Famous grows in weekly magazine sales audit
Famous delivered 2.5% year on year growth in the July-September audit results just out. Grazia dropped 10%, Woman’s Day 6%, New Idea 1% and Take 5 and That’s Life 10% each. Check out B&T for more details. I suspect we will se one or two more titles go the way of Australian Good Food shortly as sales volumes are unsustainable.
What we need to take away is the growth for Famous. We should check our sales and see if we are benefiting from this. It’s an opportunity.
Also, benchmark your sales for Woman’s Day and New Idea and see if your figures match the audit. As B&T notes, the recent New Idea campaign and refresh of the product are paying off.
Shocking audit for Fairfax newspapers
The July – September sales audit results are challenging across the board for newspapers but devastating for Fairfax where The Age lost 16.9% Monday to Friday and The Sydney Morning Herald lost 15.1% Monday to Friday. Read the details at B&T. With the AFR down to 68,000 copies a day you have to wonder about when they will switch to digital.
The Christmas hero product
I love it when we can get a product exclusively for a major season like Christmas and when the product is easily displayed on the shop floor. We have achieved this with the world’s only mains pressure water canon.
We have had the water canon out for only a few days and we’re certain we will sell out. Shopper interaction is excellent – having the product on display is vital as they can feel for themselves the quality and understand the value.
We aim for one or two hero products for every season, products that define and differentiate our offer, to show us off to our shoppers as unique and to pitch value.
We are promoting the water canon through flyers as well as using social media.
Promoting the charity connection
We have created our own marketing collateral for promoting the charities supported by our boxed Christmas card range this year. These posters sit atop our stacks of boxed Christmas cards and the show off the logos of the charities supported by the cards we carry.
We have found over the years that the charity connection for boxed cards has grown in importance. hence our decision to present a very clear message on the help our customer provide when they purchase their boxed Christmas cards from us.
Promoting the charity connection in this way shines a light on a point of difference for us.
Bauer to close Australian Good Food
Bauer announced yesterday that they will close Australian Good Food magazine. That’s two food magazines gone in a short time. I don’t think it’s reflective of a problem for the segment. rather, these titles were not attractive shoppers because they did not stand out.
The last issue of Australian Good Food will be the December/January issue.
Cookbook / magazine trend
We have seen a significant increase in the supply of thick book-size food related magazines this year. Usually priced at $19.95 they soak up working capital and take up considerable space.
We have embraced each new title, giving it time in the spotlight, like we are doing with this excellent title, Food Gardening, from Universal Magazines. We have it located with food titles at the moment. In a couple of weeks any remaining stock will feature in our gardening titles.
I think we need a joint conversation with the various publishers of these book format food magazines. They are placing what feels to be a growing burden on newsagents. It would help us if the various publishers worked better together. I appreciate that in a competitive marketplace this is a challenge. However, given the impact on our businesses such co-operation is important.
Here comes Twilight, again
We are promoting Empire magazine facing onto the dance floor with this display.
Since the last instalment of the Twilight movie is about to hit the screens and it’s the cover story for this issue of the magazine there is an opportunity to grab impulse purchases.
The collateral has good visual cut-through.
This is the magazine oversupply that frustrates newsagents
We have received twenty-five copies of The Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book from Bauer (ACP). Their own data shows we have stock on hand. They also have our sales for the last year. This data, had it been checked, would indicate that supplying additional stock was unnecessary. Further, our history with the AWW cookbooks would indicate to them that we will order stock when needed. We did not need twenty-five copies and how have to pay to send this stock back.
This does look like an unjustified cash grab.
We are early returning fifteen copies. Yes, I should return all of them … many would.
It is this type of unjustified oversupply by Bauer that gets newsagents to early return out of frustration. They see this and strike out at the publisher and or distributor, impacting other publishers. Yes, I know this should not happen. At least here is a live example of why it happens.
The allocations team at Bauer ought to be better than this. They would not do this to any channel other than newsagents.
Magazine publishers who complain about early returns could help newsagents by asking their distributor about this scenario, supply of a title where copies are still in stock. Newsagents could use your help on this.
I know there will be people at Bauer saying this blog post is unfair. I bet newsagents don’t think it is unfair. I don’t think its unfair … I wrote it.
If we have stock of a title like this cookbook there is no need to send more. You expect newsagents to pay their bills on time and are known to threaten them and bully them into meeting your trading terms – yet you do not meet fair and basic business requirements. I’d have trouble believing that this supply is a mistake, it happens too often.
I want a fair and just magazine supply model where newsagents are treated equally with other retailers. We need to be given the ability to control our indebtedness.
Launching Family Health magazine
We are giving the launch issue of Family Health extra space for the first week to give it a chance to be noticed. While launching any magazine is a challenge, this one is entering a competitive segment and apparently with little in the way of in-store support. When we pare back from three pockets to one next week (every pocket is expensive in a shopping centre newsagency) we will co-locate with weeklies or newspapers for a week to give it another opportunity to find buyers.
Terrific AWW cookbook promotion
The Little Squares & Slices cookbook for $5 with the purchase of any $12.95 AWW cookbook promotion from Bauer (ACP) is excellent. Newsagents have been provided good collateral for the promotion. The timing, too is excellent. We are making the most of this opportunity with a bold display in with our AWW cookbooks as well as promotion in a second location. We want to sell out early.
Australian Property Investor sales opportunity for newsagents
Every time Australian Property Investor magazine features on Today Tonight sales increase. The magazine features on the show tonight. The story being aired tonight is about the property market and areas expected to boom. The latest issue of the magazine features. This is an excellent opportunity for newsagents. Place the magazine with newspapers, at the counter and even with women’s weekly magazines tomorrow and for the next few days. Even put a sign: as seen on Today Tonight.
Other retailers will not engage beyond the average for this title.
11 ways to cut theft in your retail newsagency
Following on from my previous post, here are simple steps you can take to cut theft in your newsagency:
- Track everything you sell from ordering goods to the shop floor to the sales counter to returns. You can only manage what you track.
- Scan every item sold. Do not use department keys – allowing staff to enter the value of an item purchased.
- Track all sales by employee: using a code or barcode. This will cut mistakes.
- Undertake regular spot stock takes. In more than half incidents of employee theft this action would have revealed the theft sooner.
- Reorder stock using your software. It’s fast, accurate and stops poor buying decisions.
- Set an end of shift cash balance target of $5.00. Many retailers achieve this – it takes discipline.
- Change your system passwords regularly. Make it a condition of employment that these passwords are never shared.
- Do random, during the day, cash balance checks.
- Use your software to check and report on behavior which could indicate employee theft. Good software will reveal employee activity likely to indicate fraud / theft.
- Establish rules for discounts, returns and refunds and use your software to manage these.
- Integrate your EFTPOS with your Point of Sale and reduce fraud opportunities.
- Follow your suspicions regardless. Put your business ahead of friendships.
Too many newsagents are losing too much money due to theft – way more than the recent theft survey indicated unfortunately.
Theft not a major concern for newsagents
135 newsagents responded to the poll on theft and indicated that theft is not a major concern.
On theft by customers, 72.9% said it cost up to $5,000 in the last year while 14.6% said it cost between $5,000 and $10,000.
On theft by employees, 69.1% said they had suffered none in the last year, 20.2% said it has cost up to $5,000 and 8.5% said it had cost between $20,000 and $50,000 in the last year.
55.1% said there had been no increase in theft i the last year.
Click on the image for a more detailed breakdown on employee theft.
My experience working with newsagents on theft is that most don’t know they have suffered until after the event. This could be years. Often, by then, the cost has reached $200,000 or more. Studies in other retail situations show that theft is retail costs between 3% and 5% of sales. My experience in the newsagency channel is that this is an accurate assessment.
The key for newsagents is to manage for measurement of employee and customer theft. Saying there is no time or that it is too hard could be costing your business tens of thousands of dollars a year.
Home and Away magazine hot on social media
Newsagents on Twitter and or Facebook ought to be actively promoting the Home and Away magazine to their followers. I have just been checking traffic for this one-shot tonight and it is considerable, especially on Twitter. It’s only been out a couple of days so getting in now could help you ride the already considerable interest.
One way to connect with the interest is to reply to others. This can get your response seen by many.
Our competitors – supermarkets, convenience stores – are not likely to engage for this title on social media. Newsagents can drive interest for their business and the channel.
SMH MIA
The Sydney Morning Herald is missing in action today in too many regional centres in New South Wales. On a day when newsagents are experiencing a traffic surge because of the OzLotto $100M jackpot, the opportunity for an impulse purchase of the SMH is lost. One newsagent commented that Fairfax does not seem to care as much as they would have years ago. They said: it’s as if they want the print product to die.
Strange Melbourne Cup day
I expect it to be an unusual Melbourne Cup day for many newsagents today, right across Australia, thanks to the record OzLotto jackpot.
I’ve spoken to several newsagent suppliers and their experience matches mine – newsagents have been head down tail up since late last week. Tomorrow will see more of this. The result, particularly for Victorian newsagents, will be considerably more traffic than is usual for a Melbourne Cup day – an excellent opportunity.
I don’t have lottery products in my newsagencies so we’re expecting the usually quiet Melbourne Cup day – a day to get some reconfiguring done on the shop floor.
Diverse range of guys magazines
Several times recently people have raised the question here about the value of carrying magazines that don’t cover their costs. Here are two magazines not currently paying their way for us but magazines I choose to carry because they show off our range and make for good impulse purchases by those interested and as gifts.
We are giving MANSPACE and SHAFT extra support by placing them so the full cover of each is on show.
One of our value propositions is to offer a competitive magazine range. To achieve this we need range and a competitive presentation. Yes we can and should argue about margin and supply. However, we should also chase incremental magazine business where we can. Good growth is achievable from fringe and smaller market titles.
Kudos for frankie
frankie was named Magazine of the Year at the Australian Magazine Awards. This is deserved kudos for a popular magazine that is attracting valuable shoppers to newsagencies. here’s what they said on their blog established to communicate with enwsagents and other retailers:
We are very humbled to have won the Australian Magazine of the Year at the 2012 AMA’s.
After eight years and 50 issues, we know that we couldn’t have gone this far without the dedication and enthusiasm of the newsagency channel.
Thanks to you, we’ve seen each issue grow from strength to strength with Australian readers.
Newsagents tagged in Home and Away one-shot TVC
Here is the TV commercial currently airing promoting the Home and Away one shot. This is not a title to ignore. I started a small social media campaign on the weekend and interest has been excellent, driving traffic to the store already.
The tagging of newsagents in the TVC is important and it’s good to see Pacific Magazines get that and support us.
Last call: newsagency theft survey
Please click here to take the survey on theft in newsagencies. It will only take a few seconds. I’ll publish the results tomorrow or Wednesday. We have close to 100 responses so far.
Vodafone commission cut to 1% in UK
Vodafone has cut the commission made by newsagents in the UK selling mobile recharge to just 1%.
If this happened in Australia, newsagents would make thirty cents on a $30.00 recharge voucher sale. I’d have to consider seriously whether to continue offering the product.
The current margin structure is dangerously slim. I know we can achieve more if we sell handsets but that has another traffic-flow and labour cost making to not viable for everyone.
Supporting newsagents raising money for Movember
Allan Wickham of newsXpress Eli Waters is growing a mo to raise money for men’s health as part of Movember. I urge you to click here support Allan here as he chases a fundraising goal of more than $2,000 this year. Other newsagents and newsagency employees growing a mo for Movember and raising money should let me know so I can promote them here. Since we see so many customers every day in our stores we can be great ambassadors for this wonderful cause.
More suppliers join the interactive product play
I have written here previously about the tremendous success we have been having with the interactive story book, card and toy range from Hallmark. They and interactive products from other suppliers, are now a vital part of the card and gift mix in-store with excellent year on year growth.
Bloomberg recently published a story about US toymaker Hasbro refreshing it’s popular Furby product into an interactive toy. They are targeting Furby players from decades ago with a retro pitch and today’s kids with an interactive pitch.
A good gift department in any newsagency today has an excellent mix of interactive toys and gifts, taking the product beyond the static of yesteryear and somehow interacting with people as well as devices such as the iPad, iPod and iPhone. These toys that interact with sound from other devices are hot this year in Australia from what the sales data I can see. We are gearing up for Christmas by expanding the range.
The Merry-Oke product from Hallmark was a top-seller last year. While we expected good sales this year we did not anticipate the very strong early interest. Indeed, sales have been so strong we have ordered more.