Google is reportedly in talks with magazine publishers to deploy a digital newsstand. The Wall Street Journal has more on this story including details on the battle over customer data. Publishers, as newsagents well know, want to own the customer regardless of the work done by the seller to win the customer.
The Google move joins work by Apple, News corp. and others in offering consumers ways to access digital subscriptions to magazines and newspapers.
Too many of the close to 3,000 newsagents with a newsagency Point of Sale system in their business do not use the software to manage stock.
This increases their exposure the customer and employee theft, it leaves them overloaded with stock, more than they need for the business, and it is costing them thousands of dollars a year in unnecessary wages.
The majority of newsagents have the technology at their fingertips yet too many do not use it.
It is as if these newsagents want to pay more in wages than they need to, carry more stock than is necessary and accept theft. Dumb, dumb and dumb.
Is this you? Do you genuinely manage your inventory? Do you use your computer system to generate orders or do you order based on gut feel, walking around the shop with a notepad and pencil or, worse still, by letting a supplier representative do it for you?
I have seen newsagents implement full stock control, without spending any more money on technology, and cut wages by $1,000 a month, cut their stock holding by $10,000 and cut theft by $15,000 in a year. That is a total saving in the first year of $37,000.
Newsagents with these tools at their fingertips and not using them have no excuse. They are financially hurting their business and the newsagency channel as a whole.
Here are the proven simple steps to saving time, cutting theft and reducing dead stock in your newsagency.
There can be no excuses. If you want to make the most out of your business (and why else would you be in business?) then following these steps is essential and urgent.
Some reading this will nod their head and agree that they should follow my advice. That is where it will sit … an idea they agree with but not acted upon. These people are ignorant, they don’t care about the thousands of dollars they will lose this year in their newsagency as a result of their inaction.
In addition to cutting theft, reducing your investment in stock and cutting paid-for hours, you will access other benefits, I promise you…
To kick start your newsagency in 2011, I urge you to act on this list. Today. If you have questions or comments, call me on 0418 321 338. I am happy to help regardless of the newsagency software you use.
You can’t plan for the future unless you are fit and healthy today. My eight point list goes to the heart of the health of your newsagency. Businesses which compete with newsagencies – supermarkets, convenience stores, petrol outlets, card shops, stationery warehouses, national variety stores – they all do this as a matter of course. How else do you think they have been able to take so much business from your channel? They treat their business data seriously.
Are you in? Are you committed to taking these steps to strengthen your business this year? I hope so. You need this for your future. The newsagency channel needs this for its collective future.
On the software side, I’d note that Tower Systems offers an excellent suite of training videos, advice sheets and live online training workshops which cover the area of inventory management and specifically how to unlock the benefits I have outlined above. For Tower Newsagents especially, there in NO EXCUSE.
Please don’t ignore the opportunity I have outlined in this blog post. You have nothing to lose and thousands of dollars to gain this year.
Remember, I’d be glad to help in any way.
Check out this blog post at Comic Book resources listing digital innovation in the comic space.
Folio is reporting the results of a survey predicting that one in five Americans will own a tablet computer by 2014. I expect this penetration to be reached before 2014. Sales of the devices have been extraordinary and they will grow as a flood of tablets reach the market this year. In a few days, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas will a bunch of new devices which will take the tablet hype to new heights.
Those in doubt need to do some research into what happened following the release of the first iPod.
Calendar Club pricing is not consistent across the outlets. There are outlets currently selling calendars at 40% off RRP and others offering more than 50% off. Some were discounting well before Christmas while others were full price up to Christmas.
Maybe it’s just me but they don’t appear to have been as tough a competitor on price this season as they have been in the past.
Calendar Club outposts have dominated calendar sales in major shopping centres for many years, offering a broad range. Their presence has been a major factor in newsagents reducing their commitment to calendars. In recent years, I have seen stores compete successfully with Calendar Club while maintaining a healthy margin.
I first wrote about Angel Flames as a good counter offer two and a half years ago. They are just as good today. We can easily sell a box in two weeks … at an excellent margin. If you sell plenty of birthday cards for 1 through to teenage years then they should work for you. I’d encourage newsagents to put them in the counter offer roster – bring them out probably once a quarter. We get our stock from Jasnor – other suppliers have them too.
Newsagents are invited to provide data for my next sales benchmark study. I am looking for sales data for two periods:
Newsagents using newsagency software from Tower Systems can participate by producing two Monthly Sales Comparison reports covering the periods noted above – with the 2010 date on the left and the 2009 date on the right and with the category box ticket (for more detail). Save the report as a PDF and email it to me.
While overall performance will be interesting, I will be looking at sales efficiency – items in the basket as well as overall basket value – along with unit sales and revenue by department.
By ticking the category box I can look at specific categories, such as women’s weeklies magazines, and compare them with overall magazine performance in newsagencies.
By analysing trends, we (individually and collectively) will be better able to plan for the future and to make good decisions for 2011.
I will publish the results here and elsewhere.
Thanks to the comments here I decided we would open today and see what the day brings. So much depends on what traffic the majors in the centre draw.
US bookseller Barnes & Noble said a couple of days ago that its Nook e readers are the biggest-selling items in its history. It also said that sold nearly 1 million e-books on Christmas Day. Click here to read the press release from the company which includes the following…
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today announced that with millions of NOOK eReading devices sold, the line has become the company’s biggest bestseller ever in its nearly 40-year history. The new NOOKcolor Reader’s Tablet, introduced just eight weeks before Christmas, is the company’s number one selling gift of the holiday season. Barnes & Noble also announced that it now sells more digital books than its large and growing physical book business on BN.com, the world’s second largest online bookstore. With its growth across device and NOOKbook™ sales over the critical holiday selling season, Barnes & Noble has successfully established itself as a leader in digital reading.
The curve we are in with sales of physical books versus digital is similar to the curve we saw with music five or six years ago. What is different this time is that key retailers are riding the wave rather than scrambling to catch up.
When I first started writing about tablet computers a few years ago, some in the newsagency channel derided me. History is proving that I was right in saying that these devices would significantly impact how we operate.
On the last day of the year, three months after the AFL Grand Final, we received Black and White magazine – celebrating the Grand Final victory by Collingwood. While we will place the title on the shelves, I suspect it will not sell that well. But who knows, Collingwood supporters seem to hang onto their wins for a while. Had this title arrived a couple of weeks ago it would have been snapped up as a Christmas gift by many.
Plastic bags are banned from retail businesses in Italy from today. Good stuff. Now if only we had clear leadership on this issue here.