What is different about small business retailers, and the POS software they need

There are plenty of POS software options on the market. It’s worth asking how a small business differs from a bigger one, like a franchise or a group running more than twenty shops.

We have a stake in the answer. At Tower Systems, we work only with independent small business retailers, local specialty retailers.

Most of our customers run one or two shops. Some are locally owned stores inside larger marketing groups of fifty to three hundred members, but each business is still small and still locally owned. That is who we build for.

The distinction matters, because in our model every customer counts the same.

Picture a POS company with a few big accounts. If one customer brings in a fifth of the revenue, that customer gets heard. A customer worth less than one per cent does not get the same ear. It is how the money works, and it shapes who the company listens to.

We serve only independent small retailers, so no single account can crowd out the rest. Everyone gets a fair go.

Small retailers also want local, personal help that understands their shop. They want to deal with real people, in real conversation. What they do not want is to be kept at a distance, sorting things out by email, never once hearing a voice.

POS companies that serve large networks run for efficiency. That usually means more self-service and less human contact. Some retailers are happy with that. It is not the small business way, and it is not how local shops see themselves in their towns.

Serving small retailers, and only them, keeps us pointed in one direction. The same people, the same resources, the same care, right across our community of users.

We rent our software. We make it in Australia and support it from here, by phone, with people who know retail. We do not build one-off custom versions for a single customer. We have done it this way for more than thirty years, and we intend to keep going.

If personal service matters to your shop, weigh it when you choose POS software. Look hard at the companies after your business, and ask who they are really built to serve.