Point of Sale (POS) Software | BLOGS AND ARTICLES FROM THE POS SOLUTIONS TEAM

How to Protect Your Margins Lawfully

POS SOFTWARE

Payments

Sign that cash is appreciated

My previous post received several enquiries about the surcharge ban on cards, particularly from lotto agencies. For lotto and other agency work, the ban is more significant than for most shops because retailers cannot simply raise the shelf price; the price of the goods is set by the operator. Officially the reduced interchange fee was supposed to pay for much of the cost, but as the recent ATO ban shows, this is not true. This is a different issue, which I will discuss in detail later, as we have been asked to join a group against it. This guide will cover what the ban actually says, why I think some proposed solutions are dubious, and the lawful ways to bring your payment costs down.

This article is general information, not legal advice.

The ban started on 1 October 2026 and applies to eftpos, Visa and Mastercard credit, debit and prepaid cards. American Express and UnionPay are not formally part of the RBA regulation but have also removed surcharging from the same date (PayPal from 5 October).
The change stems from the RBA’s final Conclusions Paper (March 2026), which removed the rule that stopped card schemes from banning surcharges. The ban is enforced under your agency and card contracts.
A banned fee applies whenever a customer pays by card and the charge is linked to that choice of payment method. Calling it an “admin fee”, “service fee”, “platform fee” or anything else does not change the nature of the charge.
Adding anything to goods, such as an official lottery ticket price, may also breach your lottery agency agreement. This fee is separate from the card scheme rules.
The lower interchange caps should reduce your card fees, but only if your provider actually passes the saving on.
Always obtain written confirmation from your merchant provider and your agency operator (e.g., Lotto) before changing any counter policy.

What the ban actually does

The RBA decided that card payment costs should be built into prices rather than added at the checkout. If a customer buys a $5 scratchie with a Visa debit card, you can no longer add 30 cents simply because they tapped a card.

The key test is whether the fee is charged because the customer chose to pay by card. Fees that have nothing to do with the payment method. A public-holiday surcharge that applies to every customer remains permitted.

Why do lotto retailers feel the impact of these fees more than other retailers?

Agency operators such as Lotto set the prices for tickets and your commission. A retailer can raise the price of a birthday card by 20 cents; a retailer cannot change the face value of a $10 Lotto ticket.

Illustrative example (use your commission rate and merchant fees):

A $10 lottery sale at a 6% commission earns you 60 cents.
A 1.5% card fee on that sale costs 15 cents.
That single fee takes 25% of your commission before anything else.

Can you charge a flat fee instead?

Some retailers are tempted to add a “platform fee” on every transaction at the Lotto counter rather than a card-only surcharge.

The immediate commercial problem is that you become pricier than the Lotto app or other retailers. I doubt your customers appreciate that.

A new fee that appears only at the register also carries high risk:

Card rules – If the fee applies only to card payments, it is a surcharge in disguise. It must apply to all payment methods. I had a discussion here with a bank. If you only have one payment method, then a fee is probably not permitted.
Consumer law – Pricing must be clear. You cannot alter the official Lotto catalogue price so that an extra fee here suddenly appears when the customer is ready to pay.
Lottery agreements – Many agency agreements prohibit charging more than the official price. Check yours carefully; most do. I have a client who has a dry cleaning agency and has been told that they are not increasing the price for his bank's higher transaction fees now.

A sign saying “2% card fee” or “40 cents on all transactions” does not fix any of these problems even if it is called a platform fee.

What can go wrong?

The lottery operator would almost certainly treat an unauthorised markup on a ticket as a material breach of your agency agreement. A single customer complaint can trigger a compliance review and put your agency or terminal at risk.

Your payment provider can review, suspend, or terminate your facility. Once the practice comes to their attention, it is common for them to take action. I have seen a case where a newsagent was fortunate that the matter did not proceed to court.

How to cut card costs lawfully

1. Check that your fees have actually dropped.

The RBA’s changes lower interchange fees, but these fees are only part of what you pay. The rest is your provider’s margin, and that is where small retailers often lose out. Please query the fees in writing if you have any questions.

2. Switch on least-cost routeing (LCR).

Make sure least-cost routeing is activated. It will not help with credit cards, but it can meaningfully lower debit costs with no change in customer experience.

3. Consider a minimum card spend.

Some retailers set a minimum card spend (e.g., “Cards accepted for purchases over $10” or “Cash only under $15”). This approach does not recover the fee on every sale, but it can help. Before you introduce it:

Consider customers who may not carry cash, such as people with disabilities, younger customers, etc.
Apply it consistently.

I think the best solution is to use a friendly sign.

4. A friendly sign

Here are three workable options:

Direct & empathetic (I prefer)

“We are a small business and are struggling with the growing bank fees. Cash is greatly appreciated.”

Why it works: Radical transparency. Customers generally dislike hidden corporate fees, but they sympathise with honest local shopkeepers. Framing cash as appreciation rather than a penalty encourages a voluntary shift without friction.

Hard margin shield

“We are a small business. We are struggling with growing bank fees. Cash is appreciated.”

Combines the psychological appeal for cash with a clear operational boundary.

Community-focused appeal (for many this is probably the best solution)

“As a local small business, rising bank fees impact us heavily. Cash is greatly appreciated to help keep our doors open. Thank you for your support!”

Frames cash as support for the local economy and reminds customers that their payment choice affects whether their favourite local agent can stay in business.

By now most customers understand the pressure on small retailers, so a well-worded sign usually generates fewer complaints.

4. PayID

I have discussed PayID in detail here, please read it if you want my thoughts on using it in your shop.

A personal note of caution: I recently disputed a PayID payment with a tradesman after an unsatisfactory job. He accepted the dispute promptly and returned to fix the work. If I were an owner of a Lotto agency, I would be wary of arguments with customers who have lost money on tickets purchased in my shop.

5. Use your POS system to see where the money goes.

A good POS system will show payment-method mix and average sale size. You may find that debit sales cost far less than credit, or that most of your card costs come from a handful of low-value transactions.

Payment method comparison

Method	Typical cost	Best for	Watch out for
Credit card	Highest of the card types	Higher-value purchases	Fees may now be lower—check your rate
Debit card (LCR on)	Usually lower than credit	Everyday lottery sales	Confirm LCR is actually enabled.
PayID / NPP	Depends on your bank.	Larger or pre-arranged payments	Speed and reconciliation and possible arguments
Cash	No processing fee	Small purchases	Handling, banking and security costs

Costs vary by provider and plan. Treat the table as a prompt for questions, not a rate card.

6. Use your card to pay your ATO fees

As the goverment has allowed for a limited time people to use their card to pay their AT debts free, its a good idea to use it as long as this offer lasts.

I see the main advantage

No Surcharges for a Limited Time: Following a government bailout and a pushed-back implementation date, the ATO is absorbing credit card transaction fees (funded via a temporary $200 million government arrangement) until the middle of next year. This means merchants can pay their tax bills via "plastic" without incurring the usual heavy surcharges.
Earning Rewards Points: Because credit cards can still be used temporarily without the extra penalty fees, business owners can rack up substantial frequent flyer points on huge tax expense debt.
Cash Flow Management: Using a credit card acts as a short-term cash flow buffer, buying you extra time until the credit card bill actually has to be settled.

Your checklist

Turn off any card surcharge in your terminal and POS settings.
Check that nothing at the counter, on signs, or on receipts adds a card-only fee under a different name.
Ask your provider, in writing, how the interchange cuts are being passed on.
Confirm that least-cost routeing is active.
Review your current statement.
Compare your rates
If you want a card minimum or cash-preferred sign, it is better to obtain written confirmation from your provider and your lottery operator first.
Never add anything to an official lottery ticket price without written approval from the operator.

The bottom line

The surcharge ban closes one door, but lower interchange caps and greater transparency open another. Retailers are encouraged to review their statements now.

Be wary of workaround fees being suggested at present. Disguised fees put both your lottery agency and your merchant facility at risk.

Want a second opinion on your fees?

We offer a free merchant-fee review (powered by our AI tools) for retailers. It examines your current terminal costs, checks whether least-cost routeing is enabled, and provides a written comparison of available merchant facilities.

This article is general information only and is not legal or financial advice. Check your merchant agreement and lottery agency agreement, and speak to your provider, operator or industry body before changing any counter policies.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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EFTPOS Surcharging Australia

PayID at the Counter: The Cheap Fees and Hidden Retail Risks

POS SOFTWARE

PayID at the Counter

Many business owners have been asking me whether they can use cheap PayID to replace EFTPOS and reduce merchant costs while we scrutinise card fees. The problem is that, although most people can use it, "cheap" quickly becomes "slow, manual, and risky" for many.

For Australian retailers, payment choices depend on three main core KPIs: transaction cost, checkout speed, and risk. PayID affects all three. A good retail payment method must be fast, integrated, secure, and easy for the customer. Standard card and mobile-wallet payments do this perfectly. Manual PayID reduces the direct payment fee but shifts the operational cost onto your staff.

Let us explore some of the current pluses and concerns.

Key takeaways

PayID is typically fast: settlement is usually under a minute.
PayID is incredibly cheap: merchant fees are often zero.
Manual PayID is slow: it adds steps for customers and increases staff workload.
Fraud risk is higher: there are many more risks at the counter than with EFTPOS.
Best for back-office: PayID now works best for invoices, deposits, and remote payments.
Training is required: Using PayID safely requires training for both you and your staff.

What is PayID, and how does it work?

PayID is a bank-transfer system. It lets customers send money from their account to another account using an identifier like an email, phone number, or ABN. Settlement in Australia is generally done in under a minute. The customer enters your PayID in their bank app, and the money gets transferred into your account in seconds. Today, about half of Australians have used it in the past year.

I believe PayID works best when the customer and business do not need to complete the transaction together. A lay-by or an invoice prepared for a customer could serve as an example.

The first issue is that, although most people can use it, not everyone can. Usage depends on the banks and the specific account arrangements you both have. The next point is that even if they can use it, only 50 per cent do. I suspect that even among the 50 per cent who use it, many only use it for specific tasks. In short, "you and the customer having a bank account" and "both of you being ready to accept PayID at the counter" are not the same.

What factors contribute to the slower processing of PayID at the counter?

A card or mobile-wallet payment is now simple. The customer taps their card or phone on the terminal and gets approval in a few seconds.

A manual PayID payment requires much more effort. The customer must:

Take out and unlock their phone.
Open their banking app and select the payment function.
Locate or enter your business PayID.
Confirm the displayed business name.
Type in the exact amount.
Authenticate the payment with a fingerprint or code.
Wait for the merchant to verify the receipt.

If the customer has never used PayID, your staff may even have to explain how to locate the feature in their specific banking app. You are effectively turning your checkout staff into bank IT support.

Note: The retail landscape is evolving. Some payment providers now offer integrated PayID via dynamic QR codes at the counter. This allows customers to simply scan a code with their phone, which auto-fills the amount and business details, solving the manual entry issue. We are in discussions with a few providers about the integration, and I intend to discuss it more in a future post.

EFTPOS vs. Manual PayID at the Counter

To help you visualise the differences, here is a quick comparison of the two methods at a busy retail counter:

Feature	Integrated EFTPOS	Manual PayID (Pay Anyone)
Checkout Speed	Very quick (tap and go).	Slow (requires multiple app steps).
POS Integration	Automatic. Receipts print instantly.	Manual. Staff must match bank alerts to sales.
Fraud Risk	Very low. The terminal verifies funds.	Higher. There is a risk of encountering fake screenshots or pending transfers.
Customer Effort	Low. Just tap a card or phone.	High. Users must navigate the banking app and enter the required amounts.
Best Use Case	High-volume, face-to-face counter sales.	Invoices, deposits, lay-bys, and remote orders.

How does limited POS integration affect your store?

An integrated EFTPOS terminal talks directly to your point-of-sale (POS) system. The POS system does the verification; once it is satisfied, it marks the sale as paid, prints a receipt, and records the transaction automatically.

A manual PayID transfer does not do this. A manual PayID transfer creates several new tasks for your staff. They must match the payment notification in the business bank account, which means they need authorisation and access to your bank app to do so. They then have to manually enter the details of the sale into the POS system. Yes, you avoid a 1.5 per cent card fee, but you will pay for it in lost staff time.

Fraud risk

Never let your staff rely on a customer showing a screenshot of their banking app as proof of payment. For example, a fraudster might use a fake screen to convince you that a payment has been made, tricking you into releasing a $500 premium pet enclosure.

You certainly cannot accept a transaction that shows as "pending". The only reliable proof is confirmation through your own business banking system. Until you see the cleared funds in your account, the sale is unpaid. This brings up the problem mentioned above: only people with secure access to your business bank account can verify that the funds have actually arrived.

The hidden headache of PayID refunds

What I like about EFTPOS is that a refund can be processed with a single tap on the terminal. PayID refunds are entirely manual. You cannot simply reverse the refund. You need to make a new transaction, which takes time and increases the risk of human error, as it's all manual. Because it is two separate transactions, there is also a problem if the banks get involved.

PayID payments can be delayed.

Here is what I see as a major issue with PayID: not all payments are truly "immediate". Many banks delay a first payment to a new payee for up to 24 hours. If something triggers their fraud system, the banks will hold the payment for extra security screening.

My wife, for instance, recently purchased a tablecloth from a French company. Because of international fraud flags, the bank's automated system stopped the payment until I called them to verify it was correct.

This creates an awkward moment at the counter. The customer believes they have paid, but the funds are not in your account. You only have two safe choices: the customer waits until the payment clears, or they must use another payment method. You have to ask yourself: is it better to frustrate a genuine customer with a wait, or put your business at risk by handing over goods for a payment that could be rejected?

How to set a safe PayID policy for your store

If you choose to accept PayID, please treat it as an extra channel, not an EFTPOS replacement.

A sensible policy includes:

Never release goods just because a customer shows a PayID receipt or screenshot.
Only release goods after the payment is confirmed in your own business bank account.
Train your staff clearly on how to check the banking app, how to process manual refunds, and when to politely refuse to hand over goods until funds clear.

What's next for your shop?

I think PayID is an excellent bank-transfer system. If you are reviewing your payment mix—which is a wonderful idea right now—start by considering where PayID could reduce fees without slowing down your counter. I would add it to statements, invoices, and laybys.

Is your shop ready for in-store PayID?

If you decide to accept PayID in your shop, run through this quick checklist first:

Bank Eligibility: We have confirmed our business bank account can receive PayID and NPP payments.
Staff Access: We have set up secure procedures for staff to verify payments without sharing our main business banking passwords.
Refund Process: We have a clear, documented process for handling manual PayID refunds.
Queue Management: We have a plan for busy periods to prevent manual PayID users from holding up the line.

If you would like a second opinion on your payment strategy, we have a very powerful AI system specially designed for doing this for independent retailers. We also have a marvellous card payment plan.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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The POS Solutions AI Chatbot Surcharge Schedule

POS SOFTWARE

law

The POS Solutions AI Chatbot Surcharge Schedule

Australia’s card-surcharging rules changed on 1 October 2026. Today we can no longer add surcharges to payments made through designated card networks, while lower domestic interchange caps also began applying.

The difficulty for retailers is that the full effect on merchant-service costs will not be clear immediately. The first industry data is due by 30 October 2026, pass-through information from large acquirers is due from 30 January 2027, and enhanced merchant statements will begin from 1 April 2027.

This staged release is frustrating for retailers who need to understand their costs now. In the meantime, the most practical approach is to establish a reliable baseline and review the available information as each official milestone arrives.

The POS Solutions AI chatbot schedule is designed to help retailers do that. It can organise the available information, compare payment costs over time and help identify questions to put to a payment provider. However, a retailer’s own contract, pricing plan, transaction volume and card mix will determine the final result. If you send us your quotes or contracts, we will run them through the AI.

Why is the information released in stages?

The information is being released in stages because different parts of the changes depend on different reporting periods, and the change has set implementation dates.

The first reports provide industry and network data. Later reports are intended to show how changes in interchange fees flowed through to merchant-service fees. From April 2027, we should receive enhanced merchant statements that hopefully will make payment-cost information easier for retailers to identify and compare.

The first report, due by 30 October 2026, covers the quarter from 1 July to 30 September 2026. This period ended before the new rules began, so it provides a pre-change baseline rather than a direct measure of the effect on a retailer’s costs. The information will be useful for comparison, but it will not automatically determine what an individual retailer should be paying. A retailer’s result will still depend on its payment contract, pricing model, provider charges and card mix.

The review schedule

POS Solutions plans to release the available information approximately two weeks after each milestone. This allows time for relevant reports and provider information to become available and a distillation to be done and checked.

POS Solutions AI review	Timing	What it examines
Review 1: Current position	October 2026	Whether the retailer’s statements and POS data provide a reliable starting point
Review 2: Baseline data	November 2026	Industry and provider data published after the 30 October reporting deadline
Review 3: Pass-through information	February 2027	Published information about how interchange reductions flowed through to merchant-service fees
Review 4: Foreign cards and statements	April 2027	Foreign-issued card caps and enhanced merchant-statement information

Review 1: October 2026

The first review establishes the retailer’s current position after the new rules began on 1 October 2026.

The review can examine whether the retailer’s statements contain enough detail to identify:

Total card-acceptance costs.
Domestic debit and credit transactions.
Foreign-issued card transactions, where applicable.
Fixed fees and percentage-based charges.
Terminal, gateway, platform and account charges.
The relationship between POS sales and settlement totals.

A reliable starting point is important because a retailer needs its own baseline before it can measure any changes.

Review 2: November 2026

The second review follows the first reporting deadline of 30 October 2026. The report covers the quarter from 1 July to 30 September 2026. Because this information is before the surcharge ban and related changes began, it only provides a pre-change reference point. We hope that this information will help our clients compare themselves to the broader market conditions, hopefully giving us a precise calculation of what an individual business should have saved.

Review 3: February 2027

Large acquirers must begin publishing information about how reductions in interchange fees flowed through to merchant-service fees. The big question is how the answer to the government will be framed. The justification for the changes. We expect that it will be only partly true as we think that other fees like merchant-service costs may be increased or added, such as security fees, scheme fees, acquirer margins, fixed charges, terminal costs, gateway charges, etc.

In any case the published information will give retailers a stronger basis for asking their provider to explain changes in pricing.

Review 4: April 2027

From this date, foreign-issued card interchange caps and enhanced merchant-statement requirements should make international-card costs easier to identify and compare. Only then will enhanced statement requirements apply. It's unbelievable seven months later.

How POS Solutions AI reviews payment costs is explained below.

If the information supplied to the retailer meets expectations, POS Solutions AI can compare:

POS sales data.
Payment reports.
Merchant statements.
Provider pricing information.
Regulatory milestones.
Card volumes and transaction values.

The system does not rely on one advertised rate. It compares total costs with the value and number of card transactions.

For example, a retailer may process $62,000 in card sales and pay $1,150 in total card-acceptance costs during a month. The effective cost is approximately 1.85 per cent.

If the previous month’s cost was $1,200 on $60,000 in card sales, the previous effective rate was 2.00 per cent.

This evidence would show that the effective rate has fallen. The review can then investigate why. Possible explanations may include:

A change in the retailer’s card mix.
More or fewer foreign-issued cards.
A change in average transaction value.
A new monthly or account charge.
A change in the provider’s pricing.
Differences between POS sales and settlement totals can also be useful.

As you can appreciate, although a lower effective rate is useful information, it does not by itself prove that the retailer’s pricing has improved.

What the reviews can identify

At each scheduled review, POS Solutions AI may help identify:

Changes in total card-related costs.
Changes in the effective payment rate.
Unusual increases in provider charges.
Differences between POS sales and settlement
Changes in average transaction value and card volume.
Missing or unclear card-category information.
Possible differences between provider claims and the retailer’s own records.
The date of the next scheduled update is also included.

Most importantly, the system can compare the retailer’s POS data with the payment provider’s reports and pricing information. If the figures do not match, the system can flag the difference for further investigation.

The chatbot helps to organise and analyse information. It does not replace the retailer’s payment provider, accountant or financial adviser, and it cannot determine the meaning of a contract where the underlying information is incomplete or unclear.

Questions to ask your provider

If the figures do not match, the AI can write a request for a written clarification from the payment provider.

Useful questions include:

What changed in my pricing from 1 October 2026?
Which part of my merchant-service fee reflects interchange?
Did my blended rate change?
Did any terminal, gateway, platform or account charges change?
How do you classify domestic debit, domestic credit and foreign-issued cards?
Are foreign-issued card transactions separately identified?
Can I receive an enhanced merchant statement?
Which statement period will first include the enhanced information?
How have any reductions in interchange fees been reflected in my pricing?
Are there any new minimum monthly charges or account fees?

Written answers are more useful than a general advertised rate because they give the retailer a record that can be compared with statements and POS data.

Conclusion

The payment reforms will not produce one universal cost for every retailer. Two businesses may process similar sales but have different results.

The POS Solutions AI schedule is intended to provide you a way to review the available information as it is released.

The information will continue to arrive in stages. A retailer’s own records therefore remain the most important starting point for understanding how the changes affect the business.

If you send us your quotes or contracts, we will run them through the AI.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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Card Surcharge Ban 2026 now on

POS SOFTWARE

Australian Card Surchage Ban

Australian retailers can no longer add a separate fee when customers pay by card on eftpos, Visa, Mastercard, American Express and UnionPay. All have dropped surcharging. PayPal follows suit on 5 October. Other cards, such as Diners Club, may depend on your EFTPOS provider.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, so please do not accept my advice without checking.

As a quick note, most of us have read this ruling by the ATO, and I thought it sucked. Where is all this saving on the interchange fee that was supposed to be paid for the transaction the government claimed?

Notice showing ATO will stop accepting credit cards — ATO confirms it will stop accepting credit card payments

Quick Summary: Can I Still Charge Card Fees?

No. You can't add a fee just because a customer pays by card, whether in-store, online or in-app.
Yes to genuine booking, service, delivery and weekend or public holiday fees, provided they aren't a disguised card surcharge.
Yes to cash or PayID discounts.
Yes to minimum card spends, if disclosed upfront — and you cannot charge a fee for falling short.
Yes to refusing credit cards or specific brands if disclosed before purchase.
Single-price rule: the advertised price must be the total mandatory price.

What the Card Surcharge Ban Actually Covers

Banned vs. Still Allowed Fees

Banned:

Any surcharge applied because the customer used a covered card type (credit, debit or prepaid), whether in-store, online or in-app.

Still Allowed:

Fees unrelated to the card, such as booking, platform fees, service and delivery fees, and weekend or public holiday surcharges.

5 Legal Ways SMBs Can Protect Their Margins

You still pay processing fees. You just can't itemise them as a card surcharge.

Bake your costs into your prices.
Offer cash or PayID discounts. You may offer something like "1.5% off for cash".
Set minimum card spends, disclosed upfront. You can decline a transaction under the minimum. You can't charge a fee for being under it.
Refuse cards or specific brands. You can decline credit cards entirely while accepting other schemes, as long as customers are told before purchase.
Ensure platform and ordering fees are handled correctly.
- Obtain advice from the third-party service before doing so. A genuine platform fee is for online ordering, click-and-collect, QR ordering or a booking tool.
- The fee must be for the service.
- It should apply regardless of payment method.
- If it is mandatory and can be calculated in advance, it must be shown upfront.

Who Is Watching? (ACCC and Card Networks)

Some card networks and payment providers have stated they will be enforcing the no-surcharge rules. That includes eftpos, Visa and Mastercard, as well as providers like Stripe, Square, Tyro and the banks.

A Practical Playbook

Model your price lift.
Clear signage. If you have a minimum card spend, ensure clear signage.
Review platform fees. Please ensure that the fees are service-based and disclosed upfront.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Adding a "merchant fee" or "processing fee" for card payments.
Hidden mandatory fees on the final screen.
Assuming the ban removes your costs.

Bottom Line

The ban is real and in force and operates partly through card-network rules not just a simple ACCC prohibition.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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Make Better Retail Images Using AI

POS SOFTWARE

Business photography

Orginal image of a can of drink

AI improved image

Today a retailer often needs images, but many put it off. They see what others produce and they feel that their images are not as good, that they lack the skills to take professional photos or that it’s simply too time-consuming. That is not true today, as you can use AI to create high-quality images for your shop’s social media, advertising, online store, eBay listings, or even technical diagrams. See above for a before and after shot of a can of drink. Here is how to do it.

Key Takeaways

AI tools can instantly and easily correct your images
Your products and store displays can look like they were shot in a studio
Basic smartphone skills are enough

What is AI-assisted image editing for retail?

You are using AI to fix lighting, remove messy backgrounds, and improve the image. The result is a clean, professional image ready to use. Better images matter because they increase engagement, clarify instructions, and improve product presentation. If a photo is poor quality, customers simply won't look at it.

It’s an immediate turn-off.

I once had a client who drew a rough, handwritten plan for the council. Because it looked messy, in an argument with another party, they stated that his poor presentation of his plan showed how bad the proposal was. If he had taken a photo of that hastily drawn layout and fed it to an AI tool, he could have asked it to turn his idea into a professional-looking visual. Ask yourself, how do you react to a poorly drawn diagram?

How can SMB retailers use images to promote on social media?

For many of my customers, social media is their primary form of advertising. It’s cost-effective, quick, and effective. However, to get people to look at them, you need decent photos.

Just look at the social media pages of major retail brands; you will see that their posts rely heavily on high-quality imagery. They know they only have a few seconds to grab a person's attention. With a good picture you have a chance that they will read your offer. Who is going to take up an offer if they first see a bad photo?

The images don't have to be spectacular. Many successful social media photographs are quite ordinary. You could simply show:

A new jigsaw puzzle that has just arrived in your shop
A newly released book
A Christmas and Mother's Day promotion
A unique gift item
An intriguing new toy in your pet shop
A floor display in your store
A clearance sale

How to get started

1. Take the photos.

Start by using your smartphone. Because digital photos cost nothing, take at least five shots from different positions. I find placing the product on a white sheet of cardboard under good, natural light works best. The better your initial photo, the better the AI can improve it.

Move closer (for detail)
Move further back (for context)
Take a photo from directly above
Try the left side
Try the right side

You will often find the best shot is your first choice, but it is always worth experimenting.

2. Edit with AI

Next, open your preferred AI tool. Most modern AI platforms have image processing capabilities. Now give the AI your photos and ask it to improve them as you want professional images to send to your customers. Ask for a few different attempts; it saves time.

If you don't like the result, tell the AI what you don't like and ask it to try again. Keep going until you get the look you want.

3. Check your details

Crucial step: You must check that labels, logos, prices, packaging, and visible text match the real product before using any AI-edited image. AI can sometimes "hallucinate" and alter text and branding. Your goal is for the image to show the real product.

Always do a final visual check.

Group shots

Getting the whole retail team together for a staff photo is notoriously difficult. Often you find, once you take it, someone has ruined the shot. They looked away, their eyes bulging, etc. Instead of doing reshoots, submit a few attempts to an AI image editor and ask it to fix the photos. AI can easily remove blinkers, fix stray hairs, or blend the best faces from multiple takes into one perfect group shot. It's a good idea to have everyone in the group have something unique so you can say the redhead girl looked away in the photo and use this photo to show her looking at the camera.

Diagrams and Layouts

If a hand-drawn sketch of a window display, custom order, or store layout looks messy, no one will take it seriously, including the customer. You can upload your rough sketch to an AI image tool and ask it to clean it up, turning a bad drawing into a professional, clear diagram or 3D-style visual. See a before and after shot.

Shops sales on a rough draft

Ai improved plan

Technical checklist

Resolution: Aim for product images at a minimum of 2000×2000 px
Format: Save as JPEG or WebP at about 90–95% quality. I prefer JPEG but most prefer WebP

Conclusion

"The examples above show how a quick smartphone photograph or a rough hand-drawn idea can be developed into a clearer, more professional image with the help of AI. The purpose isn't to replace the original idea, but to communicate it more effectively to your customers."

Please always double-check the finished image to ensure that product details, labels, and prices remain 100% accurate!

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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How to Calculate Your True EFTPOS Cost in Minutes

POS SOFTWARE

Cost control

Retail credit management

Calculate Your True EFTPOS Cost in Minutes
Here is a step-by-step way to calculate what you really pay each month for EFTPOS and credit cards. It takes a few minutes and uses information you already have in your POS system.

For most small businesses turning over around $1 million a year, the total cost of accepting cards is typically between 1.1% and 2.5% of card sales. It depends on your average basket size, number of transactions, the plan you are on and how good a negotiator you are.

That might not sound like much, but on $40,000 to $60,000 in monthly card sales, a difference of 1% adds up to nearly $6,000 a year. Multiply that across a group and you quickly see why this is worth checking.

What You Will Need

Your merchant statement or rate sheet from your EFTPOS provider
From your POS system, run a 12-month totals report: total sales value and number of transactions for each payment type — eftpos, Visa/Mastercard debit, Visa/Mastercard credit, and American Express

The Simple Formula

For each card type, calculate:

Monthly cost = (Monthly sales × percentage rate) + (Monthly transactions × fixed fee per transaction)

To get the monthly figures from your 12-month POS report:

Monthly sales = Total sales for that card type ÷ 12
Monthly transactions = Number of sales for that card type ÷ 12

Then work out your most important number — your effective rate:

Effective rate = (Total monthly fees ÷ Total monthly card sales) × 100

This single percentage tells you the true cost and is what you should use to check your margins.

A Worked Example: A Newsagency or Pet Shop

Imagine an average month for a suburban newsagency with a bookshop and gift section. The rates below are examples only to show the maths. Yours will depend on your provider and whether least-cost routeing is enabled.

Total card sales for the month: $45,000

Card Type	Monthly Sales	Monthly Transactions	Example Rate	Monthly Cost
EFTPOS	$22,000	900	0.40%	$88.00
Visa / Mastercard debit	$13,000	450	0.50%	$65.00
Visa / Mastercard credit	$8,000	220	1.00%	$80.00
American Express	$2,000	40	1.30%	$26.00
Total	$45,000	1,610		$259.00

For this example we have assumed no fixed per-transaction fee to start.

Effective rate = $259 ÷ $45,000 × 100 = 0.58%

This is a best-case rate, usually only possible with least-cost routeing turned on and no terminal rental included. Most businesses will see a higher number on their actual statement.

Now add a 10-cent fixed fee on every transaction, which many plans include:

Fixed fees: 1,610 × $0.10 = $161.00
New total: $259 + $161 = $420.00
New effective rate: $420 ÷ $45,000 × 100 = 0.93%

That extra 0.35% comes entirely from the cents-per-transaction charge. On top of this, you may also pay a terminal rental of $30 to $80 per month, which should be but is often not included in this percentage.

Now if you look through your statements, we will see other charges that you need to add to your costs.

Use these to calculate your actual percentage.

This actual percentage tells you, for example, if an item's retail price is $10, and your actual percentage is 0.95%. It costs you $10 x 0.95% for EFTPOS to sell it.

Common Pricing Models

Providers quote costs differently. Knowing your model helps you use the formula:

1. Flat-rate or blended pricing: One percentage applies to all card types, for example, 1.1% on everything. It is simple to calculate, but you often overpay on cheaper EFTPOS and debit transactions.

2. Interchange-plus or scheme-plus pricing: You pay the actual interchange or scheme cost plus a fixed margin. This is usually cheaper at scale, but the statements can look more complex.

3. Tiered pricing: Different rates apply to "qualified", "mid-qualified" and "non-qualified" transactions. It is harder to forecast, which is why calculating your own effective rate is so important.

Whichever model you are on, your effective rate (total fees divided by total card sales) lets you compare like with like.

Putting Your Numbers to Work

Once you know your numbers, you can:

Check whether your rates are reasonable. For a sub-$1m turnover business, an effective rate of 1.1% to 2.5% is common depending on your provider and card mix.

Model changes. What if you negotiated 0.2% off your credit rate? What if you moved to a plan with a slightly higher percentage but no terminal rental? Plug the new rates into the same formula and compare.

A Quick Checklist for Your Next Statement

When your next merchant statement arrives, look for:

Your total card turnover for the month
The total fees charged
A breakdown by card type, if provided
Any fixed per-transaction fees or terminal rental charges
The effective rate, or calculate it yourself: (total fees ÷ total card sales) × 100
Add extras to calculate your actual rate.

That one number tells you more about what you are really paying.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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What Should a Retailer Check in a Merchant EFTPOS Rate Before Signing

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POS SOFTWARE

What Should a Retailer Check in a Merchant EFTPOS Rate Before Signing

From 1 October 2026, changes to card surcharge rules make it harder for many retailers to pass merchant fees directly to customers.

Payment providers know retailers are reviewing their options right now, so many are offering deals with features that I think are smoke and mirrors, designed to hide the real cost. Before you sign, take a breath. Yes, a good-looking rate can save you real money, but a bad deal will hurt badly. Here are the six checks I'd run on any offer.

1. How Long Does the Contract Lock You In?

I've said this before: be very careful about signing a long-term contract now. Three-year merchant agreements are still the norm, so ask for a month-to-month agreement instead. If the provider insists on a longer commitment, ask what it will cost to leave, whether terminal rental continues after you stop using the terminal, and whether the provider can change its rates during the term. In my experience these long-term contracts are only long-term to you not the provider.

No one knows exactly how the market will settle after 1 October, and it will keep shifting. So you need flexibility more than ever.

2. Does the Quote Match Your Card Mix?

A provider can't tell you what its offer will really cost without knowing how your customers pay. As a working example, most of our retail clients process roughly 75% debit and 25% credit card transactions. Check your end-of-day POS reports and merchant statements for your own split.

Only once you have that figure should you ask the provider to price your debit and credit transactions specifically. A flat rate of 1.2% or 1.4% is easy to compare, but simplicity isn't the same as value. Always ask for the estimated total monthly fee in dollars, not just a headline rate.

3. What Does the Basket Size Cost on Your Actual Sales?

Your average basket size matters. For many of our retail clients it sits around $20 to $30, but a lot of smaller sales can change the result quickly. I have seen quotes based on $5 basket sizes. Clearly these are based on very old industry figures.

The facts are a 12-cent fee on a $25 debit sale works out to 0.48%. The same 12-cent fee on a $4 drink or newspaper works out to 3%. Some provider pricing models are still based on older transaction patterns, with far more small transactions than retailers typically see today. Check your end-of-day POS reports and merchant statements for your real basket size, then ask the provider to run the quote against those actual figures.

4. When Will the Money Reach Your Account?

A low rate isn't much use if your takings arrive after you need them. This matters especially if you sell lotto and need enough cash available by settlement day. The penalties will cost you more then the savings.

Ask the provider for its daily cut-off time and when funds from each day's sales will actually land in your bank account. Check Fridays, weekends and public holidays specifically. If faster settlement requires opening an account with a particular bank, factor that into your decision.

Don't accept "fast settlement" as an answer on its own. Ask for the schedule in writing, then compare it against the dates you need to pay lotto, suppliers and wages.

5. What Fees Sit Outside the Headline Rate?

If the offer uses interchange-plus pricing, ask the provider to show the interchange charges and any other fees separately. Don't assume interchange-plus will always beat a blended rate — always compare the final dollar amounts.

Also check least-cost routing (LCR). Ask whether it's available, whether it's switched on for your terminals, and how the provider decides which network to use for eligible debit taps. We recently reviewed a client's EFTPOS plan and found LCR had never been activated — they'd been paying more than they should. This isn't an isolated case: the RBA's own review found LCR is enabled for only around 84% of eligible in-person merchants, and switched on by just three of eleven large online payment providers, and that merchants with LCR enabled tend, on average, to have lower debit acceptance costs. Not all providers implement LCR the same way, so ask specifically how each one decides which network to route through, and get comparative numbers rather than taking "we support LCR" at face value.

Also watch for new fee structures. Some providers now split out security and interchange fees separately. Interchange fees may be coming down, but in some cases the added security fee eats up much of that saving — so check the combined total, not just the headline interchange figure. Terminal rental, security or PCI-related charges, setup costs and exit fees can all wipe out a saving on card rates.

6. What does the surcharge ban cover from your provider?

Officially, the ban only covers EFTPOS, Visa and Mastercard. However, many of the providers are including Amex, JCB and UnionPay. You need to ask do you need them. If so, how much will this unofficial ban cost you? This is important as you may be unnecessarily burnt.

What We Recommend

For now, we strongly recommend keeping your options open. Use your real POS figures, insist on clear settlement terms in writing, and avoid a long lock-in unless the complete offer makes a genuinely strong case for it.

Based on the offers we've reviewed, Swift Payments is one provider we're currently recommending clients consider, largely because of its month-to-month terms, If it does not work out you can change in 30 days. But don't take any recommendation, including ours, without testing the written quote against your own card mix, basket sizes and settlement needs.

If you have a new proposal and want to check what you're really paying, send your latest merchant statement or quote to our support team. We have written an AI to review EFTPOS rates and conditions. We can use that to break down your the charges, to compares them against your actual sales data and other EFTPOS rates, and gives you specific questions to put back to the provider.

If you'd rather run the review yourself, ask us for a copy of our AI so you can do it on your own computer. Either way: audit the offer before you sign it.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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Scanning failures in your POS system

POS SOFTWARE

Work Tips

Barcode

Retail barcode

scanning dirty barcodes

When barcodes won't scan, your business suffers. Here are some of the problems it causes:

Your checkout runs slow, because scanning is much faster than typing a code in by hand.
You often cannot give customers detailed receipts.
Your stock history becomes unreliable.
Your stock quantities drift out of truth.
Manual entry makes more mistakes.

It is better to scan more.

Start with your scan rate

Before you fix anything, get a feel for the size of the problem. This is easy to measure.

Go to sales and select Dissection Sales / Profitability for a Given Period, then run the report. I usually do it for the previous 12 months.

You will see a column marked %Scan. The higher, the better. In the example below, the green arrow marks a problem department.

Is it the scanner or the barcode?

There can be many causes, but there is a simple test: scan the same item on every scanner you own.

If it fails on one scanner but scans on others, the problem is with that unit.
If every scanner fails on the same items, the problem is the barcode itself — either the supplier's or one you printed yourself.

Fixing the scanner

If it is the scanner, try these before you replace it:

Experiment with scanning height. The best distance varies with the barcodes you use and the type of reader, so take a few items and see what works.
Move it away from bright light. Direct sunlight and glare confuse scanners.
Clean the scanner and the printer. A dirty or scratched scan window is the most common cause of read failures. A rag and some cleaning fluid can do wonders.
Check the age of the unit. Scanners are typically built to last about three years. If yours is older and misbehaving, replacing it is often cheaper than the staff time it wastes.

Fixing the barcode

If the barcodes are the problem, look at these common causes:

Red barcodes. Many scanners use red lasers, which cannot read red bars at all. Black on white is the reliable combination. Gift and card lines are the usual offenders — if a supplier prints in red, ask for a replacement label or overprint your own.
Missing quiet zones. Every barcode needs blank space on either side. Often, badly printed text, borders, or shrink-wrap seams printed around the barcode cause failures.
Crooked or shiny labels. Scanners read barcodes perpendicular to the bars, so an angled label effectively shortens the bars and this can make the code harder to read. Keep the barcode flat and straight. Avoid sticking barcodes on shiny or curved surfaces, where light reflects back into the scanner.
Your own printing. If you print your own labels, check the printer. Dirt on the printhead causes poor ink distribution, but a worn printhead, a fading ribbon, or cheap thermal paper produce low-contrast codes just as often. Clean first, replace the printhead if that fails.
Damaged stock. Dirty, wet, or stapled-over barcodes will not scan. There is no fix for these except a new label.

Bonus tip: pick a spot and stick to it

Make a convention in your shop for where the barcode goes — front, top, back, whatever you choose. Apply it everywhere. Staff stop hunting for the code, and checkout speeds up.

One more thing: if you want the bigger picture on scan rates and what drives them including barcodes your suppliers never put on the goods at all.

Now there can be many causes of this problem. The first point is to test whether it is happening on a scanner. Sometimes you improve your barcode scanning rates from this scanner by:

-Experiment with your scanner what height it reads best with the barcodes that you use. It will vary depending on what barcodes you use and your barcode reader. Please take a few items, try and scan them and see what works best.
-Maybe the scanner is in bright light, so try moving the scanner to a different location.
-Try putting the barcode straight. Sometimes not having the barcode straight can cause problems for a scanner to read the barcode. It is also less of an eyesore.
-Avoid putting barcodes on shiny objects as the light will reflect into the scanner and cause problems.
-Cleaning your barcode scanner and printer can help immensely. A rag and some cleaning material can often do wonders.
-Remember, dirty or wet barcodes or barcodes with staples are not suitable for scanning.

Suppose all scanners see if the problem is the suppliers' or your barcodes. If it is your barcodes, check your printer; it may be dirt causing poor ink distribution.

Remember that sometimes you have to replace these units if the goods you sell are not suitable for what you sell or if they have deteriorated.

A bonus tip

You can increase your scan rate if you make a convention in your shop where you will stick the barcode. The front, top, back, etc., stick with it if possible; this will save people from having to hunt for the barcode.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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Please Do a Proper Backup of Your Information

POS SOFTWARE

Computer Maintenance

Business Backup

Cloud Backup

POS Backup safety

I've spent years fixing point-of-sale problems for SMB retailers, and I can tell you that all lost data disasters come down to one thing: no real backup. A computer is a mechanical device, and mechanical devices fail. When that happens, what happens to the years of information you've built up? In this guide, I'll walk you through what actually works, based on what I've seen go wrong in real shops.

Key Takeaways

Computer hardware failure is the leading cause of lost retail data.
USB drives left plugged into a till get destroyed by the exact same fire, flood, or theft that destroys the computer.
Free OneDrive cloud backup gives you an automatic, off-site copy of your POS database.
Retail is one of the most common targets for ransomware.
Use the 3-2-1 backup rule to protect your business.
Australian tax law requires you to keep business records, including backups, for at least five years.
Regular test restores are the only reliable way to know your backup actually works.

Yesterday, one of our clients had a small fire. The computer was destroyed, and the backup on a USB stick sitting in the computer was cooked. Their information is probably gone for good. We are trying to save the hard drive. What you need in your shop at all times is a proper backup system, something to keep a copy of your information safe if something goes wrong.

We can send a new computer out with fresh software installed within a day or two. Insurance may pay for it, but what no one can replace is the years of information stored on your computer.

Your POS system is your information hub. From my experience, most lost information comes down to computer hardware failing. When your computer stops working, you lose access to everything stored on it. For example, if your debtors list only lives on your till, a single hardware failure could leave you with no idea who owes you money or how much. Now add the loss of your stock quantities, sales history, and supplier records on top of that, and you've got a genuine crisis on your hands. To stop this from happening to you, there are three questions worth asking yourself honestly:

Here Are Some Questions You Need to Answer

How much information are you willing to lose? A day's worth? An hour's worth?
How fast do you need your data back? This is what we call your Recovery Time Objective.
How much are you actually prepared to pay for this protection?

In my experience, most retailers find daily backups sufficient. They're willing, in the worst case, to lose one day of trading data. Retailers who feel they need tighter protection generally have to stop trading briefly during the day to run a quick manual backup. Some businesses want continuous, real-time backup, but that's not cheap, and in practice it can get messy fast.

Let's go through the common backup methods retailers actually use, starting with the one I recommend most often. Here is a table of the pros and cons of each:

Backup Method	Cost	Off-Site Protection	Ransomware Risk	Best Use
USB drive	Low, one-off	None (if left plugged in)	High	Quick file transfers
Free OneDrive	Free	Yes	Medium (free tier)	Daily automatic backup
Paid OneDrive (M365)	Subscription	Yes	Low (with ransomware detection)	Full protection
External SSD (rotated off-site)	Moderate, one-off	Yes (if rotated)	Low (if disconnected)	Local + off-site mix

How Does Our Free OneDrive Cloud Backup Work?

Our free OneDrive cloud backup is a built-in feature that automatically copies your POS database to secure cloud storage, at no extra cost or effort on your part. There are other cloud services our clients use, but out of everything I've tested, Microsoft OneDrive gives the best mix of reliability, security, and ease of use. Setting it up doesn't take long through your POS software settings. Once it's switched on, the backup runs quietly in the background after each trading day closes, so nobody has to remember to do anything.

The big advantage of a cloud solution like this is that it stores your backup files completely off-site, away from your shop. That's exactly what protects you against fire, flood, or theft, because your files simply aren't in the building when disaster strikes. What I also like is that you can access your information from anywhere, whether you're at home or at the shop. It's genuinely handy if you do any of your admin work from home.

What I find is that cloud backups cut business downtime greatly, as our hardware department can obtain a copy of your data immediately. We can set up an emergency computer and have it shipped to you, often on the same day.

Free, off-site, and automatic. That's a hard combination to beat.

What You Still Need to Watch With OneDrive

Setting up OneDrive doesn't mean you can switch your brain off completely. You still need to monitor it regularly to make sure your Microsoft account has enough free storage space, since OneDrive's free tier has quite limited storage. You also need to test it regularly to confirm the backup file actually works properly. We had a client whose OneDrive backups, we discovered, were only capturing part of their information, silently, for months.

A simple method I've found works well in practice is backing up your till's information to a second computer in the shop, then using that second machine to run the OneDrive backup. This approach doesn't fully protect you against ransomware, although it does help. To get full protection on OneDrive, you need to use a paid OneDrive subscription. Many retailers use Microsoft 365, which includes such a paid subscription. OneDrive also uses a fair amount of your computer's processing power, which is another reason I recommend running the OneDrive backup from a separate machine, and it will chew through your internet data too. If you're on a small internet plan, this setup simply won't work well for you.

USB Drives for Backup

USB drives are the most common backup method retailers use, and they're fast, portable, and cheap. They're genuinely useful tools, they don't rely on any ongoing subscription fees, and they don't need an internet connection to work at all.

The Serious Drawbacks for Retail Backup

Today, there are too many cheap USB drives being sold, and while not every cheap USB stick uses low-quality parts, plenty do. One client bought some on eBay, and they worked fine for a few uses before failing completely. Be careful where you buy them, and don't assume a low price means a bargain.

This ties into a bigger issue: all USB drives have a limited life expectancy, and older drives become steadily less reliable over time. That's not a huge problem by itself, since they're cheap to replace. The real problem is that a USB stick usually doesn't warn you when it has failed. You might genuinely believe you're backing up your data every night, when you're not backing up anything useful at all. Any backup system needs regular checking, and USB sticks are no exception to that rule.

In practice, I see people leaving USB drives plugged into the till all day. If the computer is stolen or destroyed, that USB drive goes with it. Do not do this.

How Does Ransomware Target USB and Cloud Backups?

Ransomware today mostly targets small and medium businesses, and retail is one of its favourite hunting grounds. "The retail and trade sector accounted for approximately one-third of all critical ransomware incidents recorded nationally — Source: Australian Cyber Security Centre, 2023". Once ransomware gets into your system, it will attack everything it can reach if you let it.

What ransomware actually does, once it's inside your computer, is search for everything connected: external hard drives, USB sticks, and shared online folders. Then it locks all of it at once. Both free-tier OneDrive and a USB stick plugged into your till are easy targets for this kind of attack. Once your files are locked, your computer is effectively useless unless you pay the ransom, and even then there's no guarantee.

This is exactly why the 3-2-1 system exists.

How Does the 3-2-1 Backup Rule Protect a Business?

The 3-2-1 backup rule protects your business by making sure you always have three copies of your data, stored across two different types of storage, with one copy kept permanently off-site. This well-known rule means no single fire, flood, or cyberattack can wipe out every copy of your data at once.

Have Three Backups at All Times

Keeping three separate backups means that if something goes wrong with one copy, you've still got two others to fall back on. This redundancy is what actually saves your business when disaster strikes.

Store Backups on Two Different Types of Storage

Using different storage types means that if one kind of backup develops a fault, you've got a completely different system to fall back on in an emergency. For instance, a USB drive and a cloud backup fail in totally different ways, so relying on both gives you protection a single storage type can't. Mixing storage types is one of the simplest ways to remove a single point of failure from your business.

Keep One Copy Off-Site at All Times

An off-site backup protects your data because it's physically cut off from your shop's computer network, so hackers, ransomware, and power surges simply can't reach it. For example, a rotated external drive kept at home, or a cloud backup like OneDrive, both satisfy this rule in different ways. Being disconnected from your local network is the single strongest protection you have against a targeted cyberattack.

Why Should You Run Regular Backup Test Drills?

You should run regular backup test drills because it's the only reliable way to know how your backup will actually perform before you're forced to rely on it in a real emergency. There's no getting out of this step, no matter how confident you feel about your current setup. I've seen backups that looked perfectly fine on paper fail completely the moment someone actually tried to restore them.

Every few months, take the time to restore a recent backup onto a spare computer and check that everything opens properly.

What Does Australian Law Say About Backing Up Your Data?

Under Australian tax law, you're legally required to keep business records, including backups, for at least five years. If your backups fail for any reason and you can't produce the records the ATO asks for, you can face penalties or have deductions denied outright . One client of mine found this out the hard way recently, telling the ATO he couldn't confirm certain figures because he had no backup of his data, and it proved genuinely expensive.

"Businesses must keep records of all transactions relating to their tax, super, and registration obligations for five years Source: Australian Taxation Office, 2026"

This isn't just a good idea. It's a legal obligation, and the ATO explicitly recommends keeping an off-site or cloud copy of your records as part of meeting that obligation.

Conclusion: Protect Your Shop Before Disaster Strikes

Point of sale system disaster recovery isn't optional. It's a basic part of running a safe, stable retail business. The fire that hit our client this week could happen to any shop, on any day, with no warning at all.

Your insurance will replace a burnt-out till overnight, but it won't replace years of sales records, customer accounts, or supplier invoices. Take the time this week to turn on your free OneDrive backup, stop relying solely on that USB stick in the back of your till, and build yourself a proper 3-2-1 backup routine. It takes minutes to set up, and it's the difference between a bad day and a business-ending disaster.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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https://www.possolutions.com.au/blog/speeding-up-your-computers

How to Keep Old Shop Computers Running

POS SOFTWARE

Computer Maintenance

Point of sale management

Old computers at work

A modern retail computer tends to run 10 hours a day, six or seven days a week. That is very different from a home computer used for a couple of hours at night. After ten years of that kind of daily use, ageing components will take their toll.

The usual problems always appear at the worst possible time, when the shop is busy, and you really need it. Here are five common issues I see in older retail computers.

Now, one point before I start: if you are thinking of doing anything inside your computer, anything with the electrical system, or anything that looks like it could be dangerous, please turn the computer off and do not touch it for a few minutes. Many components can retain charge even when turned off.

Key Takeaways

Old computers run slowly because they are slow computers.
Dust, ageing components and a nearly full system drive can make them run slower.
A slow point-of-sale system costs money. We see longer queues, wasted staff time and customer frustration.
An old computer may still work, even if it runs slowly.
Ageing hardware can eventually limit what software, security updates and peripherals it can support.
In retail environments, a lot of dust can block vents and fans, causing overheating.
Early attention to warning signs can fix problems before the computer dies.

The reality of old Computers

Old computers run more slowly because they are less advanced. As new software is released, your old computer runs slower because it can't keep up with modern requirements. Nothing we can do about that. That will cost a business money. Your customer queues will be longer; you and your staff will spend more time waiting for the computer to work. Although a computer may physically last 10 years, it generally isn't designed to run for that long. For many businesses, five years is a sensible planning life for a computer. At work, any computer that lasts longer is a bonus.

Still, replacing a working computer costs money. If an old computer still runs the POS system reliably, it is worth maintaining. That's what we will discuss here. Just remember: a computer that still turns on isn't necessarily a computer you should trust.

Does Your Shop Computer Lose Time or Refuse to Boot?

You turn on the computer. Instead of Windows loading, you see a black screen with a message: "CMOS checksum error". Sometimes the computer asks you to press F1 to continue. If it works, you may notice the date and time are wrong. You enter the correct date and time. Sometimes that fixes the problem, but sometimes the printer behaves weirdly, or your online software shows certificate or security errors. This is because these depend on the computer having the correct date and time. If your computer isn't keeping the date and time accurately, the battery is a likely cause.

The first thing I would suspect is the CMOS battery. This battery powers the clock when the computer is powered off. These batteries last around five to ten years. It may last less if your computer runs hot. So it's normal for a ten-year-old computer to need a battery replacement. Replacing it is a simple job for a technician.

Does Your Computer Keep Restarting or Suddenly Shut Down?

If your computer crashes and then works again after a wait, it is likely overheating. Often, you'll notice the computer slowing down before it crashes. This is because components automatically reduce their speed to protect themselves from excess heat.

Typical warning signs include a fan running loudly and constantly. Put your hand on the case to see if it's hot.

Start by checking for dust. Retail shops can accumulate a lot of paper dust, especially around printers, paper-handling areas, and stock areas. Over time, dust blocks vents and coats fans and heatsinks, trapping heat inside the computer.

A good video on how to do this is available here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEdC_Np6jUs

Is Your Computer Making a Grinding or Clicking Noise?

A grinding, buzzing or clicking noise can be an early warning sign. It may come from a worn cooling fan, a cable touching a fan, an ageing mechanical hard drive or, less commonly, the power supply.

Do not ignore a new or worsening noise. If the computer still starts, back up important POS, accounting and business files immediately. A failing hard drive can stop working without much warning.

Do not touch the power supply yourself. Even when unplugged, it can retain an electrical charge. A technician can determine whether the problem is the fan, hard drive, power supply, or another component, and advise whether repair is worthwhile.

Does the Computer Crash During Busy Tasks?

If the computer crashes during heavy processing, for example, an end-of-day reconciliation. Start with simple checks. Make sure air can flow to the computer, check for dust blocking airflow, and confirm the fans are working.

If those checks do not fix the problem, you may need a technician to inspect the cooling system. On older computers, I have seen heat sink issues, a failing fan, or deteriorated thermal compound between the processor and heat sink.

You can replace thermal paste, but it requires disassembling and correctly reinstalling the CPU cooler. It is usually inexpensive for a technician to do, and I would not recommend people attempt it themselves.

Why Does Retail Software Freeze or Crash at the Register?

Retail software can freeze for many reasons, including heat, a failing hard drive, network issues or problems in the POS software itself. One common, easy-to-check cause is a nearly full system drive.

Windows requires free disk space for updates, temporary files, and daily use. Keep at least 10–15% of the main drive free, especially on older computers. Microsoft offers built-in tools to review storage and safely delete temporary files or unused apps.

Start by opening Settings > System > Storage in Windows. Review temporary files, large or unused files, cloud-synchronised files and unused apps. Windows also provides Disk Cleanup and Cleanup recommendations to help remove files safely.

I find the free utility CCleaner useful for this.

Be careful with anything related to POS, accounting or customer data. Before deleting or archiving business records, make sure you understand what they are and confirm they are backed up. We have a recommended archiving process.

When to Stop Repairing and Replace the Computer

Maintaining an old computer makes sense only as long as it remains reliable and cost-effective. Like any device, the cost of repeated repairs, lost staff time, and business disruption will eventually exceed the cost of replacement.

Consider replacing the computer rather than repairing it if:

It cannot run a supported version of Windows or the current version of your POS software.
It freezes, crashes or restarts more than occasionally.
A hard drive, power supply, or motherboard repair would cost a large proportion of the cost of a replacement computer.
Staff regularly lose time waiting for it to start, to load reports, or to respond at the counter.
You cannot obtain suitable replacement parts.
It does not work properly with current printers, scanners, payment services or other equipment.
It has no reliable backup, or restoring it after a failure would stop trading for too long.

The aim is not to replace computers unnecessarily. It is to replace them before an avoidable failure disrupts a busy day's trading.

Conclusion

Today's computers are generally reliable, but every computer has components that eventually wear out. A shop computer should physically last for 10 years; look after it, and it will.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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Don't Sign a Fixed EFTPOS Contract Now, it is too Risky

POS SOFTWARE

EFTPOS Surcharging Australia

No-Cost EFTPOS Comparison

EFTPOS and Credit Card surcharges end in Oct

You work hard to find good stock deals all the time. You work all the time to reduce costs, so why give up years of EFTPOS payment flexibility for a deal that only looks good today? Things *will* very soon, and nobody really knows what's happening with EFTPOS. This uncertainty is exactly what puts small Australian retailers at risk of carrying the burden if things shift.

This is why our offer for EFTPOS and Credit Cards have no fixed terms. You do not like it you can walk away, no risk.

Key Takeaways

Card surcharging ends across EFTPOS, Mastercard and Visa networks from 1 October 2026
Interchange caps fall sharply on the same date.
Standard fixed EFTPOS contracts let the provider vary fees on 30 days' notice, while the retailer stays locked in.
Early termination fees on Australian EFTPOS contracts commonly run from $200 to over $2,000, depending on the provider and remaining term.
Free terminal offers and rentals can change in 30 days.
Banks and fintechs now offer no-lock-in EFTPOS plans, often at comparable or better rates than fixed-term deals.

Why This Is the Worst Time to Lock In

Fixed-term EFTPOS contracts tie you to one provider for generally 24 to 36 months. There are penalties if you leave early. Signing one now is betting that today's payment system will stay the same. We all know it won't.

On 1 October 2026, the Reserve Bank of Australia's payments reform takes effect nationwide. Wholesale interchange costs will drop significantly, new fees will soon be introduced.

Consider what this means if you sign a fixed-term contract today. You'd be locked into a rate, and right now, nobody, not a salesperson, a bank, or even your accountant can say what a fair rate will be after the changes. That's why flexibility matters more than ever.

The Contract Is a One-Way Street

Most standard EFTPOS agreements let the provider change your fees with little notice, but you don't get the same flexibility. Check the variation clause in your contract. You'll likely see that the provider can adjust rates or charges with just 30 days' written notice. In my experience, they often blame "third-party costs" or "operational changes," which turns out to be often just shifting costs from one part of the bank to another part.

It's a one-sided deal. If their costs increase, you pay more. If your situation changes and you need to switch, you pay the penalty not them.

In all my years working with EFTPOS providers, I've never seen a variation clause used to lower what merchants pay or risks. It's always used to pass on extra terms, cost increases or now we are seeing to add new fees. I've never heard of a provider calling a merchant to say, "Good news, your rate just dropped and we are passing it on to you." If wholesale interchange drops in October and you're on a flat or blended rate, don't expect your provider to pass on the savings. Now more than ever, you need the freedom to switch if you want.

The Free Terminal Isn't Free

A common offer is "$0 terminal rental for your first 12 months." It sounds generous, but once you calculate the costs for the remaining 24 months of a 36-month contract, it's not such a great deal.

After the promotional period, providers usually charge between $18 and $35 per terminal each month. Over two years with two terminals, that adds up to more than $1,000 in rental fees. Costs the promotional offer didn't mention upfront. Compare this to renting month-to-month with no extra fees.

It's simple: the banks *free* year is paid back, with interest, during the years you're locked in and can't leave.

What Happens When Your Business Changes

Businesses change over time. You might sell, downsize, move, or switch POS software, and any of these changes could cause problems if you're stuck in a fixed-term contract.

Sell your shop with 18 months left on the contract, and that bill lands on you. If you sell your shop with 18 months left on the contract, you'll be responsible for the remaining payments unless the provider agrees to transfer the contract which isn't guaranteed. Generally they will have a different bank which is often a problem. Also if you're on a bad deal, the new owners probably won't want to take it over anyway even if its the same bank.

Zero EFTPOS EFTPOS

That model dies on 1 October 2026, because the card schemes' no-surcharge rules will apply across the board. I think most people on this deal are looking at high fees.

You Lose Your Growth Leverage

If your card turnover increases and it likely it will after 1 October you should be able to get a better deal with lower rates. With a no-lock-in plan, you can renegotiate at any time or switch to a competitor offering a better rate. On a fixed contract, you don't benefit from your growth. You're stuck with the rate you signed up for. Major retailers, I know use flexible plans and so quietly negotiate better rates.

What to Insist On Instead

These days, there's little reason to sign a fixed contract when you can get the same or better pricing without the risk.

Before you sign anything, get these in writing:

No minimum term, or at most a short one with a clearly stated, capped exit fee
Transparent Interchange++ pricing; try to get details on the interchange, scheme fees and the provider's margin itemised separately.
Terminal ownership or flexible rental: review the costs.
Confirmed POS Software compatibility in writing, not just a verbal assurance from the sales rep.
A matching notice period: if they can vary your terms on 30 days' notice, you should be able to exit on the same notice.

The Bottom Line

October 2026 will change the economics of card payments in Australia. Surcharging will end, wholesale costs will drop sharply, and real competition between providers will begin. Retailers who can move easily will benefit. Those locked into a 36-month contract signed today will spend the next two and a half years paying old rates in a new market.

When the next EFTPOS rep offers you a "great deal" with a fixed term for EFTPOS, there's only one answer that matters: NOT NOW

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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Ask Our Australian EFTPOS Directory (Chatbot Goes Live Monday)

POS SOFTWARE

Australian EFTPOS Directory Chatbot

You're probably already shopping around for an EFTPOS provider. On Monday, we're launching an Australian merchant acquiring and EFTPOS provider directory chatbot. Most retailers want to drop their merchant figures into one place and get a straight answer on multiple providers. Here, you can enter your turnover, average sale, card mix, and current and quoted rates. Then you ask the questions you would ask a broker, without the sales call.

Key takeaways

The directory is a chatbot loaded with Australian acquirer, EFTPOS and fee-model source material.
You enter your own figures (turnover, ticket size, card mix, current merchant rate, terminal rent) and ask follow-up questions.
The bot compares banks, fintechs and specialist acquirers
From 1 October 2026, the chatbot is built around cost inside the price.
It will do its best to access flat-rate, interchange-plus and blended quotes.
A useful shortlist for a single-store retailer is still a handful of names.

What is the merchant acquiring chatbot?

The merchant acquiring chatbot is a question-and-answer tool sitting on top of our Australian EFTPOS and acquirer source set. First, it is not a static page ranking 65 logos. You ask in plain English. For example, you enter in "We turn over $18,000 a week, average $12.40 a sale, mostly debit, $45 a month terminal rent, 1.4% blended. What should I ask CommBank versus Tyro versus Zeller?"

Moreover, the source material stays in the workspace. That means answers can point back to fee models, hardware notes and the October rule change, instead of guessing from a brochure.

Why launch it as a chatbot?

A chat fits how you actually run a shop. You can ask it questions, change scenarios such as average sale from $8 to $22 and ask again. This can make it feel real.

The other reason is the deadline. From 1 October 2026, designated card networks stop merchants from adding a surcharge for Visa, Mastercard and EFTPOS. Bank fees now have to live in the shelf price. The chatbot is there so you can model that shift with your numbers.

What can you ask it?

You can ask it anything you would put in an email to an EFTPOS/Credit provider:

"Here is my current rate and weekly card mix. Is interchange-plus likely cheaper than flat-rate for us?"
"We still surcharge 1%. What happens to margin after 1 October if volume stays the same?"
"Compare a big-four integrated terminal with Tyro for a single counter and our POS."
"What questions should I ask before I sign a 24-month rental?"

First, put in as many real numbers as you can; the more, the better. The more accurate, the better; remember, garbage in means garbage out.

How many providers sit behind the answers?

The AI source now covers about 65 platforms. There will be more on Monday when it's released, as we are waiting for a few more providers to send us information. Most are the majors; unfortunately, many providers refuse to release information publicly, but we have done what we can.

What you should have ready before you type

From your total reports, or better yet from your EFTPOS statement, you need, as a minimum, four figures: weekly card takings, average transaction value, debit amount, credit amount and what you pay now: rate plus terminal plus extras. Most of you can import the current EFTPOS provider invoice from a PDF.

What's next

Get a copy and start investigating.

Next month we will release an update once the dust settles.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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A new version of POS Solutions Retail AI ChatBot released

POS SOFTWARE

Management

Notebooklm for retailers
Everyone is very excited to see what AI can do to help run a shop, looking at decisions like staff issues, responding to a customer complaint, checking a lease clause, questioning EFTPOS costs, reviewing slow stock, why cash is tight now, etc.

The information you often need exists somewhere, often online, in such places as a government website, in an Award, inside a supplier document, a POS report, your lease or your financial statements. The problem is finding it quickly, understanding what matters and applying it to your shop.

The POS Solutions Retail AI Notebook brings these sources together. It gives Australian independent retailers a practical AI research assistant built around trusted retail information. Add your own reports and documents, and it can help you analyse the questions that matter to your business. I doubt anyone else has anything this sophisticated for retail in our marketplace.

NotebookLM can generate answers based on sources added to a notebook and provide citations that take you back to the relevant supporting material. That makes it useful for reviewing reports, locating provisions in documents and preparing questions for advisers.

The sources are current now, but you need to review them regularly, as employment, tax, consumer, leasing, and payment rules can change, so always check the cited source before acting. In this third version, we're checking them. So you know they are current now.

Key Takeaways

The POS Solutions Retail AI Notebook has 33 carefully selected sources.
The sources cover employment, consumer law, tax, payments, WHS, mental health, leasing, store layout and business planning.
It was made to be particularly relevant to newsagencies, bookshops, pet shops, gift retailers and other independent stores with broad product ranges.
Add your own POS reports, lease and financial records to personalise it for your specific business.
The notebook helps you find information, analyse reports and prepare better questions; it does not replace professional advice.
To request a copy, email POS Solutions for the current access and setup information.

What Is It?

The POS Solutions Retail AI Notebook is a ready-made NotebookLM workspace for Australian independent retailers. It combines regulatory information, practical retail guidance, financial benchmarks and original retail research in one searchable environment.

It is not simply an empty AI tool. The notebook starts with retail-specific Australian sources, so you can ask a question in plain language and get an answer linked to the source material in the notebook.

For example, instead of separately searching Fair Work guidance, the Retail Award and general employment material, you could ask:

“What should I check before changing the roster of a part-time retail employee?”

The notebook can help identify relevant material. Please seek specialist advice if the issue is serious. It's particularly good for explaining what these experts say in plain Australian English.

Where It Matters

We all manage a wide range of responsibilities. You may need to think about wages, stock, margins, customer rights, rent, etc. at any moment.

A good retail AI notebook does not replace your experience or judgement. It helps you find the right starting point faster and makes it easier to connect a business question with the documents and figures that may answer it. What I find it particularly good for is running different scenarios. What if I do this? If I do it, what problems could I face? Don't shy; I often tell it the idea isn't what I want. Could you suggest an alternative? Sometimes I just swear at it when it is off-topic; that works sometimes.

For a retailer, that might mean examining:

Gift ranges that have stopped turning after a seasonal event
Book-category performance by supplier or genre
Stationery sales before and after back-to-school
Gross margin and stock turn by department
Space allocated to cards, gifts, magazines, books and stationery
Magazine sell-through, returns and allocation
Greeting-card sales and the value of display space

Your POS system already holds important business intelligence. The notebook helps you use that information alongside reliable guidance and your own commercial documents.

What Sources Are Included?

The POS Solutions Retail AI Notebook contains 33 sources. Unfortunately, the free version of NotebookLM includes only 50 sources, so to add more, we have to remove one.

31 web URLs and online resources
Two original Markdown or text documents

The original documents are:

Research Report: Workplace Crisis & First Aid Management
Australian Independent Retail Intelligence Report 2026, stored as retail2.txt

The sources are organised around five areas that reflect an Australian retailer's real responsibilities.

Employment and Fair Work

We included the General Retail Industry Award 2020 [MA000004], Fair Work Ombudsman guidance, and related material for common employment questions.

The Retail Award covers employers in the general retail industry and employees who fit the Award's classifications. The Fair Work Commission's consolidated Award incorporates amendments up to and including 1 July 2026.

If that is not your award, you need to change it.

You might ask:

“What Award information should I check before changing this employee's roster?”
“What duties may distinguish a Level 1 employee from a Level 2 employee?”
“What records and steps should I consider before dealing with a stock discrepancy?”
“What should I check before ending the employment of a part-time retail worker?”

Pay rates and conditions can change. Fair Work publishes current pay guides, including a General Retail Industry Award guide effective from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026. [fairwork.gov]

Important: The notebook can help locate relevant guidance and give you some ideas.

Consumer Rights and Pricing

The notebook includes sources on consumer law such as guarantees, price displays, promotions, advertising, card surcharges, spam-related marketing obligations, etc. Recently we had a client who was threatened over his advertisement as it lacked some required details.

For example, you could ask:

“A gift item is faulty six weeks after purchase. What consumer guarantee issues should I consider?”
“What should our signage make clear if a 40% discount applies only to selected stock?”
“What should I review before changing our card surcharge?”
“What information should appear on a price display before a promotion starts?”

Clear pricing and accurate promotional material protect customers and reduce avoidable disputes. Use the notebook to find relevant guidance, then review the cited official source before deciding.

Tax, Payments and Performance

The notebook includes sources on tax, business benchmarks, financial reports, payment costs, gross margin, GMROI, and business viability.

This is where your own POS reports and financial documents become especially valuable. A generic AI tool cannot know whether your margins are falling, whether gifts are tying up too much capital or whether your rent is becoming harder to support. Your reports can provide that context.

For example, you could ask:

“Over the last 12 months, what departments grew in sales but fell in gross margin?”
“What stock has not sold in 12 months?”
“Which gift suppliers have the lowest stock turn?”
“Compare greeting cards, gifts, books, magazines and stationery by sales, gross profit and stock turn.”
“Which categories may deserve more or less floor space?”

The ATO says business benchmarks help businesses compare selected financial ratios with similar businesses and should be reviewed at least annually before lodging a tax return. For newsagents, the ATO's benchmark material identifies cost of sales as a key ratio for assessing turnover.

Benchmarks are not instructions. They prompt you to investigate. If a figure sits outside a benchmark range, the reason may be product mix, rent, wages, location, business model, reporting differences, growth investment or an underlying problem.

WHS, First Aid and Well-being

Retail businesses need straightforward procedures for the unexpected: a medical emergency, a customer incident, a workplace injury, an aggressive situation or staff distress.

The notebook includes WHS, first-aid and mental-health material to help retailers prepare practical store procedures.

Questions might include:

“What should our first-aid procedure include if a customer collapses near the counter?”
“What should staff do immediately after an incident in the shop?”
“What information should be recorded after a workplace injury?”
“What support pathways could we include in a simple staff well-being policy?”

A retailer often carries staffing, customer and financial pressures. Having reliable support information now, with clear procedures available during a crisis, is very useful.

Of course, for an emergency or immediate health and safety risk, contact the relevant emergency service ASAP.

Store Operations and Leasing

The notebook also includes material on customer flow, store layout, visual merchandising, retail leasing, plastics obligations and business-sale planning.

For newsagencies and speciality retailers, layout is not simply about making the shop look good. It affects how customers move, what they notice and which ranges receive browsing time.

You could ask:

“How can I improve customer flow between the counter, greeting cards and gift departments?”
“Which high-margin categories should be more visible from the entrance?”
“Which slow-selling ranges occupy too much valuable floor space?”
“How can I place gift products near greeting cards to encourage sales?”
“What lease dates are coming up soon?”

Your lease can be one of the most important documents in the business. Once you add it to your private notebook, you can ask it to help identify clauses dealing with rent reviews, outgoings, make-good obligations, renewal options, assignment and notice periods.

That does not mean the notebook can interpret a lease as a solicitor would. It can help you identify the clauses and questions worth taking to a solicitor, landlord or leasing adviser.

The Retail Intelligence Report

The Australian Independent Retail Intelligence Report 2026 is the notebook's central strategy source. It gives the AI broader context on the commercial realities facing independent Australian retailers.

It includes:

Volume One: Market Reality and the Transformation Imperative, Chapters 1 to 12
Volume Two: Operational Benchmarks and Financial Metrics, Chapters 13 to 33
Volume Three: Strategic Implementation Frameworks, Chapters 34 to 49
Volume Four: Future-Proofing and Strategic Foresight, Chapters 50 to 60
Appendices A to L: Worksheets, checklists and templates

The report helps connect individual decisions. A weak category may not simply be a buying problem. It may involve stock turn, gross margin, display position, discounting, customer traffic, supplier terms or the category's strategic role in the store.

For example:

“Review my last 12 months of gift-category sales, gross margin and stock turn. Identify the five poorest-performing suppliers, then suggest the questions I should investigate before changing the range.”

Make It Your Assistant

The 33 sources provide the general retail foundation. Your own documents make the notebook specific to your business.

Start with reports that are clear, recent and useful.

Useful POS Reports

Consider adding:

Sales by department, category and supplier
Sales by item or SKU
Gross-profit and gross-margin reports
Stock-on-hand reports
Stock-turn reports
Dead-stock and slow-selling-stock reports
Discount and promotion reports
Sales comparisons by month, year, store or channel
Customer, loyalty or transaction summaries where appropriate

For best results, use clearly named reports covering a consistent date range. Monthly PDF or spreadsheet reports are often easier to work with than large, raw transaction exports.

A useful prompt could be:

“Review this 12-month sales-by-category report for my suburban newsagency. Identify the five largest sales declines, show whether gross margin also fell and suggest questions I should investigate before changing the range.”

Add Your Lease

Your lease gives the notebook access to dates, rent reviews, outgoings, options and obligations that can shape your fixed costs.

Try asking:

“List the important dates in this lease coming soon, including rent reviews, option deadlines, notice periods and expiry dates.”

Add Financial Documents

You may also add tax returns, BAS statements, profit-and-loss reports or balance sheets that you are comfortable storing in your Google account.

These documents can help you investigate questions such as:

“Using my financial statements and the benchmark sources in this notebook, which expense ratios need further investigation, and what are three possible reasons for each?”

Protect Your Information

Use sensible precautions to protect your privacy.

Your POS reports, lease and financial records may contain commercially sensitive or personal information. Before uploading to your notebook, review the access settings and sharing permissions.

For a retailer using your notebook, the practical protection is:

Use a strong, unique password for the Google account.
Turn on Google two-step verification.
Keep the notebook private rather than sharing it publicly.

Share it only with specifically invited Google accounts if staff or advisers need access. I suggest not sharing it with anyone. You can always send the relevant material without giving them access to the notebook itself.

Ask Better Questions

The best questions are clear about the report, time period, store type and decision you need to make. Ask clear questions, and you'll get clear answers.

Try questions such as:

“Based on the Retail Award, what information should I check before changing this employee's roster?”
“Summarise the consumer guarantee principles relevant to this customer complaint.”
“Review my merchant statement and identify EFTPOS fees I should question.”
“Which departments have declining sales and declining gross margin?”
“What stock has not sold in 12 months, and how much capital does it represent?”
“Which greeting-card and gift ranges produce the strongest return on stock investment?”
“What lease obligations and dates should I put into my calendar?”
“What are the main first-aid and emergency procedures this shop should have?”
“Which categories appear to deserve more floor space?”
“What questions should I take to my accountant after reviewing these reports?”

The most effective approach is to give the notebook context.

Instead of:

“Why are sales down?”

Try:

“Review this 12-month sales-by-category report for my suburban newsagency. Compare gifts, greeting cards, magazines, books and stationery. Identify the largest sales declines, show whether gross margin also fell and list the questions I should investigate before changing the range.”

Important Limits

The POS Solutions Retail AI Notebook is designed to help you find information, analyse reports and prepare better business questions. It is not legal, tax, financial, employment, medical or emergency advice.

Although this notebook is set for low hallucinations, they do happen. The notebook may misunderstand a question, miss an exception, work from incomplete business data or rely on a source that needs updating. Also remember you know a lot more about many things than this AI assistant, so like anyone you ask for advice, check before acting.

What I find useful is using it before I meet an expert to become better prepared; some examples might be:

Identify relevant Award clauses before speaking with an HR adviser.
Review sales and margin trends before meeting your accountant.
Locate lease dates and clauses before consulting a solicitor.
Prepare a store safety checklist before seeking WHS guidance.
Investigate stock and category trends before committing to a buying decision.

That is where the real value lies: less time hunting for information, better questions and more productive conversations with the people who advise your business.

Get a Copy

The POS Solutions Retail AI Notebook is available to blog readers who want a practical AI assistant for their retail business.

To request access:

Email POS Solutions and ask for the Retail AI Notebook.
We will provide the current access and setup information.
Create your own copy under the Google account you control.
Add selected POS reports, such as sales, margin, stock and category reports.
I suggest adding your lease if you want help finding key dates and commercial obligations.
I also suggest adding relevant financial reports, BAS statements, or tax information to review financial performance and benchmarks.
Add more sources if required.

What to do?

Email POS Solutions today to request your copy of the Retail AI Notebook. Create your own private copy, add the business information you want it to analyse, and start turning POS data, retail guidance, and commercial documents into more useful decisions for your shop.

Detailed notes on how to use NotebookLM are available here. I would say plan about half an hour to go through the details.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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POS Solutions at 43: Australia's Ultimate POS System Story

POS SOFTWARE

Pos Solutions

Company vision

POS Solutions birthday cake, 43 years
After 43 years, we have seen cash registers almost disappear, and we now have cloud- and network-connected POS systems. Cheques and cash are almost gone.

Today, 8 September 2026, POS Solutions turns 43, and yet many retailers we meet are still missing the efficiency gains that four decades of point-of-sale experience can deliver.

Here's how a St Kilda bedroom startup became Australia's leading newsagency and POS System software provider and what that journey means for your business.

POS Solutions

POS Solutions is an Australian Point of Sale (POS) system provider founded on 8 September 1983 by self-taught programmer Bernard Zimmermann in a St Kilda flat in Melbourne. Today the company develops POS software and supplies POS hardware for independent retailers across Australia.

It operates from its head office at the Fiveway Business Centre in Keysborough, Victoria, supporting retailers across Australia and New Zealand.

Long before "point of sale" was a household phrase. We recognised that computers could transform how shops managed stock, sales, and customers.

Why Does 43 Years of POS Experience Matter?

Experience matters in POS software because retail punishes downtime. Every minute a till is offline costs money and real customers.

How Did POS Solutions Begin in 1983?

Our first trade show many many years ago.

POS Solutions began on 8 September 1983, when its founder, me, started writing custom software from the bedroom of a St Kilda flat. I was a self-taught programmer with deep retail knowledge and a passion for technology. I believed computers could help retail run better and set out to prove it, one customer at a time.

At the time, most independent retailers ran their shops on paper, memory, and gut feel. I had a one-person philosophy that still shapes the company today. Every feature is from a real retailer's request. We listened to our customers first, then did our best to deliver. This founding habit has never left us.

My early program replaced shoeboxes of receipts with searchable records. I remember one of my first clients telling me he could finally see which product lines actually made money, rather than guessing.

43 years in, and I have loved every minute of it. Turns out they are right: if you love your work, you never work a day.

How Has Australian Retail Changed Since 1983?

Australian retail has transformed completely since 1983, shifting from cash and lay-by books to tap-and-go payments and real-time stock control.

Cards now account for roughly three-quarters of all consumer payments in Australia, while cash has fallen to just 13% of transactions. EFTPOS arrived and changed the checkout forever. Then came barcode scanning, the GST in 2000, and integrated card terminals. Then tap-and-go, online shopping, and soon QR codes. Each wave forced retailers to adapt within months, not years. Each wave rewarded retailers with flexible systems and punished those locked into rigid ones.

As a result, POS Solutions is the market leader in Australian newsagency and well established in POS systems.

How Did POS Solutions Grow into a Market Leader?

POS Solutions grew into a market leader by specialising deeply, supporting relentlessly. Our theme never changes: steady growth built on listening to retailers.

What Has POS Solutions Delivered for Retailers in 2026?

In the past year, POS Solutions has focused on payments, compliance, and practical support. These are the three areas where retailers feel change first. Sometimes the issues are unglamorous, such as when a recent Windows update broke receipt printers across many shops; that hands-on support, not just software, has kept the company relevant for over four decades.

What Can a Modern POS System Do for Your Shop?

A modern POS system manages your entire shop from one screen. It handles sales, stock, payments, staff, and reporting and pays for itself in the minutes it saves at every sale.

It tracks every item from sale to delivery, flagging slow movers before they eat your cash flow.
Sales can be completed in 1.6 seconds thanks to its commercial-grade SQL.
It integrates EFTPOS, eliminating double-keying. Helps with end-of-day reconciliation errors.
Reporting dashboards that turn your sales history into decisions.

Conclusion: Here's to 43 Years

Here's to 43 years of retail innovation and to the next chapter we'll write together.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/more-shoppers-smaller-splurges-as-aussies-prepare-for-fathers-day

Last-Minute Father's Day Merchandising 2026

POS SOFTWARE

Marketing

Customer experience

Retail Analytics

Father's day 2026

We now have the Roy Morgan report on the likely Father's Day 2026 shopper. We expect more shoppers and a smaller budget than last year, which makes sense if more people are shopping. The Roy Morgan report on Father's Day is here.

The critical question for your bottom line is whether they will spend their money with you, or take their business to another retailer that has designed a more visible and convenient shopping experience.

I think we would like them to release it earlier so we can better use the report to prepare.

Key Takeaways

Father's Day trading peaks in the final forty-eight hours; Saturday should be good.
Physical shelf rearrangement is now your primary sales lever
Make sure your Point of Sale (POS) data is set up to give you insights into which gift categories and price points are moving
Make some stock consolidation to group Father's Day products into a single high-traffic display near the entrance
Father's Day items can work on the front counter, as they are now impulse sales
Get ready now

What Is Last-Minute Father's Day Merchandising?

Last-minute merchandising is the process of repositioning existing stock to maximise visibility and convenience in the final trading days before the event. Now ensure that your stock is highly visible and easy to purchase. For example, a Father's Day-type book sitting on a shelf in your book section should be moved to a prominent position. Why not make a table with a sign; it's a great idea. By reorganising your shop floor, you make it much simpler for customers to find it.

Why Are the Final 48 Hours Critical for Father's Day Sales?

The commercial stakes are incredibly high in the final forty-eight hours of a retail campaign. Most Father's Day sales are last-minute purchases. Don't leave Father's Day stock scattered across normal shelving; few of your customers will hunt for these items on their own.

How Can Newsagents Use POS Data to Guide Shelf Adjustments?

Using your POS system, run a top-sellers report for the last seven days to see the current customer demand. Plus, look at the week ending 7 September 2025 to see what sold last year. If it sold well last year, why not in 2026?

How to run the Top Selling Items report

Now that we've covered the value of the Top Selling Items report let's walk through how to generate it in your POS system. I'll use our point-of-sale software as an example, but the process is similar across most platforms.

Here are the simple steps:

Go to Register reports.

Register menu

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

Stock report

You will want about 30 items with the last seven days' sales for your shop, and you will get a report that looks like this:

Specifically, you should review your POS dashboard to check:

Which greeting cards, books, or magazines have sold faster than expected this week
Which specific gift items are running low? It is too late to order more now, but you may have a substitute product you can display. Last-minute shoppers are not fussy.
Which categories are moving? They need to go into a better spot.
Which price points are actively selling?

For example, if your POS data reveals that grooming-related items are moving much faster than puzzles this week, you should immediately shift your shelf space toward grooming products and pull the puzzle display back for now.

v

How Do Front-of-Counter Displays Drive Impulse Purchases?

The front counter is your last opportunity to add value to an existing transaction. Every customer who is already purchasing a Father's Day card is an ideal candidate for an impulse add-on. This is the fastest and most cost-effective way for newsagents to lift average transaction value.

What also works well is a stand of Father's Day goods under $10.

Conclusion: How Do You Make Your Existing Stock Work Harder?

In the final forty-eight hours of the campaign, Father's Day 2026 is entirely a merchandising challenge rather than a buying challenge [21]. Spend less than an hour moving your stock to where customers can actually see it, setting up impulse prompts at your front counter, and ensuring your displays are prepared.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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You Can Use Gemini Notebook to Run a Tighter, Smarter Shop

POS SOFTWARE

https://youtu.be/WexPjiptQXU

POS Analytics

Notebooklm for business

You already track sales through your point-of-sale (POS) system; there is a lot to read, and who can go through it all? No one. Can you go through all the legal documents we get again? No one. We're all suffering in business from information overload.

I think we can all benefit from a system like NotebookLM, which helps close that gap by turning your existing documents into instant answers. This guide shows you exactly how to set it up, what to upload first, and where it earns its keep in your business.

Key Takeaways

Operational efficiency improves when scattered business documents move into one searchable workspace.
Financial data becomes instantly readable, without waiting days for your accountant to reply.
Marketing plans can be generated for free using your own sales history and a holiday calendar.
Commercial lease terms and accountant reports get translated into plain English on demand.
Staff documents, including operating procedures, return policies, etc., can be drafted in minutes instead of hours.
NotebookLM's free tier is quite generous.

What Is NotebookLM?

NotebookLM is a secure, private AI research tool marketed as Gemini Notebook. It answers only from the specific documents you provide. For example, if you ask it to summarise a supplier invoice, it won't guess, and it will quote the exact clause and page it pulled the answer from. This significantly cuts AI hallucinations and guesses.

For every answer NotebookLM gives you, you can check the information source in seconds. That verification step matters much in business, because a wrong number in a lease summary can cost real money. The big problem with AI, in my experience, is that it often uses US sources that don't apply in Australia.

Why NotebookLM Matters for SMB Businesses

NotebookLM matters because independent retailers don't have a dedicated analyst, marketer, or paralegal on staff as large organisations do. They do not even have the time to study it. NotebookLM effectively hires a research assistant for you for free, one that reads faster than any human and never gets tired of your questions.

How Do You Set Up Your First NotebookLM Notebook?

Setting up NotebookLM takes under a minute if you already have a Google account. Navigate to notebooklm.google.com, sign in, and open your first workspace. It is that fast to start.

Follow this simple first-session walkthrough:

Create one general "sandbox" notebook to experiment with.
Upload two or three files, such as a few supplier invoices.
Ask a basic question, like "Summarise the key terms in these invoices"
Ask how much it is in total.
Where are these suppliers?
etc

Just get a quick feel for how it works.

Once you're comfortable, let's start getting serious.

How Do You Set Up Your First Serious NotebookLM Notebook?

I suggest you create one general notebook rather than splitting notebooks on day one. We all need to learn to walk before we learn to run. Once you understand how NotebookLM works, we can go on to setting up individual notebooks for specific jobs such as Christmas advertisements, a commercial lease review, or a seasonal stock plan. For now, start small and grow.

Load up this notebook with some of your documents. The more, the better for experimenting with how the system works. For example, upload your store's refund policy, a supplier invoice, and a staff roster. Now ask a question about your refund timeframes to see how it responds.

What Sample Documents to Upload First?

Use these files to test finance, stock, legal, and marketing questions. Specifically, I suggest these:

Accountant's profit and loss statements, as they will show your major expenses. Tax returns, etc.
Point-of-sale (POS) sales, profit, margin, and stock reports will help you analyse good stock, dead stock, peak trading hours, payment types, etc. I like to import them as PDFs.
Commercial lease documents: ingesting rental contracts lets you extract critical terms and review dates.
Retail holiday and promotional calendars are readily available online. We supply such a calendar free here, which I am pleased to say is highly regarded: The Ultimate Retail Marketing Calendar 2026 - Australia Edition

After you get a feel for what is happening, a one-hour YouTube walkthrough is the best next step. First, I recommend this tutorial, which gives a clear, practical tour of the product. Next, spend about an hour going through this video.

While you go through it, click along inside this notebook.

I like to pause after each step and repeat the action. For example, when the presenter uploads a source and asks a question, do the same with your POS sales report so the lesson sticks. This hour of practice is a skill well worth learning.

There is a fair bit to learn, but once you have done it, you will find the program a delight to use.

Here are some use cases that I use, and I think you will find NotebookLM useful for:

Centralise Documents

Documents come all the time, and we tend to lose them.

Now, typical cloud-based document management software costs between $15 and $100 per user per month,

An SMB business using NotebookLM can do it for free, since NotebookLM works well for this task.

One workflow worth adopting: I upload files to a dedicated OneDrive folder first and then import them into my notebook. Unfortunately, NotebookLM keeps a copy, not the original, so use this workaround. First, search for the document inside the notebook. Next, confirm the file name matches what you need. Finally, retrieve the original from OneDrive if you need the original.

Marketing

Most independent retailers don't have the budget for a dedicated marketing manager, so this fills a genuine gap.

NotebookLM can do it for free and build you a monthly/yearly marketing plan once you upload your sales history and a retail holiday calendar.

Start by asking NotebookLM to find sources on how other Australian retailers run seasonal marketing, then try these prompts:

"Create a Facebook marketing plan for the next month."
"Recommend which upcoming holiday seasons I should prepare for."
"What products should I stock ahead of Father's Day?"

Financial Analysis

Few of us have the skill or knowledge to understand our accountant's statements. What we need is someone to explain them in plain English in seconds. So upload your P&L statements, tax returns, and relevant POS reports. Because everything stays grounded in your own numbers, the answers reflect your actual business rather than generic advice.

Useful prompts include:

"What are my top revenue streams and largest operational expenses?"
"Explain what these accountant reports are telling me."
"Compare my net profit margin, current ratio, and asset turnover over the last three quarters."

Upload rental agreement changes, government budget announcements, or business proposals to extract what directly affects you.

Most importantly, before sending anything to your accountant, ask NotebookLM to audit for unusual transaction patterns, duplicate entries, or irregular cash movements. Catching errors yourself is cheaper than paying your accountant to find them and fix them later.

Legal Documents

NotebookLM can turn a dense commercial lease into a plain-English summary. Few of us have an in-house lawyer, so this is one of the highest-value use cases available. Try these three approaches:

Ask NotebookLM to read the rental agreement, explain it in plain terms, and flag potential risks.
Upload the previous version of the rental agreement to compare exactly what has changed.
Ask it to specifically analyse liability risks, unfavourable payment terms, or hidden fees you need to consider before you sign.

For example, magazine return/credit processing. You'd want to upload your distributor agreements and returns policies to answer "What's the credit window for [Publisher X]?" or "Summarise the damages claim process for damaged stock."

Of course, always treat these answers as a first pass, not a replacement for a solicitor on anything with real financial exposure. Anything AI is ultimately risky.

Improve Store Operations

What I like is that NotebookLM can draft a professional Store Operations policy from scratch in minutes. Let us face it, a scrappy handwritten policy taped to the counter doesn't impress staff or customers. Few take it seriously once they see it. A professionally written document is different.

Return policy (an example)

Let us say you want a return policy; here's a practical sequence to follow:

Upload return policies from comparable stores if you can find them
Also upload return policies from major retailers
Ask NotebookLM to explain how a typical return policy works, then amend it for your shop.
Once you are happy with the result.
Generate a scenario-based quiz from your finished policy. Make amendments if required.
Now ask it to make a professional, step-by-step infographic for staff and customers.

Slide Decks and Videos

NotebookLM turns Point of Sale (POS) reports into slide decks, infographics, and narrated Video Overviews from uploaded files.

For example, ask it to build a presentation from weekly or monthly sales reports, and it creates professional, presentation-ready slides. I find this useful for highlighting key points, making your comments more credible.

You can also create animated explainer videos. I like that you can pause anytime, ask questions, and get plain-English explanations. For example, if a video shows a drop in weekend lottery sales, you can stop and ask why that line moved compared to the previous quarter.

Retail CRM

A retail Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a central hub that collects customer interactions and builds shopper profiles. It automates targeted campaigns, stores order histories, and segments customers by purchasing behaviour to encourage repeat visits. For example, a Melbourne florist can group customers by occasion, then send tailored offers.

Moreover, CRM is now considered vital in retail. Our POS systems already include a free CRM version you should keep using. You can feed selected CRM exports, customer emails, or purchase summaries into NotebookLM. For instance, upload a month of loyalty emails and ask which customers have gone quiet since their last high-value purchase.

Current Pricing and Usage Limits

The best part: NotebookLM's free plan gives most SMBs everything they need to get started. If you feel you need more, there are paid plans. Here's the current Australian pricing, which I confirmed directly on Google's official page: https://notebooklm.google.com/plans

Free — $0/month: 50 sources per notebook, 100 notebooks, 50 daily chat queries.
Google AI Plus (NotebookLM Plus) $7.99/month: up to 300 sources per notebook, up to 500 notebooks, up to 500 daily chat queries. If you have a kid in school, it's half price for them.
plus more

About the free tier, 50 sources per notebook is generally adequate for most SMB retailers, I think. If you hit the cap, consider making more notebooks. I often find that removing dubious or unnecessary sources helps.

The bigger frustration is the daily chat limit. If you're deep in an urgent problem and hit the ceiling, NotebookLM stops answering until the next day, which happens only occasionally but can be genuinely disruptive at the wrong moment.

I would suggest starting with the free tier before committing to anything paid. Create your notebook now, try it out for a while, and decide whether you need a bigger plan.

Data privacy

Google states that content is kept private. Overall, it's pretty good; you do need to make sure that only authorised people can access your notebook. Since the information is in the cloud, police or courts can access your notebook if they want. Australian privacy laws are very good protection for individuals but terrible for the government.

Alternatives

I am very happy with NotebookLM, but I've also seen several other products that are excellent. Logically.app and SciSpace spring to mind. If you use either ChatGPT Plus, Claude Projects or Perplexity, they all have a Project feature that can do much of this too on your existing account, much like NotebookLM.

Conclusion

NotebookLM gives you a genuinely useful, document-grounded AI assistant at no cost to start. Give it a try; you may be surprised how much time it saves. If there's enough interest, I'll run a webinar to help people get started.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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How to Use AI Role-Playing in retail

POS SOFTWARE

Customer satisfaction

Local market research

AI role-playing-in-retail

One idea we pioneered in our market space that I think would be useful to readers here is roleplaying. I will show how it works with a real-life example: testing possible products with AI Customer Roleplay.

You already know your regulars by name and can predict what they'll buy on a Tuesday morning. But have you ever tried a new product idea before buying stock, only to have it sit on the shelf and become dead stock? Here I will show you how AI roleplay works. It can uncover pricing issues. It allows you to test your sales pitches for the product. Also, show missed opportunities before you spend a penny on the stock.

Key Takeaways

AI roleplaying helps retailers simulate customer conversations.
Customer personas built around real shopper habits make the exercise far more useful.
Price sensitivity often surfaces quickly in roleplay.
A structured AI prompt turns a vague chat into a repeatable, realistic sales rehearsal.
Retailers benefit from this low-cost testing method.
The exercise is not a replacement for real customer data.
A modern POS system used by Australian retailers can provide real sales data to confirm or challenge what the role-play suggests.

What Is AI Roleplaying for Retail?

AI roleplaying is a practice where you ask an AI tool to act as a specific type of customer, then hold a simulated sales conversation as if you were serving them in your shop. You describe the shop, the customer, and the product, and the AI responds as the shopper likely would. This creates a low-risk space to test your pitch, pricing, and assumptions before committing real money to the stock.

Roleplay conversations expose blind spots that spreadsheets can't show you. For example, a newsagent testing a new fridge planner might discover through roleplay that the price point matters more than the product's features.

Why AI Roleplaying Matters for Small Retailers

Small retailers often can't afford to get a stock decision wrong. Every dollar tied up in slow-moving inventory is a dollar you can't spend on stock that actually sells. AI roleplay gives you a way to pressure-test an idea for the cost of a few minutes' typing, rather than the cost of a box of unsold products.

Retailers who test pricing before launch reduce dead stock risk significantly — Source: Retail Doctor Group, 2025. This matters even more where margins are tight and shelf space is limited.

Moreover, roleplay surfaces objections you might never hear directly. Real customers rarely explain why they walked past a product without buying it. An AI customer will tell you exactly why the price feels wrong or the benefit doesn't land.

How Does AI Roleplaying Actually Work in Practice?

Setting Up a Realistic Customer Conversation

The process is simple: you ask the AI to act as a particular type of customer, then have a conversation with it as though you were serving that person in your shop. This works best when you give the AI a detailed persona and a clear shop description, not just a vague "act like a customer" instruction.

For example, a Melbourne newsagency owner might set the scene as Dingley Village Newsagency, describe the foot traffic from a nearby Woolworths, then introduce a specific customer type before testing a product pitch.

A Worked Retail Example: Meet Sarah

Imagine a customer named Sarah, aged between 35 and 50, with school-aged kids and a weekly shopping centre routine. She has a busy household and a reasonable income, and she values products that save time or solve problems. Sarah often visits a newsagency because she's already at the centre and needs something quickly.

In one test, the AI played Sarah while a reusable magnetic to-do list for the fridge was introduced. The conversation showed that Sarah liked the concept immediately. She could picture herself managing school forms, sports rosters, and family jobs.

However, she was comfortable paying around $24.95, while $45.95 felt too expensive. That single data point raised several practical questions worth answering before ordering stock:

Is the larger version worth the higher price?
What makes it different apart from size?
Could it be displayed with coloured markers as an add-on sale?
Is there a lower-priced version that may sell more easily?

The roleplay also suggested that usefulness mattered more to Sarah than looking "professional." For her, a family organiser needs to be practical, not stylish. This kind of insight rarely shows up in a spreadsheet, but it appears quickly in a simulated conversation.

Building Five Customer Personas for Your Shop

Since shoppers respond differently to the same product, I suggest testing a range of relevant personas to give you a clearer picture. For many of my clients, I would suggest these useful personas:

Sarah, the Routine Shopper

A busy parent on the weekly grocery run who values convenience and buys children's books, activity packs, birthday cards, teacher gifts, and magazines.

Bill, the Loyal Community Senior

A long-term local who enjoys routine and friendly service, buying TV guides, puzzle books, specialist magazines, greeting cards, and lottery products.

Jill, the School Parent

Someone who needs stationery, project supplies, party items, pencil cases, wrapping paper, and children's gifts, often at short notice.

Tony, the Last-Minute Gift Buyer

A busy professional or parent needing a thoughtful, non-generic gift and card for an event happening very soon.

Paul, the Home-Office Professional

A local working from home or running a small business, needing notebooks, pens, mailing supplies, and filing products without waiting on delivery.

Testing a product idea against all five personas takes less than an hour and can reveal which customer segment actually wants what you're planning to stock.

Which Products Suit Each Customer Persona?

Matching products to personas helps you decide what to test first and what to stock with confidence. Each persona has a distinct set of product categories they're likely to buy, based on their habits and shopping triggers.

Sarah, the Routine Shopper, buys children's books, school-holiday activity packs, birthday cards, teacher gifts, wrapping paper, and lifestyle magazines.
Bill, the Loyal Community Senior, buys TV guides, puzzle books, specialist magazines, greeting cards, and lottery products.
Jill, the School Parent, buys stationery, project supplies, party items, pencil cases, wrapping paper, and children's gifts, often bought at short notice.
Tony, the Last-Minute Gift Buyer, buys thoughtful gifts and cards for events happening very soon, favouring items that don't feel generic.
Paul, the home-office professional, buys notebooks, pens, mailing supplies, and filing products, prioritising items available without waiting for delivery.

Testing a new product against this list first can save you a roleplay session. For example, a reusable magnetic fridge planner clearly fits Sarah and Jill, so those two personas are the logical starting point for roleplay testing, rather than Bill or Paul.

This kind of persona-to-product mapping also helps when you're deciding where to place new stock in the store. A product that suits Jill's short-notice shopping style, for instance, belongs near the front counter, not tucked away on a back shelf.

What Should a Good AI Customer Roleplay Prompt Include?

A strong prompt gives the AI enough structure to stay in character while still reacting realistically to your pitch. A well-built prompt separates the shop details, the customer persona, and the response rules into clear sections. This stops the AI from breaking character or inventing product details you haven't provided.

You can copy, paste, and adapt the prompt below. Replace the shop and customer details for each exercise.

# ROLE
  You are taking part in a realistic, face-to-face conversation in a retail shop.
  You play the CUSTOMER.
  The user plays the SHOP OWNER.
  Stay in character throughout the conversation.

  # SHOP
  You are visiting this shop:
[enter here your shops details for this example I will use:
  Dingley Village Newsagency is a family-run newsagency in Dingley Village
  Shopping Centre, Melbourne. The shop sells magazines, newspapers, books,
  greeting cards, gifts, stationery, wrapping paper, children's items and lotto.
  The shop is located in a busy local shopping centre and benefits from regular
  Woolworths foot traffic. Customers often visit while doing everyday errands.]

  # CUSTOMER PERSONA
  [Paste the customer persona here for this example I will use 
Sarah, the Routine Shopper, buys children's books, school-holiday activity packs, birthday cards, teacher gifts, wrapping paper, and lifestyle magazines.]

  Adopt this customer's personality, household situation, and spending habits,
  needs, and shopping triggers consistently.
  If a detail is missing, make a sensible assumption that fits the persona.
  Do not contradict information already given.

  # SESSION SET-UP
  At the beginning, choose a mood that suits the customer and time of day:
  rushed, relaxed, purposeful, browsing, tired, or open to suggestions.
  Keep that mood consistent unless the conversation naturally changes.

  # RESPONSE RULES
  - Stay in character. Never mention AI, prompts, roleplaying, testing, or personas.
  - Use short, natural Australian English, usually one to three sentences per reply.
  - React like a genuine customer, not someone trying to help the owner make a sale.
  - Be interested when the product suits the customer, but be realistic about price, quality, usefulness, and convenience.
  - Do not agree with every suggestion. Raise reasonable questions, objections, or doubts where appropriate.
  - Do not introduce unrelated shopping needs unless the owner asks what you are looking for.
  - Focus on the product or topic introduced by the owner.
  - Ask realistic questions, such as price, size, quality, durability, age suitability, how popular it is, and whether it is available in other styles or colours.
  - Do not invent facts about a product. If the owner hasn't provided enough information, ask a question instead.
  - Small, low-cost items may be impulse purchases. More expensive items may require thought, comparison, or a reason to return later.
  - Let the conversation end naturally when you decide to buy, decline, or think about it.
  - Occasionally include a subtle action in the sentence, such as "I pick it up for a closer look," but do not overdo this.

  # OPENING
  The shop owner says:
  [Paste the opening sales question or product introduction here for this example I will use a magnetic todo list that sticks to a fridge ]
  Respond directly to that product or question. Do not change the subject.

How Do You Apply Roleplay Insights to Real Stock Decisions?

Roleplay conversations are only useful if you act on what they reveal. The exercise works best when you treat it as a hypothesis-generator, not a final verdict. Once you spot a pattern — like price resistance or a weak benefit pitch — you can test it against real numbers.

Test 1

I wanted to find out how a reusable to-do list that hangs on a fridge would go in my shop, so here is how the conversation went.

Sarah: I shift my shopping bag to my other arm and glance towards the display. "I haven't actually, but with the kids' footy and netball rosters to juggle, it sounds like an absolute lifesaver. Are they the magnetic whiteboard ones or something else?"

Owner: They are good; they are magnetic, so they stick to the wall. You can write what needs to be done, and once it's done, rub it out. I prefer the big size.

Sarah: I step closer to have a proper look at the display. The big size is definitely the way to go with three kids and their endless sports rosters. Do they come with the markers included, or do I need to grab a pack of those too?

Owner: They come with a black marker, but I suggest that you buy a red marker so you can colour-code them: red for urgent and black for the rest.

Sarah: I pick up the large board and nod. That's actually a brilliant idea. I can put all the urgent school forms in red so my husband doesn't miss them. Where do you keep the red markers?

Owner: You can just stick both markers on the top.

Sarah: I check the top of the board and spot the little magnetic holder, which is perfect for stopping them from getting lost in the kitchen drawer. I'll take the big board and a couple of red markers; how much are we looking at?

Owner: $24.95.

Sarah: I hand the board and markers across the counter, thinking that's a very reasonable price to keep the household running smoothly. I'll tap when you're ready; I need to get back to the trolley before the kids start whinging.

Owner: That one is actually $45.95; the $24.95 is the other one you pointed to.

Sarah: I put the large board back on the shelf and pick up the smaller one instead. Ouch, forty-five bucks is a fair bit for a fridge board! I'll grab this smaller one for twenty-five and a couple of those red markers; it'll probably do the job just fine.

Owner: Are you sure the other one is a lot better?

Sarah: I pause, the smaller board in hand, and glance back at the larger one. Is it just the extra space, or does it have better magnets or something? I don't mind spending the extra twenty bucks if it's actually worth it, but I don't want it taking up half the fridge door.

Owner: I know, the bigger one, though, is more professional-looking.

Sarah: I tap the smaller board against my hand and let out a small laugh. It's just going to get covered in the kids' sticky fingerprints anyway, so looking professional isn't exactly a priority! I'll stick with the smaller one; it'll be less overwhelming on the fridge door.

Seems like Sarah thinks size is very important, and she does not want to spend $45.95, but she is prepared to pay $24.95.

Test 2

I then asked my prompt:

Owner: "Have you seen this book? It's a new translation of the new movie Odyssey from Geek; it's very detailed."

Sarah: I step closer to have a look at the cover you're holding. Is it the novelisation of that new movie, and is it more of a graphic novel or a proper chapter book? My youngest is always after those heavily illustrated ones.

Owner: It's actually a very big, detailed translation, highly regarded, not for young kids.

Sarah: Oh, right, so it's a bit too heavy for the younger ones. I turn the book over to check the price tag on the back. I might consider it for my Mum, but I'm in a bit of a rush doing the Coles run today—how much are you asking for it?

Owner: $75.95.

Sarah: Seventy-six dollars! I slide the heavy book back across the counter. That's a bit to much sanyway the kids are waiting out in the car, so I'll give it a miss today.

Owner: We have a cheaper one, it's old but I will tell you what it does not change that much, it's $20.00.

Sarah: I glance at the cheaper copy you pull out. Twenty dollars is much more reasonable for a classic that hasn't changed in a few thousand years, I suppose—does it have decent print size, or is it one of those tiny pocket editions?

Owner: It's only one size.

Sarah: I pick up the twenty-dollar copy to have a quick look. Is it a nice hardback or just a standard paperback? If the print is decent, I might just grab it for his birthday next month.

Seems like Sarah is not going to buy it.

What the Exercise Reveals

The goal is not to predict exactly what a real person will do. The value comes from revealing assumptions you may not have noticed. For example, you might discover:

A product has a good purpose, but the price is too high.
Your explanation focuses on a benefit customers don't care about.
A smaller or cheaper version may have broader appeal.
A product needs a better display or sign to explain what it does.
An add-on item, such as markers included with a fridge planner, could boost sales.

What Are the Next Steps for Trying This Yourself?

Start small and stay consistent to build a useful habit. Follow these steps to run your first AI role-play test:

Pick one product you're considering stocking or are already unsure about.
Choose or build a customer persona that matches your actual shopper base.
Copy the prompt template above and fill in your shop and persona details.
Run the conversation and introduce the product exactly as you would in person.
Note any price resistance, objections, or missed benefits that come up.
Check the insight against your point-of-sale system reports once the product is in-store.

This type of AI role-playing extends well beyond retail, too. It can help you prepare for a bank meeting, a health inspection, a supplier discussion, a staff conversation, or a difficult customer question.

Conclusion

Give AI Role-Play a Try Before Your Next Order. Any AI should be able to handle it currently. I think Facebook's Meta AI is both good and free to use, worth looking into now. Try it.

AI role-playing won't replace real conversations with real customers or hard sales data from your point-of-sale system. But it gives you a fast, low-cost way to stress-test a product idea, spot pricing problems, and rethink your pitch before you spend a dollar on stock. Give it a try with one product you're considering — create a believable customer, introduce the item, and see where the conversation goes. You might be surprised by what it makes you think about.

I find such exercises very useful. I used it in business recently to prepare for a bank meeting and another one with a health inspector.

If you try it, I think you will find this type of roleplaying useful too.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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The Surcharge Ban Is a Kick in the Guts — And I Think the RBA Knows It

POS SOFTWARE

Debit Surcharge Ban

Retail banking

We're already absorbing rising rent, wages, and supplier costs, and now you will soon add new card processing fees. From 1 October 2026, the surcharge disappears, and despite what the RBA said, I don't think the banks will eat the difference.

Key Takeaways

The surcharge ban removes your ability to pass card acceptance costs to customers at the till from 1 October 2026.
Reduced interchange fees are meant to offset retailer losses.
Banks are already adding new fees elsewhere.
Rewards programs are shrinking.
AMEX and other uncapped cards were left out of the RBA's review, yet many providers will stop you from surcharging on them in their system.
Retailers could absorb fees as high as 2% with no way to claw that back at the register.
Price-controlled products like Lotto put retailers in an impossible squeeze, since the price isn't theirs to change.
Acting now is premature; the real numbers won't show up until your October and November merchant statements land.

What Is the Card Surcharge Ban?

The surcharge ban is a rule change stopping retailers from adding a fee when a customer pays by card, regardless of transaction size. Before this, a $4.50 coffee or a $12 lunch could carry a small surcharge that covered what the bank charged the retailer for accepting that card. The RBA calls this "removing an inefficient cost" and a "consumer win." I call it removing transparent cost recovery and ensuring no one notices where that cost goes instead.

Labor's election policy was narrower: ban surcharging on debit cards only. That part made sense to me as most people pay by debit now, so pricing should reflect the payment type most customers actually use. But the RBA didn't stop there. It extended the ban to credit cards too.

Why Does This Matter for Retailers?

This matters because the RBA's promised savings are theoretical. Currently, they are talk. The RBA claims retailers will save $910 million a year once interchange fees drop. I don't believe that, but I am prepared to accept it if I see it reflected in my own processing costs, not before. Let us see what shows up on your merchant statement too.

I expect providers will modify their fee structures to claw back margin. I've already seen one supplier add a standalone "security fee". Conveniently, the security fee was included in the interchange fee. Now I see they have stripped that cost from interchange and made it its own fee. Tell me, do you think your bank fees will move down? From what I see, every major bank has announced changes effective 1 October 2026; from the list, little is down, and I think a fair chunk of those changes exist to recover exactly what the RBA estimates they'll lose.

What's Happening to Rewards Programs?

Here too, the card rewards are shrinking as issuers adjust for lower interchange income, and I've felt this personally. My own rewards program cut back significantly, and the change that stung most: I can no longer convert points into Coles Gift Cards. That was one of the few ways to turn points into something close to cash that my family could use.

Why Did AMEX Get Left Out — And Does It Even Matter?

The RBA's interchange review didn't cover AMEX and other overseas-scheme cards, so they remain technically uncapped. For some reason, the RBA didn't touch them. Yet plenty of credit and debit providers will stop surcharging on these cards anyway in their system. If you want to surcharge on these items, you need to do it yourself. Our POS system lets you do that.

How Will This Change Customer Payment Behaviour?

Retailers will now be forced to absorb fees as high as 2%.

Now I predict a measurable shift toward credit cards, away from debit and cash. Why wouldn't customers switch? No surcharge, up to 55 days interest-free, better chargeback protection, I get some free repairs too in some cases, and better rewards points. The thing that used to push many people to debit, the surcharge, is gone. I'd go further: I think many cardholders will upgrade from regular to premium credit cards specifically to chase better rewards, now that there's no price penalty.

I suggest that you watch your POS End of Day reports over the next few months to see if your debit card share drops and your credit share climbs.

What Should You Do Before October?

Little, I wouldn't act in a rush now. There's nothing to gain by guessing now, as it's too early to make good decisions. Plenty of retailers are already raising shelf prices in anticipation. The cafe near me that I like has already increased its prices.

One issue concerns me the most: Many products like Lotto, where retailers don't control the price. You can't raise a lottery ticket price to cover a higher card cost, so any margin hit there comes straight out of your fixed commission. If you are in Lotto, I would ask them about that.

My advice: wait till October. Let your first couple of merchant statements come through under the new rules, then work from actual numbers instead of dubious RBA projections or bank press releases.

Conclusion

The surcharge ban sounds like a consumer win on paper, but for retailers, it's a cost shift dressed up as reform. Keep an eye on your merchant statements, watch how your payment mix moves, and don't rush shelf-price decisions before you've got real data in hand.

For a rundown of specific bank changes, ahead of the October ban, click here:
Details of credit and Debit card overhaul ahead of October surcharge ban

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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Look at Australian Men's Grooming Products for your shop

POS SOFTWARE

Marketing

Profit margin analysis

Import costs

When I went to Europe, what struck me was how many shops similar to my clients were stocking men's grooming products. Which brings up the obvious question: why not here?

Key Takeaways

The Australian men's grooming market was valued at AUD $800 million in 2025 and was growing at 8 percent.
Margins are good
You can start with a small counter display for a few hundred dollars.
Please use your POS System to automatically track sell-through, margins, bundles, etc
It's a great category for Father's Day, Birthdays, Christmas, etc.

How Do You Find Products That Actually Sell?

You don't need to guess. Start with what is already proven to sell in Australia.

The first point to note is that the market has two main categories: mass and premium. The problem with mass is that sales are good, but because they're low-value, you don't make much. Consider 50% of AUD $7.00 on a mass product vs. 50% of AUD $40.00 on a premium item.

Go to local shops in your area that sell these products. Look at what they display prominently at the counter and on the shelves. What you are looking for is their movers. See if they are the sort of product you would be comfortable selling, and if so, make a list of the types of products they are. Use your camera to take pictures.

Now, when you go back, check Amazon Australia Best Sellers in Men's Grooming. If it is a top seller, it will probably be listed there.

Then ask your wholesalers what they recommend.

Now check AliExpress trending. Search for products like shaving brush, safety razor and sort by orders. Products with 1,000+ orders have proven demand.

Where Do You Source the Products?

You have two paths, and most smart retailers use both.

1. AliExpress for low-cost entry and hardware

AliExpress is suitable for testing with small quantities and a low outlay. For example, a shaver might cost AUD 6.50 plus AUD 3.00 freight.

To get your true landed cost in AUD, you must add banking fees, GST, freight, and other charges.

AUD $6.50 product + AUD $3.00 freight + AUD $0.95 GST = AUD $10.45 landed. If, say, you can sell it at AUD $38 EX, you make AUD $27.55.

2. Australian wholesalers and brands for compliance and speed

Warning: chemicals have rules. You can safely import razors, brushes, bowls and stands from AliExpress. Chemical products such as cosmetic creams, oils, sunscreen, etc are different. Please be very careful when importing these items. All cosmetics sold in Australia must include an English ingredient list, your business name and address, and comply with AICIS rules. With sunscreen oil, you need a TGA listing to claim SPF 50+.I suggest that, unless you know what you are doing here, you avoid these products.

Also check labelling. Some small exporters print in Chinglish, a Chinese-influenced English. It looks terrible on a product and kills trust. Australians will take US or English spelling, but Chinglish no. Chinglish broadcasts a bad product.

How Should You Market Men's Grooming Products?

I recommend the front counter. Once you get a feel for the product, move it to an appropriate position. Use your POS system to monitor sales and profit in AUD by tracking sell-through, margin, bundles, reorders and customer repeat purchases in real time.

How Should You Display It?

Initially, put it at the front counter. We are experimenting, and you need to see how the product will sell. Once you get a grip on the product, move it to a more permanent position.

See how you go!

How Does Your POS System Track Sales and Profit in AUD?

Your POS System will tell you how good a product is. I would suggest creating a separate department in your Point of Sale (POS) system called "Men's Grooming." Put every new grooming item there. That way, you can run a report for sell-through, AUD margin, bundle performance and reorder points without mixing it with your existing categories.

What Is the Future for Australian Retailers Who Add Men's Grooming in October 2026?

The future for Australian retailers who add men's grooming in October 2026 is expected to go up. It looks good, with a market growing at over 8%. These are a great gift line. Start small and see where it takes you.

Written by:

Bernard Zimmermann

Bernard Zimmermann is the founding director at POS Solutions, a leading point-of-sale system company with 45 years of industry experience. He consults to various organisations, from small businesses to large retailers and government institutions. Bernard is passionate about helping companies optimise their operations through innovative POS technology and enabling seamless customer experiences through effective software solutions.

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