
  7. Tracking customer details when appropriate and if you want.
  8. Comparing supplier performance.
  9. Seeing what’s not working in the shop.
  10. seeing opportunities for growth in the shop.

There are so many options in this POS software, ways you can make selections in the software to do more, as the business needs. here is a Q&A covering some of these specialty needs.

Can you pass on hazardous good information? Yes, you can load files, images, documents or PDFs for products (information sheets, advice, notices) and have them automatically included in emailed receipts.

We sell on the road, is there a mobile version? Yes, our Retailer RoamTM option is perfect for selling from anywhere.

Does the software work with and easily load supplier provided electronic invoices? Yes, many across a range of specialty retail channels.

Can you manage breaking up bulk product and selling at smaller quantities? Yes, you can receive product in bulk and break it into smaller selling packs.

Can you manage creating your own custom products using multiple products whilst keeping track of qty on hand figures? Yes, you can take a number of items, mix them and then bag up your own product made from them.

Can you set specific pricing for special groups of customers ie trade customers? Yes.

Can you manage quotes? Yes, you can create quotes and then turn them into sales if they proceed.

Can you manage deliveries? Yes, the software has a couple of ways of doing this.

Will the system print picking slips for local deliveries? Yes.

Are the stock labels the system produces weatherproof? Yes, as long as you purchase our weatherproof label stock.

Can you handle repairs and servicing of machinery like mowers etc? Yes, repairs facilities included with the software track repairs, parts used, labour used and advising the customer the item is ready to collect.

Can you reach back out to customers you remind them of previous seasons they purchased in?Yes, you can select customers for marketing past on a range of criteria, including past purchases.

Does the system handle account customers? Yes, you can setup and manage customer accounts.

Does the system produce invoicing and statements? Yes, these can be printed or emailed.

Can I offer a special price to members of a club? Yes.

Can I share local information such as local or seasonal information?  Yes, on receipts.

Can I remind customers about equipment servicing? Yes.

The Tower Systems POS software is mature yet fresh. The visual appeal of the software is loved by many thanks to the design refresh just rolled out. This, along with significant under the hood enhancement, provides access to software that goes much further than you may see in other POS solutions.

The challenge, though, is how do you choose the POS software that is right for your business. Our advice is take your time, do your homework, know your needs before you talk to any software companies. What you need is what you need. It is vital that you know what you will compromise on, and what you will not.

Choosing the right software for your jewellery shop can be easy if you follow some simple steps: be sure of what your business needs; understand the value of this to your business; and, remain focused on the business outcomes important to you.

It is easy for professional software sales people to confuse you along the way.  This can be avoided is you stick to the three simple steps.  Some sales people need to be reminded that this is your choice and that you will choose the system which is right for your business.

While we could write thousands of words on how to go about determining your needs and preparing an appropriate specification document, the reality for many independent jewellery retailers is that this is not appropriate.  Instead, we recommend a single sheet of paper approach. Yes, old-school.  It’s easy and achievable by business people of all skill sets.

So, take out a sheet of paper rule a line down the middle.  On the left hand side, note down the requirements of a computer system which you consider will be unique to your business.  What is it you do which you feel not many other jewellery retailers would require?  Do you put extra emphasis on ease of use? Will your business need comprehensive support? How important is securing your database and business information? Do you operate off a non standard markup policy? Do you handle repairs internally, externally, or both?

Most good Point of Sale systems have common functionality in the traditional areas of selling, printing receipts, handling customer accounts, managing discounting and reporting on sales.  It is in the ‘fringe’ and use of use where you will find differences and these often are differences in businesses as well.

In creating this list of functions and facilities which are unique to your business consider these questions:

  • How computer literate are your people?
  • How do you handle Lay Bys?  Is your approach common?
  • Do you have a loyalty program and if so is it unique  to your business?
  • What needs do you have that you think may be unique?
  • Do you sell by fractions?
  • Do you need a seamless and direct link to selling online?
  • Do you have a need to compare the performance of multiple suppliers in a specific department?
  • Do you wish to compare staff sales results and process commissions accordingly?
  • How do you market to existing customers and would use your software to help?

Next to each of your requirements, and they have to be your requirements and not a cut and paste of the list above, be sure to note the amount of time you spend with current systems and processes.  This could be the amount of time you save by purchasing another system.

There are many other business specific questions and requirements you could consider.  The list above is provided to stimulate your thoughts about the specific needs you have in your jewellery shop.

It may be that your needs are not covered in any existing system.  This is when you need to decide on whether the cost of NOT having access to these needs being covered is worth the considerable saving of going with an off the shelf system.

On the right hand side of the paper, note down what is important to you in the software company from which you purchase your software.  These points ought to be the must haves without which you will knock out a business.  For what it’s worth and based on many years serving small businesses similar to yours, here are my suggestions for this list:

  • They own the software.  That is, you are purchasing from the company which develops the software. There is nothing worse than buying through an agent who does not have easy direct access to the software developers.
  • The software is regularly updated.
  • Training.  The system is provided with training by the company itself.  Too many software companies nowadays contract training out or do not provide training. This provides an opportunity for them to point the finger if there are later support issues.
  • Easy support access. They support your business by investing seriously in their support. 24/7 telephone software support is available.
  • User meetings.  Make sure there are opportunities for you to meet , probably online via Zoom, with the leadership team of the POS software company. Have them show you how the voices of their customers are heard and responded to.
  • Enhancement suggestions.  Make sure that the software company has a mechanism for you making your enhancement suggestions known to them.  This demonstrates that your opinions really do matter.

Once you have this sheet of paper you are almost ready to start looking at software systems.

Take some time to get together copies of all the key documents you use.  You will need to compare these with what any POS system you consider offers.  This includes receipts, orders, reports and especially any spreadsheets you work on to manage the business.

You are almost ready to look at possible systems.  First up, compare the websites of the companies you are considering.  Be sure to assess the ease of navigation of the websites, the professionalism and speed.  These are all indicators of the software the companies sell.

When you are ready, arrange the demonstrations.  Book these for your shop so that the sales people can see your business first hand.  If they offer you a demonstration copy of the software say no as this is a lazy way to sell, leaving you to do all the work.

If you are looking for POS software for your business, take your time, do your research, choose software that serves your needs.

Tower Systems is a full service POS software company. We make what we sell. We support it. Our software is regularly enhanced – and we rely on suggestions from our customers for plenty of enhancements. We are specialist, too. Take a look, for example, at what we offer pet shops in our pet shop software:

  • Save time with electronic invoices from suppliers.
  • Easy special customer orders. Smart tracking and customer notification.
  • Make money from pre-orders – Easily pre-sell before release.
  • Community group pricing. Set pricing rules based on customer type.
  • Easy record keeping: pet microchip tracking.
  • Recall customers based on worming and other needs.
  • Business differentiating loyalty. Stand out from the crowd. Drive sales.
  • Differentiate with bundles. Make price comparison hard.
  • Say goodbye to LayBy – with integrated buy now pay later options.
  • Market to customers based on past purchases.
  • Cut accounting and bookkeeping fees with integration to Xero and others.
  • Easily sell online with a direct to Shopify link from your POS software.

We tell retailers to love their shop as much as their customers love yotheirr pets. Here are 6 ways this pet shop software helps achieve this.

  1. Easy small wins. The one-percenters make a business. This pet shop software is packed with one-percenters, helping you to small wins in efficiency, add-on purchases, smarter buying and more.
  2. Healthier pets. Pet owners will love your reminders about a treatment that is due. They will also love that you treat their pets as a member of the family. You will love that this software makes it easy.
  3. Hands off. Every keyboard click has a cost and could be a mistake. Look at your last Kongs invoice and reflect on the time it took to process. Imagine importing an accurate electronic version in seconds.
  4. Standing out from the crowd. While dog breeds are judged to a set of strict standards, in retail being different matters. When it comes to loyalty, we help you stand out, be noticed and be loved.
  5. You are the difference. When it comes to pet food and other items that make up the bulk of your revenue, standing out from the crowd can be a challenge. The thing is, you and your people are the difference. This software helps you shine a light on that.
  6. Not every shopper will walk past your door. A smart and seamless connection between your software and a beautiful website can help you easily and with low overhead sell to people you will never meet.

This is an example for the pet shop software from Tower Systems. Each marketplace is as fine-tuned and targeted in terms of software function as this.

Tower systems is here to help local specialty retailers achieve more with their POS software, and we can do this with our fast go-live approach, if that is what you want.

By Mark
The POS Software Blog

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