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

Author: Mark Fletcher

Sales Rep Visits In-Store Are a Waste of Time in Most Cases I Think

How long do you give a sales rep who wants to meet to pitch a new range? I give them none. Send it to me in an email instead.

That’s not me being rude. It’s a decision I made after noticing how much time these visits were eating, and how little most of them changed what I actually stock. Twenty minutes here, forty there, add it up over a month and it’s a working day gone, mostly on ranges I was never going to take.

An email pitch has to work harder, and that’s the point. If you want my shelf space, tell me:

  • What the range actually is, in a few lines, not a slideshow. If it takes ten minutes to explain, it’ll take my customers longer to understand.
  • The evidence behind any claim you’re making, sales data, a case study, something I can check. “Retailers love it” isn’t evidence.
  • Who the target shopper is, specifically, not “everyone.”
  • How this range gets me in front of shoppers I’m not already reaching. Recycling the same faces already through my door doesn’t count.

A rep standing in my shop can talk around all four of those. An email can’t hide as easily, and it doesn’t cost me the time it takes to be polite while it happens.

Something else: a lot of rep visits are social, on purpose.

Reps and the companies behind them know retailers often buy from people they like, and that this counts for more in the decision than it should. A friendly half hour costs them nothing and buys a lot of goodwill, goodwill that shows up later as shelf space the product hasn’t earned.

So the question worth asking yourself: how much time do you actually spend with sales reps in an average month? And when did you last sit down and work out whether that time is buying you better ranges and more sales, or just buying the rep goodwill at your expense?

If you haven’t audited it, that’s the exercise. Not every visit is wasted, some earn their keep, but you won’t know which until you actually look.

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Newsagency management

What Do You Do When “Australian Made” Quietly Stops Being True

For years, we backed a supplier whose whole pitch was Australian made. We believed it, and used it, in our stores and in our marketing to customers who care where things come from.

Then we found out the manufacturing had moved to China. No announcement, no change to the packaging except for a single small print sentence, nothing on the website. We found out because we went looking.

That’s the part that stuck with us. A business that changes something this material to its customers, then says nothing, already knows how those customers would react if they found out.

So we went quiet too. We found a new supplier, one that actually makes the product locally, told them directly why local manufacture matters to us and our customers, and made the switch.

If a supplier moves manufacturing offshore and doesn’t tell you, that silence is the answer. They already know what you’d decide if you knew.

A few things worth checking if you carry products built on an Australian-made story:

  • Ask suppliers directly, and periodically, where the product is actually made. Packaging from two years ago doesn’t tell you much.
  • Watch for small wording shifts, from “Australian made” to “Australian owned” or “designed in Australia.” The change usually shows up in the fine print first.
  • Line up an alternative before you need one. Switching suppliers on your own timeline beats scrambling once customers start asking questions you can’t answer.

We’re not naming the supplier here. This isn’t about calling anyone out. It’s about the fact that “Australian made” is a claim customers trust you to have actually checked. When it stops being true, the business behind it owes you an update. Whether they give you one is up to them.

This experience has changed how we deal with suppliers now. We take extra care on manufacture location for those items for which this does matter, where we are likely to promote locally made.

If you make a shop local pitch when promoting your business, locally made will matter to you for sure. Start by doing an audit of the items you think are locally made. You might be surprised, as we were.

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Uncategorized

If you are feeling challenged by Payday Super

If payday super is creating a cashflow challenge for your business, you need to work on your business. That sounds rude, I know.  It’s true, though.

Since 1 July 2026, employers must pay super guarantee into staff accounts within 7 business days of each payday. The quarterly float is gone. Weekly wages now mean super leaves your account weekly.

The quantum of obligation hasn’t changed, only the timing. It was always your employees’ money. Paying it out when it’s owed just means your business is now in step with when it’s actually due.

If payday super exposed a cashflow gap, that gap already existed. The old quarterly cycle was just hiding it.

What to do now

  • Forecast cash weekly instead of quarterly. Track super the same way you already track wages and stock payments.
  • Talk to your bank or finance partner early. A short-term facility to smooth the transition is a normal planning step.
  • Review your pay cycle. Moving from weekly to fortnightly payroll, where it suits your team, cuts the number of super payment events each month.

Penalties and the ATO’s approach

Errors attract the Super Guarantee Charge: 25%, rising to 50% for repeat issues. The ATO says it will take a more supportive approach in year one for businesses making a genuine effort to pay on time. Use that grace period to fix your process now.

Advice on improving cashflow.

If you’re a regular here you’ve probably seen this advice before. In my experience working with newsagents here are the best steps you can take to free up cash in your business. My advice is to do all and compound the benefits:

  1. Quit dead stock. Free up cash, space and time. Get into something that works!
  2. See if theft is an issue and if it is: fix it!
  3. Reduce your out of stocks.
  4. Trim the roster.
  5. Know what’s working and do more of that.

Reach out for advice. There are plenty in our channel who can help resolve cashflow challenges. It starts with putting your hand up.

…
Mark Fletcher founded newsagency software company Tower Systems and is the CEO of newsXpress, a marketing group serving innovative independent retailers, including newsagents, who continuously evolve their businesses to be enjoyable, relevant and successful. You can reach him on mark@newsxpress.com.au or 0418 321 338.

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Newsagency management

Your Google Business Profile in 2026: what’s changed, what’s still true, and one thing to fix

This advice first went to newsXpress members 3 years ago. It went to ALNA members after that. I’m sharing an updated version here to reach more newsagents, because I went back and checked it against Google’s own current guidelines and against what’s actually changed since it was written. Most of it holds up. One part of it doesn’t, and it’s worth fixing today.

It’s still free. It still takes a few minutes, not a consultant. And local search still converts better than almost anything else you can do with your time.

Why this is still worth doing

Roughly 46% of all Google searches carry local intent, and some 2026 estimates put that closer to 50%. Of the people who run a “near me” style search, 76% visit a business within 24 hours, and 28% of local searches end in a purchase. Local search is mobile-heavy too: around 70% of these searches happen on a phone. A complete, active Google Business Profile is how you show up in that moment.

One thing to fix: your categories

Here’s the part of the original advice that needs correcting. It said to select as many categories as apply to your business, on the basis that retailers too often pick just one. Google’s own current guidelines say the opposite: choose the fewest categories it takes to describe your core business, as specifically as possible, and don’t add categories just to cover more search terms.

Categories aren’t a keyword list. They’re meant to answer “what IS this business,” not “what does it sell.”

If your profile has picked up five or six categories over the years to catch every possible search, it’s worth trimming back to the two or three that most specifically describe what you are. A newsagency that also sells gifts and cards is still a newsagency, just with specific, accurate secondary categories, not a business wearing every hat in the shop.

What’s changed since this was first written

Posting no longer requires a third-party tool. Google Business Profile now has scheduling and recurring posts built directly into the posting screen: set a post once, choose “weekly” or a custom pattern, and Google keeps publishing it for you. Tools like Loomly, Sendible or OneUp still work fine if you’re already using them, but they’re no longer the only way to plan ahead.

The business description limit is 750 characters, not 750 words. Google displays roughly the first 250 characters before a customer has to tap “read more,” so put the important information first. Google’s guidelines also ask that the description itself not read like an advertisement: no “everything on sale” or price call-outs. Save the sales pitch for your posts, and use the description to say plainly what you are and what you offer.

Posts can technically run up to about 1,500 characters, but the data on what actually gets read and clicked favours something much shorter, well under 300 characters, closer to a tight paragraph than a full page. If you’ve been writing longer posts, trimming them will likely help rather than hurt.

What hasn’t changed

Posts still archive after six months, same as when this advice was first written, and profiles with something posted in the last week or so are the ones that show up looking active. That’s the real reason to keep posting weekly rather than setting and forgetting. Hashtags still do nothing on Google posts, so don’t bother. And the core advice against handing this over to a marketer or a friend still stands: you know your shop and your customers, and that’s worth more here than someone else’s template.

New this year: Gemini can now help run your profile

The one genuinely new development since last year is that Google connected Gemini directly to Business Profile, for single-location owners, from June 2026. Once connected, you can ask it things in plain language: how did my business do this month, help me respond to this review, or post something about our new stock this week. It can draft, and you can edit before anything goes live.

This doesn’t change the advice about doing this yourself rather than outsourcing it. Gemini is a tool you point at your own knowledge of your shop, not a replacement for it. It’s worth trying, particularly for retailers who found the interface itself the biggest barrier to getting started.

The short version

Set up or claim your profile if you haven’t. Pick the fewest, most specific categories that describe your business, not the most. Write a plain, accurate 750-character description with the important part up front. Post about one product a week, with a photo, in a couple of short sentences rather than a couple of paragraphs. Keep doing it yourself.

It still costs nothing, and it’s still one of the highest-return things a small retailer can do this year.

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Newsagency management

The Bon Scott 80th Birthday 2026 1g Gold Minted Bar is an easy $325.00 sale

Coins and bullion are too often misunderstood. 

A newsagent I was talking with this week complained that coins are a slow-moving category: something for the handful of customers who follow the gold price and buy a bar or coin every few months as an investment. That’s an incomplete picture, and it undersells what these products can do on your shelf.

The Perth Mint’s Bon Scott 80th Birthday 2026 1g Gold Minted Bar is a good example of why. On paper, it’s a small gold product: 1 gram, 99.99% pure, $325, with a mintage cap of 5,000. Sold as bullion, that’s a niche item for a niche customer. But it’s not who’s buying it.

AC/DC fans love it. Bon Scott fans love it. People who appreciate Australian music love it. Oh, and people buying gold as an investment love it.

We sold 20 of these bars in two days, online, and 80% of those sales went interstate, from customers who have never set foot in our shop and probably never will. That’s not local foot traffic buying gold. That’s fans finding a product because it spoke to them, not because they walked past a cabinet and had five minutes to kill.

This bar carries the Bon Scott crest, the words “BON SCOTT 80 YEARS,” and comes packaged in his touring tartan with his photo and signature on the sleeve. For an AC/DC fan, that’s not an investment product. It’s a piece of music history they can hold, tied to a birthday that will never be celebrated the usual way. At $325, it’s an easy purchase for someone who already owns the albums, the t-shirt and the vinyl reissue, and wants one more thing that means something.

If you’re only thinking about coins and gold bars as a bullion category for a small, older, price-watching customer, you’re leaving sales on the table. Licensed and themed releases, tied to music, sport, film or anniversaries, reach a younger buyer who cares about the story, not the spot price.

Magazines and lottery keep shrinking as a share of newsagency revenue, which makes this category worth a proper look.

Our future will be in products that you wouldn’t;t associate with a newsagency of twenty years ago.

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newsagency of the future

How Many Newsagencies Are There in Australia? Industry Size & Store Numbers

There are roughly 2,500 local newsagency shops operating in Australia in 2026, and the newsagency industry is worth about $1.8 billion in annual revenue.

Now, some will disagree with this number so I want to explain how I reached 2,500. I considered the data I have access to from the Tower Systems dataset (Tower is the biggest software company serving the channel) as well as insights from the major magazine distributor and my own decades of experience working with newsagencies and my tracking of store closures over the lats 10 years.

Store numbers have fallen from just under 5,000 in 2000, but the surviving network is substantial and, in transformed stores especially, healthy.

Counting is imprecise because agencies, sub-agencies and standalone lottery agents can sometimes be lumped together. This page sets out the size of the Australian newsagency industry — revenue, store numbers, employment and the long-term trend — with sources, so you can see where the commonly quoted figures come from and why they differ.

Australian newsagency industry: key numbers (2026)

Measure Figure Source
Industry revenue (2025–26) ~$1.8 billion IBISWorld6
5-year revenue trend Declining ~5.2% a year IBISWorld
Number of businesses (IBISWorld count) ~1,750–1,784 IBISWorld
Number of local newsagency shops (industry estimate) ~2,500+ ALNA / Tower7
Broader lottery + retail + distribution agents 4,000+ ALNA (ACCC)8
People employed ~15,800–20,000 VANA / ALNA9

References:

  1. IBISWorld, Newsagencies in Australia, https://www.ibisworld.com/australia/industry/newsagencies/5495/
  2. Mediaweek, ABC report that newsagency sector in decline, https://www.mediaweek.com.au/abc-report-that-newsagency-sector-in-decline-fails-to-investigate-closures-claims-retailer/
  3. ALNA, Australian Lottery and Newsagents’ Association ACCC submission (April 2018), https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Australian%20Lottery%20and%20Newsagents’%20Association%20(April%202018).pdf
  4. VANA, newsagency industry statistics, https://www.vana.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Newsagency-industry-Statistics.pdf

Why the store-count figures disagree

Estimates of how many newsagencies exist in Australia range from about 1,750 to over 3,000. The gap is real and comes down to definitions:

  • IBISWorld counts registered businesses in the newsagencies industry classification: around 1,750–1,784.
  • ALNA and POS software providers count operating retail newsagency outlets: 2,500 or more, described as the biggest independent retail channel in Australia. This is the number that I consider to be most accurate as it is from on the ground experience.

Broader agent counts (including sub-agencies, distribution agents and standalone lottery agents) push past 4,000.

A retailer with a lottery terminal, an Australia Post agency and a magazine account can look like a newsagency without being classified as one — which is why headline “decline” numbers should be read with care.

The long-term trend in store numbers

Year Estimated newsagencies
2000 ~5,000
2007–08 ~4,635
2016–17 ~3,150
2026 ~2,500 (operating shops)

Long-term decline in newsagency numbers. Historical figures via Wikipedia; current operating estimate via ALNA / industry sources.10

The direction is clear — fewer stores over 25 years — but the network that remains is significant. Australian newsagents still sell close to half of all magazines sold in shops and around a third of all greeting cards sold nationally.

Is the newsagency industry dying?

No, it is transforming. Industry revenue is declining (around 5.2% a year through 2025–26 on IBISWorld’s measure, which I think is problematic) because legacy categories like newspapers, magazines and tobacco are shrinking, and even lottery sales are moving online (40%+ now direct to consumer).

Transformed newsagencies — those leaning into gifts, cards, specialty stationery and emerging lines — are growing revenue and basket value. The decline is concentrated in stores that have not changed their model.

Frequently asked questions

How many newsagencies are there in Australia in 2026?

There are roughly 2,500 operating local newsagency shops in Australia. IBISWorld counts around 1,750–1,784 registered newsagency businesses; industry bodies count 2,500 or more retail outlets, and over 4,000 when broader lottery and distribution agents are included.

How big is the Australian newsagency industry?

The Australian newsagencies industry is worth about $1.8 billion in revenue in 2025–26, according to IBISWorld, and has been declining at around 5.2% a year over the past five years.

How many people do newsagencies employ in Australia?

10Wikipedia, Newsagent, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsagent

newsagencyblog.com.au • Page 8 of 9

Estimates range from about 15,800 to 20,000 people, depending on whether broader lottery and distribution agents are included.

Are newsagencies in decline?

Store numbers and industry revenue are falling, driven by declines in print, tobacco and in-store lottery sales. However, transformed newsagencies focused on gifts, cards and specialty lines are growing, so the decline is uneven rather than universal.

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newsagency of the future

Terminal Connect issue for XchangeIT

Newsagents are experiencing challenges with Terminal Connect via XchangeIT. It started mid morning. The folks at XchangeIT are aware of it, and are working on it.

This is not a newsagency software issue.

5pm update from XchangeIT:

We have just heard back from our hosting company, AC3 regarding the connectivity issues that our Terminal Connect stores were experiencing today.  Their engineers identified an issue in one of their Sydney data centres and they sent the following explanation:

“Today, between 11:41am and 2:25pm, AC3 Infrastructure in a Sydney data center experienced network degradation, resulting in intermittent connectivity issues for some client internet traffic.

The issue was identified and investigated by our engineering teams, with service restoration completed at 2:25pm. Services are now operating normally, and we continue to monitor network performance to ensure ongoing stability.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused and appreciate your patience during this incident.”

We can see that the Terminal Connect service is normalising, but will continue to monitor it.  We have sent an email to all Terminal Connect stores advising that the service has been resolved.

Apologies for the inconvenience this issue caused on a busy Powerball day.

 

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newsagent software

Newsagency Revenue Mix in Australia: Then vs Now

In the 1980s and 1990s, print media (newspapers and magazines) drove around 30% of a typical Australian newsagency’s revenue. Today, print is under 10% in a well-run store, while greeting cards, gifts and specialty lines now carry the business.

The category mix has shifted from print-led to gift- and card-led, and the stores that made that shift are growing while those that did not are declining.

This post sets out the revenue mix of an Australian newsagency then and now, using benchmark data from stores across the country. The figures below are representative ranges drawn from ongoing sales benchmarking, not precise averages for every store.

Newsagency revenue mix: 1990s vs 2026

Category 1980s–1990s (typical) 2026 (typical, transformed store)
Print media (newspapers + magazines) ~30% Under 10% (often 5–8%)
Greeting cards ~30% ~25%
Stationery ~20% ~10%
Gifts / toys / plush Small ~25–35%
Specialty & emerging lines Minimal ~22–25%

Representative revenue mix. Lotteries are typically excluded because commission income is accounted for separately. Stores with coffee and / or food can see up to 50% of revenue from that single category. Stores with clothing can see it account for 25% of revenue.

This its data I have collected from the benchmark stories I have undertaken with newsagents for 20+ years. each study considers sales data from many newsagency shops and reviews hundreds of thousands of shopper baskets. Real data.

What the current benchmark data shows (2025–2026)

Recent benchmark results make the divide between traditional and transformed newsagencies clear. The same categories that are shrinking in a print-led store are growing in a gift- and card-led one.

Metric Traditional store Transformed store
Total revenue Down ~4% Up ~3%
Average basket value Down ~2% Up ~10%
Gift revenue Down ~3% Up ~9%
Greeting card revenue Down ~4% Up ~4%
Stationery revenue Down ~4% Up ~3%
Magazine unit sales Down ~13% Down ~8%
Newspaper unit sales Down ~13% Down ~9%
Online revenue $0 Typically $75,000+ a year

Category-by-category: what is growing and what is shrinking

•Newspapers. In structural, terminal decline. Over-the-counter unit sales fell around 13% in 2025, and up to 13% in capital-city stores.

•Magazines. Down 10% and more in unit sales overall, with mainstream weeklies and monthlies falling fastest. Special interest, puzzle and hobby titles are far more resilient (see previous note).

•Greeting cards. A cornerstone category. Australian newsagents account for around 33–35% of all greeting cards sold nationally, at gross margins of roughly 50–70%. Some newsagents are growing card sales more than others.

•Stationery. Everyday, functional stationery is patchy; niche and specialty stationery (journals, fringe lines) performs well.

•Gifts, toys and plush. The growth engine. Gift revenue up around 9–10% in engaged stores; toys and plush also growing.

•Lotteries. Still a major traffic and commission driver for many, but with around 40%+ of lottery sales now moving online, direct to consumer.

•Emerging lines. Coffee, homewares, clothing and collectibles are generating real money in transformed stores — some close to $100,000 a year from a single category.

Recommended revenue mix for a modern newsagency (2026 targets)

Category Target share of revenue
Cards 25%
Gifts / toys / plush 35%
Stationery 10%
Magazines / newspapers 5–8%
Other / emerging 22–25%

Frequently asked questions

What percentage of newsagency revenue comes from print media today?

In a well-run Australian newsagency in 2026, print media (newspapers and magazines combined) accounts for under 10% of revenue, often 5–8%. In the 1980s and 1990s it was around 30%.

What is the biggest revenue category in a modern newsagency?

Gifts, toys and plush combined are now the largest group in transformed stores, at roughly 25–35% of revenue, followed by greeting cards at around 25%.

How much of the greeting card market do newsagents hold?

Australian newsagents sell around 33–35% of all greeting cards sold nationally, making them the single largest retail channel for cards, at gross margins of about 50–70%.

Are newspapers still worth stocking in a newsagency?

Newspapers drive some foot traffic but contribute little profit and are in structural decline, with unit sales falling around 13% in 2025. Most transformed stores keep a reduced range and redirect the freed-up floor space to higher-margin categories.

Is a newsagency a good business to own?

Yes, if you are not bound by what a newsagency business sold in the past.

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newsagency of the future

Collins Debden has a journal range that works for the male journalling opportunity

I’ve been talking a while about the male journalling opportunity: young guys 15 through 35 who are journalling more now than ever.

Anyway, here is a new video from me about a terrific range from Collins Debden: https://youtu.be/aP4dyCswFGU

Now, if the opportunity of selling journals to young guys is new to you, here’s more context:

Journaling has shed its old image. It’s now widely treated as part of a healthy lifestyle, and one of the fastest-growing groups taking it up is younger men, roughly aged **18 to 35**.

AFL footballers are journaling and talking about it openly. Olympians describe it as part of how they manage performance. Outside sport, plenty of people talk about journaling as a mental health tool and a way to build a steady daily routine. Whatever’s driving it, the trend is real, and it’s showing up in what customers are asking for at the counter.

## Why structure matters for a first-time journaller

Handed a blank notebook, most people freeze after the first page. What gets someone journaling regularly isn’t a nicer cover. It’s a bit of structure to work from until the habit sticks.

Collins Debden has built a range around exactly that idea, called Jumble. It includes titles such as Routines, Doze, Passion, Flex, Thankful and Believe, each built around a single clear theme.

Take the Passion journal as an example. Once the marketing slip comes off, the layout does the work. There’s space to sum up the week in one word, simple prompts with small icons to circle covering how the week felt, the hurdles overcome, the ways people supported each other, and a favourite memory, then open space for free notes alongside.

Routines follows the same logic from a different angle. It asks for a main goal for the week, the steps to reach it, weekly habits to track, and a quick read on mood and energy. Both journals, like the rest of the range, come with a sticker sheet.

A little scaffolding at the start makes it far more likely the habit sticks, and that’s really the whole idea behind the range.

## Why this is worth stocking

Collins Debden is an established international publisher of diaries and journals, and the Jumble range is a solid place to start for any retailer looking to serve the male journaling market. It gives a first-time journaller somewhere obvious to begin, rather than a blank book and good intentions.

It’s also worth talking about on social media. Local men’s sheds, mental health groups and community organisations are exactly the kind of audience who’ll want to know these journals are stocked nearby, and a short post is often enough to put your shop on their radar.

To find out more about opportunities like this, get in touch with the team at help@newsxpress.com.au.

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Newsagency opportunities

Why newsagents can’t afford to run old software anymore

Software security has changed more in the last eighteen months than in the previous five years, and small retailers, like newsagents, are squarely in the firing line.

Newsagents handle sensitive data: EFTPOS transactions, lottery and gift card sales, loyalty accounts, customer details. Running old software is a commercial risk to your business and to the people who shop with you.

What’s changed

Cyber criminals have worked out that small businesses are easier targets than large ones, and just as valuable.

According to the Australian Signals Directorate’s Annual Cyber Threat Report for 2024–25, the average cost of a cyber incident to a small business rose 14% to $56,600. The ACSC’s cyber security hotline took more than 42,500 calls that year, up 16% on the year before, and the agency issued over 1,700 warnings about malicious activity targeting Australian organisations, an 83% jump. Read the full report.

Payment security rules have tightened. PCI DSS 4.0, the standard that governs how businesses handle card payments, made a set of new requirements mandatory from April 2025, including multi-factor authentication for anyone accessing systems that touch card data. If your POS provider hasn’t talked to you about this, it’s worth asking.

Attackers are going after software supply chains too. Industry research on retail breaches found close to a third involved a compromised third-party vendor rather than a direct attack on the retailer, nearly double the rate from the year before. A weakness in a POS provider, a payments processor, or an IT support company can expose every retailer connected to them.

And a lot of small business software is older than it should be. Security researchers still find point-of-sale systems running operating systems that stopped receiving security patches years ago, because “it still works” felt like a good enough reason to leave it alone. Unsupported software is an open door. Nobody is watching for weaknesses in a system the vendor stopped maintaining, and attackers know it.

The businesses ransomware groups target most aren’t the ones with the least valuable data. They’re the ones with the least resistance.

Why this matters more for newsagents specifically

Most newsagents have grown beyond newspapers and magazines. Gift cards, loyalty programs, mobile recharge, lottery accounts and card payments all run through the same till, and all of it depends on software that’s connected to the internet, connected to your bank, and often connected to a support provider with remote access to your systems. That’s real exposure. It’s a profile attackers look for: valuable transactions, limited in-house IT support, and a temptation to delay updates because the shop is busy and the software “still works fine.”

What keeping software up to date means

Keeping software current is more than clicking “update” when a pop-up appears. A few questions worth putting to your POS provider or IT support:

  • Is your point-of-sale software still actively supported, with regular security patches, or is it running on an older version the vendor no longer maintains?
  • Is multi-factor authentication switched on for anyone who can access your systems remotely, including your support provider?
  • How quickly does your provider apply security patches after they’re released, and do they tell you when they do?
  • Are your backups tested, and stored somewhere separate from your main system, so a ransomware attack on your till doesn’t take your records with it?

A short checklist for your shop

None of this requires becoming a cyber security expert. A few habits make most of the difference:

  • Turn on multi-factor authentication on every account that offers it, not just your bank login.
  • Keep the operating system and browser on any device connected to your POS current.
  • Treat unexpected “urgent” emails about supplier invoices or EFTPOS settings with suspicion, and verify by phone before acting.
  • Back up your data regularly, and keep at least one copy separate from your main system.

Treat your POS software the way you’d treat your shop’s front door: locked, current, and not something you put off dealing with because business is busy. The retailers who get hit hardest are usually the ones who assumed it wouldn’t happen to a shop their size.

Now, here are some valuable sources:

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Newsagency management

The sale that walked out the door

A customer walks into a local shop looking for NeeDoh, one of the best-known names in sensory play. Out of stock. The assistant holds up a generic off-brand substitute when asked of they have NeeDoh.

No but, we have these off-brand products.

Right next to that substitute, on the same shelf, sits a full range of Crazy Aaron’s Putty, a premium brand that does exactly what Nee-Doh does. They don’t point it out. The don’t ask what the customer actually wants, or offers to let them try it.

If you’d rather head about this, here’s a video that I made today reflecting on the experience.

The shopper turns and leaves with nothing

The shop has lost a sale it didn’t need to lose.

Why how we engage matters

Shoppers rarely walk into a local store for one planned purchase. They browse, and they react to whatever catches the eye. People buy sensory and novelty lines for all sorts of reasons: arthritis relief, sensory needs, or just something to fidget with at a desk.

That’s exactly why these products deserve better than a spot near the counter as an afterthought. Stock the brands people recognise, know the range, and be able to talk about it like you mean it. That’s what turns a browser into a buyer.

What went wrong

A team that doesn’t know its stock, its trends, or its alternatives well enough to mention them naturally will lose sales like this one and never notice it happened.

An out-of-stock answer with no real alternative can be enough to lose a customer for good, along with every repeat visit and word-of-mouth recommendation that would have followed.

Independent retailers compete on service. Every interaction either builds the relationship or ends it, and there’s rarely a moment in between.

What good service looks like instead

It doesn’t take much to turn this around: a mention of the putty on the same shelf, a question about what the customer actually needs it for, an offer to try before they buy, or just a heads-up that new stock is on its way.

The takeaway

Train every team member to treat a stock shortage as a chance to offer something else, not a dead end.

Independent retailers can’t compete with the majors on price, but they can out-curate and out-serve them, provided staff know the range well enough to make a recommendation without having to think about it.

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retail

5 ways your newsagency can profitably deal with the award wage increase, a rent increase and the surcharge ban

Award wages went up 4.75% on 1 July. Rent is tracking 4–5% higher for most. From 1 October, the RBA surcharge ban means card fees you were recovering from customers need to be absorbed or built into prices. The combined hit is around 1.5% of turnover for a typical newsagency — real money when margins are already thin.

Here are five ways to recover some of it, using tools already in  newsagency software.

1. Reprice the stock you control

Magazines and newspapers are priced for you. Stationery, gifts, art supplies and general merchandise are not. If you have not looked at those prices recently, there is a reasonable chance you are undercharging.

A smart stock manager lets you update prices across a category in one pass, in bulk, accurately, safely. Some newsagencies mark up stationery at 100%; others run 125% and see no drop in sales. Worth checking where you sit.

A small increase of 1% across what you control might get you nicely into positive ground.

2. Stop entering invoices by hand

Five to ten hours a week on manual invoice entry is a full day of wages, every week, on admin. AI invoice arrivals imports supplier invoices directly — no typing, fewer errors, no chasing up mistakes.

Those hours go back to the counter or to something that actually earns revenue.

3. Clear dead stock

Stock that has not sold in six months typically accounts for 10–15% of total inventory value. It is taking up shelf space, paying rent per square metre, and returning nothing.

The software flags these lines. Get them out through clearance, supplier return or bundling, and the capital goes back into stock that moves.

4. Find your stockouts

Missed sales are invisible unless you look for them. The insights dashboard makes them visible: it shows the dollar value of sales lost because a product was not in stock when a customer wanted it.

Match that with automated reordering and the lines that drive your sales stay on the shelf.

5. Use theft detection tools

Theft typically accounts for 3% – 5% of newsagency turnover. Most of the volume is customer theft; the highest individual losses tend to be internal.

The audit log and early detection tools in the software catch discrepancies well before a stocktake would. Earlier detection means a smaller problem to deal with.

Contact the Tower Systems team at sales@towersystems.com.au.

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Newsagency management

“Support local” is a guilt trip, and it’s not working – are you wasting your time on it?

Walk down any street or go on social media and you’ll see the signs in the windows our read the words.

Support local. Shop small. Keep it in the community.

We say it to each other too and we say it to shoppers every chance we get.

It doesn’t work. It never has. I think a lot of us know that and keep doing it anyway, because it feels like we’re doing something.

The problem is what “support local” actually asks. It asks the customer to do you a favour. It puts your need in the middle of it, not theirs. Shop here because I need you to, because if you don’t I might not make it. Nobody wakes up wanting to prop up a struggling business. They wake up wanting a good card, a gift that works, a quick errand done well. You’re asking them to pay in guilt, and people don’t like paying in guilt.

It’s worse than just useless I think. It quietly tells the shopper you might be in trouble. It casts you as the underdog who needs a hand. That’s not a reason to come in. If anything it’s a reason to wonder how long you’ll be around. Are you looking for a pity party?

What does pull people in? The boring answer, and the true one. Being good at it.

Have the thing they actually came for. Know their name, and remember what they bought last time. Be quick when they’re in a rush and happy to chat when they’re not. Make the place a pleasure to walk into instead of a duty. People go back to shops that are good to them. They don’t go back out of pity. The few who come in once because they felt they should don’t come a second time.

Give them a reason that’s about them, not you. A range that’s worth the trip. Staff who know their stock cold. A shop that feels like a place rather than just a spot to hand over money. Do that and you never have to ask anyone to support local. They shop with you because you’re the better option, and they tell their mates, because people talk about a shop they love and nobody talks about a charity case they helped out.

Now the bit we don’t say out loud.

Plenty of the retailers shouting loudest about supporting local don’t do it themselves. Coffee from the drive-through chain. Printing ordered online because it was a few dollars cheaper. The weekly shop at one of the big two. Shopfittings, uniforms, the lot, bought from whoever came up first in a search, none of it from anyone nearby.

Walk into some of these shops and ask where they bank, where they buy their own gear, where they had lunch. The answer tells you the whole story. They want a loyalty they won’t hand over themselves.

Customers pick up on that. Maybe not in words, but they feel it. A shopkeeper who actually lives the line is convincing without a poster, because the whole shop runs on it. One who preaches it on the door and breaks it everywhere else is just another sign in a window.

So before you print the next poster, have a look at your own card statement. If you want a town where people choose the independent option, be that customer first. Spend up and down your own street. Use the local tradie, the local supplier, the cafe round the corner. Not out of guilt. Because it’s the world you keep saying you want, and you can’t ask anyone else to build it while your own money’s going somewhere else.

Be worth shopping at, and back the others having a go at the same thing. That’s the only version of supporting local I’ve ever seen actually work.

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Newsagency management

New Year New You: Stop Watching a category decline that you built your shop on

Watching a category shrink is a slow kind of frustration. Not overnight. Gradually, a few titles at a time. Fewer customers asking. Numbers that used to feel unremarkable now feel like something worth explaining at the end of the month.

For most newsagents, that category is magazines. For some, newspapers. For others, lottery products, as customers move to buying online. The specifics differ. The feeling is familiar.

The question is not whether the decline is real. It is what happens to the floor space, the margin budget, and the foot traffic that category used to carry.

The instinct is to hold on

Magazines once drove daily foot traffic. Newspapers brought customers in before 8am. These were not minor parts of the business — they shaped the layout, the staffing, the rhythm of the day.

Protecting what built the shop makes sense. But holding floor space for a shrinking category has a real cost. Every metre could be working harder.

What is actually working in newsagency businesses right now

Greeting cards are probably the best example. Customers still want to buy them in person, and a well-curated section with decent replenishment consistently performs. The category does not get talked about much but it delivers.

Gifts and homewares have become a genuine revenue contributor for many stores, particularly where the range is local, seasonal, or hard to find online. Not generic gifts — product the owner chose because they know the customer walking through the door.

Stationery (smart stationery especially), arts and crafts, and activity products have a much bigger audience than they did five years ago. That shift is still underexploited in a lot of stores.

Advice on making the shift

Rebalancing a shop is not a quick fix. It means rethinking the floor plan, finding new suppliers, and testing product lines that may not work before you land on ones that do.

The first move is usually to reclaim the space rather than fill it. Look at which sections are underperforming per square metre. Reducing a magazine section from 12 bays to eight can free up real floor without dropping the category.

After that, test small. A limited range, careful sell-through tracking, then let the numbers guide the next order. Filling space with volume before knowing what the customer actually wants is an expensive habit that is easy to fall into.

If your POS system is not clearly showing you what is turning and what is sitting, that is worth fixing before any buying decisions. The data is there — it just needs to be used.

And talk to other newsagents. The community shares information more openly than most retail sectors. What is working two towns over may be exactly what is missing from your range.

If you;re in a marketing group, start there – they should be all over this and giving you actionable practical help. Are they?

The shops struggling did not decline because the category did

They delayed the response. The ones doing well moved earlier, tested more, and were willing to look different from what they used to be.

A newsagency does not have to be defined by what it sold in 2005. The customers are still there. The question is whether the shop gives them a reason to walk in.

…
Mark Fletcher founded newsagency software company Tower Systems and is the CEO of newsXpress, a marketing group serving innovative independent retailers, including newsagents, who continuously evolve their businesses to be enjoyable, relevant and successful. You can reach him on mark@newsxpress.com.au or 0418 321 338.

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Newsagency management

Not another boring EOFY post

No. Not from me.

You already know the required stuff. Run the stock listing, take the backup, ring the accountant. You’ve read that post a hundred times and you’ll read it a hundred more this week. I’m not adding to the pile.

What interests me today is the other list. The one you never write down. The jobs you keep meaning to get to and keep finding a reason not to. New financial year tomorrow, so it’s as good a night as any to stop dodging them.

Start with the dead stock. You know exactly what it is. You walk past it every day and your eye slides straight over it, because you stopped seeing it months ago. It’s been sitting there a year doing nothing. Mark it down hard, bundle it, give it away if that’s what it takes, but get it off the floor and put something that actually sells where it was.

Then have an honest look at your hours. Are you open at times nobody comes in, just because you always have been? In there from eight when the first real customer turns up at half nine? Trading Sundays for a figure that doesn’t cover the cost of being there? You can reorder stock. You can’t reorder the hours of your life, so spend them where they count.

The roster is the same question, and it’s a harder one because it’s about people you like. Are you rostering for the trade or for habit? Two on when one would cope? Be fair and be kind about it, but be straight with yourself about what each shift brings in.

Put your prices up. There, I’ve said it. You’ve been frightened of it for years, sure the customer will walk. Most won’t even notice. The few who do were never the ones keeping the lights on. You were never the cheap option and you were never going to win that fight, so stop pricing like you’re in it.

And bring in something mad, new. Something fresh, something with no business being in a newsagency, something that stops a regular in their tracks to ask what on earth it’s doing there. Back a hunch. Take the punt you’d usually talk yourself out of. Worst case, you mark it down next EOFY with the rest of the dead stock. At least you’ll know.

None of this is on the required list. That’s the whole point. Get one of these done and next year is genuinely better than this one, not just compliant.

So before you flip the calendar, pick one. Just the one. Be ruthless about it. Start the next when that’s sorted.

Happy new financial year.

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newsagency of the future

One sale, or three hundred newspapers

Sell a newspaper for $3.50 and you make about 12.5 per cent. That’s 44 cents in your hand. Sell a $250 item at 55 per cent and you make $137.50.

Do the division. One $250 sale is worth more than three hundred newspapers. You could sell a paper to every adult who walks past for a week and still not match what one good sale puts in the till.

We all know this. So why do we keep leaning on the 44 cents?

Because the paper is easy. The customer comes in, knows what they want, pays, leaves. No risk, no money tied up, nothing riding on your judgement. It feels like business because it’s busy. But busy isn’t the same as making money, and the newspaper proves that every single day.

The $250 sale is hard, and it’s hard in two ways we don’t talk about honestly.

You have to find the item first. That means backing your own read on a range, spending real money on stock that might just sit there, giving it decent space and light, and waiting. Some of it won’t work. You’ll buy the wrong thing now and then. That’s the price of playing in the part of the shop where the money actually is. The paper never asks any of that of you, which is exactly why it pays you 44 cents.

Then you have to find the shopper. And here’s the bit that stings. That shopper is already in your shop. They come in for the paper, or the lotto, or a birthday card. You see them twice a week. You know their name. It has just never crossed your mind that they’d spend $250 with you, because somewhere along the line you filed them as a paper buyer and left them there.

They’ve filed you too. Years of selling them a paper has taught them what you’re for. They don’t look at your good stock because they don’t think of you as the shop that sells it. So they buy the $250 thing somewhere else, from someone who bothered to see more in them than a paper sale.

That’s the real work. Not just buying the right product. Looking again at the people who are already in front of you, and shifting what they think you’re for.

The maths was never the hard part. The habit is.

Now, what is the gift item you sold was worth $1,500? yes, there are ‘newsagents’ doing this.

…
Mark Fletcher founded newsagency software company Tower Systems and is the CEO of newsXpress, a marketing group serving innovative independent retailers, including newsagents, who continuously evolve their businesses to be enjoyable, relevant and successful. You can reach him on mark@newsxpress.com.au or 0418 321 338.

8 likes
Newsagency management
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