Point of Sale Software

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Why use a Digital Receipt Solution in your shop?

POS SOFTWARE

Our new DTI system is a digital, paperless receipt. It is a much smarter, more attractive alternative to paper, PDF, or standard email receipts. This is because 80% of customers look at their digital receipt after purchasing. This gives the retailer a terrific marketing tool, a second chance to sell more. 

This video will give you some ideas on how retailers in the US are using it to connect to their customers.  

Best of all, it's free to you as you are our client!

 

 

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Retail express: Solutions for soft drink category growth

POS SOFTWARE

Retail Express, had an interesting article that is worth looking into on page 12. In our POS Software, it is easy to try.

It is about rearranging products in the fridge into proper categories.  Doing this, they claim you can drive sales up an incredible amount. See the arrow marked in brown.

Click here for more details.

There is no reason why this theory should not work for any department. Try a department, then see what are your top sellers in that department. 

Go to register reports and select the top stock report as marked with the red arrow here.

 

You get this screen

 

Now select your department.

Here I used the stationery department. I put in 99 million in red for illustration. That is overkill - put in 100. I also selected a whole year as short periods can have significant fluctuations. We do not want to do this every week.

Now study the report to see your shop's strengths. See what do you sell. 

Now go to a major retailer's website and see how they categorize their department. Some like Amazon and the supermarkets have spent millions on this categorization, so they know something. Also, check out a few other shops. 

You now know the theory and your strengths, so layout your stock in a logical order.

Why not start now, pick a small department and see how you go?

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How to start on a retail calendar for 2021

POS SOFTWARE

Well, it's time to start planning for 2021, so you can use this list of holidays to help plan your 2021 marketing.

 

For a full list click here.

If you need an explanation of the holiday, click on the holiday link to get a description.

You can fine-tune it to your situation by using the filters.

 

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Hope the shoppers are eager today.

POS SOFTWARE

Boxing Day is the biggest day on the Australian retail shopping calendar.  

I hope it is busy in your world.

Many of my clients in a typical year expect to do about half their yearly trade in this season. For these, it's a speed test of how fast our system can be under pressure. I am sure most will be impressed with the recent increase in our software's speed in our new software.

 

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Why you need to consider SMS marketing in retail?

POS SOFTWARE

Nothing will connect with your customer at the right time better than SMS. 

Current figures are that over 98% of SMS messages are opened, and almost all within the first 3 minutes. Nothing else comes even close to these figures as far as efficiency or speed. What it means is that you can interact with your customer quickly and effectively.

What makes it particularly effective is that the message is delivered directly to your customer. Emails are often now protected by ISP spam and customer's filters. These often block your messages.

There is, of course, the higher cost, but you often get for what you pay.

If you have products that need an instant response, you may need it.

PS Another good idea in some industries is to send a thank you SMS automatically every time they buy.

 

Comments

I second that. SMS Marketing plays a pivotal role in terms of catching customer's attention. Nowadays, everyone is fond of using mobile phones. So, for retail purposes, it will work pretty well.

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Black Friday 2020

POS SOFTWARE

This Friday it is "Black Friday", officially this is the start of the Christmas shopping season.

Last year's spending on Black Friday shot up 69 percent on the previous year.

 

Looking at the Google trends, it looks that public interest I about the same this year as last year.

I hope you are doing something.

If you are interested in upgrading your scanners let us know, we have a Black Friday sale too.

 

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Labeling Bestsellers

POS SOFTWARE

Here is a step by step method which works to sell more which is very easy to do with our software.

-Get some signs in red with the notation "Bestseller". Above are some that a pharmacy got. If you cannot get them, print a few signs with your printer. Make sure that it's in red. 

-In your POS Software go to 

Go to Register reports.

 

Now pick "Top N Stock Sales for a Given Period."

 

Now in the form put in the last 30 days

A report comes out that looks like this with your top sellers listed.

- Now go through these items and select as many as possible and put these signs pointing at these items.

- You will find that people will buy these items more.

- Do this process weekly.

 

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Why now you need to take business photos?

POS SOFTWARE

You could use an image like this in your POS Software, Staff would appreciate when searching for a stock item an image. 

However you need to promote your business. The fact is that the cheapest (it's free), most effective, quickest, and the best way today is online on Social Media. 

What about a picture of something interesting in your shop? Look at large companies. If you look at their Facebook pages, you will see much of it in pictures. 

Why?

Well, they know that they have a few seconds to grab a person's attention. Visually you can captivate someone very quickly. A picture can help that person to visualise the product and/or service offered immediately. If they like what they see, they may read the offer. What they want is an exciting image that will grab your attention. 

Social media today is an inherently visual medium.

So, where is this headed? You need to be active on social media to promote your business too!  Ideally, what you are doing is something on social media at least a few times a month. If once a week, you are looking at 50 images a year.  It does not have to be Earth-shaking images. Few of them we see are. Use a picture of a jigsaw puzzle that has just arrived in your shop,  a new dog for sale, a Christmas greeting card, some perfume, a book, etc. 

Often you can get professional images from your supplier. If not well, it does it have to be professionally made.  With a decent smartphone today, anyone can take a good picture. All you need is some basic photography skills.

A Tip: One advantage that an amateur photographer has is that they can take as many photos as they like whenever they like.  Professionals can only come at set times and rarely will go back. Use this advantage and take many pictures, up, down, around, left, right, etc. until you get it right. If none worked, try again, it cost nothing today to take heaps of photos.

Another tip: Check out a few youtubes on taking photographs with smartphones. For example, this guy explains it well. 

Knowing how to take a good photo today on a smartphone is a skill worth learning. 

 

Give it a shot, and I would like to see some of your examples.

 

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How to tie a Professional ribbon bow!

POS SOFTWARE

If you want to sell gifts in your shop, you need to know how to tie a proper ribbon on a gift box. You want to look professional!

 

I remember my grandfather in his shop, teaching me. It took me quite a few attempts to get it right. Like so many things, it is easy to do once you get the hang of it. Note it would be best if you did it a few times as in retail you will need to be able to do it quick under pressure.

 

Your customers will often take it very seriously, so you need to do it right!

 

Here is a youtube that explains it very well a simple and good knot for you to start learning.

 

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How To Find Your Slow And Dead Stock In The Shop

POS SOFTWARE

This is a common problem in retail having:

Slow stock does sell but only slowly.

Dead stock does not sell at all.

Both cost money to the retailers, costs cash flow, money and takes up space that should have stock that sells better.

Now in identifying your products that are slow or dead go to register reports > stock titled "Old Stock on hand by Date last received"

I tend to do it in two parts. I check the overall problem in the shop to see the scale of the problem. Then I go by department in detail as its people find it better to examine this way.

This gives you a listing of your stock based on when you received it. This stock is rarely doing you much good. As I stated, it costs you to keep it.

Now once you identified it, what are you going to do about it?

I would suggest firstly move it because maybe it was in the wrong area. Good clean and a nice presentation can do wonder.

If your decision is to minimise your losses on this stock by slashing the price and to move the stock here are some options.

1) Offload them on sites such as eBay.

2) Use it to make a bundle. Put an old stock item that does not sell with something that does sell and turn it into a bundle.

3) Make a bargain bin.

4) Use the stock for your loyalty marketing program.

5) Use them as specials when you have a marketing season.

 

 

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Notes on how to improve the shop Layout and design

POS SOFTWARE

Planning the layout of your store is quite an art. This video may give you some tips on how to improve your shop layout and design.

One point here is that Australians shoppers do move clockwise. That is why when we set sales budgets in our POS software, we make the left side of the shop more than the right side. If you are not doing this now, I suggest that you start now doing that now.

Near the front counter, the items with the highest return on investment should be there. It is easy to get a list of these go to

Cash register report > GMROI (see the selection highlighted) in your point of sale software in the reports here.

 

Ignore departments and see what they are. Now see how you can use them at the counter.

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The Importance of accurately making a promotional KPI

POS SOFTWARE

 

Say your supplier decided to make a marketing promotion and asked you to take part. Our client said yes. They went through quite a bit of trouble, and now they want to know how well the promotion did. They do not see much, yet the supplier does. So we are helping out.

The problem here is that no-one before it started thought to make any KPI. So what happened is that the operator adjusted the price with a discount. As there are a lot of discounts, it is hard to determine whether it was a promotion sale or not. Usually what we could do here is to try to determine what the usual amount of discounts are but now who knows what is typical.

What it shows is that it is crucial if you are promoting to make a KPI policy before starting.

Otherwise, it can be hard to determine whether the offer worked.

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How to Pack a Gift Bag

POS SOFTWARE

This woman has good ideas about how to package a gift bag, these gift bags do sell well but only if they look nice.

Here is how to make it look nice.

 

 

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Free webinar on how to do social media marketing for free

POS SOFTWARE

Social media like Facebook is no longer optional with this pandemic. In the past, I have felt that it was an excellent way for small business owners to connect with their customers. Now its a necessity. People no longer just walk past your shop, see it and come in. The best, cheapest and possibly only way to communicate today to these people is online with social media. 

Here are some key statistics

  1. 85% of the eligible (age 13+) Australian population have active social media accounts, Source
  2. Australians spend an average of 1 hour 47 minutes per day on social media, and this has been increasing slowly over the past 8 years. Source

I have been doing it for years successfully, studied on it and here is my latest qualification.

 

I will do a webinar on the basics of how to market your shop free online in your marketspace if there is enough interest.

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You need to make a policy for tracking your retail promotions

POS SOFTWARE

This came up a few days ago, and what it has done is mucked up a shop's sales history file about profit.

Say the retail item cost is $10.00 and it costs you $5.00

What happens is you may decide to do a sales promotion in your shop, and it looks like this.

Here every pack sold means that each item sells at $6.66 and they cost you $5 each. So you have made $1.66 profit on each item. 

Now the retailers had some dead stock and wanted to get rid of some of it, so he introduces a new product into the mix. 

An item (B) that say also sells at $10.00 and costs them $5.00. I am trying to illustrate a point here. 

So your promotion offer now is a “buy this item and the other item free”. 

Now should your sales and profit figures be recorded in your POS system? 

Method (1) The first item at full price. 

So each pack means that you have sold each one of them for $10.00. Their cost is $5.00 thus giving you $5.00 profit on each one. Item (B) is considered being given away for free.

Or

Method (2) All the items considered sold at $6.66. 

They all have a cost of $5 each. So you have made $1.66 profit on each item. 

You need to decide. 

What has happened here is that as a shop did not make a policy. Some people rang it up using the method (1) and others used method (2). 

Now what is showing in history is a higher sales margin on one item then there should have been. 

You need consistency in tracking promotions if you wish to correlate your sales.

Make a policy first.

 

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What identifying your top selling items can do

POS SOFTWARE

Why identifying your top-selling items and you can do with this information!

This is widely used by our clients in music shops but it can be used by any business.

Well, who knows what sells well today! It is all different than it was! With COVID-19, your experience now works against you.

What you need to do is look at today, see what worked, and try to figure out why it worked. We can help you with this, and it is easy to do in our point-of-sale system.

Go to Register reports

 

 

Now select "Top N Stock Sales for a Given Period"

 

 

Now in the form put in yesterday.

 

Now a report comes out that looks like this with your top sellers listed.

Now, these need to be reviewed to see what you did right here. Take your time.

Now the kicker in retail is a top seller today will often be a good seller tomorrow. Studies show that a top seller today will sell about 66% tomorrow. So you need to check if you have adequate stock for tomorrow. If not in that spot you will need a substitute. 

Give this a shot and tell me how you went.

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Learning Social Media marketing

POS SOFTWARE

If you have not yet, look into using Social Media marketing!

Today more then ever, every business needs social media marketing. Few are going to walk past your shop now. So many of our clients now every day do something on their Facebook company page. It is their main communication method. Today in business using social marketing has never been more important. Vital, I would say.

No business can ignore social media as part of its marketing mix.

Checkout statistics for social media in Australia

"85% of the eligible (age 13+) Australian population have active social media accounts and spend an average of 1 hour 47 minutes per day on social media."

 

I was shocked a couple of days ago when a client asked us for help in setting up a Facebook page. We did help him out but now the problem is that he does not know how to use it. I told him, that he better learn. There is no excuse if he cannot do it get someone to help him. Then I gave him a few pointers. What I advised him was that there are plenty of good online courses, that he does not need to pay a cent for them, to learn.

The two courses that I suggested was

Facebook Blueprint

And if he wanted something more detailed, Hubspot was pretty good.

If you know something better please let me know.

The fact is that every serious business and organisation today needs a web presence. Today the web is the major means of communication between business and their clients.

So I recommend you go to Facebook now. See what a few similar businesses to yours are doing there now. Check the ones you like and take a few notes about what your business needs. Note the words they say. Presumably, they have experimented and found that these work for them so why not for you?

If you are not there, I recommend you go to Facebook, see what a few similar businesses to yours are doing on Facebook now. Check the ones you like and take a few notes about what your business needs. Note the words they say too. Presumably, they have experimented and found that these work.

Items like Facebook are mainly free.

You can always experiment later with the paid services.

 

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Why do Click and Collect if you have not done it yet

POS SOFTWARE

I have spoken about click and collect a few times here over the past years. 

If you have not already done so, this is why you should look at Click and Collect!

Near me is a small strip shopping centre. I walked down the shopping centre what I discovered that every single shop in my centre had a sign in their window advertising their click and collect service. Looking at the cars coming and going, I could see it was in use. Some of the shops, its the only business they can have. 

Now, this is not a notable centre. Although new it is ordinary with a range of shops having small to large retailers. Clients are not computer savage or sophisticated. 

Let me start by saying that our POS system makes it very easy for you to set up and do click and collect, more about that later. 

Here are some reasons why you should consider doing this if you have not already done so.

-Many people now do not want to come to your shop because of COVID-19. To service these people as a retailer, you now have to look at alternatives or lose these people.

- Here is a costing from the USA costing out the alternatives by options. If you go through the list, you can see significant operational costs savings compared to delivery by click and collect. 

 

-For many small retailers, delivery in Australia is not worth it. You need as a rule orders of about $100, to make it worthwhile delivering. 

-Click and collect is much faster. Your customers can have their goods often in minutes. 

-In the click and collect model, the customers come to the shop to collect their purchases. Many, studies state that between 49% to 61%, make new unplanned purchases. These are often impulsive or forgotten items. You are not going to get much of this business from a delivery model.

-People are comfortable buying on click and collect, as they know you. They know if anything goes wrong with their purchase, they can go to your shop immediately. 

My advice is to try click and collect and see what happens. You can make adjustments as you go on, if it does not work, you can stop it.

If so, you want to do it. 

You need to make a clear strategy for your program! Go out of your shop, see what others are doing, check out the opposition and make a plan. 

- Do you want to introduce a fee? Can you?

-What packaging are you going to use?

-Where is going to be your collection point?

- How will the customer warn you that they are here?

 etc. 

Now once you are on your trial. 

Advertise it boldly in your window! There is a question often raised did "A tree did not fall if no-one heard it!", if you do not advertise "Click and Collect" you do not have it.

This is how I recommend doing it in our software. I would suggest using business invoicing with an A4 receipt in the cash register. It is easy to do. 

Look for the item, to click and collected. 
Click on the "Receipts" button. 
Find the receipt you would like to print.
Then select the "A4 Print" button as here.
 

Out will come an A4 receipt:

As always, please let me know your thoughts and how it goes. 

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As Face Mask Sales Skyrocket, what are you doing?

POS SOFTWARE

I got quite a few enquiries about my post on marketing face masks, so after talking to a few people here are my thoughts.

The spread of coronavirus is driving the demand for face masks. 

"The global face mask market size was valued at $1,523.0 million in 2019, and is estimated to reach $ 2,455.4 million by 2027 with a compound annual growth rate of 4.4% from 2021 to 2027."

The industry is looking at an annual growth rate for disposable face masks of 53% for the next few years. 

This is in a high growth rate industry with high margins! So as well as traditional brands like 3M, who are going flat out, many others are entering this space. If them, why not you too?

It sells in many shops.

 

Interested, then you should, of course, do some research first. 

Check out what is for sale in your local area, talk with your staff, customers, etc. Try to figure out your niche. Actually, why not try a few niche markets and see how they work out for you. the cost of entry is minimal. $30 can buy you 100 disposable masks, worst case your family can use them. 

Of course, common sense here is required when entering the market of where to buy and how to handle it. Worst case though if you get some stock that you cannot return, and have doubts. All you need to do is use a texture to cross out the claim, e.g. as above N95, and sell it as a face mask. If you are paying about a $1 for a disposable each and selling at $2.50, you have room to discount. 

Note although there is no legal rule for sales of face masks to the public now yet, you cannot make false claims. For example, you should not sell an N50 mask as an N95. I would advise you NOT to make any medical or health claims about your product even if you believe they are correct. However, if your face mask is washable, adjustable, or reversible, then YES talk about this.

As far as I know, there is only one Australian supplier of P2 (P2 is the Australian standard which is like N95 US standard) face masks.

If you are concerned about whether you are dealing in fake face masks, here is some information on how to check to spot a fake face mask {link removed} and Counterfeit face masks

As far as monitoring how sales are going in your shop, it is easy, make a new family, then every so often

Go to Register reports

Register reports POINT OF SALE

Select the "Top N Stock Sales for a Given Period"

Top Stock Items Point of sale

Put in the appropriate options for this family and you get a report with the sales in order of what is selling. The rule is now, to concentrate on the top sellers.

 

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You can see retailers are selling many face masks

POS SOFTWARE

In Victoria, face mask sales were high already, but now they have exploded. I have a client that sold out in hours his whole stock on the day it was annouced. Talking to a few of my clients interstate, they are selling well there too. 

So it is not surprising that a salesman contacts me, as wants me to use my users for marketing his company range of face masks. When I asked at a price, it became clear that the cost of his masks was higher than an online retailer. So I told him, no and to come back with a real price.

But I did some research. Here is some information that may be of interest to you if you are thinking of marketing face masks in your shops. 

There are two markets. The first is for people who want one urgently and those that want it in bulk. I am sure there would be good money in buying a packet say of 50 surgical masks, which on a quick look, I saw for under $30 on eBay with delivery and selling them individually at $2.50. Of course, do some research to see what the prices are in your area first if this interests you.

If you are looking to buy them to resell them here are some points. 

The gold standard is N95, in Australia but the problem is that it is somehow this standard is legally tied down by 3M. From what I can see, most Chinese and Australian companies use KN95, which is very similar.

N95 is the American accreditation 

KN95 is the open accreditation 

P2 is the Australian accreditation 

KMOEL is the Korean accreditation 

FFP2 is the European accreditation 

DS is the Japanese accreditation 

From what I can see, all accreditations are only slightly different, check them out here.

Of course, many people do not want an N95. Besides price and availability, many find it hard to breathe through an N95.  

And we do have a range of standards. In practice, according to studies, I saw even the lower grade are almost as good for the public. The problem here is that the Australian community looks at N95, so I would not rush to stock even a slightly inferior standard like the KN90.

Note some just use a scarf, in Victoria which is useful as you can avoid getting a $200 fine here. 

If you are interested in some history of the modern face mask, is considered to being a Chinese invention invented during the Manchurian plague of 1910. 

They were in many places mandatory during the Spanish flu too

and were as controversial then as now. 

I hope this helps and if you have any comments let me know.

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