6 Small Business Tech Upgrades to Streamline Your Operations in 2025

Many small businesses are doing it tough right now, due in no small part, to insecure international trade relationships, numerous geopolitical tensions across the world, and the struggle to keep up with the high cost of living that many of their customers are experiencing.

With 2025 set to continue in much the same vein, the coming year will be challenging for many owner-operated companies, which is why they need to do all they can to gain a competitive advantage and make their operation more sustainable.

A good way to do this is to increase their efficiency by streamlining their organisational processes, and thankfully, there are several upgrades to their tech suite they can make to facilitate this enhancement.

In this post, we’ll look at six of the most effective ones you can introduce to your business in the next 12 months. Should you do so, you’ll not only make it run more smoothly, but also more profitably as well.

1. Install Digital Payment Solutions

Sales are the lifeblood of any small business, so you’ll want to ensure you process them as quickly, safely, and effectively as possible.

Therefore, installing a Smartpay EFTPOS machine is essential for all customer-facing businesses because buyers are increasingly wanting to pay for their goods via this very secure, contactless method.

The great thing about this payment method is that there are mobile versions available that enable you to use them at remote locations like markets or trade shows.

If you do intend to introduce an EFTPOS machine to your payment suite, you should also consider integrating other methods such as BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later), Stripe, PayPal, and Square into it as well.

2. Cloud Based E-commerce Platforms

Surprisingly, many small businesses still don’t have a website, and of those that do, a significant number are not selling on it - or, at least, as effectively as they could be.

According to the ABS, some 2,662,998 businesses are actively trading in Australia. However, if figures from IBIS World are to be believed, only around 97,000 of them trade online.

Through cloud-based e-commerce platforms like WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Shopify, you can run a slick, professional, and highly efficient online store that enables you to offer your customers an outstanding shopping experience.

For instance, it can incorporate augmented reality, which allows customers to try on any of your clothing items virtually and give them product recommendations based on their previous browsing patterns. You can also promote specific product pages of your website through email marketing and your social media channels.

3. AI-Powered Customer Service

Just because you are a small business should not prevent you from offering exceptional customer service.

One way you can do this is through AI-powered tools like Intercom, Freshdesk, or Zendesk, which help you offer support to your customers 24/7 through virtual assistants and chatbots.

This type of technology enables you to manage their enquiries and answer questions that are frequently asked by shoppers. They can also make recommendations based on their previous browsing or purchasing patterns and gauge your customer’s levels of engagement and satisfaction overall.

4. Accounting Software

Bookkeeping is a necessary part of running any small business. But it can be quite time-consuming and labour-intensive if you aren’t using specialist accounting software like QuickBooks, FreshBooks, or Xero.

These cloud-based platforms make the task much quicker and more seamless than if you do it manually because they can automate specific tasks, such as financial reporting, invoicing, and tracking expenses.

They can also forecast how much tax you will be required to pay, reduce the risk of miscalculation through human error, and generally streamline your small business’s accounting process overall.

5. Data Analytics

The key to running a successful small business is to make good decisions, and one of the best ways to do that is to use data analytics.

Thanks to tools like Google Analytics 4, Looker, and Tableau, it is now easier than ever to gain profound insights and spot trends related to sales, customer actions, and your company’s operational efficiency.

This, in turn, provides vital intelligence that small business users can draw upon to identify areas where they can save money, increase the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns, enhance customer experiences, and generally improve across the board.

6. CRM Systems

One of the main reasons why the majority of small businesses fold within the first three years of being launched is that they ultimately don’t have enough sales from customers to cover their operational costs.

As the old saying goes, it is easier to keep a customer in business than to gain a new one, which is why Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools like HubSpot, Zoho CRM, and Salesforce are so important.

Thanks to their AI capabilities, they can analyse all the ways a customer has interacted with your company to better predict sales trends and personalise future interactions with them.

By doing this, it will better enable you to manage leads, follow up on enquiries, and implement more effective marketing campaigns that will go a long way towards reducing customer churn rate, overall.