Online gambling growth for Tatts
A week ago Tatts Group announced its results including growth for its own online sales:
Our continued investment in the Tatts.com website is also starting to deliver results with growth of 35.2% achieved through the online lottery sales channel. Online sales now represent 8.2% of all sales (excluding SA Lotteries)(FY12: 6.6%).
This is important information for newsagents to consider when investing in representing Tatts from signage through to a shop-fit. Invest in a way that respects your business and what you can achieve from it in a reasonable (three years I’d suggest) period of time.
In pursuing online and mobile opportunities Tatts Group is doing what it needs to do to drive shareholder value. Newsagents need to understand that Tatts must and will put its shareholders ahead of everyone else. This is why the objectives pursued by the company may not align with the objectives of retailers.
Footnote. In the results call transcript is an acknowledgement of a dip in sales of instant scratch tickets:
Instants are down 11% and are thought to have been impacted by the “attraction ” to our jackpot games – we are however looking at a number of initiatives to reinvigorate scratch-its.
Moving wedding magazines, chasing newsagency magazine sales growth
As part of our perpetual magazine relay – we love change – I moved wedding titles on Saturday, placing them below magazines for women (teens through thirty or so). While one has to reach down to pick up a magazine here – it places the titles closer to where the target shopper.
The days of a set and forget approach to magazine layout are long gone. We have to approach the department with a hunger to compete with supermarkets, convenience stores, petrol outlets and other newsagents.
By constantly changing magazine placement we learn more about the titles we sell as well as about the habits of our magazine customers. The sole goal of this work is to increase magazine sales. Think of this work as marketing activity.
While I still think a whole of department magazine relay is vital annually, tweaking the layout regularly is equally important and rewarding. See: How to do a magazine relay in your newsagency.
Thoughtful expansion of magazine range
I was thrilled to see Explore Whiskey on our shelves. It’s an unusual title for a newsagency out in the suburbs. The team member who decided to order in the title explained their reasoning and it made sense. It’s an expansion of our male-focused magazine titles, broadening a car and sports-centric magazine department.
Sunday newsagency management tip: let your employees make mistakes
Learning from mistakes can be more valuable than formal training. That’s been my experience. Too often I see newsagents micro-managing their employees and denying them the opportunity of learning from mistakes.
A young employee just given responsibility for an area of a newsagency had made some excellent choices in changing product layout.The changes they had made were a vast improvement. I witnessed the owner of the business ignore the opportunity to compliment and point out where they could do better. This same owner has a track record of micro-managing employees, managing away their creativity and not tolerating any mistake.
While the young employee in the above story could have done a better job, this was their first crack. I am certain they will improve with time based on their initial work. If I was the owner I’d have congratulated them and left it at that. Good people improve of their own accord. They also make some mistakes and these are be more valuable for them and us.
I’d go as far as to suggest we need to encourage mistakes – as long as the people working with and for us learn from them. We need to learn from our own mistakes. In fact, it’s good to show off to ur colleagues that we do this.
I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my years in business. The best mistakes are those people have seen me make and see me learn from. These are the mistakes that have been more valuable for me too.
This is my management tip today: don’t micro manage, set your people free and welcome mistakes by those who will learn from them.
Sunday retail newsagency marketing tip: create an award
Retail business marketing is all about extending the reach of your business beyond those who shop with you today and know what it offers. It serves to raise the relevance of your business to others.
Today’s marketing idea seeks to better connect your business with the local community.
Create an award. Create an award that a person or group in your area could be eligible for, an award recognising effort the community appreciates and needs. The ideal would be to recognise unsung effort, something other awards do not already cover.
Call this the 2013 [insert your business name] Award for [insert what the award’s for].
Do your research before you announce anything. Make sure you are up for an annual award – organising the judging, funding the prize and linking with an event where the award could be awarded. This could be the local shop or some other region-wide event. Ensure that the award has appropriate criteria for judging or voting.
Awards could be best best community project of the year, local hero of the year, best regional promotion of the year, best community event of the year.
Set a budget so you don’t go overboard. promote the award for plenty of time, to get the best marketing value possible. Promote the winner in-store.
A good award will extend your community connection and this should play well for sales. While doing good is good, growing sales is more important as this gives you the resources you need to do good.
Hero father’s Day gift drives traffic & sales
The Car in a Can has been our hero product this Father’s Day – delivering excellent sales and attracting shoppers from the mall into our newsagency. I stood outside the shop yesterday and saw first-hand the success of this product in attracting shoppers. Having such a different Father’s Day gift has been valuable. We’ve see the Car in a Can bought for grandpas to new dads – a broader age range than we anticipated.