Australian Newsagency Blog

When I saw the items a customer was purchasing on Friday last week I had to take a photo as it was a perfect example of the newsagency working across multiple categories to build a better basket.
The customer was buying Country Style magazine, a birthday card and a small inspirational booklet from Compendium. […]

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The movie Kung Fu Panda is getting plenty of press here even though it does not open until June 26.  Hallmark cards has the licence so there is an excellent promotional tie-in for many newsagents.  The gift bag featuring the panda character is fantastic - when you open the flap at the front the panda […]

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We are promoting International Father’s Day. It is one of the many ‘minor’ seasons to which we are committed to as a greeting card specialist. Wikipedia has an excellent list of when Father’s Day occurs around the world - the list of countries noted to celebrate on the third Sunday in June is […]

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We don’t sell Mills & Boon books in our newsagency but if we did I’d want to have the Mills & Boon range of greeting cards.
They are a nice fun take on the covers of the popular Mills and Boon books. I can see the cards and books being displayed next to […]

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Digging deeper into the benchmark study we undertook based on sales data from 89 newsagencies, it is clear that there is a correlation between gift sales and card sales.  In each store with strong gift sales, the card sales were considerably above average for the benchmark.  Based on this, why would a newsagent not have […]

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It’s great to have access to these new large music cards from Hallmark. Music cards represent a rapidly expanding segment of the greeting card market and these large cards will help develop that expansion. I wish we had them sooner.
While we are getting offered plenty of music cards from suppliers outside the mainstream, I’d […]

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It’s is good to see card companies innovating with Mother’s Day. Not only are we seeing greater variety in captions (and therefore more card giving opportunities) but also in design. The card in the photo is from Simson and is certainly not your traditional Mother’s Day card - this on is all about […]

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In every sale or catalogue there is the sleeper product which comes out of nowhere and performs exceptionally well.
The card organisers in the photo are the sleeper products from our recent book sale. For a couple of weeks they sat on display and did not sell. Then, in no time at […]

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I checked the John Sands card offer at an Angus & Robertson more closely yesterday - it’s a three for two deal. Buy three Mother’s Day cards and you pay for two. Discounting Mother’s Day doesn’t make sense - it is one of the best card selling seasons of the year. A&R must be […]

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Hallmark in the US has launched a range of Mother’s Day cards which allow you to record an audio message for your mother. Pretty cool.

You get to do as many takes at the recording as you like. The range is only available through their Gold Crown stores - I like that it’s limited.

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We are trying some new products for Mother’s Day this year.  In addition to Darrel Lea (the Mum’s Bag is a good seller!) and social stationery we have a range of small gift packs, some mugs and other items.
We have also changed our approach to display - located it closer to our greeting […]

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A key part of each of the Sophie Randall stores we create is our wall of feature cards. Each card is displayed full face - we have at least 350 designs on display in this feature space. This is in addition to our more traditional fixturing for every day and other cards from […]

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Maybe I missed this but it seems to me that more petrol outlets sell greeting cards now.
I have been in three petrol outlets this week and each had a corporate image stand with the range on display near the counter, next to the newspaper stand. The range was focused on top selling captions people […]

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We are having extraordinary success with packs of blank cards with images of Australian flora and fauna.
They are well priced and provide a good margin. The only downside is that they could hold back sales of premium blank cards. I’m not about to test this - we were out of stock of recently […]

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Odd story of the day goes to reports that Burger King has licenced their character for a range of greeting cards.  Maybe I am out of touch but why would you buy a birthday card with the Burger King character on the front?

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Now that the heat in Melbourne is finally fading people apparently think it’s safe to buy Easter eggs.
With more than $20,000 invested in easter chocolate across a few stores I’m relieved. Some customers coming to the counter with an armful of eggs said the heat made them hold back.
Sales were great yesterday and I’d […]

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In Frankston we have a strong plush offer capping the card aisle with our Easter card offer. Sprinkled in with the plush is an easter themed children’s book distributed by Gotch yesterday. The photo below shows this display.

Behind where the photo was taken is a bold Easter egg display. So, for us, Easter […]

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Any newsagent near a Priceline store ought to check out their Easter card range. Their new card supplier relationship has brought consistency to their greeting card offer. While the cards are cheap, they are packaged in such a way as to make them appeal to someone walking by.
A newsagent I was talking with […]

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We are promoting our range of St Patrick’s Day cards away from the usual card display in one of our newsagencies. Our view is that some people may buy a card as an impulse and not as a destination purchase - hence this small display at the counter. We’ll move it around a […]

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We’re embracing every possible greeting card season in our newsagencies, no matter how small or seemingly irrelevant to our customers.
If we want to be known as the card specialists it’s only appropriate we back this with commitment.  Take Mothering Sunday - Mother’s Day in the UK (March 2 this year) -  we have our cards […]

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I was at a premium retail business yesterday and walking into the shop I passed a stand of $1.00 “quality” cards.  I thought what an odd message - I pass cheap cards as I enter a premium business.  Why not better quality cards?  Because they don’t sell said the retailer.  When did you last try?  […]

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One of our customers treid extra hard to win the $400 bear we gave away as part of our Valentine’s Day promotion - they mounted their entry on a plastic heart and begged to win.
We loved their effort so much we created a second prize (as they didn’t win) and gave them chocolates and a […]

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It has been fascinating watching the different waves of Valentine’s Day card customers over the last month.  First it was the older customers, often in a long-term relationship, then it was the hopefuls and this week it’s been more of the oh, no, it’s Valentine’s Day and I don’t have anything.  We are […]

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We’re have cards in the window with other products for Valentine’s Day. Saturday I saw a customer buy a card from the window. We use the window ought to showcase our full offer.

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Here are some free Valentine’s Day marketing tips for newsagents included in the Tower Systems weekly email bulletin sent yesterday:
Kissing booth: raise money for a local charity, $2.00 a kiss;  Make sure it looks like an old style booth.
Red lips: paint some big red lips on the side of your face for the day […]

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