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POS Software

Do this before you start on point of sale software

Sunday, 17 June 2018 11:56:26 AM

It is said that a lot of time and money is saved by planning properly.

Installing point of sale software is a major commitment and as a person who has been in retail for more than 55 years and has had over 42 years of formal computer experience here are some tips.

First, dream big. Think of what the most it can do. Make a big bucket list. I have this, this and this. Doing this will allow you to think of possibilities that otherwise you would reject.

Visit similar shops to yours that have a point of sale software. See how they use it, often you can talk to them too.

Now get everyone’s input. Talk to your staff, husband, wife, son, customers, suppliers, etc to understand what they need and what they think. Many times you will be surprised just how much they know. If you go ahead you are going to need these people to make it work to make sure that they are on your side before you move.

Now determine what you think you need. Do a shop survey. Determine where you think where everything is going to be.

Now we have to meet reality. So invite the point of sale provider (hopefully us) to come. You will find that the person they send down is extremely experienced in advising you as they have done it many times before. Make sure that they will give you a rundown on what their POS system can do, an outline of where the equipment can be put to best meet your requirements, a timetable and a quote.

Now you need to do some thinking.

In my experience, once people go point of sale, no-one goes back to manual because a point of sale it is much better.

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Tax time savings

Friday, 15 June 2018 12:12:00 PM

If you are now thinking of upgrading your point of sale system, it is a good time. Now suppliers are starting to look at stocktaking. What they see plenty of stock that they would rather get rid of rather than count. So they are giving us good prices to get it to move which is why our prices have come down. Plus there is for most of you an immediate $20,000 tax write-off which you can take advantage now. I would suggest that if you are in a position to take advantage of this and thinking of doing something here, you should do so ASAP as it is an excellent opportunity to spend on something that will help you work smarter and more efficiently, improve your shop and allow you to offer better customer service.

If so, I would suggest that you speak to your accountant about tax planning ASAP.

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CBA having issues

Friday, 15 June 2018 12:07:01 PM

There were problems that several of our clients reported using Commonwealth bank yesterday apparently the CBA operators were flat out so took ages to answer.

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User meeting Newcastle

Thursday, 14 June 2018 1:05:00 PM

We would like to invite you to the first of our User Meetings for the new Financial Year. This one will be at the Kavon Theme Restaurant in Newcastle, on Wednesday 27th June 2018.

Food and non-alcoholic beverages will be provided free of charge as its going to be a full day.

The agenda is as follows:

Morning Session

9:30am – PosBrowser Security Options and Settings
10am – Stock Taking and Stock Control
11am – Stock Ordering
11:30am – EOFY Reporting
12pm – Shopify Link with PosBrowser
Lunch – 12:30pm – 1pm (food provided)

Afternoon Session

1pm – Discussion on Loyalty Options in PosBrowser
2pm - Setting up a Loyalty Program & Marketing using PosBrowser
3pm – Gift Vouchers and the new NSW Laws
4pm – General Questions and Answers with POS Solutions Support Staff

Since it is catered we do require a booking, maximum two per site.

If you would like to attend, please fill out Download

It should be a good day and I hope you can come.

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How does online retailing affect you

Wednesday, 13 June 2018 1:31:26 PM

The Online Shopping world has grown dramatically over the past few years in Australia. It is now about 8% of the total retail trade and is expected to grow by about 10% this year much of this is fueled by the number of online shops which are growing by about 8% a year.

What I liked about this report here by Australia Post is that it is broken down by industry, high lighting trends so you can see how your industry is affected.

Two points I particularly thought was interesting was the wide differences in buying patterns in different areas, for example, Brisbane and Toowoomba despite what you would think, online shopping is very regional in Australia and the success of the Buy Now and Pay later model eg Afterpay and Zippay which has closed the advantage of layby that brick and mortar shops used to have.

Another report that is worth look at here is by startrack, I think it has a better overall view.

The courier companies here do have one advantage in that they do have a unique position to see the market from what is happening.

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EFTPOS a tip

Tuesday, 12 June 2018 5:40:44 PM

If anyone is paying by EFTPOS/credit card in your shop make sure that you get a photo of the customer. It may help.

What has happened to one of my clients is that last month as they were doing a credit transaction from a potential customer. The shopping assistant noticed that was doing the sale it looked suspicious, the amount was very high, the person had just grabbed a few items without thinking, was acting funny and seemed to be moving to try to avoid the cameras. So he told the person to wait for a second as he needs authorisation from the bank, which he did not need but it just did not look right. The person immediately ran out of the store leaving the card behind. The card turned out to be stolen.

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Queens birthday

Monday, 11 June 2018 9:36:27 PM

I am happy to report that it appears to have gone well for us. Unlike other point of sale software because we use scripting much of the work can be done automatically.

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For you is the computer warranty enough?

Friday, 8 June 2018 3:32:00 PM

We provide free to clients that purchase equipment from us a free extra layer of protection, a year onsite replacement for damaged hardware.

The scenario was that the client required a computer at work where he spends most of his time but also wanted the computer for after work so he can work from home or anywhere else for that matter. This cloud function is available on our POS Software. So a laptop made a lot of sense. He bought a Dell laptop, from a Dell reseller that only offered standard Dell servicing which he was told included on-site warranty. Once he got the laptop, he switched it on at work and used it. It worked fine for about half an hour, then the fan became loud and after an hour became very loud. Underneath when he felt the laptop was very hot. So the client switched off the laptop, not wanting to damage the laptop by cooking it but also the noise was so loud now it was unbearable. He did not use the laptop for the rest of the day. The next day, Day 2 he tried again and the same thing happened.

Now with us, we would have arranged for a replacement laptop to be sent to him and take the laptop back till it was fixed. End of problem.

However, my client did not have this option and he is computer savvy which was to help him with this problem as you will see. He did some research online on the internet and saw that it was a known problem and that he should download a few patches which people reported fixed the problem with them. This did not work for him so he emailed the laptop reseller who telephoned him and told him to use Dell support as there was nothing he could do since the patches did not work, so my client emailed Dell to report the problem. The next day, Day 3 Dell emailed him to ask him to run a special Dell software program that checks and fixes Dell laptops. My client did this and while doing this then later told me that he was sure that all this software was doing was downloading the same patches he had already done but felt he had to follow the procedure outlined by Dell. It took ages so he left the laptop on overnight to finish the task. Next day, Day 4, he tested the laptop and the same problem occurred so he emailed Dell and was told that a technician would call to organise a time. So it was the weekend coming so Monday Day 7, the technician called to book a time for Tuesday. On Tuesday, Day 8, the technician called to say that he could not make the time arranged but could come after hours. Unfortunately, the laptop was at work, so after-hours did not work, so they booked it in for the next day. Day 8 the technician came, replaced much of the insides of the computer, switched it on and the noise had stopped, wonderful. The processor was said to be the fault as clearly it looked like it had been cooked. The technician left, my client used the laptop about half an hour later the same problem reoccured. So my client contacted Dell to say the problem is not fixed. On Day 9, a technician was booked for the next day. On Day 10, another technician came spent over an hour and replaced everything inside. Then left. Once my client came back and tested it the same problem was still there. So when Dell contacted him, he notified them that the problem was still there. The Monday, Day 11 he was notified that Dell would need the computer to check and it should be sent to them. This was expected to take two (2) weeks after he sent it to them so we are looking at Day 26 before he has his laptop. Having no choice my client took the laptop home to send it on Tuesday on the way to work. At home he tested the laptop and it worked fine. There was nothing wrong with it. What was wrong? He thought about it. Than had a brainwave, at work he had used the laptop as a computer, as such all he had done was switch it into the network and did not even bothered to open the laptop up, as he preferred a regular monitor and keyboard while at home he had opened it up as he did not have such a setup. He decided rather than send it to Dell to experiment with whether it was the laptop not being opened that was the problem. This turned out to be the solution.

Okay at the end, you can say full marks to Dell for trying to fix it but at the best that laptop was going to be out of commission for more than 26 days because the fact that the problem was that the laptop was not opened in use would be unlikely to be discovered.

As it was, the laptop was not essential to the business, if it was a server knocked out for 26 days, it would have been very serious.

Not all warranties are the same. Do not assume so. Our warranty was, in this case, clearly better than this manufacturers.

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How to celebrate your customer's birthdays

Thursday, 7 June 2018 1:35:40 PM

Every one of us comes to our birthday gets heaps of organisations offering us something to buy with them. The reason why is because nothing else seems to bring people in like a birthday offer. Here is a screenshot of a study click here for more details

According to the study, 51 percent of consumers do feel special if a retailer acknowledges their birthday, and 40 percent are more likely to shop at a retailer that recognises their birthday. I can believe that as nothing seems to bring people into a shop than a birthday offer.

With your POS software check out the Customer Loyalty Mailing section, there are as you can see heaps of options just on the primary screen here we will discuss the other options later.

Note you can relate it to previous purchases too to personalise it.

If you are going to do this, you need to remember a few simple points.

1) The offer for maximum effect must arrive two to four weeks ahead of the birthday. People are making plans, they will be busy, they need time, and you have to give them adequate notice to be part of their plans.

2) It needs to be meaningful to them. Think of your birthday in your shop, you want something unique, special and you are willing to pay more to get it than usual, what is it or can be this item? Maybe instead of an item, you select a range of possible items so to make the net bigger.

3) Dollars overall tend to work better than discount percentages so $15 off if the item is over $100 works better than 15%.

4) A gift works well too, people expect presents on their birthday so, for example, the best bread in our store free for your birthday if you buy over $30 of stock.

5) Studies have shown people will sign up for a shop VIP club just to get a birthday present.

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Stock Returns in your shop

Wednesday, 6 June 2018 5:56:42 PM

One point that I recommend is that you look through the return section of our software. This makes it quick for you to handle and easy for you to keep track of the returns.

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