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

Month: December 2014

Inspiring hamper display

giftbasketsI was impressed with this hamper display I saw in Hong Kong last Sunday and share it here as inspiration for newsagents who are offering hampers or gift baskets as a service.

The display in the photo is used for harvesting orders for deliveries. I know of newsagencies in Australia where hampers are offered off the shelf.  It’s a niche offering that can work well in our channel during major seasons. They can open you to new customers and provide you something to pitch o local businesses.

2 likes
Newsagency opportunities

Magazines in small footprint retail in Hong Kong

magoverlapSee how a small footprint (25 sq m) convenience store at Hung Hom station in Kowloon displays magazines. This fanned out approach is what newsagents in Australia used to do decades ago before moving to full face in the 1980s.

With rent and labour increasing annually and magazine revenue flat or declining for many, newsagents need to cut overheads associated with magazines. One way to do this is to reduce floor space. The fanned magazine display approach lets us do this without reducing range as much as otherwise might be the case.

Note the lower shelves where more space is dedicated to these titles.

6 likes
magazines

Is a newsagency a good business to own?

Here is a brief video I did last week to answer this question I am asked daily by potential newsagency business purchasers and others interested in our channel – Is a newsagency a good business to own?

I decided to do the video because of the negative press around the tatts and some other issues playing out at the moment. Let me know what you think.

What we achieve with our newsagencies is up to us. The more we rely on others like suppliers the weaker our future. The more we rely on our own ideas, energy and networking with like-minded newsagents the brighter our future.

I could have talked for longer and have done on other videos I have published here and elsewhere. This time, I wanted a brief and clear statement about why I think a newsagency is a good business to own.

20 likes
Newsagency management

Take a look at how one Coles supermarket presents greeting cards three days in a row

I visited my local Coles supermarket on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week to see how they presented cards, to see if the display was cared for through the week.

c1Here is how I found the cards by my local Coles supermarket on Tuesday this week at around 5:30pm. The display was messy and uninviting. I figured it was the end of the day and that the cards would be tidied overnight or in the morning. I was wrong.

c2Things had not changed when I visited at around the same time Wednesday. Some card placements had not altered at all indicating that there had been no tidy up or refresh of the card offer. Is this not a daily task? They refresh dairy, why not cards?

c3Last night, Thursday, this is what I saw when there at 5:45pm. Some cards out of place as they had been for three days at least. Is no one responsible for cards here? The display remains uninviting. This is the untidiest part of the supermarket.

We can compete with Coles, Woolworths and other supermarkets in the card space by managing our card displays, tidying them daily, ensuring the offer is neat and fresh and offering shop floor service to our customers. We can pull people from supermarket shopping for cards through loyalty offers and engaging with shoppers.

Our competition starts with professional displays as this is where many supermarkets fail. If I had a newsagency near my local Coles I am sure I could hurt their card sales given their treatment of the product.

Supermarkets have cards because of their extraordinary traffic and not because they respect the category. We have cards because we offer a superior experience. The more engaged with the card department in our shops the more money we will make.

I am writing about this today to encourage newsagents to compete through their card offer. The better you manage cards the more you will sell. It’s probably the most financially rewarding department you have in your newsagency in gross profit percentage terms.

There is only one reason for newsagents to engage more effectively with their card department – because it is financially worth it. There is no better motivator for engagement and compliance than profit.

18 likes
Greeting Cards

Ideal gift with purchase from Your Garden

gwpmagsThe latest issue of Your Garden magazine comes with a perfect gift with this title: seeds with a Jiffy planting pod. With the low frequency of Your Garden we find we have to chase customers – hence our placement with newspapers, weekly magazines as well as with garden magazines for the first couple of weeks of the on-sale. The extra locations work.

2 likes
magazines

A challenging gift with magazine purchase

gwpAustralia is not the only place where magazine publishers challenge retailers with gifts with purchase. The photo shows a plastic bottle with a drink of some sort bagged with what looks like a food title – in a Hong Kong convenience store. There is no easy way to display it.

Magazine publishers tell me that gifts work. I’d believe this for the gifts we see repeated as there is no point in them repeating something that is not working.  I am not sure sure about bags with fashion titles though – I think customers are over those – and scarves and cheap jewellery we often see with teen magazines.

The best gift I have seen in-store this year is the Christmas tin with Better Homes and Gardens. It helped us achieve a sell out.

I am all for gifts as long as we can display them professionally with the accompanying magazine and as long as they deliver better than average sales.

4 likes
magazines

Coverage of WH Smith acquisition of Supanews

The Courier Mail has covered the purchase of the Spanews newsagency group by WH Smith.

BRITISH high street newsagent WHSmith has acquired the Supanews chain in Queensland, a deal set to provide tougher competition for the traditional family-owned paper shop.

Privately-owned Supanews, founded by veteran newsagent Adrian Gaskin in 1992, has 29 stores in Queensland, the ACT, New South Wales and Victoria with an annual turnover of $80 million.

The investment in Supanews by the UK retail giant could transform an industry suffering from stiff competition from convenience stores and supermarkets selling lottery products and magazines.

I am over how newsagencies are represented in reports like this. We sound like tiny struggling micro businesses. While some are, there are plenty that are small for sure but strong and healthy and enjoying change.

Newspaper reports should focus on how core parts of newsagency businesses are being constrained by rules imposed by commercial suppliers in some products categories, rules that make us less competitive.

11 likes
Newsagency challenges

How the Rolling Stones helped us with a Beatles sale

beatlesA customer a couple of days ago purchased a Rolling Stones calendar after much deliberation – they didn’t want to pay the price we had it at.

Our team member encouraged the purchase commenting that they’d get a discount voucher. It worked.

Once they got their voucher they surprised us by then purchasing a Beatles mug without a second thought – using the discount voucher for some $$ off. This is happening regularly – people worry about how much they will spend on an item and then use the voucher they receive to make a less considered purchase.

Our year on year sales were up 14% in November and I’d put the majority of that down to discount voucher engagement by our team and our customers.

We have learned that discount vouchers fundamentally change shopper engagement. Concerns disappear as do price perceptions about the business. We are known for the vouchers, they are generating net new traffic for us. Plus they make visits, like that of the Rolling Stones fan, more valuable as they extend their basket.

With many shops in our 300+ store centre having access to most of what we stock, the discount vouchers are a point of difference. Our sales results demonstrate that they are a bankable point of difference.

But back to the Rolling Stokes shopper. I’m wondering why they worried about price for the Stones item but not for the Beatles item. Then there is they question of why one customer would purchase both items because back in the day you were either a Stones fan or a Beatles fan. These are questions for another day.

8 likes
Gifts

Licenced products that ought to be on newsagents’ radar

License magazine has published the top toy licences for boys and girls for 2014. It’s a shopping list for newsagents who want to be strong in this space.

2014 Top Toys for Boys

  1. LEGO
  2. Cars and trucks
  3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
  4. Video games
  5. Hot Wheels
  6. Xbox One
  7. PlayStation4
  8. Transformers
  9. Remote-controlled vehicles
  10. (Tie) Marvel action figures–Tablet/Apple iPad

2014 Top Toys for Girls

  1. Disney Frozen
  2. Barbie
  3. Dolls (generic)
  4. Monster High dolls
  5. American Girl
  6. LEGO
  7. Tablet/Apple iPad
  8. My Little Pony
  9. Disney Doc McStuffins
  10. Apparel

While independent newsagents will struggle to get into some licences because of how suppliers operate, the list provides an excellent goal shopping list when planning for 2015. Sure, there are some entries that do not play in Australia – but overall the list is very useful not only in the toy category but elsewhere in the business.

3 likes
Newsagency opportunities

A reminder we are not our customers

notourcustomersAlmost daily there is a reminder that we are not our customers and we should not assume we know what our customers will like. One of our team members thought these Be Jolly wind ups would not sell. In a week, almost all are gone. I like it when this happens as each occasion is another lesson learned.

The more we experiment outside what we usually do the more we stand to learn.

1 likes
retail

The right magazines with newspapers work in newsagencies

mpapersWe always place one or more magazines with newspapers and over the years we have learned the titles that work best for us placed with newspapers.

Different newsagents would have different experiences as to the magazines that work best with newspapers.

In our case, Better Homes and Gardens continues to be the best title to place with newspapers. This time of the year we like to give Your Garden a go. We pocket count knowing the number we place so we can measure success or otherwise.

I urge newsagents without key magazines with newspapers to give it a go.

1 likes
magazines

A social responsibility connection can help attract shoppers to your newsagency

Screen Shot 2014-12-02 at 9.21.51 pmAt Christmas, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day we see terrific engagement from shoppers in our newsagencies with products that have a social responsibility or charity connection. Card companies have been particularly good at this engagement.

As retailers have built their businesses around ethical product sourcing and charity support or social responsibility engagement in some other way, it has become more important for us to be aware and active in this in our newsagency businesses.

Think about Toms, The Body Shop and Life is Good – helping others is at the core of the pitch they make to their shoppers.

While you probably have products that help fund charities and community groups through their purchase, how much do you pitch this?

I have seen a good example of this working recently when we introduced a line of handmade pure soaps from a local family business. While they sold well, it was only after the social responsibility story was pitched with the product that sales really hit their stride.

There are many shoppers today who like to do good with their purchases. Sure there will always be people looking for cheap imports but the more valuable shopper is the one who comes back to you because they know you stock products that do good beyond the use of the product itself.

Look for opportunities to tell the stories of those helped when customers purchase a product from you, expect the appeal of these products.

The soap offer supports a family in Nepal where the packaging is made from scratch. Sales of the products helps the family have a life they otherwise might not have had.

4 likes
Ethics

Newsagents can sell more photo frames

framesNewsagents have been selling photo frames for decades. Too often we place them on the shelves without care and this can deny us sales.

For inspiration, here is a photo of a frame display in a shop I visited last week. It makes the product the hero, makes them look appealing, pitches them as a gift.

With many photo processing shops now closed, good frames are hard to find. This is a category newsagents can do well in – from everyday frames, to occasion frames to high-end frames as gifts. It’s a category I think we can generate traffic with if done right.

The goal of this post is to say to newsagents selling photo frames – step back, create a completely different display making frames hero products. Reach beyond what you usually do and achieve more than usual.

5 likes
visual merchandising

A product name you double-take to

fattiesWhen I saw the products name Fatties I did a double take … they really called a product Fatties? That’s what I thought. I saw it a few days when I was overseas. The store owner said it was popular. I guess it is a cultural thing. I’m not sure a hot water bag grand called Fatties would take off here. Maybe this is a reminder that I am not my customer.

0 likes
retail

Here’s a magazine we should support

1214COVAThe Australian Family Tree Connections magazine Christmas issue is out now. We should all support this title. It’s Australian, independently published, available in newsagencies and not supermarkets and the publisher actively promotes our channel in social media. Put this Christmas issue next to People’s Friend or AWW – to introduce it to a wider audience.

2 likes
magazines

Thomas Dux Christmas magazine

tduxmasAs if we did not have enough Christmas food and related magazines. I noticed today the Thomas Dux Christmas magazine. Consumers are spoilt for choice when it comes to Christmas food titles – I reckon more now than ever before yet I suspect overall revenue is not up.  I may have missed this Thomas Dux title – let me know if it is scaled out to any newsagencies.

1 likes
magazines

A good example of beacon branding to drive magazine sales

bbcomicsBeacon branding is the use of magazines to signpost a section of your magazine department. It is the use of magazine as the sign.

Beacon branding draws customers to specialist sections. You can use less signs and visually de-clutter.

This photo shows how we have been using beacon branding in one of my newsagencies to draw attention to the comic section. 100 ALL-TIME GREATEST COMICS was a perfect title for this. I placed it with two full facings not so much for this title but for nearby titles people will notice.

It is small engagements like this that newsagents can use to demonstrate specialisation in the magazine department and to separate us from supermarkets and others selling magazines. A small about of time invested can build your reputation  and increase sales.

The alternative is to offer an average magazine layout that is not much different to elsewhere. This will result in average sales. Average magazine sales are declining – who wants that?

4 likes
magazines

Terrific counter pitch at WH Smith

whscounterCheck out the structured approach to pitching key product categories as used by WH Smith at one of their Sydney newsagency outlets.

It’s compact, focussed and carefully thought out – look at the fixtures, the shelf cards used in front of products to explain and promote them and the selection of products. It’s a complete story designed to maximise the basket.

This is what we will be competing with more as petrol and convenience outlets get stronger in traditional everyday newsagency categories and as WH Smith expands their newsagency footprint in Australia as I expect them to.

In posting the photo I am trying to encourage newsagents in everyday newsagency businesses, by this I mean more in traditional newsagency model, to take a more corporate and proactive approach to counter space allocation so that you are better prepared to compete in-store with these new operators in our channel.

While I could write about the whole shop, the counter is the core of retail activity and a goo place to start in considering how you might change your newsagents to compete with the changes emerging in our space.

6 likes
Management tip

Dog and cat items = easy impulse purchases

petcustomersPassionate dog and cat lovers are valuable shoppers to attract and serve in our newsagencies. Calendars, mugs, books, magnets and even Christmas ornaments and trickiest sell easily when they have a dog or cat theme.

I have written here many times in the past about terrific commercial opportunities open to newsagency from serving pet lovers.

We can serve the passion of pet lovers and through this grow our businesses.

Visit pet shop and you will see them playing in this gift space serving dog and cat lovers. They have mugs, calendars, gifts for owners and gifts for pets.

We are finding dog and cat items work bets when displayed to tell a story. That is, not dotted here and there but placed together so dog lovers, for example, can see everything you have for them. The locations that have worked for us are on the table facing into the mall, at the counter and in our gift department in a dedicated dog and cat section.

I put the photo of the cat Christmas hat with this post as I heard a customer purr a few days ago when looking at this for her little cutie.

Our channel has been built on habit based purchases. Newsagents can navigate to a profitable future thinking about serving those who purchase out of habit. This is where serving dog and cat lovers is important for us.

8 likes
Newsagency management

Customers will travel to a newsagency that has what they want

frankiesearchWe have customers travelling through many suburbs to shop with us because they know we stock the Frankie diary. Having travelled for this purchase, they often shop the shop and select other items they like. We deliberately source items to interest the Frankie customer not just at Christmas but all through as is a demographically important and commercially successful magazine title for us.

What we are doing here is a good example of how newsagents can use magazines to grow sales of other products under a popular magazine brand and unbranded products that will appeal to those who like the title.

We have been stocking the diary for some years along with the calendar and other items published under the Frankie brand. We chased the publisher and they ensured we got stock through the distributor.

I understand the temptation to say that it is a lot of work to do for one or two diary sales. To that I’d say it is not just one or two diary sales. Our basket analysis indicates it is considerably more than that. Our goal is to continue to evolve our offering to show the Frankie diary shopper that there are other reasons they should drive across suburbs during the year to shop with us and not just now for the diary.

We can grow our newsagency businesses by seeking out the hard to get products our customers are prepared to travel for. Sure it takes some work … the rewards are worth it!

6 likes
Business planning

Effective aisle end in a local WH Smith store

isleendCheck out the aisle end I saw in a WH Smith shop in Sydney last week. This is the same style as one from Europe I wrote about six weeks ago. What most newsagents make decisions and manage their businesses from their local perspective.

I am posting this photo today as evidence of the global nature of the WH Smith business and to highlight the challenges and opportunities ow very close to our homes.

WH Smith is bringing to their Australian retail operations knowledge and experience from their worldwide operation. This will change the Australian newsagency model.

The more locally engaged and shopper enticing our newsagencies the better prepared we are for competition of any type.

4 likes
Newsagency challenges
Trending Articles

Fairfax changes approach to TV Guide, disrespects newsagents

Published on April 20, 2011

What do you think of the Powerball changes?

Published on February 16, 2018

IPS releases new magazine contracts

Published on June 21, 2011