The balanced promotion
I like the product balance in the promotion I saw running at the newsagency outlet at Melbourne Airport.
What I especially like is the balance of products in the display: water, candy, magazines, books snacks, games, journals and more. By balance I mean breadth of range.
Of course the $1 million prize opportunity is eye catching. From a marketing perspective, this is a whole of store opportunity, hence the range.
The breadth of products is a reminder to take a broad approach in creating a display – the more product categories represented the better. Suppliers who ask retailers to create a display featuring only their product should take note – that does not usually serve the needs of the retail business.
Celebrating the anniversary of the moon landing
Customers are loving the coin sets celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing from the Royal Australian Mint that we have in stock. It is part of a broader range of boxed collector sets we have from the Mint.
You know you are on a winner when a customer planning to spend $5.00 on an everyday item spends $195.00 on a collectible coin, and then they say they will be back for more.
This is a perfect product for our type of store. We are using social media to help us attract new shoppers.
Excellent growth in games and puzzles for newsagency businesses
I have seen industry wide sales data for the toy category for the year to May 2019. It is interesting to see a good result for games in this as it is a category with which newsagents can easily engage.
Diving deeper, it is fascinating to see terrific diversity in the games mix. While well known titles like Monopoly and Cards Against Humanity are doing well, lesser known, niche, titles are working well too. Table top games are proving to be especially successful.
I see strong opportunities in the games space, opportunities for a permanent (or as permanent as can be) space allocation in store for games.
What is interesting abut the games shopper is that they are loyal, appreciate product knowledge, appreciate range and will participate in in-store events. These are all attribute we can lean into in newsagency businesses. We can leverage them and drive greater success.
Core to success is shop floor engagement. This means having a table setup with a game on it for people playing. This simple move drives impulse purchases, even if people do not often play the game as setup. I see it every time. Put in a table with a gameosetup and sales lift, immediately. If you are in the game space, do this. Even if you don’t have room. Make room and see the sales growth.
if you are not in the games space, consider it. However, success depends on the right range, displayed well (not necessarily;y pretty), pitched on social media and backed with occasional in-store events. It is an interactive product category after all.
Thinking of my work with newsXpress, there are seven suppliers offering range, competitive pricing, first to market opportunities and terrific product knowledge … enabling indie retailers to compete with major retailers as well as the top franchises.
The Harvey Norman hardly normal coverup of The Age
Denise Scott, an awesome Melbourne based comedian and Aussie legend makes the case here…
‘Can I help you?’ asked owner of local newsagents. As I stared at counter of newspapers, feeling foolishly dumb, I replied: ‘I’m looking for The Age’ He said: ‘There it is, otherwise known as the Harvey Norman wrap around.’ pic.twitter.com/XXgNdy2mUr
— Denise Scott (@_denisescott) July 6, 2019
Newsagency marketing tip: Christmas in July
I first wrote about Christmas in July here eight years ago. What was a good season then is even better now. Here is a refreshed list of tips for making it a success.
- Run the Christmas in July campaign over no more than two weeks in July. One week could be enough.
- Choose dates which are away from any other promotion – it works best with little competition.
- Get all team members engaged.
- Set aside spoke front of store, in their face.
- Dress the team and the store to suit the Christmas theme.
- Display any spare Christmas stock from last year.
- Play Christmas music.
- Choose a day for an extra special celebration and make this an all-out focus.
- Have a competition for the kids around the theme.
- Create a giant Christmas stocking which one lucky customer can win.
- Use the event to discount any slow moving items. It its a perfect opportunity to quit stock.
- Promote on social media.
Christmas in July is an excellent opportunity to get suppliers on board. Maybe they could provide products for you to give away as gifts – I.E. every shopper gets spending over $10 a ‘Christmas’ gift. Suppliers could use your promotion as an ideal time for trialling products and getting your customers engaged.
Big W quitting magazines is good for newsagents
I first heard about Big W planning on quitting magazines earlier this year. It was good news but I wanted to see it happen before commenting.
Now, newsagents near Big W stores are telling me they are seeing a bump in magazine sales. This is good news.
The decision by the group to quit magazines is another in a series of decisions as they recalibrate their business. The magazine category is not the only one to see significant change. However, it is the category that directly affects our channel.
If your newsagency has a Big W nearby, now would be a good time to pitch magazines, especially the depth of your range, to attract people who may have shopped at Big W and not at your store for magazines. If you run a loyalty program, promote that too as it could entice the Big W shopper to engage with you.
Newsagents were in magazines long before Big W and we are still win the category after they quit. This is a good message for small business retail.
Good result for Bauer
From Mediaweek (referencing a story at The Australian, which is behind a pay wall):
Bauer back in black: Cost-cutting key to magazines making a profit
That compares to a net loss of $11.3m in 2017.
Bauer’s editorial expenses dropped to $58m last year, from $72.6m in 2017, with marketing and ad expenses falling to $46.4m, from $54m. Its administration expenses fell to $45.6m, from $55.3m.
Of the group’s $224.3m of revenue, about $142.1m came from the sale of magazines and $48.8m from advertising.
Mad magazine to end regular publication
Mad magazine is ceasing regular print issues. This is sad news. It’s a magazine I have enjoyed regularly for decades. It has taught generations about satire. It has been a good title to mix it with sarcasm products. Al Feldstein, the genius behind the magazine, passed away five years ago.
New financial year suggestions
Here is a list I have put together of things small business retailers could reasonably consider at the start of this new financial year:
- Change your passwords. Share them sparingly.
- Review your department and categories. Ensure they accurately reflect your business and how you want performance reported.
- Review system use to determine if fraud is an issue. Our help desk team can help business owners (and only business owners) with this.
- if you are not using Discount Vouchers, consider it as it continues to be the easiest and most effective revenue and return visit building tool we have see.
- Review your opening hours / roster based on a revenue by time assessment.
- Take a look at workflow at the counter. Look at steps you can take to streamline the experience. More efficient sales will help drive sales revenue.
- Set aside every invoice that you currently enter manually. Email a copy to us at support@towersystems.com.au along with supplier contact details. We will reach out to them for you, encouraging them to provide you with an electronic invoice, which will save time and improve data accuracy.
- Consider cloud based backupfor faster, safer, backups.
- If you have a website, consider an SEO campaign to lift its profile. If your website is more than two years old, consider a refresh or replacement.
Inspiration
I talk with newsagents every day in all sorts of situations. This clip of past of a speech by actor ohn Krasinski at Brown University, which came upon win my Twitter feed, speaks, I think, to the challenges many newsagents face today. I hope you find it interesting. Oh, by the way, the full speech is online too.
‘Lean all the way in, take chances, fail big, and take chances again’ — John Krasinski delivered this powerful address to the graduating class at his alma mater pic.twitter.com/D6rCfmBlNN
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) July 3, 2019
I especially love these quotes…
Remember to be scared.
Take chances, fail big, and take chan yes again.
Before you do something special, just do something.
Magazines. Keeping newsagents unique.
Click here to see Magazines. Keeping newsagents unique. a terrific guide published by the MPA, Magazine Publishers of Australia, in June 2003.
As you will see in throughout this document, the MPA offered comprehensive advice on magazine range, display, promotion and management, advice that was ideal for that time.
My first every magazine relay in-store flowed from this MPA work.
While magazines play a lesser role today in terms of foot traffic and financially, I see value in a similar supplier driven document that draws on shopper and other data, to help newsagents what remains an important category.
Single touch payroll now required
Single touché payroll compliance is now required for businesses with 5 to 19 employees. Click here to read information from the ATO about it. Included is this information on how it works:
STP works by sending tax and super information from your payroll or accounting software to the ATO as you run your payroll.
When you start reporting:
- you will run your payroll, pay your employees as normal, and give them a payslip
- your pay cycle does not need to change (you can continue to pay your employees weekly, fortnightly or monthly)
- your STP-enabled payroll software will send us a report which includes the information we need from you, such as salaries and wages, pay as you go (PAYG) withholding and super information
- see our employer reporting guidelines for a full list of payments that must be reported through STP.
You will be reporting super liability information through STP for the first time. Super funds will also be reporting to us. They’ll let us know when you make the payment to your employees’ chosen or default fund. This is an important step toward making sure employees are paid their correct entitlements.
The way STP information is sent will depend on the software you use. STP reporting will be offered in one of the following ways with:
- an end-to-end solution, which allows you to run your payroll and send the STP information directly to us from your software
- a solution which allows you to run your payroll and send the STP information through a third party sending service provider (SSP) which is integrated into your software
- a solution that allows you to run your payroll and requires you to send the STP information through a third party sending service provider (SSP) outside your software.
ATO systems will match the STP information to our employer and employee records.
Your employees will be able to see their year-to-date tax and super information in ATO online services, which can only be accessed through myGov. Their data is updated every time you report (each pay day for most employers). Without STP reporting, employee data is only reported at the end of the financial year.
If you make mistakes in your STP report, you can correct it in your following report. We won’t penalise you for making mistakes you correct.
At the end of the financial year, you’ll need to finalise your STP data. This is a declaration to the Commissioner to state you have completed your reporting for the financial year.
It is important newsagents are across this and live already.; Putting it off is not an option.
For what int is worth, in my own shops our POS software is connected to Xero and Xero manages STP requirements.
Small business pledge in UK leadership race interesting
Jeremy Hunt’s pledge to scrap tax for a bunch of small businesses is an interesting and practical pledge to support small businesses, UK high street businesses. This, from The Telegraph:
Jeremy Hunt has pledged to exempt hundreds of thousands of firms from business rates if he becomes prime minister, in a bid to save Britain’s ailing high streets.
In an extension of Philip Hammond’s £1.5bn plan to regenerate town centres across the country, the Tory leadership contender intends to scrap taxes for nine out of ten high street shops.
The move will save newly exempted businesses up to £6,500, and will benefit an estimated 24,500 businesses based in Birmingham, Manchester and three other large English cities.
The announcement builds on his recent promise to cut corporation tax from 19 percent to as low as 12.5 percent, the same as Ireland, a policy which is set to cost an estimated £13 billion a year.
Plenty of Aussie retailers would agree with this:
“It was once said Britain was a nation of shopkeepers. But if we don’t act this will no longer be the case
“Too many small businesses are being put out of business by tax bills they can’t afford to pay. “While many people choose to shop online, there is a clear demand for a local choice too.
“And the current system leaves the taxpayer out of pocket, shopkeepers out of a job and can deprive local people of places to spend time with friends and family.”
What I like about this announcement is the specific detail. It goes beyond the usual platitudes of small businesses are the backbone of the country during cam pains followed by years in government of inaction.
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