A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Month: April 2011

The space fight between Easter and Mother’s Day

Space is at a premium in newsagencies at the moment with the Easter and Mother’s Day seasons colliding in their requirements.  Add to this, a binge of partworks releases, the traditional (and large) Easter Book Sale, magazine features to promote and the regular day to day activity in a well run newsagency and, yes, space is in high demand.

We are complicating it is a couple of my stores with a Toy Sale which still has two weeks to run.  This has been our second successful Toy Sale in four months.

We are addressing the unusual demands on space over the next few weeks with a process of regular rotation for the two major seasons in play as well as regular rotation for the magazine promotions.  This is something we have always done but which is receiving even more attention right now.

As for the glut of partworks, they are not getting the attention we would like.  Poor planning on the part of all involved, flooding newsagents like this.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining about the higher than usual demands on space.  As retailers we live for opportunities to have our stores full of stock and to show off.  I have two core issues: the glut of partworks and the lack of consideration by some suppliers around how much space we give them when we are so busy.  No matter, they will get over it.

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Newsagency management

The Age newspaper masthead covered, newsagents shafted

ageapr2.JPGFairfax lumped a triple whammy against their brand and newsagents yesterday by attacking The Saturday Age.  The first issue is that they whacked a garish post it note type ad across the newspaper masthead.  This cheapens the brand.  They do it because these ads sell I guess.  The message, however, is that their brand does not matter all that much.  The second issue is that the ad was a subscription offer.  Why use my shop and goodwill to take customers away from me?  I make little enough of newspapers as it is.  This campaign offering a 65% discount is offensive.  The third issue is that they are promoting their newspaper a home delivery campaign which contradicts a campaign tthey have asked newsagents to promote, a campaign for which they provided distribution newsagents flyers for recently.

What a mix up.  Makes me wonder who is in charge, where they see their brand in 20 years and whether they really care about newsagents.

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Newsagency challenges

We get the Winning Post, finally

winningpost.JPGThanks to pressure from the publisher we are  being supplied the Winning Post.  This will make our customers happy.  It also encourages me that fractures in the supply model, where a small number of distribution newsagents refuse to supply some titles, can be fixed.  It also encourages me to go after more titles for which we are currently refused supply.

We are promoting the Winning Post in a good location to drive sales and provide that the fight to get the product in store was worth the hassle and effort.

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Newspapers

Retail Sector Issues Paper

On Thursday, the Productivity Commission Inquiry into the Structure and Performance of the Retail Industry – including international online trade, released the issues paper which will guide its review.

This is a paper well worth reading if you plan to be involved in retail in Australia in the future.  I have read it and see several opportunities for individual newsagents and group’s representing them to make a submission and have their individual and collective voices heard.

I am particularly to see retail tenancy issues are to be covered including:

Is there any evidence that owners of major retail complexes in Australia exert market power to command higher rental and occupancy costs than are experienced in many overseas markets?

Is it inevitable that Australian retailers must pay higher rental and occupancy costs as a proportion of sales than offshore counterparts? If so, why and what factors cause this? Does this mean that Australian retailers will have to charge higher prices to maintain reasonable levels of profitability?

I urge newsagents to click on the link and read the issues paper.  This is the type of opportunity where we will say what we should have done once the report has come out and our views have not been represented.

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Newsagency challenges

Trent Nathan improves the retail browsing experience

shirt.JPGBrowsing is important in any retail business but even more so when it comes to magazines.  The consumer research from publishers tells us how the consumer experience with magazines is tactile.  They are using this research to pitch the print experience in comparison to the digital experience.  I agree with the research. Customers in newsagencies demonstrate the tactile relationship they have with magazines every day.

A key reason I do not like bagged magazines is that they impede the browser experience. They deny the opportunity of the content driving the purchase.

The other issue with bagged magazines is that the bag itself becomes a turn off, as I blogged recently here.

So, I was interested to see how Trent Nathan gets around the need to bag products, men;s shirts, to provide the necessary tactile experience.  Check our the photo. See the touch me sticker? It is holding a swatch of fabric to the pack.  This is important as the fabric feels different to the usual shirt fabric.  It helps sell the shirt.

I wonder if the approach Trent Nathan is taking to shirts could be tried where magazines must be bagged.  If there a way to give the customers something on the bag or outside off the bag, which does not make merchandising the product any more difficult, and which reinforces the newsagency browsing experience.

While my preference is no bagged product in my newsagencies, I put this post out there to publishers to show how one company is going beyond the bag to help drive sales.

Being able to touch the fabric without having to open the package guided me to purchasing this shirt over another of a similar design.

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magazines

How often do you look at your Profit and Loss statement?

I get a Profit and Loss statement for my newsagencies within two weeks of the end of the month. This includes an assessment of the month against budget, year to date against budget and a rolling forecast a year out based on current trends.

I am lucky to have a CPA on staff who can do this.

Unfortunately, too many newsagents do not get a profit and loss more frequently than once a year. I am sure that this hurts business decisions.

A properly constructed P&L will guide good business decisions. While Point of Sale software can also do this, it can only go so far as you really need all the business expenses to get a whole of business view.

This is on my mind today because of a newsagent who is in trouble and who has not seen a P&L for their business for more than a year.

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Newsagency management

Q1 2011 Newsagent Sales Benchmark Study

I am looking for data from newsagents for my next Newsagent Sales Benchmark Study. While I am primarily interested in data from the 1,700 newsagents with newsagency software from Tower Systems, I’ll happily work with other newsagents on their data.

Participating is easy. Run your Monthly sales Comparison report with Jan 1, 2011 – March 31, 2011 on the left and Jan 1, 2011 – March 31, 2010 on the right. TICK THE CATEGORY BOX as this provides an excellent breakdown to allow more thorough analysis. Please do NOT tick the supplier box. Save the report as a PDF. Email this report to mark@towersystems.com.au.

I need the data by next Monday, April 4 as I’d like to publish top line results by Friday, April 8.

I have been doing these sales benchmark studies for years.  The results have been supported by audits and other studies produced by others.  The purpose of my benchmark study is to help newsagents sport trends and this this make better informed business decisions.

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newsagent software

Liberals join the EFTPOS fight

The Liberal Party has published an article on their website in support of the small business position on EFTPOS fees. While the article includes an ignorant party political shot at the end, it does include this useful call:

The Coalition calls on the big banks to reduce small business banking costs and fees by an amount equivalent to the new revenues created by ‘spinning off’ EFTPOS to ensure that the creation of the new business is not simply a ‘cost shift and double dip’.

I say ignorant about the last sentence because it was under the Howard government watch where the process started which has resulted in the current unfair EFTPOS regime.  No political party has good credentials when it comes to small business.

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EFTPOS fees

Home Brand products and supermarkets

Crikey is running an excellent series on home brand products in supermarkets.  I’d encourage newsagents to read this series as it looks at the strategy which some of our competitors are using to compete with us in the stationery space, a strategy which challenges us as a channel.

I remain committed to stationery brands as these brands invest into driving traffic to our channels. I think we are too disconnected as a channel for a channel wide house brand approach to work for us the same way it does for supermarkets.

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Stationery

Excellent Easter Book Sale

booksale-mar2011.JPGWe are enjoying a traffic spike thanks to our Easter Book Sale.  The four page A5 flyer is an excellent promotion tool for facilitating this traffic spike.  This, along with an appealing display and other activity is helping us make the most of the opportunity.

We try and run four book sales a year rather than a year round book department presence.  The four seasons which we find work for us are:Easter, Father’s Day, Christmas and one other – either mid year or Mother’s Day.

The book mix is vital – kids, food, self help, reasonably current fiction and weight loss.

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Book retailing
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