Check out the blog post at Morrison News about a situation where an early return cost the newsagent and a publisher a certain sale.
While I understand the importance of early returns to newsagents for managing cash flow, we should only early return magazines which our own sales data shows we will not sell. Too often, newsagents return magazines which their own data shows they would most likely sell.
It dosn’t make a great deal of sence to me , one would think there must be more to it . even if i had early returned something that has never sold and someone comes in wanting it i would never tell the customer that i sent it back , i would at least tell them that i sold out and order in another one in for them and that way you should be able to get it on a putaway . what is his ales history on this magazine ? if he had 30 issues in the past and never sold a copy can you blamer him for early returning it (not including the fact that someone is sying that he told the customer he sent it back )
how much money has he already lost in this magazine over the months or years to start off with does making one sale make up for the suppply of something that has not sold in the past ?
Maybe the person contacted the mag in order to get a free copy?
Good to see the mag go into bat for the people who sell their stock, NOT. Publishers should remember that not too many people buy every issue instead they like to browse so subscriptions are not as popular as they think.
i have now read it a few times and the more i read it the more it sounds like the skater boys are after a free mag .
Just because sales dats shows one is able to sell x number of copies, fleet mean that keeping th title is profitable. If we sell only 1 or 2 copies per month then not only can we not justify keeping that title on the shelves, but if we did keep each title of which we sold such few copies then we would need to find space (of which there is none spare) to display them.
Early turns is not just about managing cash flow. It is often about managing depth of range.
*returns
Early returns are dumb if they deny the business guaranteed profitable sales based on sales history for the title.
If the dates in the customers email sre correct, this magazine was returned 3-4 weeks before a credit would hit the account.Even if shelf space is tight at the very least it could be kept out the back until closer to the return date and thus available for sale if specifically requested by a customer. No wonder some newsagents sales of magazines are dropping while others are increasing. It may not be just the market in all cases that is hurting magazine sales.
It would be nice if Morrison News turned off their moderation for commenting.
Publishers feel pain also similar to what Newsagencies feel.
There are just too many magazines in todays ever changing
business. Jarryd is right.
People talk about getting rid of tired Newsagencies / retailers, the same goes for magaines.
Maybe Publishers like Morrison Media can break the mold and offer 35% commission on their magazines, I would not think you would get many supplementry returns in fact you would get prime real estate in Newsagencies and get the jump on its competitors.
Its Publishers who need to think smart as well or they will get left behind.
Off course if this situation with Morrison regarding the email, what is the sales data for that magazine in that Newsagency.
Brendan I f space is tight I leave supplementries out the back also and usuassly send them back a week before cut off.
This whole supplementry business is more than about cash flow and its ability to display, these examples are Newsagency lifelines nearing the end of the month.
When a distribution company sends you more than you can sell, what are Newsagents options?
Guaranteed sales using sales data excluded
Agree mark , is there any evidence of this magazine having any sales history for this news agency ?
Did the customer ask for the mag to be put aside when it came in?
Did the newsagent offer to do so?
What if sales data showed no regular sales?
Morrison Media make a point to say that they “spend a lot of time ensuring that agents aren’t over supplied”. Well I wonder why I am always sent 5-6 copies when I sell 1?
This story is too vague, yet it has been used in an attempt to harm the reputation of newsagents.
Derek, in this instance the sale appears to have been blown at the start of the month and may have cost the business a regular customer. We should be about increasing our customer base by not letting it down. If the magazine had been returned after say the 20th of the month, then it would have been a reasonble reaction to a slow or non selling title but it appears to have been returned early to no advantage.
WHAT I DON’T GET IS YOU HAVE RIGHT UP TO THE LAST COUPLE OF DAYS OF THE MONTH TO DO YOUR RETURNS SO WHY GO SO EARLY WITH RETURNing magazines …. woops caps on ….
It is a one sided story did it even happen who knows ….
Total magazine supplies charged for June: 15600, Total Sales for June: 4500 (3375 cost), Total paid to mag distributors for June: 7680.
This is despite the fact that we rigorously check histories and early return where necessary. Something has to give for us to stay afloat and, I’m sorry to the publishers, but it’s going to be your product because it is being mishandled by distributors (or whoever sets the supply levels).
Wendy
I say that is as Mark say “Nuts” even though I think your business is kind of seasonal, something is wrong.
Brendan if its correct, I can understand why MM blew a gasket. I will try to leave submitting supplementries whether good or bad mags until late in the month.
Why? Because I refuse to be cashflow negative.
Distributor must have an understanding of this.
Wendy, our returns are running at less than 30% of supply. For June sales $16867 and returns $6123.
I can only suggest that you adjust upply quantities as you do your returns (we do this evey couple of months) and ensure that all stock received is given a n opportunity to sell. This should whip your supply against sales into shape over a few months. It is an ongoing process and labour intensive but worth the effort. While adjusting supply quantaties it is also important to look at sell outs and increase supply where required.
Good luck with this.
We have adjusted supply quantities at various times previously, but this has not been regular or frequent enough, so you are right, Brendan, we will have to put more time into it.
Our sales are not seasonal, though, the figure I mentioned is about average. It is the supplies which are out of hand.
Wendy , $15600 for mags charged in June…. swap you… Network alone sent us $37000 for the month of June…….now that is a problem
I send back a heap of early returns each week, most mags that arrive from network ( bagged ) dont even make it out of our back room. We get sent a ridiculous amount of crap mags. But in saying that i know my problem will be solved shortly as we have the right man helping us
Brendan, do you sit there for hours every day requesting supply changes on a title by title basis?
After reading what Wendy wrote I did a quick calculation and realised that we were supplied $13690 in June for sales of $4394 and so far in July supplies are $11100 for sales of $3777.
We are returning nearly 70% of supplied stock, or to put it another way, we are being supplied with stock at a rate of about 300% of monthly sales.
I have requested supply changes before which are effective for a short time before supply leaps up again and in the meantime more and more titles (mostly ex ndd) are arriving that we wouldn’t sell in a million years. Also we are about 5 hours from Sydney so it costs us over 2% of Mag sales to return all the full and bagged titles each month.
After those last couple of comments regarding supply vs sales it’s no wonder some magazines are returned out of hand. It all just points to the root issue of the mag distributors oversupply damaging both the publishers and newsagents businesses. I rigorously early return non performing titles and am in fact about to cut the number of magazine pockets I have by 15% thanks to analysing the Tower POS data. My magazine bill for last month was about 100% of my mag sales which is still way too high but nowhere near as bad as what some are obviously suffering from.
Shayne, it’s a case of a little time and effort often rather than letting the situation get to the point that it appears an impossible task.
With your returns situation it would definitely be worth the effort.
gotches web site is probally the easiest to work with when cutting back stock . i used to get them to do it for me but to be honest i don’t think that aproach really works and you are better off doing it yourself . when ever i do return i look at what i am early returning and then go and cut back what ever needs cutting back from there . check your sales history as well type in the codes load up a few coffees or what ever you fancy and sit back a type away
Like Shaun, I try to regularly adjust my allocations, and cancel the absolute crap mags. The prob with Network is that you can’t cancel a mag if they have a record of you ever selling one! Last year I was getting in a single copy of a rugby mag for a customer who has since moved on. Apparently selling one mag a week for three months last year gives me an average sale of one a week all year. This is despite early returning every single copy they have sent for over nine months! And I’ve tried calling them, when I can get thru, only to still get sent the same mag!!!!!Gotch’s prob is that you can cancel a mag, but then they load you up with yet more crap mags from the uk and us that no-one buys. ARRRGH
Brendan I read that you only recently got your direct drop from Network.Why don’t you wait a few months before telling others how it’s done.You have yet to deal with the gross oversupply from them and the fact that you can’t adjust your figures easily.
Mary, you are almost well informed, while only going direct with Network recently I’ve been on direct supply with G&G for over 12 months now, more than enough time to develop my own strategies and procedures to manage my magazine supply.
I appreciate that supply issues with Network may be different to G&G but the underlying need to take responsibility for our own business does not change. While it may not be as easy to adjust supply from Network as it is with G&G it is still something we must endeavour to do and I am already looking at and adjusting my supply where I see fit to do so, both decreasing and increasing titles as required.
Continued growth in excess of 40% and returns of less than 30% justify the effort in micro managing this department and show that I and my staff do have some knowledge and ability in magazine management.
I also take offence at your inference that in your opinion my input on this blog regarding magazine management is of no value. I certainly don’t have all the answers but at least I am pro-active in improving this part of my business.
Brendan
With such strong growth what else are you doing to achive that apart from close attention to supply management ?
15 months ago we moved shop and increased the size of our magazine departmant and gained direct supply with G&G. This led to better supply of magazines and kick started the growth. This growth continues to this day due to attention to ranging, strong promotion of putaways, good customer service and most notably, strong promotion of the newsXpress Magazine Card. The card has converted many customers from the supermarket and other outlets in the area to loyal regular customers and I have no doubt continues to drive growth. I had expected growth to abate after 12 months but there is no sign of this happening yet and I can only put it down to the above strategies. I don’t usually plug newsXpress on this blog but their strategies, influence and encouragement have in no small way helped us drive these results
Brendan, if it works plug it i say , be it a marketing group , supplier or what ever . If somethging is working well why not give it a free plug after all when something is not going well we will well and truely let the whole world know about it won’t we .
I think Brendan has a point, we must micro manage if at all possible to suit each of our business’s as we are all different as much as we are all the same.
Vicki, it frustrates me muchly regarding the “you can’t cancel a mag if they do not have a record of you ever selling one” my theory is this was put in once Network took on the NDD portfolio.
Shayne & Paul its is a constant battle, adjusting and then seeing it back again with another title just for good measure, I dont think we should micro manage as if we do not have enough to do however I think we have no choice, unless other Newsagents have an alternative with this ever increasing problem.
Brendan, you and I sound like we had exactly the same set up. We got direct supply a few years ago and were experiencing what we thought was pretty good growth, that was until we joined newsXpress and adopted there Magazine principals. With the help of the newsXpress initiatives in the mag department (especially through the loyalty card) we achieved a further 44% growth in our 1st year with newsXpress.Magazine sales have continued to rise but the only thing i will add is as the sales level out you will notice more and more the oversupply problem (my current mag bills are testament to this). To Shaun S, i couldnt have put it any better than you when you say ïf it works, plug it”.