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

Month: June 2014

Why such an over-reaction to the 3% wage increase?

The decision last week by the Fairwork Commission to lift the minimum wages by 3% is reasonable in my view. When considered against the annual 5% increase in rent and increases in many business costs, a 3% increase in the base cost of labour is not the bad news some are saying.

Sure no business owners wants costs to increase, especially in a business like a newsagency where a decent chunk of what you sell is sold at prices over which you have no control. However, 3% is within the band of what I’d expect a well run newsagency to be growing each year.

I don’t understand commentators, business group spokespeople and Treasurer Joe Hockey who say the 3% increase will cost jobs. Shopping centre landlords increase rent 5% a year, more than Fairwork increases, yet they don’t face the same attention. It feels like business looking after business and them ganging up on the weakest – the employees.

Good employees are valuable in any retail business. Quibbling over less than $20 a week is nuts since a good employee could easily make that much extra each week.

Our challenge as retailers has to be to partner with our employees to ensure we get the best value and can therefor pay them better value.

21 likes
Newsagency management

The cover of Renegade Collective our attention

magscollectiveThe cover shot of Debbie Harry on the cover of Renegade Collective magazine is stunning – offering us an excellent opportunity to get this title in front of people who are currently not purchasing it. We have it at the front of our thinking women’s titles. Plus we have it with our music magazines – next to the latest Mojo magazine which also features Debbie Harry on the cover.

It pays to check magazine covers for opportunities like this. We can sell more magazines.

4 likes
magazines

Military Watches – a new partwork certain to be popular

militarywatchesI am fortunate to have been sent a preview copy of the launch issue of Military Watches by the artworks team at Gordon and Gotch. Military Watches launches on June 23 with the Australian Naval Diver watch – in an excellent salute to the Australian market.

I know watch people. I am certain they will like this series. The regular issue price, after part 2, will be $19.99 – good value given that you get a watch with each  issue.

This is an excellent collectors opportunity. While allocations are controlled by the UK, the Gotch partworks team is committed to supporting newsagents who support the title through the 80 parts.

7 likes
partworks

How to maximise Bride To Be sales

magsbride2besWe have an excellent opportunity in our newsagencies to achieve incremental sales of Bride To Be with the Bride To Be Wedding Planner looking perfectly paired when placed next to Bride To Be. The blue and pink covers look terrific and when together they look like a pair.

These two magazines together are the beacon brand for our bride titles.

4 likes
magazines

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: bring theatre to your business – make shopping fun

artwrap-partyShow don’t tell. Use that as your motto for changes you make in your newsagency to market the business from within.

Take party goods – does your party department feel like a party? If is fun to shop? Can your customers see what you have on offer? Or, are your products all in their packs with your customers needing to read to understand what you offer.

Show don’t tell. Get products out and on display. Make some visual noise from your party department and get more traffic there as a result. Do it right and kids will bring their parents.

I was at newsagency and gift supplier Artwrap during the week – included in their extensive range products is a party goods section. In their showroom they have done what newsagents should do – they had product hanging just in that section, separating it from other sections and bringing a party feel to this part of the showroom.

Marketing inside your shop is as important as marking outside. Your success at engaging shoppers is up to you.

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marketing

Sunday newsagency management tip: start the financial year with good data

Poor data is in my top three causes for a newsagency struggling or failing.

If you do not use accurate current data in business planning then your business decisions are more likely to be either wrong or less effective.

I know data can be a boring topic. It is better for you to master this boring topic and have a business than it ignore it and not have a business.

Yes, it is that simple.

Accurate current data can help you:

  1. Buy better – buy replacing what is selling, buying to a budget and buying new products based on what shoppers buy today.
  2. Deal with suppliers, compare suppliers understand the financial value of suppliers.
  3. Cut employee theft.
  4. Cut shopper theft.
  5. Tune your roster to cut labour cost.

Every newsagent either wants or should want these benefits. It is a weakness for and of our channel is that more newsagents ignore data than embrace it.

So how to you improve the quality of your business data: scan everything you sell, enter into your computer system all stock that comes in, scan out everything (including cards) you return, do a stock take ASAP and then rolling category stock checks through the year.

These tasks can be done in the regular course of running your business. They are not a burden. Newsagents sometimes say they are a burden so they have an excuse to not face up to the truth of their business data.

Your data is your truth. Embrace it and your business will improve.

I know of at least ten newsagencies where an employee was able to steal more than $100,000 because the business did not treat data with respect.

9 likes
Management tip

Tapping into the current obsession with sugar

bigsugarNewsagents should get the current issue of The Monthly in front of more customers to leverage their Big Sugar story. This will be an issue to promote with newspapers as well as weekly and or food magazines. I’ve read the article – it’s fascinating and challenging. It’s an excellent opportunity to pitch The Monthly to people who do not regularly purchase the magazine.

2 likes
magazines

Queens Birthday weekend is one of those weekends

There is a slower pace with shoppers today, the first day of a three-day weekend (everywhere in Australia except for Western Australia). And fewer shoppers too. But they are spending, because there is not the usual Saturday rush that we see. I expect we will end the day ahead in dollars but down in traffic. I’m okay with that.

When I say it’s one of those weekends, I mean it is a holiday weekend without a purpose that retailers can easily tap into … commercialise.

6 likes
Newsagency challenges

I never would have visited your shop

attractingcustomersA customer visited the newsagency a couple of days ago, spending in excess of $40. They make a point of telling us that they visited because of this Happy Jackson range from Tinco facing into the mall. They said they had never shopped with us before.

This is an excellent example of a non newsagency product attracting a new shopper into the newsagency.

The feedback from the customer is an encouragement to focus on more opportunities like this.

9 likes
Gifts

Meshel & Tommy on NOVA Melbourne promote magazines & newsagents

As part of their Happiness Thursdays promotion a couple of days ago, Meshel & Tommy on Nova has someone live on air in a newsagency in Melbourne buying magazines for customers who called in. A colleague heard this live and send me this:

I was listening to the radio yesterday in the car and the breakfast program Meshel & Tommy was doing a segment called happiness Thursdays. This week there focus was on magazines. The way they pitched it was that buying a magazine was a luxury and it made people happy. They specifically mentioned the smell of a new magazine. They had a radio staffer in Burnley newsagency in the magazine section. People called in and told her what magazines they wanted and she bought them for them. The magazines I remember being bought were Better Homes and Gardens and frankie.

This is a terrific story, one that should warm the hearts of newsagents.

Thanks NOVA and thanks Meshel & Tommy.

7 likes
magazines

Embracing the soup season

magssoupsWe’re giving the new Big Soups soup cook book from Bauer support by placement at the front of food titles and with another popular soup title.

Our goal is to sell the copy we received in the next couple of weeks before we consider returning it. This prime placement is the best support we can give.

3 likes
magazines

Promoting the Win a Tablet opportunity

nx3We are promoting the Pacific Magazines Win a Tablet opportunity in three locations in store in three locations including this one with weekly titles. Our promotion and placement activity is tactical – i.e. we’re not going for noise but for focused engagement. Our thinking here is that less is more given all the colour in a newsagency. We are also promoting the competition externally as a traffic-driving opportunity.

4 likes
magazines

Is the Wild product range evolving?

wildcardsSome who have been watching the Wild Cards and Gifts shops since the take over of the group by UK Newsagent retailers WH Smith have noticed recent changes to their focus. The gifts they are pitching are more often now gifts you’d see in Australian newsagencies than was the case under the old ownership.

If this is indeed a trend it will blur the lines between newsagencies and the Wild businesses. This will be especially interesting to watch in locations where newsagencies and Wild compete for the same nearby shopper.

4 likes
Gifts

Day five of five simple moves for increasing sales in your newsagency: move it & move it again

slumbiesThis week I am running a series of simple moves you can make in your newsagency to increase sales. None requires you to spend any money, only time. Here is simple move to make more money by moving spinners.

Do you move your spinners? When was the last time you placed spinners in different locations? If you don’t place your spinners in different locations, are your spinners working as well as you need and or expect? If the answer to this question is no then move them.

Moving a spinner can open the products it holds to shoppers who may not have seen the products in your shop previously.

As a rule, no spinner should be in the same location more than two weeks – except in exceptional circumstances where you know that moving the spinner will love sales.

We need to run our newsagencies with a gift shop approach to the shop floor – major changes every two weeks, following a process of continuous movement.

8 likes
Management tip

How is the million dollar scratchie game selling for you?

milscratchieI’d love to hear from newsagents how the million dollar scratchie game is selling. I noticed street level advertising by Golden Casket in the centre of Brisbane. Indeed, it was terrific to see this advertising to see the game.  Scratchie tickets are a good over the counter opportunity as they are a retailer focused product as opposed to OzLotto, Powerball and Lotto tickets that can be purchased online and on your phone.

3 likes
Lotteries

Newsagents could win $500 tipping on the World Cup

Screen Shot 2014-06-05 at 6.15.41 pmI love the promotion by Men’s Health magazine to Nexus newsagents of a tipping competition for the World Cup.

This is a good bit of fun for the popular sporting event. It’s pure fun too – no displays to setup, no extra stock to display … no this is purely a tipping competition. Terrific!

With newsagents busy running their own small businesses they often do not have time to connect with others. This type of competition by Men’s Health offers newsagents a bit of social fun around what is set to be a very popular event.

5 likes
magazines

Pacific Magazines promotes newsagents by TXT

pacmagspromoEarly this week Pacific Magazines the company sent out a text message to consumers promoting newsagents as the retailers to purchase Pacific titles from to get in the running to win a tablet computer. Out of store marketing like this is terrific for newsagents, providing another reason to support Pacific titles.

3 likes
magazines

UK consumer survey votes WH Smith as the worst high street retailer in the UK

The Telegraph has reported that a 11,000 consumers in a recent survey voted WH Smith as the worst high street retailer in the UK. Apple was rated #2 and Lush soap #2. The report is pretty damning.

Dissatisfaction with WH Smith is not new, and it has been one of the lowest-rated shops for the last four years.

Retail expert Mary Portas has described it as a “dump” which she “truly hates” shopping in.

This story would not usually rate a mention in Australia but the growing presence of WH Smith here with their own stores, their growing hospital retail network and their ownership of Wild cards and gifts it’s worth knowing about.

5 likes
retail

Day four of five simple moves for increasing sales in your newsagency: use your counter!

dogscatsThis week I am running a series of simple moves you can make in your newsagency to increase sales. None requires you to spend any money, only time. Here is simple move to make more money by changing your use of your counter.

Take everything off your counter. Now, put something at the counter that you have never had there. Choose products that appeal to your customers. But make sure that your choice challenges your customers and you.

We did this a while back by placing $24.95 plush dogs and cats at the counter – replacing confectionery. Shock horror they sold very well. Amazingly well in fact. Before this experience I would have said that selling $24.94 dogs and cats at the counter would not work.

Your counter space should be part of your continuous improvement commitment. An approach of continuous movement is important on the newsagency shop floor.

4 likes
Management tip

Blocking the newsagency window

windowcoverThis is the main window of a high street newsagency that I saw recently. On the other side of the wall of magazine posters is a fixture with stock. There is room elsewhere on the shop floor for this fixture. Moving it, or trashing it, would free up the window and allow shoppers to see inside. Immediately on doing this a smart retailer would make the shop more appealing to shoppers walking by. This, in turn, should boost sales.

Removing magazine posters in the window of any newsagency is important if the business is to increase relevance to those walking past the business. The old-school approach shown in the photo does not serve the business well.

I appreciate it is easy to stand outside a shop and say what should be done. However, in this instance, moving the fixture could be done with a bit of effort and the positive impact for the business could be considerable.

5 likes
Newsagency management

Terrific issue of Vanity Fair to have

vanityfairWhile I don’t usually have Vanity Fair this latest issue would be one to stock given the extraordinary interest in the hit TV series Game of Thrones. This is an example of where being able to order a one off supply of an issue of a magazine title could help drive sales for us and the publisher. I noticed this issue in an airport location earlier this week.

0 likes
magazines

Day three of five simple moves for increasing sales in your newsagency: dance!

This week I am running a series of simple moves you can make in your newsagency to increase sales. None requires you to spend any money, only time. Here is simple move to make more money by creating a dance floor.

In front of your counter, a in a space walked past by more customers that almost any other part of your shop, set aside space that is your swing space, your dance floor.

This is space is your key promo space – where you pitch with your best creativity items you want all your shoppers to see.

On the dance floor you display to sell – with flair, excitement and engagement.

The key is creating the space. I have never been in a newsagency where a dance floor cannot be created.

An approach of continuous movement is important on the newsagency shop floor. A dance floor is key to this continuous movement.

7 likes
Newsagency management

Banning a Bauer merchandiser from visiting the newsagency

bauermerchandiserA Bauer merchandiser visited my newsagency yesterday and without discussion with the store manager or any staff and without permission moved a Pacific Magazine title to a sub-standard position and placed a Bauer title into a prime position. I have contacted Bauer with evidence of the move and asked that this merchandiser not visit the business again.

Is this action of moving Bauer titles to better locations than Pacific titles an instruction from Bauer?  If so, shame on them.  In my communication with Bauer about this yesterday they did not take the opportunity to advise that such a move against a competitor title without in-store permission was against company policy.

Our layout of magazines is specific and thought through. With our weekly magazines experiencing excellent well above average year on year growth we’re doing something right. How dare a Bauer representative mess with something that is working better than in an average newsagency.

This is my shop, I pay the rent. It disgusts me that a person representing Bauer does this without permission.

How can I be certain the Bauer representative did this? I have video evidence. I thought about posting it here – it’s damning.

13 likes
magazines
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