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

Month: March 2014

Hubbed versus Australia Post price comparison inaccurate

I’m told the price comparison published under the namers of Hubbed and POS Solutions to newsagents last week contains wrong pricing for Australia Post. Here is the correct pricing from an Australia Post LPO this morning:

  1. 3 kg Parcel Post satchel from Aust Post is $13.40 compared to $13.95
  2. 5kg Parcel Post satchel from Aust Post is $16.70 compared to $16.95
  3. 3kg Express satchel from Aust Post is $14.80 compared to $14.95
  4. 5kg Express post satchel from Aust Post is $23.60 compared to $23.95.
  5. You also get a discount of buying in packs of 10 from Aust Post.

This pricing came into effect two weeks ago.

UPDATE: (23:29) Another contributor here has advised that the Australia Post price above does not include a signature on receipt whereas the Hubbed price does. (You can see this in their comments).

14 likes
Australia Post

A story of wonderful customer service from a newsagency employee

Here is an inspirational email received by a colleague newsagent a couple of days ago.   This is customer service!

Dear Sir/Madam

I visited your store this morning to purchase The Australian newspaper and to submit X-Lotto tickets for tonight’s X-Lotto. I was greeted and served by your staff member, Louise.

Louise was extremely helpful in explaining to me that the Winners Circle card had expired and that the completed tickets were no longer able to be used and handed me some new X-Lotto forms to be filled out. She aptly renewed my card and provided me a membership change of detail form.

Whilst I was completing the new forms with my chosen X-Lotto numbers, I listened to Louise as she interacted with other customers. She was friendly, respectful and courteous, a rarity in today’s society where customer service does not seem to be an important factor in so many small businesses.

My Husband and I are passionate about customer service and having been in small business ourselves understand the importance in customer retention and staff members play such an important role, congratulations on choosing such an appropriate young individual to represent your organisation.

We would like to use our experience with Louise in a case study for our business which is targeted at guiding small businesses at taking an inward look at how they meet the expectation of their most-important aspect, their customer.

Please pass on our gratitude to Louise for her exceptional customer service.

Great customer service begins at the top of any business. Louise deserves kudos for excellent customer service. Her managers also deserve kudos for excellent management.

In our businesses we are only as good as our weakest link. Good customer service is results from good management. Poor customer service results from poor management.

From the top down we need to make our businesses deliver more Louise experiences so more of us get emails like this.

Thank you Louise for your great service that lead to this inspiring story.

24 likes
Customer loyalty

A successful counter line for your newsagency

angelflamesA single pocket of Angel Flames candles at the counter can add valuable margin dollars to a purchase. We have done this many times over many years and each time we bring out the Angel Flames we get a terrific result. The pack is small, you could find room in any counter situation. The purchase opportunities are many. While the most obvious is a purchase with a greeting card or a gift, we have newspaper and magazine customers buying a pack or two on impulse.

Where we place product matters as much as keeping the offer fresh. This is why we don’t keep the candles at the counter all the time.

Check with your usual party goods supplier for these or similar products. Placed in the right spot, they can be tremendously valuable for your business. Customers will be thrilled – that’s a reaction I often see.

3 likes
Gifts

Newspaper covers-up lead story

telecoverupThis is one of the worst cases of newspaper editorial cover-up I have seen. The Sunday Telegraph in Sydney yesterday had an ad for Quickflix stuck over the front page headline. So much for news selling newspapers. Shocking. Shameful. I wonder how the editorial team feel.

3 likes
Uncategorized

Newsagency social responsibility tip: help job hunters

With unemployment on the rise, think about how you can help people looking for work.

Consider offering discount copying and discount faxing for those looking for work. Get known as they place they can come to copy and send resumes. Show yourself off as a business person seeking to genuinely help those looking for work.

Promote the service, welcoming job hunters with open arms. Show them you care. Let your Facebook and Twitter followers know. Your goal has to be to get job hunters talking about your service. Be generous in your giving.

I first pitched this idea to newsagents twenty years ago in my book, Marketing Your Newsagency.

11 likes
Customer loyalty

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: wear what you sell

This could be a brilliant or really crazy idea. Have a day where everyone working in the shop wears an article of clothing made from what you sell. For example, a shirt made from crepe paper or jewellery made from paper-clips or a hat from cardboard or a dress made from greeting cards (thinking of the Catherine Martin Amex dress).

The idea of this idea is to get you and your team thinking about what you sell differently and then to get your customers thinking about it differently.  I’d expect that by engaging in this idea you come up with other ways to better connect with what you sell and through this to grow your business.

Like any marketing idea – HAVE FUN!

10 likes
marketing

Sunday newsagency management tip: quarterly P&L recommended

Too often newsagents get their accounts done annually, long after the end of the financial year. My recommendation is that you get your accounts done quarterly within a few weeks of the end of each quarter as this provides visibility of potential issues with theft and other business challenges.

With accounting systems today and the ability to automatically feed data from your newsagency software getting accounts done is not as complex as it once might have been. Talk to your accountant about streamlining your process so that you have better information on which to base your business planning and decisions.

11 likes
Management tip

Male customers react differently to discount vouchers

dv-maleWe have been tracking shopper reaction to and engagement with discount vouchers by gender. Males react  differently to females. Those who will use the voucher tend to want to spend the money on the voucher right away. Knowing this is helping us with near to the counter product placement as male shoppers tend to be lazy.

In addition to placement is the pitch of how they can spend. For example, a guy with a voucher for $1 might say what can I get for $1 and I’d say – put it toward a magazine you don’t usually buy. Some go into the magazine department and do just that. Suggesting how to spend the money works!

Suggesting items guys can buy with a voucher is key – BUT the items need to be things they have to give us more money for, beyond the voucher value.

Guys shopping with their wives and girlfriends are a treat to watch as there can be a fight as to who gets the voucher. The banter is fun for us and for them – connecting our shop with a good experience.

Discount vouchers are continuing to drive excellent results for us – deepening baskets and bringing shoppers back more often.

The key to success continues to be how it’s pitched to customers and how you setup the store with opportunities for spending the vouchers immediately.

These comments could relate to any voucher created with any software or even created without a computer system.

15 likes
Newsagency management

Playing with a product drives purchases

sandThis self-cntained display unit for smart sand is terrific for encouraging shopper engagement with a product you need to touch and feel. The moment parents or kids play with the sand they purchase it. The stand is ideal for driving this shopper engagement.  It’s fantastic: small footprint, holds a good amount of stock, shows off the product in the best light.

Rather than telling parents to keep their kids in line, going the other way and encouraging playing as this unit does drives business for us and the partner supplier. It also brings fun to the shop floor and that’s a delight!

There are several suppliers with sand like this. But not all have the floor display unit.

12 likes
Impulse lines

Recasting the magazine aisle end for the weekend

magswinacarweekendHere’s how we have adjusted our WIN A CAR aisle end promotion for the weekend. Subtle changes to make the most of more fresh titles. That’s Life and Who placed on the top and to the left for easy selection. BHG rounds out the top section here plus we have it in two other locations for the weekend.  Note Women’s Health and Men’s Health together – very important. Strong and consistent branding with WIN A CAR collateral too helps drive shopper engagement.

We change this display on a Monday and a Thursday through the duration of the promotion – reflecting titles on-sale.

3 likes
magazines

Promoting InStyle and the gift with purchase

magsinstyWe are managing the bulk of the Neutrogena gift with purchase with InStyle by Careful placement within our magazine fixturing. The title is selling well so the additional space allocation will not be for long. I’m happy to take the space as the gift shows us off as a retailer offering additional value. It’s a good point of difference for us.

1 likes
magazines

More questions about Hubbed following newsagency marketing campaign

The ANF endorsed and promoted Hubbed is being promoted to newsagents today via a six page note sent under the name of Hubbed and POS Solutions.  It reads like a joint promotion, with bold claims to try and drive interest.

For those not familiar I declare I own Tower Systems, the newsagency software company with 1,900+ newsagents as customers. POS is my competitor in that business.  They had around 600 newsagent customers last time I checked. I mention the numbers to provide context, not disparage.  But this post is not about competing with POS, this blog is not about my business.

This post is about questions newsagents should have after reading the Hubbed marketing material.

I do not want to see newsagents lose money on something that is not based on sound research. I am not saying that applies to Hubbed as I have not seen anything approaching research. If they have good research then they should share the facts.

On page one there is this claim: The ConnectPOS system is designed exclusively for newsagents top offer a new range of products and services to customers.  Newsagents already have access to parcel service and prepaid visa cards. Okay, bill payment is new but there is no commercial upside in that from what I can see.  They then say ConnectPOS provides growth with new products, services and increased revenue.  Why don’t they quote the growth achieved by the newsagents who have been running this for six months and more? The rumour is it’s not generating worthwhile commercial results. Only data we can verify can counter such rumours. I’d happily publish the data to counter the rumours.

When quoting newsagent results they need to indicate the terms on which those newsagents accessed Hubbed. It is important everyone can be certain all are on the same playing field.

The flyer on page 1 claims Hubbed also offer high commission to the newsagent with the cheapest prices to the customers.  maybe there is a reason others charge more and have a more modest commission structure.  I’ve been told by someone I’d expect to have good knowledge that Hubbed people met with representatives of a major logistics company who refused to deal with Hubbed because they model was flawed. I’d like to know if there is truth in this report.

On page two of the fax they say newsagents with Connect are selling between 10 and 30 parcels a day. They should publish the details of all Connect newsagents so this claim can be verified.

On page three is the claim that POS Solutions has worked exclusively with Hubbed to create ConnectPOS.  It is exclusive. Hubbed did not approach any other company I am told.  I am told the exclusivity arrangement is for no more than six months.  I’ve seen the integration. I think it’s pretty lame. But for a couple of keystrokes you could do this on any computer running any newsagency software.

Page three ends with – join the growing list of newsagents that are embracing POSBrowser with integrated ConnectPOS! Newsagents should ask for this growing list so they can verify the claim. Otherwise, it remains a sales pitch without evidentiary support.

Page five says: Over the years Newsagents have watched staple product sets that belonged to them in large part become commoditised with other retailers now taking the significant share.  While this is true, none of the Hubbed products are in this space so I am not sure why they would make the statement other than to sell through fear.

Fear is a massive factor here. Newsagents who are not great retailers want someone to fix their businesses for them. Hubbed is being pitched as this. But it will not fix a troubled business.  The only way for a newsagent to fix a troubled newsagency is for them to take control of their business, embrace change and plan in the budget, on the shop floor and through buying for a brighter future.  In my own newsagency my sales are up double digits year on year. I don’t have Hubbed or anything like it. I’m doing this on the back of flat traffic in the centre and extraordinary competition from small and large businesses.

Newsagency growth comes from future focused products.  Hubbed products and services are rooted in the past.

On page five they go on: other retailers are good at seeing what is in demand and taking advantage of it.  How does that connect to Hubbed? Other than the parcel offering that we can get through others too, what products and services are in high demand where demand is growing? Here is their fear pitch again.

Back to the issue of what newsagents have lost over the years and are losing today: lotteries, magazines and stationery. These are the key products lost. Where is Hubbed in any of these? Nowhere from what I can see. I make this point to underscore the fear they are using to encourage newsagents to go with them yet they are not offering anything to address the items in their fear mongering.

On the last page is a claim of a special offer from Hubbed and POS Solutions.  My own experience is that something that is exclusive is not as keenly priced as something that has competition.  If Hubbed really wanted to save newsagents money they would have made their platform more available than with only one company, they would have, from the outset, demonstrated an understanding of the commercial reality they write so much about in their marketing material.

Even on the best assessment, Hubbed will not generate the kind of return a newsagent can get from being a good retailer.

Between Jan. 1 and Mar. 13 this year in one of my newsagencies we have increased our plush sales $4,743.18 (ex GST). We are projecting an increase for the whole year of in excess of $35,000.00 in plush sales (ex GST). This will add $19,250.00 gross profit to our P&L from this category alone. There is a correlation between plush sales and gift sales and card sales.  The plush increase will, in fact, translate into close to $48,000.00 additional gross profit from the three categories.

Once you add in 18% year on year greeting case sale growth you have a wonderful business story despite the doom and gloom talk being used in this unfortunate flyer.

My newsagency is in a shopping centre with 300 other shops, several majors, many gift shops that sell plush and several specialist large card shops. Yes, it is a very competitive environment. With flat foot traffic in the centre.

The future of the channel for good retailer newsagents is bright because we can make it so. We can create strong, growing and profitable newsagencies by being good retailers where we have control through what we stock and how we merchandise it. It starts with us choosing to be a retailer and not an agent. Next is you taking a realistic view of your business and building from there.

I acknowledge that some newsagents will like the Hubbed approach and will benefit from it. If you think this is you, I urge you to do your homework and be 100% satisfied with all you are promised. If, once you have done this you like what you see, go for it.

20 likes
Hubbed

The devil is in the detail of the Bauer 50% bonus commission offer to newsagents

bauermotherBauer media yesterday sent a flyer and an agreement to newsagents for a Mother’s Day consumer promotion and an on-going Promote and Profit campaign.

While the key pitch of Profit and Promote is an opportunity to earn 50% bonus commission, the agreement Bauer wants newsagents to sign says the 50% bonus commission will be paid on incremental sales – sales in the retail store (not subs) above a sales target.  The sales target is to be set by Bauer.

So, if your sales are $1,000 and your sales target is $1,200 and you sell $1,500, you get 50% bonus commission on $300.

With the average newsagency reporting magazine sales decline of between 6% and 9% year on year, any sales target should reflects and not have a base of greater sales than being achieved today.

The Bauer material says you will receive individual stretch targets based on historical sales. If done properly it should be a forecast based on year on year trend.  i.e. if you are declining it should be reflected in your target. That targets have not been sent with the document means newsagents do not have enough information to sign the agreement.

I am all for incentive programs. However, they must be easily understood, have realistic goals and reflect current conditions. The documentation as presented for Profit and Promote is too complex and has too many unknowns for active newsagent engagement in my view. I’d love others to share their views here.

12 likes
magazines

Tapping into vintage interest

vintageshopThe latest issue of Time Out Melbourne is an excellent opportunity to tap into vintage interest and we’re doing just that with the title on show where vintage enthusiasts will see the title and hopefully purchase on impulse. This is another example of a magazine cover giving is a fresh reason to promote the title.

2 likes
magazines

Herald Sun MH370 cover-up

hscupIt’s disappointing to see News Corp. stick a discount home delivery subscription ad over the top of the photo for the lead story – on the disappearance of MH370 on yesterday’s newspaper. This sticker and the offer it promotes disrespects news and trashes the brand by making the purchase about price.

1 likes
newspaper masthead desecration

Serious questions surround another ANF promotion to newsagents

crimvidNewsagents this week received a fax purportedly sent by Crimvid, a supplier endorsed by the ANF. Click on the image to see the main page of the fax in detail.

Before I get to the fax itself, I’d like to raise the question of  how Crimvid got fax numbers for newsagents.

Did the ANF provide Crimvid with these? If this is the case, has the ANF breached the Australian Privacy Principles that came into effect on March 12, 2014.

The Australia Privacy Principles are clear and data cannot be used for a secondary purpose.

The ANF has newsagent contact data gathered for a specific purpose that does not include use by a third party.

Hence the question: where did Crimvid access the fax numbers of newsagents?

Now, to the fax itself. What a poorly written document. read the first paragraph and see for yourself.

  1. If they have thousands (000’s) of purchase orders from newsagents as they claim, why are they chasing more before they start manufacturing?
  2. Why are goods to be promoted for Easter related purchases yet to be manufactured?
  3. How can the ANF be encouraged to see Crimvid is delivering significant earning potential when there is no data yet supporting this?
  4. What’s the ANF involvement here. It owes all newsagents transparency on its commercial relationship with Crimvid.
14 likes
Ethics

Growing your newsagency business

nxconfnewsXpress this week is hosting it’s first of two national conferences this year in Melbourne.

Monday was a buying tour of the Toy Fair – appointments with key suppliers offering trade show specials and products insights.

Yesterday was a full day conference at the MCG and a trade show with 30 suppliers pitching a broad variety of products. The conference agenda included an industrial relations lawyer speaking about Fair Work and unfair dismissal, a social media expert speaking about how to engage your business in valuable social media opportunities, an insight into high-value collector shoppers, pricing and range advice to drive margin dollars in ink and the previewing of greeting card customer engagement opportunities.

Proactive sessions to drive newsagency traffic and build basket depth.

The conference yesterday had 150 people participating. Just over 100 newsagents. The feedback on the day and last night at the BBQ dinner on the Yarra River was excellent. Better still, nowhere at the conference or socially was there any discussion on industry politics. Nowhere were people talking about tough times. The mood was optimistic and the overall feeling one of excitement and happiness. It was a thrill to mix with happy newsagents.

Everyday there are choices we can make about our businesses and how they impact on our lives and our outlook. Leaders in our channel – in supplier businesses, associations and elsewhere can set the agenda for newsagents. For too long the agenda has been rooted in the past and focused on being adversarial with suppliers.

Working together optimistically can like-minded newsagents and suppliers do well. I saw plenty of that yesterday. I’m a Director of newsXpress so of course I’ll talk up the event. I’m certain, however, that anyone else there would agree with what I have written. Anyone organising a conference or similar event for newsagents needs to be able to write the same – to share the pleasure of a nurturing optimism in newsagents and connecting them with suppliers who share this and who offer opportunities through which we can navigate to a bright future.

I’m not writing this post to encourage people to join newsXpress. I;’m writing it because the event yesterday and indeed over the three days is different to the usual newsagency conference. It’s more forward looking and full of hope. Most of all, the newsagents participating shared an energy and excitement that was a thrill to be part of.

17 likes
Newsagency management

Stolen newspapers challenge distribution newsagents

Every newsagent who owns or has owned a newspaper distribution business has experienced the theft of home delivered newspapers. I experienced it years ago before I sold my delivery run. In one instance a resident at a church run retirement village was regularly stealing the paper delivered to a fellow resident.

I know of people who have been caught who say it’s a victimless crime. It’s not, of course. The newsagent carries a considerable cost – replacing stolen product, making good the situation and often soaking abuse from the customer.

I’m opening the topic here for discussion following recent comments on another threat.  Over to you…

4 likes
Ethics

Is Hubbed offering different deals to different newsagents?

Several newsagents have mentioned to be deals they have reportedly been offered by Hubbed that vary from the deals more generally known about. If I understand it correctly, one was offered preferential pricing and another a promise on returning equipment if sales don’t meet expectations.

If true, the ANF appears directly involved in making offers different to those promoted more widely. If I was a newsagent on a less favourable deal and heard about a better deal now I’d be wanting compensation.

1 likes
Hubbed

Selling local

shoplocalI like this poster I saw in the US a couple of months ago in the window of an American Craftsman shop in New York. They sell hand-made gifts and craft items – beautiful products.

The message pitched on the poster is clear – buy American mad products and create jobs.

Buy local messages don’t result in a change in behaviour in my view because of a the lack of consistency in pitching that message and a lack of detail. This poster pitches a clear message. yes, there is a lot of detail – but the retail is important as it tells shoppers that changing what they spend 10% of the holiday spending on can make a difference.

5 likes
Social responsibility