The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

Latest stories

POS software for coin dealers helps in-store and online sales

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Tower Systems makes POS software for a range of specialty retail channels, including coin dealers. We have found our POS software has facilities that serve the needs of coin dealers such as serial number tracking, appropriate security levels, age-checking, online store integration, extended product descriptions and free access to international barcode lookup.

The coin dealer POS software also enables dealers to use extended product descriptions, which can be helpful for recording comprehensive details for products.

Being able to track sales by mint is an advantage when comparing the performance of different mints.

A big benefit of the Tower Systems POS software for coin dealers is the handling of secondhand goods – tracking secondhand goods from the moment they arrive in-store. We can also track coins that a coin dealer may hold on consignment for others.

Selling at local markets is easy too thanks to the ability to sell from anywhere thanks to our Roam facility that enables this.

We have also built an online mint coin shop that is connected to / integrated with our POS software for a retail shop we own and run ourselves.

This coin dealer POS software can be demonstrated to anyone interested, to help them assess whether it suits their needs. There is no obligation for this one-on-one demonstration. There is no pressure, we know our Tower Systems POS software for coin dealers is not for everyone. It’s 100% up to you.

Coin dealers are unique and special businesses. Here are some of the ways our POS software for coin dealers helps leverage that uniqueness:

  1. Rare visit loyalty.  The customer visit cycle in coin dealers is infrequent. Our loyalty tools nurture shoppers to provide more value each visit.
  2. Pre-orders. Easily manage selling products before you have them in-stock. You might be asked to source a piece. These tools help you lock that in.
  3. Valuations. provide a professionally presented valuation certificate if you offer this for customers.
  4. Second-hand goods. Track details into a digital register for easy data management and record keeping.
  5. Leverage buyer and seller interests. Through easy to leverage database management you can connect people through their special interests.
  6. Buy Now Pay Later and LayBy. Through our software you can have both.
  7. Repairs management. For those dealers who do repairs or cleaning, track labour and parts for each repair, from the moment of the request. Advise the customer when the repair is complete.
  8. Group marketing and support. Leverage groups and clubs with offers and pricing. It’s easy to serve multiple special interests.
  9. Product care. Product care knowledge can be differentiating. Sharing this in a systematic and consistent way can separate your business.
  10. Serial number tracking. If products have serial numbers, track them.
  11. Anniversary marketing. Collectors love their coins. Remembering purchase anniversaries can help maintain a connection with collectors.

Our Australian made and supported coin dealer shop POS software does much more than this. Be sure to see it for yourself, live and obligation free, to see if it could serve you and your business.

Managing subscriptions using your POS software

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Managing subscriptions, or recurring billing, our Tower Systems POS software can handle it for you. Subscriptions can be handled daily, weekly, monthly or yearly – you choose by individual stock item customer.

A customer can have multiple subscriptions.

You can set different prices for a subscription of a product on a per customer basis. The pricing flexibility of this new POS software integrated subscription solution is awesome.

We think this subscriptions management software in the Tower Systems POS software will be an ideal solution for firearms dealers, computer dealers selling anti virus, Office 360 and similar subscriptions or any business doing any form of regular, locked-in, billing of customers.

Subscription management software helps businesses track manage the sale of subscription-based products. While software as a service (SaaS) is the most popular subscription type that businesses handle, plenty of businesses provide digital and physical products as a subscription model. The new subscription sale facilities from Tower Systems helps retailers in this area.

One popular form of subscriptions is the sale of sample and boxes, sent monthly or quarterly to customers. The Tower software can handle this, making it easy for businesses to offer these and thereby to expand the reach of their business.

The subscriptions facilities in the Tower Systems POS software are available for no additional charge.

While the company has a decades-long history of managing regular orders for customers using its newsagency POS software, the new subscriptions management tools go further for unique products, they have grown out of growth in the Tower Systems user community into new specialty retail areas.

Managing subscriptions and any form of recurring billing can be a challenge in retail businesses as they seek to streamline operations and manage associated labour costs. These new subscriptions management facilities in the POS software from Tower Systems have been tested with retailers in this space and gives resounding support.

Managing subscriptions using POS software without incurring additional costs for additional software facilities sis a big win for local small business retailers. Tower Systems is grateful to be of service to these retailers.

The new subscriptions management facilities were released as part of a regular software update and done so after considerable in-house testing along with comprehensive beta testing.

How much does a POS system cost?

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This is a good question, one that needs to be asked and answered.

The cost of a good POS system should be easy to understand, straightforward. The think is, too often it is not straightforward to see what a good POS system costs. Some POS companies have hidden costs, extra costs and transactional costs based on sales you put through the system.

Today, in February 2024, a POS system would typically cost no more $250 a month. This should include access to the software, customer support, access to online training videos and access to a searchable knowledge base, which is like a manual.

So in answer to the question of what does a POS system cost, the answer is no more than $250.00 a month. There should be no charge or fee related to the transactions done by the business using the POS system. The software company should make money from the software rental itself, leaving the retail business to make its money from its retail sales.

When considering the cost of a POS system you have to look at any and all costs a software company may levy on you, directly or indirectly. Here are some things to consider:

Does a POS software company require you to use a specific EFTPOS payments platform? If so, what are they making from it? And, what are the financial consequences for you if you do not use the platform?

Does your POS software company need the use of external apps and resources to do what you want and if so are there costs associated with these?

What is the pricing history for POS software you are considering? Has it gone us and if so when and by how much?

Is the price for the POS system quoted inclusive of GST? Not everyone quotes including GST.

Can you choose your own hardware? Good POS software companies encourage this.

Does your POS software company require you to sign a long-term contract? They should not. You should be able to rent the software for as long, or shot, as you like. You should be able to end the rental at any time. One company requires you to sign an agreement for at least two years but it is not usually evident that they are doing this.

How much does a POS system cost? Our advice is to ask questions, do your homework and only go with a company that has the right software for you at a price you are prepared to pay.

1% EFTPOS fee helps local small business retailers save money

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When it comes to EFTPOS provider choice, this is a decision each retailer should make for themselves.

Good POS software seamlessly connects with a range of EFTPOS solutions, making the choice easy for the retailer. Good POS software lets you choose the EFTPOS payments processor that suits your business.

Tower Systems does not require retailers using its POS software to deal with any specific bank or any specific EFTPOS payments processor. Tower Systems customers can choose the bank for EFTPOS that best serves their needs. There is no charge whatsoever levied against customers related to business transactions.

Transacting EFTPOS payments through CBA, NAB, Westpac, ANZ, Suncorp, Tyro and others is easy with the integrated EFTPOS solution available to retailers using the Tower Systems POS software.

  • Fewer keystrokes = faster and fewer mistakes.
  • Integrated EFTPOS means easier accounting and easier transaction reconciliation.
  • Integrated EFTPOS through Tower Systems means the retailer chooses what is right for their business.

When choosing POS software for your business it is vital that you ask the question about integrated EFTPOS and discover whether you have choice and whether there are any fees associated with EFTPOS transactions, fees that flow to the POS software company. This matters because it is best that your POS software company makes money from POS software and not from the transactions that you put through your business -0 your growth, your success, is yours to enjoy and celebrate.

Now when it comes to choosing EFTPOS payments processing for your business it’s important to consider your specific needs and budget. Factors like business size, transaction volume, and POS software compatibility should be taken into account. Tower Systems offers excellent compatibility with its POS software when it comes the EFTPOS payments processing for your business.

Tower Systems offers local retailers access to wonderful benefits:

  • Fast checkout: Eliminates manual data entry, as the transaction amount automatically transfers from POS to EFTPOS terminal, leading to faster transactions and shorter queues.
  • Reduced errors: No manual keying, cutting human error and ensuring accurate transactions.
  • Improved staff productivity: Staff can focus on customer service instead of manually entering payment details.
  • Seamless payment experience: Customers can tap, swipe, or insert their card directly at the EFTPOS terminal without switching screens, creating a smooth and intuitive experience.
  • Reduced contact: Cost the need for customers and staff to handle physical terminals, enhancing hygiene and potentially aiding social distancing efforts.
  • Enhanced security: Data transfers directly between POS and EFTPOS, reducing the risk of data breaches and unauthorised access.

Tower Systems is grateful to offer retailers choice when it comes to EFTPOS payments processing from within POS software and to do this without penalty cost.

Xero POS software helps retailers save time and cut mistakes

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The Tower Systems Xero POS software is POS software designed to integrate with the awesome Xero accounting software.

Made is Australia and supported by a wonderful and knowledgeable Australian help desk team, this POS software helps local retailers save time thanks to its Xero accounting software integration.

The Tower Systems POS software Xero integration reduces time spend on bookkeeping and accounting thanks to the seamless, neat and accurate data flow from the POS software to Xero. This also reduces the opportunity for employee fraud.

There is no additional cost for the Xero POS software integration from Tower Systems.

It is easy to get up and running thanks to a wonderful training video, excellent knowledge base articles as well as live, one-on-one support and more from the Tower Systems POS software crew. This content and support for easy use of Xero POS software is exclusive to Tower Systems.

Tower Systems developed this integration with Xero many years ago. It have been enhanced as the Tower software and as Xero have been enhanced – to ensure the software is current for the needs of today.

We use Xero ourselves in our own retail businesses, our advice comes from this place of personal experience. This enables us to provide practical advice on how to benefit the most from Xero and our POS software working together.

Connect the Tower Systems POS software with  Xero in minutes and keep everything in sync. Simply connect the tow and map your accounts. Our crew of retail experts can help;p you do this.

Once connected, your Tower systems POS software will upload your chosen key financial data to Xero – saving time on admin and cutting data mistakes.

This is an ideal local retail solution from Tower Systems that genuinely cuts keystrokes, saves time and protects retail businesses against fraud thanks to less touching of business data.

Tower Systems is a unique Australian based and supported POS software company. In addition to serving 3,500+ small business retailers, we own and operate several retail businesses as live test sites. Our in-house CPA manages the accounts for these retail businesses.

You’re welcome to see the Xero POS software link any time, to see if it could be a good solution for your business.

Local POS software matters to local retailers and here’s why

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Local retailers understand the importance of being local. As locals ourselves, we understand what this can mean for our customers who consider our POS software made for local retailers.

Our Aussie made and supported bike shop software is software to love for local retailers and here’s why …

  1. Local matters. Local shops make a vital contribution to local communities and families. Our software helps you leverage your localness, to genuinely differentiate your business from big competitors. We have ways in the POS software for doing this.
  2. You are a key asset. Only your business has you and your people. You can leverage you through our local shop POS software, to easily share your knowledge in ways big businesses cannot match.
  3. You can bank on loyalty. Points don’t reward loyalty. What is a point worth anyway? In our local shop POS software, you have fresh loyalty tools you can bank on to drive a deeper visit value, bring shoppers back sooner and genuinely leverage their lifetime value opportunity.
  4. Service, service, service. Offering service and managing this for the benefit of your customers and your business can genuinely differentiate thanks to our POS software management tools. You can bank on this difference.
  5. Not every shopper will walk, or rides, 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.

Local shops shops are vital in local communities. We are committed to helping you run a more enjoyable and successful local business.

While all of us in local retail want more local shoppers and tell people to shop local, here at Tower Systems we are helping you pitch local with locally made and locally supported POS software that is configured to leverage your localness for commercial success and local community appreciation. We think that ia a big factor in being able to pitch local.

If local does matter to your local retail business then considering our Tower Systems POS software and how it can help you more actively pitch and show local is something we’d be grateful to discuss with you.

Local small business retail advice: how to partner with local community groups to better serve the local community

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Talk about a win, win, win. This tip helps local retailers win new local customers, your customers save money and a local community group raise funds. Engagement is measurable, so you can assess the return on your investment.

Find a locally loved and trusted community group in need of funds, a group that has a reasonable number of members who do not currently shop with you.

Offer the community group a percentage from each purchase made by members of the group and their family members.

Offer each member a discount for each purchase.

The amounts offered need to be considered in the context of your business, your margin and the value of the anticipated additional purchases.

Consider a timeframe for the offer. For example, it may be useful to trial the offer for a limited period so you can assess engagement and then adjust as appropriate. It may also be an offer only open to certain days of the week, your quietest days.

Consider the products to be included in the campaign. It may be appropriate to exclude products categories where your margin is not enough to justify inclusion.

To manage the offer, see if your Point-of-Sale software can help. I know the software from my own software company can manage this. You give each community group a member a card, which when scanned ensures they get the discounted price and the donation to the community group is tracked.

The card becomes valuable itself, something talked about, sought after.

The commercial goal of this campaign has to be net new shopper traffic for the business delivering revenue the business would otherwise not have achieved. If this is the case, a discount off the usual margin achieved is acceptable as it is effectively a cost of acquiring the additional business.

Key to the success of this campaign is the active engagement of the community group in rallying members to visit the shop, to encourage them to support you so that you support the group they love.

Make an event of handing over the donation to the community group. Get photos. Talk on social media about being grateful for the local support that has enabled you to make the donation.

Share stories on social media about the activities of the group as your support of them can encourage their support of you.

We love the campaign outlined here as it represents the circular nature of the local community: people living locally, shopping locally, enabling local shops to thrive locally and support loved local community groups.

Tower Systems makes POS software for local retailers that helps facilitate what we have described here.

New easyEDI platform helps Xero engaged wholesalers offer retailers electronic invoices

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Retailers love electronic invoices. They save time and money, and they help reduce data mistakes.

If faced with a choice, retailers will choose the supplier offering electronic invoices over the supplier of similar product who does not offer electronic invoices.

Australian POS software company Tower Systems has created easyEDI, an approved app for the Xero accounting software, which creates electronic invoices for retailers and facilitates emailing them to retailers.

easyEDI will create either a CSV file or a DD2 file, commonly used by newsagencies and card and gift stores. You can also link it with the popular Unleashed inventory management system we know plenty of suppliers use or supply your own product list so your files are even more useful by containing barcodes and/or RRP prices.

easyEDI costs $55 a month, which includes 500 invoices sent per month for no additional cost. Each invoice beyond 500 costs 12 cents.

There is no lock-in contract, you can cancel at any time.

Setup is easy for the supplier. easyEDI is a Xero approved integrated app.

Suppliers ready to sign up should go to www.easyedi.com.au.

Having been approved by Xero as an integrated app for their accounting software, easyEDI by Tower Systems is easy and safe for trade wholesalers to access for creating electronic invoices.

While electronic invoices have been around for decades, many suppliers are yet to embrace the opportunity for their retail business customers. This easyEDI innovation specifically helps smaller wholesalers to be more of service to their retail business customers. It makes them more appealing to these customers.

If you use Xero in your wholesale business, easyEDI is easy to setup and use. You can be sending your first invoice in minutes. Retailers will thank you for this.

Tower Systems first engaged in EDI (electronic data interchange) invoice creation by developing standards that were adopted for the Australian newsagency channel more than thirty years ago. Those standards formed the basis of file formats in use ion that channel today.

Tower Systems currently serves 3,000+ local independent retailers in Australia and New Zealand across 16 different retail channels.

Making software that helps local small business retailers run more efficient is core to the purpose of Tower Systems. We believe in local small business retail and honour its service of local communities. All of our customers are local small business retailers, independent retailers.

Reed Gift Fair Sydney success

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We are grateful for the opportunity to pitch our POS software at the Reed Gift Fair in Sydney these last few days. As the only POS software company on show at Reed, we made the most of the opportunity to talk local small business retail efficiency – to retailers as well as to suppliers.

The first three days were busy and we already have some bookings for today, the final day of this trade show.

Our stand made it easy for people to sit and chat.

On show at the Reed Gift Fair in Sydney was not only our POS software but our time saving integrated EFTPOS solution, our Xero integration as well as our roster software integration. This kit of solutions and plenty more from us appealed to retailers keen to leverage business efficiency.

That’s our focus as a POS software company, helping retailers derive more value from their local retail businesses, leveraging our POS software to do this.

What is interesting to us, and valuable for us, is the diversity of retailers through this trade show. we serve so many of them, with specialty software for their business. The retail channels represented at the Reed Gift Fair that we serve include gift shops, jewellers, garden centres, newsagents, homewares shops, travel destination shops, community enterprises and plenty more.

While the collateral on our stand talked about gift shop software, it was easy taking with trade show attendees about so much more.

Our purpose is to empower local retailers to thrive.

By empower, we mean to give them tools and training in the use of the tools to help them thrive.

The tools are our Aussie made and supported POS software.

By local retailers we mean independent retailers, specialty retailers, small business retailers. We believe in local. We know local matters to locals and that local is where community flourishes.

By thrive we mean to be profitable, and happy. A profitable business is good for all who rely on the business, including customers, and the community.

We know that our software can make a difference in businesses for which it is made, and that our training and support can help businesses thrive.

Software for sleep clinics and CPAP clinics

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We are grateful to be growing a customer community of businesses in the sleep clinic and CPAP sales space for our POS software.

We were surprised to discover that our POS software suits the need of sleep clinics and CPAP retailers operating in this space. It’s a new market for us and one we are entering thanks to wonderful word of mouth support from our customers.

Our specialty and comprehensive software being used in sleep clinics and CPAP sales businesses offers many benefits embedded in the software without needing to rent third-party tools, including:

  1. Member or pricing: Helps you attract community group members, and in the sleep care space there are plenty of groups you can serve.
  2. Repairs: Easily track & manage repairs & communicate with customers, even for repairs not done in the business.
  3. BOGO: Increase sales with buy this and get that bundling.
  4. Warranty: Track details and leverage this for customer service.
  5. Colour, size and style: Easily track sales at a granular level. This can be used for variations on equipment too.
  6. Bring them back: Target market based on past services.
  7. Sell anywhere: Using our Retailer RoamTM sell anywhere app.
  8. Sell anytime: With our Shopify / Magento / Woo integrations.
  9. Special orders: Easily manage special customer orders.
  10. Awesome loyalty: Guide one-time and regular shoppers to spend more.
  11. Seasonal reordering: Easily reorder inventory based on seasonal sales.

This software for sleep clinics and CPAP machine sales has facilities that help streamline the business operation and guide success for the business in a range of areas. Plus, it is not standing still. This Aussie software continues to evolve.

Easily handle supplier invoices, repairs, second-hand goods, spare parts stock management, special orders, tracking customers by purchases, reducing employee and customer theft and more. Link to Xero, Tanda, Deputy and Planday for rostering, Slyp for digital receipts, Shopify and Big Commerce for online, ChatGPT for product descriptions and RemoveBG for photo background removal.

Are you Australian based? Yes.

Do you make your software? Yes.

How do I contact your help desk? By phone or email. Our help desk is Australian based with one team member working from New Zealand.

When can I contact you for help? Weekdays: 7am through 6PM AEST, Saturdays 7:30am through 3PM AEST. After hours for urgent calls: 24/7.

What if I am unhappy with support? You can escalate to our Chief Operating Officer or our Managing Director – every customer is given their direct numbers and email addresses.

Can I run the software in the cloud? Yes.

Can I run the software on my desktop? Yes.

Can I backup to the cloud? Yes.

How long am I locked in with software rental? There is no lock-in. You can cancel rental at any time and billing stops immediately – once the current month is completed, there is no further charge.

We are grateful to offer our software for sleep clinics and CPAP retail sales businesses.

We think the Lightspeed EFTPOS payments pitch is inaccurate and here’s why

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A big competitor of our our Aussie POS software company, Lightspeed, a big Canadian company, is promoting Lightspeed Payments as being revolutionary, delivering to retailers new benefits. We heard them pitch at a trade show in Sydney today that they are leaders on time-saving integrated EFTPOS, helping retailers save time, cut mistakes and do more.

Check out this pitch, which they published via Inside Retail.

At the forefront of this transformation, new payment systems are now advancing the way retailers handle transactions and manage their businesses. Instead of manually inputting sales into separate payment terminals after processing them on their point-of-sale (POS), retailers are now increasingly turning to systems that sync their POS with their payment processors, allowing transactions to seamlessly flow between the two platforms. These setups are commonly referred to as integrated payment systems.

What Lightspeed offers with integrated EFTPOS is goof tech, but it is no advance, no new technology.

Tower Systems has offered integrated payments for more than 16 years.

The difference with our offer is that our customers can choose the bank they go with. This can result in lower EFTPOS fees than the retailer may have to pay if they use the Lightspeed Payments platform.

Here at Tower Systems we also offer access to a 1% EFTPOS rate if customers would like to go with that.

As a software company, we do not have any charges for our customers that are based on retail transactions. From the Lighspeed marketing material, they do have such a charge – meaning as your business grows, you pay Lightspeed more for access to their software.

If you are Lightspeed customer and you choose to not use their payments platform Lightspeed has started charging customers a fee to compensate for them not making payments revenue from you.

In our opinion, what Lightspeed claims is an advance in its technology solution for retailers via Lightspeed Payments is, in fact, a price increase in the use of its software, something imposed on retailers but dressed as some great advancement.

Here at Tower Systems we believe that retailers should get to choose the payments platform that is right for their business. This choice can lead to significant savings in the cost of payments. We know of retailers paying way less than if they were using Lightspeed and were locked into the Lightspeed Payments platform.

Lightspeed is a successful company.  In our opinion, the claims being made in relation to Lightspeed Payments are inaccurate and shallow.

Our advice to retailers is to do your homework, look at the total cost of ownership, and, choose the software that serves your needs best as functionality and customer service are the two most critical factors. All good POS software puffers integrated payments, what Lightspeed claims as an advance is not – they are late that party.

Epos Now alternative POS software for Australian retail businesses

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Our Tower Systems POS software is an excellent alternative to the Epos Now POS software and here’s why we think that:

The Tower POS software is made and supported in Australia for Australian businesses. It uses Australian retail terminology.

We think a functional comparison of the Tower Systems POS software with the Epos Now POS software will show our software as overing more benefits through more facilities.

When we say we offer software for specialty retail channels, that software is packed with functions retailers in the channel use and rely on that can be unique to their types of businesses. It’s a claim as to functionality rather than a blanket marketing claim.

The Tower Systems POS software integrates with Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce and Magento.

Tower Systems has no lock in contract.

We do not engage commission agent to sell our software.

We will not spam or chase you. We’d rather local small business retailers considering our POS software to do so at the pace they prefer and in their own timing.

We are grateful to welcome Epos Now POS software customers switching to Tower Systems.

We’ve not used Epos Now in our retail businesses. We can’t speak to what it does. What we can do is speak to Epos Now customers who have switched to our Tower Systems POS software and to their experiences having made that switch. We’d be happy to connect verified retailers to these business owners for a retailer to retailer discussion.

If you are considering Epos Now POS software for your business, our advice is take your time, compare the software functionality and read the contract carefully. Do this and consider whether it is right for your business. If it is, sign up and proceed. If you are unsure, take a moment to look around at other POS software solutions.

Tower Systems is grateful to serve 3,000+ local independent retailers in a variety of specialty retail channels. We’re a solid and established POS software company, grateful to serve only local specialty retailers and no big businesses.

If you’d like to compare our software to that from Epos Now function by function we’d be grateful for the opportunity. There is nothing like this type of POS software comparison to work our what works best for a business. Too often POS software company sales people will refuse such a comparison. Not us here at Tower Systems. We know we are not right for everyone.

Small business retail advice on how to reduce the opportunity of ransomware attack

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Ransomware / malware can come in many forms. Every computer connected to a network in any way is at risk. There is no guaranteed protection but there are important steps a business can take. This advice provides advice designed to reduce the risk to your business.

Here is best-practice advice from our POS software company for local small business retailers on ways to protect against Ransomware:

  1. Ensure you use professional, up to date, virus protection.
  2. Ensure you have a good firewall with strong settings.
  3. Do not click on emails or attachments unless you are sure of the sender.
    1. Be particularly wary of ZIP files in emails.
    2. The ATO will not email you.
    3. Your bank will not email you.
    4. Australia Post will not email you, not like the example I have posted.
  4. Ensure all passwords you use are strong.
  5. Consider using an email filtering facility.
  6. Do not allow remote access to your computer unless you are certain of the person accessing.
  7. Ensure you have strong passwords. A strong password should include: some CAPS, some numbers and at least one special character. Check your password at: https://howsecureismypassword.net
  8. Change your password regularly.
  9. Run an up to date operating system.
  10. Have rules on computer use: no games, no online gambling, no porn, no personal emails.
  11. Have an overarching rule: do not open any email or go to any website unless you are certain.
  12. Use a cloud backup service like the Tower backup service. This provides the fastest recovery.
  13. Have multiple backup devices for additional protection.
  14. Do not use automatic file replication programs / facilities such as Dropbox or Google Drive. If a file is encrypted with malware / ransomware it will upload to the account and infect other files.

Most ransomware attacks can be avoided by careful scrutiny of your emails and websites you visit.

Small business retail advice: less is more when it comes to visual noise in your shop

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As retailers ourselves for decades, we have learnt first-hand that less is more works when it comes to visual noise in the shop.

Less signs, posters and other visual blocks can impede retail sales. Here’s our practical, no nonsense approach to reducing visual noise in pursuit of sales growth.

If you give your customers too many things to look at inside or outside your business, they will notice less.  Your choices show them what you want them to look at

Less is more. Have less visual noise, less visual pollution, and more will be noticed.

Show your customers what you want them to notice by giving that product, range or display fresh air (visually) around it.

Take a look today, right now, at the visual noise in your shop. It is easy:

Stand at the door of your business facing into the shop and scan around counting the signs you can read and displays you can see.

How many are there?

More messages, more signs = less noticing them.

Yes, less is more.

Here is advice for less visual noise in your business:

  1. Edit. Every few days stand at the front of the shop and review your signage and edit the mix.
  2. Posters and signs. Do not put up any poster or sign unless it is absolutely necessary.
  3. Housekeeping notices. Have all customer notices, such as your exchange policy, discount policy, minimum eftpos charge etc, all in the one unobtrusive place. Neat. Clean.
  4. Call to action signs. If you have items on sale or discounted, place them all in the one location, a designated sale location in your business, with simple and professional signage.
  5. Product signs. For product signage in-store, be consistent in style and look. Smaller signs next to products will work better than big signs from the ceiling – how often do your shoppers walk in looking up anyway?
  6. Colour block. Colour blocked product is more appealing to the eye, it looks less messy, less noisy.
  7. The counter.  Again, edit for clarity, edit for focus on the messages that really matter.
  8. Be clean. Look for clean sight lines, where your products are the feature. Use products themselves to tell stories.

It is common for retailers to say that shoppers don’t look in the shop. An alternative what to look at this is to say that you are going about trying to catch shopper attention in the wrong way.

Reducing visual noise will improve the experience for your shoppers and for those who work in the business. It will focus everyone on what you decide matters the most right now.

This visual boise advice applied to your front window if you have one. What’s the message? Is it clear? Is it focussed? Is it getting attention on the street? the answers will guide you as to what to do next.

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Thanks to our retail experience, we are able to provide suggestions b beyond the POS software. This is another differentiating factor for us, for which we are sincerely grateful.

Smart POS software integrations help retailers achieve more

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Tower Systems offers integrations between its POS software and a range of external apps and platforms to help local small business retailers eliminate double entry of data and thereby reduce the opportunities for mistakes. We are proud of the range and nature of these integrations and the benefits they offer our customers.

We are grateful for the opportunity to integrate our POS software with a range of other applications and partners, enhancing the solutions available to0 our customers and those considering using our POS software.

Here are some of the POS software integrations from Tower Systems:

REMOVE.BG (OTHER)
REMOVAL.AI (OTHER)
CHAT GPT (AI)XERO (ACCOUNTING)
INTERNATIONAL BARCODE LOOKUP (FREE)
ABCIS (ACCOUNTING)
WOOCOMMERCE (ECOMMERCE)
SHOPIFY (ECOMMERCE)
MAGENTO (ECOMMERCE)
BIG COMMERCE (ECOMMERCE)
PCEFTPOS/LINKLY (PAYMENTS)
LINKLY CLOUD (PAYMENTS)
TYRO (PAYMENTS)
SMARTPAY (PAYMENTS)
HUMM (PAYMENTS)
ZIP (PAYMENTS)
CENTREPAY (PAYMENTS)
QUEST (PAYMENTS)
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We are often first with integrations, like our delivery of Linkly Cloud.

We are grateful for the opportunity and proud to deliver a world first – a POS software integration with Linkly Cloud.

That’s right, we have retailers live with our Tower Systems POS software connected to Linkly Cloud for EFTPOS transactions.

Tower Systems makes POS software for specialty retailers in a range of local specialty retail channels.

Linkly is all about Making every payment seamless.

Together, we have delivered a solution that helps retailers save time, cut mistakes and more easily compete with big business.

Tower Systems integrated EFTPOS, connects your Retailer Point of Sale with your EFTPOS terminal, making it the fastest and easiest way to sell.

When it comes to POS software integrations, here at Tower Systems we analyse requirements, talk with customers and consider whether a proposed integration serves the needs of all stakeholders. Then, if it’s a yes, we get about delivering and awesome integration.

The POS Software Blog

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