I have spoken to a couple of newsagents in the last week about returns credits which were refused with the distributor saying they did not receive the stock. I’m posting this today to invite comments from newsagents who have had returns credits refused for this reason. If this has happened to you please share your story.
We’re very happy with the performance of IdN magazine. By giving it better positioning, so the full cover is easily seen, we are achieving better sales and attracting more shoppers interested in design.
This is one of those niches in which newsagents can shine, a niche which is important to medium term magazine sales. You won’t see this title in c-store, supermarkets or other outlets. It’s a perfect newsagency title, an opportunity to show off our magazine specialist credentials.
The latest issue go Girlfriend magazine has been selling its socks and we’re chasing extra stock to make the most of the opportunity. The free nail foils and the terrific display are working a treat.
What is helping drive sales is the social media campaign being run by the publisher Pacific Magazines. The Girlfriend magazine Facebook page has promoted newsagencies as the go to retailers for this issue.
If newsagents don’t have this issue out and in the spotlight then I’d suggest you give it a crack.
I always check sales for titles we promote as it’s important for these displays to produce a commercially valuable result. Too often newsagents leave the displays to others and don’t check or care about how this valuable retail real-estate is performing for the business.
While I am not a fan of the discount packs of current issues of magazines, we are giving them a go in high traffic locations to see if they do deliver the incremental growth which I am told happens in supermarkets and transit outlets. We have a couple of these packs this week from ACP and so we have placed them on the basket builder stand at the front of the newsagency, with the non-discounted version of each title.
We are promoting the latest issue of Burke’s Backyard magazine with this aisle end display.
The display has been up over the weekend and as you;d expect we achieved some nice sales from this location as well as the usual location for the title.
What’s interesting is that the display is in the men’s section of the store, towards the rear. We’re pleased that it working here as well as if it were facing into the front of the newsagency. It just goes to show that being in the front of the newsagency is not always essential.
Britain’s oldest newsagent, Charlie Reynolds, has been getting plenty of media coverage following a story in The Sun a couple of days ago. It made me wonder who our oldest newsagent is in Australia.
Back in 209 I wrote about a chap in Pakenham who I thought might be our oldest paper boy. I should have asked at the time if anyone has a nomination for the oldest newsagent.
Yesterday I provided the results of the latest newsagency sales benchmark report to participating newsagents.
Overall, newsagents had a good end to 2011. The year ended with better numbers over 2010 and 2010 ended over 2009.
I am concerned about the difference between newsagencies. There is no doubt in my mind that the strong are getting stronger. They are achieving growth from specialisation and diversification. This is evident in the sales data.
Even the data itself speaks to the difference between businesses. Newsagencies with well-managed data perform better. I can assess attention to data management in department and category structure and in whether every item sold in the newsagency is being scanned. This is why I am able to say that newsagents who are better at managing data will have more successful businesses.
What is interesting about this is that newsagents have complete control over how data is managed in their businesses.
Here are the newsagency sales benchmark highlight results for type of newsagency:
Now let’s look at the results by key departments. Note that for some departments I use unit sales and others I use dollar revenue:
Here are some other stats from the assessment of the data provided:
In the last study it was capital city shopping centre newsagencies which were most challenged. In this study they are the ones enjoying the best results. This speaks to the fickle nature of shopping centre sales performance. While am no economist it could be that they are the first to experience trends.
For no apparent reason, the magazine experts at Gordon and Gotch have cut our supply of Delicious magazine. We have sold out, as they would expect. We have ordered extra stock to satisfy demand for this excellent magazine.
For magazine experts the circulation people at Gordon and Gotch sure make planty of mistakes. This cut in supply of Delicious magazine is unwarranted when considering our sales data. This situation is frustrating. It provides another example of how newsagents are treated poorly in some supply decisions by magazine distributors.
While the folks at Gotch will undoubtedly have their excuses, given the volume of stock they received from the publisher and the certain returns from supermarkets, there is no reason they could have supplied me at a level so as I could achieve my sales potential.
Here is another example of how our team is embracing the personally recommendation of magazine titles. One of our team members loves the ACP cookbook so that she wanted to tell our customers. From a business perspective we don’t control these personal recommendations – otherwise they would not be personal.
Read the endorsement and see for yourself how personal this is. It’s another example of the personal connection with what we sell can separate us from other outlets which sell what we sell. While supermarkets get these cookbooks, they get them weeks after us. Plus, I doubt they would let their team members engage in this type of personal endorsement … they’d probably want to charge the supplier for it.
We need to find more ways to separate the shopping experience in our businesses from those of competitors, including other newsagents. This is a survival of the fittest marketplace and even the smallest touch which separates your business, on a good way, is vital for a bright future.
Shoppers yesterday at Bunnings in NSW were offered a free Daily Telegraph newspaper. While I cannot be sure, based on the nature of the promotion and the photo I was sent I’d expect it was run widely in the state.
Every time someone sees the Daily Telegraph available for free it dilutes the value of the product and educates them to expect to not have to pay for the newspaper in the future.
While giving away newspapers usually paid for may make sense to the short and long term business goals of News Limited, free newspapers are nothing but trouble for newsagents. They harm a product which still is core to our identity.
Why News Limited? What’s the plan? While I think I know, it would be good for the company to share with newsagents their plan so that newsagents can plan themselves.
While even the paid for Daily Telegraph is only a dollar and has been for 14 years or more, is is still something people pay to access. Every time it is available free is a step closer to a purely free model.
News will have the excuse that this is a campaign paid for by Bunnings. While that may be so, there appear to be more free campaigns paid for by one party or another: gyms, sporting events, the races, music events and retailer situations.
If it were me I’d respect my product more.
Like I am sure every other registered Apple customer I received an email this week from Apple promoting their custom Cards app. The pitch was simple, as Apple pitchers always are. It made a compelling case for using Apple to share a greeting or feeling next time…
The Cards app from Apple makes it easy to create and mail beautifully crafted cards personalised with your own text and photos — straight from your iPhone or iPod touch. Download it free from the App Store today.
So all you need is an image, the app and someone to send the card to. Apple does the work for you including posting the card. It’s a long way from then traditional greeting card. I wonder if this is the card for the mobile and connected generation.
We have struggled to find the right place in our newsagency for Time Out Melbourne. We’re out in a suburban shopping centre and don;t have commuter traffic. Also, our shoppers are usually women, 35 and older, not your typical Time Out reader. We have the title with music magazines and with teen to twenty girls magazines. But that felt wrong. So, yesterday at around 5pm I moved it to next to the newspapers. True story – within five minutes a young guy purchased a copy. I told him we were struggling with where we should put it. He was certain – Time Out should be with the newspapers, it’s where he looks for it in newsagencies. So that’s where we will place it for the first few days of the on-sale. Given the demand for this premium space we will either then move it somewhere else or find a way to create a display opportunity so that it can be permanently with newspapers.
It’s amazing what you learn when you seek advice from a customer.
Check out the counter display we have done for New Idea Jumbo Puzzler for this weekend. We are planning on using this space in front of our Ticketek counter for a selection of individual magazine titles and categories of titles over the next few weeks. Given the tremendous success we have have with this new title I figured that it was well worth trying at the counter. We still have copies in their usual location. This counter display will run for the weekend and into the start of next week.
This type of display is all about selling titles easily understood and purchased on impulse to shoppers who are unlikely to move further into the store to browse the magazine range.
As a follow up to my post earlier this week about how uneducated and ill-considered early returning of magazines by newsagents could kill magazines for our channel, I thought I would share some data for the newsagency I directly and most consistently influence. It is one of three newsagencies I own or have a half share in. This data speaks to me practicing what I write here. It provides the best measure of how my processes pan out at the sales counter. It shows that growth is possible in magazines.
Crossword sales are up 124 units, 108%. Women’s weeklies are up 151 units, 18%. Craft and hobbies are up 47 units, 168%. Special interest sales are up 51 units, or 124%. Right across the board except for Children’s and Buying & Selling sales are up.
This is our third January so we are well established. We have another newsagency, two supermarkets and a couple of other outlets selling magazines in the centre.
All of this growth comes from hard work and commitment from the team running the business and my involvement. We promote the business regularly externally. We have a strong new traffic generation campaign. We have an equally strong campaign in-store for driving a deeper basket with more magazines. We entice magazine customers back.
While magazine sales are challenged we have a medium opportunity. They continue to offer us today the best point of difference over any other retail business which sells everything else we sell. This is why I am concerned about ill-considered and uneducated early returns. They send the wrong message to the publisher.
I think that many newsagents have it within their capacity to grow magazine sales. Sure it’s hard work. The reward is what you bank and the increased value of the business.
This is the display our team created for behind the counter to promote the two JAG watches we are giving away for Valentine’s Day this year. We wanted to focus on the key message of the opportunity to win the watches.
Elsewhere in-store we are promoting our Valentine’s Day gifts and greeting cards … which are already selling well I’d note.
I like being able to give away prizes in-store. I think customers appreciate that a local shopper is certain to win the prize we are promoting. This makes winning the prize more attainable. It’s another reason we are so strongly promoting the prize opportunity.
Now before anyone asks, the watches are part of the Hallmark Alliance promotion for Valentine’s Day.
The latest issue of Dolly magazine is not looking its best on the shelves. The stock and weight of the free quiz magazine glued to the back of Dolly is not holding well and so drags back, making the stock look a bit ratty. This is a pity because the offer is good – the magazine, the quiz magazine and the free pen for doing the quiz.
The problem is that the quiz magazine is glued up so that it stands above the magazine. The paper stock is not thick enough to hold the weight of the quiz magazine in stock. After a day on the shelves, unless the pockets are jam-packed, you end up with the ratty look in the photo.
I doubt it will affect sales. At least I hope it doesn’t.
We are giving Mac Format magazine prime positioning so that the full cover of their tribute issue for Steve Jobs can be easily seen and browsed.
This issue should sell well as there are plenty of Apple fans out there who would purchase it as a collector’s item. I am surprised that there was no bump in supply for this issue. Hmm … we get a bump without expectation of justification and then where there is justification – nothing.
In Auckland this week I was surprised to see this ad in the New Zealand Herald offering a free magazine subscription with a newspaper subscription.
This is not something I’d like to see reach Australia. Given the mix of titles on offer I’d hate to lose over the counter sales of weekly titles. It is bad enough distribution newsagents losing margin on the migration from direct customer accounts to subscriptions. Losing magazine sales would further huts newsagents.
We are promoting the latest issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly with this aisle end display as well as a double waterfall in the usual ovation for the title – next to our weekly magazines. we are hoping that the Meryl Streep cover drawn good attention and drives sales. For there weekend we will be using the ACP impulse stand out the front of the newsagency to attract the weekend shoppers. As the Victorian school holidays draw to a close we will see a return to more traditional shopping patters. In suburban newsagencies this can me an increase in sales of the most popular titles.
Newsagencies ought to be top of mind to Australians today as ours are quintessentially Australian businesses. We play a vital role in our communities. We employ local people. We usually reinvest profits locally. We are good local businesses showing off the Australian work ethic and commitment to a fair go … for the most part at least.
What challenges us and this image of our businesses is unfair treatment around magazine supply, a wage system which penalises us for the now seven day a week retail cycle, the relentless pursuit of our core customers by the two major supermarket groups and Australia Post, the cynical abuse of our channel by some suppliers and poor decisions some of us make about our businesses.
Our job this year is to rise above these challenges and to use the strength of our footprint to push back on some fronts, to make our voice heard for genuine change in our favour.
We are promoting the latest issue go Girlfriend magazine from Pacific Magazines with the bonus nail foils and the free $2 Virgin Mobile SIM pack with this display facing into the mall. The Virgin Mobile SIM comes with the magazine. Our team is reinforcing the Virgin Mobile connection with Girlfriend by placing a Virgin Mobile Broadband product next to the magazine display. Shoppers who purchase a Broadband product go into the running to win one of two scooters valued at over $2,000. Now before anyone asks – this is a newsXpress promotion. I like it because it is pitching free mobile access to a demographic which is wedded to mobile phone communication. I like being the only shop in the shopping centre with the offer and the prize opportunity. The SIM pack and Girlfriend make a natural fit. Hence our high traffic location promotion.
Connecting promotions from two different product categories is a smart move for newsagents and newsagency marking groups. Especially products which are habit or regular purchase based – like magazines and mobile phone recharge.
A magazine recently had a sell through of 91% in a study group of newsagencies, a pretty amazing result. Many of the stores in the data group sold out. The problem is that every newsagency in the selected data group early returned the title. In fact, they early returned 37% of the inventory they received.
The sales result for the issue makes the rely return move look dumb. Most of the newsagents involved lost sales as a result. Maybe they are rich enough and don;t want the additional bottom line profit. Maybe they are not planning to sell their newsagency and therefore don;’t want every extra dollar in valuation they can achieve.
The performance of this particular title in the newsagencies studied shows that every newsagent included, without their knowledge, in the data study was clueless about early returning this title. The result is not only a failure for the businesses but a failure for the newsagency channel.
The actions of these dumb newsagents is giving one publisher good commercial reasons to look outside our channel.
Dumb early return decisions, decisions not based on good data, could be a factor in publishers more widely seeking out alternative outlets for their magazines.
Publishers talk. They share stories about how their titles are treated by newsagents. It is entirely possible that the ill-considered actions of some newsagents could hurt the whole channel.
While newsagents bleat and moan about things they cannot change, it frustrates me that they do not invest time in resolving things they can change.
I urge newsagents to review their early returns process. If you are not sure about the criteria to use, ask. Plenty of professional help is available.
We must change how we handle early returns for the future of the channel.
Footnote: While I am referring to one issue of one title here, this post could be about hundreds of magazines. I know of at least six Australian publishers with titles which have been treated as I have described.
Newsagents last week received stock of these Hana deka Club roller stamp pens from magazine distributor Gordon and Gotch. Why a magazine distributor would send us these roller stamp pens is beyond me. I can get this product from a range of suppliers and on commercially votable terms.
On the same day Gotch sent newsagents a counter unit of My Little Pony Self Inking Stampers.
This is an abuse of the newsagency channel. It relies on newsagents not having the guts to act. It also relies of us having to fund returning such product – not each given the packaging.
The only place most newsagents could viably put these products is at the counter. Would you do this – with such a generic product which does nothing for your image – for 25% margin? 50% maybe.
I have told my teams to be on the lookout for junk like this and to return it immediately. If it gets damaged through the returns process so be it. It’s not my problem. No magazine distributor should be sending us this junk.
This product impact how newsagents feel about all products distributed by Gordon and Gotch.
And Australian publishers wonder why newsagents early return stock.
I love the cover of the NME special on The Smiths and so have made sure that it is in the best location in our music section.
I like to tab any opportunity to lift up a cosier with visual cut through and which has special interest appeal. Even shoppers who do not purchase or browse the title are likely to at least remember our specialisation. This is the kind of specialisation which is important to us or at least to newsagents who consider themselves to be magazine specialists.