There are a lot of headlines about an internet server exploit, the Log4j.

The problem:

Many devices, e.g. cars, fridges, mobile phones, internet servers, etc., use java's programming language. Now, if a fridge, few would worry. A car, maybe.   But, if it is a server or mobile phone, what can happen is this. You do something on them. Now some of these might have a hacked version of Log4j. If so, a hacker may execute a command, e.g. to send them your account name and password.

The immediate problem is that not much can be done about it. How do you know if java is running? If so, is Log4j used? If so, what version of Log4j is used? If an old version, has it been hacked?

Solution:
None exists that is why everyone is worried. 

Once the word got out, we were not worried about our systems as we do not use java much. Then it turned out that we were possibly affected so we brought down all our systems and checked them. We were okay. 

We have checked our systems and they will not cause you problems with Log4j.

Also, I can tell you how to check it with a caveat that if this checking program here is hacked, you are opening yourself to a hack by running this. So only use it, if you must. I have used this on my computer, but our system administrator refuses to run it on our servers. 

As such, I am recommending our clients wait and be careful.

For example, I am not doing internet banking for a few days, and then I will change some of my internet passwords.

Update:

Log4j, now it turns out to be a bigger problem as it can get into the Cpanel, which is the guts of most of the internet. So the computer does not need even to be running java.

Also since this affects older versions, you need to be on the latest version of Windows 10. Microsoft no longer gives security updates for older versions of Windows 10. 

While gift bags are more expensive than wrapping paper and the immediate problem is that wrapping paper has recently gone up a lot in price. So now is a good time to learn how to wrap items so you can save some money during the holiday season. 

Gift wrapping is a popular service many retailers offer.

It distinguishes its products from other retailers.

Although gift wrapping is popular all year round now is an excellent time to offer such a service. Learning to do it is not difficult and only takes a little practice. Once you get going, you may consider having * free * and * luxury * pricing services. Luxury includes a card, so a toy becomes a beautiful gift wrapped in attractive wrapping paper with a card.

This method can be used to wrap even difficult items like cups.

It would be best to consider this coming season into your billing cycle. If what happened last year happened in the next sales season, you can expect to take longer than usual to get paid. It's all too easy for people to say now that it's problems with COVID.

It can pay now to view your financial information to see which of your customers are delaying their payments.

Tip: If you want to pay earlier, run your invoices in advance.

If you run a shop and you are trying to prevent employee theft? Well, you are not alone. We see many that have suffered significantly from employee theft.. On average more than 40 per cent of all retail theft is committed by staff. 

One of the best things you can do is give each operator their own draw. Then make each responsible for balancing their own draw for each shift. Our point of sale allows one computer to run many cash draws. If you have not got this setup, I suggest contacting us about it.

Another point is that you need to check your security KPIs to see if they can show some malicious behaviour.

These indicators give you a detailed breakdown for each operator on how many functions each staff member is doing. This works because the malicious staff tend to work in a habit. If something works, they repeat it. It does not take much. $ 50 a day can be $15,000 over a year.

To check these security KPIs, go to cash register reports. (see orange arrow)

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

Select the required period, usually monthly. 

A report will pop up with many indicators.

As most thieves have a method that works for them, they tend to use it almost all the time, so what you are looking for is unusually high indicators. 

Unfortunately, there’s no denying that employee theft is a reality of retail operations and that it must be monitored.  

Now is your last chance to review your merchandise before the holidays, as running out of stock now can have a dramatic impact on your business. Most usually recommend buying small items and ordering many times but not now unless you have some terrific deal. Most now recommend if you can get grab it.

Here is a unique report that is fast to run and checks the stock levels of what you have that is selling.

In the Cash register report,

Stock> Sold out or Selling Out Stock Lines

(See the selection highlighted in green above )

Enter last month, put in a sell rate of one (1), enter a quantity of less than two (2) items and see what you get.

Another example of how our POS Software gives you the information you need!

A plan for displaying merchandise used to maximise profits is called a planogram. 

Now because retailers are starting to see shoppers back, many of our clients are checking their stock layouts. So many of our clients are ringing up our support about doing planograms so clearly my post on Monday about the division of stock into sales categories was interesting to our readers here.. A step by step approach to this is available here.

Before starting, look at the above diagram to see the concepts and what you will get out of these planograms. 

The goal is to use your space to the maximum. So what we are going to do is visually see a plan of what is happening in your shop. 

A sales report was used. We then divided the departments then divided the sales data by the linear measurement of each area and divided the result into the following groups.
 
Blue = Good (Top 20%)
Yellow = Average (Middle about 60%)
Red = Bad (Bottom 20%)
blank = Zero

This information was then marked on an actual shop entrance plan shown here. Now you can see how it visually shows the shop's sales information. See the two spots marked with the green arrows, particularly the red one. That is something to look at that spot; it is not pulling its weight.

It is often also interesting if you have spots in what should be in a dead area that is doing better than everything around them. Products that do well no matter where they are on the shelves are great for drawing people into the shop.

What is essential is to make two diagrams, one using profit and the second by numbers. Good products both brings people in and makes profit.

Whatever changes you make, keep the planogram and redo it in a few months to see what the changes did in your shop. Then compare the two planograms. 

Now click here to start on your planograms.

Note this is only the start we recommend these planograms for shoplifting and product placements but that is a subject for another day.

This is the finding from the Microsoft Customer Service Study here. 

90% of customers value the quality of customer service when choosing or remaining loyal to a brand. 

When asked how many stopped doing business with a brand due to poor customer service?

About 60%, more than half. I can relate to that. I stopped doing business with the NAB bank because of terrible customer service.

What I found surprising in the report is what the main problem with customer service was not actually how polite or friendly they were but

* The inability of the agent in understanding their problems.

* The lack of knowledge of the agent handling the problem.

*The inability of the agent in resolving their problems.

Obviously, people are looking for companies to provide solutions to their problems. I can relate to that too. I went looking for a war game to buy as a present for a friend. I went to a shop, and they had the stuff but not a clue on the product. I was unsure, so I looked in another shop. They had a guy who played and knew these games. He was a big help, so I brought the game there.

Your staff need to know their stuff, be helpful or it will cost you.

There have been some changes in our Afterpay integration. We followed up on it, but there are no plans to fix it, so you will need to switch to this method.  Clients of ours doing this have reported that it is easy to use and fulfils a need for many consumers.

Do you need a BNPL Solution now?

Yes as the era where customers paid in cash or with a credit card is over.

* Currently, 20% of Australian shoppers have a BNPL account. 

* Signs are that BNPL is expected to continue to grow.

* BNPL is a proven lead generation tool,

* Offering BNPL is much better than doing layby. The sale is settled immediately, with much fewer hassles.

* It does help customers make large-ticket purchases as it splits the value of the buy into convenient instalments.

You to ensure that you do lose out on customers because you do not have the means to accept their payment for a sale.

But the fees are a problem of about 6%, so if you need a BNPL solution, you need to review your usage policy. 

What next for BNPL?

We can expect BNPL to increase.

* As BNPL is still experiencing high growth.

* With these times, many people are looking for new lines of credit.

* More companies are moving into this space, including big banks and many traditional money traders, e.g. Paypal. The great plus here is that these new solutions have none or much lower fees. The big banks do not even give the merchants a choice. It is on the EFTPOS machine for the customer to select this option. Plus the banks are determined to get into this space, and they will, if necessary, run it at a loss to keep market share. 

Conversely, if the Reserve Bank gets its way, they will change the rules to allow merchants to pass on the fees that BNPL providers charge retailers to consumers. What will the customers do if they get levied a 7% fee by the merchant?  I expect that many customers will drop BNPL if these fees are levied. 

The more ways customers can make purchases through your company, the greater your earning potential.

Many of our clients use Australia Post as a delivery agent. If your clients need your goods to arrive by Christmas, you should send them now because of all the disruption.   Australia Post will not commit to delivery estimates now, even with express post.  

The official cut-off dates for sending for Christmas are:

Inside Australia: 

Sending internationally:  Your too late, almost everywhere there are delays, and some like surprisingly like Ireland and Pitcairn are suspended.  

I would suggest that you set our software delivery options to reflect this.

The 80/20 rule states about 20% of your products earn about 80% of your profits. Now everyone wants to know the 20% because that's almost all the profit.

Go to stock reports > select stock N sales for the last 12 months, choose now as a number of items 30,000 as we want every item.

We recommend that you generate the report based on profit, but this will depend on your marketing strategy as many prefer quantity. Some use a combination of both, for example, a major magazine distributor network used 2/3 x (profit%)+1/3 x (turnover%). 

Anyway for this exercise examine the running profit total. 

Now A products will stand out. Expect you have about 100. These are your *excellent* products; we use a convention of blue to mark them. 

You will then be presented with a few pages of products that more than pay their way. These are your *above average* products; we use a convention of green to mark them. 

Then you will get pages of products that do pay but not well. These are your *average* products; we use a convention of Yellow to mark them.

Then you will get pages of products that barely pay for themselves. These are your *below average* products; we use a convention of Orange to mark them.

After that, you have pages of *bad* products; we use Red for them.

Then you have to ask yourself. Do you need what of these Orange and Red products do you need?

I checked one of our clients. The store has 21,000 lines in stock.

20% of profit comes from 135 products
50% of profits were made on 1,873 products 
80% of the profits came from 7,374 products

You can then draw on a planogram this.

Now please do it. I am sure you will find the results helpful.

Although we have used our cards more than ever what is interesting is that our debt has dropped. In March 2019, we owed to the banks $40 billion, today it's a third less about $27 billion.  It appears that we have been since March 2020 banking our extra money. They have not been eating out, driving less, not going on vacations, no casinos, etc. Maybe also using buy now and pay later (BNPL) cards more although that would be enough to make such a dent on this debt.

What it does show is that the Australians do have the money and credit, now are they going to spend it on Christmas or keep spending it on real estate?

Still, the reason most retailers are positive that it will be a good Christmas is that early sales from Black Friday are good, people do want to make up for the disappointment of 2020, people have big savings in the family and our workforce participation rate is good.

​
Holiday creep is when you extend the actual marketing holiday season. For example, Black Friday is over, yet many people keep pushing it long after it's gone. Why? Because Black Friday works, so retailers want more of it. Why make it a day when you can make it a weekend as above or, better yet, two weeks as below, see the green arrow.

What they are doing is changing a holiday day to a marketing season. It is working too as Black Friday sales now exceed those on Boxing Day.

So to stay competitive as a small business, you need to start your marketing early to make sure you do not lose customers who are ready to make a purchase now. Then keep up with those who will wait till the last minute of the day. After count on having something for the people that buy afterwards.

This creep strategy is so successful today as shoppers know of the problems with the supply chain. I have a client whose goods sailed from Shenzhen, China. It is now somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. What worries them is whether it will turn up soon. There is a significant loss to them if it is delayed another month.

Our success is due to our customer orientation. We deal with a wide range of customer inquiries daily. Our mission is to establish a good resolution in every one of them.

This graph above shows our customer service shows that our customers think our service is excellent where 0 = terrible 10 = excellent

This is something we are extremely pleased about despite continuous coronavirus problems.

If you are running Windows 7, it is now out of support. This means that your Windows has no support.  Plus, you are probably running a 10+ year old computer.

We strongly recommend that you move to a newer computer and Windows. 

This is what Black Friday is good for as not only are computers at a discount but moving to a new computer will provide you with a better experience as modern computers are faster, more powerful, and have greater security.

What happens now is that people setting a POS network sometimes, instead of getting an electrician, do it themselves.  Then they sometimes select a cheap cable to save expenses. Some of these cables are pretty bad. If so you may notice that your network tends to operate slow, so these cables should be replaced.

Yet, if they are good cables, the question of whether to replace these cables with a different one will speed up the network. The answer is maybe but probably not.

There are many factors here, but the big two are latency and bandwidth.

I like to think of the cable as a water pipe.

Latency would measure how long and rough the pipe is slowing down the water travelling through the pipe. 

The electronic signals travel at about 200 million meters/sec. Thus Melbourne to New York is about .1 second. Few cables would cause a problem here.

Bandwidth would be the amount of water that travels through the pipe; the wider the tube, the more water travels through it. 

Now in a POS System, we do not pass that much data around. As long as your cable is a cat6 or better, and we are talking just the POS software traffic, you will not have a problem here. Things may be different at home. Say one kid is downloading some movies, another is watching youtube, you are on the computer, and someone is watching the TV. Lots of signals, lots of bandwidth.

The last factor is that many other factors besides the cable can slow down your network, e.g. your switches and network cards.

 So if you're replacing existing cable thinking you will significantly improve your speed, I would say you are wasting your time and money. 

This is actually why electricians tend to use decent but cheap cables.

As touchscreen technology is now widely used to improve performance. So people are becoming aware of the benefits of touchscreen devices. As a result, the use of touch screens in retail and offices are increasing.

Here are seven (7) benefits of using a touchscreen for your Point of Sale (POS) system.

Economically today.

This is the big reason people need a screen anyway, so most people feel why not get one with touch?

Speed

Increase in the speed of tasks. Very few of us are touch typists. As such, there is a delay from when we identify the spot on the screen and then move our eyes to type on the keyboard letter. The touchscreen allows the user to select the required characters without moving their eyes. This results in a faster response time.

This improved efficiency means that your staff can work faster so process customers quicker. This helps prevent long queues and customer dissatisfaction.

Easier to use

Looking at the screen keeping your eye on it makes it much easier to use. This makes it great for juggling various tasks on what are increasing more complex screens. As you can tap what you need, it is much simpler to operate as it provides you with direct access that eliminates the need for a mouse and keyboard.

People with physical disabilities

More people can use them. We did a major upgrade for multiple sclerosis. These people were unable to use keyboards what we found using a combination of voice and touch works well. Without a touch screen, these people cannot work. With it, these people can operate a POS system.

Cleanliness

Since COVID, everyone appreciates that there is much less to clean as people are handling less the keyboard and mouse. Screens are flat and often dust sealed. This makes them easier to clean and disinfect.

Training

With mobiles, we are all used to touch, making it far more intuitive to use today. This is the way most people now work in the 2020s.

Windows

Windows and its software is now built for touch.

One of our suppliers has reported to us that they have quite a lot of touch screens that they could not sell due to the lockup. As these are commercial grade if your interested in getting a touch screen, why not get one now as we have a Black Friday special for your shop now!

A customer pays for a sale with their EFTPOS card. Something goes wrong and the operation is refused. The EFTPOS terminal beeps. Sometimes the customer thinks the transaction has gone through. They pick up the items and go. It happens quite a bit. 

If you do not have an integrated EFTPOS solution, you will never know what has happened.

You need an integrated EFTPOS solution.

This Friday is "Black Friday", officially this is the start of the Christmas shopping season. Our suppliers know that this is the last chance they get to move stock before the Christmas freeze starts. So some of our suppliers have offered us some pretty good deals to move some of their stock. So we are passing the saving to our clients. Details are being sent out now.

If you are interested in upgrading your system or getting a touch screen, let us know.

Sometimes, you want to add a special short note on the receipt message if you sell an item. Generally, they are promotional offers but sometimes special instructions on the item. These can be specially set to be added at the bottom of the receipt. 

In our point of sale, this is easy to do.

Call up the stock item in stock maintenance, see where the green arrow is, now press the box notes. In the note and add a "^" then add your message.

Every time this printer paper is sold, a promotional offer for your ink cartridges will be added if a receipt is printed.

You can, of course, be more creative if you think about it. Because your receipt is a business document doesn't mean it has to be dull. This receipt could be your last contact with a customer, so why not leave them with an enduring impact? 

Adding a creative message can be a game-changer for your marketing policy.

As a result of the pandemic, the public has gotten used to planning to get goods in time for festivities. Plus, with these supply problems we are going through now, the public feels that retailers will not have adequate stock for Christmas. So the public has started its holiday shopping. Christmas products are now being brought early than usual, e.g. "gingerbread house" and "letter to Santa" kits. 

The public is buying ahead.

As a result, major retailers are already starting their holiday programs.

I would suggest that you start too you have now about a month.

If the delivery service you use Australia Post.