The lines between retail channels continue to blur as retailers pursue traffic and revenue in a crowded and competitive marketplace.
Supermarkets are not alone in reaching into the product categories of other channels to make their businesses more successful. Pharmacies have been doing this for years as have proactive newsagents.
The gift fair on at the moment in this has demonstrated how much previously defined retail channels cross over into others. On gift and homewares stands I have seen owners of gift shops, jewellers, garden centres, newsagencies and general online businesses.
Gifts are the ultimate board offering, working well in a variety of retail channels. Newsagents need to consider this as they expand their gift offerings as they need to ensure they are in a highly competitive category with obvious and not so obvious competitors.
This presents a significant challenge to many newsagents who enter the gift space for a point of difference. It is why you need to be careful about suppliers you use, to ensure that your investment is not challenged by the same products being placed in a supply business nearby.
Several suppliers at the fair told me of independent retailers asking if they supplied this group or that group. In one particular instance the supplier mentioned that a no meant the retailer walked off the stand. Groups in several retail channels work hard to keep their supplier relationships secret for this reason.