The other tweak of our recent magazine relay which we completed on the weekend was moving quilting, cross-stitch, craft and card making magazines to a new location, at the entrance to our women’s magazine aisle, directly opposite our women’s weeklies – New Idea, Woman’s day and the like.
We have been trialling a selection of these titles near the weeklies and sales were up as a result. I figured that moving all the titles to this high-traffic location was worth trying.
Sales of craft and hobby titles are up 80% or a moderate base. The currently only account for 4.5% of all magazine sales. I’d like to see that increased. Hence the better position for the full range.
We are ensuring that popular Australian titles are given the best position in the display. This is our preference – to promote Australian titles ahead of imported titles.
This move freed up space further in the aisle which have used to improve the display of other categories.
I plan to track the performance of the quilting / craft titles over the next month before making a decision on their long-term positioning.
Mark – I noticed that Homespun magazine was not bagged this month, whch is unusual. Have you received any comments from customers? or noticed any change in sales that you would attribute to this?
I have noticed a gradual increase in home sewing mags ( slightly different from Quilting mags which are consistent) and a definate increase in sales of knitting mags. I orgainsed a display of all the Christmas card making mags full face and they are selling really nicely – AND customers are buying two at once.
That’s great news hz! Despite the overall flat numbers for magazines, there are growth opportunities out there!