Many of my clients use financial advisors every year. So we have worked with a few financial planners on behalf of our clients. So the information they need is in your POS system for your shop.

Generally, the cost is between $1,500 and $3,500 a year; yet it can be more. For example, here. Look at the case study below and see the green arrow pointing to the first year fee.

​That is $13,660 initially and an ongoing fee per year of $8,000. That is a lot of money on a personal $400,000 investment fund.

There are several reasons why the cost is so high. Part of the reason is that it takes almost as much effort to do a plan of $400,000 as it takes to do one of $4,000,000. The items, decisions and complexity are similar, and all that changes is the amounts. This is a typical problem in accounting.

But the other reason is the time taken by the financial planner to put together the plan. You go to them and say you need this. They then request a heap of information. You then hunt for the information, put it together, and they then examine this information. They interrogate you for clarification, then, as sure as day follows night, they ask for more information, so you have to hunt around for some more documentation, supply it, and only then can they start. Most of the time is spent collecting the information, not doing the actual work.

The result is that you pay much more than you should.

I will give you a personal example of how the price can spiral. I paid $1,500 for a financial plan, which I did not want, but I had to get one for taxation reasons. Then, after paying that, I received another bill of $500 to pay the accountant fees used in the plan. Then, after paying the accountant fees, I found that there were two entities involved, so the other had to be done too. Then it was announced that this was a yearly fee. So a one-time fee went from $1,500 to $4,000 yearly, which was stated as a very cheap fee. I felt that there had to be a better way.

I knew that I could save a lot by being organised and doing much of the job myself.

So I looked at a few online tools. I generally found them of limited use, more for amusement than helpful.

Then I found one I liked "projection lab."

It a professional online tool. You enter in the information. Since its only me, only I have access to the information. Then I could then experiment with it and so model my financial future. I know what I put in will not precisely match real life. But it's better than a vague concept in my head. Plus I can ask it questions and decide what I like about the consequences.

It had enough functions for me but I suppose as I learn more, I will use more. for now its fine.

Best of all, my accountant told me that it should be acceptable for the ATO for my purposes. Of course, if I had to go to a financial planner, I would be better organised as most of the information would be on hand for them.

It is free, so give it a go. At least if it does not work for you, you will have a better idea of what you need.

Let me know how it goes for you.

For over 100 years, “ANZAC Day” has been observed in Australia, becoming our honoured and sacred institution. I can remember, as a kid, going with my dad. He enjoyed meeting up with the guys from his WW2 unit. They fought in the Lae area of New Guinea from Jan 45. I doubt any of them are with us now. 

Here is a famous picture of one such veteran marching that took the internet by storm. No one knows who he is, but we all feel his pain.

Our office will be closed, but our after-hours and emergency support will be running non-stop throughout ANZAC Day today. It is available both for urgent and standard calls.

Please do not ring me unless it is urgent as I want the day off with my kid, ring Micahel instead. I will be back on Tuesday. 

This is something you need to investigate whether all least-cost routing for payments are the same in each bank? 

In our market space, we were the first to push 'Least-Cost Routing', saving our clients a lot of money. The idea was that as your customers electronically paid you with Visa and Mastercard, there were many paths through the bank system where the payment could go, so Least-Cost Routing selected the cheapest path that reduced interchange fees and card payment fees. As such, the merchant saved money.

That is all good.

However, recently, some banks have introduced a Merchant Choice Routing service and stated that it is the same as Least-Cost Routing. Allow me to have my doubts. Merchant Choice Routing allows you to select the path of the funds manually, either through EFTPOS or credit, which you put in advance, which has been purely a customer choice up to now. The problem here is that different card transactions have extra costs depending on the amount and the card.  

A big problem is here. 

Let us make a simple example. Say you pay a 1.5% transaction fee for Visa and 10 cents if it goes in as an EFTPOS. I know it's more complex than this, but please let us keep it simple for now. 

So a contactless purchase on a Visa debit card would cost $0.15 (1.5% of $10). If Merchant Choice Routing is activated, the same transaction would cost $0.10 via EFTPOS. The transaction is processed through EFTPOS, and it attracts a fixed debt service fee. So you have lost. If your card payment amounts vary greatly, and everyone's amounts vary, these losses could mount up. You may find that with Merchant Choice Routing, your bank fees increase. 

Another problem

Also what happens to a payment going through a VISA or Mastercard? Is it being least-cost routed? I am looking at one bank statement for one of my clients; I do not see it.

Have a chew on this, please, and see what the score is with you.

The best and most used selling method in retail - cross-selling. Cross-selling is when someone comes to buy a product, and you sell them that product and something else. The something else is the cross-sell. Often the profit on it is more than the initial product. Strategically, this is a fundamental method in modern retail, and it needs to be done well.

What you need to do, is place a product in a consumer's mind looking for another item to make it work. The more things you can place, the better, but do not go overboard. So what you need is to find out what products that sell well with the items the consumer seeks, which is easy to do with your Point of Sale software.

Let us start.

Go here to the Sales reports "Category Companion Sales by Period."

It will then give you this screen that lets you select your categories.

Now go through your top-selling categories. Check to see what items sell well with these categories. Then make sure that these items are noticeable to the buyers of the categories. This, you will find, is a great way to pick up more sales.

By incorporating this into your management processes, you increase your total sales.

In a shop in  Venice, Italy this sign was seen, I wonder if it worked? Anyone want to try it in their shop? You can read the discussion here.

You will find their results here for February 2022. 

The spreadsheet proven the most useful for retailers is Table 3—retail trade, by the state. Now select your closest retail type and see the comparison. Now, look at your shop.
These figures are what our bankers, political leaders, and landlords will be using to base their decisions on. This then tells us what they think is happening in the marketplace. This is often more important than how you feel about what is happening now. If it says it is up, and you are not, it does not reflect well on you in these people's eyes. 

So, like many individuals associated with retail, we look forward to seeing what these statistics show. Unfortunately, the categories are limited because it only breaks them into their type of retail, so all we can do is select the closest and check that. Ensure you are armed with the information before you meet the bank or the landlord.

Overall, we can say that retail shopping is very *up* by 9.1% in Feb 2022 compared with February 2021; clearly, the lockdown is over, and people are coming back, which is good news.

​​Why not add accessibility to your Google Map Listing?

Doing a net search, I found over a million Australians use wheelchairs. About 1.5 million Australians use prams and strollers. Many people have trouble walking (I could not get estimates, but that includes people with walking sticks, etc.).

) Have you ever wondered why there are so many more people with prams and wheelchairs in shopping centres?

) Do you wonder why?

) Do you see why it is important to them?

Ballpark there are at least 3 million Australians now that have accessibility problems, over 15% of shoppers.

Many people now check accessibility in Google business listings when searching for businesses like yours.

Okay, there is a simple fix: tell them that you have wheelchair access in Google. Go to your Google My Business listing and update these options in Attributes.

​

Save and when these people search for you, they will see that you have accessibility for them.

If you want to know more, watch this video here.

How to become an Afterpay merchant!

Afterpay is a payment type, and in its class, it is the most popular Pay Now Buy Later product in Australia. Currently, about 3.6 million users in Australia; check for more details here. It is great for my clients that rather than use laybys, it is better to use Afterpay as you get your money now, with no hassles. If you are doing laybys, I recommend you try to switch to Afterpay. It's the one that my clients report the greatest success in using.

Because of its interest, I get repeatably asked about integrating it into our POS Software.

It does not need integration as your EFTPOS machine can do it. However you will then need to get Afterpay permission to become an Afterpay approved merchant. If you are interested, you need to go here and provide details like your EFTPOS terminal details. Once accepted, which does not take long, you get the ability to accept Afterpay. Your funds are settled like any other card payment.

Point to consider:

) Lots of people use it

) Afterpay does direct customers to your shop

) You will need to accept Paywave Mastercard with its costs.

) It is very hard to pass on Afterpay fees to your clients.

) If you do not use it, there is no cost, so you can keep it for emergency although the Paywave is a problem. As it needs to be activated.

We do have a product baring system that you will need to help handle the following:

) Fees are fairly high so there are a few low-cost items that you will not want to go through.

) Some products Afterpay will not let you trade through them.

Clients of ours doing this have reported that it is straightforward to use and does fulfil a need for their consumers.

Physical stores anticipate making a significant rebound this year for Easter now that COVID is over. Overall, the industry is looking at about an 8% expansion. I expect more as restaurants will be down compared to 2019, so gifts should be up on 2019 figures.

 Based on Google Trends, we can see that public interest is growing. So the interest is there.

Since it is so late, people are looking for convenience. You want to make it quick and straightforward for your customers to find their gifts. Best to make a showcase with your Easter products with signage to lead them to the display.

If you have not done it yet, it is quick and easy to do this with your retail POS system.

Go to Register reports.

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

In the form, put in a few days before April 4, 2021, and a few days after. That will give you a list of what sold last year.

Now put in the year before COVID-19 hit, a few days before April 21, 2019, and a few days after. That will give you a list of what sold that year.

This year it will be a mix of these two dates. 

Now, these are the items that worked for you then. They will should work for you again this year.

Easter is an excellent shopping day in retail. Although it has only a short holiday season, sales can be impressive.

A scenario all too frequent now is that a staff member rings up and lets us know they have COVID and are taking a few days off. This is better than having them come to work and making more people sick.

There are two points here. 

The first is widely known. If you look at this graph below, you will see the red arrow is the most dangerous period of spread before people realise they have COVID. Generally, the RAT tests cannot pick it up, as the symptoms are only starting up, so few tests are done here. All you can do here is get people in the shop-tested. Since a RAT test will not pick it up, they will need to go to a testing site.

However, what is not widely known is that after people are over COVID, in the Post-infectious area (see the green arrow), they can still spread COVID. This period lasts for about three days and it is after the symptoms are resolved.  This is due to something called viral shedding.

It is worth reading up here because it is not being discussed. If you want more read here too.

We ask people to work from home, if possible, for a few days after they are over COVID. If they cannot work from home, perhaps they can take a few days off to get over this period.

Easter and Anzac Day often muck up settlement dates for EFTPOS. Tyro has released its expected settlement dates for customers who settle into an external bank account.

If you are not using Tyro, they are running a good special to introduce new people to them, let me know if you are interested.

This video of a shopper has gone viral on social media after he showed off his tattoo of his Woolworths Reward barcode on his arm.

It works, the barcode reader reads it and the Woolies system proceeded to say: “Your Everyday Rewards Card has been added.”

Click here for the video.

If you used that barcode in our loyalty system, the storekeeper would not have to worry about him losing his reward card. 

I do not know what he will do when Woolworths changes his number in a few years. 

It makes me wonder how long before we all get some microchips implanted into us. I know a parent of a disabled kid that wants it.

Your Retail Protective Key Performance Indicators are the main indicators used to help you see what people on the registers are entering your system. They give you a detailed breakdown for each operator on no sale, voids, counts, totals, refunds, negative items, and discounts. One figure I suggest you look at in particular is the voids. 

These indicators should be used as part of your loss prevention plan for your shop's internal theft, which is today's most significant form of theft.

Let us start a check.

Go to cash register reports. (see orange arrow)

Now select Staff and click on "Sales security indicators" (see blue arrow)

Select the required period. 

These indicators should be regularly checked.

PS I have noticed that years ago, people used to say if caught that they are sorry, now they tend to say the boss is so stupid .....

Calculating Margins badly Can Cost You Money.

These newsbars highlight a problem: some are still miscalculating margin. A few days ago, I had to spend some time going over this with a client. This one is interesting because no one is trying to confuse anyone here.

The formula for margin is straightforward.

Margin = 1-Cost/Price

People get confused because a supplier often quotes the Cost EX GST while the Price is quoted INCL GST.  To make the maths right to calculate the margin, both the Cost and the Price must be EX GST or INCL GST. You cannot mix GST into the calculation.

Say the figures quoted here for a NEWSBAR (chocolate bar) are

Cost per unit: $2.44 + GST

RRP: $4.99 inc. GST. If this is a premium chocolate bar, $4.99 is a reasonable price.

So the cost to you is $2.44 + 10% = $2.684.

Margin = 1 - (2.684)/(4.99) = 46.2%

Now, this is, in theory, your margin. 

But margin often varies as it depends on you getting the supplier's price. There are a million reasons why you may have to sell at a different price in practice. However it is easy to find out the actual margin you are getting, but you need a computer to get it. 

Go to the menu

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

Pick a period. I suggest the last 12 months and run. 

Here also pay particular attention to where you are discounting.

Here are three tips for computer eye strain

Many of us today have to spend long periods in front of a computer. But the reality is that as we get older (over 40), our eyes become less flexible so it gets harder to read the screen. So here are three more tips to help people with eye strain.

Since most of the time, we are looking at the mouse, this is what we will talk about today.

1) This tip is not for everyone suffering from eye strain but for all. 

What happens is that sometimes you cannot find where the pointer is, so what you do is grab the mouse and move it around a lot to find it. It can take a few seconds to find it. There is an easier way to do this. If you go to the mouse section of the control panel, you will see this.

​

Now go into the section "Make it easier to see the mouse pointer" marked with the green arrow.

​

Tick the option "Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key" marked in green below. Now apply it and exit.

Press the CTRL key on your keyboard a few times, and you'll see your point marked with a growing circle.

I find it very useful.

2)  Go to Mouse > Change Mouse Settings > Pointers (see it marked with the green arrow).

​

How play around with the items in the Scheme marked in red above.

Everyone prefers something different, so I cannot tell you which one is the best, but pick a large one.

3) Increase the size of the mouse pointer size

One of the reasons the mouse gets lost is that young people make it with good vision. A good idea is to increase the size of the mouse pointer size. You will find it in the "Ease of access center" in the control panel.

Make it extra large and black.

I talked to a liquor retailer about their "Click and Collect" service vs. in-store sales. I was stunned when told that customers using their shop online in their basket with Click and Collect spent 38% more than when they were in the store. When I questioned it, as surely the customers would spend less because there are no impulse sales with Click and Collect. They informed me that they were tracking the information through the shop rewards card. People using Click and Collect purchased more than those that came into the shop. Clearly, they are using their customer CRM in their system.

See the importance of customer information here! Any rewards program you have should collect names so you can track these details too.

Click and Collect is attractive to the Australian consumer. 

1) Cost. With Click and Collect, they can get free delivery without paying inflated prices for so-called free delivery.

2) Speed, Click and Collect. They can often pick it up hours as opposed to days for delivery.

3) Convenience. They can drive-in on the way home or at lunch breaks.

4) It is easier for the Australian consumer to carry.

Some pluses for the retailers

1) An employee picks an order eight times faster than a customer.

2) The retailer does not need a checkout.

3) No theft. Customers can't steal if they aren't coming into the shop.

4) The retailer can select items that expire sooner.

Currently, about 10% of Australian retail sales are Click and Collect.

If you have a website, I suggest you introduce this service.

Our system was the first in our market space to offer such a service so why not use it?

Prepare for mother's day as it's coming. This is the third-largest retail event following Christmas and the back-to-school season. So it's worthwhile preparing.

Based on previous years, the retail industry is looking at an increase in overall sales this year with an average spend of about $80.  

For Mother's Day (25%), a considerable percentage of shoppers state that convenience is crucial when picking out a Mother's Day gift. They do not know what you buy, and they want to do it quickly. So make it easy for your shoppers to find their gifts. Consider creating a display such as this that features your Mother's Day merchandise with signage to lead shoppers to this exhibit. You want to make it easy for your customers to grab and go.

If you are unsure of what will work in your shop on Mother's Day or to get some ideas.

Go to Register reports.

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

 In the form, put in the week before May 9, 2021, and check it out. That will give you what worked last year.

Now put in the year before COVID-19 hit on May 12, 2019, and see that report. 

This year will be a mix of these two dates. As people expect restaurants and special outings to be down compared to 2019, so flowers and gifts should be up on 2019 figures. 

Now, these are the items that worked for you then. They will probably work for you again this year.

Mother's Day is an excellent shopping day in retail. Although it is a limited-time shopping festival with a short season, it can considerably impact your shop if correctly done.

A while ago, I pointed out that if you were looking to upgrade your POS system shortly the time to buy was now. This was because computers and POS equipment were going up in price. Well, those that listened to me, I am sure, are happy now.

Well we are living in a real-world, and these prices are still going up and with the shortages, we have now are unlikely to come down soon. You know with inflation, once the price goes up, it never comes down. Inflation defies the law of gravity, which says that what goes up must come down. 

Plus, as China showed a few days ago, COVID has not gone away. 37 million there in lockdown.

So we can expect that prices will continue to go up soon so we are hoping that the current hardware costs stay on hold for as long as possible!

So my advice is unchanged: if you are looking to upgrade your POS computer system soon, the time to buy is now.

These are five methods I have seen suppliers mislead you with pricelist.

Both big and small suppliers use these methods.

) Salesmen know that margin and mark-up are a source of confusion. I have seen even experienced retailers muck it up with many years of experience. That is why the salesman will use it. Here is a chart to help you convert from one to the other.

Understanding the two terms is essential to know if you're pricing your stock effectively.

Best solution: Always use margin, and you will not be confused. It will be one less thing to need to think about.

) Rate cards

Rather than quote a price, suppliers will present you with a rate card of their costs. They know that few will work through the items on the rate card. They then tell you how these rates are competitive. There are computer programs designed to shuffle costs to trick you to think that you are getting a good deal.

Best solution: Thank them for the rate card and request a quote of the cost. See what they say and try to get this figure in writing. In the worst case, you may have to work through the rate card.

) Average margins do not equal your margins.

Some suppliers will list an extended price list and tell you the average margin is this. Okay, but this may differ from your margin as you do not handle many of these items.

Best solution: Thank them for the price list and examine the items you handle. Your point of sale can give you the actual figure.

) Conditions change.

The retail world is now moving fast. Prices are going up, and sometimes they go down. What was a good deal yesterday may not be tomorrow.

Best solution: Because you have checked once does not mean you do not need to check again. You need to check it regularly.

) Extra responsibility

One of my clients started selling mushrooms. One day, they learnt that the mushroom industry has a big yearly sale in one month with a special price list and that they are expected to help out. If you think about it, it means that they are running on reduced margins one month a year. They sell a lot in that month, but they are working for the supplier in this product.

Best solution: Check what you are getting into first.

I hope this helps.

Ever wonder why many majors hit you first with the dearer item when you come into the shop?

Why in a car yard are the dearest cars in front not the best selling cars?

This is the "anchoring effect." You should consider this for your shop. When hit with a lot of new stuff, it works as people tend to grab the information they get first as the basis for making decisions.

Here is an example of how it works.

Imagine you have three items on sale.

1) $30 item

2) $40 item

3) $50 item

If you see the $30 item first, your immediate thought is that the $40 and $50 things are dearer.

But, if you see the $50 item first, your immediate thought is that the other items are cheaper.

Studies have shown that having the $50 item on display first makes people more likely to buy it, as the $30 and $40 items seem reasonable. Interestingly, sales of $40 increased dramatically. It is claimed that it is worth having the $50 just because of this, even if it does not sell. 

It is something worth thinking about.

Here is a video of how it works in practice and what you should do about it.

This is where you have to be very careful looking at your sales reports.