BLOGS AND ARTICLES FROM THE POS SOLUTIONS TEAM

Many retailers now to get better prices, are now buying goods direct from suppliers overseas.  With our point of sale software, it is very easy to put in such orders but this is a sample of the unexpected problems that can develop and what you need to be aware of if you do buy direct from overseas. See the green arrow.

This product was brought with the expectation that it could be sold at a premium price. Almost any customer looking at it will laugh when they see the Chinglish. Once they look at it, few customers would pay the premium price.

One big problem with buying direct today is that often you do not see what you get till you get it. So despite doing everything you can, there are a lot more problems like this one in getting your goods.

In this case, the photos of the item were excellent as were the specifications of the product. No-one thought to take a picture of the box of the product. 

Seeing that the manufacturer is in China, it is going to be a hassle to sort this problem out.

Moral of the story – Before you buy, make sure you get a sample order before making a big order.

What many retailers do, is offer their gift cards with a bit of a discount in an effort to sell them say $100 giftcard get 2.5% extra as an incentive.

Well if you do this, here is a tip that works better.

Rather than sell a $100 for a $102.50 gift card, issue two gift cards one for $100 to the proposed beneficiary and the other for $2.50 which is given free to the buyer of the gift card as a thank you.  In that case, you may get two customers, the beneficiary and the buyer of the gift card.

PosBrowser has launched a new facility for you and your clients. We now offer a Zip Pay payment type directly built into the PosBrowser register.  This week we were joined by Andreas Collier from Zip pay to discuss and demonstrate how easy it is to setup and use as well as answering a bunch of question you may be interested in hearing. 
Watch the video and see what you think. 
Also as a special offer to PosBrowser user, Andreas will personally handle the process of getting your ZIP PAY account activated and the details you will need for integrating ZIP with PosBrowser.   Just contact him via email [email protected] 

If you find this video helpful or you have any question please reply in the comments. Also check out our blog often to see what the next webinar is going to cover in our weekly sessions or make a suggestion for a topic you'd like to hear more about. 

A while ago I wrote an article here on why I felt that every professional business needs a website. In view of recent developments, I felt my article needed an update for 2018.

Here are some more reasons why.

The public expects it

One of my clients went goes for a business loan, the finance company asks him what your website is and does it reflect your current business model. He looked blank and said, I do not have a website. It did not go down well at all. These people felt that a business website without a website lacked legitimacy.

A more important reason is that your customers expect that you have one. When they go shopping for most customers today will do is once they have an idea of what they want, they start researching, and most of them go online to find what they are looking for.

Find you

The days of yellow pages are long gone. If you do not have a website, many customers will not even know you exist.  You will not show up on the search engines. What will happen is that as most of your competitors have websites, so people will go there. Not having a website is giving shoppers a reason to buy from someone else.

Cost/effective.

It gives you another marketing channel. You will not get cheaper advertising than a website. It will bring in a lot more people then say a newspaper advertisement. Think about this, if I am looking for say a florist near me, I find a few online close to me, I quickly look for where they are and when they are open. I select one and scan its website and think they look good. Where do you think I am likely to go to buy flowers?

Your business is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week

As the web does not close down. You will always be there for your customers. Night owls like me often buy goods online at 3 am in the morning.

Many organisation require it

Many large companies and government departments will not trade with a company without a website. People in offices want to order online. If they were to go physically its a big time waster for them.

Resource centre

You can easily create a resource centre for your company and its customers. This will bring people back to you when they want information. I strongly believe that today business communication is about information. It can save you time and money, rather than having to send out information, direct them to a web link. It is the cheapest way of keeping your customers informed.

More online shopping today

Australians are buying more online now, this is true of all demographics, the fastest growing segment now is the over 50s. It is no longer true that older people do not buy on the net.

Online shopping in Australia growth

11.5% in 2016

19.2% in 2017

expected 18.7% in 2018

If you haven’t created a website for your business

If you have a cousin who can do it for you, you are lucky. Just make sure that he does it and not just treat it as a hobby when he/she has some time. Tell them the truth that you having a nice website can help them with there career, everyone now wants people with good internet experience. 

If you need help then we can help you set one up. 

A short time ago it was Doughnut Day, so I went with my daughter to get a doughnut. Before that is was Hamburger Day, so I went and got a burger on that day. Before that, it was World Falafel Day, so I went and got a falafel. I can tell you in all cases the shops were busier than usual as people like me got in the spirit of the holiday.

Today is book lovers day, yesterday was International Cat Day. Many of my clients could have done something with one of these events.

A good list of these events is here.

It can be a lot of fun for you and your staff to hold these events in your shop and also profitable as you often will pick up some trade too. 

The cost is small, in our Point of Sale Software put in a few notes on receipts and statements, put a sign on the wall, a Facebook post and you are off.

Here are some ideas. Try and make it local and relevant to your business, if you can involve a local charity, it is better.

It is best not to plan an event at the start of the month, as many people need warning and many make plans in advance monthly. 

Consider that most people want for events gifts.

Do not ignore the big ones like Father's Day that is coming up on 3 September, every retail store can make something for that day.

We have a senior official from Zip joining our webinar on Wednesday at 1 pm armed with some special offers. I will be a great chance for you to learn about what is the fastest growing payment type in Australia. Currently, about a million Australians people are registered for Zip.

Zip is available free to you at no cost.

The agenda will cover

* What is Zip? How big is it? 

* Zip as a consumer finance product allowing your customers to Own Now, Pay Later. 

* Enable Zip as a payment option in use. What it brings in terms of reliability, cost-effective and most importantly how it looks after your customers'?

 * Why has Zip seen a massive uptake in the consumer finance industry. See the value that Zip brings to this ever rapidly changing retail landscape. 

* Zip, what value does it provide your store?

* Zip customer payment flexibility and what does this see that as a flow on effect to the stores offering Zip as a payment method. Figures will be shown on Zip effect on order size, conversions rates for stores and its effect on repeat customers.

* What value do we think Zip will bring your customers?

* The Zip offer.

* Q&A

 Even if you are not thinking to move now, I would strongly suggest that you listen to what he has to say. 

There are a series of gift fairs being held now in Melbourne.  The biggest by far is Reeds. 

As they are all being held in the same spot for the consumer, it may as well be considered one big show, and it is huge. Over a 1,000 stands, the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre is just full as are the showgrounds. 

As we have many clients in gifts using our POS software, I always check out this show. Always get ideas.

Here are some points to consider if you do decide to go.

* If you are seriously interested in gifts in your shop, it is the place to go. You will undoubtedly meet many new businesses and connect with a few existing ones. What I do like about these shows is that often you can meet the senior people in these organisations.  Consider it a chance to network so come with many business cards.

* Many places have minimum orders unless you are prepared to buy big, the odds are many places will not deal with you. If you like something first say your budget on these products and say I will go up if it works and see what they say. Be prepared to walk if the answer is NO.

* The prices are generally from what I can see not terrific but they are fair. I doubt you are going to pick up real bargains. Consider the show more a chance to buy seeder stock and get ideas. If you want the good prices, you need to go on the net and go to the overseas gift shows but to do that you need a decent gift business turnover to justify it.

* You will gain an understanding of your market. See what sort of suppliers handle it and how many.

* Know your products well and know your price points. With so much stuff you need to be prepared as you do not have time. Remember with gifts you need to specialise.

* Look for new things, there are many innovative ones there. Here is my daughter looking at a balloon with lights that she just could not let go. She made me go back to see it again.

* Market day is Wednesday, that is the day many stalls will be looking to get rid of stock that they brought specially for the show.  If you are going to pick up bargains at the fair that is the day, particularly if you are looking for something expensive for the house say a real Persian carpet. It may be your chance to get it at a discounted wholesale price. If so you will need to wait for the show to end to pick it up.

We are pleased to announce that our new website is now live!

We wanted a new site to better share our company ethos of service excellence, product innovation and to provide a more customer-focused experience. Plus we wanted a site we can grow with.

We do hope that you like the fresh look of our site. You will find the layout has been improved to help you find information better, more quickly and easily. 

Please check on our site frequently as we will be continually adding more content, features, and updates.

We value your opinion so all comments and feedback are appreciated and most welcome. Please let us know if you cannot find something or have any suggestions on how we can improve.
Thank you for your interest in POS Solutions and its products.