The POS Software Blog

The POS Software Blog

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

Latest stories

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.

Small business retail management advice: map your GP by shop floor layout

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A few minutes spent analysing space allocation performance often reveals opportunities based on our years working with and helping local small business retailers.

With retail space usually costing between 11% and 15% of (non agency) revenue, it is usually the next highest cost outside of the cost of stock itself. The key is to make the space work well, to be financially efficient for the business.

Retailers often argue that rent should be lower. It could be that a different view of shop floor performance helps you achieve a better return.

Here’s a quick and easy way to assess your current use of your floorspace:

  1. Take a blank sheet of paper and sketch out the layout of your shop, marking in display units, shelving, the counter – everywhere you have product. Include your back room if you have stock there.
  2. Colour-shade the layout by department.
  3. List the departments on the side of the floor plan.
  4. Calculate the percentage of total space used for each department. This does not need to be accurate to two decimal places. List this next to each department you have listed.
  5. Use your POS software to report on gross profit dollars earned by each department over the last year, or calculate it from sales figures knowing the average GP% per department.
  6. Calculate the percentage of total gross profit contribution earned by each department and list this next to the floor space allocated to each department – on the floor plan map you have done.
  7. Circle in green those performing the best, where the GP% contribution is more than the GP% space allocation, and in red those performing the worst.

Typically, a business owner doing this for the first time will have an ah ha moment, seeing something they had not realised.

This is advice anyone can use, as any good POS software will report on GP by department. Getting this mapped on the floorpan of your shop lets you see the hot and cold spots, where you are making money, and where you are losing it.

This is retail management advice for any business owner, regardless of education level.

We have seen business owners make changes including to floor layout, quitting suppliers and increasing stock weight for some departments.

You can take the analysis a step further by looking only at one department and analysing performance by category within that department, using the method outlined above.

Our specialty retail POS software can help with this and more business performance analysis.

Our goal is to help you run a more appealing, successful and valuable retail business. As retailers ourselves, we use our software this way every day.

We can help if you are interested.

Find out more: www.towersystems.com.au 1300 662 957 sales@towersystems.com.au

Thanks for reading.

New subscriptions facilities in POS software help retailers to sell and manage subscriptions

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Subscriptions can be challenging for POS software to manage on an on-going basis. The one-off transaction is easy. It’s the repeat transaction, to a timed cycle, that can be the difficulty … which is the very nature of a subscription if you think about it, they are repeat transactions for sure.

Managing subscriptions in POS software is. important. Thanks to some wonderful software development work by our team and advice from sone==me of our customers who sell subscriptions, we are delivering subscriptions management from within our POS software.

Using the subscriptions management facility in our Tower Systems POS software, retailers will be able to manage these repeat transactions, track the records, charges and payments.

For retailers who on-sell subscriptions on behalf of other parties, the subscriptions management tools in the Tower software will be especially useful.

There is no need for an app, or a plug-in or some other software as subscriptions are managed from within our Tower Systems POS software. This means Tower Systems POS software customers don’t have to pay another party a fee to manage subscriptions – it’s included in our software.

Tower Systems is a specialty retail POS software company. We help specialty retailers leverage what sets them apart. Our software continues to evolve in service of this.

By choosing our POS software, you’ll also benefit from a range of additional features, including software for unlimited computers, help desk support from Monday to Saturday, access to a knowledge base, and integrations with leading platforms such as Shopify, Big Commerce, Xero, and more. Furthermore, we provide access to our supplier invoice import tools, making inventory management a breeze.

We know that one category of retailer that will benefit from our subscription management tools is computer shops / IT businesses. These businesses offer to manage subscriptions to software for their customers. Our subscription tools can help them manage this by customer. Our software for these businesses also handles quote and invoice management, repairs management, integrating with online and plenty more. We have grateful to help plenty of computer shops and IT businesses with POS software that has bene found to be of service to them.

Made locally for local computer shops, this POS software for computer shops can help track computer builds, deals for computer / gamer club members, track stock, handle special orders and customers and more.

Disaster planning for local small business retailers

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Whether it’s a natural disaster or not, businesses can be challenged by events that are outside the direct control of the business owners and managers. The key to successfully handling such events is the planning in place beforehand.

No one wants to plan for disaster, most don’t. Those who have encountered disaster, large or small, tend to wish they had better planned for it.

This advice is far-reaching, designed to act as a broad list of steps you can undertake to be prepared, or to at least get you thinking about steps you could take. Do it all or some, but do something … otherwise when you need good planning you will not have a plan on which to fall back.

Disaster Planning

Here are some general suggestions on planning for a disaster in your business property.

  1. Create action plans for different events so that those working in the business know exactly what to do. here are some examples of such events:
    1. Power blackout.
    2. Payments (EFTPOS) outage.
    3. Flooding or water ingress impacting the shop.
    4. Police incident directly impacting access to the shop.
    5. Serious health situation by a customer in the shop.
    6. Attack by customer against the business on social media.
    7. Loud complaint by customer in-store impacting other customers.
    8. refusal to supply by a regular supplier.
  2. Keep in one secure place off-site copies of: Business contracts and agreements; employee contact details, business account and other passwords, insurance details, recent photographs of fixtures, fittings and stock.
  3. For records you cannot easily copy or that may change as the trading day unfurls, consider having a go bag ready for you to grab if there is a risk to the premises such as a bushfire.
  4. Maintain a register of all employees in the business premises at any time.
  5. Prepare and place in a prominent place an evacuation plan.
  6. Maintain a professional grade OH&S compliant first aid kit. Have this checked regularly.
  7. Regularly maintain all fire extinguishers – check with your local fire brigade about this.
  8. Ensure that the business premises is safe and maintained to the local building codes and OH&S regulations.
  9. Have a trained first aid officer on staff. Your local St Johns or similar will be able to provide training.
  10. Use government resources, there are plenty at state and federal levels.

Insurance Protection

Insurance coverage is vital to helping a retail business overcome any type of disaster.  In addition to ensuring that your insurance policy covers all disaster situations of concern to you, including flood, theft, water inundation, fire, earthquake, riot—be sure to carefully read the policy, ensure that your insurance policy / policies cover payouts for the following:

  1. Business interruption.  The amount should equal your anticipated gross profit for whatever period you choose to be covered.
  2. Data recovery.  Including the hiring of experts to recover data from backup sources or the manual entry of data which cannot be automatically recovered.  It needs to ensure that you are covered to the point of recovered data being useable in transacting business.
  3. Lost stock.  This is stock stolen, lost from the business.
  4. Damaged and unsaleable stock.  This is stock which is water damaged, scuffed or dented and which will not attract full price.
  5. Dated stock.  This is stock that you cannot sell by the due date.
  6. Many policies require explicit statement of glass coverage.
  7. Temporary trading premises.  Business interruption may cover this.  Ensure that it is explicitly stated.
  8. Key person injury and/or death. This will usually be a separate policy.  Depending on the disaster, coverage may also be available through the overall business policy.

Ensure that the value of stock, fixtures and fittings covered by your policy is an accurate reflection of the real value of these items.  Talk with your insurance company about the best approach to track this on an ongoing basis.

Insurance brokers can provide access to assessors who can advise on the appropriate level of insurance for your situation.

Use your Point of  Sale system to track all stock movements in and out.  The stock on hand in  your software should be your coverage.

Ensure that your insurance policy protects for the seasonal nature of your business

Data Protection

Business data is one of the most valuable assets of the business.  Like insurance, the value is often not understood until you need what you do not have.  Retailers who are serious about protecting their business data in the event of any disaster follow these steps:

  1. ‪Backup your business data every day, at the end of the day, without fail. Use a cloud based backup service that undertakes the backup as the day unfolds without you having to every do anything to cause a backup to be taken.
  2. Maintain a separate backup for each day of the week.  Consider a separate backup for the last day of each month.
  3. Remove the backup medium, usually a USB stick, from the business premises each day – outside the business property.
  4. Store the backup in a safe, dry place.
  5. Check the usefulness of the backup by restoring and checking the data.
  6. Store original business software in a safe off-site location.
  7. Check the backup every three to six months – to make sure the backup is actually backing us current data and can be read. A backup you cannot read is a waste of time and money.
  8. Change your passwords regularly.
  9. Do not share passwords widely.

Disaster planning is important. When you need it the most is when you face a disaster. Don’t be a business owner who realises that only then.

New 2024 demonstration of POS software for garden centres, nurseries and landscape supply businesses

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We understand that garden centres and nurseries are unique retail businesses that require specialised software to meet your specific needs. That’s why we are thrilled to announce the release of our latest demonstration of our software for garden centres / nurseries / landscape supply businesses, designed and supported right here in Australia. Shot a few days ago by a couple of our experts, this software is loved already by hundreds of garden centres, nurseries and landscape supply businesses.

POS software training when you want it, even overnight

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Imagine being able to learn parts of your POS software as and when it suits you, and that any of your team members can do this – even on a public holiday like today.

Tower Systems makes learning POS software easy thanks to an awesome comprehensive knowledge base and an ever-expanding library of POS software training videos.

Most of these videos have been shot in the last six months. As the software is updated, so are the videos – making the POS software training video library up to date and freshly valuable.

We are grateful to be able to provide this resource to our customers, to help them learn how to get the most out of using our POS software.

ChatGPT AI POS software integration helps local retailers save time and shine

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A year ago, Tower Systems just released POS software with features that save local retailers time and boost sales. The integration of the POS software with ChatGPT was groundbreaking then, and it is loved today.

Here’s what’s what:

AI-powered product descriptions: Struggling to write captivating product descriptions? Enter ChatGPT, the world’s leading AI writing tool, now integrated with our Tower Systems POS software for small business retailers. Input your product title, and ChatGPT will whip up enticing descriptions for both print and online. This optional feature is a true time-saver, especially for busy shop owners.

Focus on capturing attention: This integration isn’t about replacing your creativity. Think of it as a helpful assistant who crafts descriptions likely to grab customer attention, especially online shoppers. You can still write your own descriptions if you prefer, but for those seeking a boost, AI is here to lend a hand.

AI in business: beyond the hype: Forget the headlines about AI writing essays or passing exams. The real magic happens in practical business applications like this. The innovative integration delivered by Tower Systems in its POS software shows how AI can be a valuable tool for any business, big or small.

More AI on the horizon: The Tower team is already cooking up more AI features, recognising the technology’s potential to streamline operations and improve the bottom line.

Embrace the AI revolution: Yes, there’s debate about AI, but Tower folks are clear: We build tools, and this is one businesses want. It’s about giving retailers the edge in a changing world.

Missing out on money? We can help: The new software also includes advanced business insights and management tools. One gem is the “what am I missing out on?” feature. By analysing your sales and inventory history, it pinpoints lost revenue opportunities due to stock shortages. Imagine identifying thousands of dollars in potential sales you could have made with the right stock!

Tower Systems is committed to empowering local retailers with innovative tools like this. With AI in their corner, small businesses can compete and thrive in today’s dynamic retail landscape.

Ready to experience the future of retail? Check out the new Tower POS software and see how AI can help your business soar!

Tower Systems helps small business retailers recover EFTPOS costs with an auto-calculated surcharge

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We make it easy for local small business retailers to accurately apply a surcharge to a purchase based on the type of payment card presented.

With the cost of each card varying and some banks offering card specific costs to businesses, this approach by us makes it more certain for shoppers and retailers when it comes to a surcharge based on the type of card used.

Our POS software talks to the payments processor once the card is presented and instantly a surcharge is calculated and details provided to the shopper. We do this in the way the ACCC requires.

Certain rules apply when a business applies a surcharge to particular cards:

  • the surcharge must not be more than what it costs the business to use that payment type

  • the surcharge can only include costs that are for accepting that particular payment. For example, if a business pays an amount for gateway fees for processing credit card transactions only, the business cannot include this cost in its debit card transactions.

This approach meats with legal obligations of retailers in Australia. It also makes it easier for retailers to cover the cost of card payment, which can be considerable based on the type of card presented.

Using the Tower Systems POS software, local small business retailers can apply a credit or debit card surcharge with certainty, ease and confidence. They can provide good customer service and fully inform shoppers such that they may choose another method of payment.

The rules in Australia for applying the same surcharge for all payment types are that it must not be more than the lowest surcharge they would set for a single payment type. This is from their ACCC website. This is why applying a surcharge based on the actual payment type presented can matter – there is a huge different in payment type costs.

Our POS software makes it easy for small business retailers to apply a surcharge and manage toe collection of this and record keeping associated with it. We take care of business for our customers, make their job easier and provide a safe framework within which they transact with their customers.

Excited for the preview of an enhanced POS software function

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We are about to host a secure and private interactive session about a significantly enhanced part of our POS software. The development has taken many months due to the complexity of the specialised area of business this software will serve.

The scope of the work was developed in consultation with the customers keen for the enhancement. The preview will involve them too. This is another step in our atlas test process, which proceeds beta.

We are excited for the feedback and the opportunity to look further down the road.

As a software company we depend on regularly evolving software to extend the reach of and benefits from our POS software. We are grateful to our customers for being there with and for us.

Hey news outlets and reporters, not all businesses and CEOs want employees to return to the office

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It is tiresome reading news reports claiming that businesses and business CEOs want employees to return to the office – often backed by a survey of CEOs.

Sure, some do. But, plenty don’t.

These stories about returning to the office are often vested interest based: landlords wanting their commercial space to be filled, companies wanting the space they have leased to be filled, businesses needing office-based trade to thrive and consultants serving businesses in these situations.

Think about local retailers benefiting from people working from home, regional retailers too. Force people back to the office and they lose the business they have won.

Landlords, property developers and others wanting people to return to the office for selfish reasons need to stop being selfish.

Smart employees of workers who want work from anywhere want their people to work where they are happiest. If that’s home, let them work from home.

Happy employees are valuable to any business.

Journalists and news outlets need to stop being boosters for the selfish demanding people work at the office and not from home.

Families benefit from more time with people able to work from home rather than losing family time to a commute.

Local communities benefit from people working from home shopping more locally and having mor time for local engagement.

Those calling for people to return to the office think their needs are more important than family time or local community time. They are wrong.

At our POS software company, Tower Systems, where people work is up to them. We actually started on this model in 2019, ahead of the pandemic, and then we escalated it to be companywide. We are lucky to be in a business where work location is not an issue.

We hire people we trust, provide them with resources they need and offer as much flexibility as we can in terms of their work situation. We have some team members saving close to twenty hours a week – that’s money in the bank for them.

Sure, we have a small crew in the office, where the job requires it. We support them. We are also grateful that each member of this crew actually prefers to be there, in the office.

Now, we do have a vested interest in all this. We make software for local small business retailers. They benefit from more people who work from home. So, of course we will support work from home from a commercial perspective. But our pitch makes sense right – happy people = productive people = people less likely to look elsewhere = a more successful business.

We think it all comes down to how you view people working in your business. If you see them as a line item on your P&L, a cog in a big machine that serves a P&L result only, you miss the opportunity to see people working in your business as people, families, members of local communities.

We don’t support the calls for people to return to the office and we wish news outlets would stop being used as mouthpieces for the vested interests making these selfish pitches.

POS software integrations help improve efficiency and reduce mistakes in local small business retail

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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.

POS software integrations are smart in saving time too.

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:

XERO (ACCOUNTING)
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)
MX51 (PAYMENTS)
WINDCAVE (DPS) (PAYMENTS)
RAA MEMBER (DISCOUNTS)
PINPAYMENTS (PAYMENTS)
XCHANGEIT (EDI)
GNS (EDI)
EASTERN DISTRIBUTORS (EDI)
MAXWELL AND WILLIAMS (HAG) (EDI)
KONGS (EDI)
PERMIER PET (EDI)
MASTERPET (EDI)
AIRR / TUCKERS (EDI)
JUST FOR PETS (EDI)
EVERGREEN CONNECT (EDI)
MAILCHIMP (MARKETING)
MESSAGE MEDIA (SMS SERVICES)
BIKE EXCHANGE (EDI)
EPAY (ELECTRONIC VOUCHERS)
TABCORP (REQUIRES EXCHANGEIT) (LOTTERY)
POSTEC (FUEL)
TANDA (STAFF)
DEPUTY (STAFF)
ALLOTRAC (DISPATCH)
TREK (STOCK)
PACSTREAM (EDI)
TITLEPAGE (EDI)
REMOVE.BG (OTHER)
REMOVAL.AI (OTHER)
CHAT GPT (AI)

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.

Local retailers keen for a seamless payee its integration and needing a POS solution that is capable, functional, enhanced and reliable – the Tower Systems Linkly Cloud partnership is worth considering.

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.

Shop local: show don’t tell is a strong message local retailers can spend through the decisions they make

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If you run a local retail business and have put a shop local post on social media or a sign in your window, take a moment to think about the decisions you have made in your business that lean into the shop local narrative for your business.

Do you by local every time you can?

Take POS software, is your software locally made, locally supported, benefiting the local community.

In the POS software space we have plenty of businesses owned by overseas companies, selling software that is developed overseas and software that is supported overseas. Very little of every dollar you spend with them stays locally. here at Tower Systems, most of what we are paid stays locally, supporting the local community, for which we are grateful.

In the relates EFTPOS payments space, there are local banks and providers and there are international businesses. Given the similarity in fees, choosing the local company would appear to make sense to businesses that themselves call on others to shoot local.

Now, if there is software locally made and locally supported that fist your business needs and is similar in price, why not consider the, local alternative and, when you do, tell people that you are grateful to be able to shop local for your own business.

This is one way to pitch shop local practically in your local business: shop local for yourself and gracefully share stories about this on your social media pages. Without telling customers to shop local you are leading in the conversation by doing it yourself.

Any business publicly encouraging others to shop local has an obligation themselves for each decision to make to first consider the local options. Your actions in business speak to the narrative of your business. You actions on shopping locally will show whether you are true to your word.

There is so much more to a call to shop local than the words themselves. It is vital we understand this and that we live it through the decisions we make in our businesses if we plan to tell others to shop local.

Shop local is a solid message if we walk the walk.

PUSHING A CASH IS KING MESSAGE IS A FOOL’S ERRAND IN MY VIEW AND HERE’S WHY

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Too often we see small business retailers pitching cash is king on social media and shake my head. It’s a waste of time. People will pay how they want to pay, if you let them.

Berating people, telling them that cash is better for you and the economy is an argument not backed by facts.

The cost of handling cash is not dissimilar to the cost of taking cashless payments. especially today with fewer bank branches available for cash deposits and making change.

Retailers are retailers. They are service businesses. If someone wants to pay a retailer money, they need to be flexible in the forms in which they receive this. And, if one form of payment is more expensive than another, consider a surcharge for that and explain to your customers why.

Posting on social media about the cost of card payments and bemoaning money banks make from this is not cutting through. You only have to look at the continued growth in card and other non-cash payments to see that. So why waste time and energy complaining about something that has no chance in going your way. Instead, spend time celebrating what you love about your business.

Of course, what you put on social media from and about your business is 100% up to you. The challenge is that anything one retailer in a channel does can speak for more than that one business.

What we want in our business, our prime goal, is more shoppers. Anything that gets in the way of achieving this needs to be considered, and probably dropped. I think the social media posts bemoaning the cost of card payments and calling for people to pay cash are an example of a turn-off social media post. Such posts risk turning people off your business and off colleague businesses in the newsagency channel.

Yes, the payments arrangements in Australia are unnecessarily complex and they do have a cost to our businesses. But, shoppers are flocking to non-cash methods of payment and it is good for our businesses if we accept these with ease and grace.

Instead of waging an unwindable campaign about your preference for cash over card for payment, consider diverting that energy into business improving opportunities such as addressing common expensive management misses that I too often see in local small business retail. Here are low-hanging-fruit ideas I pitch to retailers:

  • Dead stock. A problem not seen is not a problem to too many. In the average indie retail business, dead stock is equal to at least 3% of turnover.

  • Running out of stock. In one business I looked at recently, being out of stock cost the business $15,000 in sales in six months. ordering based on what their software advised would have solved that.

  • Failing the price opportunity. Shoppers are less price conscious than we think they are. Have faith in your business. Price based on the value you offer and not based on fear of competitors.

  • Bloated roster. I often see a bloat cost equal to around 10% of business labour cost.

  • Wrong trading hours. Some stay open too long while others are not open long enough. Either way has a cost to the business.

  • Being blind to theft. Theft in local indie retail retail costs on average between 3% and 5% of turnover. Not watching for it, tracking it and mitigating against it has a cost to the business.

  • Ignorance. No, it’s not bliss. There are insights in software that can guide better decisions, faster decisions, more financially rewarding decisions. Yet, too many in retail don’t want to know.

This is a list of seven action items from which any small business retailer could benefit. Pick any or all of these ahead of spending time going on social media calling for people to pay by cash instead of a card and you will gain more benefit for bottom line.

Tower Systems helps local small business retailers cut employee theft in 2024

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From the data captured from Point-of-Sale software from my software company being used in their business, I was able to show Harry and June that their business was being stolen from to the tune of at least two thousand dollars a week, that it had been going on for two years and that it was only happening four days a week.

We were sitting in a coffee shop near their business. They brought the shop employee roster with me as I asked. There was only one person who worked the days and specific hours indicated by the Point-of-Sale software.

‘It can’t be, they’re family,’ June said looking across at Harry. ‘She’s my niece,’ said Harry, ‘she’s amazing in the shop. Customers love her’. ‘We couldn’t run the business without her,’ June chipped in. ‘Yeah, it’s got to be a mistake,’ Harry said looking at the roster.

Harry had reached out to me a couple of weeks earlier as their accountant had advised him that the business was not making the type of money that it should. The accountant had said to him ‘something’s not right’.

Harry thought there was something wrong with the software. That’s why he called me.

I asked for a copy of their data and did a deep dive into a hidden set of encrypted sales records stored by the software to enable this type of investigation of possible employee fraud.

Having done this type of research many times in the past and having worked with police and prosecutors as an expert witness, I knew for certain that Harry and June were being stolen from by their niece.

They left the coffee shop meeting certain that the problem was with the software. It was another year before Harry and June followed my advice, installed hidden cameras and got the evidence to implicate their niece.

The day they confronted their niece she walked out. They never recovered the money. They feared a split in the family and didn’t pursue criminal charges.

In all, Harry and June lost over three hundred thousand dollars. They sold the business soon after.

Employee theft can be a high cost to indie small business retailers. Different studies in Australia and elsewhere coupled with our own knowledge of theft in indie small business retail indicates that employee theft costs a business around 75% of the total cost of theft.

The quantum of  employee theft is often under considered by small business retailers. We think  this is because of denial. However, given that the amount that can be taken in one hit or in micro amounts over a long period of time can be considerable once toted up.

Employee theft can be traced and as a result of this stopped. Our small business POS software helps retailers do this. We back the theft mitigation facilities in our software with training, advice and even data analysis to uncover possible instances of theft that may have hitherto gone undetected.

Here is some of the small business retail theft mitigation advice from our POS software retail experienced team:

  1. Track your stock. Receive all stock into your business through your computer system so you know exactly what sock you have.
  2. Scan everything you sell.  Do not use department keys as this makes it easier for employees to steal since they know there is no trackback to stock on hand. Using department keys is an invitation to steal.
  3. Track every sale by employees. Give your employees a card with a unique barcode or have them enter a code – to track every sale they make back to them. Change the code every six months or so.
  4. Do your end of shift through your software and have a zero-tolerance policy on being over or under. Reconcile banking to your computer software end of shift. One business where this was not done was being skimmed regularly for $200 a day.
  5. Do spot cash balancing. Unexpected checks can uncover surprises. One retailer needing to do a banking during the day uncovered a $350 discrepancy that lead to discovery of systematic theft.
  6. Change your roster. Sometimes people work together to steal. One retailer found a family friend senior and their teenage daughter stealing consistently.
  7. Setup a theft policy.Put this on a noticeboard in the back room. Get staff to read it and sign up to it. See the last page of this advice.
  8. Keep the counter clean. An organised counter reduces the opportunity for theft. It makes detection easier.
  9. Have a no employee bags at the counter policy. This makes it harder for them to hide your cash.
  10. Beware employees who carry folded paper or small notepads. These can be used for them to keep track of how much cash is in the register that is theirs – i.e. not rung up in the software.
  11. Advise all job applicants that you will require their permission for a police check. From the outset this indicates that you take your business seriously. In many situations applicants who have been asked for permission to do a police check advise they have found a job elsewhere.
  12. Do not take cash out for your own use in front of employees. If they see you take cash for a coffee or lunch some will see this as an invitation.

At the start of a new year is a good time to take a close look at whether employee theft is an issue in your retail business. We’d love to help you with that.

Retailers unhappy with Lightspeed POS software EFTPOS and related fees are welcomed at Tower Systems

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Tower Systems is grateful to welcome retailers switching from Lightspeed POS software to our Aussie made and supported POS software for specialty retailers.

Whether we are a good fit for your business depends on your business needs. This can be discussed in a personal demonstration where you review our software and see whether it does things the way you want.

When it comes to a Lightspeed comparison, we have some differences people tell us about:

  • You are not required to use any specific payments platform.
  • Our software rental charge is not tied to your sales revenue.
  • There is no penalty charge from us relating to your sales revenue.
  • We have increased our rental fees twice in five years and even then it was a lower than CPI increase.
  • You can talk to any of our leadership team direct and without having to top through a gatekeeper.

One way to compare is our Tower Systems POS software pricing page. Compare the different price-point levels of our software and see where what we offers fits compares with your situation today. We’;re confident we are competitive. better still, we are reliable, and viable.

As multiple Lightspeed earnings calls have revealed over the last year, growing Lightspeed Payments revenue has become a key commercial activity for the Lightspeed business. On our opinion, this pitches them as like a road a tolling business, making a clip from each transaction processed by retailers using their Lightspeed POS software or their Vend POS software.

We don’t care what EFTPOS or payments platform our retail customers use. Our POS software links with all the major Australian banks – there is no extra keying of transaction amounts on credit card machines, no extra keystrokes. Our integrations are good, secure and fast.

We don’t charge a penalty based on the EFTPOS or payments platform our retailers use.

We think retailers need to be able to make the decision as to the best payments platform with which to partner based on factors that matter to them.

If you are a Lightspeed POS or a vend POS customer and are looking for an alternative to Lightspeed Payments, consider Tower Systems. Tell us about your needs. If we can help, we will. If we cannot help, we promise to say so.

Excellent POS software for charity shops, op. shops and community owned enterprises

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Here at Tower Systems we are grateful to serve plenty of local op. shops, charity shops and community owned and run enterprises with POS software that suits the needs of these businesses.

Our charity shop POS software is made to serve needs unique to charity shops, op. shops and community owned enterprises where the day to day workforce is often volunteers who may only do a few hours each month.

Our software is easy to learn and suitable for a variety of settings common to charity shops, op. shops and community enterprises. For example, it’s easy to track sales at a high level buy product type to a next level down based on size / colour / style or a mix of these, down to individual item level. Using our POS software these organisations can learn more about what they sell, when they sell and how products sell.

In service of the valuable work of charity shops, op. shops and community owned enterprises we offer our POS software at a significantly discounted price. This is part of our own commitment to give back where we can, to help support the good work of these enterprises.

We have traditional Aussie op. shops using our POS software, community owned enterprises in the nursery / garden space, church related charity shops, community owned enterprises in other spaces too.

Charity and op. shops are unique and loved businesses and our software covered unique needs like:

  1. Easy to learn. We have found that in community enterprises easy to learn / easy to use really does matter. Volunteer turnover makes this essential. We can record training specific to your needs and make these videos available for future volunteers.
  2. Easy shopper loyalty.  While the software offers a loyalty points system, we have found the cash-off approach in our loyalty tools works better in local retail. People understand money. A receipt showing an amount they can save on their next purchase gets, usually, at least 20% of people spending more that visit.
  3. Manage inventory your way. You can sell by barcode, products code, department, category within department, price point. You can sell, measure and report at the level point appropriate to your needs.
  4. Secure. You can lock down parts of the software to secure them for management access only.
  5. Check and balances. This software guides processes. It also provides hidden tracking so you can investigate should the need arise.
  6. Club / group marketing and support. Leverage clubs and community groups with offers and pricing just for them.

Our Australian made and supported charity shop, op. shop and community owned enterprise shop POS software does more than what’s on this list.

We understand the importance local community groups to the local community.

  • Local matters. Community groups contribute to local communities and families. Our software helps you leverage your localness through many touchpoints.
  • You are a key asset. Only your business has your people. You can leverage them through facilities that share your knowledge of what you sell.
  • You can encourage loyalty. Our loyalty facilities are tuned to charity shop opportunities.
  • The unseen can reveal opportunities. Data, good data, is evidence on which you can expect to make better business decisions, decisions like what can be placed with what to speed sell-through.
  • Not every shopper will walk past your door. A seamless connection between your software and a beautiful website can reach them.

Tower Systems offers local charity shops, op. shops and community owned enterprises exclusive special pricing as part of our community outreach and support commitment. This is something we have thankful to have been able to do for decades.

Is a website right for your shop? Come on, let’s explore that …

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It’s easy to say no to a website if you don’t have one because you don’t know what you don’t know. It’s also easy if you had one in the past and it failed.

Most websites don’t work. Smart people use a failure to do better next time.

Core to website success is filling needs and wants. While needs and wants are quite different, they compel good online business.

Here are the top reasons why we think every retail business needs a website:

  1. Capture sales when you are closed. Typically, more than 50% of online purchases are then the brick and mortar business is closed.
  2. Engage when you are closed. Use chat to answer questions from anywhere, or you geek-out and have an AI chatbot do this.
  3. Reach people not currently shopping with you. Typically, 75% of sales are from people located nowhere near your shop.
  4. Have a second outlet for quitting stock.
  5. Have a place where you can experiment.
  6. Playing with a plan Bin case your shop finds itself in choppy waters.
  7. To learn. A website, especially your first website, teaches you so much: What people want. What they could pay. Haw awful some people are.
  8. To get you out of a rut. If you’ve been in your shop for ages and are mailing it in each day, a website could put a spring in your step.
  9. To make your shop more valuable. Having a website can make your shop more appealing when you decide to sell.
  10. To find a secondary brand. Could be the first step in a shop rebrand.
  11. To drive traffic to the shop. People will find products on your website and visit as a result, for sure.
  12. To give you another source of revenue that is completely unrelated to anything you do in your shop.
  13. To harvest email addresses. Email marketing from Shopify is a breeze.

Having a website gives people a landing page from your Facebook, Instagram and TikTok posts. This is important.

Tower Systems makes Shopify and Big Commerce POS software connected websites to help retailers find new shoppers, sell 24/7, drive in-store traffic and run more valuable retail businesses.

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