The Australian retail landscape is in flux; we all know that what is essential with these studies is not just what they say but also what others, for example, banks that control the finances and prospective buyers and their accountants, are being told. These people control the inflow of money.

What we do know is that retailers face obstacles.

- We have a rising cost of living

- We have significant supply chain challenges

- Shifting consumer preferences

As everywhere, only those who are willing to adapt and evolve do well.

Let's dissect some critical insights from Roy Morgan's recent retail address and a lively discussion between retail experts Laura Deasi and Paul Zara, CEO of the Australian Retailers Association.

Key Takeaways from the Roy Morgan Address

• Population growth is vital: Australia's growing population has been a lifeline, somewhat shielding us from a full-blown recession. These people have been a big help to retailers.
• The cost-of-living bites: Rising costs disproportionately affect young families with children. However, some sectors and demographics still have spending power. The traditional pattern in such circumstances is that men's products go down, followed by kids' and women's products.
• Changing spending patterns: Consumers are reducing spending in some categories but increasing in others. There's a surge of interest in bargain hunting and sustainable options.

The Rise of Online Giants

• Amazon's Dominance: Amazon is rapidly expanding its customer base and is now one of Australia's top five non-food retailers. Their vast stock and focus on fast delivery pose a significant challenge to brick-and-mortar retailers.
• Ultra-Cheap Challengers: Shein and Temu have entered the scene with rock-bottom prices. However, concerns about quality and ethics may turn some consumers away in the long run.

What Does This Mean for Aussie Retailers?

Paul Zara and Laura Deasi offered valuable advice and considerations:

• Value is the New Currency: Price matters more than ever, but it's not just about the cheapest deal. Emphasise quality, durability, and your product's long-term benefits.
• The Ethics Factor: Consumers are increasingly conscious of your company's ethics. My advice still applies: Do not fall into this trap as whatever you do many will not like it.
• Online presence: I do not know how or why anyone would want to escape without an online presence.  Offer something and have "click-and-collect" options. A modern and robust online presence is essential for meeting the expectations of today's shoppers.
• Tech to the Rescue: Your point-of-sale (POS) system can be your best ally.
  • Streamline operations: Automate tasks to reduce overhead and free up time for customer service.
  • Personalise experiences: Use our CRM features to provide recommendations and targeted promotions.
  • Data-driven decisions: Track sales patterns and inventory levels to optimize your offerings and minimise waste.

Your Competitive Edge: The Human Element

Retail has always been a people-powered industry. While tech upgrades are vital, the exceptional in-store experience remains a decisive advantage for brick-and-mortar stores:

• Become an expert: Offer valuable product knowledge and tailored recommendations that online giants can't replicate. Coles has even little things like greeting cards, but I will not get any advice there on the sort of card I need.
• Build relationships: Friendly, personalised service creates loyal customers who become your advocates.
• Community connections: As Paul Zara emphasizes, physical stores are the heart of local communities. Support community causes to show that your values extend beyond sales.

The Future of Retail – Adapt and Thrive

The retail landscape is constantly evolving. Businesses with the foresight to adapt have a chance to excel:

• Embrace innovation: New technologies can transform your operations.
• Test and learn: Experiment with new products, displays, and promotions. If they work, double down. If they fail, be ruthless and get rid of them. Do not reinforce a defeat.
• Partnerships matter: Collaborate with as many people as you can.

To do well in 2024, we need to focus. 

Share your thoughts in the comments below!

We have all had shop assistants asking if they can help.  Most customers say they do not like to be disturbed by shop assistants. It's a fact, but is not disturbing them the best thing for the shop? 

If you want something to think about in your shop, have a chew on this study here. This study points that out.

"Shoppers who interact with a sales associate are 43 percent more likely to purchase a product, and their transactions have 81 percent more value, compared to those who don't interact with an associate. In addition, they are 12 percent more likely to revisit the store."

This is true of all shops; see here.

The orange is the increase in sales, notice the department store which is the least technical got the biggest percentage increase.

Let me give you a personal example. I went to a toy shop to buy a kid's present. I was unsure of what to get, so I appreciated it when a shop assistant suggested that I buy a kid's table set. So I bought it on her recommendation.

1) So your staff needs to know their products.

The study also states there are significant problems when customers can't find a shop assistant when they have questions. A negative experience can lead to customers going elsewhere.

2) So you have to make sure that your staff is at hand.

What is clear is that consumers do rely on interaction with your staff to make purchasing decisions. Helping them will lead to a significant increase in sales and repeat purchases.

Try it out now.

VANA/NLNA has been pushing a new premium chocolate range. One of my competitors do not like the offering. Several asked what I thought of their comments. They are not unbiased observers either, but I suppose no one is. I can say that I have no financial or any other interest in the Newsbar offering nor am I likely to have such an interest.

What I do think is that many of my clients should look at the premium chocolate market. Here are some facts:

) There is no market dominance, and small companies are successful in this market. A few players do not own it.

) Many of my clients are in an excellent location to sell such products.

) The cost of entering this market for them is not high. The risks are small. If it does not work, sell the stock and exit.

) It allows a merchant to trade items on almost any holiday eg there are Valentine's day chocolate, green St. Patrick's Day chocolate, easter chocolates, etc. So bring in people into the shop.

) The current growth rate of the Australian chocolate market is about 7.8%. Growth is expected to continue at that rate for the next five years.

Sounds good to me.

Now let us get to the objections to Newsbar.

Yes, it would be wonderful if:

) A well-known brand company in premium chocolates

) Would be prepared to offer many small-to-medium-sized size businesses that have no history in premium chocolates

) An exclusive deal

) A 50% margin on the chocolate range,

) Promise to follow it up with millions of dollars in TV and billboard campaigns.

How many such companies do you see offering such a deal?

The reality is you do not need in premium chocolates to have millions of dollars in marketing behind you. Many premium chocolate companies are pretty small. I have many clients in premium chocolates. Both they and their suppliers are not such huge companies. I am sure you have seen such small premium chocolate places too.

The quality of the product.

This is the big question, the most critical question. If people like it, then they will come back. It is one I cannot know as I never tasted it. This is the most crucial consideration.

I have seen chocolate producers parade their high-quality goods, and they were no such thing; people were not fooled.

Mass marketing is not the important point here, a bad product will bomb no matter how much advertising you pump into it.

Is the Newsbar expensive at $5?

This depends on the quality. A cheap mass-market chocolate bar is generally about $1 to $2. A premium chocolate bar ranges typically from $9 to $15. So, depending on what it is, will determine this question.

Are the Newsbar margins huge at 50%?

Well, it depends on your perspective. If you concentrate on lotto, newspaper delivery, magazines, etc., the answer is YES. Conversely, if you are in a market where 60% to 70% is standard, then NO.

For premium chocolates, 50% is acceptable. 

One point that you need to check is that the margins are what is quoted. Sometimes suppliers fudge margins, as readers here will know, I have discussed this issue before here.

Is the Newsbar name a good one?

No. It does not conjures up an image suitable for premium chocolates. I think of a bar where I spent a lot of time in, with complimentary newspapers. Not the sort of image required to sell a premium item. It will be a problem if you are looking to sell a $5 chocolate bar.

Does these chocolate bars have to save any business?

It does not have to, a product that sells well gives good returns and is not difficult to handle is a good product should be considered.

Few things can save a world does that mean we should reject everything else.

These are my opinions, and if anyone wants to discuss them further happy to take it further.

If so do not miss out on your Instant asset write-off again!

This tax write-off has saved a lot of money and improved the cash flow for my clients. So the good news was the extension of the instant asset write-off.  The better news was that it was increased to $150,000.

Tax details are here

Here is how it works

Say you were to buy a point of sale system for $5,000. Well, it does not cost you $5,000 as 10% of this is GST which you will be getting straight back so your proposed cost is $4,500.

The system without the Instant Tax write off would allow only 15% of this depreciation. This works out to a tax deduction of $675

- Let us say your company tax rate is about 26%, so you would get back $175.50 in income tax credits.

** This means to fund this in the first year it will cost $4324.50 **

Now with the Instant tax write off in place

- 100% of this would be depreciation

- If the company tax rate is again 26%, which means the business will get back $1170.00 in income tax credit.

** Which means that the business needs to fund this in the first year is $3330.00 ** a saving of you $994.50

This is a substantial saving!

Are you ready to take advantage of this threshold increase to get or upgrade a point of sale system from us? If so talk to us about how we can assist in keeping your business moving!

NOW is the time!

And please I am no accountant so check with your accountant about your situation first as it may be different.

One of my clients got in some trouble recently over a "'No refund on sale items" sign. A lawyer who is one of their customers told them that they were "misrepresenting rights available to consumers." 

So if you wish to put up a no refund sign, use one from your state consumer affairs sign such as this example from VIC above. 

One worrying point is that many merchants do sometimes unload at significantly reduced prices goods that are defective. They admit that they are flawed and so sell it with an AS IS and NO Return clause.  I doubt legally this is correct.  You may want to check this situation if you do it a lot. If you get an answer, let me know.

A late-payment policy is causing problems now.

They have always been a sore point at the best of times. Many have been waving the fee for the duration of this crisis. Some have asked people to contact them to discuss it on an individual basis.  Let face it people have lost jobs and many have suffered a major loss of income. Now not the time to act heartless.

Now that it looks like the immediate crisis is over. People are returning back to work, Victoria is the last with the 30th of November. 

So now what are you going to do?

Let me know?

If you want to know which customers are now affected? 

1. From the Main Menu, go to Customers and then Customer Reports.
2. Double-click on the Customer Accounts options to expand the report.
3. Click on the Accounts Options report and then click the Go to Criteria Report.
4. Select any options on this screen and then click the Show report.
5. The customers set to receive a late payment fee will have Yes in the LateFee column.

A warehouse or kitchen in a restaurant is often hot, dirty, and greasy places.  Environments that are not good for computers. What used to happen is that we would put in a receipt printer in such areas. The idea being is that someone would take the packing slip from the printer. Then put it on a rack for someone else to grab it and process it.

This does present problems. 
-The order must be processed in realtime, not in advance. 
-Someone has to watch the receipt printer. 
-These packing slips get grabbed by people with dirty hands. 
-Often, these slips get misplaced.

In practice, what we find the biggest problem is if changes are made on the order.  Say five items are on the packing slip, but the customer cancels one. The packer or kitchen hand processes the five; soon, the customer gets five things and pays for four. 

These KDS are displays that show people at the required time, all the information they need. 

It then allows them to send messages that their part is done electronically. This significantly increases efficiency and also reduces the clamor and noise.

It is not surprising that now many of our sales now include units. 

The software for such units is free for our clients.

Today much of the time taken to process a transaction is independent of the point of sale software. 

Greet a customer with a friendly smile.
Say hello.
Process the transaction
The cash handling or EFTPOS
Goodbyes are said, 
The customer collects the goods and goes. 

The industry standard is now about 40 seconds a transaction plus three seconds for each item scanned.  

So if a customer is buying three items, the time is about 40 seconds plus three items in their basket at 3 seconds each, so it's about 50 seconds. 

But sometimes, the retailer needs speed.  Please take a look at how quickly one of our clients could process cash register transactions.

These were going through at speeds from 1.6 seconds with an average of 3 seconds a transaction. This is with five operators pounding in transactions one after another. It was not even on a supercomputer. It was quite an ordinary one.

To see what is happening with our point of sale system, I took about 20,000 cash register transactions.  

Here the average speed of a transaction was about 36 seconds a sale.  I expected this as our clients tend to have low numbers in their baskets and are almost always in high volume environments. 

Here is what the graph looks like, but our system can go lightning fast if you look at the above graph.

As you can see in a pinch, our clients were doing transactions much less than 36 seconds, as you can see here in seconds.

Besides all its other benefits, our point of sale system (POS) will allow you to serve more customers in less time efficiently. 

On speed, it will match any system on the market.

It seems to be some problems with the banks now. At first, we thought it was only CBA, but it appears when I talk to our support that a few other banks like NAB are also affected. It's one of those things that we cannot do anything about but wait out.

Charges are now all over the place. I have noticed looking at some statements from a major bank. It probably not because of a change in bank rates.

People are now using EFTPOS much more for smaller transactions. This is causing more transactions with lower average amounts. I suspect this has resulted in a different item on the EFTPOS rate card coming up. So the fees are now different.

So it is worth reviewing the fees you are getting now.

If they need to be changed, this is the best method for surcharging.

If you look at the yellow arrow with the pay types circled on the point-of-sale screen. You set up your pay types with your surcharges to charge the new EFTPOS/Credit card surcharges for each pay type at the appropriate rate.

Note under Consumer Law provisions, you must be transparent about these fees. So it would be best if you displayed the fees prominently.

I recommend making a payment type with no fees under certain conditions and products eg, some EFTPOS transactions over $25 with no fees.

Most of us have bills and bills and bills.

Recently a company that collects debts from many companies released its findings.  It causes some comments.

The best day from looking at many companies for businesses getting paid was Thursday they claimed. They believe that this is because most people today receive their wages/salary on a Thursday. As they have money on Thursday, they spend it. Although they did not say it, people tend as well to get pensions on Thursday too. But it was interesting is that Sunday had the lowest clearance rate. It made sense if you think about it as about then most people would be budgeting for the coming week. 

So I decided to check using many of my clients' data, and what did I find? 

Well, some clients where all over the place. For example here is the result of four years by one of my clients.

Mon 13.3% Tues 16.4% Wed 8.6% Thu 14.2% Fri 10.3% Sat 37.2%

For this business, Saturday was best. I suspect it because they are in a small centre and people are coming to buy on that day the big weekly family shopping. As they are in the area, they come and pay. Why Tuesday was higher than Wednesday, makes sense as there is not much left on Wednesday. 

What it does show is what I have always said that all businesses are different. This is true even those that do the same things, and each needs to treated differently.

But overall the conclusion does seem correct as a rule, the day for people paying is Thursday. Here is my result from benchmarking 10 different clients over a number of years.

 If you want to know what is your best day to get paid, you can work it out by using Ad Hoc reports.

You will find it here.

Register reports>Customers>Transactions (Excel)

So based on this if you are sending people bills, you need to make sure that they get your bills before Thursday. 

For sellers of newspapers and magazines. The following automatic updates in relation to newspapers and publications are going out now for the:  

Adelaide Advertiser
Australian
Cairns Post
Courier Mail
Daily Telegraph
Geelong Advertiser
Gold Coast Bulletin
Herald sun
Hobart Mercury
Illawarra Mercury
NT News
Townsville Bulletin
Age 
Sydney Morning Herald 

There are also some new bumper editions coming out for the 

Financial Review, so we fixed them up.

If it takes you 3 minutes to do manually each one of these then that is 30 minutes you have just saved using our point of sale software.

If you want to review the automatic changes to your system that are coming up or if you want to see what exactly has been changed. It's easy to do.

Follow this how to do it.

Go to the Cash register reports

In register reports, select Automatic Update Notes History (see the arrow marked in green)

Now enter in the dates, generally, I suggest the past month.

Now the detailed notes appear on what was changed like this.

They have released fresh information on how to fix the problems caused by this month’s Microsoft security update.

The information on how to do it will be found here and a PDF version is available here. Please, I recommend that if you do this that you make sure the person doing it is very knowledgable on all computers that run the AfterpayTouch software. It is much better to do these things on site. It has to be done on all machines running their software.  

If you have any queries, Afterpaytouch have a hotline service here 

Afterpay Touch Group who can be contacted here

If you are using the Afterpay/Touch system for your Telco products and are having some problems with it, please contact Afterpay/touch now as they have a fix.

For those that want to know what happened exactly, the problem was Microsoft. Please click here for details.

We have been talking for a while with Tabcorp about our concerns with their app and a POS system.  In particular that we feel the Lotto app needs to differentiate between lotto card paid tickets and non-lotto paid tickets. The only way to do this is, we think is to have a different product id in the barcode for the item. 

Each lotto product that can be used with the lotto card will require two product ids, one when paid by lotto card, and one when going to be paid as usual.

In both cases, we want the full price of the item included in the barcode. 

We also feel that having a zero prices barcode is stupid and does not help in any way.

As far as we are concerned but not all software suppliers in this market space, we can handle the lotto-paid product ids internally in the register with minimal changes to your systems. If so, then we can keep the existing functionality as well as new functionality to our users. 

As our system already has a "rebate" feature to store the difference between the price an item is sold at, and its real price which we can use this to store $0.00 as the price sold, and the item price in the rebate column.

This way the receipts will be correct, the total of the sale will be accurate, the till will balance, payments by lotto card can be reported, reconciliations will be correct, and Gross Profit reportings will work correctly - taking into account the item price of the goods as they do now.

Assuming this method is made available, the proposed changes to our system will need to be done

1. A new pay-type needs to be added

2. A new system entry will need to be added to signify that pay-type as Lotto pay payment

3. Database change needs to be done to the stock table as it now needs to store secondary product ids

4. Register change to differentiate lotto paid item and non-lotto paid item

Then everything will seamlessly fit into place.

If you are a lotto agent and happen to be talking to one of their agents, please tell them about this problem and our proposed solution. Maybe if more mention it, we can get something done as this has been going on as I stated for quite awhile.

Update: We have just finished a conference with lotto. They do see the problem. The solution depends now on whether the powers that be there, are interested in doing something about it. If they do give the go-ahead the earliest lotto can move is about a month.

We are working on a new type of debit cards that are coming to Australia. While doing so, we came across some benchmark figures for retailers with point of sale software, which I am sure you will find interesting. These retailers were SMB with 1 to 10 shops.

Overall I find benchmarking useful as you measure your company’s success against other similar companies to discover if there is a gap in performance that can be closed by improving your performance. The question is, if they can do it why cannot I? So studying other companies can highlight what it takes to enhance your company’s efficiency.

Per shop, these figures were found

* The average turnover was $29,000
* Margin 52.4%
* Transaction numbers 608
* Average basket value $56
* Average basket size 2.25
* Customers on account or people with loyalty account 565

If you are interested in this, I would suggest that you look at your figures for these too

* Customer Conversion Rate
* Sales Per Employee Hour
* Average stock turn
* Average stock shrinkage
* Sales per metre
* Overhead percentage Of sales
* Operating Margin (I have noticed that this one strangely is often missed) 
* Return On Invested Capital

Even a small improvement in any of these can have a dramatic improvement on your business.

Many of you yesterday were cut off e-pay. Many of these people got a shock when it happened. I was surprised as we received no official warning either even though we have heaps of clients on this platform. 

This could surely have been handled better by e-pay!

I can understand why so many of them are upset and find this quite serious. Here is a graph of Telco sales in an average client of ours in my benchmark study, which I did a while ago month by month.

Although I found the profit is not particularly good, but what it did do is bring an average of 120 customers a month into their shops. Based on that, now this month, many of my clients will have 120 upset customers. What did surprise me when I did this study that the retail market in physical shops for Telco and Giftcards was growing at about 8% a year. The clients it brings in are a fair range but some of the overseas tourists particularly the Chinese are great customers to get.

The only immediate solution we can offer our clients is an Afterpay touch solution which has almost the same products, of course, there are some pluses and minuses, but for most people, it should do the job well. 

I think, looking at both systems that the Afterpay touch system is better. It is easier to use, which is very important if you have casuals and works better. I also prefer the Afterpay touch team and support better. 

If you are affected or are interested and need to know, please let me know by clicking here.

We should be able to fix you up fairly quickly.

7-Eleven will open in Richmond in Melbourne what may be the first “cashless and cardless” store in Australia on Wednesday.  

The store has no counter. What the customers will do is choose what they want from the shelves, scan the item's barcode into the 7-Eleven app. It will then automatically go to their debit or credit card.

There have been some trials in their Exhibition Street store in Melbourne and based on this 7-Eleven are stated that the checkout time for a customer would be measured in seconds.

With 90% of Australians having a smartphone and with the high cost of labour, I am sure we will see much more of this technology. Whether it works remains to be seen.

You can read more about it  [Page removed] or see this video.

I think you may find this interesting. I decided to make a table of the top ten sales department of the major supermarkets in Australia in 2018 and 2017 and then compare it. Sales are in billions of dollars. What I found quite surprising was the way they broke up their departments.

It is interesting that the big increases are in the products in the fridge.

I would be interested in hearing how your sales went in those departments.