Black Friday means 'savings' to a lot of people but today the term might have a different meaning to you.

Amazon.com.au has made it's way officially into the Australian marketplace today.
Is it hype?

Will it change the way people shop?

Maybe.

Everybody in Australian retail has an opinion but if you take into account that the American version Amazon is already so popular with Australian customers, then it's clear they know how to cater to online shoppers.

Does this mean that the end is near for your business?
Pos Solutions and many of the top retail expert do not think so.

This is the line in the sand that online shopping has been promising and you have known it was coming for years but you may never have realised how important a role you are going to play in this new future of retail technology.
As big as Amazon is, online shopping only currently takes up 5% of the world's shopping dollars. This is only expected to rise to about 15% by 2021 and that is only because businesses like yours will take their strengths and make their way into the market.
Online shopping has its place and it is a growing but it still rings true that online shopping just can't fully replace the know-how and service that a bricks and mortar store offers to shoppers.

What makes the difference between you and Amazon?

The one thing that online shopping doesn't have yet is you.
The future of retail will not happen without you.
The future is YOUR STORE in sync with
YOUR STORE ONLINE.
Your brand. Your know-how. Your customers. Your community.
Online.

Goods from your store to the web. Customers from the web to your store.

That's why we've teamed up with Webtail to grow your online footprint using the tools and data in your PosBrowser system to create, maintain and expand your store's potential. Expand it right now and then above the ever-changing hurdles that will come moving forward into the future.

Not only can you build your own website easily with Webtail but their sync tool has been built to work with PosBrowser from the start. All the strength that 40 years of retail solutions built into PosBrowser, now at your fingertips to control your online presence as well.
Amazon hype will entice a lot of new users to online shopping. So now it's more important than ever that you get in early over that line and get you on the internet so you can display who you are to everyone. All the while using a process that will not interrupt your day to day activities but rather deliver them to new and excited customers.

So to add a little silver lining to the cloud that has come on this Black Friday, Pos Solutions is proud to offer, for one week only $1000.00 off.

For one week only until 11:59 PM next Friday 1st Dec, we are offering the Webtail package for just $3,000.00 ex. and only to the first 10 customers who signup. They will have you trading well before the Christmas rush. They will help with everything to get you up and running for just $3000.00.

If you have ever gotten a quote to build a website before you will understand how good this offer really is. Please, checkout their website for more information or Ring Paul on 0418 504 834. Or email sales@web-tail.com.au

Today every retailer needs to consider a website. What makes our system unique is that it works directly through the point of sale software so the person that knows the existing point of sale system can maintain and use the website. There is no new system to learn.

Here are some websites that we have just done.

This is a newsagent, Nextra Dianella click here. On their website as you can see they sell a range of art supplies, ink and giftware. They are only new, but they are already getting quite a bit of business through it.

This is a garden supplier, they are a boutique plant nursery that specialises in perennials, shrubs bulbs and seeds.

If you want to know about getting yourself online please click here.

We are showing off our point of sale software plus our eCommerce products at the Melbourne Gift Show.

The actual show is huge, so much that I would think that almost everyone of our clients could gain at least some ideas for possible products for their store. Although I do feel that many of the products were too expensive for example I doubt many people would buy $25 socks. I know my daughter has a ball looking at some of the stuff.

If you are thinking of marketing your retail shop online using social media such as Facebook, what you will need is a good camera and a decent graphic designer software.
 

As you will need to produce pictures like this regularly.

The camera is not a problem as most of the newer mobile phones can currently produce images so well that today several renowned photographers almost exclusively use smartphones, so it should be good enough.

A decent graphic design software will take some learning. There are some quite good apps available from the smartphones. One I like is quite simple to use Snapseed which is free takes about an hour to master and it does a decent job. The Rolls-Royce is photoshop which has plans starting from $12/month. It does a brilliant job but does require about a week of solid work to learn.

For most of my people, I would imagine that Snapseed is good enough. If asked I would suggest that you use something like it for a while, and if you feel you need something better at least you have an idea of what you need.

You get quite a lot of options so it would be worthwhile experimenting as you go along. Once you do this you are on the way to being a graphic designer for your shop.

The image here, by the way, took me less than three minutes to make. Once you know what you are doing it, does not take long.

One of the key business rules today is that in the brick and mortar physical world, a shop with a bad website it is better off then a shop with *NO* website. This is because no-one today uses the yellow pages to find you, if they want a product a service say Indian Coffee(KAAPI), a greeting card, perfume or a dog wash, they google it. For example, if they live in a suburb of St Kilda, and they want Indian coffee, they google "Indian coffee St Kilda". If you do not have a website, you are going to be low down in the google list. So they are not going to ring you, they are not going to come to you, they are going to ignore you because they do not know you exist. Test your self with a few products and see how you go.

Even if you hate the internet, no website equals missed opportunities. For a modern physical shop, a website is imperative today.

You can blend the online and physical brick and mortar shop together and see how you can get some of this growing e-commerce traffic.
 

Another one of our clients in South Australia has put together using our software a nice shopify website.