The sales decay experienced by weekly magazines in newsagencies is quite different to that the same titles experience in other retailers. For the top selling titles: New Idea, Woman’s Day, NW, Take 5, That’s Life and Who, the first tow on sale days are crucial. The graph below – for capital city based newsagencies – shows the decay over the seven day on sale period for these titles plus TV Week – the line with the least sharp decline. In rural and regional newsagencies the decay curve is not as sharp.
I produce this graph weekly and compare the decay curve for major titles against previous weeks – in part to track in store activity and in part to predict where the week will end.
Reporting on sales decay for major weekly titles can set the merchandising agenda for a newsagency if the newsagent wants to be data driven in decision making. We have seen stores go from a set and forget approach to merchandising to a proactive approach where displays are driven by data – seeing two titles occupy prime space over the course of a week rather than one.
That’s Life and Take 5 and the titles with the sharpest decay based on the data I have seen. Sales growth is there for the taking for newsagents who aggressively pitch these titles on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
The decay reporting direct from within the Tower Systems software makes tracking this growth easy.