Way to go Amazon celebrating 11/11, Remembrance Day, a day we remember all who have fallen in wars and conflicts. I am surprised you’re not doing something even more enticing to get us shopping at 11am.
I heard about this by way of an email from Amazon to me, as a customer of theirs.
AUSTRAC and and the E-cigarette Commissioner have called banks act illicit tobacco stores with private ATMs and eftpos following terrific lobbying by the Independent Payments Forum. It’s good to see engagement from government bodies on this. Here is the AUSTRAC announcement.
AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas and the Illicit Tobacco and E-cigarette Commissioner (ITEC), Amber Shuhyta, have called on Australia’s banks to take immediate action to strengthen oversight of tobacco and convenience stores with private ATMs and eftpos.
Mr Thomas said non-bank ATMs and point of sales payment technologies are being used to buy illicit tobacco products and to launder the cash proceeds.
“Any bank receiving funds through these channels is at risk of dealing with illicit proceeds,” Mr Thomas said.
“We are asking banks to assess, mitigate, and, where possible, eliminate these risks.
“Where banks continue to provide services to tobacconists and convenience stores, they must closely monitor for and report suspicious matters.
He said the request is about refocussing existing AML controls to target a fast-growing criminal trade.
“This is a crime type that is generating billions of dollars in criminal proceeds, and the scale of the activity is undermining Australia’s economic integrity and community safety.”
New figures released overnight by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and Australian Institute of Criminology show the cost of organised crime to Australia reached up to $82.3 billion in 2023-24, including an estimated $4 billion from illicit tobacco alone- a four-fold increase over the past three years.
AUSTRAC has also cautioned banks to be alert to displaced customers as enhanced scrutiny takes effect.
While urging stronger controls, Mr Thomas said banks must strike the right balance to avoid unintended impacts on legitimate businesses.
“There are legitimate needs for access to cash services, particularly in rural and remote communities.”
“Our shared goal is to target criminal enterprises, not legitimate economic activity.”
AUSTRAC’s administration of existing AML/CTF laws is one feature of a broader, multipronged strategy coordinated by the ITEC to shrink the illicit market, reduce criminal activity and minimise harm to community and public health.
A range of multi-agency measures are underway to disrupt the illicit tobacco market across the Australian supply and demand chain.
“Australian banks play a critical role in protecting the financial system from criminal abuse and are well placed to strengthen their AML controls in this high-risk sector.
“We are focused on disrupting the business models of criminals, making it harder for them to trade and hitting them where it hurts, in their pockets.
“I’m confident no Australian bank wants this dirty money in their business and will work with us to help shut it out.”
This statement follows a campaign by the Independent Payments Forum (IPF) and PayDay News questioning the legality of payments terminals used at these businesses. newsXpress and ALNA are the two groups in our channel supporting the excellent work of IPF.
I am seeing a strong start to diary sales in Australian newsagencies this year compared to recent years. This is terrific news for newsagents and their diary suppliers.
While some of the strong start of diary sales in Australian newsagencies can be attributed to Collins not repeating last year’s distribution mess this year, I think it also has to do with strong shopper demand for tactile engagement. Despite the prevalence of digital tools, many still value the tactile experience of handwriting notes and plans. The use of a physical planner is often seen as a way to reduce screen time.
Journal sales are way up this year – again because people love tactile engagement for not taking and journaling. There is a significant demand for premium, aesthetic, and niche stationery.
We are seeing people buy two and more diaries: for home, work, and more.
The diary customers we are seeing cover a range of shopper segments: students, professionals, office people, families, FIFO workers. People are buying them for different reasons too, beyond the everyday of noting appointments – time-blocking, goal-setting, personal well-being journaling.
Diaries play into a trend we are seeing around personal actions designed to support better mental health. Younger males are strong in this area from what we are seeing and from what we hear from retailers overseas.
To leverage the diary opportunity we have a broad range from the practical / functional through to the attractive and inspirational. We have tried to offer a range with broad appeal.
Thinking about the growth in the sale of journals to young males (18 – 35), here are some thoughts on creating a diary story to appeal to them:
For this demographic, a planner is often less about “pretty stationery” and more about what they’d consider personal mastery, performance, and strategic thinking.
How we sell to this diary cohort is different to how we might sell to a female 35+. We need to think about this when displaying diaries in-store – where we place them and how we present needs to be different, otherwise they may miss the opportunity.
It’s terrific seeing diary sales so strong this year in Australian newsagencies.
Better Retailing is exclusively reporting on attacks in newsagencies against certain newspapers.
A planned protest campaign targeting newsstands by activist group ‘Media Revolution’ has newsagents and major retailers on alert.
Described as ‘Media Liberation Day’, the group urged people to disrupt the sale of national newspapers in stores on 5 November by covering up their front pages.
Organiser Liz Pendleton told other activists: “We’ve got this direct action you can get involved with straight away You can print out these cover stories and you can put them on top of newspapers in newsagents and supermarkets to call out malignant media.”
It reminds me of the shopper we had who offended by the birthday card with a small balloon penis on the front – they would come in and cut the penis off all the cards.
While I have sympathy for those concerned about the concentration of news media ownership, protests like this against small business retailers are unfair.
Talking to a newsagent yesterday, more days than not they sell 2 copies of a daily newspaper. Allowing for labour, retail space and other costs, you have to wonder why bother with this level of loss making.
The numbers for retailers will vary based on retail occupancy cost. The question for everyone days to be: at what point is a newspaper not worth caring in the shop?
This is a critical strategic question that newsagents are grappling with.
The scenario outlined is a classic example of a product line’s viability erosion. When a product is sold, its profitability isn’t just the sticker price minus the wholesale cost. A more accurate calculation involves:
When sales volumes drop to such low levels, the gross profit from those two sales (which is typically minimal on newspapers) is almost certainly eclipsed by the daily allocated costs. This turns a traditional staple product into a consistent financial drain.
If it’s a clear loss-maker, the decision to continue stocking the product moves from a purely financial one to a strategic one. Retailers often continue for several complex, and increasingly debatable, reasons:
This is the central question, and the answer is different for every retailer. The decision to delete a product line like newspapers is reached when the strategic justifications no longer outweigh the financial losses.
This tipping point often arrives when:
The question for each retailer is no longer How do I sell more newspapers? but How much am I paying to keep this product line, and is the benefit it provides in foot traffic and loyalty still worth that price?
In more newsagencies than not these days newspapers are loss-making for the retailer.
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Mark Fletcher founded newsagency software company Tower Systems and is the CEO of newsXpress, a marketing group serving innovative newsagents keen to evolve their businesses for a bright future. You can reach him on mark@newsxpress.com.au or 0418 321 338.
I’m grateful that newsXpress stores will be offering access to coins to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War. The coin’s reverse features a remembrance wreath, which comprises eight red poppies to represent the eight decades that have passed since the end of the war.
Produced by the Royal Australian Mint, the demand for these coins is high if calls and emails already are anything to go by.
The new shopper traffic generated by each coin release is excellent, and coin shoppers are efficient, often purchasing other items.
You might have seen the news this week that Coles is rolling out an enterprise-wide partnership with OpenAI. When I saw that story, my first thought wasn’t about the competition. It was: “This is fantastic news.”
This move by a retail giant validates what Tower Systems has been focused on for some time, for newsagents and the other small business retailers it serves: AI isn’t just a gimmick for the big end of town; it’s a genuine “competitive game-changer” for independent, local retailers.
It’s levelling the playing field. And the best part? You don’t have to wait. While Coles is just announcing their plans, local, independent retailers are already using powerful AI tools every single day. I made a video this morning about this:
For a long time now, Tower has been embedding AI tools from OpenAI, Google Gemini, and others directly into its point-of-sale software. It’s not about “future tech”; it’s about practical tools that solve real problems for small business owners.
In the video, I discuss how our customers are already using AI to:
As I mention in the video, I rely on these and more AI tools in my own retail shop – to save time, make better-informed decisions, and run a smarter, more efficient shop.
This technology is here, it’s accessible, and it’s already making a fundamental difference for local businesses. The Coles announcement is a great signal for the entire retail sector and all who serve it that AI is no longer an option, AI is an essential part of modern retail.
Watch the video to see my full breakdown of what this means for local small business retail and how you can leverage this power in your own independent business today.
As you can probably tell, I’m excited about AI. It makes accessible to small business retailers opportunities for more effectively competing – as plenty are already finding. It’s a terrific opportunity for efficiency and growth.
And, when you’re researching AI, get to the facts. Some software companies say they have AI tools, when they don’t. It’s important you see for yourself what’s available today as this matters.
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Mark Fletcher founded newsagency software company Tower Systems and is the CEO of newsXpress, a marketing group serving innovative newsagents keen to evolve their businesses for a bright future. newsXpress has an established package if advice and support for newsagents when it comes to AI. You can reach him on mark@newsxpress.com.au or 0418 321 338.
⚡Get ready to PWRUP Australia! 🇦🇺
AC/DC are back in town and you can now power up with our high-voltage collector’s edition souvenir tour guide “On Tour”. Available at newsagents or visit https://t.co/uyasNqUpnR to get your copy delivered to your door. pic.twitter.com/Iwf8woOmQ8— Australian Muscle Car Magazine (@AuMuscleCarMag) October 30, 2025
A supplier rep told retailers they visited how awesome a new product they were pitching was. There said other retailers had found it successful. retailers bought up. The product failed. The rep doubled down, suggesting that the retailers failed and not the product.
Retailers listened to the rep because of the origin story they always pitched on the first meeting – years of local small business retail experience.
I get it, supplier reps have one job to do to sell the products they represent. The thing is they will fail if they sell products that fail.
The rep in the story above did have retail experience, from more than twenty years earlier, for a couple of years when they were in high school. The way they told the story is sounded more recent, and more significant than part time counter sales.
Unless someone has current retail experience relevant to you, be skeptical about their advice. Do your research. Check their claims. get any promises in writing. And, if you encounter a rep giving bad advice, discretely tell fellow retailers so they don’t get caught.
Thoughtful Verification: Key Steps for Supplier Due Diligence
Now I know what I’ve written here is vague. That’s deliberate. I am not in the mood for a legal letter or worse. It’s happened before. I have a theory, those misbehaving tend to be quick to fire legal shots.
I have a confession to make.
I feel a bit foolish, and that’s not always a comfortable feeling. But this time, I’m glad I do. It means I had a wonderful reminder I probably should have remembered sooner.
For the last couple of years, we’ve been refining our product mix across at our www.mintcoinshop.com.au website that’s connected to one of my shops. We’ve developed a good sense of who our customers are and what they like. Or at least, we thought we did. We’d been intentionally saying ‘no’ to certain products, especially coin designs that seemed a bit… “out there.”
This policy was put to the test recently when we saw a new range of Halloween coins from Europe.
My immediate reaction was a hard ‘no’.
I looked at them and thought they were gimmicky. They felt “risqué” for our brand. I was convinced they would never appeal to our core audience of serious coin collectors. My internal narrative was all about protecting our reputation, maintaining our curated standard, and not wasting money on stock that wouldn’t move.
This was my bias, fully at work, masquerading as ‘good business strategy.’
I was just about to send the ‘pass’ email to the supplier when I remembered a classic retail truth hit me: We are not our customer.
My personal taste is irrelevant. My assumptions about what a ‘serious collector’ enjoys are just that, assumptions. Who am I to say that someone who appreciates a rare proof coin doesn’t also have a sense of humour and a love for Halloween?
So, we changed course. We took the risk. We ordered some of each design.
Last night, with a healthy dose of skepticism, I drafted a simple marketing email. I sent it out at 10 PM, figuring we’d see what happened by morning. (I even used what I call “deflection framing” in the copy, which is a whole other story, but it was my way of subtly bracing for a non-response).
This morning at 7 AM I checked the results.
We were completely sold out. Every single coin.
I’m thrilled, of course. But I’m also kicking myself. I’m glad we took the risk, but I feel foolish for not taking it sooner. How many other opportunities have we missed over the last two years because our personal preferences got in the way?
It’s a powerful lesson in the dangers of “managing for average.” So many businesses I see manage for average, they manage for results they can be sure of – often denying their business the opportunity of even better results, with a risk for sure, but with that risk comes education and that’s the cornerstone of growth.
It’s easy to get comfortable. It’s easy and safe to keep doing what we’ve always done. If we do, we’ll probably keep hitting our targets. We’ll do fine.
Fine is the enemy of better.
Chasing “safe” means we might miss reaching for something exceptional. Our comfort zone is a place where new opportunities rarely grow. This little experiment proved that the real risk isn’t trying something we think won’t work; the real risk is letting our biases stop us from finding out for sure.
I’m sharing this because it’s a reminder I needed. That feeling of being wrong, of being foolish, is a sign of growth. It means you’re pushing past your assumptions.
It leaves me with one big question for myself, and for you: What are you saying ‘no’ to right now, simply because you don’t get it or don’t like it?
That might be the very thing you should try next.
Final note: Right now, for newsagency businesses, that I have written about here matters. We are at a moment in time where we must play outside our small sandpit, where we must take risks in order to attract new shoppers. This is urgent for each of our businesses and vital for the channel and all who rely on the channel. I can’t stress this enough and the urgency with which we must act.
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Mark Fletcher founded newsagency software company Tower Systems and is the CEO of newsXpress, a marketing group serving innovative newsagents keen to evolve their businesses for a bright future. You can reach him on mark@newsxpress.com.au or 0418 321 338.
I’ve been asked my opinion about the NewsQuake services launch by NLNA this week. Well, here it is, and it is my opinion. If you’re interested in newsQuake, do your own research, make up your own mind.
NewsQuake pitches parcel pick up, money transfer and bill payment services to newsagents.
These services have been available to and through newsagents for many years.
They are agency services, meaning newsagents receive a commission or service fee that is fractional in terms of the transactional value to the shopper.
The pitch to newsagents is that offering the services drives new traffic. While that may be true, looking at newsagent basket data for decades, I see no evidence that agency business translates into meaningful retail product sales.
There are reasons people paying a bill, picking up a parcel or sending money don’t buy other products in the shop visit:
The other experience with agency business those of us who have offered them in the past is that your agency customer is likely more demanding in terms of attention and transaction time than you are compensated through commission.
Those of us who did Bill Express all those years ago will have stories of customers arguing with you about a bill they are paying, for which you receive a few cents, wanting you to fix a billing issue and not accepting that you cant – all the while a customer with a $250.00 gift purchase is waiting to pay you.
There is a disconnect between the agency shopper and the retail shopper.
I think it’s worth thinking about who makes money out of each bill payment, parcel pickup and money transfer transaction. In each case I suspect there are at least three businesses making margin on the transaction. In my experience from offering these services in the pack and unpacking where margin dollars fell, the retailer always made the smallest margin while carrying the highest labour cost. I can’t speak to this being the case with NewsQuake.
The News Corp. news story about NewsQuake was nice. News Corp. is a commercial partner of NewsQuake though. That was reflected in the puff piece. I smiled at a dinosaur of a company promoting this dinosaur group of services.
Good on NLNA for trying something. My suggestion to them tis to come up with ideas that are actually relevant for newsagents in 2025 and beyond. It’s not NewsQuake in my opinion.
The future of each Australian newsagency business can be found in trading outside the traditional shingle, away from agency products. Your future is in you being an innovative and proactive retailer. This is something I covered at length in my Lotterywest presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ELmh8Grzd8
The data I’ve seen from a range of Australian newsagencies suggests the answer is an unequivocal yes: the pace of decline of over the counter newspaper sales increased in 2025. While the dataset is small, it points to an accelerated decline in 2025, a trend that should be an urgent wake-up call for every newsagent. And, it’s not as if this is the first such wake-up call for Aussie newsagents.
Looking at data from several capital city newsagencies, unit sales of newspapers are down a staggering 13% year-on-year so far in 2025. That is a significant increase in the rate of decline compared to previous years.
(Note: data data is technically the plural of the Latin word datum)
To understand how serious the situation is, we need to compare it to other categories. In the same businesses I’ve analysed, magazine unit sales have declined at the same pace or even slower than in previous years.
In one newsagency, while newspaper sales have declines by 13.5% this year, magazine unit sales are down 7.9%. If I remove sales spikes from that data, the magazine decline drops to under 7%. The gap between the newspaper crisis and the magazine slowdown is stark.
The situation for international newspapers is even more dire, with a decline of over 50%. While this could be a data categorisation issue, it more likely signals that these titles are in the most serious trouble of all.
For generations, newspapers drove our businesses. They created valuable, reliable foot traffic. Today, that is no longer the case.
The gross profit contribution from newspapers now rarely covers the labour, space, and administrative costs of carrying them. For many, it has become a community service rather than a commercial imperative. Any newsagent still relying on newspapers for either their business purpose or their revenue needs to urgently reconsider that position.
While offering newspapers may feel like a community obligation, we are businesspeople who must make commercial decisions. The newspaper publishers are theirs, you can see it in the products they give us to sell, where genuine news can often be hard to find.
It’s time to reflect this new reality in your own business.
It is only a matter of time before a major Australian capital city daily stops being published seven days a week. We’ve seen this movie before. Back in 2009, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer moved to a digital-only model. While the move was challenging, the title survived and exists today: SeattlePI.
The print medium is challenged, but the shift is bigger than that. How, when, and why we consume content, including news, has fundamentally changed. Our businesses, originally created for the distribution of news, are at the heart of these changes.
Newspapers are far less important to our businesses than ever before. It’s time our business decisions reflected that.
Our future, your future, is 100% yours to set, without the boundaries of legacy media. But that’s a topic for another day, including a discussion around what to call your business. Watch out, I’ll have something more on this very soon.
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Mark Fletcher founded newsagency software company Tower Systems and is the CEO of newsXpress, a marketing group serving innovative newsagents keen to evolve their businesses for a bright future. You can reach him on mark@newsxpress.com.au or 0418 321 338.
The goal of a Sunday reset is to make a noticeable difference to the shop for you and your customers.
It’s easy to become ‘shop blind’ to your own retail space, walking past the same displays day after day. This routine can make your business feel stale to both you and your regulars. The goal of a Sunday reset is to shatter that stagnation and make a noticeable, energy-boosting difference for everyone. The key to success is you not overthinking it; this is about decisive action, not perfect planning. Give yourself no more than 2 hours.
Follow these easy steps:
Do things you’d not do in your business, even things you are unsure of – for it’s this type of exp[erimentation where you can find fresh success.
What you want is shoppers entering the shop to notice that it’s different and to comment on it. This alone is a win for you since they are connecting change with your shop, it means they notice you.
You should feel good about a Sunday reset. Its good work to do on your business.
Check out how easy it is to load an invoice from Hunter Leisure into newsagency software:
Hunter is managing fulfilment for Ty products (Beanie Boos) in Australia now.
For suppliers: what makes the Hunter Leisure invoice so good is the clear labelling and inclusion of product barcodes. This example from Hunter is gold standard.
For retailers: this import uses the AI import tools in the Tower Systems newsagency software. More than 1,800 newsagents have access to this software. the AI tools are proving to be a game-changer: saving time, reducing mistakes and facilitating money making business decisions.
I am using AI tools everyday in my own shop, as I mention here:
I get that for some, AI feels too hard to understand. It’s not. AI tools embedded in POS software are helping local independent retailers every day. If you are not using them, you are not competitive.
I’m serious.
I know of newsagents who have cut labour costs by $175.00 a week by using the AI tools. That’s a $9,100.00 saving a year. And that’s for one of many AI tools in the software.
If you want a profitable retail business, using AI tools is essential.
In the Tower Systems newsagency software, newsagents can use AT tools to:
These AI tools in the Tower Systems newsagency software and more are helping engaged newsagents fundamentally change their approach to business decisions and in-store actions.
To use these tools you don’t need to be a tech expert, an AI specialist. They are embedded in the Tower Systems software and are accessible as part of the everyday use of the newsagency software.
Newsagents and other small business retailers often speak about being time-poor and the cost of labour in the business. The AI tools address both pain points. They save time, which can save labour costs.
Using the AI tools all comes down to whether you want to save your time or the cost of time of staff in the business.
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You can reach Tower sales by phone on 1300 662 957 or by email at sales@towersystems.com.au. The website is: www.towersystems.com.au. If you’re a Tower customer, the knowledge base has advised on how to access the AI tools.
Two Bluey themed coins from the Royal Australian Mint go on sale today at 8:30am AEDT. The buzz around this release has been huge, resulting in calls, emails and more.
There are purchase limits in place to ensure an even spread for customers.
newsXpress is the exclusive outlet in our channel for these coins. There has been tight control relating to the release of product details and the actual on sale date.
We are leveraging the opportunity with Bluey greeting cards from Henderson Greetings, Bluey products from Ty along with Bluey books and puzzles. We are also selling the Bluey coins from our website: www.mintcoinshop.com.au.
Plenty of coin customers do buy other products.
A newsagency embracing mint coins can expect to do at least $20,000 a year in sales of the coins regardless of their location. I know of stores doing five times that easily. The thing about coins is that they always sell, and shoppers are prepared to drive several hours to get them. It’s an easy win category.
Today is going to be a good day.
While there’s a lot to love about Lotterywest for retailers and the community, their tech is too often behind The Lott. They are catching up, thankfully. Here’s what they sent retailers yesterday:
From Wednesday 22 October, a new internationally recognised EAN13 Price Embedded Barcode will replace the existing price barcodes on Lotto tickets and receipts. Retailers using TOWER and POS Browser systems will now be able to scan Lotto tickets directly into their POS terminal.
What are the benefits?
More than just easier scanning, the new barcode also allows you to scan payouts, cancellations, and other receipts. Scan individual tickets to view game-level sales or use the summary ticket for a quick snapshot of store performance. There is no change to activating Scratch’n’Win tickets, however Scratch’n’Win payouts can now be scanned. In addition, enhanced transaction history is now available on the Photon screen, giving you greater sales visibility and making reconciliation more efficient.
The move will streamline lottery ticket selling for WA retailers.
Tower Systems is grateful to offer WA newsagents access to the Lotterywest integration. If you’re in WA and are a Tower Systems customer, click here for the advice on being ready for the launch by Lotterywest on October 22. Lotterywest sent an email to WA newsagents today. This brings WA newsagents closer to what other stated and territories have had for a while now. Tower has funded this work on behalf of newsagents.
Also in the Tower newsagency software are awesome integrated AI tools that are helping newsagents make big changes including cutting labour costs and making better quality decisions faster. These are the most advanced AI tools in newsagency software right now.
If you’re not currently a Tower customer, talk with Justin Randall on 0434 465 789. Justin grew up in newsagencies and then managed one of my own newsagencies in Victoria before moving into software sales role at Tower. His email is justin@towersystems.com.au
Too often, small business retailers including newsagents think their payday will come when they sell the business. It won’t. Thinking it will stops too many retailers focussing on what matters most: daily profitability.
A valuable business tomorrow is built upon the profitable decisions you make today.
For this reason, I have long championed a simple, powerful mantra: Make every day your payday.
This principle sharpens your focus on the single goal of driving business value every day. It provides the lens through which you should evaluate every decision. I encourage you to ask yourself constantly: Does this action add to the profitability of my business today? If the answer is no, it’s worth asking why you are doing it.
The challenge, then, is how to put this into practice.
Here are the actionable strategies I recommend for building daily value in your retail business:
Take Ownership of Your Profitability
For me, this is the most critical step. Ultimately, the financial health of your business is your responsibility. It is easy to blame suppliers, landlords, or other external factors, but I’ve learned that profitability always comes down to the decisions you make and the actions you take.
A relentless and clear focus on daily profit is the most reliable path to growth. This is far more powerful than waiting for a potential payday from a future sale.
This entire approach relies on one crucial habit: measuring the performance of your business. Your POS software provides the data you need to make these informed, profitable decisions. Use it as the essential tool it is.
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I first shared make every day your payday 17 years ago when I saw that valuations of small retail businesses, like newsagencies, fall. This post today is refreshed and refocussed.
If you’d like to talk about this, I can be reached on 0418 321 338 or mark@newsxpress.com.au
There is relevant Australian data for August 2025 from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Monthly Household Spending Indicator. I think there are insights here for our channel.
Here’s a breakdown of the key figures and trends for August 2025 (seasonally adjusted, month-on-month change, current prices) direct from the ABS website:
Key Spending Categories (Discretionary and Others):
Now, for some context for newsagents:
Industry-specific reports for newsagencies suggest:
Overall, the August 2025 household spending data shows consumer activity moderating, particularly for certain discretionary goods, while services and some goods like transport saw increases.
After all that waffle, the question has to be: where is your business in this?
If your business performance is flat or declining, taking action, new action, is the only option. Continuing doing what you’re doing will continue with the results you have been experiencing.
In September 2025, compared to September 2024, unit sales were up 10% and revenue up 16% in our shop. Here’s the headline direct from our newsagency software.
This is a good result, well ahead of the channel average.
While our use of discount vouchers has helped drive this result, it’s the counter pitch, full place display of all lifestyle product and active engagement with the category overall that has helped drive this.
Cards remain a vitally important category for our businesses. Performance reflects investment in the business.
Too many newsagents leave the performance of cards in their shops to their card suppliers. This is a mistake.
If a newsagent says to me they are not happy with card sales, my first question is what are you doing about it? Typically in these situations they blame the card company or companies. This is a mistake. Here are easy things to do to grow card sales:
staff training is essential for maximising card sales. Ensure your team understands the importance of the card department and can effectively engage with customers. Providing product knowledge and sales techniques can significantly impact customer satisfaction and purchase decisions. By investing in your staff, you’ll create a more knowledgeable and confident salesforce.
Newsagents have more control over the performance of cards in. their shop than they often think.
Check your card sales for September 2025 over 2024. Look for growth in unit sales and revenue.
Australian newsagents hold a significant position in the greeting card market, accounting for somewhere around 35% of all cards sold nationally. As the largest single retail channel for greeting cards and with terrific gross profit margins of between 50 and 70%, cards are a cornerstone of the newsagency business.
Go on, check your September results.
Three weeks ago newsXpress announced to its members Project Deep Dive, an off-site three-day small group retreat for newsagents to unpack, assess and refocus their business, in pursuit of a brighter future.
The one retreat planned quickly filled, so we scheduled another.
The Deep Dive is a confidential off-site session for no more than 8 businesses (more likely 4) and some of the newsXpress head office crew. Each Deep Dive will be conducted in places like Wellington, New Zealand, Seminyak, Bali and Port Douglas, Queensland. While the locations may seem exotic, the objective is, as much as possible, to take people away from their world, to provide them space to look at their business with perspective, to find a valuable path forward.
Each day starts at 8am with 4 hours of business. Each participating business will have 20 minutes to present their business over the three days being transparent as to business performance, the local situation, opportunities and challenges. This will be followed by discussion of those businesses and workshopping options to fit the needs of the owners of the business.
Some will want to explore when and how to exit, others will want to discover new revenue streams, others will want to grow their retail footprint while others will want to turn their business profitable.
The goal of the deep dive is to offer a safe and confidential space in which all participating can work on each other’s business, consider opportunities and help plot a path forward.
I am keen for each participating business to come away with achievable action items they otherwise may not have discovered.
newsXpress is funding the meeting room, catering and accomodation for attendees. There is no fee to attend, no participation cost other than getting to the location.
Now, why am I writing about this here in this public place? I am considering making a Deep Dive session available to non newsXpress newsagents. If this interests you, please reach out direct and confidentially to me at mark@newsxpress.com.au. I don’t care if you are part of another group. What I do care about is that you want your business to thrive.
For any newsagent, member or not, who feels “stuck” or is seeking a new direction, this is an incredible opportunity. The value offered is disproportionately high compared to the cost required to participate. This project will be a huge success. We think others will copy it, which would be good.
Project Deep Dive is an exclusive newsXpress initiative.
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Mark Fletcher founded newsagency software company Tower Systems and is the CEO of newsXpress, a marketing group serving innovative newsagents keen to evolve their businesses for a bright future. You can reach him on mark@newsxpress.com.au or 0418 321 338.
As the delivery of magazines moves to one day a week, Tower Systems has published a training video covering how newsagents can easily handle this in the ir newsagency software.
The Tower newsagency software is used now by close to 1,900 newsagents.
Now while we’re talking about newsagency software, here’s what I think makes good newsagency software:
And so so much more than this list. Good newsagency software is all of this and more. It is flexible too, and constantly evolving given that the needs of the Australian newsagency channel are constantly evolving.
I know, I am biased. I founded Tower Systems and while I sold that business a year ago I remain actively involved. So, yes, I am biased. The thing is though, newsagents have noted and Tower is the industry standard.
This all matters because our channel is rapidly changing and you need software that can change with you, software than can serve the needs of an evolving business. Given the diversity of retail businesses served by its vertical market POS software, Tower can be of service to you.
Sure there are the newsagency specific needs, like changing the day of delivery ion magazines. The real opportunities like is time saving, strategic decision support and gross profit growing decisions you can make from the right newsagency software.
I own and run a newsagency and use the software daily. This is the biggest difference that Tower leverages for newsagents. I’m grateful to have owned and run newsagencies since February 1996. It was a game-changer then and continues to contribute to the software wonderfully today.
You can reach the Tower sales crew on 1300 662 957 or by email on sales@towersystems.com.au.
Halloween is a tiny season for newsagents yet for similar businesses in the US it is worth sometimes more than half the revenue value of Christmas.
Okay, the US has a bigger engagement with Halloween as a season. That’s no excuse. I know of newsagents in Australia who do thousands on Halloween related sales. This is a retail seasonal opportunity any newsagent can embrace.
In the US $12 billion is spent on decorations, costumes, candy, and greeting cards, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). It grows annually.
In Australia, the spend is reportedly around $450 million annually. According to The Australian Retailers Association, 20% of Aussies engage with the season.
Among retailers, especially newsagents, there is ignorance as to what engagement can look like. There is candy for sure, for kids out for that. There are costumes – an easy market for us. Then there is home decor for adults hosting Halloween parties. This home decor is a space in which our shops have had terrific success over the years.
You can choose to be at the discount variety any with cheap products, the mid level with a more thoughtful offering or at the high end with $1,000+ pieces. You can land where works best for you.
The thing is, most Aussie newsagents won’t land, most won’t be in the Halloween space, most will miss this opportunity.
I like Halloween in retail because it’s fun, financially successful and attracting new shoppers. In our Malvern shop on GlenferrieRoad our front window has people stopping. Plenty step in for a photo.
Now, the typical Malvern shopper is 70+, retired, conservative. They are not what you would think fits a typical Halloween shopper. The thing is, they love the display, get a smile from it and plenty bring others to show them.
This window placement of Halloween is getting the shop noticed by more people.
Our embrace of opportunities like this outside of what is traditional for newsagents is one reason we continue to enjoy double-digit growth in this business.
Any newsagent can embrace Halloween in the city or country, in the Main Street or in a shopping centre. Sure what we have done is a bit over the top. You don;t need to do this.
The keys with Halloween are to be bold, have fun and give shoppers an experience they will talk about.
I am certain that you could grow Halloween to be worth at least 50% of Christmas in your business.
Now if you do embrace Halloween, be sure to promote it outside the business.
This type of out of store marketing is vital to finding even more new shoppers.
The pressure to create a “perfect” Christmas in retail is immense. Forget all that. Right now, today, my suggestion is that you start a small conversation.
Walk outside with your A-frame sign and a marker. In big, friendly letters, write:
“HELP US SETTLE A DEBATE: When should Christmas music officially start?”
Underneath, make two columns: “November” and “December”. If you’re game, you could head a column “October”.
Leave the marker there for people to add a tick.
Or, do this on social media. Or, write it on your front window. or, put up a big sign in your shop. The key is: ask the question, invite engagement.
This isn’t about selling. It’s about connection. It makes people smile, starts conversations, and turns your shop into the heart of the town’s festive debate.
You don’t need a budget to create Christmas spirit. You just need to ask this simple question. Everything else grows from this first, tiny step.
I made this short video yesterday to show some newsagents I was talking with how to create and send a basic marketing email in Shopify. In the email I pitched a new silver coin celebrating the classic 1960s Batman car that we have at a website connected to my newsagency: www.mintcoinshop.com.au. Two hours after I sent the email we’d sold 9 of the Batman car coins – $1,890.00. The email generated $2,000.00 in sales of other coins.
Here’s the video:
I am sharing the video here to be transparent about the ease of sending a marketing email through Shopify. Originally, I made the video to be private and shared with a few. Today I thought why not show off this simple and successful opportunity.
Online is vital for the future of retailers today, especially newsagents where so much is changing about our businesses.
Now if you have a website and are not getting the traffic to and sales that you want, here are steps we suggest you consider:
A website is a hungry beast.
newsXpress offers its members access to a unique set of support services to help newsagents maximise the online opportunity. From strategic to tactical, newsXpress newsXpress difference for online success can add tens of thousands of dollars of gross profit.
No other group has the experience and tech skillset to offer what newsXpress offers newsagents. If this interests you, please email help@newsxpress.com.au.
I was looking through newsagent social media feeds this week and was surprised at how many newsagents give their marketing group control over the content on their local business social media, content published in the name of the business.
Almost all the centrally served content I saw was space filling rubbish, the kind of social media content people scroll past.
Nothing, no content, no posts would be better than this filler.
A promise that a marketing group will manage your social media for you or publish content for you is a bad offer for any local retail business.
The centrally controlled content I saw this week is the kind of content that results in newsagents being judged as out of date, as dying businesses.
Typically, this content is pitching low margin products over which newsagents have minimal control and from which they make agent fees and not valuable retailer profit.
If you have given a marketing group control over your social media post, my opinion is that you should disconnect them from this, that you should take control for your own social media content. Reflect you and your local business in your posts.
Have fun.
Give something of yourself.
Stop trying to sell.
Entertain.
Show your local difference.
Here are 3 key reasons you should control what your business posts on social media:
If you are not sure what I am talking about, go search the social media pages of newsagents you know. Maybe you ‘ll come across the junk posts to which I refer earlier. I won’t name a group to search for because I don’t want another letter from their lawyer. But they are bad, for sure, a waste of time, a waste of pixels.
As a local shop, one advantage is people. Let people connect with people. Consider this type of content:
Celebrate your local community:
Offer content that adds value:
Yes, I know all this sounds like hard work and you feel you don’t have time.
So what?!
You chose to own and run a newsagency.
Make the time.
Investing in the public face of your business is one of the most valuable investments you can make. Delegating this to someone else, maybe someone far far away from your shop, is a mistake since it would be like delegating responsibility for the success of your local business.
Leek at what you’re posting on your social media. Make it yours, make it local, make it something of which you can be proud.
Stop outsourcing the heartbeat of your business. That generic content is a waste of pixels and a public declaration that you’ve given up on personally connecting with your customers. Taking control is non-negotiable work. It’s the difference between being a passive agent for national brands and being the owner of a local business that actually matters to its community. Make the time, make it yours, and make it count.
