BLOGS AND ARTICLES FROM THE POS SOLUTIONS TEAM

While I was explaining the costs of Tap and Go and the benefits of you using Least Cost Routing, I noticed that some people were unclear on how the system works so I thought I better explain it.

This is a chart of the Credit Card network. Although it is for America and the charge figures are different in Australia, the overall system is roughly the same, and as a first-level approximation will do for this post.

Now we will follow through the chart by the numbers

1) A person purchases something in your store and uses a credit card.

2) Your EFTPOS unit will send the relevant details to the Acquiring bank, which is the provider you are signed up, eg CBA, NAB, Tyro, etc.  As you have a relationship with these people, the fees are relatively reasonable.

3) The Acquiring bank will then go to the VISA, Mastercard, Alipay, etc. What there can be is a problem here as some of these Card networks fees can be fairly high. The merchant does have some controls, eg many merchants refuse some Card networks. The problem, however, can be here is that some cards like VISA have a range of cards with different fees and its very difficult for a merchant to identify which of these cards has the high fees. The other problem is that ACCC does not allow you to charge on the card type but only the supplier. I think this is wrong.

4) This is where the big problem arises with the fees. The Issuing Bank has no association with you on this transaction, it is the one paying the money and charges you the most. I can see no pattern in the charges although I am sure there is one. 

Now when you use Tap and Go, you have no choice on how the transaction goes, so this is how it goes. That is why it generally has the highest fees.

If the customer selects Debit which has lower fees and you have Least Cost Routing in place, the Acquiring bank determines whether it is cheaper to put the transaction through the Card Network or whether it is cheaper to go direct to the Issuing bank. It will then select the cheapest way. Using this a merchant on our system saves on average about 7%. I have not seen any problems in usage with this option. That is why I think all my clients should make sure they have it.

Please click here for actual figures on how knowing how it works you can save.

In the shop, traffic often fluctuates from all the time by using your POS Software you can get figures for which periods are the busiest and slowest now.

Go to the register > reports.

I suggest that you run this program twice, the first time for the last few weeks and the second time from a previous year that match the dates you are looking for at for this year. You are going here, to get a very detailed report. The part for this exercise you should look at is the part that gives hourly sales reporting statistics. 

Now the report is colour coded to show extremely busy periods so busy periods are highlighted.

Using this information, you will be able to increase the control of your business better.

We are having a bit of a laugh here about people encouraging Chinese tourists in the shop with all this coronavirus now.

The experts, by the way, are disputing whether the masks will work and if so by how much. One point I noticed was whatever the medical people are saying they are all wearing these masks in China.

Alipay is the preferred payment method for Chinese people visiting Australia. As about 1.2 million Chinese tourists come to Australia each year and about 91% of them have Alipay. Each Chinese person spends an average of $8,000 per visit. This makes them in dollar terms our number one tourist trade. Plus on top of that, many Chinese nationals and students are living in Australia that uses it,  so giving Alipay access to a massive market in Australia. 

Anyway having said that Alipay should now if you use Tyro for EFTPOS be available, click here for details

It’s all done through the terminal too, so merchants don’t need an extra device clogging up their area.

The cost is a flat rate of 1.3% (plus GST) currently across the board so I would suggest in your point of sale software a 1.45% surcharge initially.  Although you may want to review that if you start using it, as generally, these fees are calculated by the following method

1、Fee amount = total transaction amount in Chinese currency * exchange rate * fee rate

2、The fee amount is rounded

You may find that the exchange rate and rounding affect the amount, but even so, it would not be by that much, I am sure. Also, it may be a plus that it is in Chinese currency as I noticed when I was in China, I got a better rate for my money there than in Australia.

One point that can in retail save you time is automation that saves you time.

Consider that you save a lot of time of manual bookkeeping every year by integrating your POS system into your accounting system.

A few of our clients have some old Windows 7 and other older versions of Windows and have no plans to upgrade them. What is happening is that Microsoft is starting to send them advertising messages that they are out of support. These will not stop, in one form or another, I expect that every one of these older computers to keep sending you this message. It can get irritating as you have the word already how long does it keep having to be repeated?

If your planning is to stay with Windows 7 on some computers, this here is how to get rid of these messages.

I thought this article here on a study from what the major retailer groups in Australia view on 'tap and go'  and the refusal of many retailers to use Least Cost Routing on debt is worth a read. What I find fustrating is that our clients have had this option "Least Cost Routing" for many years and many do not use it. 

Today the best way of communicating with people if what you want instant communication is SMS. It tends to be read immediately. Often I find it takes up less time than a phone call. I saw a survey that showed that SMS tended to be read 98% of the time and almost all within seconds of being sent, in comparison emails gets about 22% reads and often not for days.

This in retail makes it invaluable for rostering. 

Here are two tips you can use.

1) People particularly if they are casuals tend to forget shift, you can use SMSs to remind them of shifts a short time before they are expected.

2)  One of my clients, when the shop gets busy and, needs someone immediately, what he does, is sent out a few SMSs to his causals. The first one that responds gets the job.  This he finds an efficient way of finding someone and takes only a few minutes to do.

Today Bill payments are a big market in Australia, Australia Post states in their 2019 annual report that they processed more than 75 million banking and Post Billpay transactions last year. While that does not give us the numbers on how much of that is Post Billpay specifically, it does indicate that there are a lot of people using it.

I know our network processed about 50,000 bill payments last year. That equates to about $25,000 in rebates. Looking at the network report that we got from Jan 1, 2020 to Jan  22, 2020, good shops were doing about 30 to 40+ Bill payments which works out to about three (3) a workday which is basically unchanged to what I reported in 2017. 

I would say that it still promises to be a big market for the next few years. It is not just the older people, but large numbers of young and middle-aged people who pay over the counter because they can do it in cash and there are also transient people such as people who are temporary residents who have limited access to Australia's banking. These people use phones, electricity, water and heating and even in this day of the internet much is paid over-the-counter ('OTC').

So despite widespread reporting about the death of cash and general digitalisation of the economy, there is a large segment of Australians who prefer to pay their bills in cash – or card – over the counter (‘OTC’). In fact, all the large utility companies providing telephony, electricity, gas, water and similar are mandated to provide an OTC payment option for the customers. It has to be possible to have electricity even if you don’t want to have internet. 

Over the past few years, POS Solutions’ network of newsagents has offered an alternative. Customers of any of the 45,000+ BPAY billers in Australia (big utilities as well as local tradesmen) can have their bills processed OTC while they are where they want to be anyway. Yours is a trusted place that they come. And it is a place which is open when they need them to be open: early and late.

A customer who comes in and wants to pay a, say, Telstra bill while buying a lotto ticket identifies themselves using a phone number and then simply plugs in biller code, customer reference number and amount. The bill is paid to the newsagent by cash or card and is paid to the biller that same evening as long as the transaction took place before 4pm (AEST). No delays. The next afternoon, having given the agent a day to deposit any cash. 

Of course it is not the rebates that most of my cliente that do process Bill Payments look too but the fact that it brings people into the shop. 

Now ask yourself, how much would you pay a sales consultant to get everyday 2 to 3 people into your shop who will buy something?

Step one

I suggest that you do it by department  

Go to the Main Menu / Stock Systems / Supply Report

The first step is to check the Over Supply Report.

Put 100% in the box.

Select the option to show all

Select option Returns

Now click Show Report.

These are all the products you have received and never sold in the period chosen. I would suggest these are the first ones to cull.

Step two

Now if you need more room, select the Magazine Supply Report. Although the report was designed for magazines, it will work with any item.

Now I suggest you do this step by a supplier. 

Now select a supplier here and period and then click Get Data.

Now on the reports, you will see a listing of the items sold by numbers. Note the bottom selling items.

Actually it is surprising how much can be culled with little effect on sales.

See how you go and let me know how it went.

The idea here being is to be very surgical in your approach rather than blunt.

As an Australian, it is lovely to celebrate Australia Day because it reminds how blessed we are to be in such a wonderful country.

For those that need support, rest assured that our support lines are all open today.

First of all, a very happy Chinese New Year to all our Chinese readers, we hope for your good health, good luck and much happiness throughout the coming year.

Surprisingly for non-Chinese, the rat is actually in traditional Chinese legends considered to being quick-witted, resourceful, and smart but lack courage. With rich imaginations and sharp observations, they can take advantage of various opportunities well. As a person who has involved in a few rat hunts, I can confirm that they are all this.

For those that do not realise it, this festival is celebrated by about 1.5 million people in Australia now and here is an article on how to attract Chinese tourists. 

Say you have a spare spot (See the orange button above) and you want to set up a register shortcut key for a department so you can press a button to quickly process a department sale. It is even faster with touch but that is another point.

Well, it is easy and quick to do.  

1.       From the Main Menu, go to Cash Register and then Register Setup.

2.       Click on the Quick Links tab.

3.       On the layout on the left, click where you want the shortcut to go. You should see the green plus symbol on that square now.

4.       In the department list on the right, click the department you wish to add to that location.

5.       Click on the Insert at Location button.

6.       Click the Save button.

Now the changes should be there.

It looks like now the worst of the bushfires are over. Although most of us were not directly affected by the actual fire, the smoke was everywhere. Although we have all experienced plenty of bushfires, I have never know the smoke to be so bad as this one. We did here what most people did, double-checked that the air conditioners were on at work. 

Today almost all the smoke is gone although people today in Queensland told me that there are still problems with the air there. They then asked me if there were any detectors that I knew that could monitor the air quality as I had spoken about it earlier. I thought if they are interested others might be too. 

The one we use is Airrater, and although I am not sure how good it is, it seems to give good results. You can get it on both android and from apple.

It is very easy to set up. You put in there, the places that are important to you, eg work, home, etc. and as long as your mobile phone has an internet connection, it will report the air quality in real-time and also you can set it to give you a warning if the air quality in one of those places goes bad. 

It is also good if you or someone you care about suffers from asthma, hay fever or some other lung condition that impacts their lives.

I have clients now that are on social media all day. Today any retail business that wants to reach a broader target audience and attract new customers needs to go on social media, particularly if it is not in a centre. A centre will drag people in for you.

That is why often you will see cashiers in small businesses on Facebook on the front counter typing away, answering customer enquires.

Today many of your clients are using social media sites like Facebook frequently throughout the day. If you connect with them on these social networks, you help keep them engaged and interested in your business while they are outside the shop. 

It also allows you to get real-time feedback from the people who are most interested in your goods and services. This is vital if only because of the damage now bad reviews can do to your business.  A nail parlour near me got a few bad reviews and was begging its customers to say something nice about them because they were losing business as people were reading bad reviews and then not coming. 

Getting involved is not hard, try by sharing some cool photos of new stock items, if you have 10 major suppliers they odds are you will get at least one new photo or news item from one of them a day for you to share, then there is also news to share, eg your support for a bushfire appeal, worst case you always have the weather, etc. 

This will result in you having a loyal, engaged audience.

If you are thinking of growing your social media presence, you are probably wondering which social network is the best for you. It depends on the specific products you sell, but I would say Facebook first and then ask your customers.

If you want to learn more, click here

Often a supplier will tell you the gross margin on their products. Do not believe it? Do you think you should check?

After all, this is a key indicator  in your shop

One big problem here is that in the real world often, this margin they give varies. The other problem is that this margin depends on you getting their price.  Maybe in your area, you cannot get this price. Perhaps because you have too much stock you, you need to discount to get rid of some of it? I am sure you can add many reasons why the theoretical margin is not what you get, and it is easy to find out what is the actual margin you are getting.

Go to the menu

Now in sales select  the "Discounted Item Sales Summary."

Pick a period, I suggest the last 12 months and now check, I would recommend as a first attempt by the department

Now you will get a detailed report of where you are discounting both by quantity and price.

Knowing which products lines are your most profitable in your shop can lead you to actionable advice.

The problem is monitoring the security camera in shops. Something like this could warn you that a suspicious person has come into the shop or that someone has done something questionable. 

Under Beta, it has detected some shoplifters in a Japanese convenience store.

I can see such technology having a dramatic effect on reducing shoplifting.  As it uses face recognition, a shop keeper that knew from his tapes that this person is a known trouble maker could get a warning that this person is in the shop.  It would also serve shop keepers to sell more as by using face recognition it knows the average spend amount, the number of visits, and frequently purchased items. It could give the shop keeper, the name of many of their clients too. 

What we are discussing is that our optical people counting system can already do much of this, if anyone is interested and using or thinking about our optical people counting system we could *NOW* do something like this! 

If we get enough interest, why we could do something like this too! 

This is our cash register. If you look at the screen, not the girl, it is from a publicity shot that we did what you will see is buttons all over the screen. Also, every one of them is user-definable. What this means is that you can change them, or move them to match exactly what you want it to look like.

I have seen this happen a few times when a big organisation and a small business collide. When the big organisation is the government, they sometimes talk a bit nicer (although not always sometimes they are incredibly rough). If you have not followed the story about "Better mac" what happened is a small burger shop "Burger head." released a burger that they called "Better mac."

It looks like an excellent burger which I am sure is very tasty.

Still, as you can see above, McDonald's did not like the name.

Although it could be argued that the name 'better mac' is different McDonald's burgers name, eg 'big mac'. Also that there is nothing deceptive about the name since I doubt that anyone could be tricked into buying a "better mac" thinking that they were buying a McDonald's burgers, still the burger shop decided in a smart move to cash in on the publicity and comply in changing the name.

I said smart as the amount of money now need for court action is huge and the problem is that in a big organisation, the guy that authorises the legal action does not pay for it. So if you are not careful, you could easily get into court. Once in a court system, it is like medical and doctors bills, it is very hard to get out. 

It is not just the financial hit of litigation that can be very damaging to a small business. There is also the matter of their legal fees if you lose plus there is also the time and energy that it takes off.

The other problem is that if you win, what do you win? Do you like doing business with companies that take people to court? Of course, if you lose, it can harm your business’s reputation too.

Perfectionism is defined by the dictionary as "refusal to accept any standard short of perfection."

It is considered as being a psychological condition as perfection, an impossibility in reality. What tends to happen is because nothing is perfect, people do nothing, procrastinate and get depressed as nothing is done. As such it becomes a fast track to unhappiness and often leads to depression.

Why bring it up here in a POS software blog because too often people look at their point of sale system and they know it does much more then what they use it for but talk themselves out of using these extra features because they think it lacks something. As it is not exactly what they think they need they do nothing. 

My advice, use what you have.

Do it, once you get going you can always make it better.

It is the first step that is the hardest. The second is not so hard. The third often is easier still.

With us, you have a support network who will give you honest feedback. We can often introduce you to people that you can talk too that are doing and what you are thinking of doing. 

Remember.

It is an excellent marketing idea to create a sale on a specific theme. Doing so will make it easier for people to relate and grasp your promotion.

There are many, and they are all the time. Piggyback on holidays such as Mother’s Day, Father's Day, ANZAC day, etc as themes.

You should also consider piggybacking on *unofficial* holidays.

For example, I am a huge coffee drinker, so an advertisement like this, in a shop that sells coffee is something that I can relate too.

Why not do something similar. Look for the holidays. It does not have to be an official one that relates to your business and use it as a hook to draw people.

Click here for a list of unofficial ones