I have been thinking through the possible impacts of the magazine distribution changes announced earlier this week. Both Network Services and Gordon and Gotch are switching from Monday / Wednesday / Friday deliveries to Monday / Thursday deliveries.
While handling the switch operationally in-store will be easy for most with newsagency software, it will require some roster changes. However, enough time has been provided to handle this. The change will also require careful consideration by newsagents with sub-agents as it changes the dynamic of the work week. However, again, addressable given the time.
I am concerned about the potential impact on shopper behaviour and newsagency traffic flow.
Wednesdays have been important for us for the weeklies on sale that day – Take 5 and That’s Life – and for other titles. While sales of Take 5 and That’s Life have been in significant decline for a couple of years, we should not dismiss their importance to our businesses. Both titles are still often in the top 10 in most newsagencies. In many newsagencies, weekly magazine sales decay reports show that between 55% and 75% of all copies of Take 5 and That’s Life are sold on the Wednesday. It would be wrong to think that these regular shoppers will shop with us on a Thursday.
What if for the Take 5 and That’s Life purchase on a Wednesday we are the destination? Then, what if for a Thursday shop they have other items and we are not the destination?
Newsagents can look at their data and see how many sales on a Wednesday include Take 5 and That’s Life and assess the potential impact of losing these sales on that day. Good reporting will sold sales of the titles alone and with other items and what those other items are. They can also consider the knock-on effect if they don’t retain all those customers on the Thursday.
The risk I see is that the shift to Thursday makes buying Take 5 and That’s Life more convenient at the supermarket when shopping for the weekend. I am told that Thursday is a big shopping day /night in many areas for supermarkets as it’s often a pay day and, in some states, has late night trading. If supermarkets see a traffic boost Thursday it could be that the magazine delivery shift presents them a better opportunity.
Think about it from a shoppers perspective – if they buy Take 5 and That’s Life or other Wednesday titles available at supermarkets and need to do a supermarket shop, why go to two shops when they can go to one?
I don’t think shoppers are as loyal as we wish or think – certainly in the city at least.
Every time someone buys a magazine from a supermarket it dilutes the position of newsagencies as the go to place for magazines in their minds. That’s how we have to see this at least.
I don’t think I am jumping at shadows in pondering this. While I don’t know what will happen I am concerned for newsagents who are not already planning for the change, planning on driving traffic on Wednesday, planning on bringing Wednesday magazine shoppers with them to Thursday, ensuring current Wednesday magazine generated traffic is somehow encouraged to visit Thursday.
It would be complacent for newsagents to view this as simply a shift in delivery days. This move has the potential to impact our traffic and sales. We need to view it as a structural change that impacts us more than our biggest retail channel competitor.
I’d be interested to know whether the magazine distributors consulted any newsagent representatives on this and whether any concerns, such as those outlined above, were put.