Help for small business retailers dealing with Lightspeed Payments cost concerns
Small business retailers using Vend POS and Lightspeed POS have told us of concerns at being pressured by Lightspeed to switch to the Lightspeed Payments platform or face what reads like a penalty charge from the company for continuing with a current, non-Lightspeed, payments solution.
As recent Lightspeed earnings reports have revealed, growing Lightspeed Payments revenue has become a key commercial activity for the Lightspeed business. This pitches them as like a road a tolling business, making a clip from each transaction processed by retailers using their Lightspeed POS software or their Vend POS software.
Here at Tower Systems, our view is that as a software company it is important that we make most of our money from our software, and not off the back of hard work by retailers using our software.
The more businesses using our software, the more money we make, the more money we have available to invest in enhancing the software.
If you think about the Lightspeed model, they make more money when your transaction volume increases. Does this mean bigger businesses, with higher turnover, are more important to them as a company? We don’t know.
What we do know is that here at Tower Systems every single customer is valued and treated the same because we are not tracking sales volume.
We don't care what EFTPOS or payments platform our retail customers use. Our POS software links with all the major Australian banks – there is no extra keying of transaction amounts on credit card machines, no extra keystrokes. Our integrations are good, secure and fast.
We don't charge a penalty based on the EFTPOS or payments platform our retailers use.
We think retailers need to be able to make the decision as to the best payments platform with which to partner based on factors that matter to them.
It feels like the Lightspeed approach is one of imposing a financial penalty on retailers if they choose to not use Lightspeed Payments. It feels like that cost has been levied to force people to use Lightspeed Payments.
Tower Systems does not charge any fee based on payments platform choice.
The relationship we have with our 3,000+ local small business retail customers is simple: you can rent our software for as long or as short as you want. There is no fixed term contract, no lock-in period.
We are grateful to have customers stay with us because they love our software and they love our support.
If you are a Lightspeed POS or a vend POS customer and are looking for an alternative to Lightspeed Payments, consider Tower Systems. Tell us about your needs. If we can help, we will. If we cannot help, we promise to say so.
