Towa Lets Holiday Retailers Track Back Office Data Anywhere

For retailers and restaurateurs, the closing weeks of the year bring a familiar problem: there is only one of them, and the business needs attention in several places at once. Queues grow longer, shelves empty faster, temporary staff join the team and choices cannot wait. This November, Towa, a South African company supplying cloud-based point of sale software and hardware, is turning the spotlight on its cloud back office, the part of its platform built for owners who cannot be at every counter.

Towa has spent 25 years developing point of sale software and hardware for the retail and hospitality sectors. Its software runs in the cloud, so owners and managers can oversee inventory and sales wherever they are, a capability that proves its worth during the festive trading rush.

What sits behind the counter

Many people picture a point of sale system as nothing more than the screen beside the till, yet much of what it offers happens out of sight. Towa's Cloud Back Office software keeps the whole operation in step, covering everything from staff scheduling to detailed sales analytics. Owners get the tools they need to examine every area of the business and make it work better.

Over the holidays, this lets an owner follow the day's trading, spot which products are flying off the shelves and which are standing still, and review how shifts have been allocated, all without being on the premises. Businesses running several outlets can compare their branches side by side in one view instead of gathering separate reports from each location.

Made for shops and hospitality

The software was created with retail and hospitality in mind, and Towa offers a dedicated solution for each sector in addition to its back office tools. The goal is simpler processes, faster and smoother transactions, and a more pleasant experience for customers when they pay.

A retailer might rely on it to control stock through a hectic shopping season. A restaurant, café or bar might lean on it to cope with a wave of year-end functions and holiday reservations. Either way, when demand peaks, a dependable pos system is what keeps the line moving.

The hardware side

Since 2009, Towa has worked in partnership with Senor Tech. Senor's all-in-one touch POS systems are built so that peripherals attach easily and maintenance and after-sales support stay simple. The units link up with many kinds of devices, among them printers, scanners, scales, video and menu boards, so each business can assemble a setup suited to how it operates.

Combining tried and tested hardware with cloud software results in a pos point of sale system that functions as one connected whole, instead of a collection of separate components forced to work together.

Help for tight budgets

Buying a complete POS setup outright is not realistic for every business, least of all in the run-up to the festive season, when spending on stock and staff climbs. Towa makes every package available on a fixed cost rental basis and provides rental options for businesses without much start-up cash. Paying a set amount each month also simplifies planning for the patchy trade that January so often brings.

Where to find Towa

Towa's KZN head office is at 9 Fairways Avenue, Mount Edgecombe, and its Cape Town office is at North Park, 2 Fir Street, Black River Park, Observatory. The company also runs an international office in Eswatini, Swazi Cash Register. Head office hours in KZN are 8am to 5pm from Monday to Thursday and 8am to 4pm on Fridays.

Anyone wanting to see the software at work can book a demo. Towa's specialists in retail and hospitality can talk through the needs of a specific business, run a demonstration and answer questions. Existing clients have access to a dedicated support portal.

The cloud advantage in December

Older point of sale setups tend to store sales data on one machine inside the shop. That is fine until the owner needs figures while away from the till, or until the business expands to a second outlet. Moving to the cloud removes that limitation. Sales and inventory data can be reached from anywhere, giving owners and managers a sharper picture of the business when it counts.

Day to day, this means an owner meeting suppliers can confirm stock levels before ordering. A manager hosting a year-end function can track how the main floor is performing. An owner taking a short holiday break can still watch the figures without being called back to work. And for growing businesses, the same platform makes adding new outlets possible without starting from scratch.

Because Towa's software is built for every type of business across retail and hospitality, one platform can serve a single shop, a restaurant or a group operating several sites.

Getting ready for the busiest weeks

Owners weighing up a switch or an upgrade to their point of sale setup will find November a sensible month to begin. Arranging a demo, selecting hardware and training staff all need time, and starting sooner means far less strain when December trade hits its height.

Current Towa users can spend the weeks ahead checking that their back office is configured to produce the reports they rely on, so that choices made in the busiest stretch rest on actual figures instead of guesswork.

Retail and hospitality businesses can book a demo, look into rental options and find out more about Towa's software and hardware at https://www.towa.co.za/.

About Towa

Towa is a South African supplier of cloud-based point of sale software and hardware for retail and hospitality businesses, with 25 years of experience in point of sale. It offers retail, hospitality and cloud back office software that covers sales analytics, inventory and employee scheduling, along with all-in-one touch POS hardware supplied through a partnership with Senor Tech that began in 2009. Towa has its KZN head office in Mount Edgecombe, an office in Observatory, Cape Town, and an international office in Eswatini, and all of its packages are available on a fixed cost rental basis.