Our Point of Sale software can help retailers protect against customer fraud.  Using our software, our retail customers are able to better protect against common fraud conducted at the counter by skilled criminals.

Here are just some of the ways our software is helping retailers reduce the cost of customer fraud.

1. Receipt checking.  By scanning a receipt, a past sale is immediately brought up for verification before a refund is considered.
2. Refund management.  Thanks to clever search tools, retail employees are able to verify when an item was sold – in case a receipt is not returned with the goods.
3. Checking change.  Users can setup the system to require that receipts always show change.
4. Security controls.  Sophisticated security facilities within our software deny employees the ability to process a refund unless they have been explicitly granted security clearance.
5. Eftpos integration.  Using the integrated Tyro broadband eftpos solution, a processing step is eliminated, meaning an opportunity for fraud is eliminated.

The most important way to protect against customer fraud is to have well defined and understood operational processes at the retail sales counter.  These processes can be better managed and driven thanks to facilities in our Point of Sale software.

Retail businesses hit by customer fraud tend to have a lazy approach to managing the sales counter, inviting financial harm to the business.

Tower Systems is helping retailers to use their POS Software to find spare cash in their businesses.  This is a smarter move than the more traditional approach taken by retailers of heavy discounting without proper planning.

• Dead stock.  By easily identifying stock which has been sitting on the shelves for too long, we help retailers be more certain about what needs to be discounted. the data provided also helps guide decisions as to the discount to be offered.
• Using just in time stocking principles.  Too often retailers carry too much stock in their back rooms.  By implementing our just in time focused recording facilities, retailers are able to  carry less stock and free capital for other uses in their businesses.
• Driving basket efficiency.  Getting Each customer to spend more in the business improves profitability per employee contact. The comprehensive basket penetration tools in the Tower Systems Point of Sale software drive this.
• Better roster management.  With employee costs usually accounting for between 8% and 15% of retail costs, we help retailers review revenue by time and by employee to enable appropriate cost saving decisions to be made.
• Rent review.  We have found that by providing a landlord with accurate performance data about the business, retailers can negotiate revised lease terms.  We help our retail customers extract appropriate data and pack this in a form which is useful to landlords.

There are many ways retailers can unlock spare cash in their businesses.  Tower Systems is grateful for the opportunities of working with our customers to help them unlock this cash.

The latest version of our Point of Sale software will deliver enhanced debtor management facilities.  With the economy tight, retail customers find many reasons to delay paying bills.  Our goal is to help our customers more efficiently address and deal with their debtor book.  This is the motivator for the latest changes in our software.

Tower Advantage ^TM customers will receive information about availability of the latest update shortly.

We were recently asked to write an article about how retailers can cut theft using good Point of Sale software because of the considerable work we have done in this area helping customers, the police and insurance companies.  We though the atricle may also interest readers of this blog…

Cutting employee theft and customer theft in your retail business starts with commitment from the business owners and managers to this goal.

Too often, retailers accept that a certain level of theft will occur and think that it is not as bad in their store as it is in others.

Here are three steps for cutting the cost of theft in any retail business.

Step one: understand the problem.

The first step to dealing with theft, by employees or customers, is to understand the value of theft.

You can understand the value of most customer theft by undertaking either a full business stock take or spot stock takes. The stock your Point of Sale system thinks should be on hand compared to what is on hand reflects the value of stock theft, usually by customers. Good POS software offers stock take facilities designed to track theft.

Understanding the value of employee theft is more difficult since it can involve cash not even put through the computer system.

Step two: get serious about business processes.

Theft occurs usually because of weak business processes. Strengthen a few of your business processes and you dramatically cut the cost of theft.

Sales. Have every sale tracked by an employee code. This brings discipline to the sales process.

Refunds. Only allow a manager to do these.

Deleting sales. Ensure that only the most senior people in the retail business have permission through the POS software to do this.

Discounting. Setup rules in your POS software on the volume of discounting which is permitted.

Cash balancing. Establish rules for end of shift cash balancing. Make all sales employees accountable to a zero tolerance target.

Use security reporting tools. Good POS software will take you behind the scenes in the business and report on concerning behaviour such as selling items below cost, cancelling sales, deleting sales or adjusting customer account balances. These are all indicators of employee fraud.

Step three: act on evidence.

Thanks to reporting from your Point of sale software you ought to gain a good understanding of the scope of theft in your retail business. Embrace this information for the benefit of the business and all who rely on it, make decisions.

If stock is being stolen off the shop floor, understand which stock is affected and either increase security or move the stock to a better location. The more likely someone stealing feels they could be caught the lower the chance they will actually steal from the business.

If employees are taking even small amounts of cash from the business, act immediately within the law to protect the business. This removes the problem from the business and it sends a message to others in the business that you will act on evidence of theft.

Use your Point of Sale software to its fullest to help cut the cost of theft in your business. Imagine how much better off the business would be with an additional three percentage points of net profit. That is your motivator - a healthier profit for the business and therefore a more sustainable business.

Cutting employee and customer theft can be achieved. Us your Point of Sale system to understand the problem and then help manage it.

Point of Sale software is a perfect partner for any retail business in tough economic times without spending thousands of dollars on advertising. Leveraging your existing customers you may find more gold in your own backyard that you imagined.

Using good POS software you can expect to:

1. Cut costs. Thanks to electronic invoicing, the cost of processing new stock is lower than with manual processes. This can help cut your labour bill.
2. Increase sales #1: reward customers. A good loyalty program works. Not like FlyBys which is of dubious financial value to customers. No, a serious loyalty program which guides your customers to spend more money with you. I have see stores grow sales by 10% on the back of a well constructed loyalty program, a good POS software package will run this for you, points and all.
3. Increase sales: easy lay-by. Lay-by run properly and using technology can be highly profitable. The software can manage the rules and ensure that your shop operates as professionally as a national retailer. You set your own rules and the software manages the paperwork.
4. Increase sales: market to your customers. A coupon on your receipts, an email newsletter, a printed newsletter or up-sell script at the sales counter for staff - these are all ways you can use your point of sale system to help guide your existing customers to spend more money with you.
5. Increase sales: Connect with a local charity. Use your software to make it easy for a local charity to promote your shop and raise money for themselves at the same time. Each sale earned for you by the charity can be tracked so that you are able to reward them with an accurate donation at the end of the campaign.
6. Make better business decisions. By buying only stock which works for you or seeing exactly what customers buy with what you are able to make business decisions which are more likely to drive better business results.
7. Sell your own gift cards. If a customer cannot find what they want in your shop you could sell them a professional looking gift card with a unique barcode allocated to that card. This way they money they put on the card is used in your business.
8. Cut mistakes. Mistakes in retail can be expensive. By using POS software you can expect to cut mistakes. This is because it takes fewer keystrokes per sale. This reduces the opportunity for mistakes.
9. Cut theft. The last time I checked, theft in retail in Australia was running at between 3% and 5% of turnover. Thanks to tight controls around employees and better tracking of stock theft, you can expect to cut the cost of theft. Every $1 cut in theft is a $1 on your bottom line.
10. Handle special orders. Using software you can place orders for specific customers. The software can even sent a text message to the customer’s mobile phone when their special order comes if. Talk about customer service!

The most important way you can grow your business in a tough marketplace is doing what you probably do best - providing cheerful and knowledgeable customer service. You can do this and your employees can do this if you hand over some of your administrative tasks to retail store software. As a successful retailer told me about her interaction with her business: floor time = profit.

We have been helping a start up retail software company entering a market far removed from us.  In this process we have been looking at core principles which have helped us get to our position today.

Here are the key principles in which our company was founded and which hold true today.

Have the right sales team. Good IT companies try and counter retailer ignorance by using technically skilled sales people who focus on genuine business outcomes for the retailer.

Technically skilled sales people can show how the POS software genuinely helps the retail business for the long term. They will also counsel against a business purchasing the software if it is not the right fit for the business.

A sales person who knows how to sell but does not truly understand the technology chases the sale without consequences. While this may deliver good revenue to the software business in the short term, sales will fall in the long term.

Make better software. Retail businesses have very specific needs. IT companies need to understand and serve these needs, needs which go beyond traditional cash register facilities.

Smart IT companies thoroughly learn the needs of retailers in their niche, they embrace opportunities to develop specialist facilities in their products. They look for ways to help their retail customers with enhancements long after the software has been sold to the customer.

An IT company which does not care about the long term relationship with their customers will usually sell old and out of date software, not offer regular updates and not seek to engage with all of their customers, seeking our enhancement requests.

Back your software with excellent support. Get to calls in a reasonable time. Make sure advice is professional. Have a peer review process in place to ensure that the help desk team keeps each other honest and focused. You are only as good as your last support call.

Educate. Good IT companies offer education about how to use their software, long after the software has been sold. This education could be in the form of group training opportunities, online training, training videos and the more traditional printed documentation.

Regularly enhancing the training opportunities can extend the connection between retailer and POS software vendor. This can lead to good word of mouth, driving further sales. It can also lead to upgrade business.

There is a feeling of a job well done within software companies when they hear of retailers making good use of the software and achieving an outcome which, without the software, might not have been achieved.

Poor software companies tend to offer less education. Once they have the sale they don’t see much value in spending money on their customers unless they expect to make considerably more money.

The relationship between POS software vendor and retailer needs to be long term and not just about the detail done today to purchase the software. It must be a mutually beneficial relationship, one which respects the needs of both businesses.

Smart software will do considerably more than any software user ever dreamed. The key to unlocking this is the professionalism and dedication of the software vendor. The approach of a retailer is as key to driving this outcome as is the commitment of the vendor.

We have updated our end of financial year advice for retailers using our POS software.  This updated advice sheet, G04, is now available from our website.

We have emailed our customers this week to remind them about this important housekeeping for the tax office and other parties.  We will issue weekly reminded between now and June 30.

We are supplementing this advice with free online training as well as tips in our weekly support emails.

The most accurate stocktake in any retail business is the one done with a Point of Sale system with both sides of the business sale gtransaction involved and with cost prices accurately verified immediately prior to the stock take.

Undertaking a computer based stocktake results in far more accurate business data for the incoming newsagent.  It is also more easily audited than manual stocktake sheets.

We have seen computer based stocktakes completed more quickly than manual stock takes.

We have advice available for end of financial year stock takes, spot stock takes and change of owner stock takes.

Tower Systems has launched a range of artwork designed for printing on sales receipts – turning these business documents into marketing billboards. Receipts printed using the Tower Point of Sale software are like a professional do it yourself shop-a-docket.

This free service from Tower Systems is available to all Tower Advantage ^TM customers through the company website. Click here to see a list of receipt artwork currently available without cost.  These can be downloaded and used with the receipt printers recommended by the company.  Advice sheet G32 explains how to load the artwork on receipts.

The five receipt artwork images to the left are only a selection of what the company has created for its customers.  The website has more.

The Tower software includes smart ad serving facilities which provide flexibility to the retailer about when each receipt is to be included in a sale.  these facilities provide flexibility for retailers around which artwork is served and when.

The development and release of these receipts is further evidence of the support Tower provides retailers using its Point of Sale software. The company goes beyond telling people how to use its software, by producing this artwork it adds value delivered by the software to the business.

The company has invited suggestions from its customers for future receipt advertisements and coupons to be produced by its in-house creative team.  Suggestions can be logged through the Software Ideas facility on the website -those allowed to vote on the idea.

Inactive stock can be problematic for retailers in their Point of Sale software.  There are reasons for keeping a record of the items but often they can clog systems.  We make managing inaactive items easy by enabling them to be tagged as inactive.  By doing this, the inactive items do not come up in searches for current items.  We have just published a new advice sheet (G41) at our website to guide the proper may to manage inactive stock items in our Point of Sale software.

The next release of our software delivers a simple yet effective tool which will help tobacco retailers fulfill their obligations in retailing tobacco products. The software enhancements provide structure around the checking processes which are essential with new rules governing the retail of tobacco. We are not applying the enhancements as mandatory, that is up to our customers to decide. They can set the rules to apply to every tobacco sale and thereby give ,as business owners, a barrier at the sales counter to selling tobacco to underage customers.

For years now, we have offered a free business analysis service.  Retailers using our Point of Sale software send us a current backup of their system and we thoroughly analyse the data.  We look at how the system is being used as well as how the business is performing.  The result is a frank report for the business owner(s) to consider.  We often discuss this further with them and use data as a guide to talk through changes which could be considered.

At our end, a review of a business can take up to four hours of working through data and reports.  It often involves two of us comparing what we have found and challenging our views of what steps the business could take.  We take the opportunity very seriously because we understand the value for us of helping our retailers achieve more from their Tower Systems software.

The free business analysis is part of the Tower Advantage ^TM suite of services which help our retail partners get more from our Point of Sale software.

Any customer can request this by sending a current backup with a note seeking a Business Review to our Head Office: Suite 10, 22 Horne Street, Elsternwick VIC 3185.

One of the less obvious ways our Point of Sale software helps retailers is in cutting mistakes. There are many ways that our software does this and they all add up to delivering a measureable financial benefit

In an average retail business, we estimate that the value of mistakes eliminated in a year of use of our software is at least .5% of retail sales. That’s a minimum $2,000 net benefit in a year for using the software properly

Here are some the simple ways we reduce mistakes

• Accurate selling. By not manually entering prices for each item sold you eliminate keystroke mistakes. Also, not manually processing credit card and eftpos payments. We link directly with the baking terminal
• Accurate pricing. By regulating discounting and catalogues, the software ensures that products are accurately priced. We have seen many mistakes with manual operation. Also, by applyingmarkups automaticallyh, we ensure the margin achieved by the business.
• Sales tracking. Whether it is lay-bys, putaways, special orders or other points of customer interaction, our Point of Sale software tracks the activity and helps the business fulfil its obligations on time, accurately and professionally
• Eliminating manual processes. Back office manual processes can be problematic in retail businesses. With the sale counter always demanding attention, back office work is often left mid-stream. By replacing manual back office processes with faster electronic processes we help the business focus more on where it makes its money and to do the office work faster and with fewer mistakes.
• By regulating who can access what. Sometimes people with time on their hands like to play. Using the advanced security features in our software, retailers can stock people playing where they should not.

There are plenty of other ways we help cut mistakes for our retail partners outside of the five listed here. The $2,000 a year saving (for each $500,000 in revenue) is real. We have seen it (and more) many times over. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to help our customers achieve these benefits.

Point of Sale software, like any business investment, has an obligation to deliver a return on the investment.

We regularly assess the return that an investment in Tower Systems Point of Sale can achieve.  Most recently, we have been looking at the benefit of a more efficient stock investment.

Our research shows that a retail business turning over $500,000 a year implementing our Point of Sale software and managing stock using the principles we suggest can reduce their stock investment by at least $4,000 in the first year.  Our software identifies under-performing stock using a range of metrics appropriate to the business.  These include, return on investment, return on floor space, stock turn and return on shelf space.

Using our software, retailers can identify under performing stock, devise a plan and unlock this cash, and space, for use elsewhere.

This is genuine value derived from good Point of Sale software - unlocking cash from inefficiencies in your retail business so that you can spend it where you are more likely to achieve a better return.

While the saving is often more than $4,000, we prefer to publicly state the level of benefit we expect based on years of experience.

Tracking debtors is a key function in software for any business.  In our Point of Sale software we make it easy for retailers to track customer debt and chase payment.  In addition to invoice and statement facilities (print and email) we also provide reports which track debtor status.

Our Bad Debts Report, for example, makes it easy for a retailer to focus on outstanding debts.  The report includes key details to enable easy contact with the customers listed.

In addition to reporting, our POS software has other facilities used by retailers to better manage debtors and the amount they owe the business.

While a basic and somewhat unattractive facility in Point of Sale software, we see debtor management as a core function and vital to the health of retail businesses which partner with us.

With hundreds of users of our Point of Sale software now processing eftpos transactions through the Tyro broadband eftpos interface, we are building excellent data on the business benefits.

Tyro is saving our retail users, including our own retail businesses, time and money with a faster and mroe secure solution.  Since our software communicates directly with the EFTPOS terminal, we reduce internal fraud and errors.

Here are the key benefits our customers tell us about:

• Speed and efficiency (transaction time less than 4 seconds)
• Lower costs (no phone line, no admin fees, free paper rolls)
• Low integration set up costs
• Low merchant service fees negotiated by Tower Systems
• Reduced internal and shop front fraud
• Secure, real-time online reporting

The Tower Systems / Tyro integration offers improved efficiency and accuracy - as we are seeing ourselves in our own retail businesses.  Yes, we used this ourselves to prove its worth first.

Retailers get swamped this time of the year with people returning gifts and pre Christmas purchases. We help our retail partners cope with the challenge of checking returns thanks to some cool facilities in our software.

It is easy to find a sale based on the item – this can be useful if the customer does not have the receipt.

We can also provide a fence around refunds – enabling retail employees to say that they do not have the authority to process the refund.

Our software can create a credit to be held in the system for future use – rather than giving a cash refund.

Our retailers can also very quickly find the sale by scanning the receipt – this immediately takes them to the sale and from there they have a range of options.

While it is up to retailers to decide how they want to handle refund requests, our point of sale software stands ready to help through the process and to provide certainty for front line retail staff.

One the first tasks for any retailer on an anniversary like the start of a new year ought to be to compare the year just ended to the year before.

This is easy with Tower Systems Point of sale software.  Our Monthly Sales Comparison report can compare any period with any period.  It compares unit sales, discount and revenue by department and category.  It also compared GST collected, items per sale, average sale value, average item value and other key metrics.

The report can be viewed on the screen or printed or saved an d emailed to someone else for analysis.

Doing this for a year provides an excellent health check for the business for the year just ended.  It is also useful for comparing quarters and even months.

Retailers who aggressively compete against their track record find themselves enjoying more success against other competitors.  We’re happy to help any retailer with accessing or analysing this report.

This time of year, retailers are busy with sales, moving old stock to make way for new lines.  Plenty of product is heavily discounted.  Our Point of Sale software carefully tracks the real margin achieved from each sale.  This is crucial in measuring margin contribution by item and supplier.  We see gross margin is the most crucial metric in retail.

While many retailers can rely on markup formulas to manage margin, it can become compromised by sales and other strategies.  Gross margin is vitally important and needs to be tracked.  It flows directly from sales, it’s the best indicator of profitability and cash flow, it’s the dollars from which a business covers expenses, and it is the best measure of productive or valuable inventory investment is.

We understand this and track margin accordingly.  It is reported in many of our reports - to help guide better business decisions.  We back access to the information with training on how to use this to improve the business.

So, in the current sale mode, while volume is good, keeping a watchful eye on margin is mor important.

I have been working several retailers with challenges in their businesses and through this have noticed a change in shopper buying this year.  While the first reason to consider could be the lack of the federal government’s stimulus package this year, I suspect it is more to do with the day Christmas falls.

This year, with Christmas Day on a Friday, sales data suggest that shoppers used the ‘extra’ day in the week for good last minute shopping.  In two stores I have already seen data for, that ‘extra’ day was key in driving a better Christmas than last year - if only by a whisker.

While more data will be available over the next few days, it is fascinating to see what an ‘extra’ day can mean leading up to Christmas Day.

We have been helping our retail customers this week to prepare their businesses for their Boxing Day Sales.  We took calls yesterday on how to use the catalogue facilities in our software to manage the discounting.  We make it easy with discounting across a date range.  This can be done by product, department or category.  It can be set to end on a certain date.  Our advice went beyond traditional software support for a couple of customers.  As new retailers, they wanted advice on what to discount and the level to offer.  We were able to tell them about what we have found works in our own retail businesses.  We define rules and timelines and stick with this.  And, as I bang on here plenty of times, we measure and adjust the business accordingly.

In addition to tracking the performance of floor space in retail, our Point of sale software also tracks performance by shelf space.  Our retail partners can easily allocate shelf space by product categories and rely on the software to report on sales and gross margin contribution by shelf space.

We have seen the shelf space metric change the view of the performance of categories within a business.  A product category which may perform well in terms of floor space could be overtaken by a product category which uses shelf space efficiency and achieves good sales from this space allocation.

The key to shelf space efficiency is the fixturing used.  It must drive a rewarding density without sacrificing visual appeal.  We work with retail designers to navigate this fine balance and to track performance.

Beyond traditional Point of Sale facilities, our retail management software works deep within retail businesses to help the owners and employees drive greater success. We play in the space, helping our retail partners to understand the reports in our software and through them to unlock a better return.

The Tower Advantage ^TM delivers many benefits long after the software is installed.

Further to my December 12 blog post, smart retailers use their receipts as effective markerting tools.  We do in our own retail stores.  We print messages based on the contents of the sale.  The image to the left, for example, is placed automatically on receipts which include a diary item.

Our Point of sale technology allows us to include these marketing messages which reflect the contents of the sale.  Smart POS software for smart retailers!

Floor space efficiency is the best measure a retailer can have in judging the performance of any part of the business.

Retailers pay rent per square metre of floor space yet few measure the performance of their business based on space allocated by department or category.

By ignoring this metric in favour of overall product category performance can hide performance problems within a business.  By focusing only on margin and not floor space efficiency can also hide business growth opportunities.

Consider, for example, a product category which generates exceptional sales, uses little floor space but which delivers only a slim margin.  A total margin contribution report will show the product as inefficient.  However, a margin per square metre of floor space will most likely show the category as a hero of the business.

Smart retailers need to look at the performance of their business from multiple views, including return on floor space.  Tower Systems retail management software provides tools which enable such multiple views.  In addition to floor space performance reporting, we also offer shelf space reporting - taking the analysis of the performance of the business to an even deeper level.

By using our software to undertake such deep analysis, smart retailers unlock greater value from their technology investment.

We will gladly help any of our retailer partners to create and assess these and other reports in our software.

Theft in retail businesses often relies on regular work and operational patterns being followed: the banking being done at the same time, the refund policy being lax when managed by some staff, checking the cash banked back to takings being lax, the bins always being empties by the same person and so on.

By regularly changing processes, a business can make theft harder to perpetrate.

I know of a retail business which uncovered employee theft by changing the bin emptying process.  I know another business which uncovered theft by changing the people who balanced the cash at the end of the day.  I know of another retail business which cut theft by requiring the owner to approve all refund requests.

Theft in retail, customer theft and employee theft, can be cut by setting policies, adhering to them and ensuring that all employees adhere to them.

Our Point of sale software can also help retailers cut theft thanks to a range of public and not so public facilities which protect the interests of the business owners.  These facilities, like business policies, require setting.  Once done, the Tower Systems software monitors activity and can warn you of potential misbehaviour.

Theft kills retail businesses.  It is easier to stop than many think.