Newsagents today received a magazine from Gordon and Gotch with this sticker on the cover promoting direct subscription. I doubt any newsagent seeing the sticker would put the title on display for it seeks to drive revenue from the channel, to the publisher. What are the people at Gotch thinking letting this through? Clearly, not thinking.
The crossword category continues to perform well in newsagencies. Better still, it is a category that responds well to in-store attention. I say this based on my experience and on the experience of newsagents I have recently spoken with.
In one store achieving 4% year on year growth, they boosted that to 8% by changing the location of crossword titles to be next to weekly magazines, using the crossword titles from pacific Magazines and Bauer as the starting point given their connection to some of the weekly titles.
My feeling is crossword shoppers are more likely to be loyal. This is in part due to non newsagency competitors not having the range we have in newsagency businesses. Also, offering a cutaway service helps ensure this stickiness.
Crossword shoppers also shop outside the category. They will buy cards, jigsaws, games and more.
No matter the performance of crosswords in your newsagency today, look over this list of suggested engagement with the category. Each is easy to implement and has no cost. There is no downside to investing a small amount of time in driving crossword sales.
Move the location of crosswords in the magazine department. My suggestion is next to the weeklies. If there is not enough room for all, at least in produce a column of crosswords.
In my experience, a small investment in crosswords pays off in sales growth. Given the loyalty of the crossword shopper, this growth is valuable for more of the business.
Another newsagent is about to exit a major shopping centre in Melbourne following months of negotiations on rent. With an occupancy cost of 22% and a business gross profit of 34%, once you allow 12% for wages, there is nothing left for overheads and the owners.
While one could argue a higher GP and higher revenue would address the issue, and you would be right, these goals take time to achieve. Often, the annual 5% rent increase in the lease makes achieving these goals challenging. However, in this case, the lease restricted how far from a traditional newsagency the retailer could expand. The damn permitted use clause strikes again.
If the business was not charged a marketing fee by the landlord they may have stayed and done somewhat better. I say this as the operators have consistently promoted outside the business and the centre to attract new shoppers. It is doubtful the marketing by the landlord landed any significant traffic in the business. Hence, the comment about the considerable marketing fee paid.
If shopping centre landlords want newsagencies or newsagency like businesses to remain in their shopping centres they need to consider their rent model for these types of businesses.
I like the idea of a flat percentage rent, a percentage of turnover. I’d agree to a premium even for this of, say, 13%. However, as long as there are people lining up to sign leases and able to borrow to pay rent landlords will not feel compelled to address the issue.
Of course, from a channel perspective, a major issue is poor margin on some core newsagency lines – meaning we either replace them with better margin lines or the suppliers change decades-old practices.
Something has to give.
Note: I have no commercial involvement in the business mentioned whatsoever.
This year’s Sydney Gift Fair has been a good opportunity for newsagents to expand their inventory portfolio. On the trade show floor have been new suppliers and some existing suppliers with more diverse range. It has been a good opportunity to go beyond what the shop is known for.
This matters because inventory range can be a calling card if we use it in social media and other out of store promotion and activity.
Pitching products people do not expect from us can help re-cast how we are seen and this is key to traffic growth.
The challenge is that too often indie retailers stock what they like. In my experience it is more important that we stock on the basis that we are not our customer.
The inventory range decision is simple in my view. Stock what you have been stocking or similar to what you have been stocking and you will fulfil the current trajectory of the business. Expand the focus of the business with a broader sock range and you open the opportunity of finding new traffic. New traffic is key to achieving growth.
My suggestion to every newsagent is to have a portion of the inventory spend allocated to new products, to ensure consistent pursuit of expansion of the appeal of the business.
This is from newsxpress Chit Chat, in Victor Harbor, SA. They provided me a video of the shop to which I added some text and music. They have offered homewares for several years. This video shows off some fresh changes to the business.
When it comes to business transformation for newsagents, there are no rules, no channel-wide standards, no obligation to stay in a lane determined lined by a shingle. The focus has to be on current and potential shoppers and to be visually relevant.
Watch the video shared on Twitter by Matt Navarra…
Late to the Party, Apple has announced plans to launch a digital magazine store.
An updated Apple News app will gain a Magazines tab – similar to the app Texture, which Apple acquired last year – letting consumers subscribe to a bundle of magazine titles for a monthly fee. Final details are still being worked out, and Apple’s plans could change. An Apple spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The magazine subscription service, which has been in testing with Apple employees for months, will launch as part of an iOS 12.2 update scheduled for release in northern spring.
How, where and when people access news and information has evolved and continues to evolve. This move from Apple is not unexpected.
A report about News Corp’s half year numbers indicates the growing importance of digital:
Digital revenues from News and Information Services rose to 32 per cent of the total, up from 29 per cent in the prior corresponding period. Closing digital subscribers at News Corp Australia’s mastheads as of 31 December were 460,300,compared to 389,600 in the prior year.
You can see from the company’s marketing in its print products the importance it places on digital compared to print.
I have been sharing advice here and in workshops for newsagents about Facebook for years. Smart newsagents have an engaging page, or pages, with fresh local content designed to reflect their business more so than brands they sell.
Facebook remains the most cost effective way to reach new traffic shopper opportunities for newsagents.
If you do a search of this blog you will find plenty from me about the Facebook opportunity, including this advice on how to use Facebook to market your business, which I have updated for this post:
Growth in the number of likes for your business Facebook page(s) is as important as growth in shopper traffic through your front door.
I see a direct correlation between the two, if you use Facebook well. Of course, if is the important word in that statement.
I have been actively using Facebook for business for many years. It is an excellent platform of reaching new customers and talking with existing customers. It is an important tool in business growth.
HOW DO YOU GET MORE LIKES ON FACEBOOK?
This is simple, provide good content, content that gives people what they come to Facebook for – entertainment, inspiration, a laugh. The more you do this the more your post will be liked and shared. The more likes and shoes the more people you reach.
Growth in likes for your page begins with your content. If your page likes are not growing, look at your content.
While you can ask people to like your Facebook page, resulting likes may not be as valuable as those who like your page of their own accord.
You can also buy likes. That, however, is a waste of money.
HOW DOES A BUSINESS USE FACEBOOK WELL?
Businesses that use Facebook well entertain. This can be by making people laugh, smile, feel emotional or be happy overall. They do it by being human, real and engaged. They do it by not trying to sell. They do it y not being commercial.
Photos are real, not studio shots, showing products in use more so than on the shelves. They show customers, happy customers.
They share something of themselves.
A newsagency uses Facebook well by not writing about products newsagents sell.
Remember, you have seconds to get their attention, to stop them from scrolling ahead. Seconds.
HOW DO MORE LIKES OF YOUR BUSINESS TRANSLATE INTO MORE SALES?
Someone engaging with your business Facebook page is similar to someone browsing your shop. Both can lead to sales.
People being on your page and engaging with your page brings them close to you and proximity = sales.
The more people who like your business Facebook page the more people you can pitch and offer to or reach out with an event or product announcement, them more people who will hear what you have to say.
Take Facebook seriously as a key business tool. The benefits are real and valuable.
I am seeing some newsagents make a basic mistake with their business website by making the site an online version of their shop.
I think this is a mistake.
My advice is to make your online presence different to your shop. Buy all means sell some of what you sell in store, but present it differently, probably best done without using a newsagency name.
Being online is an opportunity to find new shoppers, shoppers who might otherwise not shop in a newsagency.
Being online is vital in small business retail today. However, be smart, engage with shoppers in unexpected ways. through windows they would not usually apostate with your business.
Look at your website as a separate business, a place to play. a place where there contractions of being a newsagency don’t exist.
By all means disagree if you like. I share this advice based on years already in this space with several single retail store websites trading successfully out of my shops but using styles and presences that are not immediately identified with the shops.
I am asking for a colleague who is frustrated by an increase in mistakes, lack of responsibility for them by publishers and a failure to make good.
The New York Toy Fair is a terrific trade show to visit to gauge what will be hot or not in the next year as we can see the plans suppliers have for existing and new products. It is also a terrific place to catch up with Australian wholesalers, to talk about what you are interested in, to inform their own buying decisions.
Toy Fair in New York this year has been that and more. With the (broad) toy category playing a growing role in our businesses, tapping into market intelligence before it hits Australia and before it is filtered by suppliers is valuable. That is my experience at least, having been to the New York fair for a few years.
It i alas valuable for discovering products and suggesting them to existing Australian wholesalers and providing retailer context as to the local opportunity.
I’d say the outlook for the category is strong. There are some cool trends for 2019 and extensions for popular brands and segments this year.
We will see some of this at the Toy Fair in Melbourne in a few weeks and at events later in the year.
One broader trend that is appealing is the speed to Australia of launches we see in the US. Whereas in the past there could be a delay of a year. Now, thanks to better planning and jumping on the back of US production runs, we see trend opportunities much faster.
I am speaking at the newsXpress national conference in Sydney later this week. That is where I will share specific product and brand insights from the New York Toy Fair.
With social media accessible 24/7 it is important that your employees understand your expectations. My advice is you share this with them in-store as well as on social media:
While we may post information on social media and ask questions through messenger apps outside your usual work hours, we do not mean to intrude on personal time. Nor do we expect or ask you to engage whatsoever on business issues outside the time we pay you for.
By doing this and repeating it every so often you could be establishing a line of defence should a relationship turn sour and you find yourself on the other side of a Fair Work claim relating to pay for time worked outside usual hours.
The message also establishes your expectations, so both sides are fully aware. This is better than assumptions based on unwritten positions.
This issue has been on my mind over the weekend following hearing about a retailer who is being pursued by a former employee for a claim of overtime payment relating to regular Facebook Messenger questions outside of work hours. The owner of the business worked elsewhere and the only time they had questions was after the shop closed. They did not expect them to be answered outside of regular hours. However, they did not make that clear.
I have revised previous Easter marketing ideas that I have published and offer revised content here for early advice on marketing your newsagency for Easter:
Easter is considered by many to be a small season. I see it as full of opportunity and primed for fun in the newsagency. Chase year on year growth.
Saturdays used to be big in retail newsagencies. For many it was the busiest day of the week. Today, Saturdays are okay, but nowhere near what they used to be fort most.
If your Saturdays are not what they used to be you can wallow in that reality or try and change it. My advice is to try and change it. Here are some tips you could consider
What ever you do it has to be about your business as it is the commercial outcomes you are looking for. I mention this so you can focus on what you need rather than what a local group may need / want ahead of you.
Of course, you could do nothing about Saturdays and your numbers in the future would continue the trend you are on today.
Our #NRL Season Preview special edition (March 2019 magazine) lands at newsagents this Thursday and is jam-packed with The Greatest Game Of All. #InsideSport pic.twitter.com/B89Qn0Y1yC
— Inside Sport (@InsideSportmag) February 11, 2019
Book exchanges are popular, again – in all sorts of retail situations including non-book retail. They take little space, require no work and they attract a following.
This photo shows one in the window of a cafe on Swan Street, Richmond. It shows how small a book exchange can be, how it can use space that otherwise may have little value.
Even if you don’t sell books a book exchange can work as it attracts people who like to read and these people could be magazine customers. I suspect they are more likely to be card customers, as opposed to people who do not read or write that much.
My suggestion is to try it, out the front of your store ideally and if permitted. See how it goes.
Sometimes, the best road to a goal is not a straight line. This is how the book exchanges work for retailers I have spoken with. Offering the service pitches their businesses in a different light, it has people noticing them who in the past had not. One retailer told me the exchange attracted an avid letter writer, who had not thought of visiting their shop for stationery previously.
In retail today we need to leverage many ways of attracting shoppers to our businesses. The idea of a book exchange is one. I especially like it for rural, regional and high street newsagencies.
How all their efforts and desires to own the customer relationship, newspaper publishers leave it to local newsagents to communicate on late delivery of papers.
The most recent experience of this was a few days ago in Brisbane when the Courier Mail was four and more hours late to some newsagents, meaning that safe delivery during the morning rush was not possible.
In an ideal world, News Corp would be public about the situation online, by text message and elsewhere so that customers know. Instead, I’m told that the only comms to home delivery customers was that from newsagents.
I am placing this post here as the request of one of then impacted newsagents, inviting feedback from others.
It feels like social media Marketing by Tatts has increased. I am seeing it regularly, through browsers and apps on devices that are scrubbed of cache history. Each ad pitches in-store. However, that is where it ends. While through each ad you can go to their online store, there is no easy link to local retailers, retailers near my then location.
I clicked buy now on the ad in the image above. Here is where it took me:
If I was a Tatts retailer, I’d want it to also pitch the closest shops open now where I can buy in-store now or soon, based on location and opening hours. It would be easy for Tatts to do.
What Tatts is doing now, by showing in-store as a purchase option on their marketing is ticking a box, paying lip service to their commitment to promote in-store purchase.
A company that genuinely supports its retail network would make finding nearby retailers easier. It would also be clever at using tech to enable the sale of lottery products to local shoppers through websites and Facebook pages run by local retailers. Thereby leveraging local retailers for online purchases, supporting local communities, appreciating the extraordinary investment by local retailers in promoting tatts brands consistently and nationally, often in places the Tatts outdoors marketing could not otherwise reach.
The current in-store text on Tatts marketing is of no commercial benefit whatsoever to Tatts product retailers in my view.
I recently created a new private Facebook group for engaged small business retailers. There, I will post images from stores across various retail channels and types I visit that I find interesting and / or inspiring. Anyone who joins the group can post. Here is the description of the group:
This is a private group where engaged small business owners can gain inspiration and motivation for evolving their businesses. Our goal is to share retail inspiration we see and to provide context for small business retailers. Any member of the group can post. In doing so, please always provide context. Ideally, posts are not promoting your business but, rather, of awesome businesses you have seen.
Anyone in the group is welcome to post their own content.
This report, from CNN a day ago, is interesting in terms of getting behind the hype of vaping and into health matters. Vaping has been on my mind recently because of a couple of supplier pitches I have heard about how to tap into this market in Australia. For the record, I have no interest in doing that.
Stanford Professor Dr. Robert Jackler tells @drsanjaygupta that the rising popularity in the Juul e-cigarette created an “arms race” in the nicotine market.
“There’s no regulation in the amount of nicotine in electronic cigarettes.” https://t.co/FiVs35ZyND pic.twitter.com/dgHOmTXPFi
— New Day (@NewDay) February 7, 2019
