Newsagents should watch out for opportunities flowing from Summer with The Australian Women’s Weekly airing on TV on December 1 and Christmas with The Australian Women’s Weekly airing a week later. These now annual shows are always good at promoting the magazine. TV Tonight has more on the shows.
Fairfax media on the weekend reported candid comments from Optus CEO Kevin Russell about overcharging and what the company has done to improve the customer experience. Russell’s comments are uncommonly open for a telco CEO.
“Let’s be crystal clear. As an industry, we know how people use their phones, we know that young people will get their first smartphone and go bananas on it, we know people are going to get hit with a $500 or $600 bill, and we know that if they don’t complain we’ll get an extra whopping bit of revenue,” Mr Russell said on Thursday night. “It’s just crap.”
But he said he honestly believed Optus had been doing a number of good things to address “some of the things that piss people off”, such as bill shock.
I wonder if Kevin Russell would be as forthcoming in talking about his company’s soon to hit 25% cut in commission for small business newsagents.
The Optus commission newsagents earn for selling Optus mobile phone recharge product is set to drop from 4% to 3%. The company has not disclosed commission and commission movement for supermarkets and others selling its recharge product.
With SingTel (Optus’ parent company) profit down .2% YOY there appears to be no financial justification for hitting small business newsagents with a 25% cut in commission. Kevin Russell should be held to account for the decision by the company to hit small businesses in this way.
The company’s fairer approach to its customers should be reflected in its dealings with its small business partners – if it’s serious about being a better corporate citizen.
3% commission on Optus mobile recharge equates to 90 cents for a transaction that would take, on average, two minutes – by the time the shopper pays. The 90 cents does not even cover the hourly cost for retail staff on a Sunday and barely covers it for weekdays.
Hot Peppa screamed the above-the-masthead headline on The Saturday Age on Saturday. They’re right. Peppa Pig is hot. Our sales of Peppa Pig plush, magazines, activity packs and other items are excellent. It’s a brand we use to pull traffic from the mall outside our shop and it works! The article in The Saturday Age is essential reading for anyone selling Peppa Pig products.
We’ve been selling Peppa Pig products since their release and get excellent word-of-mouth traffic.
This photo shows how we place the Peppa Pig display unit on the lease line with two other plush display units. Each is sign-posted to connect with shoppers who know and love the brands.
These stands work best when full!
This is a brand through which newsagents can expand their offering and drive a better overall gross profit for the business. It all starts with understanding the opportunity.
With the stars of Anchorman 2 getting excellent TV coverage here today the timing is right to have the latest issue of Empire magazine placed with your weekly magazines or at the sales counter. This movie will be top of mind because of the publicity blitz. If we’re proactive we can expect to achieve impulse purchases of this issue of Empire.
For many years I have published Christmas marketing ideas as a resource for others to use and as inspiration for newsagents to think of their own. Here are thirty easy to implement simple Christmas marketing ideas for newsagents for Christmas 2014. I’m not suggesting you use all: pick what suite you and create your own.
The best way to achieve the best price possible when you sell your newsagency is for the business to be as profitable as possible. The price you will sell the business for will depend on provable profitability.
Too many newsagents run their businesses expecting that their pay day will be when they sell and that the price will be a multiple based on some sort of industry formula. These formulas no longer apply except that of a sale price based on a multiple of net profit.
I urge newsagents to stop running their businesses expecting that their pay day will be when they sell. Instead, run your business as if every day is your pay day. The profit you make today and this week is the return your business delivers to you. If it’s not profitable then do something about it. It’s your business! Act! Look at your costs, your pricing policies, your marketing and your management. Take control of the business. Back in 2010 I wrote more on this topic here.
You don’t buy a newsagency today as a safe place to park your retirement money. No, you buy it as a viable operational business that delivers a return each day and week. Your profit today and this week is your responsibility.
The most important profit you will make is today and this week. Is this how you run your newsagency?
The current issue of Donna Hay magazine is another magazine benefiting from off-location promotion with this floor display unit placement at the entrance to our main magazine aisle. The gingerbread house on the cover is very appealing. Our display placement is at kid height – to attract their attention.
Sales of Women’s Health magazine are up thanks in part to this simple but eye-catching aisle end promotion at the entrance to the main magazine aisle in the newsagency. Sales are currently at a 50% sell-through with weeks to go in the on-sale for the title. We also have the title in its usual location.
At the suggestion of a colleague I’m opening for discussion here a conversation about the impacts on a relationship where both parties own and or work in the newsagency business.
Is it stressful? Or not? Does the experience enrich the relationship? Or challenge it? Who’s the boss? Does it work? Would you recommend it?
Does it work better with one partner not working in the business?
I look forward to reading what people think.
A point of difference for newsagents is our range of single pens since the majors sell pens in packs. Yet often single pen displays in newsagencies look untidy. One way to make pen tubs tidy is to use a sig-sag acrylic like the one in the photo. This simple acrylic keeps stock upright and pushes pens forward. I was telling a newsagent about this earlier in the week and they had not heard of it – hence the mention today. It can make an untidy pen display look excellent.
The team at one of my newsagencies refreshed Christmas a couple of days ago, creating a zone focussing on single and boxed cards, plush and some decoration items. While previously we had all the product out, the various items were too far part, in different parts of the shop even … there was no focused Christmas pitch. Bordering the area with a terrific line of single cards and framing this around with Christmas themed categories, the result is a strong presence that is delivering a nice sales boost.
The placement of the large Hallmark plush items right at the front is excellent. Customers are drawn to them.
Christmas has kicked in early this year. sales are excellent.
Like many newsagents I’ve spoken with, lighting a Yankee Candle on display also ignited sales. We’d had the stand for a few weeks but it was only after we started lighting a candle that sales kicked in for us. we got the idea from another newsagent who was enjoying excellent sales. The experience is a reminder that physical store shopping is about interacting and engaging with products. This is something online can’t offer yet.
FYI we have the Yankee Candle stand next to the counter so everyone either buying something or leaving the shop walks past it.
My newsagency software company Tower Systems on Monday shared information with newsagents on the instant asset write-off opportunity for small businesses that looks set to expire on January 1, 2014. Following my publishing of information advice was put out by another company that could be confusing.
The ATO website is clear on this issue. The opportunity applies to businesses with a turnover of $2 million or less. The maximum asset value that can be written off per purchase is $6,500. For example, you could not purchase $20,000 worth of assets in one transaction and seek an instant asset write off for $20,000 unless the items are identical.
My advice is that you get advice from your accountant to ensure that asset purchases prior to January 1, 2014 are structured appropriately for your situation.
Customers love the personalised label that many newsagents place on magazines they put away for collection by customers. Beyond the professionalism of the label with the customer name and other valuable details, customers like that in the computer system we can be certain about what they have and have not collected. I like that I can use this to track collections too.
The process of producing the personal label is handled automatically and triggered by the receipt of the invoice from XchangeIT.
We also use the automatically generated text message service where customers are sent a text advising them that their put away is available to be collected.
None of this is new. The labels and txt message serve has been available for many years.
To any reading this blog who think newsagency businesses are old-school, check out how we handle putaways. Most do it in a very cool and smart way.
I was talking to a publisher this week about newsagent putaways and they had no idea that the backend management in a newsagency had become so technically sophisticated, smart and customer-focussed. Indeed, what we do in Australia is world best practice based on what I have see this year overseas in this put away / special order space.
There is an opportunity here for magazine publishers and distributors to leverage newsagency magazine putaways, especially for lower volume / fringe titles. we can offer a service enabling us to sell a single copy of an issue of a magazine without having to dedicate a pocket. The put away service we offer could be more useful than a mailed subscription cost.
Our professionalism, as best indicated by the label on a magazine, presents us as professionals. Customer feedback encourages me that we can grow this part of our newsagency business.
I love this display of socks I saw in David Jones in Sydney this week. It was away from the sock department, next to an escalator. It was placed to grab attention of those leaving the floor heading down a level and probably to the exit door. The strategy is to try and grab an extra sale to someone who’s done shopping and is leaving.
I love this idea and think newsagents can do the same with exiting customers. I often ask newsagents who are concerned about inefficient lottery and newspaper customers what they place as an exit offer. I touched on it is my Sunday newsagency marketing tip last weekend.
The other thing to love about the sock display is that the display itself is a terrific Christmas decoration for the store. There are products we could display where they become a decoration for us.
The head of the second largest newspaper chain in the US says paywalls are a short term tactic reports Matthew Ingram writing at gigaom. The report quotes Digital First CEO John Paton:
“Let’s be clear, paid digital subscriptions are not a long-term strategy. They don’t transform anything; they tweak. At best, they are a short-term tactic. I have said that often enough in the past. But it’s a tactic that will help us now.”
We don’t hear this from Australian publishers. Paton also need:
‘“Print dollars are becoming digital dimes. But costs are still in dollars and, like most newspaper companies, we are radically reducing those costs. Companies like Digital First Media have to manage the decline of one medium while building for – and in some cases, waiting for – the new revenue streams to grow.”
The article is a fascinating and rare insight into how paywalls are playing our for US newspapers. Australian publishers will say our market is different. Maybe so. However, as a recent spat between News and fairfax on digital subscriptions shows, it’s a challenged space. In the meantime, from a newsagent perspective, all we know is that over the counter sales continue to be challenged.
News Corp. and Fairfax are pushing subscriptions hard. Here is the full page ad in The Daily Telegraph yesterday.
Unlike the Fairfax push, this ad from News is only promoting their print product. Also unlike Fairfax, News ran the ad inside the newspaper and not covering up the front page of the newspaper.
A couple of weeks ago O changed Captcha codes to reduce spam and attacks on this blog. Following feedback from what was implemented and complaints from many that they could not get their comments up, today a more human-friendly Captcha process has been put in place. I hope this works better for people.
The contract between Gordon and Gotch and each individual newsagency business covers the supply of publications. On the second page of the agreement is a definition:
publications means:
The publications distributed by Gordon and Gotch on behalf of Australian and overseas publishers.
Any other kinds of publications or products distributed by Gordon and Gotch to you or newsagents generally on or before commencement date
Any other kinds of products agreed by you and Gordon and Gotch, in each case as nominated to by Gordon and Gotch from time to time.
While I expect that Gotch management would argue that supply constitutes nomination, I suspect others would disagree. Indeed, I would argue that the entire contract is built around the supply of publications and that publications are magazines. The processes outlined, the obligations documented all relate to magazines as the publications.
This is not a contract contemplating supply of products other than magazines. For example, while the definition above contemplates non publication products, the Magazine Ranging and Supply Policy does not. Indeed, there is no documentation in the contract on how Gotch will range non publication product to newsagents.
So: Is the supply of Christmas cards by magazine distributor Gordon and Gotch outside the terms of their contract with newsagents? I would say yes. This is a question better put to a legal forum where a determination could result in rewriting the contract. A VCAT, QCAT or CTTT could be an appropriate forum.
The contract we have with Gordon and Gotch is where newsagents need to start if they want to resolve what they could consider to be unfair behaviour against their business by Gotch.
This is a matter that the associations could take up on behalf of newsagents. Not by meeting with Gotch but by organising and managing test cases in state jurisdictions. That they have not done this is a poor reflection on their commitment to resolve the issue of most importance to newsagents.
This week the Body & Soul insert in News Corp. Sunday newspapers will have this ad promoting the Astro diary range in newsagencies. As the only retailers offering the product our channel is well placed to leverage the opportunity. In my stores we have the floor display unit in a high-traffic location and its working.
This is a product offered to the channel by Universal Magazines at sale or return with delayed billing until 2014.
Convenience Store News has a story today about the increased traction in retail being achieved by electronic cigarettes. The shopper data is particularly interesting. While I know some newsagents playing in the category here it is yet ton take off in a mass way. I suspect that is because it does not have major brand awareness yet.
