A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Month: January 2014

How often do you read emails?

If you’re reading your business emails once a day or less frequently it’s not often enough. While already an out of date form of communication for some, email plays an important role in business. Some suppliers have migrated to email away from mail and fax. Checking it less frequently than once a day is not enough.

Twice already this year retailers have told me they check email once a week if that. They were dismissive of the b=medium. Once said that if someone wants him to know something they will call or fax. I don’t think so.

Email replacing mail and fax is one way businesses can cut costs. It takes less time to read emails plus they are in a form to more easily file, pass on or delegate.

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Newsagency management

Newsagency armed robberies a security reminder

The robberies of Victorian newsagencies going back months and now recently being reported is a reminder to newsagents to review physical property security, review security procedures including money transfer, remind employees of best practice for handling a situation like this, checking insurance and ensuring you have some form of camera system to capture any incident.

Victoria Police has a useful security kit available from their website.

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theft

Beware: Ukash fraud could hurt your newsagency

I received this report from someone in the insurance business Friday about a Ukash related scam perpetrated on a Australian business:

A shop employee took a call from a man stating he was a technical manager from our phone Epay and UKASH voucher provider stating they will be upgrading our system the next day at 1pm and will this be convenient please confer with the store owner , the person had store owners names which made it more convincing.

The employee was very busy at the time preparing the shop for closure so did not immediately contact the owners. Some ten minutes later this person called back stating they required some vouchers to be printed off in preparation for the upgrade and gave a reference number and asked for nine vouchers of various amounts totalling $1,800 to the printed off and quote the reference number provided earlier.

In the process of doing so the employee became concerned and went to their mobile to call the owner as the caller had tied up the shop phone line. Once owner was informed he immediately went to the store to discover the vouchers had already been cashed even though the caller was still holding on the shop line.

All staff were aware that they are not to sell vouchers over the phone but this person convinced the employee that things were in order stating both owner and managers names along with other technical references.

Fortunately we were able to settle the claim but we believe this is a timely warning to take extreme care.

Please warn all your staff about this. Not all insurance policies would cover the newsagent.

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Newsagency challenges

Getting your Blackhawk gift card mix right can drive sales

giftcardmixI was talking with a newsagent last week about the larger format gift card stands at Australia Post and other retailers. While I think we need to be in the space, each of us needs to do so in a way that is appropriate to our own business.  For example, this small footprint stand from Blackhawk works for me – I can move it around and it holds enough top-selling cards to cover several demographic needs.

Click on the image to see a larger version – in particular the cards on this side of the stand as we selected them for a younger demographic.

Note: As I noted last year, Blackhawk is not open until feb. 3 for reorders. Newsagency can get pretty much anything they want from Blackhawk through Touch Networks.

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Gifts

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: thank you as a marketing tool

How do you and your team end a sale at your sales counter? Have a nice day? Cheers!? Have a good day? Next!? Yes!? Or if it’s someone you know – see you later?

Try a simple Thank you at the end of each sale.  See how it makes you and your customers feel. You only have brief time with each transaction at the counter and cutting through to make a genuine connection is hard. Breaking free w=from what you do regularly is one way to connect. Saying thank you, if you don’t already, could be a valuable move.

The Harvard Gazette has an excellent article on a study of the power of saying thanks. Entrepreneur magazine takes it further, exploring other opportunities for saying thank you.

So, try it – at the sales counter. Switch from what you say at the end of a sale today to Thank You – delivered with a genuine smile. If it works for you consider how else you can spread gratitude from your business to those with whom you connect.

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marketing

Sunday newsagency management tip: roster to a budget

When was the last time you looked at the roster for your newsagents? Do you know the total weekly labour cost for the business? What is is the sales revenue per rostered hour that you are achieving?

These are important questions for newsagency businesses. While our bigger competitors roster with fine precision, we often roster our businesses based on emotion or personal need.

If you want a better return from your business, look at your roster: look at it as an overhead and look at it as an opportunity. make your roster decisions based on business performance data. Do more of what is working and less of what is not. Remove emotion from the equation.

Labour should cost no more than 11% of your sales where sales is revenue for non agency lines plus commission on agency lines.

 

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Management tip

Another breach of shopper trust

US retailer Neiman Marcus announced Friday that its IT systems had been hacked and some customer credit card information compromised.  That’s nice corporate-speak.

On Friday also US retailer Target said the credit card details of 70 million shoppers had been affected by their credit card data breach – up from 40 million announced previously.

As a retailer you have an obligation to protect your customer information. They give you credit card and other information in a relationship of trust. Newsagents who store credit card details in their newsagency software ought to review their security.

Footnote: newsagents using Tyro need not worry since the credit card details are not shares between Tyro and their newsagency software.

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Newsagency management

Label issue to impact The Sunday Telegraph

Newsagents in NSW/ACT are being advised by Nationwide News of a label production issue impacting The Sunday Telegraph tomorrow:

Please be advised that NWN has experienced a technical issue within DTI that is impacting our ability to produce newsagent labels for The Sunday Telegraph on 12 January 2014.

NWN has no alternative but to re-run newsagent labels for The Sunday Telegraph newspaper with the quantity’s that were supplied on Sunday 5 January, 2014.

The Sunday Telegraph labels for tomorrow will be dated Sunday 5 January 2014.

Billing for these supplies (on statement dated Sunday 12 January 2014) will reconcile with billing on Sunday 5 January 2014.

Any discrepancies that may appear between copies supplied and billed will be rectified as a miscellaneous adjustment (either debit or credit) of Sunday 19 January 2014.

The bulk size for The Sunday Telegraph will be run in 22’s. The bulks for The Sunday Telegraph will be larger than in previous weeks.

We sincerely apologise for this inconvenience.

I’m posting details here as many newsagents could have left their shops after the fax had been received.

UPDATE: H&WT just advised newsagents The Sunday Herald Sun is affected too.

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Newspapers

Loving print again

Just as people are rediscovering vinyl records, more people are writing about rediscovering print. Read what Brian Sullivan wrote at CNBC earlier this week.

A few months ago I made the decision to reactivate a few of my print subscriptions. Not all of them, but most of my favorites. Soon I realized that what was sitting on the table – right in front of my face – was much more likely to be picked up and (gasp) read.

Then there is a story late last month at The Globe and Mail about publishers discovering print. While sales or many (but not all) mass-market magazines are declining, niche and special interest titles are growing as interest in newspapers we can trust.

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Media disruption

Gross profit more important than ever in 2014

In reviewing the latest newsagency sales benchmark data in advance of releasing the report in a few days I can see some business owners reengineering their businesses in pursuit of a better gross product result.

While the overall newsagency channel average gross profit remains unchanged at 28% to 32%, more newsagents are achieving more than 32%. In fact, this is vitally important for the health of your business.

With wages, rent and other operating costs increasing and the selling price of a chuck of what we sell remaining not keeping up with the cost increases we need to find other ways to grow gross profit.

Improving gross profit starts with buying better and recasting the range of what you sell – redirecting inventory investment from lower GP lines and slower moving lines to higher GP and faster moving lines.

Making these moves requires us to be retailers and not shop keepers. It requires us to think about our businesses strategically and to rely less on being told what to do.

I’d hate for you to get to a point this year where focusing on gross profit is an urgent requirement. Act now, develop a plan, before you are desperate and making decisions with too little time to consider.

It starts with you knowing the type of newsagency you want to operate.

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Newsagency management

Promoting magic range of school holiday shoppers

magicfrontWe’re enjoying terrific success by featuring our range of magic products at the front of the shop on the lease line – facing into the mall. The success is in the form of shoppers the display attracts as much as product sales. Being in a shopping mall what we display at the front of the business is vital to attracting people who are in the centre and had not planned to visit a newsagency this visit. Our goal is to present products that challenge their perception of a newsagency.

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Gifts

Massive price disparity in online Tatts ticket prices

I was contacted by someone overseas during the week on the significant price difference between buying lottery tickets in Australia and overseas.  Take a Saturday System 10: the local ticket price is $137.70. Online: OzLotteries and Netlotto – $283.5o. I checked both websites and the system 10 products they offer appear the same. While these licenced sites don’t pose much of a threat to retail, the Tatts site offers a more competitive price.

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Lotteries

Promoting That’s Life at the counter

magstlWe have been promoting That’s Life magazine at the counter with this sign placed above. We made an exception to our policy of not promoting magazines at the counter with That’s Life because of the added value of the Symply Too Good gift during the traditional weight loss season and that Symply is a brand we sell.

We also have the title well-featured in its usual location.

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magazines

Retro raunchy magnets sell out and show a newsagency growth opportunity

mag-funI was in a newsagency the other day and noticed that the range of retro / raunchy magnets they had  in November when I took the photo had sold out. Indeed, they had sold out in a matter of weeks, delivering an excellent return on small inventory and space investments.

They were placed perfectly next to cards, enabling easy leveraging of card purchases into a magnet as a small gift to go with a card.

Retail success in independent retail businesses like newsagencies is all about attention to small steps detail – the many small things you can and should do to attract that extra purchase with a core item like a greeting card.

The key is that each small step, each additional item we carry, must connect with something else we sell of do in our business. This is where the magnets fit. They start to work leveraging card purchases but have the range long enough and they can generate their own traffic if you become known for the niche product.

All of this matters in 2014 as the nature of the traditional Australian newsagencies continues to evolve – but at a faster pace than in 2013.

This post is about the small steps detail we need to focus on as retailers.  Selling sixty magnets in a few weeks at more than 50% gross profit is a good story. Many of these small stories combine make the newsagency business considerably more valuable.

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Fun

Faster drop-off of calendar sales in 2014

cal2014I have noticed a faster drop off in calendar sales in the first days of 2014 compared to last year. I think this is being driven in part by other retailers very heaving discounting in the lead up to Christmas. In one centre where I have a store the calendar outpost was at 50% off for three weeks prior to christmas. In another they got to 75% on some lines in the week before.

We have a small range left and are discounting at 40% and that’s where we will hold it as calendar shoppers now are less likely to be bargain shoppers and more likely to be necessity shoppers. At 40% and with our buying we’re making excellent gross profit.

There is even an opportunity for us to increase prices of 2014 calendars in the coming weeks as desperation rises.

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Calendars

If you have Myth Conceptions …

magsmythconceptionsNewsagents with the Myth Conceptions magbook should place it with Fortean Times magazine as the two titles are related. Myth Conceptions is not a destination title so it’s important we place it where people are likely to purchase on impulse. We have it with Fortean Times as well as some stock with newspapers for the next week.

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magazines

WTF! Crazy allocation by Bauer for Dolly

bauer-media-crazyOn the back of a sell through of well below 50%, the genus allocations people / system at Bauer has increased our Dolly supply by 20%.  I know they hate me but sheesh! This is nuts – gross oversupply with no justification in the accurate sales data we have provided.

I can’t describe what I’d label this. Take your pick: Stupid; wrong; dumb; deliberate; criminal; unprofessional. Whatever, it is another example of Bauer making things worse and not better.

Newsagents: what’s your supply of this issue of Dolly?

Publishers: it is oversupply like this that can cause newsagents to strike against other titles without thinking – you need your colleague suppliers to supply fairly.

It could get to a point that the only way to control supply is to stop dealing with a distributor.

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magazines

Charging for a plastic bag with the newspaper?

I am contemplating introducing a 10c charge for a plastic bag for newspapers. While this would put me in the same league as Officeworks and Bunnings, I think it’s an important move. Shoppers who want to prove the purchased the item can instead get a receipt or a stamp on the paper.

I’d donate 100% of the money collected to a local environmental charity.

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Environment

Looking for Chinese New Year ideas

cnyI’d appreciate people sharing the products they promote at Chinese New year time. While we have some terrific Hallmark cards and red packets, I would like to know what else people offer for what is a season growing in popularity in Australia.

I think we can do more with minor seasons like this – beyond traditional gifts and with lines especially for the season.

While I appreciate it is not a gift giving season, it is a season with opportunities related to items we could carry and sell.

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Newsagency opportunities

Getting supermarket trolleys off the streets

trolleysI was pleased to see a local Coles supermarket introducing modified shopping trolleys that lock if you move them beyond the car park. This is an excellent move that will reduce trolleys being abandoned on the streets some distance from the supermarket.

So I saw this sign at a local Coles and my first reaction was well done Coles, thank you!  The reality, however, is that this benefits them commercially since lost trolleys are a significant cost for them. But I doubt many will see it with that cynicism. No, they will see this as Coles doing good for the community. … This is what we independent retailers are up against – amazingly well resourced and powerful businesses that virtually own the hearts and minds of people we want in our shops.

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Social responsibility

Engaging with the New Idea brand campaign

magsnewideajas2014We are  engaging with the New Idea brand campaign with this placement of the floor display unit at the front of the business facing shoppers in the mall. We set the display back  so that we could make use of the floor to ceiling collateral. Almost all shoppers entering the business will see this display.

We will support the campaign for the full four weeks – to give our customers an opportunity to win one of the cash prizes.

6 likes
magazines

Promoting Australian Property Investor

magsapijan2014We’re promoting the latest issue of Australia Property Investor magazine with the full cover on show in the front of business, money and property titles. being the start of the new year it’s a time when people will be thinking about and planning property moves.

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magazines

Magazine supply failures cause newsagents to protect their business and fail XchangeIT compliance

We sold out of a top-selling monthly magazine in the week of on-sale just prior to Christmas. We ordered more online and a day later were advised by the distributor they were out of stock. I contacted the publisher and they helped the distributor discover that they did indeed have stock. We were told we’d have stock in two days, on the Thursday. The replacement stock actually arrived the following Monday but it was the old issue.

Frustrated that we had been out of stock already for several days I bought copies of the magazine at retail and put them on the shelves for sale. I’m in a shopping centre with five other magazine outlets and I refuse to encourage my customers to buy magazines elsewhere – hence my decision to purchase additional copies at full retail for re-sale in my business.

By doing this I have set my business up to fail the data compliance requirements of XchangeIT. I am sure I am not alone in this.

XchangeIT, magazine distributors, magazine publishers and newsagency software companies need to agree on a mechanism by which I can report that I have acquired additional stock elsewhere.  My newsagency software background tells me this is quite achievable. I envisage a simple transaction through which I add quantities of an item purchased outside the usual magazine supply grid with this transaction advising XchangeIT electronically and through them the distributor.

This approach can stop me and other newsagents who engage in this practice be being told off by XchangeIT for failing by being a good retailer. It can also give visibility to the distributor so that they know what I could have sold had they been able to supply the additional stock I sought.

While there have been discussions around the XchangeIT table about this on several occasions, no action has been achieved. This needs to change – especially in this current era of undersupply of some key titles.

Magazine distribution failures hurt our businesses not only in lost immediate sales but in educating shoppers to consider other retailers that compete with the newsagency channel. We need to do everything possible to serve our customers for the future of our businesses. If this causes us ti fail XchangeIT standards in the meantime so be it.

How prevalent is this move of purchasing magazines at full retail and selling them in the newsagency? I’d guess that it happens between 1,000 and 2,000 times a year.

On a side note: I wish magazine distributors better handled spare floor stock. Too often I am told there is no additional stock where there is stock.

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magazine distribution

Promoting Feast magazine and newsagents

Feb_Print_OFC199It was good to see the ad for Feast magazine on SBS tonight promoting newsagents and supermarkets. Ads from some publishers don’t promote retail channels. The publisher of Feast specifically lists newsagents and supermarkets and while some may complain that supermarkets are mentioned I’m not concerned at all – we’re one of two retail channels.

On this issue of Feast, the cover looks stunning. This is a magazine to promote in a prime position. This cover featuring delicious ice-creams will help you sell more copies this summer!

5 likes
magazines
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