Our gift shop point of sale software is helping more businesses thrive thanks to gift shop specific tools.

Our latest software makes it easier for gift shop owners to trade electronically with suppliers. This delivers significant benefits beyond the obvious time savings. Five new suppliers have been added in the last few weeks.

By more tightly controlling stock replenishment, gift shop owners can reduce oversupply and other purchase errors. This puts money in the bank.

Delivered with our software is business management training and support which helps gift shop owners leverage the tools in the software to achieve these savings. We understand the importance of not only delivering excellent software but also helping our customers make the most from this.

We are in the final days of preparation for the Reed Gift Fair in Melbourne this coming weekend. We’re on stand 3430 at the Melbourne Convention Centre.

In addition to readying a new release of our Gift Shop Point of Sale software, we have developed new marketing collateral for the trade show. This pitches the value of our offer and our focus on the gift shop marketplace.

The new marketing collateral also recognises that the trade show will be attended by newsagents and jewellers - other important marketplaces for us.

This is what we love about the gift fairs, the diversity in retailers attending.  It is an efficient marketing opportunity for us.

It is a challenge to create visually compelling collateral which promotes software and fits with the visual dynamic of a trade show floor full of terrific product. Software can look dry and unappealing.

In our marketing collateral we are connecting our software with the joy of saving time, making more money and building a stronger business - under the banner of MADE FOR YOU.

We just have released a new Gift Shop Point of Sale software and hardware special offer - based on our specialist gift shop software. The details of the special offer are available on our website.

This offer leverages the Federal Government tax break which ends December 31.

Included in the package is our latest Gift Shop management software, a full package of computer hardware, on site installation, on site training and a year of support.

The Gift Shop software included in the package deal covers: point of sale, lay-by,  stock control, loyalty, theft management, business reporting, eftpos integration, customer accounting, sales tracking and plenty more.

Our team is has been busy at the Melbourne Gift Fair over the weekend. As we expected, we have seen plenty of gift and homewares shop owners as well as newsagents.  We have also had a good opportunity to catch up with some existing users.

With another three days to go, we are set to write some excellent business at this trade show.  Our experience reinforces the importance not only of trade shows but of this particular event hosted by the GHA.

Our sales teams are reporting excellent results from the GHA Home and Giving Fair in Sydney and the Reed Gift Fair in Brisbane from the weekend and through to last night.  Both fairs have been busy and retailers ahve beenmost positive.  We like these trade shows as they attract giftshop owners, jewellers and newsagents - a perfect mix for us.

We have released new marketing collateral for our gift shop and homewares software to coincide with the two gift related trade shows in Brisbane and Sydney starting this weekend.

The new collateral includes the new design poster to the left - pitching our gift shop software, hardware, installation, training and support package for $7,995 including GST.  This is a very popular package with gift shops as it provides a low-cost entry point.

The gift shop software package includes: point of sale, lay-by, loyalty marketing, hamper management, gift cards, integrated eftpos, stock reordering and business reporting. Fror customers we provide professional receipts,  account management and the ability to answer queries quickly.

Our gift shop software has been developed specifically to serve the needs of Australian gift shops and homewares retailers.  We understand that we have more gift shops using our software than any other specialist software.

We are proud of our new collateral.  It speaks to key traits of our business of which we are proud: strength, consistency, trustworthiness and value.

Check out our stand at the GHA Home and Giving Fair which starts on Saturday at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition centre at Homebush Bay.  We setup our stand yesterday and took a moment to get this photo before leaving.  It is a proud moment to see so many parts of our company come together for events like this: marketing, support, sales and management have worked on creating a new look for Tower Systems for the gift shop marketplace.  This will be on show this weekend from ouur stand.

As the biggest supplier of software to gift shops in Australia, we use events like this GHA show to meet with existing customers and to pitch to prospects.  If the trade show is like others so far this year it will be tremendously successful for us.

We especially like gift trade fairs because of  the diversity of the businesses of attendees: gift shops, jewellers and newsagents.  Three markets we know well and like.

We are making our final preparations for our stands at gift fairs in Brisbane and Sydney.  Next weekend, we will be at the GHA Home and Giving Fair in Sydney and the Reed Gift Fair in Brisbane.  It has been a challenge to double our trade show equipment and collateral to ensure that we look 100% at each event.

Trade shows are proving to be very successful for us this year, leading to excellent supplier relationships and new customers.

If you find yourself at either of these trade shows please be sure to stop by and say g’day.

The integrated eftpos link between our point of sale sofetare and Tyro bank is now approved for gift shop use.  This means we can being to gift shops the Tyro benefits of:

• Faster processing.  Approvals are achieved in one or two seconds.
• Fewer mistakes.  Fewer keystrokes means fewer mistakes.
• Lower costs.  The Tyro fees are usually considerably less than for a regular bank eftpos service.
• Cleaner counter.  The Tyro pinpad is setup in such a way to de-clutter the counter.

Our trial gift shop partners using Tyro tell us that they love these benefits.

We own and operate four card and gift shops. Through these have access to gift wholesaler relationships which help us finesse our gift shop software software. From our own gift shop experiences we are able to see opportunities for better POS software.  Our next software update introduces several enhancements which finesse our gift shop software offering as a result of these personal experiences.

Our abilities in the gift and homewares software space are on show in the latest issue of Giftrap magazine published this week by the Australian Gift and Homewares Association.  We were pleased to have an opportunity to contribute quality editorial - a two-page spread - to help gift and homewares retailers in their pursuit of good retail management software.  We are also grateful for an opportunity to support the magazine with advertising.  As members of the AGHA this is important to us.

We have put together a gift shop hardware and software package offer for gift shops keen to access the government’s 50% Tax Break deal which is now law and expires on December 31, 2009.

Based around software developed especially for gift shops and adhering to the latest standards for connecting gift shops with their wholesalers, we are able to deliver excellent business benefits through this package offer.  Included in the price is excellent quality hardware and it is this which is eligible for the tax break from the government.

We are communicating details of this gift shop offer to gift shops in Australia next week.  Our sales team is making appointments to show off the latest gift shop software.

We have created a new briefing for gift wholesalers as the penetration of our software for gift shops increases.  With more gift shop owners keen to reduce the paperwork involved in loading new products, our EDI facilities are ideal for achieving this as well as reducing mistakes which are more likely with manual data entry processes.

The new briefing is available in a group for gift wholesalers or one-on-one for a specific wholesaler.   There is no charge for this service.

We own and operate several gift shops.  This provides our software company with behind the counter experience in the gift shop marketplace and an understanding of gift shop software needs more than your average software company.  It is part of what drives us as gift shop software specialists.  We want the best for our customers and ourselves.

The photo shows our Sophie Randall Melbourne Central location.  We are using this and other Sophie Randall locations to show off our gift shop software facilities: point of sale, lay-by, special customer orders, hampers, gift certificates, stock control, integrated eftpos, integrated security, stock management, shopping basket analysis, loyalty marketing and customer tracking.

The needs of gift shops are, in some areas, different to those of other marketplaces in which we operate.  In other areas they are complimentary.  Our work with gift shop owners has helped us improve, for example, our software for jewellers and our software for newsagents.

Owning an operating gift shops drives us further than your usual software innovation.  We have a live place where we play without impacting other businesses.  This helps us truly innovate, bringing only the best to our gift shop customers.  Our mission is to provide software which goes beyond the average, gift shop software which genuinely innovates for gift shop employees and owners every day.

Our complete gift shop computer solution is a popular way for gift shop owners. to computerise their businesses.  The complete turnkey solution is priced at $7,995 (inc. GST).  This includes hardware suited to gift shops, gift shop specific software, on-site training, updates and support for the first year.  It also includes the ability to process electronic invoices from gift shop suppliers.

We are about to release a new version of our gift shop software.  This continues to evolve our solution for gift shops and reflects new facilities sought by gift shop owners keen to take their businesses to a new level.

Our new gift shop software will be on show at the next round of Gift Fairs.

We operate four gift shops through the retail arm of our business.  They provide a live testing ground for gift shop software development as well as other business initiatives.  Below is a copy of the latest customer newsletter we have produced for our Sophie Randall business.

This has been developed out of our Tower marketing department. This talented team, through their work with our retail businesses, is honing their skills and is therefore better equipped to help our retail customers build their businesses.  The newsletter speaks to the professionalism of Tower Systems and reflects what our customers can expect from us.

We are hosting a presentation of the facilities in our gift shop software to gift shop suppliers keen to engage with their retail partners electronically. In our presentation we will demonstrate the latest EDI facilities through which the suppliers can transact with retailers and gain access to sales data in return. Gift shop retailers will love that more of their suppliers are embracing EDI.

This gift shop supplier presentation extends our connection with the gift shop channel and opens opportunities for further innovation for gift shop owners.
Any gift shop supplier wishing to participate or receive a personal briefing should make contact with us through our website.

Tower Systems’ software makes it easy for gift shops and other retailers to sell more gifts in a single sale - especially at important retail seasons like Mother’s Day.

The manufactured goods facilities make it easy to make up gift hampers and gift boxes with multiple items.  These can be sold as one yet tracked at the individual item level.

If, at the end of the season, boxes or hampers remain, they can be broken-down to single items and sold that way - very easily.

We have an advice sheet which guides our customers on how to create these hampers and gift packs using our software. We take the opportunity at Mother’s Day to remind our customers about these facilities and show how smart use of the software can heklp them get more value from each sale.

Our gift shop software has been a regular feature in the pages of Giftwrap and Greeting and Gifts over the years since we entered the gift shop marketplace.

Our latest ad pulls back from traditional software advertising and subtly reminds readers that we are gift shop software specialists.  we have made this change following advice received on our stand at the Melbourne and Sydney Gift Fairs.

Our gift shop software has evolved significantly thanks to suggestions from our customers and their suppliers.  The latest release strengthens the Tower Advantage ^TM offering to gift shop owners as it introduces several new exclusive facilities including better links between gift shops and their suppliers.

We are glad to have the opportunity to help evolve gift shop management.

Click here to see the Gift Shop software and hardware Autumn package offer just released by Tower Systems for gift shop owners looking for a complete retail management solution.

Our software for gift shops continues to benefit from our direct ownership of our Sophie Randall gift shops in Melbourne.  Having four live businesses where we can play with selling gifts, lay-by, gift cards, gift hampers, moving stock, reordering, managing a warehouse and managing the overall business helps us refine our software with our attention focused on what is right for the gift shop business owner.

The next update to our software introduces several enhancements which we have discussed with other gift shop owners and which our own retail managers are keen to see released.  We have been able to play with them and refine them more than wouldusually be the case for a software company.

Being own own users takes software beyond the usual geek interest and provides us with a perspective which is unique and commercailly beneficial.

We have just launched a new hardware and software package offer for gift shop owners.  Called our Autumn Deal, the package offer is enticing for gift shop owners who want to improve the return they achieve from their business.

Since mid 2008 we have been able to provide access to the up-to-date stock file for the respected Maxwell and Williams range of homewares for users of our gift and homewares point of sale software.  This stock file and other electronic data initiatives are helping gift and homewares retailers save real time in the operation of their businesses.

We are grateful to the people behind Maxwell and Williams for helping us help our customers in this way.

We have kept this iniative under wraps for six months because we saw no sense in telegraphing it too early.

We have made it easier for wholesalers to create electronic invoices thanks to some clever work by our software development team. While our preference is that wholesalers provide files which meet international EDI standards, we have created a facility for an easier file format which just about any accounting system used by a wholesaler can create. Already in use by a number of suppliers, this simple-form electronic invoice format will save time for some of our retail customers and make compliance easier for smaller wholesalers.

We have developed advice for wholesalers wanting to implement the simple-form electronic invoice format.

This work is of particular interest in the jeweller and gift shop channels.

Our gift shop software and jeweller software help business owners manage fast moving stock items - like the small items next to the lion.  Where many POS software packages manage the negative, we pay due attention to the positive because it is these fast selling items which can deliver bonus returns to a retailer.

The lion in the photo is the item sales staff and management will traditionally manage.  It is big and hard to miss.  Using fast-seller tracking in our software, the top sellers are brought into focus in a way which ensures the business owner is more informed.

We developed our fast-seller reporting with businesses owners committed to this type of success outcome reporting.  The user involvement created a better outcome than we could have working in isolation based on what we thought was needed.