The photo is of the front left side of our newsagency in Frankston.
Where you see boxed cards, the business has run magazines – weeklies and some feature monthlies as a co-location strategy.
Two weeks ago, I decided we should replace magazines with boxed Christmas cards to drive sales.
Boxed cards immediately picked up – to the cost of magazine sales. I was surprised at how many magazines were purchased from this small display. Weekly titles were affected most. So much so that yesterday, we flipped the display back. It is a lesson learned. Being in a high passing traffic area, in front of a supermarket, it is clear that having the weekly titles at the front of the shop like this facilitates impulse purchase. While we need to address, for the overall benefit of the business, right now we need to get back the sales lost over the last two weeks.
While we have put magazines back in this valuable place, we have not forgotten boxed Christmas cards. Further down the front of the shop we have strengthened our offer to attract passing traffic. Early indications from yesterday are that this will work for us.
Change is great in any business situation. We measure, change and measure again. If the data shows a change is not working we either change again or go back to what we had. I was wrong on the boxed card approach in this high profile magazine space at the front of the shop. It was worth trying and appreciate the lesson learned.