No Christmas Day newspaper
From what I understand there will be no Christmas Day newspapers home delivered in Australia this year. If this is the case then kudos to newspaper publishers.
Christmas Day deliveries are expensive for newsagents. This causes many to do them themselves, eating into what should be a genuine day off from the business.
I’d love to hear from any newsagents who have been told that they do have to deliver on Christmas day.
The Cadbury Christmas card
What looks like a block of chocolate is actually a Christmas card with a block of chocolate inside. Pretty cool. A gift and a card all in one. Perfect for a Chocolate lover.
This Christmas card / block of chocolate has been a terrific success this Christmas. We will easily sell out.
Christmas shoppers are looking for something different and even though this item from cadbury is in a range of retail outlets, it’s not something they expect to see in a newsagency and this is where the difference is noticed … that’s what one shopper said at least.
Promoting Dolly magazine
Just as we have done with Marie Claire this week, we have alloced double pockets to Dolly magazine to show off the gift which comes with the title.
The free pyjamas with Dolly make this issue more interesting and valuable as a Christmas gift. The makes allocating good space to show off the gift more important. Newsagents are certain the get extra sales in the lead up to Christmas if they couple display as shown in the photo … I’d encourage this.
Promoting Donna Hay magazine
We are promoting the latest issue of Donna Hay magazine with this in-location display.
While space is a challenge with all the Christmas titles in-store, we have found room for a week for this double waterfall display to help drive early sales of the title.
Once this display comes down we will support the title in week two with a pocket located with our weekly titles, in a busier part of the newsagency. Our Donna Hay sales are somewhat volatile meaning that we need to work hard to keep them up – hence the additional attention.
Jingle sells out
Jingle the dog, the dog which interacts as you read the accompanying book, has sold out for us so we have ordered more stock.
I love these products which are promoted on TV. Customers come in, they comment that they saw it on TV and purchase without a second thought. Sales of this product have been a reminder of the power of TV. The sales also speak to the value of branded products. Shoppers trust the Hallmark brand. They would have less trust for a cheap unbranded product.
The sales success of Jingle reinforces my preference for branded products.
Russh promotes newsagents via social media
Kudos to the folks at Russh magazine for promoting newsagents to their more than 40,000 Facebook friends and more than 14,000 Twitter followers with a couple of messages this week along. here is the message sent the day prior to on-sale:
In the spirit of issue 43 which hits stands TODAY. To be wild or tame? Head to your local newsagency and make the call.
This support for newsagents is terrific. It’s to their own network and is clear in its support of newsagents as the go to retailers for the title.
An iPad App for Russh has also been launched.
Promoting Christmas themed craft magazines
Just as we have done with food titles, we have brought together Christmas themed craft titles and placed them at the front of our craft magazine section. I figured that we have only a limited time to sell Christmas themed magazines so they deserve prime space even though we have had to move some of them a couple of pockets away from where they should be.
I appreciate that it can be time-consuming moving magazines around like this to serve seasonal opportunities. The payoff is incremental magazine sales. This is one way newsagents can drive sales efficiency – getting more sales from the same or even less customer traffic. It can be done. I know of newsagents achieving real sales growth while experiencing a customer traffic decline.
Gotch gets it right with Psychology Today
Here is a good example of an allocations increase I agree with. Our supply of Psychology Today was increased from two copies to three on the back of sell outs four issues in a row.
Click on the image if you want to see the supply and return data for the last year.
While we were left without this title on the shelves for four issues, I’d rather than than having a copy left at the end of the month. Without empty pockets into which move titles not displayed full face newsagent could not do justice to everything they receive. Just ask any newsagent, I am certain their would advise that they receive more titles than they have pockets for.
Promoting Better Homes and new cook book
We are promoting the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens and the new Australian Women’s Weekly Preserves cookbook next to newspapers for the next week.
Both titles are sure to work a treat from this location. They look good, are easily understood and work as gifts. hence this high traffic impulse purchase location.
We are also supporting them in their usual location to make sure that we don;t miss the shoppers who go looking for them -= this important with displays, to not forget the regular shopper for a title.
New look Riptide magazine
Newsagents should take a moment to check out the new look Riptide magazine, especially if you have customers interested in surfing titles.
The Morrison Media website has published some excellent background on the new look title. It includes a link to a video with more details – this would be good your newsagents and their employees to see. The more we know about a new or refreshed the title the easier it is for us to sell.
The price based Christmas
It feels to me that Christmas this year is more about price than even last year. Every major retailer I visit is pitching price. Earlier this week in Queensland, Coles posters told me that me they will beat any other retailer in Queensland on a list of items. Chemist Warehouse says they will beat any retailer who decides to undercut them. Woolworths says they will price match.
A newsagent mentioned to me yesterday that their local Officeworks is price matching the newsagent on ink and toner given that the newsagent was setting the price benchmark in town for this category.
Where does this leave us? Looking expensive some would say.
The one area where we can win is customer service for try as they might, no corporate can stray from their head office driven script enough to deliver the kind of personal and memorable customer service we are capable of.
They key for newsagents in a price focused Christmas season is for us to deliver differentiating customer service.
Does the Sudoku Samurai supply increase by Gordon & Gotch reflect an allocations system failure?
I don’t understand the decision by people at magazine distributor Gordon & Gotch an or their allocations people to move us from eight copies of Sudoku Samurai to fourteen. We had one sell out at eight copies, when the other newsagency in the centre was closed (and about which Gotch was advised).
Despite what I have noted above, I can understand the earlier move to twelve copies. I’d have thought that a fairer approach would have been to leave us there for three issues. But, no, they increased us. It makes me wonder if there is a bug or design flaw in their allocations system. I suspect it is a ‘flaw’ since they appear to respond quickly with supply increases and slowly with supply reductions.
Click on the image to see supply and return detail going back to the start of 2010.
Wine glasses sell out for Christmas
The Lolita brand wine glasses we got in for Christmas will sell out with just one left in stock. This unusual Christmas item is terrific because it has usually been purchased on impulse. A $19.95 impulse purchase item is pretty nice. The margin is solid. Selling out of Christmas items like this before having to actually pay for the stock is nice.
Christmas sales have been excellent so far this year. We are onto our third order of boxed Christmas cards and have sold out of many of the gift lines we purchased and we still have more than two weeks of trading to go.
Promoting the latest Better Homes and Gardens
We are promoting the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine with this aisle end display facing out into the shopping mall. The display sure is a beacon at this front corner of our newsagency. It brings a terrific summer feel to the shop which is a nice counter balance to the traditional colours of Christmas. BHG sales are excellent in this newsagency, so it’s an easy choice to devote space to promoting each new issue of the title.
St George bank cares less about newsagents
Just a few years ago St George Bank was crowing about deals for newsagents in a push to win over newsagents for EFTPOS processing. Now, the bank is rewarding loyalty by increasing fees to newsagents. Some EFTPOS related fees have increased 100%. I am not away of any increase in costs to St George which would require a 100% increase in fees they charge to their customers.
Newsagents I have spoken with are voting with their feet, taking their EFTPOS business elsewhere.
Poor Blackhawk customer service hurts newsagents and their customers
The customer service provided to newsagents by gift card company Blackhawk is poor in my view. They are slow to respond to requests for card stock, leaving newsagents out of stock. This is especially frustrating in the lead up to the busiest time of the year for gift cards.
Blackhawk needs to improve customer service to newsagents if they want to see newsagent sales of their gift cards increase.
Gift cards could be far more successful for newsagents than they are … if Blackhawk fixes its operation.
The newspaper as a Christmas gift
Kudos to the folks at The Cairns Post for promoting a home delivery subscription of their newspaper as a Christmas gift.
This half page ad in the newspaper yesterday not only pitches the newspaper as a good a practical gift, it also promotes the newspaper more generally by listing all the sections of content in the newspaper.
While on The Cairns Post, yesterday’s newspaper had a big feature on local schools including articles about major events through the year. It’s this type of local coverage which is important to regional and rural newspapers. Smart newsagents could tap into such local features and co-promote with the newspaper.
Very cool interactive App for kids
Check out the products available from JibJab Jr. Books. They are taking engagement with kids books to a new level … off the printed page and to the iPhone and iPad.
The JibJab pitch is very simple:
With JibJab Jr. Books, you can make your child the STAR of the show. In just a few simple swipes, you can create personalized storybooks that feature your child’s face and name. Your child will be enthralled by the great stories, colorful art, and awesome animations in every JibJab Jr. book. So download the app, turn out the lights and take your child on a personalized journey!
While this may not reflect an obvious connection with newsagents, I see a big connection.
Just as we have a generation living today who have not heard of cassette tapes or cartridges or even laser disks, we are seeing the development of a generation which may never know about printing on paper.
The melancholy aside, what JibJab is offering is very cool.
Promoting Marie Claire and the free Seafolly dress
We are promoting the latest issue of Marie Claire magazine with a terrific in-location display. We have folded the package out so that shoppers can see the value of what is on offer with the magazine.
Having tracked results for the last year, there is no doubt that in-location promotion of women’s interests titles works better than aisle end or other out of location feature displays.
I expect that we will sell out of this issue of Marie Claire.
The future of Fairfax
The Australian yesterday carried a long interview with Greg Hywood, CEO of Fairfax. I’d encourage newsagents to read the interview, much of it will interest including this:
Q: Do you see the say you’ll stop the presses?
A: Well, if you saw a point where all the advertisers went online and there wasn’t any audience for print you could certainly foresee a dominant digital environment, but for the foreseeable future there will be a demand for a print product. Things move incredibly quickly. A couple of years ago tablets were a gleam in Steve Jobs’s eye – look at them now. We put an app out for the SMH and The Age which we thought might get 50,000 uploads. It is in excess of 300,000 now and we’ve got 50,000 regular users, and that happened in the blink of an eye.
Like I said, newsagents should read the whole interview.
Kudos to Hywood for doing such a wide-ranging interview for a News Limited newspaper.
Why the increase in The Australian Coin & Banknote?
Click on the image to see the data available to Network Services for The Australian Coin and Banknote magazine which guided their system and or processes to increase us from two copies to three copies. It appears that all it took was one issue selling out for supply to be increased. If only they responded so quickly to reducing supply – I am often told that it takes several issues for them to have sufficient data to reduce supply.
I understand the challenges of getting the distribution right at the bottom end of the market – for special interest titles where supply is under five copies.
In this instance, based on the sales data for this title, I would have thought that our supply should have remained at two until at least two or three consecutive months of selling out or until we requested an increase. I am sure the extra copy could have gone to a newsagency which is selling out.
Small increases like this add up … as I have written here many times.
Two years to get the Melbourne Observer
Finally, we get the Melbourne Observer in stock last week. It has taken two years. The distribution newsagent refused to supply, saying it would affect sales in their shop. Finally, they have relented.
I can understand the distribution newsagent wanting to protect their shop. However, as a distributor they should want the widest availability possible. This is where distribution and retail do not sit well together in some situations.
We should not have had to wait two years. All this and other refusal to supply decisions have done is make us more competitive. Co-operation might have been a smarter commercial move.
Weight Watchers magazine works with weeklies
Every time we co-locate Weight Watchers magazine with weeklies we see an increase in sales. While we have the title in its usual location, it is this second location which facilitates impulse purchases. We try and remember to do this second placement for the first week or two of the on-sale. As the photo shows, we don’t give the title the best position – this is reserved for the weeklies. Even with just the masthead on show it works from here.