The eight pockets we use above our women’s weeklies are tremendously valuable for us. Each holds titles which are located away from their usual place in the magazine department. Thanks to careful pocket counting, we know exactly what we sell from these pockets and therefore the value of our commitment to co-location.
By not going with the full waterfall we are able to gain additional sales from weekly magazine shoppers without impacting the sales of the major weeklies.
We change the titles in the eight pockets several times in the month based on our assessment of titles we expect will sell in the premium space.
We have been following this co-location strategy for years and in that time have build up good knowledge of what works for us and what does not. The stand out successes we have in these co-location pockets are: Notebook, Good Food, Better Homes and Gardens and Diabetic Living.With Notebook, for example, we sell more from this location than the usual location for the title.
With magazines accounting for between 25% and 50% of traffic to newsagencies, we need to do everything possible to leverage this for maximum return. Our own numbers compared to channel averages show that the investment of time and space is worthwhile.