Further my post last week, Fairfax owned IPS has confirmed it will play hard ball with newsagents in clawing back commission incorrectly credited to newsagents.
It’s a bit rich of the company to force a mistake two years in the making to expect newsagents to resolve it and pay Fairfax in one hit.
Attempts by newsagents to engage with the company on the matter are ignored. This is appalling service from the company.
The moment we placed the fish and hammer BBQ lighters on either side of the Poo Pourri people started looking at the toilet spray as a Father’s Day gift. Indeed, we sold a bottle of Poo Pourri within minutes of making the change yesterday.
the hammer and fish BBQ lighters act as indicators for the target of the items in this display. The result is a reminder of the need to think carefully about product placement – sometimes it is what you place next to a product that gets that product selling.
Yesterday I had a crack at the dog and cat plush at the counter in response to a comment by BrettS. This layout is neater which should make it more appealing to shoppers. As happens when you’re working with products – customers engage and sales follow.
On the placement of plush at the counter as we have it, it works.
Our second placement of the New Idea wedding exclusive is this floor display unit next to our sand at the front of the shop facing into the mall.
My thinking behind this move is that the New Idea cover will attract shoppers by itself and others will notice it when watching their kids play with the sand. As soon as I moved the magazine display unit here we sold a copy of the magazine. Notice the placement to have the full cover on show.
We have given additional space to New Idea to leverage the exclusive photos of the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie wedding. This additional space will run through the weekend. We did not move any title out of the weekly section to create this.
We also have a pocket of New Idea at the counter. We’re not missing any opportunity for impulse purchases.
Sales of the special issue have been strong. This looks like a winner for Pacific Magazines.
A customer who could not walk far asked me to choose the best large print word search yesterday. Not sure which was the best, I showed her these three. She bought them all. While this was not a deliberate move on my part I am thrilled with the result. It was helped by me genuinely being unsure which title would best suit her specific requirements on font size.
The experience is a reminder of how good service can help us drive sales.
I recently asked newsagents to provide specific examples of what they consider to be magazine oversupply. Here’s what I asked for: Please list details of what you consider to be magazine oversupply: Title name, most recent supply, average net sales. Please use a separate line of text for each title. This data will be published on the newsagency blog as part of a series about the broken magazine distribution model that disadvantages Australian newsagents.
This is all the responses received without any editing by me.
Overnight I ran a Facebook campaign promoting the release today of a special edition of New Idea with wedding photos of the Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie nuptials. The interaction tells me this will be a good seller. Thousands of interactions with the Facebook post, 200+ new likes a ton of shares. So before we’re even open we know the interest is massive. Social media can help us engage even while we are closed.
If you have used a self service checkout at a Coles supermarket recently you would have heard the voice from the machine welcome you to Coles assisted checkout and at the end say Thank you for using Coles assisted checkout.
The only assistance I have seen is if something goes wrong. You then wait, and other wait, for a Coles staffer to fix the problem. No, you scan your own items, bag them, feed in your payment and collect your change. These self service check outs are about Coles offering less service, less assistance rather than more.
The only explanation I can come up with for Coles using the term assisted checkout is that they want you to think of it that way – that they are assisting you. They are trying to tell you that this is them helping you when the actual experience is you helping them reduce labour costs.
Calling it a Coles assisted checkout is nonsense.
A Coles I visit regularly to check magazines has replaced six full service lanes with these self service check outs, leaving them with two full service lanes. While some customers happily use the self serve checkouts, many do have problems. You can see the look of frustration on their faces.
E-cigraettes are being regularly pitched to newsagents so I thought I check in with the current situation regarding the regulation and sale of the products. The sale of nicotine containing e-cigarettes is banned in Australia which is kind of odd since nicotine contained cigarettes are still legal.
While the sale of all e-cigarettes, including non-nicotine containing product, is banned in Western Australia, it’s not the case elsewhere from what I can see.
This is a category of product to approach with caution given that it’s possible you might not know what you are stocking. I was approached yesterday by a start up importer and they were not sure about the nicotine content of their product. Ignorance is no defence.
Quit South Australia has published a useful fact sheet. The Therapeutic Goods Administration of the federal government also has useful information available online. The Conversation last month published a report worth reading on this topic.
Newsworks reports News UK has revamped the shopfront of thousands of newsagencies with strong branding for its products. It does’t feel to me like a smart investment for a retailer to brand a business with the brand of only one product you sell. Image source: Newsworks.
I took this photo at 3pm Monday this week in Sydney. The sign, on the lease line of the cafe facing into George Street, pitches their fresh sandwiches at a deep discount. I mention it today to connect back with my June post about time of day pricing for newspapers.
Publishers and newsagents need to consider this as I think we could sell more newspapers as a result and without educating shoppers to wait until the end of the day to save a few cents.
A check of the sales decay curve for newspapers in any newsagency will show where such a move makes sense. I’d suggest publishers work with newsagents to find ideal locations where sales are all but over by, say, 2pm or beyond and then trial time of day pricing. I think it needs to be 50% off to be of any interest. The goal has to be to sell newspapers you;d otherwise have to return.
This is a project best run by publishers and newsagents together, a project that is data driven and tested on different days as it could be something run only on certain days and in very carefully selected locations.
This offer in The Daily Telegraph is stunning: 12 weeks of Saturday and Sunday newspapers home delivered for $40 plus you get a $20 gift voucher, access to all News digital sites, foxsports.com.au access and +Rewards benefits program access.
It’s hard to see what the hero product here and the loss leader being used to support the hero. While I am no marketing expert it looks at first glance like a confused offer. However, knowing News I am sure that each item is in the package for good reason. The gift card is the lure, foxsports.com.au is the bait, digital access to News sites is the hero and the weekend delivery is there because the company has to have this as it transitions.
Given the production and distributor cost, I’d say the twenty four copies of home delivered weekend newspapers for $20.00 are the loss leader as many dads would like the Fox Sports access as well as digital access from their phones and devices for everyday news.
I don’t begrudge News making this offer, it’s what they need to do for their business. The ad is something newsagents need to consider as they themselves plan for their future.
New Idea has the exclusive photos of the wedding of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and to make the most of this next week’s issue is coming out tomorrow. Our plan for tomorrow is a front of store lease line floor display unit, placement at the counter and usual placement with the weeklies. We will keep this week’s issue on sale and bookmark it as different to next week’s.
While the wedding and the couple are off my radar, I’m not my customer so the commitment in-store will be big and tactical. We;ll do it better than the supermarkets that are our main competitors.
Footnote: AWW editor Helen McCabe was on The Project on Ten last night and discussed the photos but churlishly said she would not name the title with the rights as it was not hers.
Mary Berry is an icon in british baking and Australians who have UKTV access will know who she is. Mary’s popularity is reason enough to plate this issue of English Women’s Weekly in a second location. I’d suggest with food titles given her speciality. Our usual EWW location is with British weeklies and monthlies. We can use magazine covers to drive sales.
The Sofia Vergara cover on the latest Women’s Health is an excellent reason to promote this issue outside the usual location. I’ve put it with weekly magazines given the huge popularity of Vergara from the Modern family TV series and that plenty of weeklies magazine shoppers will not venture to the health section.
The liquidator of OnQ, the parent of the failed Bill Express bill payments platform that cost newsagents tens of millions of dollars, has announced they are set to make a first and final dividend to creditors. You have until September 9 to lodge your proof of debt.
I am a creditor of OnQ as are most newsagents. The Agreement I signed commits the company to paying rebates as outlined in Schedule D attached to the Agreement.
Update: The ANF responded to this post today not to me but on a forum of their own. While they say newsagents are not creditors, I know of newsagents whop were accepted as creditors at the time the company went down. hence my advice here. Through the links to this post you can see the relationship between Bill Express and OnQ.
Like plenty of newsagents I am sure we received stock of The Queensland Country Women’s Association Cookery Book yesterday.
Network crows that delayed billing is to assist in maximising your sales. It’s delay billed to try and stop us early returning.
Here are my specific issues with issues with the scale of of The Queensland Country Women’s Association Cookery Book to newsagents:
The newsagent magazine distribution model makes it too easy for a new title to be scaled out with us taking the risk of time and space so a publisher can test a title and the distributor can gets their fee.
Given I have to allocate a new pocket, I should be paid $2.00 a week whether I sell a copy or not.
The photo shows a window of a fashion store in Melbourne. I’ve loaded a high-res version so you can see the detail and in this why what it is so stunning.
The black and white backing is painted on a flat wall so as to give the illusion of shape.
Stunning. It’s an excellent example of terrific visual merchandising.
Here’s a tip – guitars are hot. Guitar puzzles, guitar nano blocks and these cute guitar clocks. Plus guitar magazines.
Talking with the wholesaler of Nanoblocks, they say one of the guitar blocks is the absolute top seller of their range. It’s sold to guys and to people buying for guys.
Information like this is gold when it comes to ranging gifts and allied products in our newsagencies.
Ask suppliers what guitar themed products they have. Consider being a destination for all things guitar – except for the real thing.
Further to my post about not being able to get The Age Good Food Guide to sell in my newsagency, Fairfax has been promoting that it’s in 7-Eleven outlets and newsagents. Thanks Fairfax. They go negotiate to get it into 7-Eleven but don’t even try and get it into better service focussed retail newsagents.
This is dumb.
And they wonder why newsagents retreat from newspapers.
Our channel is the best opportunity Fairfax has to increase, yes increase, single copy sales yet they continue to ignore retail newsagents.
With the pay wall for News Corp’s Perth Now online news removed last week I wonder if other News sites will follow or is this a WA specific move responding to two strong local and free sites. If it is the latter other competitors will see the move as News blinking.
