The launch issue of this new part series should sell out thanks to the TVC. The best way to leverage this is with front of store promotion. Basket data indicate partworks shoppers are more likely to purchase other items than regular magazine shoppers. Here is the TVC:
Check out the new partwork Knit & Stitch Creative Australian TVC – Part 1 on sale now for the low introductory price $1.99 – at newsagents @EaglemossLtd pic.twitter.com/eA5CQb5T0x
— Gordon and Gotch AUS (@Gordongotch_au) June 5, 2018
Ok so this is how this thread will play out.
In one month a newsagent will complain about the cost of storing boxes and returning unsold parts
In three months time a newsagent will post that they can no longer get such and such part.
In 12 months some random consumer will post say they are looking for Part X and have tried every newsagent in Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
FW you nailed it. It would be cheaper for me to bin unsold issue 1 of this partwork than return them. Thing is theres no way I’m rewarding G&G or Eaglemoss for oversupply and they would just ramp up supply of future issues which also need returning.
Haven’t sold one yet but had a lot of customers look at it and comment on how ridiculous these partworks are, too many issues at too high a price if you take it up.
Once the customers work out how bad partworks are the game is over.
There are ways to deal with large numbers of unsolds. If you are part of a group, reach out to them. However, for the majority of partworks, issue 1 sells out, especially those promoted on TV. Newsagents who focus on issues 1 through 6, the issues for which there is a structured, certain, supply model, can do well.
We choose our reactions to situations we are confronted with. My choice is to make the best of this I can.
IMO newsagents and others selling them need to pressure the publishers and distributors of partworks to improve things (in particular the fact that later parts in the series are nearly impossible for newsagents to actually get any stock of).
Not going to happen though because publishers want to make later issues hard-to-find so people will buy the more profitable direct-from-publisher subscription option.
Jonathan I have met with UK publishers of partworks over the years here. On each occasion they have listened to the challenges newsagents face and the frustrations we experience as a part series evolves. As we have seen, listening is all that happens.
Having dived deep into this issue I am certain it is an issue for the publishers to resolve, but with the help of Gotch. Gotch needs a part series allocations and management system that is fit for purpose today for over the counter sales support. They do not have this.