This week I am calling out five basic areas of retailing where some newsagents make the rest of us look bad. I am writing about these five areas because in the minds of plenty of Australian shoppers all newsagencies are as bad as the worst one they have visited.
QUALITY
I suspect that if a survey was undertaken of everyday Australians as to the retail businesses they trust, local newsagencies would feature high on the list. For decades we have been known for selling quality products from stationery through.
The core categories of our businesses are build around brands – in cards Hallmark is the best known brand in the country, in magazines the entire department is about brands, in stationery it’s Scotch, Post-It, UHU, Papermate, Uniball, Bic, Spirax and many others.
Respected brands can attract a higher price.
Unfortunately, some newsagents prefer to play down-market, where quality is not important, where price is the differentiator. They do this without thinking about the consequences.
Newsagents selling inferior product can damage the rest of us as our businesses are only as good as the weakest business trading under the same shingle.
Product quality matters as it is one factor that drives loyalty. The sale today achieved because you have a cheaper and inferior product is less likely to drive a sale tomorrow for the same product whereas a sale today at a higher price for a quality product is more likely to drive repeat business.
Unfortunately there are some in the channel who prefer ro focus on cheap. I am certain that one day, if they;re still in business, will realise that cheap is not a viable business plan for the long term.
We need to focus on quality products on which our customers can rely.
This is 1 of our major strengths, quality. We focus on delivering high quality products. If people want cheap they can go to the selection of discount shops on our strip! Why not use the free advertising that these major companies do for their own products.