I happened to stumble on trade display connected with a national video/dvd chain yesterday and discovered that one of their most popular product categories is mobile phone recharge. They earn premium commission from the recharge sale by selling handsets – telcos reward retailers for this as it grows their customer base.
The next most popular after dvd rental and mobile phone recharge is confectionery.
Talking to a couple of attendees, I was impressed with the clarity and consistency of their pitch about turning the dvd rental into a considerably more valuable sale. While some of us do this, too many newsagents take the newspaper sale and complain about the size of the transaction instead of making it count for more.
If we don;t watch out, these smart video library operators will show us what they can really do.
It seems to me that the way these places increase the impulse purchases is to slow the sales time down to a snails pace and force the customer to wait in front of the upsell items for 5 to 10 minutes. This is what is being done at service stations Video stores, Aust post, supermarkets etc. When was the last time you went to a video shop and tried to get to the front of the line with only a dvd, but have to stand there as a kid tries to sell a mobile recharge or upsell a drink, I’ve given up and now have fox.
I’ll get out of the industry the day I make customers wait minutes before they are served by my staff. Customer service and point of difference will see a business succeed not the upsell and definately not the long lineup strategy employed by some industries.
Video hire is almost a monopoly in Australia these days anyway, with Video Ezy owning Blockbuster in Australia as well… and a rare Civic Video (generally in severely run down condition) every now and then. I haven’t seen an independent video store in years.