Point of Sale (POS) Software | BLOGS AND ARTICLES FROM THE POS SOLUTIONS TEAM

Scanning failures in your POS system

POS SOFTWARE

Work Tips

Barcode

Retail barcode

scanning dirty barcodes

When barcodes won't scan, your business suffers. Here are some of the problems it causes:

Your checkout runs slow, because scanning is much faster than typing a code in by hand.
You often cannot give customers detailed receipts.
Your stock history becomes unreliable.
Your stock quantities drift out of truth.
Manual entry makes more mistakes.

It is better to scan more.

Start with your scan rate

Before you fix anything, get a feel for the size of the problem. This is easy to measure.

Go to sales and select Dissection Sales / Profitability for a Given Period, then run the report. I usually do it for the previous 12 months.

You will see a column marked %Scan. The higher, the better. In the example below, the green arrow marks a problem department.

Is it the scanner or the barcode?

There can be many causes, but there is a simple test: scan the same item on every scanner you own.

If it fails on one scanner but scans on others, the problem is with that unit.
If every scanner fails on the same items, the problem is the barcode itself — either the supplier's or one you printed yourself.

Fixing the scanner

If it is the scanner, try these before you replace it:

Experiment with scanning height. The best distance varies with the barcodes you use and the type of reader, so take a few items and see what works.
Move it away from bright light. Direct sunlight and glare confuse scanners.
Clean the scanner and the printer. A dirty or scratched scan window is the most common cause of read failures. A rag and some cleaning fluid can do wonders.
Check the age of the unit. Scanners are typically built to last about three years. If yours is older and misbehaving, replacing it is often cheaper than the staff time it wastes.

Fixing the barcode

If the barcodes are the problem, look at these common causes:

Red barcodes. Many scanners use red lasers, which cannot read red bars at all. Black on white is the reliable combination. Gift and card lines are the usual offenders — if a supplier prints in red, ask for a replacement label or overprint your own.
Missing quiet zones. Every barcode needs blank space on either side. Often, badly printed text, borders, or shrink-wrap seams printed around the barcode cause failures.
Crooked or shiny labels. Scanners read barcodes perpendicular to the bars, so an angled label effectively shortens the bars and this can make the code harder to read. Keep the barcode flat and straight. Avoid sticking barcodes on shiny or curved surfaces, where light reflects back into the scanner.
Your own printing. If you print your own labels, check the printer. Dirt on the printhead causes poor ink distribution, but a worn printhead, a fading ribbon, or cheap thermal paper produce low-contrast codes just as often. Clean first, replace the printhead if that fails.
Damaged stock. Dirty, wet, or stapled-over barcodes will not scan. There is no fix for these except a new label.

Bonus tip: pick a spot and stick to it

Make a convention in your shop for where the barcode goes — front, top, back, whatever you choose. Apply it everywhere. Staff stop hunting for the code, and checkout speeds up.

One more thing: if you want the bigger picture on scan rates and what drives them including barcodes your suppliers never put on the goods at all.

Now there can be many causes of this problem. The first point is to test whether it is happening on a scanner. Sometimes you improve your barcode scanning rates from this scanner by:

-Experiment with your scanner what height it reads best with the barcodes that you use. It will vary depending on what barcodes you use and your barcode reader. Please take a few items, try and scan them and see what works best.
-Maybe the scanner is in bright light, so try moving the scanner to a different location.
-Try putting the barcode straight. Sometimes not having the barcode straight can cause problems for a scanner to read the barcode. It is also less of an eyesore.
-Avoid putting barcodes on shiny objects as the light will reflect into the scanner and cause problems.
-Cleaning your barcode scanner and printer can help immensely. A rag and some cleaning material can often do wonders.
-Remember, dirty or wet barcodes or barcodes with staples are not suitable for scanning.

Suppose all scanners see if the problem is the suppliers' or your barcodes. If it is your barcodes, check your printer; it may be dirt causing poor ink distribution.

Remember that sometimes you have to replace these units if the goods you sell are not suitable for what you sell or if they have deteriorated.

A bonus tip

You can increase your scan rate if you make a convention in your shop where you will stick the barcode. The front, top, back, etc., stick with it if possible; this will save people from having to hunt for the barcode.

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Please Do a Proper Backup of Your Information

POS SOFTWARE

Computer Maintenance

Business Backup

Cloud Backup

POS Backup safety

I've spent years fixing point-of-sale problems for SMB retailers, and I can tell you that all lost data disasters come down to one thing: no real backup. A computer is a mechanical device, and mechanical devices fail. When that happens, what happens to the years of information you've built up? In this guide, I'll walk you through what actually works, based on what I've seen go wrong in real shops.

Key Takeaways

Computer hardware failure is the leading cause of lost retail data.
USB drives left plugged into a till get destroyed by the exact same fire, flood, or theft that destroys the computer.
Free OneDrive cloud backup gives you an automatic, off-site copy of your POS database.
Retail is one of the most common targets for ransomware.
Use the 3-2-1 backup rule to protect your business.
Australian tax law requires you to keep business records, including backups, for at least five years.
Regular test restores are the only reliable way to know your backup actually works.

Yesterday, one of our clients had a small fire. The computer was destroyed, and the backup on a USB stick sitting in the computer was cooked. Their information is probably gone for good. We are trying to save the hard drive. What you need in your shop at all times is a proper backup system, something to keep a copy of your information safe if something goes wrong.

We can send a new computer out with fresh software installed within a day or two. Insurance may pay for it, but what no one can replace is the years of information stored on your computer.

Your POS system is your information hub. From my experience, most lost information comes down to computer hardware failing. When your computer stops working, you lose access to everything stored on it. For example, if your debtors list only lives on your till, a single hardware failure could leave you with no idea who owes you money or how much. Now add the loss of your stock quantities, sales history, and supplier records on top of that, and you've got a genuine crisis on your hands. To stop this from happening to you, there are three questions worth asking yourself honestly:

Here Are Some Questions You Need to Answer

How much information are you willing to lose? A day's worth? An hour's worth?
How fast do you need your data back? This is what we call your Recovery Time Objective.
How much are you actually prepared to pay for this protection?

In my experience, most retailers find daily backups sufficient. They're willing, in the worst case, to lose one day of trading data. Retailers who feel they need tighter protection generally have to stop trading briefly during the day to run a quick manual backup. Some businesses want continuous, real-time backup, but that's not cheap, and in practice it can get messy fast.

Let's go through the common backup methods retailers actually use, starting with the one I recommend most often. Here is a table of the pros and cons of each:

Backup Method	Cost	Off-Site Protection	Ransomware Risk	Best Use
USB drive	Low, one-off	None (if left plugged in)	High	Quick file transfers
Free OneDrive	Free	Yes	Medium (free tier)	Daily automatic backup
Paid OneDrive (M365)	Subscription	Yes	Low (with ransomware detection)	Full protection
External SSD (rotated off-site)	Moderate, one-off	Yes (if rotated)	Low (if disconnected)	Local + off-site mix

How Does Our Free OneDrive Cloud Backup Work?

Our free OneDrive cloud backup is a built-in feature that automatically copies your POS database to secure cloud storage, at no extra cost or effort on your part. There are other cloud services our clients use, but out of everything I've tested, Microsoft OneDrive gives the best mix of reliability, security, and ease of use. Setting it up doesn't take long through your POS software settings. Once it's switched on, the backup runs quietly in the background after each trading day closes, so nobody has to remember to do anything.

The big advantage of a cloud solution like this is that it stores your backup files completely off-site, away from your shop. That's exactly what protects you against fire, flood, or theft, because your files simply aren't in the building when disaster strikes. What I also like is that you can access your information from anywhere, whether you're at home or at the shop. It's genuinely handy if you do any of your admin work from home.

What I find is that cloud backups cut business downtime greatly, as our hardware department can obtain a copy of your data immediately. We can set up an emergency computer and have it shipped to you, often on the same day.

Free, off-site, and automatic. That's a hard combination to beat.

What You Still Need to Watch With OneDrive

Setting up OneDrive doesn't mean you can switch your brain off completely. You still need to monitor it regularly to make sure your Microsoft account has enough free storage space, since OneDrive's free tier has quite limited storage. You also need to test it regularly to confirm the backup file actually works properly. We had a client whose OneDrive backups, we discovered, were only capturing part of their information, silently, for months.

A simple method I've found works well in practice is backing up your till's information to a second computer in the shop, then using that second machine to run the OneDrive backup. This approach doesn't fully protect you against ransomware, although it does help. To get full protection on OneDrive, you need to use a paid OneDrive subscription. Many retailers use Microsoft 365, which includes such a paid subscription. OneDrive also uses a fair amount of your computer's processing power, which is another reason I recommend running the OneDrive backup from a separate machine, and it will chew through your internet data too. If you're on a small internet plan, this setup simply won't work well for you.

USB Drives for Backup

USB drives are the most common backup method retailers use, and they're fast, portable, and cheap. They're genuinely useful tools, they don't rely on any ongoing subscription fees, and they don't need an internet connection to work at all.

The Serious Drawbacks for Retail Backup

Today, there are too many cheap USB drives being sold, and while not every cheap USB stick uses low-quality parts, plenty do. One client bought some on eBay, and they worked fine for a few uses before failing completely. Be careful where you buy them, and don't assume a low price means a bargain.

This ties into a bigger issue: all USB drives have a limited life expectancy, and older drives become steadily less reliable over time. That's not a huge problem by itself, since they're cheap to replace. The real problem is that a USB stick usually doesn't warn you when it has failed. You might genuinely believe you're backing up your data every night, when you're not backing up anything useful at all. Any backup system needs regular checking, and USB sticks are no exception to that rule.

In practice, I see people leaving USB drives plugged into the till all day. If the computer is stolen or destroyed, that USB drive goes with it. Do not do this.

How Does Ransomware Target USB and Cloud Backups?

Ransomware today mostly targets small and medium businesses, and retail is one of its favourite hunting grounds. "The retail and trade sector accounted for approximately one-third of all critical ransomware incidents recorded nationally — Source: Australian Cyber Security Centre, 2023". Once ransomware gets into your system, it will attack everything it can reach if you let it.

What ransomware actually does, once it's inside your computer, is search for everything connected: external hard drives, USB sticks, and shared online folders. Then it locks all of it at once. Both free-tier OneDrive and a USB stick plugged into your till are easy targets for this kind of attack. Once your files are locked, your computer is effectively useless unless you pay the ransom, and even then there's no guarantee.

This is exactly why the 3-2-1 system exists.

How Does the 3-2-1 Backup Rule Protect a Business?

The 3-2-1 backup rule protects your business by making sure you always have three copies of your data, stored across two different types of storage, with one copy kept permanently off-site. This well-known rule means no single fire, flood, or cyberattack can wipe out every copy of your data at once.

Have Three Backups at All Times

Keeping three separate backups means that if something goes wrong with one copy, you've still got two others to fall back on. This redundancy is what actually saves your business when disaster strikes.

Store Backups on Two Different Types of Storage

Using different storage types means that if one kind of backup develops a fault, you've got a completely different system to fall back on in an emergency. For instance, a USB drive and a cloud backup fail in totally different ways, so relying on both gives you protection a single storage type can't. Mixing storage types is one of the simplest ways to remove a single point of failure from your business.

Keep One Copy Off-Site at All Times

An off-site backup protects your data because it's physically cut off from your shop's computer network, so hackers, ransomware, and power surges simply can't reach it. For example, a rotated external drive kept at home, or a cloud backup like OneDrive, both satisfy this rule in different ways. Being disconnected from your local network is the single strongest protection you have against a targeted cyberattack.

Why Should You Run Regular Backup Test Drills?

You should run regular backup test drills because it's the only reliable way to know how your backup will actually perform before you're forced to rely on it in a real emergency. There's no getting out of this step, no matter how confident you feel about your current setup. I've seen backups that looked perfectly fine on paper fail completely the moment someone actually tried to restore them.

Every few months, take the time to restore a recent backup onto a spare computer and check that everything opens properly.

What Does Australian Law Say About Backing Up Your Data?

Under Australian tax law, you're legally required to keep business records, including backups, for at least five years. If your backups fail for any reason and you can't produce the records the ATO asks for, you can face penalties or have deductions denied outright . One client of mine found this out the hard way recently, telling the ATO he couldn't confirm certain figures because he had no backup of his data, and it proved genuinely expensive.

"Businesses must keep records of all transactions relating to their tax, super, and registration obligations for five years Source: Australian Taxation Office, 2026"

This isn't just a good idea. It's a legal obligation, and the ATO explicitly recommends keeping an off-site or cloud copy of your records as part of meeting that obligation.

Conclusion: Protect Your Shop Before Disaster Strikes

Point of sale system disaster recovery isn't optional. It's a basic part of running a safe, stable retail business. The fire that hit our client this week could happen to any shop, on any day, with no warning at all.

Your insurance will replace a burnt-out till overnight, but it won't replace years of sales records, customer accounts, or supplier invoices. Take the time this week to turn on your free OneDrive backup, stop relying solely on that USB stick in the back of your till, and build yourself a proper 3-2-1 backup routine. It takes minutes to set up, and it's the difference between a bad day and a business-ending disaster.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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How to Keep Old Shop Computers Running

POS SOFTWARE

Computer Maintenance

Point of sale management

Old computers at work

A modern retail computer tends to run 10 hours a day, six or seven days a week. That is very different from a home computer used for a couple of hours at night. After ten years of that kind of daily use, ageing components will take their toll.

The usual problems always appear at the worst possible time, when the shop is busy, and you really need it. Here are five common issues I see in older retail computers.

Now, one point before I start: if you are thinking of doing anything inside your computer, anything with the electrical system, or anything that looks like it could be dangerous, please turn the computer off and do not touch it for a few minutes. Many components can retain charge even when turned off.

Key Takeaways

Old computers run slowly because they are slow computers.
Dust, ageing components and a nearly full system drive can make them run slower.
A slow point-of-sale system costs money. We see longer queues, wasted staff time and customer frustration.
An old computer may still work, even if it runs slowly.
Ageing hardware can eventually limit what software, security updates and peripherals it can support.
In retail environments, a lot of dust can block vents and fans, causing overheating.
Early attention to warning signs can fix problems before the computer dies.

The reality of old Computers

Old computers run more slowly because they are less advanced. As new software is released, your old computer runs slower because it can't keep up with modern requirements. Nothing we can do about that. That will cost a business money. Your customer queues will be longer; you and your staff will spend more time waiting for the computer to work. Although a computer may physically last 10 years, it generally isn't designed to run for that long. For many businesses, five years is a sensible planning life for a computer. At work, any computer that lasts longer is a bonus.

Still, replacing a working computer costs money. If an old computer still runs the POS system reliably, it is worth maintaining. That's what we will discuss here. Just remember: a computer that still turns on isn't necessarily a computer you should trust.

Does Your Shop Computer Lose Time or Refuse to Boot?

You turn on the computer. Instead of Windows loading, you see a black screen with a message: "CMOS checksum error". Sometimes the computer asks you to press F1 to continue. If it works, you may notice the date and time are wrong. You enter the correct date and time. Sometimes that fixes the problem, but sometimes the printer behaves weirdly, or your online software shows certificate or security errors. This is because these depend on the computer having the correct date and time. If your computer isn't keeping the date and time accurately, the battery is a likely cause.

The first thing I would suspect is the CMOS battery. This battery powers the clock when the computer is powered off. These batteries last around five to ten years. It may last less if your computer runs hot. So it's normal for a ten-year-old computer to need a battery replacement. Replacing it is a simple job for a technician.

Does Your Computer Keep Restarting or Suddenly Shut Down?

If your computer crashes and then works again after a wait, it is likely overheating. Often, you'll notice the computer slowing down before it crashes. This is because components automatically reduce their speed to protect themselves from excess heat.

Typical warning signs include a fan running loudly and constantly. Put your hand on the case to see if it's hot.

Start by checking for dust. Retail shops can accumulate a lot of paper dust, especially around printers, paper-handling areas, and stock areas. Over time, dust blocks vents and coats fans and heatsinks, trapping heat inside the computer.

A good video on how to do this is available here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEdC_Np6jUs

Is Your Computer Making a Grinding or Clicking Noise?

A grinding, buzzing or clicking noise can be an early warning sign. It may come from a worn cooling fan, a cable touching a fan, an ageing mechanical hard drive or, less commonly, the power supply.

Do not ignore a new or worsening noise. If the computer still starts, back up important POS, accounting and business files immediately. A failing hard drive can stop working without much warning.

Do not touch the power supply yourself. Even when unplugged, it can retain an electrical charge. A technician can determine whether the problem is the fan, hard drive, power supply, or another component, and advise whether repair is worthwhile.

Does the Computer Crash During Busy Tasks?

If the computer crashes during heavy processing, for example, an end-of-day reconciliation. Start with simple checks. Make sure air can flow to the computer, check for dust blocking airflow, and confirm the fans are working.

If those checks do not fix the problem, you may need a technician to inspect the cooling system. On older computers, I have seen heat sink issues, a failing fan, or deteriorated thermal compound between the processor and heat sink.

You can replace thermal paste, but it requires disassembling and correctly reinstalling the CPU cooler. It is usually inexpensive for a technician to do, and I would not recommend people attempt it themselves.

Why Does Retail Software Freeze or Crash at the Register?

Retail software can freeze for many reasons, including heat, a failing hard drive, network issues or problems in the POS software itself. One common, easy-to-check cause is a nearly full system drive.

Windows requires free disk space for updates, temporary files, and daily use. Keep at least 10–15% of the main drive free, especially on older computers. Microsoft offers built-in tools to review storage and safely delete temporary files or unused apps.

Start by opening Settings > System > Storage in Windows. Review temporary files, large or unused files, cloud-synchronised files and unused apps. Windows also provides Disk Cleanup and Cleanup recommendations to help remove files safely.

I find the free utility CCleaner useful for this.

https://www.possolutions.com.au/blog/speeding-up-your-computers

Be careful with anything related to POS, accounting or customer data. Before deleting or archiving business records, make sure you understand what they are and confirm they are backed up. We have a recommended archiving process.

When to Stop Repairing and Replace the Computer

Maintaining an old computer makes sense only as long as it remains reliable and cost-effective. Like any device, the cost of repeated repairs, lost staff time, and business disruption will eventually exceed the cost of replacement.

Consider replacing the computer rather than repairing it if:

It cannot run a supported version of Windows or the current version of your POS software.
It freezes, crashes or restarts more than occasionally.
A hard drive, power supply, or motherboard repair would cost a large proportion of the cost of a replacement computer.
Staff regularly lose time waiting for it to start, to load reports, or to respond at the counter.
You cannot obtain suitable replacement parts.
It does not work properly with current printers, scanners, payment services or other equipment.
It has no reliable backup, or restoring it after a failure would stop trading for too long.

The aim is not to replace computers unnecessarily. It is to replace them before an avoidable failure disrupts a busy day's trading.

Conclusion

Today's computers are generally reliable, but every computer has components that eventually wear out. A shop computer should physically last for 10 years; look after it, and it will.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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Don't Sign a Fixed EFTPOS Contract Now, it is too Risky

POS SOFTWARE

Eftpos

EFTPOS Surcharging Australia

No-Cost EFTPOS Comparison

EFTPOS and Credit Card surcharges end in Oct

You work hard to find good stock deals all the time. You work all the time to reduce costs, so why give up years of EFTPOS payment flexibility for a deal that only looks good today? Things *will* very soon, and nobody really knows what's happening with EFTPOS. This uncertainty is exactly what puts small Australian retailers at risk of carrying the burden if things shift.

This is why our offer for EFTPOS and Credit Cards have no fixed terms. You do not like it you can walk away, no risk.

Key Takeaways

Card surcharging ends across EFTPOS, Mastercard and Visa networks from 1 October 2026
Interchange caps fall sharply on the same date.
Standard fixed EFTPOS contracts let the provider vary fees on 30 days' notice, while the retailer stays locked in.
Early termination fees on Australian EFTPOS contracts commonly run from $200 to over $2,000, depending on the provider and remaining term.
Free terminal offers and rentals can change in 30 days.
Banks and fintechs now offer no-lock-in EFTPOS plans, often at comparable or better rates than fixed-term deals.

Why This Is the Worst Time to Lock In

Fixed-term EFTPOS contracts tie you to one provider for generally 24 to 36 months. There are penalties if you leave early. Signing one now is betting that today's payment system will stay the same. We all know it won't.

On 1 October 2026, the Reserve Bank of Australia's payments reform takes effect nationwide. Wholesale interchange costs will drop significantly, new fees will soon be introduced.

Consider what this means if you sign a fixed-term contract today. You'd be locked into a rate, and right now, nobody, not a salesperson, a bank, or even your accountant can say what a fair rate will be after the changes. That's why flexibility matters more than ever.

The Contract Is a One-Way Street

Most standard EFTPOS agreements let the provider change your fees with little notice, but you don't get the same flexibility. Check the variation clause in your contract. You'll likely see that the provider can adjust rates or charges with just 30 days' written notice. In my experience, they often blame "third-party costs" or "operational changes," which turns out to be often just shifting costs from one part of the bank to another part.

It's a one-sided deal. If their costs increase, you pay more. If your situation changes and you need to switch, you pay the penalty not them.

In all my years working with EFTPOS providers, I've never seen a variation clause used to lower what merchants pay or risks. It's always used to pass on extra terms, cost increases or now we are seeing to add new fees. I've never heard of a provider calling a merchant to say, "Good news, your rate just dropped and we are passing it on to you." If wholesale interchange drops in October and you're on a flat or blended rate, don't expect your provider to pass on the savings. Now more than ever, you need the freedom to switch if you want.

The Free Terminal Isn't Free

A common offer is "$0 terminal rental for your first 12 months." It sounds generous, but once you calculate the costs for the remaining 24 months of a 36-month contract, it's not such a great deal.

After the promotional period, providers usually charge between $18 and $35 per terminal each month. Over two years with two terminals, that adds up to more than $1,000 in rental fees. Costs the promotional offer didn't mention upfront. Compare this to renting month-to-month with no extra fees.

It's simple: the banks *free* year is paid back, with interest, during the years you're locked in and can't leave.

What Happens When Your Business Changes

Businesses change over time. You might sell, downsize, move, or switch POS software, and any of these changes could cause problems if you're stuck in a fixed-term contract.

Sell your shop with 18 months left on the contract, and that bill lands on you. If you sell your shop with 18 months left on the contract, you'll be responsible for the remaining payments unless the provider agrees to transfer the contract which isn't guaranteed. Generally they will have a different bank which is often a problem. Also if you're on a bad deal, the new owners probably won't want to take it over anyway even if its the same bank.

Zero EFTPOS EFTPOS

That model dies on 1 October 2026, because the card schemes' no-surcharge rules will apply across the board. I think most people on this deal are looking at high fees.

You Lose Your Growth Leverage

If your card turnover increases and it likely it will after 1 October you should be able to get a better deal with lower rates. With a no-lock-in plan, you can renegotiate at any time or switch to a competitor offering a better rate. On a fixed contract, you don't benefit from your growth. You're stuck with the rate you signed up for. Major retailers, I know use flexible plans and so quietly negotiate better rates.

What to Insist On Instead

These days, there's little reason to sign a fixed contract when you can get the same or better pricing without the risk.

Before you sign anything, get these in writing:

No minimum term, or at most a short one with a clearly stated, capped exit fee
Transparent Interchange++ pricing; try to get details on the interchange, scheme fees and the provider's margin itemised separately.
Terminal ownership or flexible rental: review the costs.
Confirmed POS Software compatibility in writing, not just a verbal assurance from the sales rep.
A matching notice period: if they can vary your terms on 30 days' notice, you should be able to exit on the same notice.

The Bottom Line

October 2026 will change the economics of card payments in Australia. Surcharging will end, wholesale costs will drop sharply, and real competition between providers will begin. Retailers who can move easily will benefit. Those locked into a 36-month contract signed today will spend the next two and a half years paying old rates in a new market.

When the next EFTPOS rep offers you a "great deal" with a fixed term for EFTPOS, there's only one answer that matters: NOT NOW

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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Ask Our Australian EFTPOS Directory (Chatbot Goes Live Monday)

POS SOFTWARE

AI POS

AI POS System

Eftpos

Australian EFTPOS Directory Chatbot

You're probably already shopping around for an EFTPOS provider. On Monday, we're launching an Australian merchant acquiring and EFTPOS provider directory chatbot. Most retailers want to drop their merchant figures into one place and get a straight answer on multiple providers. Here, you can enter your turnover, average sale, card mix, and current and quoted rates. Then you ask the questions you would ask a broker, without the sales call.

Key takeaways

The directory is a chatbot loaded with Australian acquirer, EFTPOS and fee-model source material.
You enter your own figures (turnover, ticket size, card mix, current merchant rate, terminal rent) and ask follow-up questions.
The bot compares banks, fintechs and specialist acquirers
From 1 October 2026, the chatbot is built around cost inside the price.
It will do its best to access flat-rate, interchange-plus and blended quotes.
A useful shortlist for a single-store retailer is still a handful of names.

What is the merchant acquiring chatbot?

The merchant acquiring chatbot is a question-and-answer tool sitting on top of our Australian EFTPOS and acquirer source set. First, it is not a static page ranking 65 logos. You ask in plain English. For example, you enter in "We turn over $18,000 a week, average $12.40 a sale, mostly debit, $45 a month terminal rent, 1.4% blended. What should I ask CommBank versus Tyro versus Zeller?"

Moreover, the source material stays in the workspace. That means answers can point back to fee models, hardware notes and the October rule change, instead of guessing from a brochure.

Why launch it as a chatbot?

A chat fits how you actually run a shop. You can ask it questions, change scenarios such as average sale from $8 to $22 and ask again. This can make it feel real.

The other reason is the deadline. From 1 October 2026, designated card networks stop merchants from adding a surcharge for Visa, Mastercard and EFTPOS. Bank fees now have to live in the shelf price. The chatbot is there so you can model that shift with your numbers.

What can you ask it?

You can ask it anything you would put in an email to an EFTPOS/Credit provider:

"Here is my current rate and weekly card mix. Is interchange-plus likely cheaper than flat-rate for us?"
"We still surcharge 1%. What happens to margin after 1 October if volume stays the same?"
"Compare a big-four integrated terminal with Tyro for a single counter and our POS."
"What questions should I ask before I sign a 24-month rental?"

First, put in as many real numbers as you can; the more, the better. The more accurate, the better; remember, garbage in means garbage out.

How many providers sit behind the answers?

The AI source now covers about 65 platforms. There will be more on Monday when it's released, as we are waiting for a few more providers to send us information. Most are the majors; unfortunately, many providers refuse to release information publicly, but we have done what we can.

What you should have ready before you type

From your total reports, or better yet from your EFTPOS statement, you need, as a minimum, four figures: weekly card takings, average transaction value, debit amount, credit amount and what you pay now: rate plus terminal plus extras. Most of you can import the current EFTPOS provider invoice from a PDF.

What's next

Get a copy and start investigating.

Next month we will release an update once the dust settles.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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A new version of POS Solutions Retail AI ChatBot released

POS SOFTWARE

AI POS

AI POS System

Management

Notebooklm for retailers
Everyone is very excited to see what AI can do to help run a shop, looking at decisions like staff issues, responding to a customer complaint, checking a lease clause, questioning EFTPOS costs, reviewing slow stock, why cash is tight now, etc.

The information you often need exists somewhere, often online, in such places as a government website, in an Award, inside a supplier document, a POS report, your lease or your financial statements. The problem is finding it quickly, understanding what matters and applying it to your shop.

The POS Solutions Retail AI Notebook brings these sources together. It gives Australian independent retailers a practical AI research assistant built around trusted retail information. Add your own reports and documents, and it can help you analyse the questions that matter to your business. I doubt anyone else has anything this sophisticated for retail in our marketplace.

NotebookLM can generate answers based on sources added to a notebook and provide citations that take you back to the relevant supporting material. That makes it useful for reviewing reports, locating provisions in documents and preparing questions for advisers.

The sources are current now, but you need to review them regularly, as employment, tax, consumer, leasing, and payment rules can change, so always check the cited source before acting. In this third version, we're checking them. So you know they are current now.

Key Takeaways

The POS Solutions Retail AI Notebook has 33 carefully selected sources.
The sources cover employment, consumer law, tax, payments, WHS, mental health, leasing, store layout and business planning.
It was made to be particularly relevant to newsagencies, bookshops, pet shops, gift retailers and other independent stores with broad product ranges.
Add your own POS reports, lease and financial records to personalise it for your specific business.
The notebook helps you find information, analyse reports and prepare better questions; it does not replace professional advice.
To request a copy, email POS Solutions for the current access and setup information.

What Is It?

The POS Solutions Retail AI Notebook is a ready-made NotebookLM workspace for Australian independent retailers. It combines regulatory information, practical retail guidance, financial benchmarks and original retail research in one searchable environment.

It is not simply an empty AI tool. The notebook starts with retail-specific Australian sources, so you can ask a question in plain language and get an answer linked to the source material in the notebook.

For example, instead of separately searching Fair Work guidance, the Retail Award and general employment material, you could ask:

“What should I check before changing the roster of a part-time retail employee?”

The notebook can help identify relevant material. Please seek specialist advice if the issue is serious. It's particularly good for explaining what these experts say in plain Australian English.

Where It Matters

We all manage a wide range of responsibilities. You may need to think about wages, stock, margins, customer rights, rent, etc. at any moment.

A good retail AI notebook does not replace your experience or judgement. It helps you find the right starting point faster and makes it easier to connect a business question with the documents and figures that may answer it. What I find it particularly good for is running different scenarios. What if I do this? If I do it, what problems could I face? Don't shy; I often tell it the idea isn't what I want. Could you suggest an alternative? Sometimes I just swear at it when it is off-topic; that works sometimes.

For a retailer, that might mean examining:

Gift ranges that have stopped turning after a seasonal event
Book-category performance by supplier or genre
Stationery sales before and after back-to-school
Gross margin and stock turn by department
Space allocated to cards, gifts, magazines, books and stationery
Magazine sell-through, returns and allocation
Greeting-card sales and the value of display space

Your POS system already holds important business intelligence. The notebook helps you use that information alongside reliable guidance and your own commercial documents.

What Sources Are Included?

The POS Solutions Retail AI Notebook contains 33 sources. Unfortunately, the free version of NotebookLM includes only 50 sources, so to add more, we have to remove one.

31 web URLs and online resources
Two original Markdown or text documents

The original documents are:

Research Report: Workplace Crisis & First Aid Management
Australian Independent Retail Intelligence Report 2026, stored as retail2.txt

The sources are organised around five areas that reflect an Australian retailer's real responsibilities.

Employment and Fair Work

We included the General Retail Industry Award 2020 [MA000004], Fair Work Ombudsman guidance, and related material for common employment questions.

The Retail Award covers employers in the general retail industry and employees who fit the Award's classifications. The Fair Work Commission's consolidated Award incorporates amendments up to and including 1 July 2026.

If that is not your award, you need to change it.

You might ask:

“What Award information should I check before changing this employee's roster?”
“What duties may distinguish a Level 1 employee from a Level 2 employee?”
“What records and steps should I consider before dealing with a stock discrepancy?”
“What should I check before ending the employment of a part-time retail worker?”

Pay rates and conditions can change. Fair Work publishes current pay guides, including a General Retail Industry Award guide effective from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026. [fairwork.gov]

Important: The notebook can help locate relevant guidance and give you some ideas.

Consumer Rights and Pricing

The notebook includes sources on consumer law such as guarantees, price displays, promotions, advertising, card surcharges, spam-related marketing obligations, etc. Recently we had a client who was threatened over his advertisement as it lacked some required details.

For example, you could ask:

“A gift item is faulty six weeks after purchase. What consumer guarantee issues should I consider?”
“What should our signage make clear if a 40% discount applies only to selected stock?”
“What should I review before changing our card surcharge?”
“What information should appear on a price display before a promotion starts?”

Clear pricing and accurate promotional material protect customers and reduce avoidable disputes. Use the notebook to find relevant guidance, then review the cited official source before deciding.

Tax, Payments and Performance

The notebook includes sources on tax, business benchmarks, financial reports, payment costs, gross margin, GMROI, and business viability.

This is where your own POS reports and financial documents become especially valuable. A generic AI tool cannot know whether your margins are falling, whether gifts are tying up too much capital or whether your rent is becoming harder to support. Your reports can provide that context.

For example, you could ask:

“Over the last 12 months, what departments grew in sales but fell in gross margin?”
“What stock has not sold in 12 months?”
“Which gift suppliers have the lowest stock turn?”
“Compare greeting cards, gifts, books, magazines and stationery by sales, gross profit and stock turn.”
“Which categories may deserve more or less floor space?”

The ATO says business benchmarks help businesses compare selected financial ratios with similar businesses and should be reviewed at least annually before lodging a tax return. For newsagents, the ATO's benchmark material identifies cost of sales as a key ratio for assessing turnover.

Benchmarks are not instructions. They prompt you to investigate. If a figure sits outside a benchmark range, the reason may be product mix, rent, wages, location, business model, reporting differences, growth investment or an underlying problem.

WHS, First Aid and Well-being

Retail businesses need straightforward procedures for the unexpected: a medical emergency, a customer incident, a workplace injury, an aggressive situation or staff distress.

The notebook includes WHS, first-aid and mental-health material to help retailers prepare practical store procedures.

Questions might include:

“What should our first-aid procedure include if a customer collapses near the counter?”
“What should staff do immediately after an incident in the shop?”
“What information should be recorded after a workplace injury?”
“What support pathways could we include in a simple staff well-being policy?”

A retailer often carries staffing, customer and financial pressures. Having reliable support information now, with clear procedures available during a crisis, is very useful.

Of course, for an emergency or immediate health and safety risk, contact the relevant emergency service ASAP.

Store Operations and Leasing

The notebook also includes material on customer flow, store layout, visual merchandising, retail leasing, plastics obligations and business-sale planning.

For newsagencies and speciality retailers, layout is not simply about making the shop look good. It affects how customers move, what they notice and which ranges receive browsing time.

You could ask:

“How can I improve customer flow between the counter, greeting cards and gift departments?”
“Which high-margin categories should be more visible from the entrance?”
“Which slow-selling ranges occupy too much valuable floor space?”
“How can I place gift products near greeting cards to encourage sales?”
“What lease dates are coming up soon?”

Your lease can be one of the most important documents in the business. Once you add it to your private notebook, you can ask it to help identify clauses dealing with rent reviews, outgoings, make-good obligations, renewal options, assignment and notice periods.

That does not mean the notebook can interpret a lease as a solicitor would. It can help you identify the clauses and questions worth taking to a solicitor, landlord or leasing adviser.

The Retail Intelligence Report

The Australian Independent Retail Intelligence Report 2026 is the notebook's central strategy source. It gives the AI broader context on the commercial realities facing independent Australian retailers.

It includes:

Volume One: Market Reality and the Transformation Imperative, Chapters 1 to 12
Volume Two: Operational Benchmarks and Financial Metrics, Chapters 13 to 33
Volume Three: Strategic Implementation Frameworks, Chapters 34 to 49
Volume Four: Future-Proofing and Strategic Foresight, Chapters 50 to 60
Appendices A to L: Worksheets, checklists and templates

The report helps connect individual decisions. A weak category may not simply be a buying problem. It may involve stock turn, gross margin, display position, discounting, customer traffic, supplier terms or the category's strategic role in the store.

For example:

“Review my last 12 months of gift-category sales, gross margin and stock turn. Identify the five poorest-performing suppliers, then suggest the questions I should investigate before changing the range.”

Make It Your Assistant

The 33 sources provide the general retail foundation. Your own documents make the notebook specific to your business.

Start with reports that are clear, recent and useful.

Useful POS Reports

Consider adding:

Sales by department, category and supplier
Sales by item or SKU
Gross-profit and gross-margin reports
Stock-on-hand reports
Stock-turn reports
Dead-stock and slow-selling-stock reports
Discount and promotion reports
Sales comparisons by month, year, store or channel
Customer, loyalty or transaction summaries where appropriate

For best results, use clearly named reports covering a consistent date range. Monthly PDF or spreadsheet reports are often easier to work with than large, raw transaction exports.

A useful prompt could be:

“Review this 12-month sales-by-category report for my suburban newsagency. Identify the five largest sales declines, show whether gross margin also fell and suggest questions I should investigate before changing the range.”

Add Your Lease

Your lease gives the notebook access to dates, rent reviews, outgoings, options and obligations that can shape your fixed costs.

Try asking:

“List the important dates in this lease coming soon, including rent reviews, option deadlines, notice periods and expiry dates.”

Add Financial Documents

You may also add tax returns, BAS statements, profit-and-loss reports or balance sheets that you are comfortable storing in your Google account.

These documents can help you investigate questions such as:

“Using my financial statements and the benchmark sources in this notebook, which expense ratios need further investigation, and what are three possible reasons for each?”

Protect Your Information

Use sensible precautions to protect your privacy.

Your POS reports, lease and financial records may contain commercially sensitive or personal information. Before uploading to your notebook, review the access settings and sharing permissions.

For a retailer using your notebook, the practical protection is:

Use a strong, unique password for the Google account.
Turn on Google two-step verification.
Keep the notebook private rather than sharing it publicly.

Share it only with specifically invited Google accounts if staff or advisers need access. I suggest not sharing it with anyone. You can always send the relevant material without giving them access to the notebook itself.

Ask Better Questions

The best questions are clear about the report, time period, store type and decision you need to make. Ask clear questions, and you'll get clear answers.

Try questions such as:

“Based on the Retail Award, what information should I check before changing this employee's roster?”
“Summarise the consumer guarantee principles relevant to this customer complaint.”
“Review my merchant statement and identify EFTPOS fees I should question.”
“Which departments have declining sales and declining gross margin?”
“What stock has not sold in 12 months, and how much capital does it represent?”
“Which greeting-card and gift ranges produce the strongest return on stock investment?”
“What lease obligations and dates should I put into my calendar?”
“What are the main first-aid and emergency procedures this shop should have?”
“Which categories appear to deserve more floor space?”
“What questions should I take to my accountant after reviewing these reports?”

The most effective approach is to give the notebook context.

Instead of:

“Why are sales down?”

Try:

“Review this 12-month sales-by-category report for my suburban newsagency. Compare gifts, greeting cards, magazines, books and stationery. Identify the largest sales declines, show whether gross margin also fell and list the questions I should investigate before changing the range.”

Important Limits

The POS Solutions Retail AI Notebook is designed to help you find information, analyse reports and prepare better business questions. It is not legal, tax, financial, employment, medical or emergency advice.

Although this notebook is set for low hallucinations, they do happen. The notebook may misunderstand a question, miss an exception, work from incomplete business data or rely on a source that needs updating. Also remember you know a lot more about many things than this AI assistant, so like anyone you ask for advice, check before acting.

What I find useful is using it before I meet an expert to become better prepared; some examples might be:

Identify relevant Award clauses before speaking with an HR adviser.
Review sales and margin trends before meeting your accountant.
Locate lease dates and clauses before consulting a solicitor.
Prepare a store safety checklist before seeking WHS guidance.
Investigate stock and category trends before committing to a buying decision.

That is where the real value lies: less time hunting for information, better questions and more productive conversations with the people who advise your business.

Get a Copy

The POS Solutions Retail AI Notebook is available to blog readers who want a practical AI assistant for their retail business.

To request access:

Email POS Solutions and ask for the Retail AI Notebook.
We will provide the current access and setup information.
Create your own copy under the Google account you control.
Add selected POS reports, such as sales, margin, stock and category reports.
I suggest adding your lease if you want help finding key dates and commercial obligations.
I also suggest adding relevant financial reports, BAS statements, or tax information to review financial performance and benchmarks.
Add more sources if required.

What to do?

Email POS Solutions today to request your copy of the Retail AI Notebook. Create your own private copy, add the business information you want it to analyse, and start turning POS data, retail guidance, and commercial documents into more useful decisions for your shop.

Detailed notes on how to use NotebookLM are available here. I would say plan about half an hour to go through the details.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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POS Solutions at 43: Australia's Ultimate POS System Story

POS SOFTWARE

Pos Solutions

Company vision

POS Solutions birthday cake, 43 years
After 43 years, we have seen cash registers almost disappear, and we now have cloud- and network-connected POS systems. Cheques and cash are almost gone.

Today, 8 September 2026, POS Solutions turns 43, and yet many retailers we meet are still missing the efficiency gains that four decades of point-of-sale experience can deliver.

Here's how a St Kilda bedroom startup became Australia's leading newsagency and POS System software provider and what that journey means for your business.

POS Solutions

POS Solutions is an Australian Point of Sale (POS) system provider founded on 8 September 1983 by self-taught programmer Bernard Zimmermann in a St Kilda flat in Melbourne. Today the company develops POS software and supplies POS hardware for independent retailers across Australia.

It operates from its head office at the Fiveway Business Centre in Keysborough, Victoria, supporting retailers across Australia and New Zealand.

Long before "point of sale" was a household phrase. We recognised that computers could transform how shops managed stock, sales, and customers.

Why Does 43 Years of POS Experience Matter?

Experience matters in POS software because retail punishes downtime. Every minute a till is offline costs money and real customers.

How Did POS Solutions Begin in 1983?

Our first trade show many many years ago.

POS Solutions began on 8 September 1983, when its founder, me, started writing custom software from the bedroom of a St Kilda flat. I was a self-taught programmer with deep retail knowledge and a passion for technology. I believed computers could help retail run better and set out to prove it, one customer at a time.

At the time, most independent retailers ran their shops on paper, memory, and gut feel. I had a one-person philosophy that still shapes the company today. Every feature is from a real retailer's request. We listened to our customers first, then did our best to deliver. This founding habit has never left us.

My early program replaced shoeboxes of receipts with searchable records. I remember one of my first clients telling me he could finally see which product lines actually made money, rather than guessing.

43 years in, and I have loved every minute of it. Turns out they are right: if you love your work, you never work a day.

How Has Australian Retail Changed Since 1983?

Australian retail has transformed completely since 1983, shifting from cash and lay-by books to tap-and-go payments and real-time stock control.

Cards now account for roughly three-quarters of all consumer payments in Australia, while cash has fallen to just 13% of transactions. EFTPOS arrived and changed the checkout forever. Then came barcode scanning, the GST in 2000, and integrated card terminals. Then tap-and-go, online shopping, and soon QR codes. Each wave forced retailers to adapt within months, not years. Each wave rewarded retailers with flexible systems and punished those locked into rigid ones.

As a result, POS Solutions is the market leader in Australian newsagency and well established in POS systems.

How Did POS Solutions Grow into a Market Leader?

POS Solutions grew into a market leader by specialising deeply, supporting relentlessly. Our theme never changes: steady growth built on listening to retailers.

What Has POS Solutions Delivered for Retailers in 2026?

In the past year, POS Solutions has focused on payments, compliance, and practical support. These are the three areas where retailers feel change first. Sometimes the issues are unglamorous, such as when a recent Windows update broke receipt printers across many shops; that hands-on support, not just software, has kept the company relevant for over four decades.

What Can a Modern POS System Do for Your Shop?

A modern POS system manages your entire shop from one screen. It handles sales, stock, payments, staff, and reporting and pays for itself in the minutes it saves at every sale.

It tracks every item from sale to delivery, flagging slow movers before they eat your cash flow.
Sales can be completed in 1.6 seconds thanks to its commercial-grade SQL.
It integrates EFTPOS, eliminating double-keying. Helps with end-of-day reconciliation errors.
Reporting dashboards that turn your sales history into decisions.

Conclusion: Here's to 43 Years

Here's to 43 years of retail innovation and to the next chapter we'll write together.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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Last-Minute Father's Day Merchandising 2026

POS SOFTWARE

Marketing

Customer experience

Retail Analytics

Father's day 2026

We now have the Roy Morgan report on the likely Father's Day 2026 shopper. We expect more shoppers and a smaller budget than last year, which makes sense if more people are shopping. The Roy Morgan report on Father's Day is here.

https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/more-shoppers-smaller-splurges-as-aussies-prepare-for-fathers-day

The critical question for your bottom line is whether they will spend their money with you, or take their business to another retailer that has designed a more visible and convenient shopping experience.

I think we would like them to release it earlier so we can better use the report to prepare.

Key Takeaways

Father's Day trading peaks in the final forty-eight hours; Saturday should be good.
Physical shelf rearrangement is now your primary sales lever
Make sure your Point of Sale (POS) data is set up to give you insights into which gift categories and price points are moving
Make some stock consolidation to group Father's Day products into a single high-traffic display near the entrance
Father's Day items can work on the front counter, as they are now impulse sales
Get ready now

What Is Last-Minute Father's Day Merchandising?

Last-minute merchandising is the process of repositioning existing stock to maximise visibility and convenience in the final trading days before the event. Now ensure that your stock is highly visible and easy to purchase. For example, a Father's Day-type book sitting on a shelf in your book section should be moved to a prominent position. Why not make a table with a sign; it's a great idea. By reorganising your shop floor, you make it much simpler for customers to find it.

Why Are the Final 48 Hours Critical for Father's Day Sales?

The commercial stakes are incredibly high in the final forty-eight hours of a retail campaign. Most Father's Day sales are last-minute purchases. Don't leave Father's Day stock scattered across normal shelving; few of your customers will hunt for these items on their own.

How Can Newsagents Use POS Data to Guide Shelf Adjustments?

Using your POS system, run a top-sellers report for the last seven days to see the current customer demand. Plus, look at the week ending 7 September 2025 to see what sold last year. If it sold well last year, why not in 2026?

How to run the Top Selling Items report

Now that we've covered the value of the Top Selling Items report let's walk through how to generate it in your POS system. I'll use our point-of-sale software as an example, but the process is similar across most platforms.

Here are the simple steps:

Go to Register reports.

Register menu

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

Stock report

You will want about 30 items with the last seven days' sales for your shop, and you will get a report that looks like this:

Specifically, you should review your POS dashboard to check:

Which greeting cards, books, or magazines have sold faster than expected this week
Which specific gift items are running low? It is too late to order more now, but you may have a substitute product you can display. Last-minute shoppers are not fussy.
Which categories are moving? They need to go into a better spot.
Which price points are actively selling?

For example, if your POS data reveals that grooming-related items are moving much faster than puzzles this week, you should immediately shift your shelf space toward grooming products and pull the puzzle display back for now.

v

How Do Front-of-Counter Displays Drive Impulse Purchases?

The front counter is your last opportunity to add value to an existing transaction. Every customer who is already purchasing a Father's Day card is an ideal candidate for an impulse add-on. This is the fastest and most cost-effective way for newsagents to lift average transaction value.

What also works well is a stand of Father's Day goods under $10.

Conclusion: How Do You Make Your Existing Stock Work Harder?

In the final forty-eight hours of the campaign, Father's Day 2026 is entirely a merchandising challenge rather than a buying challenge [21]. Spend less than an hour moving your stock to where customers can actually see it, setting up impulse prompts at your front counter, and ensuring your displays are prepared.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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You Can Use Gemini Notebook to Run a Tighter, Smarter Shop

POS SOFTWARE

AI POS

AI POS System

POS Analytics

Notebooklm for business

You already track sales through your point-of-sale (POS) system; there is a lot to read, and who can go through it all? No one. Can you go through all the legal documents we get again? No one. We're all suffering in business from information overload.

I think we can all benefit from a system like NotebookLM, which helps close that gap by turning your existing documents into instant answers. This guide shows you exactly how to set it up, what to upload first, and where it earns its keep in your business.

Key Takeaways

Operational efficiency improves when scattered business documents move into one searchable workspace.
Financial data becomes instantly readable, without waiting days for your accountant to reply.
Marketing plans can be generated for free using your own sales history and a holiday calendar.
Commercial lease terms and accountant reports get translated into plain English on demand.
Staff documents, including operating procedures, return policies, etc., can be drafted in minutes instead of hours.
NotebookLM's free tier is quite generous.

What Is NotebookLM?

NotebookLM is a secure, private AI research tool marketed as Gemini Notebook. It answers only from the specific documents you provide. For example, if you ask it to summarise a supplier invoice, it won't guess, and it will quote the exact clause and page it pulled the answer from. This significantly cuts AI hallucinations and guesses.

For every answer NotebookLM gives you, you can check the information source in seconds. That verification step matters much in business, because a wrong number in a lease summary can cost real money. The big problem with AI, in my experience, is that it often uses US sources that don't apply in Australia.

Why NotebookLM Matters for SMB Businesses

NotebookLM matters because independent retailers don't have a dedicated analyst, marketer, or paralegal on staff as large organisations do. They do not even have the time to study it. NotebookLM effectively hires a research assistant for you for free, one that reads faster than any human and never gets tired of your questions.

How Do You Set Up Your First NotebookLM Notebook?

Setting up NotebookLM takes under a minute if you already have a Google account. Navigate to notebooklm.google.com, sign in, and open your first workspace. It is that fast to start.

Follow this simple first-session walkthrough:

Create one general "sandbox" notebook to experiment with.
Upload two or three files, such as a few supplier invoices.
Ask a basic question, like "Summarise the key terms in these invoices"
Ask how much it is in total.
Where are these suppliers?
etc

Just get a quick feel for how it works.

Once you're comfortable, let's start getting serious.

How Do You Set Up Your First Serious NotebookLM Notebook?

I suggest you create one general notebook rather than splitting notebooks on day one. We all need to learn to walk before we learn to run. Once you understand how NotebookLM works, we can go on to setting up individual notebooks for specific jobs such as Christmas advertisements, a commercial lease review, or a seasonal stock plan. For now, start small and grow.

Load up this notebook with some of your documents. The more, the better for experimenting with how the system works. For example, upload your store's refund policy, a supplier invoice, and a staff roster. Now ask a question about your refund timeframes to see how it responds.

What Sample Documents to Upload First?

Use these files to test finance, stock, legal, and marketing questions. Specifically, I suggest these:

Accountant's profit and loss statements, as they will show your major expenses. Tax returns, etc.
Point-of-sale (POS) sales, profit, margin, and stock reports will help you analyse good stock, dead stock, peak trading hours, payment types, etc. I like to import them as PDFs.
Commercial lease documents: ingesting rental contracts lets you extract critical terms and review dates.
Retail holiday and promotional calendars are readily available online. We supply such a calendar free here, which I am pleased to say is highly regarded: The Ultimate Retail Marketing Calendar 2026 - Australia Edition

After you get a feel for what is happening, a one-hour YouTube walkthrough is the best next step. First, I recommend this tutorial, which gives a clear, practical tour of the product. Next, spend about an hour going through this video.

https://youtu.be/WexPjiptQXU

While you go through it, click along inside this notebook.

I like to pause after each step and repeat the action. For example, when the presenter uploads a source and asks a question, do the same with your POS sales report so the lesson sticks. This hour of practice is a skill well worth learning.

There is a fair bit to learn, but once you have done it, you will find the program a delight to use.

Here are some use cases that I use, and I think you will find NotebookLM useful for:

Centralise Documents

Documents come all the time, and we tend to lose them.

Now, typical cloud-based document management software costs between $15 and $100 per user per month,

An SMB business using NotebookLM can do it for free, since NotebookLM works well for this task.

One workflow worth adopting: I upload files to a dedicated OneDrive folder first and then import them into my notebook. Unfortunately, NotebookLM keeps a copy, not the original, so use this workaround. First, search for the document inside the notebook. Next, confirm the file name matches what you need. Finally, retrieve the original from OneDrive if you need the original.

Marketing

Most independent retailers don't have the budget for a dedicated marketing manager, so this fills a genuine gap.

NotebookLM can do it for free and build you a monthly/yearly marketing plan once you upload your sales history and a retail holiday calendar.

Start by asking NotebookLM to find sources on how other Australian retailers run seasonal marketing, then try these prompts:

"Create a Facebook marketing plan for the next month."
"Recommend which upcoming holiday seasons I should prepare for."
"What products should I stock ahead of Father's Day?"

Financial Analysis

Few of us have the skill or knowledge to understand our accountant's statements. What we need is someone to explain them in plain English in seconds. So upload your P&L statements, tax returns, and relevant POS reports. Because everything stays grounded in your own numbers, the answers reflect your actual business rather than generic advice.

Useful prompts include:

"What are my top revenue streams and largest operational expenses?"
"Explain what these accountant reports are telling me."
"Compare my net profit margin, current ratio, and asset turnover over the last three quarters."

Upload rental agreement changes, government budget announcements, or business proposals to extract what directly affects you.

Most importantly, before sending anything to your accountant, ask NotebookLM to audit for unusual transaction patterns, duplicate entries, or irregular cash movements. Catching errors yourself is cheaper than paying your accountant to find them and fix them later.

Legal Documents

NotebookLM can turn a dense commercial lease into a plain-English summary. Few of us have an in-house lawyer, so this is one of the highest-value use cases available. Try these three approaches:

Ask NotebookLM to read the rental agreement, explain it in plain terms, and flag potential risks.
Upload the previous version of the rental agreement to compare exactly what has changed.
Ask it to specifically analyse liability risks, unfavourable payment terms, or hidden fees you need to consider before you sign.

For example, magazine return/credit processing. You'd want to upload your distributor agreements and returns policies to answer "What's the credit window for [Publisher X]?" or "Summarise the damages claim process for damaged stock."

Of course, always treat these answers as a first pass, not a replacement for a solicitor on anything with real financial exposure. Anything AI is ultimately risky.

Improve Store Operations

What I like is that NotebookLM can draft a professional Store Operations policy from scratch in minutes. Let us face it, a scrappy handwritten policy taped to the counter doesn't impress staff or customers. Few take it seriously once they see it. A professionally written document is different.

Return policy (an example)

Let us say you want a return policy; here's a practical sequence to follow:

Upload return policies from comparable stores if you can find them
Also upload return policies from major retailers
Ask NotebookLM to explain how a typical return policy works, then amend it for your shop.
Once you are happy with the result.
Generate a scenario-based quiz from your finished policy. Make amendments if required.
Now ask it to make a professional, step-by-step infographic for staff and customers.

Slide Decks and Videos

NotebookLM turns Point of Sale (POS) reports into slide decks, infographics, and narrated Video Overviews from uploaded files.

For example, ask it to build a presentation from weekly or monthly sales reports, and it creates professional, presentation-ready slides. I find this useful for highlighting key points, making your comments more credible.

You can also create animated explainer videos. I like that you can pause anytime, ask questions, and get plain-English explanations. For example, if a video shows a drop in weekend lottery sales, you can stop and ask why that line moved compared to the previous quarter.

Retail CRM

A retail Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a central hub that collects customer interactions and builds shopper profiles. It automates targeted campaigns, stores order histories, and segments customers by purchasing behaviour to encourage repeat visits. For example, a Melbourne florist can group customers by occasion, then send tailored offers.

Moreover, CRM is now considered vital in retail. Our POS systems already include a free CRM version you should keep using. You can feed selected CRM exports, customer emails, or purchase summaries into NotebookLM. For instance, upload a month of loyalty emails and ask which customers have gone quiet since their last high-value purchase.

Current Pricing and Usage Limits

The best part: NotebookLM's free plan gives most SMBs everything they need to get started. If you feel you need more, there are paid plans. Here's the current Australian pricing, which I confirmed directly on Google's official page: https://notebooklm.google.com/plans

Free — $0/month: 50 sources per notebook, 100 notebooks, 50 daily chat queries.
Google AI Plus (NotebookLM Plus) $7.99/month: up to 300 sources per notebook, up to 500 notebooks, up to 500 daily chat queries. If you have a kid in school, it's half price for them.
plus more

About the free tier, 50 sources per notebook is generally adequate for most SMB retailers, I think. If you hit the cap, consider making more notebooks. I often find that removing dubious or unnecessary sources helps.

The bigger frustration is the daily chat limit. If you're deep in an urgent problem and hit the ceiling, NotebookLM stops answering until the next day, which happens only occasionally but can be genuinely disruptive at the wrong moment.

I would suggest starting with the free tier before committing to anything paid. Create your notebook now, try it out for a while, and decide whether you need a bigger plan.

Data privacy

Google states that content is kept private. Overall, it's pretty good; you do need to make sure that only authorised people can access your notebook. Since the information is in the cloud, police or courts can access your notebook if they want. Australian privacy laws are very good protection for individuals but terrible for the government.

Alternatives

I am very happy with NotebookLM, but I've also seen several other products that are excellent. Logically.app and SciSpace spring to mind. If you use either ChatGPT Plus, Claude Projects or Perplexity, they all have a Project feature that can do much of this too on your existing account, much like NotebookLM.

Conclusion

NotebookLM gives you a genuinely useful, document-grounded AI assistant at no cost to start. Give it a try; you may be surprised how much time it saves. If there's enough interest, I'll run a webinar to help people get started.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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How to Use AI Role-Playing in retail

POS SOFTWARE

Customer satisfaction

AI POS System

Local market research

AI role-playing-in-retail

One idea we pioneered in our market space that I think would be useful to readers here is roleplaying. I will show how it works with a real-life example: testing possible products with AI Customer Roleplay.

You already know your regulars by name and can predict what they'll buy on a Tuesday morning. But have you ever tried a new product idea before buying stock, only to have it sit on the shelf and become dead stock? Here I will show you how AI roleplay works. It can uncover pricing issues. It allows you to test your sales pitches for the product. Also, show missed opportunities before you spend a penny on the stock.

Key Takeaways

AI roleplaying helps retailers simulate customer conversations.
Customer personas built around real shopper habits make the exercise far more useful.
Price sensitivity often surfaces quickly in roleplay.
A structured AI prompt turns a vague chat into a repeatable, realistic sales rehearsal.
Retailers benefit from this low-cost testing method.
The exercise is not a replacement for real customer data.
A modern POS system used by Australian retailers can provide real sales data to confirm or challenge what the role-play suggests.

What Is AI Roleplaying for Retail?

AI roleplaying is a practice where you ask an AI tool to act as a specific type of customer, then hold a simulated sales conversation as if you were serving them in your shop. You describe the shop, the customer, and the product, and the AI responds as the shopper likely would. This creates a low-risk space to test your pitch, pricing, and assumptions before committing real money to the stock.

Roleplay conversations expose blind spots that spreadsheets can't show you. For example, a newsagent testing a new fridge planner might discover through roleplay that the price point matters more than the product's features.

Why AI Roleplaying Matters for Small Retailers

Small retailers often can't afford to get a stock decision wrong. Every dollar tied up in slow-moving inventory is a dollar you can't spend on stock that actually sells. AI roleplay gives you a way to pressure-test an idea for the cost of a few minutes' typing, rather than the cost of a box of unsold products.

Retailers who test pricing before launch reduce dead stock risk significantly — Source: Retail Doctor Group, 2025. This matters even more where margins are tight and shelf space is limited.

Moreover, roleplay surfaces objections you might never hear directly. Real customers rarely explain why they walked past a product without buying it. An AI customer will tell you exactly why the price feels wrong or the benefit doesn't land.

How Does AI Roleplaying Actually Work in Practice?

Setting Up a Realistic Customer Conversation

The process is simple: you ask the AI to act as a particular type of customer, then have a conversation with it as though you were serving that person in your shop. This works best when you give the AI a detailed persona and a clear shop description, not just a vague "act like a customer" instruction.

For example, a Melbourne newsagency owner might set the scene as Dingley Village Newsagency, describe the foot traffic from a nearby Woolworths, then introduce a specific customer type before testing a product pitch.

A Worked Retail Example: Meet Sarah

Imagine a customer named Sarah, aged between 35 and 50, with school-aged kids and a weekly shopping centre routine. She has a busy household and a reasonable income, and she values products that save time or solve problems. Sarah often visits a newsagency because she's already at the centre and needs something quickly.

In one test, the AI played Sarah while a reusable magnetic to-do list for the fridge was introduced. The conversation showed that Sarah liked the concept immediately. She could picture herself managing school forms, sports rosters, and family jobs.

However, she was comfortable paying around $24.95, while $45.95 felt too expensive. That single data point raised several practical questions worth answering before ordering stock:

Is the larger version worth the higher price?
What makes it different apart from size?
Could it be displayed with coloured markers as an add-on sale?
Is there a lower-priced version that may sell more easily?

The roleplay also suggested that usefulness mattered more to Sarah than looking "professional." For her, a family organiser needs to be practical, not stylish. This kind of insight rarely shows up in a spreadsheet, but it appears quickly in a simulated conversation.

Building Five Customer Personas for Your Shop

Since shoppers respond differently to the same product, I suggest testing a range of relevant personas to give you a clearer picture. For many of my clients, I would suggest these useful personas:

Sarah, the Routine Shopper

A busy parent on the weekly grocery run who values convenience and buys children's books, activity packs, birthday cards, teacher gifts, and magazines.

Bill, the Loyal Community Senior

A long-term local who enjoys routine and friendly service, buying TV guides, puzzle books, specialist magazines, greeting cards, and lottery products.

Jill, the School Parent

Someone who needs stationery, project supplies, party items, pencil cases, wrapping paper, and children's gifts, often at short notice.

Tony, the Last-Minute Gift Buyer

A busy professional or parent needing a thoughtful, non-generic gift and card for an event happening very soon.

Paul, the Home-Office Professional

A local working from home or running a small business, needing notebooks, pens, mailing supplies, and filing products without waiting on delivery.

Testing a product idea against all five personas takes less than an hour and can reveal which customer segment actually wants what you're planning to stock.

Which Products Suit Each Customer Persona?

Matching products to personas helps you decide what to test first and what to stock with confidence. Each persona has a distinct set of product categories they're likely to buy, based on their habits and shopping triggers.

Sarah, the Routine Shopper, buys children's books, school-holiday activity packs, birthday cards, teacher gifts, wrapping paper, and lifestyle magazines.
Bill, the Loyal Community Senior, buys TV guides, puzzle books, specialist magazines, greeting cards, and lottery products.
Jill, the School Parent, buys stationery, project supplies, party items, pencil cases, wrapping paper, and children's gifts, often bought at short notice.
Tony, the Last-Minute Gift Buyer, buys thoughtful gifts and cards for events happening very soon, favouring items that don't feel generic.
Paul, the home-office professional, buys notebooks, pens, mailing supplies, and filing products, prioritising items available without waiting for delivery.

Testing a new product against this list first can save you a roleplay session. For example, a reusable magnetic fridge planner clearly fits Sarah and Jill, so those two personas are the logical starting point for roleplay testing, rather than Bill or Paul.

This kind of persona-to-product mapping also helps when you're deciding where to place new stock in the store. A product that suits Jill's short-notice shopping style, for instance, belongs near the front counter, not tucked away on a back shelf.

What Should a Good AI Customer Roleplay Prompt Include?

A strong prompt gives the AI enough structure to stay in character while still reacting realistically to your pitch. A well-built prompt separates the shop details, the customer persona, and the response rules into clear sections. This stops the AI from breaking character or inventing product details you haven't provided.

You can copy, paste, and adapt the prompt below. Replace the shop and customer details for each exercise.

# ROLE
  You are taking part in a realistic, face-to-face conversation in a retail shop.
  You play the CUSTOMER.
  The user plays the SHOP OWNER.
  Stay in character throughout the conversation.

  # SHOP
  You are visiting this shop:
[enter here your shops details for this example I will use:
  Dingley Village Newsagency is a family-run newsagency in Dingley Village
  Shopping Centre, Melbourne. The shop sells magazines, newspapers, books,
  greeting cards, gifts, stationery, wrapping paper, children's items and lotto.
  The shop is located in a busy local shopping centre and benefits from regular
  Woolworths foot traffic. Customers often visit while doing everyday errands.]

  # CUSTOMER PERSONA
  [Paste the customer persona here for this example I will use 
Sarah, the Routine Shopper, buys children's books, school-holiday activity packs, birthday cards, teacher gifts, wrapping paper, and lifestyle magazines.]

  Adopt this customer's personality, household situation, and spending habits,
  needs, and shopping triggers consistently.
  If a detail is missing, make a sensible assumption that fits the persona.
  Do not contradict information already given.

  # SESSION SET-UP
  At the beginning, choose a mood that suits the customer and time of day:
  rushed, relaxed, purposeful, browsing, tired, or open to suggestions.
  Keep that mood consistent unless the conversation naturally changes.

  # RESPONSE RULES
  - Stay in character. Never mention AI, prompts, roleplaying, testing, or personas.
  - Use short, natural Australian English, usually one to three sentences per reply.
  - React like a genuine customer, not someone trying to help the owner make a sale.
  - Be interested when the product suits the customer, but be realistic about price, quality, usefulness, and convenience.
  - Do not agree with every suggestion. Raise reasonable questions, objections, or doubts where appropriate.
  - Do not introduce unrelated shopping needs unless the owner asks what you are looking for.
  - Focus on the product or topic introduced by the owner.
  - Ask realistic questions, such as price, size, quality, durability, age suitability, how popular it is, and whether it is available in other styles or colours.
  - Do not invent facts about a product. If the owner hasn't provided enough information, ask a question instead.
  - Small, low-cost items may be impulse purchases. More expensive items may require thought, comparison, or a reason to return later.
  - Let the conversation end naturally when you decide to buy, decline, or think about it.
  - Occasionally include a subtle action in the sentence, such as "I pick it up for a closer look," but do not overdo this.

  # OPENING
  The shop owner says:
  [Paste the opening sales question or product introduction here for this example I will use a magnetic todo list that sticks to a fridge ]
  Respond directly to that product or question. Do not change the subject.

How Do You Apply Roleplay Insights to Real Stock Decisions?

Roleplay conversations are only useful if you act on what they reveal. The exercise works best when you treat it as a hypothesis-generator, not a final verdict. Once you spot a pattern — like price resistance or a weak benefit pitch — you can test it against real numbers.

Test 1

I wanted to find out how a reusable to-do list that hangs on a fridge would go in my shop, so here is how the conversation went.

Sarah: I shift my shopping bag to my other arm and glance towards the display. "I haven't actually, but with the kids' footy and netball rosters to juggle, it sounds like an absolute lifesaver. Are they the magnetic whiteboard ones or something else?"

Owner: They are good; they are magnetic, so they stick to the wall. You can write what needs to be done, and once it's done, rub it out. I prefer the big size.

Sarah: I step closer to have a proper look at the display. The big size is definitely the way to go with three kids and their endless sports rosters. Do they come with the markers included, or do I need to grab a pack of those too?

Owner: They come with a black marker, but I suggest that you buy a red marker so you can colour-code them: red for urgent and black for the rest.

Sarah: I pick up the large board and nod. That's actually a brilliant idea. I can put all the urgent school forms in red so my husband doesn't miss them. Where do you keep the red markers?

Owner: You can just stick both markers on the top.

Sarah: I check the top of the board and spot the little magnetic holder, which is perfect for stopping them from getting lost in the kitchen drawer. I'll take the big board and a couple of red markers; how much are we looking at?

Owner: $24.95.

Sarah: I hand the board and markers across the counter, thinking that's a very reasonable price to keep the household running smoothly. I'll tap when you're ready; I need to get back to the trolley before the kids start whinging.

Owner: That one is actually $45.95; the $24.95 is the other one you pointed to.

Sarah: I put the large board back on the shelf and pick up the smaller one instead. Ouch, forty-five bucks is a fair bit for a fridge board! I'll grab this smaller one for twenty-five and a couple of those red markers; it'll probably do the job just fine.

Owner: Are you sure the other one is a lot better?

Sarah: I pause, the smaller board in hand, and glance back at the larger one. Is it just the extra space, or does it have better magnets or something? I don't mind spending the extra twenty bucks if it's actually worth it, but I don't want it taking up half the fridge door.

Owner: I know, the bigger one, though, is more professional-looking.

Sarah: I tap the smaller board against my hand and let out a small laugh. It's just going to get covered in the kids' sticky fingerprints anyway, so looking professional isn't exactly a priority! I'll stick with the smaller one; it'll be less overwhelming on the fridge door.

Seems like Sarah thinks size is very important, and she does not want to spend $45.95, but she is prepared to pay $24.95.

Test 2

I then asked my prompt:

Owner: "Have you seen this book? It's a new translation of the new movie Odyssey from Geek; it's very detailed."

Sarah: I step closer to have a look at the cover you're holding. Is it the novelisation of that new movie, and is it more of a graphic novel or a proper chapter book? My youngest is always after those heavily illustrated ones.

Owner: It's actually a very big, detailed translation, highly regarded, not for young kids.

Sarah: Oh, right, so it's a bit too heavy for the younger ones. I turn the book over to check the price tag on the back. I might consider it for my Mum, but I'm in a bit of a rush doing the Coles run today—how much are you asking for it?

Owner: $75.95.

Sarah: Seventy-six dollars! I slide the heavy book back across the counter. That's a bit to much sanyway the kids are waiting out in the car, so I'll give it a miss today.

Owner: We have a cheaper one, it's old but I will tell you what it does not change that much, it's $20.00.

Sarah: I glance at the cheaper copy you pull out. Twenty dollars is much more reasonable for a classic that hasn't changed in a few thousand years, I suppose—does it have decent print size, or is it one of those tiny pocket editions?

Owner: It's only one size.

Sarah: I pick up the twenty-dollar copy to have a quick look. Is it a nice hardback or just a standard paperback? If the print is decent, I might just grab it for his birthday next month.

Seems like Sarah is not going to buy it.

What the Exercise Reveals

The goal is not to predict exactly what a real person will do. The value comes from revealing assumptions you may not have noticed. For example, you might discover:

A product has a good purpose, but the price is too high.
Your explanation focuses on a benefit customers don't care about.
A smaller or cheaper version may have broader appeal.
A product needs a better display or sign to explain what it does.
An add-on item, such as markers included with a fridge planner, could boost sales.

What Are the Next Steps for Trying This Yourself?

Start small and stay consistent to build a useful habit. Follow these steps to run your first AI role-play test:

Pick one product you're considering stocking or are already unsure about.
Choose or build a customer persona that matches your actual shopper base.
Copy the prompt template above and fill in your shop and persona details.
Run the conversation and introduce the product exactly as you would in person.
Note any price resistance, objections, or missed benefits that come up.
Check the insight against your point-of-sale system reports once the product is in-store.

This type of AI role-playing extends well beyond retail, too. It can help you prepare for a bank meeting, a health inspection, a supplier discussion, a staff conversation, or a difficult customer question.

Conclusion

Give AI Role-Play a Try Before Your Next Order. Any AI should be able to handle it currently. I think Facebook's Meta AI is both good and free to use, worth looking into now. Try it.

AI role-playing won't replace real conversations with real customers or hard sales data from your point-of-sale system. But it gives you a fast, low-cost way to stress-test a product idea, spot pricing problems, and rethink your pitch before you spend a dollar on stock. Give it a try with one product you're considering — create a believable customer, introduce the item, and see where the conversation goes. You might be surprised by what it makes you think about.

I find such exercises very useful. I used it in business recently to prepare for a bank meeting and another one with a health inspector.

If you try it, I think you will find this type of roleplaying useful too.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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The Surcharge Ban Is a Kick in the Guts — And I Think the RBA Knows It

POS SOFTWARE

RBA surcharge ban

Debit Surcharge Ban

Retail banking

We're already absorbing rising rent, wages, and supplier costs, and now you will soon add new card processing fees. From 1 October 2026, the surcharge disappears, and despite what the RBA said, I don't think the banks will eat the difference.

Key Takeaways

The surcharge ban removes your ability to pass card acceptance costs to customers at the till from 1 October 2026.
Reduced interchange fees are meant to offset retailer losses.
Banks are already adding new fees elsewhere.
Rewards programs are shrinking.
AMEX and other uncapped cards were left out of the RBA's review, yet many providers will stop you from surcharging on them in their system.
Retailers could absorb fees as high as 2% with no way to claw that back at the register.
Price-controlled products like Lotto put retailers in an impossible squeeze, since the price isn't theirs to change.
Acting now is premature; the real numbers won't show up until your October and November merchant statements land.

What Is the Card Surcharge Ban?

The surcharge ban is a rule change stopping retailers from adding a fee when a customer pays by card, regardless of transaction size. Before this, a $4.50 coffee or a $12 lunch could carry a small surcharge that covered what the bank charged the retailer for accepting that card. The RBA calls this "removing an inefficient cost" and a "consumer win." I call it removing transparent cost recovery and ensuring no one notices where that cost goes instead.

Labor's election policy was narrower: ban surcharging on debit cards only. That part made sense to me as most people pay by debit now, so pricing should reflect the payment type most customers actually use. But the RBA didn't stop there. It extended the ban to credit cards too.

Why Does This Matter for Retailers?

This matters because the RBA's promised savings are theoretical. Currently, they are talk. The RBA claims retailers will save $910 million a year once interchange fees drop. I don't believe that, but I am prepared to accept it if I see it reflected in my own processing costs, not before. Let us see what shows up on your merchant statement too.

I expect providers will modify their fee structures to claw back margin. I've already seen one supplier add a standalone "security fee". Conveniently, the security fee was included in the interchange fee. Now I see they have stripped that cost from interchange and made it its own fee. Tell me, do you think your bank fees will move down? From what I see, every major bank has announced changes effective 1 October 2026; from the list, little is down, and I think a fair chunk of those changes exist to recover exactly what the RBA estimates they'll lose.

What's Happening to Rewards Programs?

Here too, the card rewards are shrinking as issuers adjust for lower interchange income, and I've felt this personally. My own rewards program cut back significantly, and the change that stung most: I can no longer convert points into Coles Gift Cards. That was one of the few ways to turn points into something close to cash that my family could use.

Why Did AMEX Get Left Out — And Does It Even Matter?

The RBA's interchange review didn't cover AMEX and other overseas-scheme cards, so they remain technically uncapped. For some reason, the RBA didn't touch them. Yet plenty of credit and debit providers will stop surcharging on these cards anyway in their system. If you want to surcharge on these items, you need to do it yourself. Our POS system lets you do that.

How Will This Change Customer Payment Behaviour?

Retailers will now be forced to absorb fees as high as 2%.

Now I predict a measurable shift toward credit cards, away from debit and cash. Why wouldn't customers switch? No surcharge, up to 55 days interest-free, better chargeback protection, I get some free repairs too in some cases, and better rewards points. The thing that used to push many people to debit, the surcharge, is gone. I'd go further: I think many cardholders will upgrade from regular to premium credit cards specifically to chase better rewards, now that there's no price penalty.

I suggest that you watch your POS End of Day reports over the next few months to see if your debit card share drops and your credit share climbs.

What Should You Do Before October?

Little, I wouldn't act in a rush now. There's nothing to gain by guessing now, as it's too early to make good decisions. Plenty of retailers are already raising shelf prices in anticipation. The cafe near me that I like has already increased its prices.

One issue concerns me the most: Many products like Lotto, where retailers don't control the price. You can't raise a lottery ticket price to cover a higher card cost, so any margin hit there comes straight out of your fixed commission. If you are in Lotto, I would ask them about that.

My advice: wait till October. Let your first couple of merchant statements come through under the new rules, then work from actual numbers instead of dubious RBA projections or bank press releases.

Conclusion

The surcharge ban sounds like a consumer win on paper, but for retailers, it's a cost shift dressed up as reform. Keep an eye on your merchant statements, watch how your payment mix moves, and don't rush shelf-price decisions before you've got real data in hand.

For a rundown of specific bank changes, ahead of the October ban, click here:
Details of credit and Debit card overhaul ahead of October surcharge ban

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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Look at Australian Men's Grooming Products for your shop

POS SOFTWARE

Marketing

Profit margin analysis

Import costs

When I went to Europe, what struck me was how many shops similar to my clients were stocking men's grooming products. Which brings up the obvious question: why not here?

Key Takeaways

The Australian men's grooming market was valued at AUD $800 million in 2025 and was growing at 8 percent.
Margins are good
You can start with a small counter display for a few hundred dollars.
Please use your POS System to automatically track sell-through, margins, bundles, etc
It's a great category for Father's Day, Birthdays, Christmas, etc.

How Do You Find Products That Actually Sell?

You don't need to guess. Start with what is already proven to sell in Australia.

The first point to note is that the market has two main categories: mass and premium. The problem with mass is that sales are good, but because they're low-value, you don't make much. Consider 50% of AUD $7.00 on a mass product vs. 50% of AUD $40.00 on a premium item.

Go to local shops in your area that sell these products. Look at what they display prominently at the counter and on the shelves. What you are looking for is their movers. See if they are the sort of product you would be comfortable selling, and if so, make a list of the types of products they are. Use your camera to take pictures.

Now, when you go back, check Amazon Australia Best Sellers in Men's Grooming. If it is a top seller, it will probably be listed there.

Then ask your wholesalers what they recommend.

Now check AliExpress trending. Search for products like shaving brush, safety razor and sort by orders. Products with 1,000+ orders have proven demand.

Where Do You Source the Products?

You have two paths, and most smart retailers use both.

1. AliExpress for low-cost entry and hardware

AliExpress is suitable for testing with small quantities and a low outlay. For example, a shaver might cost AUD 6.50 plus AUD 3.00 freight.

To get your true landed cost in AUD, you must add banking fees, GST, freight, and other charges.

AUD $6.50 product + AUD $3.00 freight + AUD $0.95 GST = AUD $10.45 landed. If, say, you can sell it at AUD $38 EX, you make AUD $27.55.

2. Australian wholesalers and brands for compliance and speed

Warning: chemicals have rules. You can safely import razors, brushes, bowls and stands from AliExpress. Chemical products such as cosmetic creams, oils, sunscreen, etc are different. Please be very careful when importing these items. All cosmetics sold in Australia must include an English ingredient list, your business name and address, and comply with AICIS rules. With sunscreen oil, you need a TGA listing to claim SPF 50+.I suggest that, unless you know what you are doing here, you avoid these products.

Also check labelling. Some small exporters print in Chinglish, a Chinese-influenced English. It looks terrible on a product and kills trust. Australians will take US or English spelling, but Chinglish no. Chinglish broadcasts a bad product.

How Should You Market Men's Grooming Products?

I recommend the front counter. Once you get a feel for the product, move it to an appropriate position. Use your POS system to monitor sales and profit in AUD by tracking sell-through, margin, bundles, reorders and customer repeat purchases in real time.

How Should You Display It?

Initially, put it at the front counter. We are experimenting, and you need to see how the product will sell. Once you get a grip on the product, move it to a more permanent position.

See how you go!

How Does Your POS System Track Sales and Profit in AUD?

Your POS System will tell you how good a product is. I would suggest creating a separate department in your Point of Sale (POS) system called "Men's Grooming." Put every new grooming item there. That way, you can run a report for sell-through, AUD margin, bundle performance and reorder points without mixing it with your existing categories.

What Is the Future for Australian Retailers Who Add Men's Grooming in October 2026?

The future for Australian retailers who add men's grooming in October 2026 is expected to go up. It looks good, with a market growing at over 8%. These are a great gift line. Start small and see where it takes you.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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End-of-Day POS Reconciliation: A Checklist for Retailers

POS SOFTWARE

Point of sale management

retail cash management

End-of-Day POS Reconciliation
End‑of‑day reconciliation is the process of comparing what your POS says happened (sales, refunds, payouts, payments) with what actually happened in your till, EFTPOS batches and bank deposits. It must be a daily habit in business, and it is critical, as you're dealing with high transaction volumes, mixed payment types, and a wide product range. Implementing a disciplined end‑of‑day POS routine is essential for a retailer to tighten cash control, catch errors early, and turn daily sales data into better decisions.

The goal of end‑of‑day

The objective is not just "balancing the cash drawer"; it's to confirm that:

POS totals by payment type equal your physical cash and EFTPOS/card batches for the trading day.
Non‑sales movements (refunds, payouts, debt collection, supplier cash payments) are properly recorded and explained.
Key sales, stock and customer patterns are captured so you can refine rostering, stock and merchandising.

When this is done well, your accounts, tax records and management reports all line up, and discrepancies are small, documented and understandable.

Daily end‑of‑day checklist

Run your close in the same order every time. A typical 10–15 minute routine looks like this:

Close the trading period in the POS
- Confirm today's date, store and registers.
- Ensure there are no open sales, parked transactions or draft invoices that belong to today.
Generate and print key reports
- End‑of‑day summary (Z‑report/closing report) with totals by payment type.
- Customer, product, hourly, payment type and register breakups (see next section).
- Refunds, voids and discount/price‑change reports.
Print and file these; keep paper copies, as they are the best proof for ATO audits.
Count and reconcile each cash drawer
- Take each drawer to a quiet area, count by denomination, and record the total on a cash count sheet.
- Separate the opening float from the day's takings.
Reconcile EFTPOS and card payments
- Close the batch on each EFTPOS/card terminal and print the batch totals.
- Match these against POS card totals for the same period.
Review non‑sales money movements
- Confirm payouts, cash supplier payments, refunds and other withdrawals are recorded and supported by receipts.
Investigate and document variances
- Record any differences between POS and physical/batch totals, note the date, the reason if known, and have a supervisor/owner sign off. In many cases, this evidence has proven invaluable.
Secure cash, back up and lock up
- Prepare the bank deposit, reset floats for tomorrow, secure cash in the safe, and ensure the POS has synced/backed up the day's data.

The essential reports to run

Your POS can provide much more than a single closing total. At end‑of‑day, focus on these views:

Customer breakdown

Analyse customer transactions to understand basket size, repeat visits and key segments. For a Dingley Village newsagency, this helps you see how family shoppers, commuters and "quick lotto and milk" customers behave across the week.

Product/dissection breakup

Review sales by product category to spot top‑performing items and slow movers: magazines, books, cards, gift lines, stationery, lotteries and add‑on items. While it's fresh in your mind, a spike of anything can be very enlightening.

Hourly breakup

Hourly sales let you see trading peaks and quiet periods across the day.

Payment type breakup

Tracking sales by cash, EFTPOS, credit card, gift voucher and other tenders makes reconciliation faster and highlights shifts in customer behaviour. For example, sustained growth in card/contactless usage may justify changing your EFTPOS plan, while cash‑heavy periods might call for more frequent cash drops to the safe.

Register breakup

If you run more than one till, check which register or cashier has problems. Many people do it several times a day. Separate closes per register reduce cash mixing and make it easier to identify where variances are coming from.

Optional graphs

Graph views are useful while you're still learning patterns, but experienced retailers often revert to tabular reports for speed and clarity. Use graphs when explaining trends to staff or in management meetings.

Cash reconciliation: the simple formula

For each drawer, use this formula:

Opening float
Plus: cash sales
Minus: cash refunds
Minus: cash payouts/withdrawals

Equals: expected drawer total.

Compare this expected total to your counted cash. Record the difference (over or short) every day, even if it's small. Consistent small variances often reveal training issues or chronic process errors.

EFTPOS and card reconciliation

Card payments don't live in the till; they live in terminals, processor batches and bank deposits. At end‑of‑day:

Run the batch/settlement report on each terminal and note the total card sales and refunds.
Match this against the POS card total for the same period; they should agree.
If integrated EFTPOS is used, confirm the POS shows the batch as settled and note any failures before you leave.

Later (often the next day), match processor net deposits to your bank statement, taking fees into account. Doing a clean daily match POS → batch totals makes weekly and monthly reconciliation much easier.

Handling discrepancies and variances

Your article already emphasised "Investigate discrepancies immediately"; turn that into a small policy:

Set a threshold: e.g. variances under a few dollars are logged and monitored; above that, they trigger recounts and manager review. In my experience, any variance is worth chasing.
Document every variance: amount, drawer/register, cashier, probable cause (incorrect change, missed payout entry, EFTPOS error, etc.). Staple these notes to the printed closing report or attach them to the digital record.
Escalate material differences ASAP, not weeks later when memories have faded.

This habit protects you if there's ever an ATO enquiry, insurance claim or internal investigation.

Inventory and exception review

End‑of‑day is also the right moment to review "exceptions" – things that distort margin and stock numbers:

Refunds and returns, especially for higher‑value books and gift lines.
Voided sales or deleted transactions, checking for patterns around particular staff or categories.
Manual discounts and price overrides, which can signal pricing errors or misuse.

For magazines, books and cards, spot‑checking top sellers and frequently refunded items helps you catch mis‑priced lines, missing barcodes or shrink quickly, rather than discovering them at stocktake time.

Roles, sign‑off and multiple registers

To avoid "everyone thought someone else did it", always define roles clearly:

Cashiers count and record their own drawers using a standard cash count sheet.
A supervisor/owner reviews the reconciliation, variances and reports, then signs off.
Each register is closed separately, with its own report and cash count; cash is not mixed between tills before counting.

This creates a clear chain of custody for cash and closing reports, which is useful for both trust and external audits.

Security, cash handling and backups

A good close ends with clean numbers and secure assets:

Separate tomorrow's float from today's takings.
Prepare the bank deposit (cash and coins).
Please never leave significant cash in the tills overnight.
Confirm that your POS has synced with the cloud, or that backups/exported reports have finished successfully, before shutting down systems.

Using your end‑of‑day data strategically

Once the mechanics are solid, use your daily reports to drive decisions:

Hourly and customer breakdowns inform rostering and staffing
Product/category breakups show which magazine ranges, kids' books, cards and gift lines deserve more space, better placement, or promotional focus – and which lines should be marked down or retired.
Payment type trends help you negotiate EFTPOS fees, plan cash handling procedures and decide whether to introduce new payment options.

This is where end‑of‑day stops being "admin" and becomes a daily management tool.

Updated FAQ

How long should end‑of‑day take?

With a well‑set‑up POS and a disciplined routine, most small retailers can complete end‑of‑day in 10–15 minutes. It can blow out if variances are large, reports aren't configured, or staff skip steps during the day.

Can I automate end‑of‑day?

You can automate parts of the process – exporting sales data, emailing reports, even pre‑filling reconciliation sheets – and this often saves time. However, a daily human review of cash, card batches, refunds, and exceptions is essential; the closer you are to the event, the easier it is to investigate and resolve issues properly.

How often should I perform these procedures?

At least once every trading day. Delaying end‑of‑day reconciliation makes discrepancies harder to trace and increases the risk of compounding errors in your accounts and tax records.

What if my cash drawer doesn't balance?

Treat every variance as a signal:

Recount the drawer, verify the float, and check that all payouts/refunds are recorded.
Review the POS cash report and receipts for any obvious mistyped amounts or missed entries.
Document the variance and reason; investigate recurring patterns across days or staff.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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AI Reporting vs POS Reports: Why AI Retail Analysis Feels So Hard

POS SOFTWARE

AI POS System

Reports

Stress working on AI

You are almost certainly used to your POS reports being "fire and forget." You press a button, get one neat report, and move on with your day.

Yet, when you switch to AI reporting on your POS sales data, you will notice something different: it suddenly feels much heavier. Every answer creates three more questions. The hidden culprit? AI reporting introduces a massive, unacknowledged mental load.

Key Takeaways for Retailers

AI is interactive: AI reporting demands continuous decisions and prompts.
Beware of decision fatigue: nonstop complex questioning will hurt your judgment and lead to mental exhaustion (decision fatigue).
AI insights are theories, not facts: What makes it especially exhausting is that they often sound plausible yet are wrong.
Use the 50-minute rule: Keep AI analysis sessions to about 50 minutes, then take a break.
Always interrogate the AI: Build a habit of asking it to show its numbers and reasoning step by step.
Your existing POS reports are your ground truth: They are more reliable for raw facts. Always refer to them.

What Is AI Reporting for POS Systems?

AI reporting for POS systems uses AI tools to interpret your business information, such as sales, margins, basket sizes, and category performance, through queries.

Unlike your existing POS report, which gives you a snapshot, AI reporting lets you ask questions about your business data.

For example, instead of pulling a standard "Top 100 Items" report, you might ask, "What patterns do you see in these top items over the last six weeks?" You can then refine your query by day, promotion, or weather as the conversation unfolds with the AI.

Why Does AI Reporting Matter for Retailers?

AI reporting matters because it can reveal what your standard POS reports never show, such as subtle cannibalisation between product lines or emerging trends.

For example, your standard POS report might show that a "Stocktake promo" was a massive success because total revenue went up. But an AI analysis might point out a hidden problem: the heavy discounting on some items. Total revenue was up, but you were working for nothing on many items.

How Does AI Reporting Increase Mental Load?

First, unlike your existing POS reports, AI produces errors. You always need to be aware that what it is telling you might be wrong. In fact, it is often wrong. This is the major problem, made worse because AI often sounds incredibly confident and may look plausible, yet it can be wrong, misleading, or entirely fabricated.

Consider this hallucination: Your AI might confidently tell you, "Sales of umbrellas spiked 400% in July due to the rain." It sounds perfectly logical. But if you check your actual POS data, you might see no umbrellas were sold. I have seen it.

The second issue is decision fatigue. You drive the conversation, ask the questions, and decide where it goes. After a while, making non-stop complex decisions gets exhausting. You can quickly reach a point of cognitive depletion. Once there, you lose attention and make costly errors.

The tension increases dramatically if you are doing the task for a stressful situation eg taxation, legal, etc

The 50-Minute AI Retail Routine

Don't just chat with your AI aimlessly. Time your AI session to prevent burnout. Here is the routine:

Minutes 0–10 (The Baseline): Start by looking at your existing POS reports. Study it before giving the info to the AI. Make sure you know your subject.
Minutes 10–30 (The Exploration): Ask the AI for ideas and patterns. Ask away for 20 minutes.
Minutes 30–45 (The Interrogation): This is where you fight hallucinations. Ask the AI to prove its comments.
Minutes 45–50 (The Action Plan): Summarise the session. Write down at least one idea you got.
Minute 51: STOP. Walk the shop, fill the shelves, tidy up, or, probably better, chat with a customer.

Have a break.

The Bottom Line: AI is the Analyst; You are the Customer

AI reporting isn't here to replace your traditional POS reports; it's here to ask the questions.

What's the most surprising insight an AI has found in your retail data? Or what was its most hilarious "hallucination"? Let us know in the comments below!

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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How to sort of determine the Age of Your Computer

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POS SOFTWARE

Computer

Scammed buying a computer

Over the past year, I've never seen so many people fooled into buying old computers. It's so easy now to pass off an old computer as "almost new". If you're not buying from a trusted, reputable seller, I'd strongly suggest you exercise extreme caution. The photos and description might look fine, but the hardware inside can be a Frankenstein of mismatched parts. In this article, I'll walk you through a set of simple checks to verify a computer's true age and avoid paying new-machine prices for old stock.

Recently, a client brought in a computer that was supposedly "almost new", yet it turned out to be quite old. As such, I revised and completely rewrote my article to reflect current conditions.

In this article, I'll show you how to protect your investment and avoid getting scammed when buying a computer, using practical verification techniques your staff can follow. I always recommend buying only from reputable vendors; this includes many smaller operators, not just the big box chains.

The Importance of Accurate Age Verification

Outdated systems sold as "new" can cause serious problems in a retail or POS environment:

Performance issues that slow down day-to-day operations.
Compatibility problems with modern POS and business software.
Increased security risk as older hardware and OS versions lose support.

As a rough guide:

A genuinely new system typically provides about 3–5 years of reliable service.
A two-year-old computer might deliver 1–3 years of useful life.
A three-year-old box probably has around a year left before replacement becomes sensible.

Older systems usually cost more to repair, and performance degradation directly affects transaction speed and customer experience.

The Bigger Picture

Age is important, but it's not the only factor when you're upgrading or buying systems for your POS setup. You should also weigh:

System reliability and uptime.
Compatibility with your chosen POS and business software.
Vendor support and warranty options.
Overall performance for your specific retail workload.

A slightly older but well-maintained machine that's fit for purpose can easily outperform a brand-new system that isn't properly configured for retail.

Using Age Information in Business Decisions

A practical way to treat systems is:

New (0–2 years): Suitable for primary POS and other critical roles.
Middle-aged (3–5 years): Acceptable if health checks (drives, fans, power supplies) are good; start planning for replacement.
Ageing (5+ years): Better reserved for non-critical tasks, test machines, or temporary use; risk of failure and security issues rises.

Most businesses depreciate computers over about five years, after which they often have no book value even if still in use. Age checks help you decide which machines to retire first, which to keep, and where to spend limited capital in a POS environment.

Serial Number: Your First Line of Defence

Armed with the hardware serial number, you can often get manufacturer information from the vendor, making it the most reliable indicator of age.

To locate the serial number:

Check the back or side of desktop cases.
Look under laptops or on the stand/underside of all-in-ones.
Inspect the battery compartment on older notebooks.

These stickers are usually designed to be tamper-evident:

Special adhesives tear or show a "VOID" pattern if peeled.
Fonts, layouts, and barcodes are difficult to reproduce accurately.
Misaligned, bubbled, or poorly stuck labels are red flags.

On Windows, you can also try reading the serial from the firmware.

Command Prompt:

wmic bios get serialnumber

If that doesn't help, as this example below shows, try:

wmic baseboard get product, Manufacturer, version,serialnumber

If the manufacturer stored a serial in firmware, it will appear here. Unfortunately, many boards don't have this field and show us "Default string". So there is no serial in the BIOS. If so, you must rely on physical labels.

Using Manufacturer Warranty Lockups

Most major OEMs provide support portals where you can enter a serial and see:

The ship date
Warranty start date.
Current warranty status (in warranty, expired, etc.).
Sometimes an estimated purchase date
Configuration details.

Typical examples:

Dell: search for "Dell warranty lookup" and enter the Service Tag.
HP: use "HP support warranty check".
Lenovo: search "Lenovo warranty lookup" and enter the serial.

The warranty start, or ship date, is often the closest thing to a documented "age of the device" and is very strong evidence if you need to argue that a "new" machine is actually used or old stock.

If a seller claims a PC is new but the warranty shows a ship date from years ago, consider it a warning. The seller might not be lying. The computer might have sat in their warehouse for years. But really it's still an old computer. This can happen even with reputable sellers.

BIOS Date

Another useful check is the BIOS (firmware) date.

Windows, check this in the System Information:

Press the Windows key, type System Information or msinfo32, and press Enter.
In System Summary, look for BIOS Version/Date.

This date tells you when that BIOS build was produced or last updated.

A few caveats:

The BIOS may have been updated before sale, so a very recent BIOS date doesn't always mean the hardware is new.
If the BIOS has never been updated, the date gives a reasonable upper bound on when the motherboard was made.

I often use the BIOS date as one of the main clues to when the system was assembled.

Useful Windows Commands to Check Age

Alongside the GUI tools, a few simple commands provide extra detail.

In Command Prompt:

systeminfo

Scroll the output and note:

The Windows install date (if present).
The BIOS version and other system information.

Then you can run:

wmic bios get releasedate

These commands pull the same information as System Information but are handy for quick checks.

Windows itself records when it was installed, which can be helpful—but must be interpreted carefully.

Windows Installation: A Clue, Not a Guarantee

In Windows:

Open Settings (Windows key + I).
Go to System → About.
Scroll down to see the Windows edition and installation date.

This tells you when the current OS installation was set up or upgraded from a previous version.

Still, it's reasonable to assume the computer is at least as old as the installation date and will not be younger than that date.

Windows 11: Where to Find These Details

These checks work the same on Windows 10 and 11, but the menus look slightly different.

On Windows 11 specifically:

Device and OS info: Settings → System → About.
Detailed hardware info: press the Windows key, type System Information or msinfo32, and open it.

For common POS form factors:

All-in-ones: serial stickers are often on the stand or the back panel.
Small form-factor / mini-PCs: check the sides, underside, or the area near the rear I/O.
Laptops: sticker is usually on the underside; some have it under removable covers.

The commands and tools discussed here are all available on Windows 11; you reach them through the newer Settings UI.

Check the Hard Drive

Age is only one factor; it's also about how hard the machine has been worked. For example, my own computer's drive is not old, but it has certainly had a hard life.

The drive is often the most critical component to inspect. An old, heavily used drive is real trouble in a computer, particularly if it runs intensive software like a POS system. Drive failure can lead to downtime, data loss, and transaction issues.

To get meaningful drive health data, you'll need a free third-party tool. I find CrystalDiskInfo good, though there are others.

Steps:

Download and install CrystalDiskInfo.
Run it; it will automatically scan your drives.
Look at the health status and detailed information, especially Power-On Hours.

SSD and NVMe Drives: Special Considerations

Many modern POS systems ship with SSDs or NVMe drives instead of traditional spinning disks. Most old computers I see have been upgraded to these drives because they are much faster.

For these drives:

Overall Health Status ("Good", "Caution") is important.
SMART attributes like Reallocated Sectors, Wear Levelling Count, and Total Host Writes tell you about wear.
It's normal for a two-year-old business SSD to show thousands of power-on hours yet still be healthy.

Watch out for:

"Caution" or "Bad" health status in CrystalDiskInfo.
Very high write counts relative to age, which can indicate heavy usage.

If the PC itself appears several years old but the SSD reports very low hours, the drive was probably replaced. That's usually a good sign (new drive), but it's another piece of the age puzzle.

Interpreting Power-On Hours

Power-On Hours help you move beyond calendar age and understand the machine's real usage history.

Suppose a seller claims the laptop is two years old. For a typical business system, you might expect roughly:

2 years × 250 work days × 8 hours ≈ 4,000 hours

A few scenarios:

New drive: only ~50 hours recorded.
Likely indicates a recent drive replacement, which is positive.
High hours with "lightly used" claim: e.g. 15,000+ hours.
Suggests the machine has seen heavy use and the story doesn't add up.
Consistent story: drive shows ~4,000 hours for a claimed two-year-old laptop.
The numbers fit and support the seller's description.

By comparing Power-On Hours with CPU release date, BIOS date, and Windows install date, you can build a much clearer picture of the machine's true history.

Spotting Refurbished or Tampered Systems

Because parts can be swapped and stickers moved, you must be alert to signs of refurbishment or tampering—especially when buying "almost-new" systems on eBay or, even worse, on Facebook Marketplace, where everyone seems to demand cash.

Red flags include:

Conflicting indicators: Very old BIOS date, very new drive, and a mid-range Windows install date that doesn't match the seller's story.
Physical signs of opening: Tool marks on screws, mismatched screws, or distorted plastic clips.
Label issues: This is a clear sign that something is wrong; check that the stickers are not misaligned, damaged or tampered with. If they are, I would treat the system as used or refurbished and negotiate accordingly.

Component Inspection: Devil in the Details

If you have the technical skills to open the case safely, inspecting components can reveal a lot.

Inside, you may find:

Stickers and printings with manufacturing dates on the motherboard, power supply, and drives.
Mixed-age components, which suggest upgrades or replacements over time.

Bear in mind:

Components can be swapped with older parts to build a machine from "whatever was lying around".
A single old part doesn't automatically make the system bad, but it's another factor in your evaluation.

Use component inspection alongside the other methods, not in isolation.

Practical Workflow: Verifying a Computer's Age

To make this easy for staff, here is a simple workflow to follow when assessing a PC before purchase or deployment:

Find the physical serial number and labels
Check case, underside, stand, or battery bay for tamper-evident stickers.
Try BIOS/WMI serial (if supported)
If you see a valid serial, use it.
Use manufacturer warranty portals (OEM systems)
Enter the serial/service tag on Dell/HP/Lenovo warranty pages to see ship and warranty start dates.
Check BIOS Version/Date
Use msinfo32 or systeminfo to read the BIOS date and treat it as an approximate hardware age, with the caveat that firmware may have been updated.
Identify CPU model and release year
Look up the processor on the vendor's site (Intel/AMD) and note the launch year; the PC cannot be older than its newest major component.
Read Windows installation date
Check Settings → System → About for the installation date and treat it as "not younger than" the system age.
Inspect drive health and Power-On Hours
Use CrystalDiskInfo to read hours and SMART status; compare against the claimed age and usage.
Combine the evidence and decide
If dates and usage line up with the seller's story, you likely have a fair deal.
If indicators conflict or show heavy wear, reconsider the purchase or renegotiate.

This workflow turns multiple technical checks into a repeatable process your staff can follow with minimal training.

Summing Up

It's never easy to determine a computer's exact age, and at best these methods give you a strong estimate.

Remember:

Age alone doesn't fully predict performance or lifespan.
A well-maintained older system can run perfectly for years.
Many new machines are lemons.

Using the techniques above; serial numbers, warranty lookup, BIOS date, CPU release year, Windows install date, and drive Power-On Hours; you can greatly reduce the risk of buying outdated or misrepresented hardware, especially for critical POS operations.

Please be careful.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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Integrating video surveillance and the POS system

POS SOFTWARE

Security

Cash Registers

Video

Integrating video surveillance into your POS system

Integrating your video surveillance with the POS system makes a lot of sense. This example shows a skimmer being installed by some shop thieves. Your staff may not be involved in the fraud at the point of sale. This fraud took three (3) seconds. Nothing would show here on the computer if the cameras had never been installed on the tills; it would never have been found.

It took three seconds. On the footage, a thief leans over the till, slips a skimmer onto the terminal, and walks out of the shop. No alarm. No confrontation. If a camera hadn't been pointed at that till, nobody would ever have known it happened.

That clip says everything about why the point of sale is the most important place in your shop to put security cameras. The tills are where the cash is, and that's where most of the fraud happens. Which is exactly why integrating your video surveillance with the POS system makes so much sense.

Most fraud looks like a normal sale.

The skimmer case is an extreme example. Most POS fraud involves real transactions that are quietly manipulated. The classic pattern: a staff member's brother picks up a $30 book, and it gets rung up as a $5 remainder copy. The till balances, the paperwork looks fine, and the difference walks out the door.

With an integrated system, you have a video record of every transaction — the customer, the operator, the goods, and the cash. When the numbers don't add up, you're not left guessing.

Evidence that holds up

POS software alone tells you what happened in the system — not who did it, or how. That becomes a real problem the moment a dispute needs to be verified. Anyone who has dealt with these cases will recognise the lines you hear in court:

"The computer said I did it, but anyone could have done it."

"I gave you a $50, and you gave me change for a $20. Okay, the computer says $20, but I gave you a $50."

Video settles those arguments. It turns a system log into evidence.

Alerts, training, and deterrence

An integrated system doesn't just record — it flags. High-value sales, refunds, and other dubious transactions can trigger alerts, pointing you toward possible fraud before it becomes a pattern. And not everything you uncover will be fraud. Often, it's just common mistakes or misunderstandings that can be corrected with a little additional training.

Then there's the simplest benefit of all: just knowing the cameras are there has been shown to reduce theft in the first place.

Cameras alone aren't enough.

You may already have cameras over the tills. But if the video isn't integrated with the POS, every investigation means scrubbing through archived footage by date and time to find the transaction you need. It's slow, and it's a pain. Integration ties each transaction to its clip, so you go straight to the moment that matters.

Beyond the basics

Once your cameras are integrated, they can do more than record transactions. The same setup can support:

Facial recognition analytics to identify known individuals the moment they walk in.
People-counting analytics to make sure occupancy limits are never exceeded.
Demographic analysis to better understand who is shopping, and when.

The tills are where the cash is. Make sure they're also where the evidence is.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director of POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience, now retired and seeking new opportunities. He consults with various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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Stock Shrinkage from Stocktake to Action

POS SOFTWARE

Stock Control

Retail inventory

Stock shrinkage rate in retail

You already spend time and money counting the stock in your shop. Let's take a look at the real story behind your missing stock. I will show you how to calculate stock shrinkage and identify causes using your Point of Sale (POS) system. What we want is better control of profits.

Key Takeaways

Stock shrinkage value is the dollar difference between theoretical stock value and your actual stock you count.
Shrinkage rate is generally calculated by the stock shrinkage divided by book stock value.
Shrinkage is divided up into known values such as damage, expiry, and write-offs, while unknown shrinkage is the unexplained difference left over.
External shrinkage includes shoplifting and supplier shortages, and internal shrinkage includes process errors, incorrect pricing and staff actions.
Knowing the causes can help you do something about it.

What Is Stock Shrinkage?

Stock shrinkage is the difference between the stock value recorded in your system and the value you actually count on your shelves. It is the financial gap between what you should have and what you do have. For example, if your POS says you should have 100 units of a stock line, but your physical count finds only 92, the missing eight units are your stock shrinkage.

Since we have so many lines, the only useful ratio is the dollar value, so we measure:

Stock Shrinkage Rate = (Shrinkage Value) / (Book Stock Value) × 100%

So, for example, if you should have $100,000 at cost and your count finds $97,000, the $3,000 difference is your stock variance, which is $3,000 / $100,000 × 100% = 3%. In this example, on a 30 per cent gross margin, you need to sell $10,000 worth of extra goods to get back to where you should have been.

It also distorts your buying decisions, since the computer thinks you have more stock than you should have; it does not order enough. Over time, you will not trust your stock figures as that 3% adds up.

Let us Calculate Your Stock Shrinkage Rate?

Here is an easy two-step process:

Step 1: Calculate the stock shrinkage value

Book stock value: your POS reports before the stocktake have the book value. If your system, unlike our POS system, cannot give you this value, your accountant can tell you the figure. It's actually a fairly easy figure to calculate.

(Book Value) = (Book value last financial year) + (Stock purchases this year) − Sales × (1 − Average Margin)

Now the Physical stock value is what your POS System said after the stocktake.

Stock Shrinkage Value = (Book Stock Value) − (Physical Stock Value)

Step 2: Calculate the shrinkage rate

Shrinkage Rate = Stock Shrinkage Value ÷ Book Stock Value × 100

Simple Example:

Book stock at cost: $100,000
Physically counted stock at cost: $97,000
Stock shrinkage value (variance): $3,000
Shrinkage rate: $3,000 ÷ $100,000 × 100 = 3%

The business has identified a $3,000 stock variance. Now, further investigation is required to determine how much is attributable to theft, damage, receiving errors, unrecorded returns, or other causes.

What Does Stock Shrinkage Include?

Stock shrinkage includes a wide range of causes. You need to separate them. Generally, most retailers divide them into two main categories: external shrinkage and internal shrinkage.

External Shrinkage Examples

Shoplifting and opportunistic theft
Organised theft or "grab and run" incidents
Fraudulent or abusive returns
Supplier shortages or under-deliveries

Internal / Process Shrinkage Examples

Employee theft or unauthorised discounts
Receiving errors and incorrect quantities on deliveries
Wrong pricing and barcode mistakes
Incorrect stock adjustments in the POS
Unrecorded damage or expired stock
Misplaced goods within the store or back room
Unprocessed or partially processed customer returns

I find it helpful to separate known shrinkage from unknown shrinkage. Known shrinkage includes stock you have already written off in the system for damage, breakage, expiry or other approved reasons. Unknown shrinkage is the unexplained difference between your POS records and the physical count after accounting for all known movements.

For example, if your variance is $3,000 and you can see $1,200 of recorded damage and $300 of recorded expiry, the remaining $1,500 is your unknown shrinkage.

The more information you know, the better. For example, if staff leave damaged greeting cards in a drawer instead of recording them, they become unexplained shrinkage. When, in fact, they are a known problem. It should never have happened.

Departments

What I find very useful is to redo the calculation by department.

Generally, we find different departments have different problems.

Conclusion: Make Your Stocktake Work for You

Stock shrinkage is not just a number you give your accountant at the end of the year. Stock shrinkage is a powerful signal that your stock control, receiving, pricing or security needs attention. When you separate known and unknown shrinkage, recognise the special risks in newsagency departments, build a simple control framework and use your POS system to investigate.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director of POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience, now retired and seeking new opportunities. He consults with various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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How Fast is Your POS System and what to do about it?

POS SOFTWARE

Work Tips

Customer satisfaction

Customer experience

Cash register transaction speeds

We all have people in a hurry walking past our shop every day. Next, modern shoppers won't wait. "86% of consumers say they avoid stores if they perceive the queue to be too long, while 66% have abandoned their purchase because of long queues, with only 22% returning later to make the purchase." Many won't even join a queue if they see three people ahead.

Now, how fast should your Point of Sale (POS) system be? Here are six free ways to speed up processing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS BOX

Transaction speed is the total time from first scan to completed receipt.
Industry standard is 40 seconds per sale plus 3 seconds per item.
Queue abandonment is when customers walk out after a wait exceeds 5 minutes.
Real POS data from 20,000 sales shows 36 seconds is achievable.
Integrated EFTPOS is a payment terminal that receives totals automatically from the POS system.
Faster checkout is free speed gains from layout, scanning and receipts.

What is POS Transaction Speed in Retail?

First, transaction speed is the total checkout time from your first scan to handing the customer the receipt.

Moreover, it includes scanning, price lookup, discounts, EFTPOS processing, and receipt printing in a single workflow. For example, transaction speed covers like scanning three magazines and tapping in 50 seconds.

Additionally, fast checkout stops walk-aways. For example, fast checkout means you serve a time-poor shopper before she leaves for a faster shop.

Why Does Transaction Speed Matter for Small Retailers?

Transaction speed is the final factor that determines whether you keep the sale or lose it to a queue.

Moreover, slow queues cost real money.

Furthermore, if your queue is six people, there is an 80% chance someone will walk out. For example, that means six people in line at your newsagency equals one lost $28 book-and-card sale.

Additionally, more speed means less need for more staff.

Next, faster checkout also reduces stress.

How Fast Should Your POS System Be?

The industry standard for a POS system's speed is 40 seconds per transaction, plus 3 seconds per item. This gives you a clear benchmark to test against. For example, a sale with three items should take about 40 seconds, plus 9 seconds, for a total of 50 seconds.

This standard includes everything. It includes scanning three gifts, applying a card discount and EFTPOS speed.

Ideally, your figures should beat that standard. My client data show that our system performs better than 50 seconds; see the graph above for real-world speeds using our POS System. It comes from 20,000 cash register sales captured by one of our clients' POS Systems.

Our client's average sale time was 36 seconds. Now that is impressive! If you study the graph, you will see our client was doing much better than that in places, hitting 36 seconds. In a pinch, that means serving 90 customers per hour during a Saturday rush instead of 60.

Additionally, in terms of speed, we match anyone in the market. 36 seconds is achievable for a newsagency, gift shop, or small retail store.

How Does Queue Length Affect Walk-Aways?

First, queue abandonment is customers leaving when the line looks too long.

Moreover, the maths is simple and brutal. For example, if each sale takes 50 seconds, six people in the queue equals over 5 minutes' wait.

Remember, 5 minutes is the tipping point: only 80% of customers are willing to wait in line if it takes longer than 5 minutes; the odds are someone walks out. Additionally, you will find many shoppers won't even join. If they see three people, they walk past.

How Can You Speed Up Your POS System for Free?

Faster checkout is a set of low-cost changes to layout, hardware, and habits that shave seconds off checkout without buying a new system.

Moreover, you can fix speed today with what you have. For example, these six ideas come from my work with thousands of retailers.

1. Use Your Fastest Computers Upfront

First, computer placement is putting your fastest, newest computer on the busiest counter.

Faster front-end computers on your main till process faster.

2. Use Scanning More and Barcode More Items

Scanning! Manual keying in is too slow. Besides, scanning is faster and more accurate.

3. Consider Several Cash Drawers on One Computer

First, multiple cash drawers are running on one Point of Sale (POS) system computer.

Moreover, it improves security and speed in a pinch. For example, several drawers means you can have two staff working the tills from one fast computer.

4. Integrate Your EFTPOS

An integrated EFTPOS terminal automatically receives the sale total from your point-of-sale system.

Moreover, integration removes double handling. For example, integrated EFTPOS eliminates the need to type $52.90 into the terminal after entering it in the POS, only to type $529.00 by mistake.

5. Use Touchscreens at the Counter

Touchscreens let staff tap products and discounts instead of using a mouse. They are both more natural and faster.

Additionally, they shorten training time. Next, new staff learn faster with pictures than codes.

6. Switch to Email and SMS Receipts

Email receipts are digital receipts sent directly from your pos system rather than printed. For regulars in your VIP program, it can take 3-5 seconds per sale. It is also cheaper to produce.

7. Bonus tip: Use Tap and Go

It is not free, so it is included in your bonus tip. Tap and Go, although it costs, is faster.

What Should You Do Next to Measure Your Speed?

Measure your current transaction speed during your busiest period. Time at least ten sales. For example, time 10 sales from first scan to receipt during 4 pm-6 pm when foot traffic peaks past your shop.

Now compare to the industry standard. If you are over 40 seconds plus 3 seconds per item, you have a problem.

Conclusion: Why Does Faster Checkout Mean More Profit?

First, faster checkout is a profit-protection measure for Aussie retailers.

Moreover, most of us have people in a hurry walking past, and it is so easy to lose sales if you cannot process the transaction immediately. For example, you lose a $28 book-plus-card sale because your EFTPOS lagged by 10 seconds.

Furthermore, modern consumers do not wait, and many will not even join a queue. Therefore, the industry standard of 40 seconds plus 3 seconds per item is your baseline, and 36 seconds from real data is your achievable target.

Additionally, you now have six free and low-cost ideas that work today. Finally, use faster computers up front, scan more, use multiple drawers, integrate Tap and Go, use touchscreens, and switch to email and SMS receipts, and your Point of Sale (POS) system will let you serve more customers faster every hour.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director of POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience, now retired and seeking new opportunities. He consults with various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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Why Australian Retailers Must Have Modern Scanners Before 2028

POS SOFTWARE

Barcode

Barcode scanners

Retail barcode

Traditional barcodes are being phased out by 2028. Large Australian chains, such as supermarkets, pharmacy networks, and liquor stores, have announced they may reject stock shipments that lack a QR code. I expect that any supplier to these chains will soon drop standard barcodes for QR codes

Key Takeaways

Major Australian retailers are adopting a global 2028 industry deadline for QR codes.
Traditional laser barcode scanners are physically incapable of reading 2D symbols.
Modern imaging hardware protects your local point-of-sale system from technological obsolescence.
Advanced 2D codes automatically track exact expiration dates and manufacturing batches.
Upgraded scanning hardware minimises wrist strain and improves counter checkout speeds.
Newsagents must audit their current magazine scanners to prevent front-counter bottleneck issues.

What is the GS1 Sunrise Transition

The GS1 Sunrise transition is a coordinated global retail initiative that aims to replace traditional barcodes with QR codes by the year 2028. By the start of 2028, large Australian chains such as supermarkets, pharmacy networks, and liquor stores have announced they may reject stock shipments that lack a QR code. The primary driving force behind this massive change is that old-fashioned linear barcodes only encode a basic product number. In contrast, next-generation QR codes store thousands of pieces of information. This advanced information helps to solve critical supply chain tracking issues that barcodes cannot. For example, during the recent Greenlip Abalone scare, the immediate problem the authorities wanted to address was tracking the source of the biotoxin contamination. In trying to navigate this crisis, a store owner would discover that his Greenlip Abalone was a pretty broad category. Here, a QR barcode solves this tracking problem by embedding the exact location the product came from, the production date, the specific batch number, and the use-by date directly into the checkout code. With that information, we could configure the POS System to automatically block the sale of that item if the cashier tries to sell it.

As this is a worldwide transition, we expect many products from overseas, not just Australian-made ones, to be affected. For example, if you buy goods directly from China, you may find that some have a QR code but no barcode.

Other pluses of QR Codes

2D barcodes could prevent retail financial losses by assigning a digital serial number to each item. This means your POS software knows more history of every specific item in your shop. For example, if a shoplifter steals a high-value pen set from another shop and attempts to return it for a cash refund in your shop, the 2D code can help to verify whether you sold these items. This would allow us to block the fraudulent refund immediately.

Moreover, our field tests prove that image-based 2D scanners scan better. With a QR code, you do not need to align a barcode to get a good, meticulous read. Your cashiers will find it easier to work with.

We also found that these QR codes read better on heavily distorted, crinkled, or faded labels.

Does Your Shop Already Have a 2D-Capable Scanner?

Most of our clients who recently purchased scanners from us will likely already own 2D-capable scanners. This is because we have been aware of this for several years and have almost exclusively sold these scanners. The exception will be the scanners we sold for magazine handling; some of these, for obvious reasons, did not have QR codes. These dedicated magazine units are often older, low-cost laser models that lack the internal programming to read multi-dimensional QR patterns. We do not expect any problems with these scanners as long as they are used purely for processing publications.

Still, I do suggest you check your scanners. If you have a problem checking, please get in touch with us.

Conclusion: Don't Risk Technology Obsolescence at Your Counter

In conclusion, upgrading to a modern, 2D-capable POS System should not be treated as an optional retail luxury. We have a reasonable window of time to prepare before the 2028 roll-out. Buying an obsolete scanner today is a waste of money. For a little more, get a QR scanner.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director of POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience, now retired and seeking new opportunities. He consults with various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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Retail's Old Playbook Is Broken: How SMB retailers Can Win Today

POS SOFTWARE

Marketing

AI POS System

Customer satisfaction

SMB Retail Strategy

The browsing customer is gone. Here's what small retailers must build around instead. The traditional retail journey used to follow a predictable map. A customer had a need, went to a nearby shopping centre, spoke with a few knowledgeable salespeople, and made a purchase after some market research.

Today, Google, Facebook and AI have hollowed out this path.

The browsing phase, once the bread and butter of brick-and-mortar shops, has been largely replaced by a search query. Many shoppers, before going shopping, have researched. They have compared prices and read product advice on their phone. This is not a marginal shift. It is the removal of the sales stage that most physical shopfronts were built around.

Because search engines can instantly connect intent with inventory, the traditional reasons many customers walk into physical stores are shrinking.

Paradoxically, it allows stores to sell items they never carried. This is because they know that Google search will attract buyers.

However, this shift creates a unique challenge for SMB retailers who rely on selling everyday goods that customers already know well.

Redefining the SMB Value Proposition

Many independent retailers tell themselves their primary advantage is building a close, personal relationship with their customers. I am not so sure. Our current high retail staff turnover means many consumers rarely get to know your people in your shop.

Today, customer loyalty is driven by:

- Having the items.

-Pricing that feels fair.

-A frictionless, fast transaction.

What Screens Can't Replace

The internet excels at answering "What is the cheapest option?" and "Where can I buy this right now?"

However, it remains entirely blind to things requiring human observation, taste, smell, and physical judgment. Most of us have ordered an item online based on glowing reviews, only to open the box and realise it is completely useless for our specific needs. Just seeing the items might have cancelled the purchase.

This gap is where physical retail must thrive. SMB retailers must deliberately build their business models around that screen for what it can and what it cannot do:

Ambiguous Problem Solving

Expert advice on nuanced, non-standard customer dilemmas.

Immediate Evaluation

Allowing customers actually to see and handle the product.

Unsearchable Inventory

Having unique and unexpected items that a customer wouldn't think to type into a search box. This is important.

Speed

You can do the transaction now.

Trust

Earning credibility through consistent quality, fair pricing, and quick and easy processing of transactions.

The Four Realities of Modern Retail

To survive, independent retailers must navigate:

1. The Global Search Box

If a customer can fully specify exactly what they want in a search bar, you are no longer competing with the shop next door; you are competing with the entire internet. You cannot win a digital commodity fight using a nicer shopfront or a friendly smile.

2. Risk Reduction and Discovery

Successful modern retail focuses on reducing decision risk for the customer. Your shop must give them a reason to make the trip, either by validating a high-stakes purchase or exposing them to products they did not know existed.

3. Ruthless Inventory

Products need to be converted into sales fast enough to cover rent and wages. Retailers must be disciplined about tracking profit margins and clearing slow-moving stock. The old assumption that "eventually it will sell" kills cash flow.

4. Digital Visibility

If Google business profile, AI assistants, Facebook, local search maps, etc., do not know you, you effectively do not exist to many modern consumers. Digital visibility is the requirement to get many shoppers to your front door.

The Bottom Line

The old retail path relied on a captive, browsing customer. That customer is gone.

Today, many shoppers arrive at your doorstep fully informed, price-aware, and highly protective of their time.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director of POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience, now retired and seeking new opportunities. He consults with various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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Start with your scan rate

Is it the scanner or the barcode?

Fixing the scanner

Fixing the barcode

Bonus tip: pick a spot and stick to it

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Key Takeaways

Here Are Some Questions You Need to Answer

How Does Our Free OneDrive Cloud Backup Work?

What You Still Need to Watch With OneDrive

USB Drives for Backup

The Serious Drawbacks for Retail Backup

How Does Ransomware Target USB and Cloud Backups?

How Does the 3-2-1 Backup Rule Protect a Business?

Have Three Backups at All Times

Store Backups on Two Different Types of Storage

Keep One Copy Off-Site at All Times

Why Should You Run Regular Backup Test Drills?

What Does Australian Law Say About Backing Up Your Data?

Conclusion: Protect Your Shop Before Disaster Strikes

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Key Takeaways

The reality of old Computers

Does Your Shop Computer Lose Time or Refuse to Boot?

Does Your Computer Keep Restarting or Suddenly Shut Down?

Is Your Computer Making a Grinding or Clicking Noise?

Does the Computer Crash During Busy Tasks?

Why Does Retail Software Freeze or Crash at the Register?

When to Stop Repairing and Replace the Computer

Conclusion

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Key Takeaways

Why This Is the Worst Time to Lock In

The Contract Is a One-Way Street

The Free Terminal Isn't Free

What Happens When Your Business Changes

Zero EFTPOS EFTPOS

You Lose Your Growth Leverage

What to Insist On Instead

The Bottom Line

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Key takeaways

What is the merchant acquiring chatbot?

Why launch it as a chatbot?

What can you ask it?

How many providers sit behind the answers?

What you should have ready before you type

What's next

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Key Takeaways

What Is It?

Where It Matters

What Sources Are Included?

Employment and Fair Work

Consumer Rights and Pricing

Tax, Payments and Performance

WHS, First Aid and Well-being

Store Operations and Leasing

The Retail Intelligence Report

Make It Your Assistant

Useful POS Reports

Add Your Lease

Add Financial Documents

Protect Your Information

Ask Better Questions

Important Limits

Get a Copy

What to do?

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