The publisher of Australian Family Tree Connect has used Twitter to promote newsagents as the go to retailers for the title. Their support for our channel is consistent. We should show our gratitude by placing the title in a prime location to drive impulse purchases. Niche titles are our point of difference when it comes to magazines.
I bet you have customers in your newsagency who are passionate about their regular purchase from you. Their passion could be a magazine, a stationery item, a licenced product or their favourite lottery ticket.
Print up A5 size notes on which your customers can share their passion, their recommendation, for something you sell. Place the notes on a noticeboard created for this or with the products being recommend.
This idea respects the opinions of your customers and brings a recommendation beyond your own to bring attention to products you sell.
Sure it is a bit of work to harvest the recommendations. The result, however, is a more locally connected business where you practically demonstrate to your customers that what they think matters to you and to your other customers.
Show that your business is different. Live that your business is different. Then promote the idea on social media and in your shop window.
Find a place away from the counter or where you usually work in your business where you can listen and notice what is going on in the shop. Be still and listen. Listen for what you might usually miss because your attention is elsewhere. Listen with fresh ideas, to learn things about your business you may not know or may have forgotten.
While this idea may feel awkward or frivolous, the goal is to overcome store deafness and store blindness that can get in the way of seeing the business as others see it.
A simple comment from a shopper to a friend could open you to an opportunity you might have otherwise missed.
I say be still because most newsagents are busy when in the shop, busy not noticing comments or other things that could reveal opportunities.
Reps can be helpful to newsagents providing advice and in-store support.
Reps can also be problematic. This is especially true in regional and rural situations where they need to make travelling the long distance worthwhile.
The best way a rep can make a long trip worthwhile is to sell more product.
If you cannot provide the return a rep and their employer needs from your one business they will go elsewhere in town or nearby. This is where reps can be problematic.
I saw this recently in a town where a rep did a swing through and lazily sold the same products to three retailers within close proximity. None were happy.
My advice to newsagents is to seek written assurances when ordering (make a diary note) and to seek out suppliers who do not have reps as they are less likely to put product in two nearby businesses in my experience.
While reps have a job to do so do newsagents. Our needs for our businesses must come first. Point of difference in key traffic driving categories is important in my view.
The ANF published an article this week about adult colouring that focused only on products from Gotch and Network. I hope newsagents do not rely on the ANF advice as it is flawed and late, many months late.
Adult colouring is not a recent craze. Newsagents in newsagency marketing groups or plugged to trends know this and have been making good money from adult colouring for months.
The most successful adult colouring titles provide newsagents with 50% and more GP, not the 25% we get from magazine companies. The ANF article ought to have been more complete in reporting on the opportunity.
While magazine distributor supplied adult colouring titles do have a place, I am not leading with them to drive traffic as they are not top of mind for shoppers in this space.
If the ANF is going to provide retail management advice for newsagents it ought to ensure the advice is timely and thoroughly researched. Further, it should consider how this advice sits with the advice from Newspower, the marketing group in which it has shares.
It’s been terrific seeing how newsagents have embraced the State of Origin opportunity in their businesses from the sales of clothing and cheer protect trough to getting behind the state team.
I know of newsagencies that did $5,000 and more in products in towns with populations you would not expect to be big end ought to support that level of sales. I know of newsagencies doing over $10,000 in sales.
Most of the success I have herd of is from Queensland.
People spend money on what they love and there are plenty of newsagents testifying to that statement this week.
I also love the way newsagents have embraced the competition with in-store engagement including staff in the state colours and fantastic displays declaring their support. This is the type of local support newsagents can do better than big business.
State of Origin 2015 is bigger than 2014. Newsagents take note.
I am fortunate to see data for many newsagencies when I do the quarterly newsagency benchmark studies. Here are inspiring results for the June 2015 quarter I have for one newsagency located in a small country town with a population of less than 1,500:
This is an extraordinary result for a newsagency in a challenging situation. There are big towns nearby ti where people travel for their weekly shop as well as for gift and other purchases. The growth being achieved by the business is happening because of decisions made by the owner to transform the newsagency from the traditional into new traffic opportunities.
This story is important as it offers evidence of growth by a size and type of newsagency business with which many here could identify.
While it is hard work to grow any small business, the biggest barrier is those who run the business. They have to want growth and to be prepared to back that desire with investment in necessary decisions that pursue change. These factors are barriers ahead of capital yet lack of capital is often used as the main excuse.
The growth being achieved by this real newsagency is proof growth can be achieved on a budget – it starts with a desire for change.
I love the aisle end display I saw at a Coles supermarket in Brisbane a few days ago. The impact is strong, unmissable. I love the single product focus on each aisle end. While I am sure Cadbury is paying for the space, the idea is one newsagents could consider.
Click on the image for a larger version.
I like the grouping together of value packs of magazines I saw in a newsagency I visited earlier this week as is intensifies the visual impact of the value offer. The placement is a smart move by the newsagent involved.
The pack thickness of the packs is an issue – it is hard to get more than two bags in a pocket.
The Paper Towns themed gift with purchase of Girlfriend magazine is well targeted from what people in the target demographic tell me. This branded gift needs to be put in a spotlight to use it to drive purchases of the magazine by those who might otherwise not regularly do so. We have it in front with the full cover on show. FYI Paper Towns is a popular movie out now.
On 17 March last year The Newsagency Blog posted a release from Matt Handbury and his exit from any involvement with Hubbed and confirming his resignation as a director as Hubbed. He also said that he was yet to be repaid the funds he had extended to Hubbed for a consideration of a 51 per cent shareholding in Hubbed which was never forthcoming.
Handbury has made the following comment to The Newsagency Blog:
As newsagents have been informed over the past week, my new company blueshyft is launching a software and hardware platform through Nparcel to facilitate the introduction of new suppliers in the parcel delivery and cash payments businesses to newsagents.
blueshyft is the product of a deep investigation of the most effective and profitable execution of this new revenue stream for newsagents. My abortive experience with Hubbed may have left me out of pocket, but my involvement with that venture and the analysis and development subsequently undertaken by my team at blueshyft has only strengthened my conviction about the unrealised potential of the Australian newsagency network.
Given that legal proceedings have been commenced by the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation, I do not wish to comment on Hubbed, other than to record that since January 2014 I have not had confidence in the management of the company. My involvement with the board and management of the company came to end in January 2014.
I have continued to be deeply dismayed by the serious overlooking by publishers, in particular, of the value of newsagents as a critical part of adaptation to the digital economy.
I believe blueshyft is the first fully researched platform to address this issue. Hence our adoption by Nparcel and partnership with XchangeIT.
It would cause me great sadness to find that my deep commitment to the newsagency industry – particularly on the back of the history of our wonderful business relationship established during my ownership of Murdoch Magazines – is misinterpreted in the light of my costly and frustrating involvement with Hubbed.
I am convinced that the Australian newsagency industry will regard blueshyft as a true pioneer and a valuable partner for all newsagents, helping take their rightful place at the centre of retail business in the evolving on-line retail space and the digital economy. See www.blueshyft.com.au for details on my new business and its offering to newsagents
After the Toowoomba Chronicle ran the story about a newsagency closure, they ran a poll asking people if they visit a newsagency at least once a week. It’s a dumb question in my view, too narrow in focus. Embedded in the question is the suggestion people visit newsagencies less than they used to. As I noted, this is a clumsy question in my opinion.
51% of respondents said they did visit at least once a week. We don’t know how many responded – making the results useless. There is no sense in this survey.
APN and the folks at the Toowoomba Chronicle ought to have thought more carefully about how they could help newsagents rather than asking the ill-considered question they asked.
They could have spoken with newsagents in Toowoomba and discovered for themselves how they are transforming their businesses. There are some excellent stories of newsagency growth in the region, stories of new traffic helping to recast newsagency businesses away from traditional and into new areas.
Maybe the good newsagency stories are not news because they do not focus on newspapers.
Reporting on the closure recently of the Mercer and Windley Newsagency on Ruthven Street in Toowoomba, the Toowoomba Chronicle let the newsagency channel down. They have done a soft piece that fuels wrong assumptions about the newsagency channel.
This newsagency should not have closed. The closure is the fault of the business owner.
Sure newspaper sales are declining and lottery sales are moving online. These are not new trends. A smart newsagent would have seen the trends and planned for them, changing the business to attract new traffic.
I am offended by the story as it does not reflect the story of many newsagents yet to lumps us all into a single basked, that our businesses are dying, that we ought to expect it and that the end is wistful.
Nonsense.
Newsagencies do not need to close. Those that do close do so because either the newsagent cannot get a reasonable rent arrangement to justify trading or because the newsagent has not positioned the business for growth into areas of new traffic.
I am grateful to the newsagent who drew this story to my attention.
Shame on APN and those at the Toowoomba Chronicle behind this story – you have let the entire newsagency channel down.
If you feel closure is the only option for your newsagency, there are options, steps you can take to turn your situation around. It takes hard work and you will get push back from some traditional suppliers. The result could be a turnaround that protects your investment.
The convenience model is one some Australian newsagents have embraced and one I know others are considering.
By convenience I mean a shop offering tobacco, candy, ready to eat food, lotteries, newspapers, top selling magazines and other high traffic everyday items people purchase locally or on the go.
Convenience businesses are strong in Australia. IBISWorld says there are 8,000 outlets although I am not sure what criteria sees a business counted by them.
I am not a fan of the convenience model as a model to be adopted by newsagents for the whole of the business for these reasons:
Bottom line: newsagency businesses are too small and too under-resourced to compete with the players already well established in the convenience space. I am certain newsagents cannot win against the power of the slurpee and the might of Coles and Woolworths.
Another point to make is convenience relies on traffic for transport tickets, lotteries and tobacco. The first two and migrating online and the third is in stead decline.
There are far more opportunities through which to evolve our businesses where the competition is less powerful, less organised.
While I acknowledge there are newsagency businesses successfully trading under a convenience model and others will successfully enter this segment. The purpose of this post is to speak more broadly to the consideration and to encourage those considering it to be careful and thorough in their considerations.
Convenience is the business model most preferred by newsagents in the UK. However, walk down the high street of a town and you could see three or more convenience outlets from a supermarket group all competing with the local newsagent. That’s a battle an individual un-aligned newsagent will struggle to win.
What you do in your business is 100% up to you. You have to own your decisions as much as you have to own your position. My opinion should not matter to you any more than one person;s opinion to go into the mix of all you take on as you consider the future model of your business.
I have written about convenience today because it is big decision. You have to commit big time. It would be expensive to retreat.
The Gift HQ trade show in Brisbane over the weekend to yesterday afternoon was terrific. Many suppliers I spoke with were thrilled with the business they did.
The fair attracted retailers from a mix of channels: newsagents, jewellers, garden centres and gift shops. Newsagents were there in good number. There was plenty of new product on show for Queensland businesses that cannot afford to fly to Melbourne of Sydney.
I hope this trade show continues. It is easier to digest that the much bigger fairs.
I was asked by a newsagent recently to help them exit Hubbed as they were encountering challenges in achieving this for themselves. For those not aware of Hubbed, it is a parcel service promoted to newsagents by Hubbed in partnership with and endorsement from the ANF.
Resolving any issue starts with the paperwork from the start of the relationship. I can see the newsagent has a relationship with Hubbed Pty Limited, ACN 159 190 833 and ABN 28 159 190 833.
A check of the ASIC (Australian Securities and Investment Commission) website shows that a series of changes in 2014 including: October 10, 2014, Hubbed Pty Limited changes its name to A.C.N. 159 190 833 Pty Limited.
The next ASIC entry is: June 2, 2015. The ATO commences winding-up proceedings against the company that was Hubbed {Pty Limited lodging a Form 519. The ASIC website shows that matter is still pending.
This is important for newsagents wanting to exit Hubbed as it goes to the status of the entity with which you contracted and whether any interest Hubbed or related entities had in your business has been transferred or sold to any other entity. There is another entity, Hubbed Pty Limited, which was called A.C.N. 600 398 178 PTY LTD until October 8, 2014. The last activity on ASIC registers for that company are on October 17, 2014.
I am posting this here to seek help from others who may have more information that could help newsagents in relation to their Hubbed relationship.
In a newsagency I visited this week I got into a discussion with a shopper about the two different loyalty offers side by side. The customer said the $10,000 offer from Pacific was more appealing because I can see the opportunity. While there are rules and some hoops, the prize opportunity is clear whereas with the Bauer promotion headline is get rewards but then I have to get the app – placing more barriers to entry for the browser. I don’t understand that offer the customer said. This conversation was unprompted – I kept my bias for the more easily understood promotion to myself.
The posts I have published today reflect data from one newsagency. The newsagent sent me the screen shots as evidence of the appalling oversupply they are suffering and have been suffering from Bauer’s Network Services.
While the company reps say one thing to the ACCC and have the ANF under their spell, the company does this month after month to small business newsagents.
No wonder newsagents continue to scream abut oversupply.
No study is needed to stop tis behaviour y Bauer. They are in control.
Look at this evidence of Network Services increasing supply of Motor magazine to a newsagent without any justification in the sales data. Network is owned by Bauer. Bauer representatives told the ACCC recently that they want to support newsagents and help newsagents grow their businesses. The actions from Bauer indicate something different. No wonder newsagents early return.
Shame on Bauer.
Look at this evidence of Network Services increasing supply of Harpers Bazzar magazine to a newsagent without any justification in the sales data. Network is owned by Bauer. Bauer representatives told the ACCC recently that they want to support newsagents and help newsagents grow their businesses. The actions from Bauer indicate something different. No wonder newsagents early return.
Shame on Bauer.
Look at this evidence of Network Services increasing supply some issues back of Belle to a newsagent without any justification in the sales data. Network is owned by Bauer. Bauer representatives told the ACCC recently that they want to support newsagents and help them grow their businesses. The actions from Bauer indicate something different. No wonder newsagents early return.
Shame on Bauer.
Look at this evidence of Network Services increasing supply of Empire magazine to a newsagent without any justification in the sales data. Network is owned by Bauer. Bauer representatives told the ACCC recently that they want to support newsagents and help newsagents grow their businesses. The actions from Bauer indicate something different. No wonder newsagents early return.
Shame on Bauer.
Look at this evidence of Network Services increasing supply of Good Medicine magazine to a newsagent without any justification in the sales data. Network is owned by Bauer. Bauer representatives told the ACCC recently that they want to support newsagents and help newsagents grow their businesses. The actions from Bauer indicate something different. No wonder newsagents early return.
Shame on Bauer.
I posted about the cute Frizzies from ty on Facebook last week and achieved more than 600 likes and plenty of comments in a couple of days. One person commented that a Frizzie looked like a selfie of their friend Luca. Other friends joined in. I responded with an offer of a free Frizzie for Luca. The Frizzie is in the post even though he’s in another state.
This simple engagement on social media humanised the business and took us from being a business to someone having a chat with friends talking about us – kind of the way you might in the real shop except this was only and with people who have not shopped with us before. The interaction encourages those in the thread to notice us, remember us and realise we can be fun in such discussions.
We need to be as engaged and human online as we are in-store. In fact, more so as online they have even less to go on about who we are. Facebook is a terrific platform for this engagement.
