The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

CategoryBook shop software

Retailers loving the 1% EFTPOS fee rate offer

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Many of our local retail business POS software customers have jumped on the 1% EFTPOS fee rate. This is an optional rate with the choice entirely up to our POS software customers.

Here at Tower Systems we do not require our POS software customers to use any particular EFTPOS or payments platform. We leave the choice to them without any cost or penalty applied. This is a difference we are proud of, that we do not charge customers based on the EFTPOS platform they use. There is no penalty, no demand they use a particular platform.

The 1% EFTPOS cost offer for Tower Systems customers is another way we have sought to reduce operating costs for our small business retail customers.

Customers are loving it.

We also make it easy in our POS software for our customers to pass on actual EFTPOS costs to their customers, making EFTPOS cost them nothing at all in their businesses. That they are passing on a low cost is another way they can differentiate their business.

This 1% EFTPOS cost is for a solution integrated with our software. This means a bunch of benefits, such as:

  • Reduced keystrokes.
  • Reduced mistakes.
  • Reduced accounting and bookkeeping overhead.
  • Faster sales processing.
  • Better sales counter workflow.
  • Lower business costs.
  • Easy refund management.
  • Easier customer query handling.
  • Single point takings balancing for the beguines.
  • Reduced employee fraud.

There are plenty of benefits of this POS software integrated EFTPOS solutions beyond the low 1% EFTPOS cost to businesses.

Local retail business management benefits from integrated solutions. They do save time, and they reduce operating costs. That the financial costs are low is a loved benefit too.

We are proud to have been able to leverage this 1% EFTPOS fee rate for our Tower Systems customers, all of whom are local independent retail businesses, small businesses. It’s another way we have been able to help these small businesses get benefits that are often only available to big and national businesses.

Tower Systems is a small business focussed POS software company developing, and supporting POS software for niche specialty retailers. Jewellers, garden centres, bike shops, toy shops, produce businesses, farm supply businesses, fishing shops, pet shops, charity businesses, landscape gardening businesses, antique shops, sewing shops, haberdashery businesses, newsagents and more benefit from this software.

Advice most POS software can’t or won’t provide

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Since we own and run shops in which our Tower Systems POS software is used and in which we live the retailer experience personally, we have a perspective that is close to our customers than most POS software companies. It also gets us working with other retailers. It’s that personal contact that prompted us to share this advice and  stock holding and, in particular, being over stocked, with our customers:

Stock in boxes in the back room, in a garage or under tables in the shop will not sell unless it is displayed.

While this will be obvious to most, there are some retailers who don’t get it.

If you do have stock in boxes and no room to display it, consider pausing spending to give you time to convert those purchases to cash.

The alternative is that you do nothing, and your ability to pay bills is impacted.

It’s your business. You choose when to spend and when to not spend.

Some retailers buy friendship through their purchasing. Others like to look busy with a shop bursting with stock. Others buy to feel better about themselves. Spending for any of these wrong is not helpful to the business, not helpful top you.

There are sales reps who would know they are selling stock to a business that does not need it. Shame on them. Shame on them putting their own financial rewards ahead of the evidence of an overstocked and financially stressed business. Sales people doing this are no friend of the business owner.

If you don’t know the current value of the stock in your business, it’s likely you have too much stock.

So, what’s the value of your current stock on hand?

If the value of your non circulation product (magazines and newspapers) stock right now is more than 20% of the total revenue you will make from it in a year, you probably have too much stock. The actual percentage will vary by product category.

There will be some who say the 20% figure is inaccurate and unhelpful. I have tested it in a few businesses and it is a reasonable first step guide.

So, what’s the value of your current stock on hand? Start there. Then look at your non circulation product revenue for the last year. The numbers will support what you currently see in your shop.

If you have boxes of stock that you’ve not opened for six months or more, you have too much stock. If your back room, garage and or under display table space is filled with boxes you have a problem.

The best way to address being overstocked is to stop buying and sell down what you have, and to do so without emotion.

The alternative is that you do not address the issue and the issue swamps you and your business.

It’s black and white – in your numbers and in your business.

This is one example of the practical way in which our POS software company engaged with retailers.

Retail business advice: make every day your pay day

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This is advice we first shared many years ago. We have updated it, updated it more, and updated it again this morning.

We think this is the best advice we could give any local small business retailer as it focuses you on what matters most – nurturing daily value from your business.

Everything you do today has to about making money today because what you make today may matter more than what you make when you sell your business.

Let’s get into it:

Retail business advice: make every day your pay day.

It starts with the mindset of every day being your pay day. Every decision needs to be considered in this context.

Here are some suggestions for making every day your pay day:

  1. Make your shop happy, appealing. Play good music. Smile. be happy to be there. Greet shoppers. Offer free samples. Be engaged.
  2. Make sure your sales counter maximises the opportunity. Keep it efficient. Pitch products that are easily understood and easily bought on impulse.
  3. Charge more every time you can. Where you can, charge more. Even and extra 1% or 2% can make a difference. In our experience, price is often not the factor retailers think it is.  So, look at your prices for opportunities to increate margin.
  4. Get people buying more each visit. Look at what you have where and make sure that key traffic lines have impulse purchase opportunities along the way.
  5. Stock what sells. Use your data. Make sure you don’t run out of good selling items. 75% of retailers miss revenue by not having items shoppers want when they want them. Buying stock based on evidence is more valuable than buying based on emotion.
  6. Be cleverly frugal. When you are considering spending money, think about the value for the business from the spend. Think about the return you could get and the speed of the return. Have some checks and balances in spending decisions to slow them down.
  7. Seek out new customers. New customers are the future lifeblood of any retail business. Attract them with smart and entertaining social media posts, a window display that plays outside what people expect from your shop.
  8. Run with the leanest roster possible. Just about every retail business we review has capacity to lower labour costs. Trimming the roster can come at a cost for the owners – putting in more hours.
  9. Bring people back sooner with a thoughtfully calibrated loyalty offer that funds itself, and drives value. Every retail business needs a core action designed to bring people back. A timed loyalty offer, which expires, is a good way to do this.
  10. Have your best people working the floor, helping customers spend more. Today, retail is not about may I help you. Rather, it is about engaging with the products and subtly showing them off, like theatre.
  11. Have at least one stunning display that attract people from outside the shop, a display people talk about.
  12. Buy as best you can. Take settlement discounts where possible. Pick up supplier offers. never pass on your better buying to customers, unless it suits for some event you are running. Oh, and with this advice about buying – only do it for items you know you will sell for buying product at a discount and having it on the shelves too long is too much of a cost for the business.
  13. De-clutter. Sometimes the best way to be able to see your business and what it can do is for you to have less to look at. This means getting rid of dead stock, dead fixtures, dead corners of the shop. Always be trimming, cleaning and looking.
  14. Change. Every day in your shop change something. Get known as the shop that is never the same. This can be a reason to visit for some shoppers. If you run a  business that rarely changes, you give people a reason to walk on by. So, every day, make a change or two. Encourage your team members to suggest changes. By moving a small stand from one part of the business to another could get it noticed and boost sales.
  15. Stop all busy work. It is easy in a local small business retail to get caught up in doing things. Often, things can be what you do to be busy. Being busy is only good if it is profitable, productive. Declutter your schedule.

Be responsible for the profitability of your business. Don’t blame your suppliers, your landlord, your employees or some other external factor … it all comes down to you – the decisions you make and the actions you take.

By making every day your payday you bring focus on what matters today and what will matter when you’d decide to sell your business.

Doing all this relies on your measuring the performance of your business. The Tower Systems POS software helps with this. It is easy.

My name is Mark Fletcher. I am the owner of Tower Systems. I also own retail shops and several online businesses. Every day here at Tower Systems we live what we say, in our software company and in our shops. We make mistakes, and learn from them. It’s some of those mistakes that got us thinking about this, about the approach of making every day your payday.

While our core mission is to grow the customer base for Tower Systems, we know that key to achieving this helping retailers. Plenty of the help we provide is not software related.

In sharing this advice we demonstrate a care for local small business retail and a transparency as to the advice and help we provide.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-fletcher-tower/

Tower Systems Bookshop POS Software: Helping Local Bookshops Thrive

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The locally made and supported bookshop POS software from Tower Systems helps local bookshops in a bunch of ways, from the sales counter to the back office to a POS software connected  website that drives online sales. But there are two ways in particular where our software provides practical and beneficial help to local bookshops:

  • Returns management. Returning unsold books can be a time-consuming task. But with our bookshop software, booksellers can easily identify titles that can be returned based on when they arrived in store, how many have been sold, and how many are currently in stock. We also provide a structured approach to handling returns in a way that is friendly to publishers. Our approach has been tested with booksellers, so we know it’s genuinely useful and meets the requirements of suppliers.
  • Titlepage integration. Our software has been integrated with Titlepage for many years. Our latest integration is even better and more useful for book retailers. And as Titlepage software continues to evolve, so will our integration.

We are grateful to local bookshop customers who have helped us evolve our bookshop POS software over the years, to help it lead into new areas of relevance and value for these vital local shops.

We provide local booksellers with POS software that is designed to help them serve their local communities. Our software helps them position their businesses as locally focused in unique ways, from reader loyalty programs to special interest focus to local club support to bundle offers. We help local bookshops better serve local readers and those who buy for them.

Beyond the shop, our seamless Shopify integration makes it easy for local booksellers to sell online professionally. This enables them to reach shoppers far beyond their local catchment area. We are proud to have delivered bookshop software connected websites that are doing this.

Our locally made bookshop software also includes other tools that booksellers tell us they like, such as:

  • Easy searching of book inventory by title or part of a title.
  • Easy searching by book inventory by author name or part of author name.
  • Pacstream integration.
  • Structured handling of special orders of books.

Book retailing is a challenging industry, with big businesses pushing hard in this space. Our goal with our locally made bookshop software is to help small local retailers compete more successfully every day.

The bookshop POS software we offer today is different to what we will offer tomorrow. We are constantly evolving our software to meet the changing needs of our customers and the bookselling industry.

If you are a local book retailer, we’d love to find out if we could serve your needs.

POS software for bookshops

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Tower Systems is grateful to serve bookshops with locally made and supported POS software. Here’s a 7 minute video showing some of the highlights of this POS software.

Using our bookshop POS software / bookstore POS software local bookshops can leverage a range of facilities designed to help the run efficient and enjoyable businesses. Facilities in the POS software made for bookshops and available for $185 (inc. GST) a month include:

  • TitlePage integration for easy lookup.
  • International barcode direct connect for easy lookup.
  • ChatGPT integration for smart product descriptions designed to help with customer searching.
  • Returns management. Returning unsold books can be time consuming. Using our bookshop software, booksellers can identify titles that can be returned based on arrival in-store, sales and current quantity on hand. We provide the insight and the structured approach for handling the return, in a publisher friendly way. The approach in our software has been tested with booksellers, to ensure it is genuinely useful and in line with what is required from suppliers.
  • Pacstream connectivity. From within our bookshop software you have access to Pacstream integration. Ask us to demonstrate this to you, so you can see how it works live and in person. The PacStream platform is robust and commercially beneficial to retailers. Indeed, PacStream access is critical for book retailers.
  • Easy searching of book inventory by title or part of a title.
  • Easy searching by book inventory by author name or part of author name.
  • Structured handling of special orders for customers.

We serve local booksellers with bookshop software made to help them serve their local communities. Our software helps them position their businesses as locally focussed in unique ways and touchpoints from reader loyalty to special interest focus to local club support to bundle offers. We help local bookshops better serve local readers and those who buy for them.

Independent book retailers are the lifeblood of the community, often at the heart of discussion, gathering and learning. Our bookshop software supports this role for bookshops in a range of ways, helping bookshop owners to serve community groups while strengthening their businesses.

Booksellers have access to:

  • Loyalty facilities through which you can genuinely differentiate your business, … shoppers respond to the levers you can pull.
  • Sell online, easily. Our Shopify integration is seamless, official and easy to use and manage.
  • Event marketing through which you can create contact lists of customers based on events and other connections.

This software has been embraced by book retailers.

Bookstore POS software / Bookshop POS software helps local indie bookshops thrive

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Tower Systems is grateful to serve plenty of local indie bookshops with our bookstore POS software.

Using our bookshop POS software / bookstore POS software local bookshops can leverage a range of facilities designed to help the run efficient and enjoyable businesses. Facilities in the POS software made for bookshops and available for $185 (inc. GST) a month include:

  • TitlePage integration for easy lookup.
  • International barcode direct connect for easy lookup.
  • ChatGPT integration for smart product descriptions designed to help with customer searching.
  • Returns management. Returning unsold books can be time consuming. Using our bookshop software, booksellers can identify titles that can be returned based on arrival in-store, sales and current quantity on hand. We provide the insight and the structured approach for handling the return, in a publisher friendly way. The approach in our software has been tested with booksellers, to ensure it is genuinely useful and in line with what is required from suppliers.
  • Pacstream connectivity. From within our bookshop software you have access to Pacstream integration. Ask us to demonstrate this to you, so you can see how it works live and in person. The PacStream platform is robust and commercially beneficial to retailers. Indeed, PacStream access is critical for book retailers.
  • Easy searching of book inventory by title or part of a title.
  • Easy searching by book inventory by author name or part of author name.
  • Structured handling of special orders for customers.

Of course, there is easy to use POS software, excellent insights reporting and more. Our loyalty tools are tuned for the typical frequency of visit in a local bookshop, making this POS software valuable in local bookshops that want to nurture a stickiness with local shoppers.

We serve local booksellers with bookshop software made to help them serve their local communities. Our software helps them position their businesses as locally focussed in unique ways and touchpoints from reader loyalty to special interest focus to local club support to bundle offers. We help local bookshops better serve local readers and those who buy for them.

Beyond the bookshop, our seamless Shopify link helps local booksellers sell online easily and professionally … enabling them to play in the online world and reach shoppers way beyond their local catchment area. We are proud to have delivered bookshop software connected websites that are doing this.

Tower Systems has offered bookshop POS software / bookstore POS software for many years. We are grateful to our customer community for their support and their guidance on ways we can make our software more useful.

6 best-value insights that will benefit any local small business retailer

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Retailers in local small business shops can feel alone sometimes when working on their business. They can sometimes get lost in a cave of thoughts without seeing a way out.

We thought about this and considered the thousands of different retailers in our POS software user community, and we developed the Insights Dashboard in our POS software, to deliver easy access to local small business retail insights that any retailer could leverage, regardless of size, location, specialty area or setting.

We wanted to ensure that what we delivered would be useful regardless of level of business management literacy and financial management literacy. We wanted to deliver the insights without the retailer having to seek them out. We wanted to genuinely add value to what a local small business retailer could gain from using our POS software.

So, via the Insights Dashboard in our POS software, we provide insights in six broad areas – with the insights delivered visually.

Where Are We Today 

Gives you a snapshot of the overall sales & liabilities as it stands today.
 
You can access additional options by clicking the … symbol next to Todays Sales.
  1. Date Range – Expand the sales period covered by changing the start & end dates.
  2. All Locations – Multi-store locations can use this option to include/exclude other locations from the sales figures.
  3. Show Gross Profit Values – This option will show / hide GP values in the Daily Sales Dashboard, which you can access from the Point of Sale screen by pressing [Ctrl] + [D] on your keyboard.

What’s Not Selling 

This gives you a visual understanding of what is not performing in your business.  Deadstock in any business is lost cash.  This report gives you the ability to make decisions on this underperforming stock whether it be discounting or other stock reductions strategies to unlock this lost cash.  
 
You can click any stock item listed to show a graph of sales of that item broken down by month.
There are a number of options available to filter the stock items that appear in the list:
  1. Date Range – Limits the list to stock that has not sold in the amount of time specified.
  2. Listing Bottom – Maximum number of items to list.
  3. Rank By – Determines the order that items appear on the list in.
Click the … symbol for additional options:
  1. Departments – Select between showing stock from all departments or tick the desired departments from the list.
  2. Suppliers – Select between showing stock from all suppliers or tick the desired suppliers from the list.
  3. Exclude Recently Added Items – Exclude stock items that were added to your system inside the time period chosen in the drop down box.

What Am I Missing Out On 

This give you a list of items that have sold out and potential missed opportunity. The visual sales history will assist in ensuring the right items are restocked to ensure future revenue is not missed out on.
 
You can click any stock item listed to show a graph of sales of that item broken down by month.
There are a number of options available to filter the stock items that appear in the list:
  1. Date Range – Limits the list to stock that has sold more recently than the amount of time specified.
  2. Listing Bottom – Maximum number of items to list.
Click the … symbol for additional options:
  1. Departments – Select between showing stock from all departments or tick the desired departments from the list.
  2. Suppliers – Select between showing stock from all suppliers or tick the desired suppliers from the list.
  3. Exclude Recently Added Items – Exclude stock items that were added to your system inside the time period chosen in the drop down box.

What Sells With What 

This gives you an insight to consumer basket analysis. Through this you will see exactly what stock items sell with other stock items and from this you will be able to leverage upsell opportunities, co-location and promotion opportunities.   This also shows the sold alone percentage so you can see item upsell efficiency.
 
You can change the period of time in the Date Range to limit the data to the period chosen. The ten items displayed are the ten best selling items by quantity for the selected time period.

Is Theft An Issue 

This provides a in-depth visual overview of all the retailer audit log records by reason, number of occurrences by time day. This will assist in identifying staff theft/training issues that may need to be addressed within the business.
 
You can change the date range to limit the data to the time period chosen. Changing the time increment alters the lengths of time each day is broken up into.
You can view more complete records by using the Audit Log directly. Please contact Tower Support for help using the audit log.

When Are We Busiest & Quietest 

This is a visual overview used to detect any quiet or peak times in your business by displaying over the week as well as detailed by hour.
 
You can change the week ending date to see data from other weeks. Next to chart value type, you can choose to measure by sales value or number of sales.The top graph shows sales broken down by day of the week. You can change the type of graph used to display this data by clicking the diagram type in the bottom-right. The bottom graph shows sales broken down by time of day. You can change the type of graph used to display this data clicking the diagram type in the bottom-right. You can also view this data as a table by clicking the table symbol in the top-right.

11 reasons why POS software from Tower Systems is worth considering by Aussie local retailers

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  1. Aussie made. We make our POS software here, in Australia, for local specialty Aussie retailers.
  2. Aussie supported. We support our POS software through our help desk team members, who work here in Australia. We have one in New Zealand, too. We have customers in NZ. Everyone on our help desk works for us. We don’t use an offshore help desk.
  3. Aussie supplier connected. Our POS software connects to many Aussie suppliers through easily loading their stock files, loading their electronic invoices and providing them with sales data for auto replenishment – with these connections all controlled by our retail business owner customers.
  4. Aussie accounting connected. Yes, we provide data to Xero and MYOB.
  5. Aussie words used. Terminology matters, especially in local retail. We’re not American software using American terms or UK software using UK terms.
  6. Real people serving you. Call us, a human answers. Email us, a human answers. no bots. No AI. No offshore call centre. Authentic, like local specialty retailers want.
  7. We’re retail experienced. We own and run shops and have done for many years. Almost everyone working in our Aussie POS software company has retail experience.
  8. Our software is for specialty retail, not everyone. That’s right, our software is not right for everyone. By not chasing everyone, we handle the specialist retail requirements that we do handle well, with maturity and depth of functionality.
  9. 100% local small business focussed. We don’t provide access to our software to mid-size or big retailers. Our focus is 100% on local small business retail. Those are the businesses that matter to us. You will never get lost in the crowd with Tower Systems
  10. This POS software continues to evolve. We regularly release valuable updates that enhance the capabilities of the software. his year, in 2022 so far, we have released 3 significant updates.
  11. It covers unique needs. Serial number tracking, dispatch management, selling by fractions, scale integration, serial number tracking, age checking, supplier integration, integrated loyalty … these specialty retail needs are more are core to our POS software.

There are more than 11 reasons to consider POS software from Tower Systems, many more, including facilities it may offer that are unique to your business. You would only know of this match or connection if you look at the software. that’s obligation free. Call 1300 662 057 or email sales@towersystems.com.au and set it up. we’d love to learn about your needs and show what we offer. Then, you can decide if we’re a match.

We will never pressure you.

Have a wonderful day …

TitlePage POS software integration for bookshops

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The Tower Systems POS software integrates with TitlePage, offering a true value-add service for bookshops and anyone who sells books. Here’s a short video from us demonstrating the TitlePage POS software link.

We are grateful to bookshops and book retailers who use our POS software and the TitlePage integration to better serve book customers.

Bookshop software helps local bookshops sell in-store and online

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The bookshop software from Tower Systems helps local bookshops serve their local communities.

This is software for bookshops that they can use in-store as well as connected to Shopify for easy and fast selling online.

Using the Tower Systems bookshop software, booksellers are able to handle:

  • Returns management. Returning unsold books can be time consuming. Using our bookshop software, booksellers can identify titles that can be returned based on arrival in-store, sales and current quantity on hand. We provide the insight and the structured approach for handling the return, in a publisher friendly way. The approach in our software has been tested with booksellers, toe snare it is genuinely useful and in line with what is required from suppliers.
  • Titlepage Integration. Our software has connected to Titlepage fore years. Our latest integration is even better and more useful for book retailers. This will evolve further as the Titlepage software itself permits.
  • Pacstream connectivity. From within our bookshop software you have access to Pacstream integration. Ask us to demonstrate this to you, so you can see how it works live and in person.

We serve local booksellers with bookshop software made to help them serve their local communities. Our software helps them position their businesses as locally focussed in unique ways and touchpoints from reader loyalty to special interest focus to local club support to bundle offers. We help local bookshops better serve local readers and those who buy for them.

Beyond the bookshop, our seamless Shopify link helps local booksellers sell online easily and professionally … enabling them to play in the online world and reach shoppers way beyond their local catchment area. We are proud to have delivered bookshop software connected websites that are doing this.

Also embedded in our locally made bookshop software are other tools that booksellers tell us they like:

  • Easy searching of book inventory by title or part of a title.
  • Easy searching by book inventory by author name or part of author name.
  • Structured handling of special orders for customers.

Our goal with our locally made bookshop software is to help small local retailers more successfully compete every day. We do this through good software that is backed by professional and easy to access software support.

The bookshop POS software we offer today is different to what we will offer tomorrow as continuous evolution is part of our approach to POS software development.

Helping local Aussie authors get their stories published – book shop POS software

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We are grateful to serve Shawline Publishing and, in particular, their local retail bookshop, The Independent Bookstore, with our specialty retail POS software.

In our POS software we offer a range of facilities to bookshops, facilities that help them with customer service, sales as well as back of hour management of the business.

From feeding scan sales data to accessing comprehensive title information to loading electronic invoices from suppliers, our POS software made for bookshops has facilities that serve these local businesses and through them serve local Aussie authors seeking to get their writing works out there and into the hands of readers.

Connecting to TitlePage and other book retailing assistance tools, this POS software for bookshops is packed with opportunities, workflow smoothers and revenue drivers, which work well in bookshop situations.

The bookshop POS software from Tower Systems helps local bookshops in myriad ways from the sales counter to the back office to the website driving online sales. There are two ways, however, where the bookstore inventory management software from Tower Systems provide practical and beneficial help to the local book shop.

  • Returns management. Returning unsold books can be time consuming. Using our bookshop software, booksellers can identify titles that can be returned based on arrival in-store, sales and current quantity on hand. We provide the insight and the structured approach for handling the return, in a publisher friendly way. The approach in our software has been tested with booksellers, toe snare it is genuinely useful and in line with what is required from suppliers.
  • Titlepage Integration. Our software has connected to Tiotlepage fore years. Our latest integration is even better and more useful for book retailers. This will evolve further as the Titlepage software itself permits.

We serve local booksellers with POS software made to help them serve their local communities. Our software helps them position their businesses as locally focussed in unique ways and touchpoints from reader loyalty to special interest focus to local club support to bundle offers. We help local bookshops better serve local readers and those who buy for them.

We are grateful to the folks at Shawline publishing for believing in our POS software and using it in their Ballarat business, The Independent Bookstore, to help raise awareness and sales of Australian stories from Australian authors.

Bookstore inventory management software

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The bookstore inventory management software developed and supported by Tower Systems is designed to serve the needs of local independent bookstores.

From managing book title inventory to handling electronic invoices to managing searches in a book store friendly way to managing special orders for customers, this bookstore inventory management software is made for the job, made here in Australian for local Australian and New Zealand bookshop software needs.

We are grateful to book retailers and people who work in bookshops for their advice and guidance as we have evolved this software. Their feedback and courafgement are key to the life this bookstore inventory management software is enjoying and will have in the future. Tower Systems offers a structured and transparent process for capturing ideas for enhancing the software and gauging user community interest in suggested ideas.

Using our bookstore inventory management software, book retailers can expect to have a more enjoyable experience running the business as we facilitate structure around many of the day to day tasks in a bookshop, enabling the business to operate in a more reliable way, especially when the owner is not in the business all of the time.

Connecting to title page and other tools, this software is packed with opportunities, workflow smoothers and revenue drivers, which work well in bookshop situations.

The bookshop POS software from Tower Systems helps local bookshops in myriad ways from the sales counter to the back office to the website driving online sales. There are two ways, however, where the bookstore inventory management software from Tower Systems provide practical and beneficial help to the local book shop.

  • Returns management. Returning unsold books can be time consuming. Using our bookshop software, booksellers can identify titles that can be returned based on arrival in-store, sales and current quantity on hand. We provide the insight and the structured approach for handling the return, in a publisher friendly way. The approach in our software has been tested with booksellers, toe snare it is genuinely useful and in line with what is required from suppliers.
  • Titlepage Integration. Our software has connected to Tiotlepage fore years. Our latest integration is even better and more useful for book retailers. This will evolve further as the Titlepage software itself permits.

We serve local booksellers with POS software made to help them serve their local communities. Our software helps them position their businesses as locally focussed in unique ways and touchpoints from reader loyalty to special interest focus to local club support to bundle offers. We help local bookshops better serve local readers and those who buy for them.

Beyond the shop, our seamless Shopify link helps local booksellers sell online easily and professionally … enabling them to play in the online world and reach shoppers way beyond their local catchment area. We are proud to have delivered bookshop software connected websites that are doing this.

Proud to launch more Shopify websites for small business retailers

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We are grateful to have launched more POS software connected Shopify websites for small business retailers in our community. These sites, all developed by us here in Australia, deliver terrific new customer acquisition opportunities for our shoppers, helping them to sell 24/7 and sell as far afield as they would like.

Here are some of the recently made live websites from our web team:

www.backobourkecollective.com.au
www.inspiretasmania.com.au
www.brindabellastockfeed.com.au
www.heavensabove.com.au
www.loavesrobe.com.au
www.masterjewellersonline.com.au
www.chitchatgifts.com.au
www.eidsvoldrural.com.au
www.forevergiftsandmore.com.au
www.funporium.com.au
www.goulburnstationery.com.au
www.rehfisch.com.au
www.merimbulaextra.com.au
www.morganpark.com.au
www.nextragiftsorange.com.au
www.northsideproduceagency.com.au
www.pamperedpetz.com.au
www.www.paperplayonline.com.au
www.parkesnewsandgifts.com.au
www.rivercitypets.com.au
www.smithstreettraders.com.au
www.sprengersruraltraders.com.au
www.hefeedshop.com.au
www.shop.newcastle.edu.au
www.toyworldcanberra.com.au
www.toyworldwauchope.com.au
www.reasureboxgifts.com.au
www.uncletomspps.com.au
www.warragulpetemporium.com.au
www.welbygardencentre.com.au
www.wollongongbikehub.com.au

If you are interested in a POS software connected website, please reach out to our sales team: sales@towersystems.com.au.

USEFUL, EVERYDAY WEBSITE ADVICE FOR SMALL BUSINESS RETAILERS.
Regardless of who you choose to create your website, here are tips we offer to help make setting up a Shopify site successful for you.

  1. Know why. Knowing why you want the website can answer plenty of other questions. For some it is to win new customers, for others it is revenue growth, while for ithers it is better service of existing customers.
  2. Know your narrator. Every website has a narrator, the person behind the scenes writing the text, responding to queries. Think about that person, how they speak, words they use, their manner. Think of this person as a character you create.
  3. Look at competitor sites online locally and overseas as it is beneficial to see what someone else is doing and learn from that.
  4. Only use unique images. If you use supplier supplied images, they may be on other sites and Google will know this. Google likes fresh content.
  5. Write your own product name / title. Use search keyworks in the name – that is, what people are searching for. Google likes fresh content.
  6. Write your own product description and think about what shoppers search for.
  7. Do not load everything. Too much stock makes a site hard to navigate.
  8. Consider using a website name that is different to your business name. Online can benefit from a different brand to your in-store situation.
  9. Be open to additional sites. You may make more money from having multiple.
  10. Support the site with active social media engagement.
  11. Promote the site with an email monthly at least, through MailChimp or similar.

Bookshop POS software helps manage returns, links to Titlepage

B

The bookshop POS software from Tower Systems helps local bookshops in myriad ways from the sales counter to the back office to the website driving online sales. There are two ways, however, where the bookshop POS software from Tower Systems provide practical and beneficial help to the local book shop.

  • Returns management. Returning unsold books can be time consuming. Using our bookshop software, booksellers can identify titles that can be returned based on arrival in-store, sales and current quantity on hand. We provide the insight and the structured approach for handling the return, in a publisher friendly way. The approach in our software has been tested with booksellers, toe snare it is genuinely useful and in line with what is required from suppliers.
  • Titlepage Integration. Our software has connected to Tiotlepage fore years. Our latest integration is even better and more useful for book retailers. This will evolve further as the Titlepage software itself permits.

We serve local booksellers with POS software made to help them serve their local communities. Our software helps them position their businesses as locally focussed in unique ways and touchpoints from reader loyalty to special interest focus to local club support to bundle offers. We help local bookshops better serve local readers and those who buy for them.

Beyond the shop, our seamless Shopify link helps local booksellers sell online easily and professionally … enabling them to play in the online world and reach shoppers way beyond their local catchment area. We are proud to have delivered bookshop software connected websites that are doing this.

Also embedded in our locally made bookshop software are other tools that booksellers tell us they like, tools such as:

  • Easy searching of book inventory by title or part of a title.
  • Easy searching by book inventory by author name or part of author name.
  • Pacstream integration.
  • Structured handling fo special orders of books.

Book retailing is challenging with. big businesses pushing hard in this space. Our goal with our locally made bookshop software is to help small local retailers more successfully compete every day.

The bookshop POS software we offer today is different to what we will offer tomorrow as continuous evolution is part of our approach to POS software development.

Bookshop POS software helps local book shops drive sales

B

The Bookshop POS software from Tower Systems is made in Australia for Australian bookshops. It brings to live smart and engaging features that help bookshops serve local in-store and online shoppers.

Using this software for bookshops, book retailers can offer best of breed loyalty tools, integrate with safe and secure EFTPOS, integrate with Xero or link to MYOB and some Quicken versions … all wonderful time savers for the business.

As bookshop POS software, this software from Tower Systems also offers an integration with Pacstream as well as a link with Title page, each of which offer data and time saving options targeted for booksellers. These connections are part of what helps make the Tower Systems POS software a specialty POS software solution for book retailers.

Our commitment is to maintain best practice links for Pacstream and Title Page, to ensure these links are genuinely helpful and useful in helping to drive the efficiency of store management.

Special orders are a key need experienced by booksellers. Embedded in the bookshop POS software by Tower Systems are beautiful special order facilities that facilitate capturing the order, tracking this and then advising the customer that the order is in-store and available for pickup. This is all done with a focus on data accuracy, time saving and customer service.

Customer marketing is also key for booksellers in that they can benefit from niche marketing to shoppers based open past purchases, especially where they connect to special interest topics. The Tower Systems bookshop POS software has a range of marketing tools that help in this process.

Thorough customer receipts. Booksellers like to have detail on their receipts. In our Tower Systems bookshop POS software booksellers have plenty of control over the look and feel of the receipts. This helps these retailers represent their business and brand as they wish.

Bringing shoppers back. In sales basket data we can see that folks buying books often shop in the sale place, indicating it is easy to bring them back, if you pull the right levers. In the Tower Systems bookshop POS software there are wonderful levers booksellers can use to entice shoppers back. In our software is a unique and proven loyalty related tool that does appeal to local shoppers.

Embedded in our bookshop software are other tools that booksellers tell us they like, tools such:

  • Easy searching of book inventory by title or part of a title.
  • Easy searching by book inventory by author name or part of author name.
  • Tracking stock returns.
  • Pacstream integration.
  • Title Page link.
  • Structured handling fo special orders of books.
  • Website integration for online sales. We integrate with Shopify, magenta and WooCommerce.

Our customer service is provided by us and is accessible 24/7. This matters as you know the support is coming from the company that developed the POS software.

Our bookshop POS software development is done by us. This matters as we are not relying on another company to develop our POS software for us.

We’d love to show our our bookshop software. We can arrange a personal demonstration where we show any function you’d like to see and answer every question you have.  reach out at sales@towersystems.com.au and one of our bookshop software experts will get back to you.

POS software for booksellers integrated with PacStream

P

The Tower Systems POS software integrates with PacStream, the respected and widely used book retailer / book supplier EDI platform. Using PacStream, book retailers are able to manage inventory more efficiently and accurately than manual processes.

As an early integration with pac stream, Tower Systems through its POS software has been in active service of book retailers for many years.

The PacStream platform is robust and commercially beneficial to retailers. Indeed, PacStream access is critical for book retailers.

By maintaining a PacStream integration with its Australian developed and supported POS software, Tower Systems remains focussed on serving the needs of bookshops and other retailers of books who can benefit from what PacStream offers.

Using the Tower Systems software retailers are able to link electronically with multiple suppliers, ensuring reduced errors when it comes to data management and ensuring time saved by eliminating manual processes that often harm retail businesses when doing things by hand.

The Tower Systems approach to EDI is to follow the standards, to rely on the specialty expertise of others in the field, leaders like PacStream and to work with their needs, making the retailer / supplier connection stable and useful in service of efficient relationships.

Tower Systems already serves book retailers in several different situations and with more retailers evolving into the box space, the PacStream relationship is interesting and of value.

Nationally, Tower Systems serves in excess of 3,000 small business retailers, specialty retailers, independent retailers. We are a proud local POS software company serving local retail businesses.

Our POS software continues to evolve, serving the evolving needs of retail businesses. This is proving to be especially relevant in 2020 as retail is changing rapidly thanks to corona. The flexibility build into our software, to facilitate businesses that choose to pivot, is key to their flexibility in serving changing local needs.

Being locally made puts us closer to our customers, which matters as local businesses themselves are closer to their customers.

Selling in-store and online is easy with our POS software thanks to our integrations, which also include integrations with Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce for selling online through a seamless POS software / web store connection that also includes easy flow of images, inventory details and stock on hand data.

Australian developed POS software for church bookstores

A

Tower Systems is grateful for the years of support from a diverse group of church bookstores, at the local church level, the state level and the national level. The christian bookshop marketplace is strong both physically as well as online.

Our POS software for church bookstores has evolved over the years. It offers facilities unique to their operation and respects their role in the broader church life experience.

From serving through our POS software single christian bookshops to groups of christian bookshops to shops connected with local churches to shops connected with broader christian organisations, our POS software offers a broad based solution to inventory management, special order management, online sales, imp-store sales, shipping and more.

Church bookshop software is specialty by nature, like the businesses themselves. We work closely with those working in the businesses as well as those tasked with overseeing each business. We are grateful for opportunities to speak at conferences and to engage with church bookshop folk in a range of forums.

Dealing with tax in an appropriate way has been vital as has been the need to integrate with other platforms that are used in some church bookshop situations. Our software is flexible and constantly evolving as we discover other ways we can serve this vital part of church life.

From evangelicals to catholic to independent to Seventh Day Adventist, our church bookshop software is as diverse as the world of faith and we are grateful to what we have learned on this journey.

Christian bookshops are unique in that they are businesses and they are also part of church life, often staffed, at least in part, by volunteers. We understand the need for easy to use yet highly functional software. This is where we are proud to offer Australian developed and supported POS software for Australian church bookshop and christian bookshop needs.

From the practical such as pricing, bundling, customer accounts, inventory management and more to the complex such as managing a single online sale across multiple outlets and the proper accounting for freight, our church bookshop and christian bookshop POS software is robust and proven. We appreciate the advice and guidance of so many in getting us here and for supporting our work.

Tower Systems is grateful to offer locally made and supported POS software for local needs.

POS software subscription handling helps retailers leverage subscription opportunities

P

Subscriptions are a terrific way for small business retailers to provide shoppers with consistent engagement for products and services that are required on a regular basis.

Tower Systems offers a flexible yet powerful subscription facility in its POS software.

Using our subscription facilities as retailer can schedule to ensure products are kept aside for a customer on a regular cycle. This could be daily, weekly, monthly or whenever the desired product becomes available.

The goods can be kept aside with a unique barcode on the product along with the customer name – providing a level of professional service and attention that is key to further cementing the customer relationship.

Thee customer is advised by email or text message when the subscription item is ready to be collected.

The subscription can be charged to a store account or paid on collection. customers can also pre-pay. Payment information is included on the barcode label for the customer to better handle the collection.

The subscription can be setup for an in-store collection or for delivery to a customer address, with delivery done by the business or by a delivery partner of the business.

The subscription can be created by one customer as a gift for another customer.

The software tracks the number of subscriptions for an item. This helps store management for forward planning an dealing with the supplier of subscription items.

Some product subscriptions are given to the retail business by the manufacturer with the retailer being the local fulfilment centre. Our POS software handles this situation too.

There are many variations on subscription scenarios too. Handling these many subscription options has become a key feature of the Tower Systems POS software as it has evolved in managing subscriptions in retail over many years for many of the company’s 3,500+ small business retail customers.

Also, customers can have multiple subscriptions with different rules and criteria too. See, the flexibility layers and layers to offer a valuable, powerful yet easy to use tool for almost any type of retail business.

So, when it comes to managing subscriptions in retail and doing this through your POS software, Tower Systems ms has software ready to go in this area.

Sunday retail management advice: how to sell your retail business when no one is interested

S

Small and independent retail businesses can be a challenge to sell even in a strong economy. This is because they are often not understood and not presented well for sale.

One way to make a business more appealing is to be more open about it being for sale.

Put a sign in the window. Yes, this will tell your employees, customers and suppliers that you want to sell up and move on. Own that decision, embrace it. Stop worrying what people will think. Explain your good reason for putting the business on the market and then run the business with more energy and focus than ever before.  Your actions will demonstrate that people need not worry.

The sign in the window works on a couple of levels.

First, small businesses are more likely to appeal to people who live locally, people who may not be in the market to buy a business until they see your sign.  I know of one small business that had not sold in over a year and then sold in a week following a sign being put in the window. It could be that an employee is interested in buying the business.

Second, the sign is your reminder that the business has to be sale ready every day. Shoppers walking through your door are coming to an open house to see the business for sale. That’s how you should approach it – working your heart out presenting the business perfectly and appealingly every day.

Businesses can take time to sell. Sometimes it takes the right people seeing the ad at the right time for you to find a buyer.  The stars aligning aside, the most important barrier to selling any business is that it does not look or feel appealing, manageable and or capable of delivering the level of return a prospective purchaser would want. This is why you have to work hard and relentlessly to make your business look valuable, appealing and enjoyable.

Too often small business retailers think that the economy, retail channel issues or other external factors are slowing or halting the sale of the business. Even if this is the case, reject these thoughts, bring it back to you and your actions. If you want to sell your business then run it as if you want to sell it – every day.

Helping small business retailers compete with our Xero / POS software integrated solution

H

The most effective ways small business retailers can compete with big businesses and online is through efficient operation, accurate data and customer service touch-points that add appreciated value.

Tower Systems only sells its POS software to small business retailers.

We believe in small businesses, their importance to local communities and their broader economic value.

Through our software, our personal in-store training, 24/7 human and locally based help desk service, regional user meetings, weekly online workshops and other touch-points we help small business retailers beyond what is usual for POS software companies.

Our company motto is we’re here to help. We take this seriously. Everyday, out motto challenges us to help our customers in ways they do not expect, ways beyond the software itself.

Founded in 1981, Tower Systems has evolved as technology has evolved. The software we sell today is generations away from where we started. We are proud to have served some of our customers for decades.

More than 3,500 specialty small business retailers in Australia and New Zealand use our specialty POS software.

To us, a specialty retailer is one that offers services unique to the channel, services that define the business. We embed in our software for each retail channel facilities that serve needs unique to that channel. We take pride in doing this and enhancing these channel-specific facilities as the needs evolve.

We appreciate software cannot stand still. Every year we release significant enhancements, serving the needs of our customers. One such enhancement a couple of years ago was our Xero integration, approved by Xero and listed on their website as a partner.

The Xero integration delivers to retailers a seamless and deep connection between our POS software and Xero. This saves time and reduces bookkeeping costs for any small retail business.

The Tower Systems POS software / Xero link is another Tower AdvantageTM.

Everyday marketing tips for small business retailers

E

Here at Tower Systems, through our work with our specialsist retail POS software, we get to see many different retail businesses in in our work and along the way we pick up ideas that work particularly well.

Here is a selection of everyday marketing tips we see working in almost any business. This list was first shared with our customers on the weekend, as part of our weekly email of advice, support and encouragement.

  1. Always have a value-proposition offer just inside the entrance to the business. This should be a double-sided offer, one they see as they enter and as they leave.
  2. Always have an appealing impulse purchase offer at the counter. Change this weekly. Use the opportunity to learn more about what your customers will purchase on impulse.
  3. Always know your top selling item in the store and always place products next to the top selling item thoughtfully, to leverage the eyeballs looking for and at the top selling product.
  4. Run a generous loyalty program where the value is understood. This probably means not using points.
  5. Create stunning window displays people would not expect to see in your type of business.
  6. Offer multi-buy opportunities unlocking savings for people purchasing more than would be usual in a single visit.
  7. Be brief in talking to customers about your products on social media: a single product per post. Two sentences. Short sentences. Make the post appealing beyond you trying to promote your business. Entertain them.
  8. Send customers a card for special occasions, a personal card to reinforce the personal relationship you have with them.
  9. Change the front two metres of your shop weekly, keep it fresh for your customers and your staff.
  10. Unpack and price products on the shop floor and not in the back room or outside of shopper view.

Our goal with this list is to give you ideas you can use right away as well as ideas that will get you thinking of your own ideas.

Go for it. Remember, if you do next week what you did this week you cannot expect any growth. Growth only comes from change.

Updated advice for POS software users in Tower Systems knowledge base

U

The Tower Systems Knowledge base continues to expand with weekly enhancements. We add new articles and update existing articles. This makes the knowledge base a living thing for our customers, offering fresh insights and advice through which they can learn more about how to use the software.

Here are knowledge base enhancements in the last few days.

  1. Importing The Blueshyft Stock File & Invoice File
  2. Common Problems With Magazine Arrivals
  3. Gift Vouchers / Cards Setup
  4. End Of Financial Year Procedures
  5. How To Add A New Staff Initial
  6. NETWORK Sales Data Being Sent Back To XChangeIT
  7. New PC / Windows Configuration – Operating System Configuration

Our POS software customer in their weekly email get a more comprehensive list … weekly.

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