A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Author: Mark Fletcher

Take customer privacy seriously

A newsagent supplier last week published information on their website about a customer of theirs. That information also included the name and address of a customer of the newsagent supplier customer. This post was a serious breach of privacy.

Take care when posting on your website, Facebook, Instagram or any other public platform to ensure that the privacy of your customers any others is not breached. The consequences of a breach can be very serious.

I let the supplier know. they too some measures to correct the breach but not enough in my view.

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Newsagency management

Are Christmas card sales slow at Typo or was 5 for $10 always part of the plan?

typoxmasI was browsing the Christmas card spinner at Typo in Brisbane late yesterday when a staff member said hey, right now our Christmas cards are five for $10, it’s a great deal. Her delivery was exceptional, if felt like a personal recommendation. It was perfect.

Christmas cards five for $10. These are hip cards too. They look like designer cards.

I wondered if Typo’s Christmas card sales were slow and this was their was of picking things up. Then I noticed the collateral promoting the offer – professionally printed, down the side of the spinner. No, this offer was part of a plan all along.

Typo is using Christmas to extend the reach of their businesses, to educate more that they are an ideal destination for people looking for greeting cards.

It’s working – from in front of the shop I could see it was packed.  I counted twenty-five people shopping, all under 40.

If you get a chance, check out the tough competition at Typo, they are doing it well.

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Competition

Another good newspaper fixture

ww-newsI like this newspaper impulse unit I saw at a Woolworths in the heart of Brisbane late yesterday. It has a small footprint, can hold plenty of product and can be easily moved.

I am more likely to use a unit like this than the bigger and more cumbersome units traditionally suggested to newsagents by newspaper publishers.

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Newspapers

Too many Christmas food magazines

magsxmasWe have too many publishers publishing Christmas-themed specials. Some are publishing two and more. While I understand that publishers see this as an opportunity to extend the reach of their brand, we retailers need space to do the titles justice.

Our shelves are overflowing with Christmas themed titles.

I doubt we will see a net increase in sales of Christmas themed magazines. The extra range is driving churn among the titles and not making us any more money.

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magazine distribution

Coles and magazines

colesmagsCheck out the magazine display unit at a Coles in downtown Brisbane yesterday – three pockets for their house freebie. Maybe it’s there for storage or maybe it’s part of a plan to attract readers from other titles. I don’t recall seeing this in other Coles’.

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magazines

When you’re short of magazine space

noroomCheck out how a Woolworths in Brisbane handles being short of magazine space – they turn a pocket into something less and cramp stock in anyway. Recipes+ is one of several titles treated this was in the Woolworths in Brisbane I visited yesterday.

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magazines

A timely reminder about discount policy

There are some newsagents currently running an ink sale where the sale prices are their regular prices. It’s not a sale. The discount claim is a breach since the ‘discounted’ prices are the everyday prices of the newsagents involved.

The Age today has an article about this behaviour of retailers advertising things being on sale or discounted when they are not. Read the article if you discount.

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retail

How to cut your end of month magazine bill

magreturnsThis photo shows some of the magazines I took off the shelves for early return in one of my newsagencies on Saturday in my weekend cull.

Every Saturday I review all magazines on the shelves, considering the stock on hand, the length of time on the shelves already, the pressure on space and sales history.

The extent of the cull as shown in the photo is average for a Saturday.

Why Saturday? The pace in the shop is different, headspace is different, it’s a management function that for me works best away from everyday.

This is how I manage my magazine accounts – by culling to serve the needs of my business as opposed to the needs of publishers and distributors. The culling is considered, careful – focussing on monthly and longer on-sale titles, not top sellers but second tier and beyond titles.

If I am unsure about early returning a title I check sales history – I don’t want to cut myself out of certain sales.

I take care with publishers who actively support the newsagency channel and are fair in their allocations, publishers like Pacific Magazines.

The weekend cull an opportunity for a fresh eyes view. Being done by the owner of the business clarifies the goal – managing your magazine account.

I trained a newsagent on the weekend cull strategy recently and the result is a 50% cut in their magazine bills and no loss of sales. In their case this has freed up more than $10,000 in working capital, cash that was tied up in the systematic oversupply merry-go-round that is newsagency magazine supply.

If you are not doing this type of cull already and follow my advice, let me low how much cash you free up.

Note: I recommend against early returning the day stock arrives as there is nothing to be gained from this – unless you see gross oversupply.

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Ethics

Another example of Bauer Magazine oversupply

peoplemagI don’t want to be in a position to write this blog post. No, I want fair and justified magazine supply. I don’t want unjust treatment that is not based on data facts.

My story plays out in thousands of newsagencies each week, costing our channel millions of dollars. It disadvantages us.

Click on the image – see for yourself evidence of Bauer oversupplying People. For no reason they increased our allocation by 1 copy. Okay 1 copy is not massive. But it is unnecessary, a waste and a cost to my business.

This is another example of the waste of newsagents sending sales data.

Actions like this increase in supply make us look stupid for working hard to send accurate sales data.

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Ethics

See, promoting at the counter works!

hmksnowLast Friday I wrote about the placement of this Hallmark Christmas snow globe at the counter and how lighting three globes up made it more noticeable. One customer purchased three, others purchased singles. Showing how a product works at the counter pays off.

Yes, we can grow sales in our newsagencies by being smart and engaged with our products!

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retail

Sunday newsagency management tip: act on trends in your business

In the context of the discussion of the future of lottery revenue last week, trends are important in your business planning. Newsagents can access data trends in their businesses that can guide wise business decisions. Unfortunately too often newsagents ignore this opportunity.

Look at unit sales for cards, magazines, newspapers and compare the sales volume, not revenue, year on year and see how you are tracking. Break this down by supplier and by category for different views of the data. There is considerable value in looking at the same data set through various angles.

Look for trends good and bad.

The data from your business will not lie. It can be trusted more than your gut feel. It can be trusted more than what suppliers tell you since they go off sell in data and you are looking at sell through data.

Consider the trends to set your short and medium term plans. If sales in a category or segment are down, what can you do about it? If sales are up, how can you leverage that for growth? Your data should guide your actions … use it!

If you’re still with me – GREAT STUFF! Many newsagents would have clicked on by now as a call to use business data to guide business decisions is a boring topic many would fall asleep to.

The truth about newsagency business data is – the newsagents achieving the best growth are more likely to be making decisions based on their own trend data while those in declining businesses are more likely to never look at trend data. Which one are you?

I’d be happy to help anyone on this.

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Management tip

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: walk your products outside your shop to attract shoppers

Picking up on my post yesterday about the new customers I attracted when I put Henry in the front seat of my car to drive him from the shop to the office here is my newsagency marketing tip for today …

Grab a products and take it for a proud walk outside your shop. Of course, the product needs to be big and noticeable. It also needs to be something you would not usually be seen carrying. Plus it should be something that makes people feel good.

A nice big plush item works well – as I found with Henry. A collection of Doctor Who memorabilia could work as could a large Frozen doll or a stack of calendars with a cute dog calendar facing out for people to see.

The point here is fort you or a team member to become a walking billboard without you being seen to be a billboard. Subtlety is the key here. The more real your action in walking the product the better chance of someone engaging with you.

As I found with my time with Henry, people who otherwise might not see you notice, they talk to you.

This is an easy to try marketing idea that costs nothing but a bit of time outside your shop enjoying the sunshine.

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marketing

Attracting shoppers to the newsagency

Here’s a video of a large Christmas music box playing in a retro TV case at the entrance to our newsagency. We have it for sale but we also have it playing to attract shoppers – it’s doing this with terrific success.

xmas from mark fletcher on Vimeo.

It’s a thrill watching people walk tower the newsagency to see what it is. Their faces light up when they hear the music and see the actions play.

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marketing

Nothing like a good magazine relay to reconnect with a core category

magrelayI relayed the magazines at one of my newsagencies today – for the first time in six months. The photo shows the new back wall after the relay. This wall targets our male shoppers – it is on the back wall of the shop, to lure them down to the back and past cards and gifts.

If you look at the photo you can see how I have segmented categories and how I have used some titles as a beacon for those segments. While most titles are full face displayed, there is some covering for small volume titles.

I’m using the flat stack area for some impulse lines.

In doing this relay I followed my own How to do a magazine relay advice.

yes, magazines are an important traffic driver. Regular relays and co-location work are vital to being seen as the magazine specialist in the area.

Click on the image for a large version.

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magazines

The odd situations in which we newsagents find ourselves and discovering new customers

henryIn the car park at Westfield Knox City on Thursday I was watched by an old couple as I put Henry in the passenger seat or my car and buckled him if for the ride to the office.

I felt they were judging me as I buckled Henry in rather than tossing him on the back seat with other items from the newsagency.

It turns out they weren’t judging me. They are collectors and knew the collection Henry is part of. They were happy to see me treat Henry as I would a person. We chatted for a bit and they were happy to find out that we have more of Henry’s family available at the newsagency.

The experience was a reminder of how our behaviour outside our shops can be a reflection on the business. In this case I now have a couple, collectors of high-end plush, who could become regulars as a result something they saw me do in the shopping centre car park.

This car park contact could be worth easily $1,000 a year based on their annual collection investment.

It is easy to see what we sell as barcodes (SKUs the majors call them) when, often, they are more real and more emotionally valuable to our customers. It was a trill to see what Henry meant to this couple, to see they joy they have for others like him.

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Plush

Disney products popular as Christmas gifts

paragonWe’re having terrific success with Disney products from a range of categories including these books. This stand in the photo is one of several pitching Disney products including Frozen licenced products.

Frozen is an excellent way we can connect magazine, gift, toy and card sales and thereby maximise the basket opportunity.

While some everyday suppliers to newsagents have frozen products, you need to engage outside the usual mix of suppliers to our channel to make the most of these opportunities. This is an area where proactive marketing groups can make a difference for newsagents – by curating ranges and opportunities around popular licences.

I’m in a centre competing with majors who are well established in this space and while competition is tough, that we are able to pitch into their space is working well for us.

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Gifts

Timely People’s Friend special edition

pfwarThe Great War under branding of The People’s Friend is timely not only for commemorating the war but also because it makes for a wonderful Christmas gift for those who love The People’s Friend brand.

We have this one-shot title placed next to The People’s Friend as you can see in the photo. The full face display is vital for this title.

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magazines

Coverage of the Tatts / Coles story

There have been plenty of stories this week about looming sunset of the five year moratorium that protects lottery agents in NSW. Much has been written about the fear of Coles and Woolworths getting lottery products. Here are some of the stories:

While I applaud newsagents getting media coverage and fighting about this, I urge them to plan for a business with diminished lottery revenue as that is what will give them a better future.

As I have noted here already, sure Woolworths and Coles getting Tatts products would hurt, however – the migration of the regular lottery customer to online will hurt more. This is the big issue and there is nothing newsagents can do to stop that migration given the ease with which we can make online and mobile purchases of non physical product.

Online will take more lottery revenue out of the newsagency channel over the long term than Coles and Woolworths.

I am concerned that newsagents investing in the supermarket fight are not protecting their businesses from bigger and more challenging issue.

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Lotteries

Talking about supporting all things Aussie

platyI cringed when I say this Christmas decorated platypus as part of our Christmas pitch. Yes, I am not my customer buy seriously? Talk about mocking an iconic native Australian mammal. My initial cringe intensified when I realised the indigenous style artwork – it clashes with the Santa hat. If they sell I’ll be shocked, I will have to rethink plenty.

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Gifts

Another reason to not like Coles

colesimportI have noticed that Coles supermarkets are stocking more imported lines, especially in parts of the business where local products used to dominate.

Most recently I have noticed biscuits from the UK that are less than half similar style and size biscuits made in Australis. Yesterday I noticed these chocolates – also from the UK and also much cheaper than Aussie made equivalent product.

I don’t know how Coles is doing this, bringing product from around the world, from a country with relatively high labour costs and putting it on the shelves for less than local product.

Part of our job as local newsagents is to spread the shop local story. Key in that story is supporting Aussie businesses wherever possible.

In our case we have sourced several Australian confectionery and chocolate makers to help us pitch local in this space. With two Coles outlets in our centre, understanding the differences we can pitch in this locally-sourced product area will help us as we increase our pitch on this in 2015.

I visit Coles a lot to look for opportunities like this. I think Australians want to support local businesses – as retailers we need to help them do this.

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confectionary

The Christmas space shortage helps drives sales

mugsLike every retail newsagency business this time f year we have no spare space. Indeed, our gift area is so full that we have to put this beautiful range of boxed mugs at one counter. The thrill is that they have been selling. Better than expected. Yes, people are purchasing these premium mugs on impulse having come to the counter with other items.

Who said the counter is only for lower cost items people will purchase on impulse.

Sometimes changes are forced to make show us things about what sells where that we had not anticipated.

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Gifts

Lighting up products at the counter to drive sales

hmksnowShowing people a product in use is far more valuable than showing it not in use. Take this terrific light-up snow globe from hallmark that is part of their exclusive North Pole range. Placing it at the counter and lit up works a treat. People notice. They comment. They buy. This is a perfect example of showing. With the lights off these snow globes look okay. With the lights on they looks stunning.

Us having the lights on is a point of difference for us. I guess, that is, until our competitors read this blog.

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Gifts

All things Disney driving sales at Christmas

dcakesWe have Disney products in store from seven suppliers and it’s all working a treat – including the Christmas themed edition of the Disney Sweets & Cakes partwork. While this is the lowest margin Disney products we have, we are leveraging it as the add-on purchase to other Disney hero products including the excellent Frozen range.

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partworks
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