Australian Newsagency Blog

I am at Melbourne airport this morning heading to Perth for the day.  There are two new retail stores in the Qantas domestic terminal newsagents should see.  The Watermark business looks stunning.  It is a premium book retail offer which is inviting, easy to shop and very professional.  On the main concourse is the new […]

[Read more →]

We have had chocolate hearts at the counter in all of our stores for the last week.  While they are there for Valentine’s Day, they are really there to tap into shoppers treating themselves with a chocolate for their trip to the car or their next stop.  Most are purchased on impulse.  We usually sell […]

[Read more →]

We are trying Rolling Stone next to our main newspaper stand. We created the tactical displayin the photo yesterday. We are keen for Rolling Stone to work here as it struggles in our shop.  We plan to try several things to see if we can find a market for what is a very good […]

[Read more →]

We are promoting the latest issue of Prevention magazine at our main newspaper stand.  It’s been tremendously successful for us in this location since launching last year.
While we also have copies in our women’s health area, the newspaper location is best for us.
As I blogged last week, I consider Prevention to be the launch of […]

[Read more →]

Our small display of New Year’s Eve products, placed in front of the counter, is working well.  The various party goods, hats, 2010 glasses and glow sticks are selling from the re-purposed Letts Diaries display unit.  We are expanding our range of party goods in 2010 so we want to take evry opportunity possible to […]

[Read more →]

The simple Christmas greeting in receipts printed by our Point of Sale software has been geting a good response from our customers.
We are also using the message / coupon facility to promote magazine putaways to magazine customers and a diary reminder (for next year) for diary customers.

[Read more →]

We Put Think Big with newspapers last week because of the Michael J Fox cover story.  While not a big success sales wise, I saw customers stop and look at the title.  They would not have done this had we just left it with our business magazines.  We place several titles a week based on […]

[Read more →]

The snow globes and magnetic wooden Christmas ornaments are selling like hot cakes.  Given their location only at the sales counter, they are purchased on impulse when finalising the sale.  Adding between $1.95 and $5.95 to a sale is a terrific bonus in a newsagency.  That said, in most cases we sell more than one […]

[Read more →]

The owners of Borders in Australia are making it clear that they are not part of Borders in the UK which called in the administrators this week.  Redgroup retail owns Borders Australia.  They also own Angus and Robertson, Supanews and Whitcoulls in New Zealand.
Regardless of the lack of association between the businesses, the UK move […]

[Read more →]

We have given the Australian Women’s Weekly a double facing for the first week of the on-sale.  This gives the free bag with the magazine a better opportunity of driving sales from this regular location for the title.It also allows us to fit two titles per pocket.
We do this for magazine issues with a free […]

[Read more →]

The photo shows the offer across the front of our newsagency. Customers enter between the zones: boxed Christmas cards, calendars and Darrell Lea Christmas candy. We move categories around but always present the offers in a defined space and right at the entrance. The result of attention to this part of the […]

[Read more →]

US research firm Dechert-Hampe & Company recently completed a study of front-end performance at more than 300 stores in the grocery sector. Magazines, confectionary and beverages, made up the “power” group of top performers at checkout. Click here for a summary.
While one might expect this result from a study funded by Mars, Coca-Cola and […]

[Read more →]

Our Frankston team has created a stunning window display around the new moon products in time for the launch of the Twilight movie this week.  The display is promoting the new moon board game, calendars and gifts as well as magazines with new moon content.
Magazines are a key part of the mix in this promotion […]

[Read more →]

We have a policy of not removing cards to make way for seasons.  While it can be challenging finding enough space in the newsagency this time of the year to maintain this policy, it is essential if we are to remain the best card outlet in the shopping centre.
Take Christmas, we have the range of […]

[Read more →]

The calendar impulse display I wrote about last week is working well for us - so much so that we are leaving it setup for longer than expected.  Browsed often during the day, we see shoppers move from this stand to our main calendar department now located less then a metre away.  The full face […]

[Read more →]

We are promoting the new issue of marie claire on an aisle end this week.  This display fronts our two main magazine aisles.  We were fortunate to receive some excellent collateral with which to promote the title.  This is the location we would have used for Australian Women’s Weekly had they promoted the title in […]

[Read more →]

We are promoting Grazia magazine with other products connected with the Spring Racing Carnival such as newspapers.  The copy in the photo is placed above The Age on our main newspaper stand.  We don’t have any addditional collateral so our work is all abourr product placement.  This week would have been an ideal opportunity for […]

[Read more →]

We are trialling new signage from ACP for their Women’s Weekly Cookbooks.  While I like the look, I was concerned that it may block sightlines to aisles behind the cookbooks, as seen from the counter. Now that it is in place, I don’t see this as much of a concern.
The bold signage draws attention to […]

[Read more →]

In the first six days of on-sale of the latest issue of Men’s Health, we sold five copies more than the two we usually sell in the first on-sale week for the magazine.
As I blogged on Monday, we created a small display next to our main newspaper stand.  This is the location from which we […]

[Read more →]

Our team at Forest Hill has refreshed the product offers located around our photocopier.  This makes more rewarding use of our retail space and offers compelling impulse opportunities to photocopying customers without impeding  easy access to the copier.
The basket data I have seen for newsagencies shows that copying remains one of the least efficient sales.
On […]

[Read more →]

We are promoting the latest issue of Limelight magazine in prime position between our two busiest counter positions for the weekend.  The Andre Rieu cover will ensure excellent sales for us.  A poster or two would have helped create a better display.  We only received Limelight last night as our Wednesday NDD delivery was […]

[Read more →]

My earlier comments about this week’s chunky New Idea notwithstanding, we have it on display at our main counter, between our two busiest registers.  I expect it to work well for us.  The recipe base is a good value gift.
We will leave New Idea up in this location until Wednesday if we have sufficient stock.

[Read more →]

Our team at Forest Hill has a well-considered strategy for moving stock from the prime (initial) position to the second and, sometimes, third location in the life of a product with us.  This is on display with our handing of books.  Our book sale did very well but we have some stock left which we […]

[Read more →]

Earlier this week we expanded our boxed Christmas card range with the European designed Selective range from Hallmark.  This is phase two of our boxed Christmas card strategy.  The moment we started putting the cards out they were selling.  They are a good variation of the more traditional boxed cards we see here in Australia.  […]

[Read more →]

The latest issue of Notebook magazine, out yesterday, is a challenge to display because of the free illuminater gift bagged with each copy.  Instead of the usual three or four copies per pocket we can only fit one.  The odd shape of the box makes flat stack display a challenge too.  The challenge of packaging […]

[Read more →]