This photo shows a pen wall in a newsagency I was in recently. The pen offer in this high-street newsagency is less than ideal: much of the stock is old, the fixtures are vey old and the overall offer unappealing. There is no story being told, no pride being shown.
Get pens right and they account for around 33% of all stationery sales and they deliver year on year growth of between 5% and 10%.
Getting pens right means having a good range of current stock fixtured in clean and fresh units well signed and in a location noticed by most who shop in the newsagency.
It’s not hard work to get pens right but it does mean exerting control: controlling what is ordered, how it is displayed and how it is sold. Suppliers make it easy by providing reps who will order for newsagents. This can be a bad move.
My Sunday newsagency management tip today: look at your pen offer and take control. Expect sales to increase.
Can you give us a comparison Mark? I looked at the photo but I could not see what was wrong with it.
Old stock, old display units, dirty product labels. The photo was taken after product from two other suppliers were removed. For pens, two suppliers is enough. The units need to be clean, well signed and holding reasonable stock. For one pen which they sold two or three of a month they had more than 30 pens thanks to the over supplying supplier and no controls on orders in-store.