I’m speaking about how newsagency software well used can make your business more valuable as part of the workshop series at the GNS Market Fair in Brisbane today. I also touch on some themes from the Newsagency of the Future workshop. If you’re at the fair say g’day.
Factors driving our double-digit year-on-year growth in ink sales for us are the re-location of ink behind the counter and the promotion of ink with good signage that visually connects with the flyers we distribute to homes in our area.
15% of our ink customers now use discount vouchers when purchasing ink and this is driving shopper loyalty. As a regular purchase habit based product ink is important for newsagents to get right. It can easily generate new traffic and weld-on existing customers.
Getting ink right includes range, price, product location, in-store signage, customer service and loyal shopper rewards. These are all things that can be done with little retail experience thanks to the support of suppliers in our channel like Tonnex and Dynamic Supplies.
Key to growth is change – staying on top of the range, changing your marketing and updating product knowledge.
The terrific growth we’re achieving with ink is particularly pleasing since the landlord placed an Inkspot ink kiosk out the front of our newsagency shortly after we opened.
Thanks to the attention driven by the new Hello Kitty partwork we had a customer a couple of days ago spend $117.45 on Hello Kitty products, on impulse.
By ordering in Hello Kitty product to time with the launch of the part series was genius on the part of our team member responsible.
This is the type of action newsagents need to engage in – being proactive retailers based on trends they see in store. It’s action that can be taken within a budget, even a small budget. magazines and cards provide wus with excellent guidance as to brands and trends we can tap into to drive sales.
While some newsagents will prefer to be agents making a percentage from products and services controlled by others, I am certain there is more money to be made by us exerting more control ourselves. Every day I see examples – like this Hello Kitty one.
Now if only we could get partworks supply sorted out.
I like the poster promoting Snickers bars created to time with the election campaign. Clever, non partisan and true to the Snickers brand.
It’s been good to see national brands through to independent retailers connecting with the election in these ways. It makes an otherwise dull and fake campaign more enjoyable. Indeed, it’s sad that the ads do that.
There is no better illustration of the diversity in the newsagency channel than partworks. Some newsagents hate partworks with a passion. Some newsagents love partworks with a passion.
The newsagents who hate partworks tend to display them poorly if at all and early return – angered at the freight cost. Newsagents who love partworks often sell out and vent anger at the delay in getting more stock to sell.
A smart magazine distributor would give newsagents control over their partworks allocation. I suspect that if they did this the channel would sell more partworks. Newsagents would be happier and publishers would be happier.
Why is it so hard to implement smart partworks allocation?
I feel completely let down by the election campaign. There has been little in the way of passionate debate about nation building policy. Little discussion of what is important economically for the whole country, as opposed to select special interests. Little to boost consumer confidence from any of the major parties. Little in the way of a vision for the future of the country. And, little in terms of encouragement for small business beyond some tweaks at the endges.
We lack strong political leaders in Australia, conviction politicians who even though you may not like their politics you do admire their leadership.
Right now we are in the middle on considerable structural change in Australia in terms of our business mix and natural resources revenue. We are also in the midst of tremendous structural change world-wide, in retail as well as more broadly in economies – just look at some of the European countries. These challenges need real leadership for the good of the country, beyond partisan politics.
I’m disappointed that this election is not presenting me with the quality of leadership I’d prefer.
By moving wedding to under women’s fashion we freed up 24 pockets next to food titles for more food titles. This has enabled us to put the Symply Too Good titles and other health related titles in a better position. Food is performing well for us so this additional space for the category makes commercial sense.
This display unit of stress balls was full when placed out on Friday in one of my newsagencies. All it took was five days to sell most of the stock. Every purchase was on impulse, adding value to a visit to our business by a shopper. We’re having tremendous success in our shopping-centre based newsagencies with carefully selected impulse items from Modern Brands and Independence Studios. Even if you’re not in a group with off-invoice discounts the pricing is excellent, enabling good GP.
While this is something else we need to keep on top of, the financial return is significant if you get the product selection right for your shoppers.
I’d also note that good impulse lines promoted at the front of the store can drive new traffic, shoppers who may not usually shop a newsagency.
Check out how newsXpress Eli Waters has been engaging with the election – by offering leader candidate themed syndicates. I’d be happy to put up pictures showin how others are engaging with the election opportunity. This type of promotion shows shopper engagement while promoting a product at the same time. Nice!
We’re promoting 30 best loved recipes book collection partwork with our food titles as well as at the front of the newsagency. This partwork is an easy sell for our older customers whereas many recent partworks have appealed to a younger shopper.
We put partworks at the front of the shop on the lease line as well as in-store where it’s appropriate for the subject. For a bit of work and space we get an excellent return. Our focus is make the most of issue 1 and 2 and then manage time and space accordingly.
It’s ironic to me that a couple of weeks after PMP announces in its FY13 results a decline in Gotch distributed magazine volume of 10.9% that newsagents experience newsagents are hit with what feels like a considerable volume increase in magazine supply.
The most insidious increases are those by one or two copies where we’ve not sold out of recent issues. There is no justification for such increases.
I see no upside for the digital advertising screens in a newsagency unless they are a call to action for products available in-store.
My preferred digital screen use in-store is small screens placed near or with product, to encourage purchase.
This is on my mind today because of several digital advertising screen services currently being promoted to newsagents. I don’t see them generating the revenue needed to justify the space they take. I also see their attention-grabbing to be at the cost of attention for products I sell.
The average Australian newsagency is already visually noisy with plenty of products and services we offer competing for attention. I don’t see the value in distracting shoppers from what we offer. Also, I am skeptical of the return on investment available to newsagents from advertising.
One model I saw recently encouraged the newsagent to sell airtime to local businesses. Newsagents would benefit more from working on their business, making it a destination for hero products and or services rather than selling advertising to distract existing customers. Another model has the supplier controlling all contact and it would include products not sold in a newsagency. I don’t see the sense in that.
I could be wrong on this. Please comment and share your thoughts…
At the newsXpress newsagency marketing group national conference earlier this week on the Gold Coast the newsagency business cash-flow planning workshop proved popular. Over the two sessions more than 60 newsagents participated with more interested but space not available.
The CPA (with newsagency cash-flow planning experience) running the event was surprised at the lack of cash-flow planning undertaken by newsagents. He shared advice and a template for undertaking this to better inform business decisions.
He also provided time saving tips for getting daily business data into your accounting system – sharing insights from the businesses he does the accounts for.
Other popular workshops included lease negotiations, high-GP product supplier insights and success stories form other newsagents.
I’ve heard that the latest issue of Wellbeing magazine is selling well, ahead on recent sales for the title. Seasonally this is a good time for the title – we’re out of winter and for those of us in colder states out of hibernation. The redesigned cover is another reason to give the title time in the spotlight.
I like the material sent by Morrison Media to newsagents promoting the latest issue of Smith Journal. The information explaining the title and the ideal placements in-store is useful for us. I’d urge newsagents to make sure they read it and get the person responsible for magazines to read it – and action the suggestions. Smith appeals to an important shopper for newsagencies. As for the cover of the latest issue, I love it!
Click on the image for a larger version.
I like the campaign being promoted by Boost Juice in the lead up to the election this weekend. They’re driving sales of their protein balls on the back of a survey where you nominate your preference of Tony Abbott or Kevin Rudd. It’s a simple and topical campaign with a commercial outcome focus. If you’re not a protein ball lover you can’t vote.
The ANF sent a notice to members yesterday apparently in response to some of the questions I have raised. Their repsonse included:
Yesterday ANF CEO Alf Maccioni sat with David McLean from Hubbed to once again go through the CONNECT contract which is going out to newsagents. He asked a number of questions and suggested changes to the contract. The main cause of concern was a clause which made it seem like this was an exclusive agreement and that the newsagent had to ask permission from Hubbed to allow competing services. This clause has now been removed from the updated contract.
The ANF membership has a 5% stake in CONNECT to ensure the interests of newsagents are paramount and Hubbed will continually work with members to ensure that their questions are being answered. There is an extensive list of Q&As on the ANF website.
ANF CEO Alf Maccioni said he believed that the CONNECT suite of products will add a new dimension to the newsagency channel and will ultimately attract younger customers.
As previously stated, the ANF strongly recommends that all agents should also get independent legal advice on the CONNECT contract and any other contract in relation to their current business and personal circumstances. If for any reason you feel uncomfortable about signing or you are not sure if this system would work in your store then don’t sign.
I heard about this from an ANF member. The ANF, as with Hubbed, is welcome to respond here to the questions I have raised.
If the ANF thinks newsagents will believe that their 5% stake is to ensure the interests of newsagents are paramount and Hubbed will continually work with members to ensure that their questions are being answered then they must think we’re stupid.
Universal Magazines is releasing a premium diary for 2014 exclusively through the newsagency channel. I’ve seen the product. It’s high-end, and ideal gift. Newsagents can control supply. You can also request a floor display unit. I’m ordering this for my newsagencies as it fills a valuable niche.
Here’s information from Universal about the Astro Diaries:
While I’m promoting the diaries I have no commercial arrangement with Universal Magazines. My support is because I think this product offers an excellent opportunity for newsagents.
I love the cover of the latest issue of The Monthly. The cover story, Why we hate refugees, speaks to a issue at the heart of politics in Australia but an issue on which the two major parties effectively agree. The Monthly is playing an important and timely role with the piece by Christos Tsiolkas.
We have The Monthly in its usual location as well as with weeklies. This is an excellent issue for us drive incremental business.
The latest issue of Feast magazine looks tasty and it stands out from the sea of colour that is the magazine department in a newsagency. We are promoting the magazine with food titles as well as giving it a week with our newspapers. Feast is a magazine shoppers will buy on impulse – if we put it in front of them.
Following form my post yesterday about Tatts Group, check out the Motley Fool article about Jumbo Interactive, the operators of the successful Oz Lotteries website. Their success is another indicator of migration of the lottery customer to online and another reason for newsagents to consider the extent of capital they invest in lottery products
Lottery products are agency products and while there is potential for sales growth thanks to jackpots, I don’t see much everyday growth for high street stores since more lottery customers will migrate online – especially when the online experience becomes even easier. As an agency line, retail success is dependent more on the supplier than retailer lines where we have more levers with which to play to make our own success.
Here’s another example of how newsagents can grow sales by connecting products by shopper interest more so that product type. The teapot calendar sells well when placed with our range of teapots and teas. The same shopper will be interested in all three items yet in a more traditional newsagency the calendar would be in the calendar department and not placed with the teapots and teas.
