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

Author: Mark Fletcher

Price matching demands frustrating

pricematchA customer yesterday wanted to buy the Melway street directory but they wanted us to match the K-mart price. K-Mart had sold out. Our price was $4.00 more. I explained we don’t match prices but we do have a discount voucher opportunity in place for $$ off her next purchase. She rolled her eyes.

It turns out K-Mart had sold out and this was the last Christmas gift she had to purchase. While I could have discounted, I resisted because I don;t want to get caught up in the price matching game. She bought the street directory and then two boxes of cards in a second purchase.

I think price matching marketing is lazy. It can also be deceptive. Good retailers will offer a competitive price for their product / service offering. Poor retailers will say we’ll match and then either sell product you cannot easily compare and or discount to ride off the traffic generated by the marketing of others.

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Newsagency management

Australia Post missing in action for Christmas shoppers

postagestampsGovernment owned Australia Post outlets in a couple of shopping centres I visited yesterday were closed, leaving last minute stamp customers having to go to newsagencies for stamps. In one of my stores we only had full price stamps. One customer ripped into us about this – what kind of newsagency are you where you don’t sell Christmas stamps? The kind that offers stamps as a courtesy service when the post office is closed is what I wanted to say. Instead I gave off a lame smile and a shrug of ym shoulders. The customer grumbled their way out of the shop. I was pretty happy when a customer after them looked behind them and said Grinch.

Government owned post offices should have been open yesterday.

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Australia Post

Your Garden works as an impulse opportunity

magsygxmasI put Your Garden in this impulse purchase location on the weekend and shoppers bought the title. I rate this free standing single title floor unit as the most effective I have used in a newsagency. Choose the right title, place the unit in the right location and you can achieve better sales than if you were to do a display on a power end. Being tactical can drive magazine sales.

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magazines

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: use t-shirts to promote your business & have fun

tshirt-magazineloverOne thing Australian shoppers think about Australian newsagency businesses is that we don’t change. One way to push back on this perception and to help your team enjoy the business more is to provide a refresh of staff uniforms. For a couple of weeks get people wearing a different t-shirt, for example. You could go with something fairly traditional like in the example I have created or go crazy with a t-shirt like: A grown man can never have too many soft toys.

Choose a caption that promotes part of your business in a fresh way. Your people also get to wear something different to work. Plus you are promoting your business in a fresh way – that may get it more noticed.

The keys are: be really out there with what you put on the t-shirt, everyone must be involved, have fun, target a specific business outcome, and, most important: get everyone in the business on side before you pay for the t-shirts to be printed. Remember, at its core, this is a business marketing idea.

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marketing

Sunday newsagency management advice: lead by being present

The strength of and value derived from the team working in your newsagency will depend on the leadership you provide. The best leadership you can provide in small business retail is being present with team members, working alongside them, giving them opportunities to learn from you.

Too often newsagents try and lead their businesses from the back room. Too often I see an old-school structure when a small business works better with a flat structure.

The best way to communicate how you want something done is to show it being done. The best way to share your vision is to work at implementing it alongside team members. The best way to show the level of customer service you want is for you to deliver it. The best way to show how you want your team members treated is for you to treat them this way.

Being present and working your business with your team offers excellent opportunities to good leaders.

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Management tip

A magazine store within a store

magsdeptstoreIn Manila last week I took a good look at this magazine store within a store at the Landmark department store at Makati. It offered more titles than your average newsagency – 1,000 I would say. Most were older issues, making me wonder if they purchased returns in bulk. All titles were bagged, blocking browsing.

I like how they displayed the magazine titles. Someone with a special interest could browse these racks, meaning the vendor could drive a space efficiency level far greater than Australian newsagents get with traditional and even the more recent magazine fixturing. With floorspace our largest single cost we need to be looking at all display options – including what I saw last week.

Click on the image for a large version. be sure to look at the counter at the front – it’s like the operator built a fortress for themselves.

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magazines

Retail shoppers love a more complete story

xmas-storyWe’ve received terrific feedback from shoppers this Christmas for promotions offering a range of common-themed hospitality related products – like this Christmas range with bags, mugs, placemats, serving platters and the like.

We keep common-themed products together so the complete story can be told. This drives sales. While I understand this is basic retail management, I mention it as there are many newsagents new to retail.

we do the same with brands. For example, we have all Peppa Pig product together: plush, stationery, books and magazines. Online does this well and we need to get better at it.

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visual merchandising

It’s a plush Christmas

xmaplushWe’re seeing excellent year on year sales of plush this Christmas season. While some sales have been to customers visiting to purchase cards or gifts, others have been to customers who know us as a plush destination. This is thrilling.

Achieving $750 and more in a day in plush sales is wonderful. Achieving it day in day out in the run down to Christmas is excellent. We could have achieved more had we not sold out of some lines – but that’s a good problem to have this close to Christmas.

We have created the plush results for ourselves as part of our business plan from mid 2012. Not only the sales ahead of plan, the net new traffic generated by the category is ahead of plan. It’s terrific seeing the business plan deliver these results.

The success with plush is a reason I prefer to focus on being a retailer in my businesses as opposed to being an agent. People are coming to us because of decisions we have made and actions we have taken. They are coming to us for us and not for a product or service over which we have little or no control as to where they get it, how much we make from it and or how much someone else promotes it.

The more of my business over which I have control the better for the future of my business.

Footnote: the photo reflects another reason for success with this category – our team creates displays that attract shoppers from within the shop. This line of colourful bears toward the back of the shop draws people further into the business. We’re always thinking beyond front of store displays. Attention to visual merchandising and product placement mid way through and at the rear of the store are just as important as the front window.

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Newsagency management

Connecting with the vintage craze

magsvintagemadeIn case you missed it vintage is in and this magazine we found from IPS is a welcome addition to our magazine range. Vintage Made is an excellent special-interest title. It’s perfect for magazine specialists like newsagencies. We have it in women’s interests but we could equally place it as part of a range of vintage-themed titles. It’s titles like this that can help in drive magazine sales and our relevance within niches.

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magazines

Christmas-themed tissues sell out

xmasimpulseIt took just a couple of weeks for us to sell out of our range of Christmas-themed tissues. They have proved to be another excellent impulse line in a year of excellent impulse lines. Good margin, extending margin dollars per sale,  selling through prior to having to pay – a terrific win.

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Impulse lines

Gotch engages in premature stress for newsagents

gotchpayNot content with running a flawed magazine supply model, magazine distributor Gordon and Gotch  today emailed newsagents reminding us to pay November accounts by today.  If only the company was as attentive to fairly supplying newsagents.

This email request from Gotch reflects disappointing double-standards. All newsagents want from the company is fair and equitable magazine supply. Gotch, on the other hand, wants on time payment for what is often unfair and inequitable supply.

While one could argue that the money is due today, there is also the consideration of gross oversupply and the other, expensive, challenges of the magazine supply model.

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magazine distribution

Newsagents: check security for customer credit card numbers

I am shocked at the news out of the US that Target stored over the counter purchases customer credit card details including name, number, expiry and CVV in their POS software – and that around 40 million records were stolen in a security breach experienced by the giant retailer.

My shock is that Target kept all this information about over the counter customers in their POS system.  If I was a Target customer with my card data now in the hands of criminals I’d be angry at the retailer for poor data management.

I know that newsagency software from Tower Systems, the company I own, does not store this information for over the counter purchases. Customers purchasing at a newsagency using, for example, the Tyro integrated EFTPOS, the newsagency software does not have any visibility of or access to customer credit card details. This arms-length approach is far more secure than the approach taken by Target.

While newsagents can turn on a facility to collect and store credit card details separately, they would need to take this action – and most don’t. Even then, however, the data is encrypted and the CVV is not stored as added protection.

Even though newsagency software offers better security over card numbers than the POS used by target, what has happened to them and their customers this week is a reminder for us to be vigilant with customer data.

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Newsagency management

Network Services magazine allocations fail again: supply of 2014 Australian Open tennis program slashed

magstennisWe have been building our sales of the tennis Australian Open program for the last four years and then this year some genius or some genius process at Network Services cut us back to our 2010 supply number.  Last year we sold 26 copies out of 28 supplied. Talk about a screw up. While I am sure the allocations experts at Network will have their excuses, we are not interested. All we want is reasonably supply based on the accurate sales data we provide. That they cannot get this simple thing right shows how useless they are at their job. Now we go on the hunt for more stock, we have to jump through their pathetic hoops in the hope that they allow us to make the money we could have made selling this title.

For the record here is the supply / return data:

  • 2010 – 3 sold out
  • 2011 – 7 returned 1
  • 2012 – 20 returned 3
  • 2013 – 28 returned 2
  • 2014 – 3….

Idiots.

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magazines

The Age and SMH hidden

smhcovercoverBoth The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald had their front and back pages covered yesterday with a four-page house ad promoting digital and print subscriptions – with print being pitched as the add-on loss-leader. So much for news selling news. The SMH hours ad itself was partially obscured by another ad for Notre Dame Uni – pushing the news further back.

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newspaper masthead desecration

Retail staff hiring advice: only hire and keep happy people

In a newsagency recently I heard a staff member complaining to a colleague behind the counter about the roster, the weather someone at home. I was several metres from the counter. Shoppers in the newsagency could hear too.

Unhappy staff are a turn off for shoppers and for the leaders of the business keen to create a happy place where people enjoy themselves.

We need to hire happy people and train them in their tasks rather than hire skilled people and hope to train them to be happy – if that is a choice you face.

Being happy in a newsagency can be a challenge some days with customers complaining about the smallest thing, some suppliers treating you appallingly, you discovering how much theft has cost you recently, your bank rejecting you banking a fake $50 note … and so on. Yes, there are many opportunities for us to be unhappy. This is another reason we need to surround ourselves with cheerful / happy people.

But there is plenty we see and hear in our newsagencies that makes us happy – if we look for it. If our natural disposition (as the owner and leader) is to be unhappy, we need to push back on that urge, we need to choose to be happy. Surrounding yourself with happy people is key to this.

We need to show unhappy people the door and encourage them to go work somewhere else.

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Customer Service

Selling balloons with a great display

I was fortunate to see a balloon outpost yesterday where there have some excellent crestings on display as Christmas items and also promoting their creativity in terms of what they can create using balloons.

balloonsantaThis amazing free-standing tall Santa is just one of many products they had on display for people to purchase and take away from the outpost. If I was doing balloon displays in a shop this Santa would make for an excellent window feature. He’s what drew me to the outpost in the first place.

xmastree This Christmas tree is another terrific Christmas-themed balloon product that I am sure would sell easily almost anywhere. It’s something I’d like to have the space and time to try next year. What I saw from the outpost has shown me that maybe this is the way to go since the margin is good.

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Fun

Placing floor display units in the newsagency

magspacificstandsWe are fair to suppliers who invest in quality floor display units by only using the unit for their stock and through placement that drives sales.

Most suppliers want their display units at the front of the shop. This time of the year it’s challenging so we look for alternatives. The location in the photo, at the end of our busiest magazine aisle, works for us. Currently we have the Pacific Magazines Christmas-themed floor display unit in this location.

The success of the Pacific Magazines unit placement is that it puts the unit under a spotlight. There is less visual competition and this means more people notice the unit and the products it is promoting.

We concentrate on the rear of the business as much as the front as this can drive a more valuable per-visit shop for us.

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magazines

Australians prefer print magazines to websites

In excellent news for magazine publishers and magazine-specialist newsagents Roy Morgan today published research results today indicating that Australians prefer engaging in print magazines in the home and garden space over websites. The release starts with:

So much for websites poaching readers from print publications: when it comes to magazines, at least, many titles are thriving. Take home and garden magazines, a category spanning publications such as Home Beautiful, House & Garden and Real Living, for example. In the last month, 16% of Australians (or more than 3 million people) read a home and garden magazine — double the 8% who visited a website from this category.

When you get a moment, read the whole release and understand more about the opportunity for us.

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magazines

Don’t forget magazines at Christmas

magwallMagazine sales spike in the week before Christmas as people purchase them as gifts. It’s important we find time to refresh the magazine offer, making sure categories are obvious and gift appropriate titles are put in their best light. Ten or fifteen minutes every day in this last week can help drive extra magazine sales. Given the surge in sales of cards and gifts it can be easy to forget magazines.

Is this store with the magazine feature wall with plenty of magazines on full face display we relayed on Friday and have seen good results since.

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magazines

Driving sales of religious Christmas cards

religiouscardsI like the collateral from Hallmark for promoting single religious-themed Christmas cards. I’m sure it’s helping drive our sales of these.

Whereas through the year religious-themed card sales are soft, at Christmas they take off – both in these single cards and in boxed cards. Indeed, with boxed cards we sold out of boxed religious-themed Christmas cards and will sell out of the additional stock.

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Greeting Cards

Abs cover shots bring Christmas joy

magsabsI suspected the two thirty-something ladies were up to go good in our men’s magazine area. They were laughing too much. Wouldn’t it be nice one said to the other looking at the abs on the guys on the covers of the three health and fitness titles. I could buy him all three and say that’s what I want the other said with a laugh. We can only dream the first lady said as she wistfully brushed the abs of the guy on the cover of Men’s Health.

When they turned to leave they saw me watching them and giggled like naughty girls.

Watching customers can be fun and occasionally creepy (if you get caught).

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Fun

Another zombie product success

zombiekeychainZombie-themed products are selling out for us this Christmas. These zombie-themed keychains are another success in this theme of products. It’s no wonder given the slew of TV shows and movies with zombie and related themes.

The success here is a reminder about offering gifts that are socially relevant. I couple of grandparents on the weekend bought zombie gifts for their grandkids because they remembered they liked The Walking Dead. They were excited that they would appear to be with it.

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Gifts

Gadgets for Christmas drive basket depth

gadgetchristmasGadgets are selling out for us this Christmas. One customer purchased six of these pocket screwdrivers at once for all the guys she buys for. Another customer bought four of the USB chargers as stocking-stuffers for her sons.  In each case the customers told me they came in to buy Christmas cards and ended up spending considerably more.

Getting sales like this starts with buying months ago, thinking of the people customers could be purchasing gifts for. While some buying is luck, much of it requires careful consideration – and for success for the next year it requires thorough tracking so you know what worked and how quickly it worked.

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Gifts
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