Australian Newsagency Blog

I am undertaking a sales benchmark study comparing April-June 2009 against April-June 2008. This study will provide an update on the sales health of our channel with the last study now three moonths old.
Tower Newsagents can participate by sending a Monthly Sales Comparison report: tick the box to exclude home deliveries, and tick the box […]

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With the Oz Lotto $90 million jackpot driving Christmas-like traffic and the Michael Jackson story driving excellent news traffic, we all need to take extra care managing cash this weekend.  Here are some tips which may be useful:

Remind all staff how you want cash handled.  Busy times are when you will be targeted for change […]

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As a result of discussion here I have reviewed the financial benefit measured in my newsagency from last night’s $20 million lotto superdraw. I only looked at yesterday because this is when we saw the biggest increase in traffic driven by the $20 million on offer.
We prepared our business for the traffic with good-value […]

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We have had our own small warehouse a few doors down from our head office since late last year. With three newsagencies and four card and gift shops to serve, the warehouse is making it easier for us to buy as a group and better manage stock. Instead of holding stock at the […]

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As part of helping a business recently I reviewed stock on hand for greeting cards.  One card company was found to have more than thirty pockets with ten or more cards per pocket.  In three cases, there were twelve cards.  In thirteen pockets there were  two designs with more than three cards for each of […]

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I have been asked by several people about our process for unpacking, labeling and putting out magazines on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at our newsagency. We have this process complete by no later than 8:15 each morning – having started at 7am. Returns are done the same day, by mid morning. The […]

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Digging deeper into the newsagency sales benchmark study I recently completed, I have found that sales of chewing gum fell by more than 15% in the sample group of newsagencies.  80% of newsagencies participating in the benchmark study reported declines.
While I am not a chewer of gum, I am surprised by this result.

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We are introducing a loyalty cards for people who work near our Sophie Randall card and gift stores.  A holder of the Sophie’s Neighbour Discount Card will receive a discount off each purchase and have access to other neighbour only offers and promotions.  We have business processes (including in our POS software) behind the offer […]

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Given the response to the KICK START YOUR NEWSAGENCY workshops this week, I am looking at locations for another round.  The plan at this stage is to offer this business building workshop in Hobart, Launceston, Woollongong, Gold Coast and Newcastle.  I’d appreciate feedback on other cities which should be considered.

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The KICK START YOUR NEWSAGENCY management workshops I am involved with are in full swing. Yesterday in Brisbane we had a good discussion about our all important point of difference and again today in Sydney. It is good to see newsagents so passionate about ways in which they make their business stand out […]

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The 5 WAYS TO KICK START YOUR NEWSAGENCY workshop starts on Monday.  I’ll be hitting six cities in five days and meeting with between 250 and 300 newsagents.  This weekend I am working on the content to ensure it is fresh, relevant and genuinely useful.  The location details are:

Melbourne. Monday Feb. 9 at 2pm. […]

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I will be in Townsville next week (Wednesday, 2pm at Jupiters Hotel and Casino) and Darwin the week after (Wednesday at 2pm at the Holiday Inn) talking with newsagents about strategies for building stronger businesses. These sessions are part of the Tower Systems Spring User Meeting Tour which has attracted newsagents from around the […]

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We had a good October at Forest Hill.  Overall, sales were up 6% on last year.  This is despite magazines and lotteries recording a dip.  Greeting cards delivered excellent growth.
What is most interesting is the continued shift away from what have been traditional lines for our newsagency.  Gifts, books, calendars, art supplies and ink all […]

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I am visiting several cities this week presenting a workshop on how to build greater success in your newsagency. This is being delivered as part of the Tower Systems Spring User Meeting Tour. Any newsagent, regardless of the system they use, are are most welcome to attend. The details of where […]

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More and more when talking with newsagents I am asked what percentage of revenue labour ought to cost. In a retail only newsagency the figure I consider okay is between 10% and 12% depending on product mix. There are only two ways to achieve a healthier labour cost to sales ratio: increase sales […]

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