Whenever I talk of loyalty marketing, I almost first hear the public is overwhelmed by the major loyalty programs! If so, why does nearly everyone else do it? Can they not count? For example, I went to a small car parts shop today and was told of their loyalty program. The same happened when I went to a homeware shop. The homeware shop was in a big shopping centre. You might think they do not need a loyalty program as the major loyalty program brings customers in the centre, but they were keen to sign me up too. They even offered a $10 discount to sign up on my first buy.

Loyalty marketing works. That is why retailers use it.

The most successful technique in loyalty marketing is *Birthday Marketing*.

It is so simple to do with our loyalty program. Put in the customer's birthday when entering them into the loyalty program. Although it is much better to use their actual birthday if they do not tell you, make it an anniversary date with their joining date. You can always correct it later if they point it out. Do not worry if it's the wrong date. It will work almost as well anyway. Once done, they enrol on your customer's birthday program. This will allow them to receive special offers and discounts on your products and services on their birthday.

Several years ago, when we did a calculation, we saw about 25% success with our clients in our clients. Here are some figures from  Experian which show a higher figure.

) People buy on birthdays

) Birthdays are all year round

To do Birthday marketing, you must send a simple 'Happy Birthday' message. It will be appreciated and read. Almost everybody reads these emails. To start, here is a simple email to send, which I am sure you can improve to your needs with little effort.

Happy Birthday Email

Happy birthday, <name of customer>

Thank you for being with us. We want to make your birthday as memorable as possible. To celebrate, we're are <something>.

We appreciate everything you do for us and hope you have a wonderful day and year!

Wishing you all the best,

The friendly crew at <your shop>

Set up here.

To combat shoplifting, which now is a plague, several large retailers in Australia are using facial recognition software. You can read about it here. It is used now to prevent theft and threatening situations. It identifies individuals of interest who have formerly been involved in high-security incidents.

Our POS software has an extensive video security system inside of it. So we can handle this and could integrate it if the information was released to our clients. Then our systems could warn the people in the shop if a known shoplifter or violent people entered the shop.

There would be privacy issues, but I'm afraid I have to disagree with Choice consumer data advocate Kate Bower that the system is "a completely inappropriate and unnecessary use of the technology". 

Please have a read the above article and make your mind up.

The computer industry wants to drop passwords, so they are adopting two-factor authentication. This is a popular security feature introduced to add another layer of security to your accounts. It means you need to have your mobile to access such things as emails.

Since I have a smart house, I had to use my mobile to access my TV when activated. So I turned it off, as have many people I know.

I think it sucks, but its supporters say it would suck more if my identity were stolen. Well, you make your mind up as it is your call currently.

The immediate problem is that many of you use our software to access your email directly. It saves a lot of time. It also allows their POS Software to do many functions automatically.

To keep it working, you need to activate the App password.

This will change depending on what you are using, but in Gmail, it works like this.

First, pick a long and complex password, and cut and paste it in at the marked yellow area above.

Save that.

Now go into options in your Point of Sale Software.

Now enter that long and challenging password where the yellow marker is shown below.

Save that, and the problem is solved.

I suggest that before you start this year's software you go through for instructions on running a stocktake.

This video will take you through the stocktake procedures in PosBrowser.

There is also a help document available in the software. On the Welcome page hit the Help button and open the Stocktake section.

I was reading a report by big commerce done for the ANZ bank. A few points struck me about how one of my typical clients could take on a major because they are local.

Here is a slide on this report.

This is a classic problem in retailing today, the last mile problem as much of the cost is to take the item from a shop or warehouse to the customer.

Now, what if the customer here wants an $8.50 item quickly. There is a cost to get it to them. Most majors will not be able to deliver at these prices to satisfy their customers and not in real-time. Yet many of my clients could do something at these prices. $5 to $10 delivery would give them a competitive advantage and access to 80% of the market.

To get it, all you need is a good website. Google, with its SEO, will give you a good showing because it stresses in its score, local people.

Then you have a crack at this market.

The reality of the current market for computer and POS equipment is that shortages are everywhere. We have inflation, and the Australian Dollar, over the past 12 months, is down to the US dollar. 

Bottom line, product availability is challenging, and prices look like they are going up. If you think of updating your computer system, now is a better time to buy than in six months.

Also, if you move now, you can claim a revised tax write-off, which opens up many options for businesses.

This allows businesses an immediate tax break, which can be quite cost-saving. It enables you to buy high-quality equipment that will benefit your bottom line for many years. 

You need to do it to move immediately. As even if the products are ordered and paid for but haven't arrived at your premises, you cannot claim the deduction.

For details on the EOFY sale, please click here.

Please, note I am not an accountant. The information in this article is not legal advice, nor is it intended to be used as a substitute for obtaining independent professional advice. That is what you pay them to do.

​Small receipts save paper, so most select the options to give a small receipt like this!

But is this wise? It does save paper and does give the customer what they want a record, but what about the shop? Have you noticed that the majors' receipts include shop offers, opening times etc.? They are not worried about the paper.

Would a larger receipt serve your shop better?

If you want something to think about this, check out this video.

Now let me know what you think?

Counting your stock is a significant task, but there is no alternative. To help make this task easier on you, we've compiled some steps about doing a stocktake.

1) A stocktake is not hard, but it can be mucked up if you are not careful. Take frequent backups while doing it. We can often fix many errors if we have these backups.

2 ) Schedule a quiet time. You do not need to halt retailer operations, but the fewer distractions, the better.

Doing a stocktake with customers asking questions and doing orders are very distracting. So try to discover a time that works for you and your workers that won't hurt your bottom line and reduce distractions.

3 ) Run over the steps required the update the help documents in posBrowser's help files as now available

Press F1 while in the register and check them out to get them.

There are four documents:

Stocktake = Standard stocktake doc using Posbrowser on its own to run the stock take.

Stocktake with a PTD = Stocktaking with the help of a PDT

Stocktake with the stock management system = Stocktaking using the mobile PDA browser program.

3rd Party Stocktake guide = A guide on how to upload stocktake data to and from another program.

4) Do a trial run first on a small, well-organised department to get a feel of how it works. You need to know what you are doing. If you need help, give us a call. It is not the time to learn how to do it when you have staff sitting uselessly while you are learning what to do. If possible, get an experienced staff member involved.

5) Make sure all the computers, PDTs and scanners you intend to use are in place and working. Now is an excellent time to test them. Make sure that portable units are charged. Familiarise yourself with how your equipment works.

A PDT is great as it can be moved around and probably save you one person in the team.

With a computer, each unit of stocktakes ought to be in teams of two-plus. People counting calling out the amount, and other records. I like laptops as they are easy to move around the shop.

6) Then take a walk around the shop, familiarising yourself with everything. In my experience, a well prepared and tidy shop will speed up your stocktake and make it much easier to do. Make sure the shelf labels are correct. That your stock is in the right area (especially look at the spots under counters in case something is hiding there). Review any problem items, e.g. damaged goods. You want the stock in its correct place in a logical order.

7) Put any laybys together.

8) If you have items on consignment, mark them.

9) Make holding areas where problem items discovered during the stocktake will be temporarily stored. Move the problem items into it now. Move any items waiting for dispatch or picked up in another holding area.

10) What works best is to divide your shop departments into discrete, measurable counting areas. You want each area to be a few hours of work.

Anyone that has been through a stocktake knows how draining it can be. Splitting the task into a few hours blocks ensures that your stocktakes get regular breaks. It also means that it is easy to do the stocktake over a few days. As it is at any one time only a small part of the shop is affected. This makes it easier not to shut down the shop and so turn away customers.

11) It saves time if you get a listing of the expected stock in each area out of your computer. While the person is counting, they know what to expect. It also allows instant reviews as you can say "You sure mate, it is only four? According to the computer, there is another one there." Many do not like this as they do not want their staff to know their existing system's errors; it is your call.

12) Give each counting area a label and write down on a piece of paper every area, then as each area is counted, mark it off. That way, you do not miss spots.

13 ) Finally, observe what worked and didn't work during this stocktake to make enhancements for your next Stocktaking.

To help you, we will be running a webinar on stocktakes.

Electricity prices are going up, here is a sample of what is being sent out now.

This works out to between a 5% and 40% increase. Is solar going to help? I doubt it, most shops are rented so it is not an option and besides there is now a growing solar that the growth rates in the daytime are less of a problem than the hours when the solar dies. Solar problem is that batteries to store power are not cheap. 

For now, for most shops, their computers' energy use for the POS System is a significant portion of their electricity use but calculating electricity computer uses is a difficult undertaking since it relies on the sort of equipment you have and what you are running. A lot of programs use a lot of power. As a punt say $100+ a year per computer run for 12 hours a day. 

Having said that, I can tell you some points to consider: 

- In computer systems, specific components eat more electricity than others. Some like the video you have no control over. Typically, your standard desktop computer will use between 100 to 400 watts however if you have overclocked your computer, it will use more electricity.

- A desktop computer uses more power than a laptop because laptops are optimized for battery life.  So you will save electricity by using your laptop.

- The energy use of some of the peripherals like keyboards and mice is low usually below 0.5W, on the other hand, an average laser printer tends to consume anywhere between 300 to 550 watts of power, which is often more than the computer. 

- Typically desktop monitors consume between 20 to 100 watts of power

- You can look at the equipment label that shows its power consumption but this is generally a theoretical maximum and not a typical figure. So it is only a rough guide. 

The equipment we have been actively selling recently is with energy star ratings so they use about half the electrical energy of the older type of computers. There is a saving there for our clients.

How To Cut Back Your Computer Energy Consumption

- Turn off computers when not in use. However, it is unwise to do this too often. If you intend not to use the computer in the next hour, yep turn it off. 

- Selecting the hibernate option is not recommended as it turns off something in processing; turning it off works better in a shop. 

- Set your monitor automatically to turn off after 20 minutes of inactivity.

- Laser printers not in use should be turned off.

- If you want to know exactly, you can get a power meter in the hardware shop for about $25. You plug it into the power plug and it records the power consumption of the object. Most people that have one, measure everything in the shop and at home. It will almost certainly pay its cost.  

Written by:

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.

We were invited to attend, so off we went.

It has been a few years since the last show. Although was a sell-out in 2019, I wondered if enough people would come to justify the effort now that some of our clients made for the show. You need many people to justify the halls the size of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Well, it was a sell-out. They stopped selling tickets days before the event. Cat lovers came from everywhere to get their dose of cat-infused happiness. My 11-year-old daughter wanted to go, so they had to sneak her in on my VIP ticket.

The stands were busy alright. It really shows that cats are the second most popular pets in Australia, and cat owners spend on cats. You can now spend quite a bit to get a good Bengal or Sphynx cat. So if someone is looking at improving your gift lines, I would suggest looking into it.

Here are some scenes from the cat lover show. It was huge, and the organisers did an excellent job.

Expiry dates gift vouchers/credit notes

Today, gift cards are commonly used by all forms of enterprise, from small businesses to large corporate entities.

The expiry dates caused some confusion yesterday with one of our clients. After talking to several of his customers, he decided to scrap card expiry dates. I have my doubts about whether this is wise. Removing expiry dates implies that this liability will remain till when? It raises questions of whose responsible for that debt if the business is closed or sold? It will increase the administrative costs indefinitely.
. 
You sold $20,000 worth of gift cards over the past year. About 10% to 19% of gift cards are unredeemed at any given time. So somewhere $2,000 to $3,000 is outstanding. If you sell the business, you must pay the new owner the liability owing on those cards. What hurts is that much of that liability will never be redeemed by your customers. If you close the business down, the situation is unclear. 

If you do this for many years, the problem gets worse as about 3% to 6% of gift cards are never redeemed. So every year, this debt grows by $600 to $1,200, do this for ten years, and you have a $6,000 to $12,000 obligation. 

Our understanding of the law and we are not lawyers and not qualified to give legal advice is that you must provide at least an expiry period of three years from the date you sold it. The expiry details must be displayed on the gift card (see red arrow above)

There are some exceptions, and this rule does not apply to some types of gift cards, click here for more details. What caused the initial problem here is that our client issued it out of his customer loyalty program, in which case we believe this does not apply at all. 

However, check first before doing anything about this. If you get a legal opinion please let me know.

In my experience, EFTPOS deals tend to be June the best. This is because companies are under tremendous stress to make deals and sales. Companies need a lot of money, they have GST, super, dividends, etc. This is when they have to pay out a lot of money. Plus they will have to justify themselves based on figures made this financial year to the stakeholders, and to do that; the managers will be using these figures. Their jobs are online

So we now have an offer for six (6) months of free machine rental, double what it was a few months ago, with no commitment by you. I doubt it will last.

If you want to know more, click here or call me.

A few people queried me about my recent post. Well here  are some facts from the Roy Morgan research released yesterday on the End of Financial Year (EOFY) for the Australian Retailers Association.

This is the most significant marketing season in the Australian Retail calendar, except for Christmas. For example, Mother's day sales generate about $750 million, while EOFY sales are $8.8 billion, eleven times more.

If the End of the financial year (EOFY) sales do work, why not make one too?

Consider this

1) Those tax refunds are soon coming, and many will want to buy.

2) Many accountants will tell their clients to buy; otherwise, they will pay tax on the money. Why not benefit from the approaching tax time?

3) People are being targeted to buy by advertisers. They are pumped up now to buy, and they will.

4) Many will buy now as they want to take advantage of the government's Instant Asset Write-off.

Customer-focused thinking, attractive display windows, some signs, and lifestyle merchandising are four good ways to boost your End-of-year sales.

What can be sold, just about anything? People now want old and new stock. 

Do something or be left behind.

Let us discuss the BNPL for SMB retailers, with Afterpay the biggest, Zip second and then a lot more. Most retailers are not keen on it but accept that the public often loves BNPL over traditional credit cards. Why not? Usually, they do not pay any surcharge as the BNPL are vocal about no-surcharges. The public also does not pay many fees as the merchant pays them. Besides, many people cannot get a credit card anyway, e.g. they are on a low income, insecure at work, and/or have a bad credit rating. 17% of BNPL customers stated they would cancel the purchase if they may not make the payment utilizing a BNPL service.

BNPL encourages people to spend more.

This results in the merchant having to pay high fees on sales except maybe in Lay-bys. Lay-bys are probably the most significant use by retailers in my market space for BNPL.

The big plus is that if you are dealing with a BNPL like Afterpay, they promote your business to millions of people. It helps you get a customer you have never had and would never have had to buy something in the shop even if you are paying high fees.

A smaller percentage of something is better than 100% of nothing.

We switched our support from Zip, as our clients seemed to do better with Afterpay.

The bigger the BNPL is, the better. Besides, from an administration view, the fewer suppliers for BNPL, the fewer headaches in the shop.

So what is happening now, I think, is a good thing. The last 12 months have seen some massive falls in share prices for BNPL. Afterpay had a 58% drop (see graph below), and the next biggest Zip was about 87% drop. The rest are following pretty much the same pattern. The problem appears to be that BNPL can't charge enough fees to cover bad debts and borrowing costs, plus the big banks are moving into this space. This is driving the share price down. If it goes down like this, we often see a period of consolidation when those with money and a desire to expand try to grab others. This is what we see happening with Humm here. The shareholders have a choice as their business has been unprofitable for the past four months. They are now looking at a share price declining more if they do not sell.

For most of us, the End of the Financial Year (EOFY) is on the 30 June. For most businesses, it is a significant time. The immediate problem is super which has to be in by the 28 July. Then what we need to do is prepare by 31 October. If you do not use an accountant, you must lodge to the ATO by then but you often get some more time often with an accountant.

Here are some tips for now:

1) Make an EOFY sale. Get rid of as much stock as you can. Useless stock, if kept, generally goes into the stock figure at a wholesale value. That will increase your profit.

2) Review your debtors and creditors. Be careful here as if debts that need to be written off are not written off, it increases your profit. If creditors are written off, it increases your profits. As such most people write off the debtor now and the next financial year the creditor.

3) Review your records; are they up to scratch? If it is not, you can have with the ATO a real problem. I have seen problems with people whose POS systems has errors with the ATO.

4) Start planning a date for your stocktake. Although it is not an ATO rule, it is a valuable method of stock control. It's the best way of determining what stock has been lost to theft, spoilage or taken for personal use. I recommend that all businesses do a stocktake at least once a year. Also, without one, you may have a dispute with the ATO over your stock holding.

Good preparation is the key to stocktaking as it is a lengthy and often expensive operation. Typically a shop is looking at four (4) days of work.

We will be doing webinars to help you prepare soon for the EOFY.

"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." — Benjamin Franklin.

The countdown to the end of the financial year (EOFY) is on. Now is the time to prepare for your EOFY sale. Ok, there's nothing at all original about this idea. You can look at any large retailer. These people have heaps of experience in this matter. They do it, and if it works for them, why not you?

EOFY is an extraordinary method to move goods. Many people are looking to buy now before the financial year closes to claim in this financial year.

Consider what an EOFY sale can offer your business.

So make a marketing plan for the next few weeks. It really does not need much organising. It would be best to think of some publicising, which often does not need to be more than a few decent signs. Now look around your shop for some loss leaders to fuel the sale. If you do not know where to begin, do this; it will give a few ideas to consider in seconds.

Go to register reports > stock titled "Old Stock on hand by Date last received"

This will gives you a listing of your stock based on when you received it. Unfortunately, this stock is rarely doing much good, and it costs you to hold it.

Here are a few thoughts for you to prepare for your EOFY deal.

1) What about making some of this into a bundle by putting some of these with something that does sell.

2) Make a bargain bin.

3) Collect some business products together

Now put them out and put a sign marking them in your shop.

Let me know how it goes. I doubt you will be sorry if you try, but I am sure you will be sorry if you do not try it!

Ok, so I’m going to be straight to the point with our EOFY offer from POS Solutions. We have excess stock that we too would much prefer to sell than count. If you need some technology, why not stock up while we are keen to move it.

This is a cheerful diversion for the end of the week, it might give you some thoughts and ideas. It is an AI artist that generates pictures, this one is pretty good. You will find it here.

Put in your company name, choose an art style and press "Create". Want others? Well, you pick another art style for your shop. I spent half an hour looking at them.

This is what I got when I entered "POS Solutions". Pretty cool, huh?

I looked at it and thought, hey, is that what the AI feels about POS Solutions? I can see a cash register and maybe a shop, anyway I then decided to try something else, so I requested another and got this.

I have no idea what the AI artist is thinking here. 

Anyway enjoy.

Here is a timetable for e-commerce, assuming you start from scratch with a site like this one focused on men's fashion.

It is fast, as we have integrated hooks into the current version of our software to provide you with omnichannel marketing.

So how long does it take to activate it?

Well, starting from scratch, we can have your site up and available for you in a day or two using Nop Commerce or Woo Commerce. If you want a simple solution, all we need is one day for Shopify. Once you are up and running, you can start adding stock while we build the site to your needs. Within a week or two, you can go live to the public. We will then work with you to improve and fine-tune the shopping experience you want to offer your customers.

We strive to make e-commerce for Bricks and motor stores as simple and cost-effective as possible.

I am sure you will find our pricing is the most competitive you will find.

Also, our team would still like to hear from you if you are currently using another eCommerce package. We may be able to create a solution for you if you want to continue using your current service.

A retailer should currently do about 10% of their sales online.

We sell a lot of portable computers and accessories. What happens is that over time people notice that the batteries do not hold as much charge as before. A similar effect is found in smartphones, electric cars and e-bikes.

What is happening is that the batteries age over time.

Currently, it is with our client, the main cause of replacement of equipment. The problem is that the battery is most of the cost of the device. Add the obsolescence of equipment, and the cost of labour replacement means it is rarely worth fixing. So you do need to look after the battery.

What eats away at battery health is two things.

Heat

The equipment, if not used, should be stored in a cool place; the extremes in temperature should be avoided.

Do not fully charge or drain.

Doing this puts strain on the battery. Aim to have your battery always between 20 per cent and 80 per cent. This is where the adaptive charging we supply on current equipment comes in. This is aimed at reducing the damage that charging cycles have on batteries and so maintaining battery health for as long as possible.

The reality is that batteries do degrade over time but treating your equipment well can give it more life.

People are now paying with electronic payments more than ever. Many of these electronic transactions come with fees. If you are using Tyro, I urge you to look at payouts that are free. In any case, these fees are costs for the merchant.

Under *Free EFTPOS*, you end the merchant costs by passing on the costs to your customers by adding a surcharge to each transaction.

Buy a coffee and cake in a cafe for $10 under the Free EFTPOS plan; if you elect to pay by VISA, you may be charged $ 10.17. The 17 cents is the surcharge added to your transaction to cover the merchant's costs.

It is easy to set up with our system, and there are a few ways of doing it.

Bank determined.

The banks will look over your account, determine the costs, and automatically charge your client when you do the transaction. It is fast and easy to set up. The main problem here is that many people do not come up with the bank's figure when they calculate it. There are costs the banks are not passing on.

If you want to investigate or need extra information, I suggest you talk to tyro so click here.

Manual

As such manual is the most popular, people calculate the figures and then have their POS System charge their figures. If you are going to do this and calculate your fee at 20 cents, make it either 19 or 21 cents, not 20 cents. Studies show that the 20 cent figure looks suspicious. This is true of 15 or 25 cents too. If it comes in at about 25 cents, make it 24 cents or 26 cents.

You can enter the figure where the yellow arrow is shown with the pay types circled on the point-of-sale screen below.

You then set up your pay types with your surcharges at the appropriate rate.

Note in both cases. If a customer complains, you can remove the surcharge. Often many do not charge these fees on high transactions, to encourage people to spend more.

Under the Consumer Law provisions, you must be transparent about these fees. You should display a sign that such fees are being charged.

A final note: What will be the effect on your business for doing this is something you will need to consider. We looked into it and decided not to charge such fees.