Letter to the Editor: Retailers Should Have Freedom to Choose
To the Editor,
I own Tower Systems, a local Aussie software company serving several hundred bike retailers with locally made and supported software.
I was disappointed to discover that Specialized has advised retailers that the new version of their electronic invoice platform will only link with the Lightspeed and Vend software products. Lightspeed recently bought Vend POS for over $300M.
The move by Specialized feels anti-competitive. It feels like they are forcing bike retailers to go with one company.
In my decades owning my software company as well and retail shops, the best results have come from competitive situations.
A supplier making a move to block competition in the software space is, in my opinion, not good news for local bike shops. I hope Specialized change their position in the interest of open competition and trusting their retail partners to do what is right for their local businesses.
Mark Fletcher
CEO | Tower Systems
I switched over to Lightspeed is September 2020 after 10 years with Tower. Lightspeed is a far better system in many ways, especially for integrating my website, uploading stock and generating reports.
Another reason not to buy specialized. Even big brands like Giant and whatnot seem happy to work with smaller stores yet for some reason specialized think they’re the Apple of bikes.