newsagent software

In your newsagency software you likely have facilities you can leverage to offer a point of difference. Whereas decades ago, cutaways facilities were essential and in use in almost all newsagencies, today their use is much less.

In the competitive world of retail,  offering a differentiating customer service experience is crucial for success. Smart newsagency software with putaways facilities can be your secret weapon in this battle.

Putaways allow newsagents to set aside specific stock for individual customers. This could be anything from the latest copy of their favourite magazine to a particular brand of cigarettes they only buy from you.

A customer registers for a product to put away, put aside, kept for them. When the product arrives, a label with the customer details is printed and placed on the product. The product is put aside in a safe place. The customer can be notified by email or text.

Putaways offer a range of benefits that contribute to an exceptional customer service experience:

• Convenience: Customers know their favourite items will always be waiting for them, saving them time and frustration.
• Loyalty: This personalised touch shows customers you value their business and encourages them to keep coming back.
• Increased Sales: By highlighting upcoming releases or special orders, putaways can prompt customers to purchase additional items.
• Reduced Shrinkage: Knowing exactly how much stock is allocated for putaways helps with stock control and minimises shrinkage.

While putaways are a powerful tool, managing them manually as newsagents did in the 1970s and before is time-consuming and error-prone. This is where smart newsagency software comes in. Newsagency software:

• Electronically record customer preferences: Store customer information as to items they would like put aside.
• Set up automatic putaways: Automate the process of reserving stock for specific customers, saving you valuable time.
• Generate notifications: Alert customers when their put aside items are ready for collection, further enhancing the customer experience.

I mention it today as there are opportunities outside the traditional use of putaways – magazines, newspapers and artworks – where newsagents can use this part of the software they have to satisfy customers buying additional releases or issues of something that has a life beyond a single release. The software solution offers structure and consistency that other retailers in their software would be challenged to match.

Of course, I have a vested interest in that I own Tower Systems, the newsagency software company that I am grateful serves now more than 1,850 newsagents with newsagency software in Australia.

Before streaming services launched, the TV networks decided when we could watch something.

Before podcasts, radio stations decided when we could listen to something.

Before the internet, newspaper publishers decided when we could read news stories.

People love being able to watch, listen and read when they want. They love not having to consume to a time schedule set by a business.

Choice is important.

Appointment retail is retail where you can only shop when the owner decides.

If the shop does not have a website, you can only shop when the doors are open, you miss selling to people who prefer to choose when they do this.

In this video I share some thoughts about appointment retail and provide context for its relevance today.

I first shared the video around a week back. I am re-upping it today with additional context.

Appointment retail matters to newsagents since our channel is one of the slowest to adopt online. This sees many newsagents missing sales. I know because I have websites that have sold things to be delivered a few streets away from newsagents with the same products.

People want to shop when they want to shop and while your shop may feel busy, if you are not online you have no idea what you are missing.

There are other benefits of online:

• You are more likely to know exactly what the shopper is looking for.
• You can easily reach out to past shoppers based on what they purchased.
• You have an alternative pricing outlet.
• You can more easily win sales from a browser.
• Sales are not limited to shop floor manpower.

What has happened with consuming entertainment is happening in retail.

If you say there are not enough shoppers in town, online could be helpful.

If you say this or that won’t sell here, you’re restricting your shopper reach.

If your business o=is not making what it needs for the rent or labour costs, being online can spread the load of carrying those costs.

If people around you are shopping online, which they are, being online can balance that.

Appointment retail is about you being where and when shoppers may purchase what you sell, without deciding when they can do this. It is about you being more flexible, available and ready.

My goal with this short video about appointment retail was to provide a context that gets people thinking about being online. What you do in your business that is up to you.

I’m the owner of newsagency software company Tower Systems and back in 1996 I bought a newsagency business in Melbourne to gain first-hand experience running a newsagency. We think that has played a key role in our software being used in more newsagencies in Australia than all other software companies combined.

We still own and run newsagency businesses today. This video, shot Jan 13, 2024, features magazines at our newsXpress Malvern shop. It’s a magazine specialist business.

Magazines require unique management tools in software and our Tower Systems newsagency software has those. In addition to linking with magazine distributors, our newsagency management software plays a key role in helping newsagents to transition their businesses to be less reliant on print products.

Using our software, newsagency can also easily sell online through our Shopping, Big Commerce, WooCommerce and Magento integrations. Plus, we like to 3 awesome roster tools and a ton of payments platforms including Tyro, Linkly Cloud and Linkly. Oh, and we link direct to Xero, of course.

Owning and running a newsagency gives is a place where we can play with our software, experiment, innovate. It is part of our research and development experience as we test to see what is possible for newsagency businesses and other retailers. With AI and software more broadly playing a bigger role in evolving retail, being a software company with our own shops is an advantage we are grateful to have.

Newsagents benefit from the Tower Systems newsagency software in plenty of ways, including:

1. Exclusive smart greeting card reporting Embedded in our software is category / segment level reporting that newsagents are using to grow card sales 25% and more. That’s money in the bank.
2. You can bank on loyalty. Our fresh and successful approach to loyalty can help you drive a deeper basket and bring people back sooner.
3. Safe decisions make for a better P&L. From data feeds from suppliers through to Xero, we help you nurture data for the safe decisions.
4. Not every shopper will walk past your door. A seamless connection between your software and a beautiful website can help you sell to people you will never meet. We develop websites for newsagents.
5. Easily accessed personal service. A key reason 4 times more newsagents have chosen Tower than any other software is customer service. We are here for you, with you, every day.
6. Current software. Current technology. Fresh, current design.

Our newsagency software also helps newsagents run businesses that rely less on revenue from lottery product sales, which matters since they are transition more to a direct to consumer model online.

I am grateful for the trust newsagents show in Tower Systems and that this has helped the company to continue to grow and serve newsagents, and to help them navigate change.

Here is an update to my 2022 post on this topic.

Never pay an outside party to do your stocktake and never do a stocktake outside of your POS software. Outside stocktakers cost more than it would be for you to do it yourself.

The most accurate stocktake result for any retail business is doing it yourself, using your POS software.

Actually, if you properly use your POS software, it’s unlikely you will need to do a full stocktake on or around June 30. But in case you do …

This time last year, I got together with one of the stocktake experts at Tower Systems to discuss this and answer common stocktake questions we are asked.

Again …

• Don’t use an external stocktaker.
• Do your stocktake yourself.
• Use your POS software to record, live, m the stock count.

This is the best approach for maintaining accurate stock on hand data and for valuing stock prior to a change of hands of the business.

With 1,750 newsagencies in the Tower Systems newsagency software community, it’s the industry standard software solution. While, for sure, there are a couple of other software programs being used in newsagencies, the scale of the Tower newsagent community sets it apart. I an grateful to newsagents for their trust and support and proud to be part of the channel as a supplier, and as a newsagent.

Here’s a recent demonstration of this $185.00 a month software for newsagents:

And here’s another from a few weeks prior to that video:

And here’s a video promoting newsagents to the broader Aussie community:

And here is another video I made and promoted on YouTube to pitch the Aussie newsagency channel:

Plenty of Aussie newsagencies are thriving and I am grateful that my newsagency software company plays a role in that.

Here’s what the $185 a month provides:

• Access to the latest newsagency software.
• Onboarding support.
• Help desk support.
• Unlimited registers. No extra cost.
• Integrated accounting link.
• Integrated e-commerce links.
• Integrated payments.
• Loyalty programs.
• Advanced reporting.
• Customer marketing.
• Visual analytics dashboard.
• Special customer orders.
• Serial numbers.
• Sell by fractions, sell by weight.
• Integrated LayBys.
• Customer gift vouchers.
• Customised onboarding.
• 24/7 support.

From a newsagency operation specific perspective, though, this newsagency POS software handles to best practice industry standards for areas such as magazine management, magazine returns, newspaper subscriptions, newspaper home delivery, magazine putaways, supplier electronic invoices, customer special orders, Epay integration for selling phone vouchers and other electronic vouchers.

Folks who run traditional newsagencies love the software because it handles the traditional requirements well. Folks who run newsagencies that are different, outside what is usual love the software, too, because of how it serves outside what has been traditional for newsagency businesses.

Tower Systems is a unique newsagency software company in that it owns and runs newsagency businesses. The company bought its first newsagency in February 1996. It has owned newsagencies ever since – using its newsagency software, walking in the shoes of customers, providing all staff with a live testing space and learning more about the software / retail business interface in a way that is valuable for all Tower Systems customers.

Beyond the newsagency software itself, Tower Systems helps newsagents with marketing advice, theft mitigation advice and a range of other management level supports and assistances. We believe in this quintessential Australian retail channel and appreciate opportunities to genuinely help newsagents run better and more successful businesses.

Here’s a 40 minute demonstration of POS software for newsagents from my newsagency software company, Tower Systems. No login ia required, no email or other details are collected. It’s available for anyone to see at YouTube. Scroll down to find out who I am sharing this.

While the newsagency software continues to evolve, this demo from 7 months provides an insight to specialty facilities in this software.

I’m sharing it for a few reasons: of course, to pitch my newsagency software company, to offer an easy way for newsagents to see what newsagency software can do and to underscore how much business has changed. This video, raw as it is, is a key reason for a surge in newsagents installing the software in 2022. Back in the day we would demonstrate in-store, one-on-one. Now, most sales flow from videos like this.

Just as selling software has changed, so has retail. How people shop and when they shop.

This software offers newsagents a range of ways to connect with the evolving shopping experience. As the software more newsagents use than any other, the development investment in the Tower software is more resourced.

In terms of how people shop and when they shop, this software links direct to Shopify, Magento and Woo Commerce. It also links to all the newsXpress national group websites for an easy and fast path to selling online.

At my newsagency software company, Tower Systems, we are keen to hire someone who knows and has used our Retailer POS software for an additional role on our help desk. This is a technical role. It would suit someone looking to work in a software company, someone keen to learn and keen to help others learn POS software technology.

It’s the second role we have added to the help desk this year.

We need someone who can manage themselves in that almost all of our help desk team members now work from home. Location is not all that important given this.

If you know of someone who could be right for the role, please encourage them to reach out to me at: mark@towersystems.com.au.

When asked if there was cloud based newsagency software available in Australia at a recent supplier run training event, I have been told that the national supplier representative said that there was no cloud based newsagency software currently.

That’s untrue. The Tower Systems newsagency software runs in the cloud has has been available for cloud access for many years.

Plenty of newsagents access it through the cloud today.

It continues to supply me that some supplier representatives make statements about topics on which they have no facts.

To try and shore up relevance, XchangeIT has inserted itself as middleware in a tech relationship between TheLott and newsagency POS software. As announced Friday afternoon, this is now available.

While it’s clunky, because of requirements driven by those outside of newsagency software businesses, it is better than nothing.

It will be interesting to see the uptake. It will also be interesting to see if XchangeIT provide the level of support newsagents will want / need for this transactional facility.

My own newsagency software company has been involved from the outset. The approach is not what we would recommend. But, as they say, it is what it is.

At my newsagency software company, Tower Systems, we are keen to hire someone who knows and has used our Retailer POS software for a new role on our help desk. This is a technical role. It would suit someone looking to work in a software company, someone keen to learn and keen to help others learn POS software technology.

The help desk is busy and the support call variety diverse. Retail experience is beneficial. Good knowledge of our Retailer POS software would also be helpful as a base on which we can train more on the intricacies of the software.

We need someone who can manage themselves in that almost all of our help desk team members now work from home. Location is not all that important given this.

If you know of someone who could be right for the role, please encourage them to reach out to me at: mark@towersystems.com.au

We will be advertising publicly in the next few days. If an ideal candidate from within our community applies before we do this, we may not advertise.

A Windows update pushed by Microsoft earlier this week is causing computers run by plenty of newsagent to crash. This is not a newsagency software problem. It is a Microsoft caused problem. If you are experiencing a computer shutting down unexpectedly it is likely to be this problem.

Here is how to back the Microsoft Windows update out of your computer.

1. Click on Start.
2. Type RUN.
3. A menu will appear that will include a RUN app.
4. Click on RUN.
5. Type exactly this:   wusa /uninstall /kb:5000802
6. Press enter.
7. The windows update will uninstall.
8. You will then need to re-start the computer.
9. Do this on every computer that has the Windows update installed.

Once the uninstall is finished you will need to restart the computer.

My advice is do this before calling anyone for support as their advice will be to do what is on the above list first.

Here’s a video I made for my newsagency software company, a business I started in 1981.

I am grateful to the software development team, the designers, the UI experts, the testers and the help desk heroes who help, every day, ensure that the Tower newsagency software today is fresh and relevant to newsagents today and for tomorrow.

Weeks ago my newsagency software company completed acceptance testing of its integration for TheLott products. Here’s a brief video showing how it works for those interested in seeing it:

XchangeIT sends emails telling newsagents they have failed on data related measures set by XchangeIT and expect newsagents and their software companies to fix the issues – even though the benefits of doing this are questionable.

Last month, I got together with a couple of experts at Tower to talk about common reasons why XchangeIT may send the emails and how newsagents using the Tower newsagency software can resolve the issues. Here is a video of that session. I’m sharing it here because feedback is that it has helped newsagents reduce the XchangeIT reported issues.

Earlier this morning I advised Ovato of what appeared to be an issue with some invoices not including GST. The head of client and retailer sales for Ovato has now responded:

From our investigations we are aware of some DD2 file being sent without GST. We believe this will not impact the retail price that includes GST so stores will be scanning at correct price tomorrows magazines. We believe this will impact the PoS finance side and are currently reviewing all DD2’s sent for tomorrow’s on-sale to identify the ones without GST. We are then planning to resend these DD2 files with the correct GST. Please confirm for Tower agents this will be ok.

We are also speaking to XIT to let them know of the error on some DD2 files.

We also now know the reason why this happened and can confirm this will be fixed for future on-sales.

My newsagency software company is emailing customers with advice on handling this, to mitigate against data errors.

It has been a busy four months at my newsagency software company, Tower Systems, as the software developers have worked with Epay to deliver a POS software integration with the Epay phone recharge and voucher vending platform.

I met with the folks at Epay in Sydney on March 9 to discuss the opportunity of providing newsagents with a viable alternative to the Afterpay Touch platform which had announced weeks earlier a staged withdrawal from business. What followed the March meeting was more meetings, settling of integration standards and discussions on products that could be brought to the integrated platform.

Through this, too, we worked with Afterpay Touch management to see if there was an alternative from their side as we did not want that door closed without at least trying.

With more than 1,700 newsagents as customers, Tower had much at stake in terms of customer service. It had to maintain the Touch platform while developing the Epay integration and doing this latter work to exacting standards set by Epay headquarters in Europe.

The Touch withdrawal decision and the need to integrate with Epay happened at the same time as Tower was in the final weeks of beta testing a major update to its software technology, database platform and look and feel. That project was four man years in and the release schedule had been set. So, there was much to consider and co-ordinate.

Through April and May the newsagency software integration with Epay was completed, tested and thoroughly. Then, it was handed to Epay for their testing. This was comprehensive and required work in Australia and Europe.

With the Tower Systems Epay integration approved the next step was to load the product data file from Epay. This was finalised yesterday for all newsagency software companies. That product file had to itself be tested. Hence, the announcement from Tower Systems to newsagents today about availability of the Epay integrated newsagency software.

Now the next and most important phase of work begins as the Tower support team helps 1,700+ newsagents make the move. With Afterpay Touch closing June 30 there is much to do. Time is of the essence.

Throughout this project, from March to now, Tower has been sending daily emails to its customers. These have included regularly updated information about the Epay integration. The company has also sent three print newsletters, to reach newsagents who don’t connect with emails. The company has also used its social media platforms and support calls to reach as many newsagents as possible.

The work by Tower to date has cost close to $100,000. Tower Systems is delivering access to Epay at no cost to newsagents.

Note: I own the Tower Systems software company.