Entrepreneurs buy into point-of-sale firm

Trade Me founder Sam Morgan and fellow entrepreneur Rowan Simpson have taken a 30 per cent stake in Vend, an Auckland start-up offering pay-as-you-go web-based point-of-sale software for retailers.

Vend is the brainchild of Vaughan Rowsell, who helped develop Trade Me's accommodation-booking application Travelbug.

As its software is browser based, it can run on almost any computer, including iPads and cheap netbook computers. It is designed to integrate with retailers' barcode scanners, eftpos terminals and receipt printers and online with web-based accounting software system Xero.

The software will continue to work if the internet connection is lost, resynching when the connection is restored.

It costs from $39 a month, with no minimum contract term. "It is a hell of a lot cheaper than what people are paying at the moment," Mr Rowsell says.

Many retailers are interested in using iPads to process sales, he says. "For less than $1000 retailers can have an affordable touch-screen that looks cool."

Mr Rowsell says the two-person company's philosophy is that New Zealand start-ups are good at doing "lots with very little" and it aims to remain lean and not become "a huge empire with hundreds of people".

Early converts include the 12-store fashion retailer Gregory, Newmarket bakery Petal Cupcakes and a fast-food store in Dubai.

Gregory's information technology administrator, Ron Tenenbaum, says the company has been using Vend for two weeks, including at its Lambton Quay store, and it has been working well. "I was looking to create something very similar myself because we are looking to move all of our infrastructure into the cloud and get rid of our server. We have transitioned our billing system to Xero and all of our email and documents have already been transitioned."

Gregory plans to run its point-of-sale systems on iPads, which will connect wirelessly with its scanners, HP ePrint printers and eftpos machines.

"We are a fashion company and the idea is we want to have close to a minimalistic setting in the store.

"When you come into a store and see cables and computers, in today's age it looks a little bit `old'."

- © Fairfax NZ News