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Ink is the star of stationery

hotink-oct2011.jpgInk continues to the star category of stationery for us, generating excellent new traffic and driving wonderful year on year growth.

We are into double digit growth on last year – even in our temporary downsized store of 97 sq m compared to our original 330 sq m.  As a comparison, stationery has shown only limited growth for the year.

Ink accounts for 50% of our year to date stationery sales.

With all the talk of  newsagents needing help and struggling to find their place in today’s retail landscape, I thought it might be valuable to summarize how we have approached ink for the last four or five years.

  • We only carry brand name ink.  We did try compatibles some years ago and while the margin was good, the return rate was higher.
  • We promote ink outside the store five times a year through catalogues.  This brings in excellent new traffic, plenty of it sticky – new customers who come back having had a good price and service experience.
  • We also promote ink in-store with flyers handed to customers, attractive shelf talkers and posters promoting hero items.
  • We back the category with great customer service – special orders and other services which help our customers have an enjoyable experience.
  • We promote our ink offer online on a range of listing websites.

Ink customers are valuable, not only because of the repeat business they generate but also because the boy other items regularly – magazines, stationery and even greeting cards.

Ink fits with an important aspect of newsagency shopping, habit. As a channel we are great at habit based shopping.  This is why many newsagents are doing well with ink.  It is a natural fit.

While the last five years have been good for us, I expect the future to be even better. There are excellent growth opportunities for ink ahead thanks to new marketing initiatives.

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  1. CAROL

    With so many differant printers and cartridges how do you know what to stock

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  2. Brett

    Carol,

    Talk to a current stockist and you will get 90% right straight away. Some you will waste, its a fact. Your suburb will have its own little pool of printer owners but it is worth it, we now have businesses coming in buying the high end stuff, why, simple, we are cheap and reliable and we sell quality ink and toner.

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  3. Andrea

    Who is the best ink wholesaler to use?

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  4. CAROL

    Thankd Brett. What sort of mark up do you get on them. Do you buy from GNS. I’m in Queensland.

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  5. Mark

    Andrea, work out what is bets for you: price, speed or range and then check out the suppliers.

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  6. Brett

    Carol,

    Fellow Qld’er.

    GNS is a good start point for supply, they have a fair range and reasonable prices. To get better deals try Tonnex or Dynamic for suuplies as well. Set your markups so that they are under the big resellers and then spread the word, you will be amazed. We have gone from old copy ink selling $20 a month to brand name ink at $3-5K per month

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  7. Sonia

    how big is the footprint for your ink cartridges? I am looking to take out magazines and give the space to something that will generate new customers and better margins. who does your catalogues for cartridges.

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  8. Mark

    Sonia, we have two metres of slat wall space allocated. The keys to success are brand name range, price, merchandising and regular catalogue marketing to thousands of homes around the business.

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