Coles is offering newsagents a reminder to get in early for Australia Day product with this aisle-end displays in supermarkets of a range of Australia Day themed products.
While I know newsagents who will sell Australia Day products, most would not have it out yet. By going out now, Coles is grabbing business ahead of when we would traditionally embrace season.
I like the Lovatts dream holiday competition. It’s offering an ideal prize for the Lovatts customer. The pitch is easily understood thanks to a good design.
The floor display unit I saw a couple of days ago promoting it, while not holding product that well, stood out and should help drive sales. The WIN headline caught my eye.
With floorspace being expensive and in high demand I’m not sure I could hold the space for the stand for more than a few of weeks – if I was given a stand.
Click on the image for a larger version.
The Rockhampton Morning Bulletin today talks down lotto to its readership. This same newspaper relies on lotto retailers, newsagents, to promote its product to their customers.
Newspapers are happy to report stories that put other products in a negative or difficult light but rarely embrace the opportunity to do the same about their own product.
I am sure there is another angle the newspaper could have taken with the data on lottery wins.
In the week before Christmas I took time to watch customer interaction with the bill payment / parcel post kiosks at an Australia Post outlet in a shopping centre where I have a newsagency. These are the new kiosks, the ones newsagents will need to compete with if they want to play in this space.
In this busy retail week before Christmas the kiosks did what they were designed to do – serving customers completely away from the counter. I watched six people do transactions. Four appeared to know what they were doing and two seemed to be new to the kiosk. Those new to the kiosk soon sorted it out. The technology guided them. Paying bills and posting parcels seemed very easy.
That people could do all this from the kiosk without staff involvement is a point of difference newsagents wanting to play in this space will need to confront. The other point of difference is the kiosk solution itself – this kiosk is elegant and is packed with everything necessary for true self service.
I appreciate some newsagent long after being able to offer a bill payment service. If that’s you take a look at what Australia Post offers. It’s impressive.
Read what Andy Nulman has written for the Huffington Post about migrating his magazine reading from print to digital. Then this story from The New York Times from a few days ago about people who love special interest magazines.
It’s easy for us to focus on the bad news in magazine sales as reflected in audit results for weekly titles. There is plenty of good news for magazines. Not only in special interest titles but elsewhere. Many of us have good news in our data.
In December, my weekly magazine sales were up 1% year on year in a whole of month comparison with December a year earlier. Women’s Interests: up 18%; Sport & Leisure: up 18%; Home & Living: up 19%; Children’s: up 21%.
In each of our businesses is data indicating growth opportunities with magazines. What we achieve is, in many respects, up to us.
US trade journal AdWeek looks at whichUS weekly magazines may change frequency following the recent announcement that New York will switch from weekly to bi monthly publication.
If you’re a watcher of Rupert Murdoch you’ll like Rupert Murdoch: 10 reasons he’ll be back and stronger than ever in 2014 from Murdoch biographer Michael Wollf. Fascinating
Facebook’s so uncool, but it’s morphing into a different beast is an excellent article by Daniel Miller (Professor of Material Culture at University College London) published last week at The Conversation. Newsagents using Facebook to promote their businesses should read this article.
Understanding the generational shift in Facebook users can help us better target our use of the medium and guide consideration of other mediums.
While we’re still running the Boxing Day sale and will do so for another week, we have consolidated the sale items to one part of the shop reset the other parts of the shop to make the most of the change in shopper traffic that the school holidays bring.
We pay attention to the counter and the other points where shoppers stop: weekly magazines, newspapers – plus on the way to these points.
The photo shows one of our counter positions. The shelf packed with dogs is being topped up daily. Yes, customers do purchase dogs on impulse, adding these $$20.00+ items to their basket.
The customers most likely to engage with these carefully placed products and those who do not usually shop with us. This time of the year more than half our customers are not regular – so getting product placement right for impulse purchase performance is crucial. Get it right an you can bank excellent results.
It’s this time of the year when we play the most outside the traditional newsagency model.
We have been a Parcel Point outlet since the launch of the service in the newsagency channel. I like their drop-off service – where people wanting to return something to a retailer bring it to us for collection by the courier. It’s been interesting being part of the online Christmas rush with parcels being collected and others being returned. The process in each direction is easy.
Parcel Point has made finding pick up and drop off locations very easy vie their website.
While I write here from time to time that I don’t want to rely on agency business, the Parcel Point arrangement is simple. It cost nothing to get involved. The space requirements are small too.
A bonus is that the relationship is between Parcel Point and your business – there is no middle party taking a clip.
The start of a New Year is a good time to take stock and discard excess baggage from your business, making it leaner and more focused on what you want/need the business to be.
Each of us should look at our businesses carefully, and consider cutting, / quitting the areas that are not contributing in any measurable way.
Historically, newsagencies have been general, diverse, businesses. Whereas in the past this has served us well, specialisation is king in retail – if you don’t want to compete with the supermarkets or discount variety stores.
If you’re not sure about specialisation, take a look at Smiggle, Kikki.K and Typo. These stationery-focussed businesses each target a different segment of the stationery marketplace. Then, in general stationery, we have Officeworks, Office Choice, Australia Post, Supermarkets and others.
Whereas newsagents used to own stationery, we kept doing our old thing while the world changed around us. Our percentage of stationery sales in Australia has slipped considerably over the last 10+ years.
So, what are you doing in an old-school way in your newsagency that is not paying its way, that you could cut co you can be more of a specialist / destination retailer? What excess baggage can you discard?
Think about it carefully. For example, some newsagents will say cut magazines. I’d say this would be dangerous since we have a better range than anyone else and magazines continue to generate excellent traffic for us.
Like I said, think about it carefully. Each of us will have a different answer since it’s about our businesses in our local situation.
In the past, in the older retail environment, our channel could act as a channel. Today that’s not relevant unless there is contractual compliance that gets all trading under a common name performing at exactly the same level. The closest we have to that in the newsagency channel in Australia is Newslink and WH Smith.
Contracting from doing a bit of everything to being more of a specialist retailer is important for us to consider.
Happy New Year! May your 2014 be fun, satisfying and prosperous.
While the best personal resolutions are those we keep to ourselves and work toward without being all look at me, people and businesses with common interests can gain from sharing resolutions that serve our common goals. With this in mind, here are resolutions / goals I have for the newsagency channel for 2014:
Please, add more resolutions that can serve our channel as a whole by us collectively engaging.
A senior media adviser to the WA Premier yesterday contacted me re my blog post about reports of a sale of Lotterywest being on the government agenda. Here is what they said:
Please note the State Government has not stated that Lotterywest is being considered for sale. The story you refer to on WAToday was incorrect. Comments from the WA Treasurer about asset sales were misinterpreted by the reporter.
We have made contact with the reporter and, where possible, the outlets that reprinted the inaccurate story to correct the report.For your reference, I have attached the audio excerpt of the WA Treasurer’s interview on ABC local radio, where the discussion on asset sales occurred.
Here is the excerpt of the WA Treasurer’s interview:
We’re enjoying good results from sales of trivia products as people stock up for New Years Eve parties and other gatherings to follow tonight. This range is selling especially well to baby boomers and Gen. X. While there are apps on smart phones covering trivia, these card packs are preferred.
With shopping centres full of kids and teenagers it’s a perfect opportunity to shine a light on Girlfriend magazine. We have this impulse floor unit in front of the main magazine aisle. This placement will be seen by twice as many as would usually walk past or see the title. We’ll give Girlfriend seven days here.
Further to my post Friday about the breach of privacy by Gordon and Gotch with their publishing of email addresses of many newsagents they claim to be delinquent in paying accounts, The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner offers newsagents an entry point for complaining about the breach and requesting it be investigated. In the states where there is an active Small Business Commissioner you could also complain there.
Before complaining to the OAIC, you will need to complain to Gordon and Gotch. I’d suggest you put your complaint in writing to:
David Hogan
General Manager
Gordon & Gotch
26 Rodborough Road
Frenchs Forest NSW 2086
FAX: 02 9451 6157
I suggest a letter to Gotch documenting the breach of your privacy and asking what Gotch intends to do about the serious matter. Make note of the Privacy Act and that you consider Gotch has breached this.
If newsagents whose email addresses have been published tin the communications about delinquent accounts do not complain to Gotch about the breach the company has the opportunity to consider that it has done nothing wrong.
If you’re on the list and you think its too hard to do anything, think about how a supplier might react if they have access to this list of newsagents how have now been publicly tagged as being late at settling their Gotch account.
In my view, Gotch needs to right this wrong.
In a production blunder, the ad booklet for Rydges stuck to the latest issue of Melbourne Bride magazine covered the barcode. The ad booklet is also falling off when browsers put the magazine back on the shelves. Part of the problem is the thickness of the magazine and the flimsiness of the ad booklet.
I’ve removed the ads because of the barcode issue and because they were getting trashed. Whoever is responsible for this Rydges ad booklet should reconsider this type of advertising. It doesn’t work.
Thanks to a slew of TV shows and movies, zombies are hot right now. We have achieved excellent sales of zombie-themed gift lines, toys and calendars. We’re trying to tap into that interest, somewhat obscurely, with placement of the latest issue of Australian Sky & Telescope to attract impulse purchases as a result of the Zombie Stars cover story. Okay, it’s a long stretch – hut someone in the fog of post Christmas cheer may buy a magazine they might otherwise not have given a second thought to.
For the record – I’m not into the zombie thing. The TV show The Walking Dead is not my taste even though I can do a good zombie impersonation after a drink or two.
I mucked around a few days ago and put Fortean Times with the Ghost story for Christmas cover story next to Time with the Pope on the cover as their Man of the Year. I had a laugh to myself (yeah, small things…) and was about to put them back in their positions when a customer told me I should’t make fun of the Pope.
This is a crazy idea that could just work. Open your newsagency one evening for a singles speed-type dating event. Get guys browsing their areas of interest or areas they thing reflects who they are and then bring the girls in to check them out. Or vice versa.
In our magazine and card departments we have excellent segmentation of interests to help facilitate such an event. Change the lighting to create a mood and put on some food and drinks.
This could be a unique event that could be loved by the community. It could also get you coverage in the local media.
If I had a newsagency in a country town I’d certainly try this.
Footnote: this idea resulted from something I saw in my newsagency Christmas Eve. A couple in their forties came in holding hands. The lady asked where our surfing magazines were. I took them to the section. She told me that they met surfing twenty years ago and every Christmas since she’s bought him a surfing magazine. I wanted to hug them. What a tradition! It made me think about how people connect around common interests and newsagencies are good retailers for serving those interests.
A newsagent recently told me that they reconcile their accounts with their bank account every six months when their accountant does their books. This is crazy. My recommendation is that you reconcile your bank account at least weekly and preferably daily if you bank daily.
By reconcile – and as someone without any accounting training – I mean reconciling all income as recorded in your computer system to your bank statement and your computer accounting records. This work should be done by you or someone you trust but who does not have control of the cash in your business. It does not need to be done by your accountant – despite what they may say.
A newsagent discovered employee theft earlier this year that had gone undetected for several months because they did not regularly reconcile their bank account to daily takings records.
I love The Onion. It’s satire is cutting edge, very funny. In fact, some see it as a real news outlet and have quoted satirical stories as if they are true. Anyway, the last print edition has been published. This makes sense since the audience for their satire is more likely wired and getting entertainment online.
Even the discussion of a possible sale of Lotterywest that we have seen recently is disruptive to newsagency businesses and their plans – as we saw was the case in the lead up to state owned lottery enterprises elsewhere in Australia.
While WA Today reported on this prior to Christmas, it really only reached the radar of newsagents over the last couple of days thanks to Twitter.
I expect there will be considerable lobbing from newsagents, community groups and others calling for the government to retain ownership of Lotterywest for the benefit of the community. You only have to look at Lotterywest’s approved grants page to see the valuable community connection. I’d be surprised to see this continue under private ownership.
These fans are a perfect product to have at the counter. In the lead up to Christmas and since we have had customers purchasing two and three at a time. What really makes the fans a business hit is that they are bought on impulse. They drive margin dollars per sale and push the business overall to an above average gross profit performance given the GP we have on them.
The display unit is excellent – it explains the product well and makes merchandising easy.
We have been on a mission to drive impulse purchases for some time as part of our business plan to deliver a better than average overall gross profit performance for the newsagency. It’s a thrill to see it working.
I write here about only a few of the impulse items we have success with. In many cases the items that work best do so for some local reason. This is where we need to be the best retailers possible – to create our own success.
While the latest issue of InStyle magazine is a challenge to display we have been driving good sales with a half waterfall and with a copy placed above the displays showing off the free beach bag that comes with this issue.
We will sell out of this issue without a doubt and having the bag on show will be key to achieving this. The gift is perfect for the Australian summer and the Melbourne weather is helping there.