We are all set to end our jigsaw focus in January with a celebration today of WORLD PUZZLE DAY. As well as in-store promotion we are also promoting this online as we have had terrific success attracting new shoppers for jigsaw puzzles, especially harder to get products such as 18,000 piece and more puzzles.
The jigsaw shopper is loyal once they trust your commitment to their passion.
Calendar and card company Andrews McMeel is to close their Australian office as announced today. Many newsagents sell their quality and sought-after products. Here is the announcement including a further update:
ANDREWS MCMEEL PUBLISHING OFFICE CLOSING
US Publisher Andrews McMeel is closing their Australian office.
Local Managing Director, Deborah McQuoid will manage the transition of the business until the end of March, 2016. All AMP staff member positions have been made redundant.
”Andrews McMeel Publishing US will maintain an ongoing direct book distribution arrangement with Hardie Grant Books and they are currently looking at potential ways to support AMP calendar customers in Australia and New Zealand “stated Deborah MCQuoid. “The business however will no longer be served by a local office”.
Paperblanks, which has been managed through the AMP office, will continue independently with no changes to sales or distribution. All contact details remain the same. Tel 02 9904 5200.
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Update:
With regards the Calendar program for 2017, the US are setting up a couple of alternative arrangements. Stores will be able to purchase AMP calendars via Ingram and the US
has confirmed a deal with Brown Trout for local distribution of selected AMP lines including licenses and the popular Day to Day formats.
I love this BuzzFeed list from Scott Bryan: 15 Secrets Newsagents Won’t Tell You.
Thanks to Steve Denham for pointing me to this.
We have had an extraordinary January thanks to the January is Jigsaw month promotion from newsXpress.
Not only have unit sales been excellent but the gross profit – 62.5% – has helped drive higher overall gross profit performance for the business.
The promotion has attracted new traffic and leveraged impulse purchases from people entering the business to purchase other items.
The excellent result has been achieved through thoughtful buying, out of store marketing and continuously fresh in-store promotion.
Whereas two years ago we did not sell jigsaws, today it is a important product category for us, something for which we have become known.
Since we refuse to engage in the race to the bottom that is Back to School, we are glad to have a promotion that is blue ocean, something no one else near is is doing. The results are well worth it: new traffic, high margin, popular.
Newsagents who ask how they can grow their businesses, how they can confront the challenges we sell elsewhere in the newsagency model, ought to look at opportunities like this, opportunities that are left-field, non-traditional. With careful buying, good displays and limited external marketing you can create success for a category you are not known for, from a category newsagencies are not known for.
Ask yourself – what am I doing today that is different for my business and for my type of business. If your answer is nothing them you are on a downhill slide to lower margin and less traffic. Seriously. It is that black and white.
Now, in 2016, more than ever before, you have to innovate. Not just in one part of your business but in many. You have to try completely new products through which you can pitch a new voice and attract new shoppers. You have to do this with commitment. And once you have done it you have to do it again and again.
We are in an era where success in small and independent retail comes from many many small steps. There is no one big thing.
This terrific success we have with jigsaws will be repeated but there will be more new things, more new products and opportunities through which we redefine the business through the next phase. This is the world today, continuous change. There is no destination. And that is something to love about these times.
The Star Wars themed Colossus Crosswords from Lovatts is a title you could place with Star Wars related product in-store. This single and simple move could be enough to get more people considering the title than if you leave it with all your other crossword titles – that are only browsed and considered by people wanting a crossword title.
It is action newsagents will take if they want to grow magazine sales.
We have to do this, we have to look at title covers and ask ourselves what we can do to get this issue noticed. Such consideration is beyond the masthead. It is about this cover itself.
The December 2015 quarter was tough for many newsagencies, especially with print media products. Here are the year on year same store comparison numbers.
Benchmark results by key departments:
While these numbers do not reflect good news for the channel, the positive side of the numbers are good for the businesses reporting them. For example, close to half newsagencies reported a decline in greeting card sales while almost the same number report growth. The difference between the two, the gulf, is considerable. Allowing for local situations, there is a point difference of eight between the average decline and the average growth. This is considerable. The businesses achieving 6% year on year growth from high margin card sales are in a different situation than those experiencing 2% year on year decline.
Look at gifts, the story is similar but even more complex. While the gam between those reporting growth and those reporting decline is considerable, more than ten points, that 32% of newsagents do not have a gift department is alarming given their greeting card sales. Even more interesting is the difference in gifts sold. Whereas in an average newsagency, gift revenue is equal to around twenty percent of card revenue, there are newsagencies where gift revenue is more than double card revenue. These are businesses aggressively pursuing change.
I saw data for one store that is a stunning turnaround. Indeed, the result was so good I made a YouTube video about it and other stores in this benchmark group: https://youtu.be/f-YilFlFG68
In my own newsagency: My key category numbers off a good base, are: Books: up 500+% due to trend chasing. Diaries: up 219%. Cards up 19%. Gifts up 60% and account for 15% of sales; Magazines down 1% and weeklies down 3%; Stationery up 5%, Plush up 18% and accounting for 9.15% of sales. Traffic: down 2%; Average Sale Value: up 9%; Average Item Value: up 11%.
2016 OUR YEAR TO EMBRACE
Success is there for the taking in any newsagency situation. I firmly believe that. In cities and country towns. In shopping malls and on the high street. We, each of us, can make our own success by embracing change and being serious about how we run our businesses – through the deliberate choices we make.
We have more control over our businesses than ever before. What we do with this is up to us. The trends affecting us are obvious. Our future is ours to own.
Please take this benchmark report as a call to action. Make 2016 the year you want.
Take a careful look at this photo and see the value of thoughtful product placement. Click on the image to see a larger high-res version of the photo.
Look at the squirrel: he is looking up at the acorn-like ornament being held by a hand above his head. The hand is attached to a larger figure outside the photo. This thoughtful placement places each item in a connected scene. The scene represents a story. It is theatre, in-store.
Rather than lining products up as you see in mass retailers, this display is more thoughtful, more entertaining and more engaging. It is the type of display you see in a higher end homewares or gift store. It is a display newsagents selling gifts could do. All is takes is thoughtful engagement with the products you purchase with care, with a view to telling a story.
Telling a story like this requires obsession with storytelling, in the belief that the story will drive sales. It does drive sales. I saw it for myself.
We can’t be average in visual march rising choices we make in our newsagencies for average makes shopping with us unmemorable and there is no commercial future in that. We have to thoughtfully buy and thoughtfully engage on the shop floor.
Looking around my newsagency a couple of days ago I saw plenty of opportunities for this level of engagement. Opportunities for linking products, even products outside the same departments. All it took was inspiration from this squirrel display.
Footnote: a reader messaged me asking why write this on Australia. Well, many newsagents are working and with most businesses closed I figured content that challenges might get more attention than at a busier time.
We have been clearing out colour themed products at the sales counter, items that appeal this time of the year and that customers notice because of the colour blocking. It is fascinating seeing people impulse purchase notebooks from this counter location. The actions are a reminder of the value of thoughtful counter placement in the newsagency.
Go down to the back of your stationery department, yes, down the aisle to the quietest part of the shop. Dig out items like these that will look good placed next to each other. Have a crack it driving impulse purchases of stationery from the counter.
Just as you notice a speed hump as it gets in the way of a smooth drive, shoppers notice items they do not expect as they go abut their day to day business.
This is all about to being average.
I could only find two Australia Day themed magazines in the newsagency on the weekend. I’m sure we had plenty more a few years ago. We have given these two a bit of sunshine in the lead up to today. On Australia Day, I am glad I god to view the Stan Grant speech. It is a must see.
I heard a story tonight of a newsagent being put under pressure by another party approaching the landlord with a better deal for when the lease expires. This newsagent could lose their business as the landlord says they have no legal obligation to offer them a new lease even though no payment has ever been missed another shop has always been fresh and exciting.
Those operating in and around our channel that do this, try and grab businesses built up by others, by going direct to the landlord need to be exposed for the unethical people they are. Hopefully, the world punishes them.
I don’t know how things will pan out for this newsagent. Hopefully, they get to keep their business on reasonable terms, they deserve to.
Plenty of our suppliers are closed today, giving their employees a long weekend leading into Australia Day tomorrow. While it may suit them, their closure reminds retail newsagents of the disconnect between suppliers and our seven day a week businesses. Smart suppliers are open today.
I did a full-on magazine relay in the newsagency on Saturday, in the middle of the day, while the shop was busy with customers. The relay was unplanned. It started out as me venting frustration and ended up with a fresh magazine layout to challenge regulars, drive sales from them and those shopping with us for the first time – and with my frustration resolved.
Getting into a hot and sweaty mess doing the work and then seeing the outcome, I was reminded that a magazine relay can be the single most effective marketing activity we can undertake for magazines.
It makes us more house proud.
It demonstrates us managing magazines.
It reflects our specialisation.
It frees space for other activities.
It trains our team.
It teaches us about magazines.
Once I processed the frustration that got me started I had a good time. I love a good magazine relay. I finished the job with a sense of achievement and pride. I also got to implement a couple of ideas to shake things up, to pitch magazines differently to what we have done in the past.
In the photos you can see magazines tossed on the floor. This is how I do it. I have found by tossing them around like this I have to be more thoughtful when rebuilding the display and this leads to a better outcome.
Click here to see my latest advice on how to do a magazine relay.
I urge all newsagents to do a magazine relay every six months. The result is a fresh pitch for magazines in-store, better product knowledge, greater shopper engagement and a reinforcement to you and your team members that you are magazine destination, that you take the category seriously.
Newsagents need to do the magazine relay themselves. This demonstrates leadership. It also demonstrates your commitment to the category. Okay, I get that you want more than 25%. The thing is, your margin is what it is. You probably bought your business knowing it was 25%. Suck it up. Make the most of it. Use magazine traffic to help the rest of the business. A magazine relay is a step toward making this happen for you. You doing the relay yourself is you being serious about being a newsagent – whatever that term means now in 2016.
Regardless of what you achieve sales and traffic wise form a magazine relay for the business, you will feel a sense of accomplishment and that, in itself, is terrific. The accomplishment comes from you exerting more control over your business, from you making your business your own.
Okay this is a challenging challenge, fraught with danger. But think about. When was your card unit last completely emptied and cleaned? The answer is probably when you last changed card companies or installed new fixturing. A clean shop is a good shop. Consider, carefully, taking cards down, cleaning and rebuilding – with all cards going back in the right place. I saw a retailer doing this last week and was inspired.
Ask most Australians where they would got to purchase an 80th birthday card and most would say a newsagency. We are known for specific captions far more so that supermarkets with limited ranges. We ought to celebrate our unique captions by hosting events – like an 80th birthday party one afternoon. Or a 90th birthday party or a 100th birthday party. Get known for celebrating the wisdom of those of age and, at the same time, reinforcing our businesses in them minds of shops buying cards for these folk.
Use a wall or a nook or some part of your shop where you use colour on the wall to be bold, noticeable and as a backdrop for you making fresh moves to reposition your business. This photo shows one retail supplier using black as a backdrop for a bold homewares display. Stunning. Inspirational.
Click on the image to see the detail.
APN sent this email to affected newsagents in North Queensland at 5:28pm last night. While the email provides a week’s notice on a price rise, anyone working with newsagents would know that an email late on a Friday is not a smart move – if they want newsagents to be properly informed about the contents. Newspaper publishers need to get better at their email communications.
Click here to see the letter to newsagents from News Corp’s Herald and Weekly Times re the upcoming Dr Seuss promotion supporting the Herald Sun and the Geelong Advertiser. I am sharing it here for newsagents in other states to see another example of professional communication sent our early enough for proper preparation for what loos to be a terrific promotion.
I am looking at various shops where I can play with the retail model and found this one last night. It looks perfect for what I want. This look is exactly what I am looking for in a retail shell – natural, clean lines, visual texture and a beautiful ceiling. Now, to negotiate.
I wonder is sticker placement resulted in a headline of MASA’S HIGH PRIC for some.
I love this poster at Midtown Comics. They love and appreciate magazine customers.
Magazines are allocated to us with the goal of us not selling out during the on-sale. I don’t mind selling out. In fact, I would prefer it. I’d manage space respecting the weekly titles. Here is how Midtown Comics in New York manages space allocated to regular titles:
When I heard Colin Powell was keynote speaker for the National Retail Federation conference in New York this week I wondered about his retail connections. Sure he was involved in shopping for weapons but what about retail and, in particular, small business retail.
As it turns out, Powell was a terrific keynote speaker. From stories of his years as a teenager working in a New York toy shop through to his thoughts on leadership, he was relevant. Click here for a more complete (and professional) report on the speech.
The point I like the most is one about delegation – giving people parameters and allowing them freedom to operate within the defined parameters. I like this because I see opportunities in newsagencies for more delegation, for giving junior and casual employees authority for parts of the business, to encourage them to take the business places not envisaged by often tired and old-school leaders.
Leadership is a tough gig, especially in this world of faster and more comprehensive change, and a world of more demands from and for employees. Indeed, the changes today around leadership are as considerable as the changes around and in the traditional Australian newsagency model.
From a newsagency channel perspective, the biggest mistake of those claiming to lead through associations is their obsession with leading relating to legacy products and processes. There is no future in that. Powell talked about lading for the future, leading to be relevant to the future.
This is a conference newsagents would have got plenty from.
Already this year we have the considerable news of the closure of Network Services, the closure of Cleo magazine and Dolly magazine cutting half its issues. Now there is speculation of the sale of the Sunday Times newspaper in Western Australia to Seven West Media.
I have been told many times over the years by News Corp. stalwarts that the Sunday Times held a special place in Rupert Murdoch’s heart. If it was sold there would be some Murdoch watchers who see the move as prescient.
Disruption and consolidation is to be expected in the continuing print media circulation declines. The last quarter of 2015 is among the worst I have seen for magazines – more on that in the next couple of days.
On newspapers, we must be very close to a decision by some publishers to cut the number of days they print or to cut the print product altogether. My understanding is falling ad revenue is the key factor in such consideration.
The consolidation we have seen already and that anticipated ought to drive newsagents to work harder and faster on their own future as too many still rely on print product for much of their traffic and relevance.
The changes we are seeing should not worry us or cause newsagents to question closing their businesses. Rather, they are opportunities to re-define our businesses for a brighter future around the points of difference we wish to drive. Indeed, the changes are not unexpected.
