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

Author: Mark Fletcher

11 ways to cut theft in your retail newsagency

Following on from my previous post, here are simple steps you can take to cut theft in your newsagency:

  1. Track everything you sell from ordering goods to the shop floor to the sales counter to returns. You can only manage what you track.
  2. Scan every item sold. Do not use department keys – allowing staff to enter the value of an item purchased.
  3. Track all sales by employee: using a code or barcode. This will cut mistakes.
  4. Undertake regular spot stock takes. In more than half incidents of employee theft this action would have revealed the theft sooner.
  5. Reorder stock using your software. It’s fast, accurate and stops poor buying decisions.
  6. Set an end of shift cash balance target of $5.00. Many retailers achieve this – it takes discipline.
  7. Change your system passwords regularly. Make it a condition of employment that these passwords are never shared.
  8. Do random, during the day, cash balance checks.
  9. Use your software to check and report on behavior which could indicate employee theft. Good software will reveal employee activity likely to indicate fraud / theft.
  10. Establish rules for discounts, returns and refunds and use your software to manage these.
  11. Integrate your EFTPOS with your Point of Sale and reduce fraud opportunities.
  12. Follow your suspicions regardless. Put your business ahead of friendships.
Too many newsagents are losing too much money due to theft – way more than the recent theft survey indicated unfortunately.
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theft

Theft not a major concern for newsagents

135 newsagents responded to the poll on theft and indicated that theft is not a major concern.

On theft by customers, 72.9% said it cost up to $5,000 in the last year while 14.6% said it cost between $5,000 and $10,000.

On theft by employees, 69.1% said they had suffered none in the last year, 20.2% said it has cost up to $5,000 and 8.5% said it had cost between $20,000 and $50,000 in the last year.

55.1% said there had been no increase in theft i the last year.

Click on the image for a more detailed breakdown on employee theft.

My experience working with newsagents on theft is that most don’t know they have suffered until after the event. This could be years. Often, by then, the cost has reached $200,000 or more. Studies in other retail situations show that theft is retail costs between 3% and 5% of sales. My experience in the newsagency channel is that this is an accurate assessment.

The key for newsagents is to manage for measurement of employee and customer theft. Saying there is no time or that it is too hard could be costing your business tens of thousands of dollars a year.

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Newsagency management

Home and Away magazine hot on social media

Newsagents on Twitter and or Facebook ought to be actively promoting the Home and Away magazine to their followers. I have just been checking traffic for this one-shot tonight and it is considerable, especially on Twitter.  It’s only been out a couple of days so getting in now could help you ride the already considerable interest.

One way to connect with the interest is to reply to others. This can get your response seen by many.

Our competitors – supermarkets, convenience stores – are not likely to engage for this title on social media. Newsagents can drive interest for their business and the channel.

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Newsagency opportunities

SMH MIA

The Sydney Morning Herald is missing in action today in too many regional centres in New South Wales. On a day when newsagents are experiencing a traffic surge because of the OzLotto $100M jackpot, the opportunity for an impulse purchase of the SMH is lost. One newsagent commented that Fairfax does not seem to care as much as they would have years ago. They said: it’s as if they want the print product to die.

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Newspaper distribution

Strange Melbourne Cup day

I expect it to be an unusual Melbourne Cup day for many newsagents today, right across Australia, thanks to the record OzLotto jackpot.

I’ve spoken to several newsagent suppliers and their experience matches mine – newsagents have been head down tail up since late last week. Tomorrow will see more of this. The result, particularly for Victorian newsagents, will be considerably more traffic than is usual for a Melbourne Cup day – an excellent opportunity.

I don’t have lottery products in my newsagencies so we’re expecting the usually quiet Melbourne Cup day – a day to get some reconfiguring done on the shop floor.

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Newsagency management

Diverse range of guys magazines

Several times recently people have raised the question here about the value of carrying magazines that don’t cover their costs. Here are two magazines not currently paying their way for us but magazines I choose to carry because they show off our range and make for good impulse purchases by those interested and as gifts.

We are giving MANSPACE and SHAFT extra support by placing them so the full cover of each is on show.

One of our value propositions is to offer a competitive magazine range. To achieve this we need range and a competitive presentation. Yes we can and should argue about margin and supply. However, we should also chase incremental magazine business where we can. Good growth is achievable from fringe and smaller market titles.

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magazines

Kudos for frankie

frankie was named Magazine of the Year at the Australian Magazine Awards. This is deserved kudos for a popular magazine that is attracting valuable shoppers to newsagencies. here’s what they said on their blog established to communicate with enwsagents and other retailers:

We are very humbled to have won the Australian Magazine of the Year at the 2012 AMA’s.

After eight years and 50 issues, we know that we couldn’t have gone this far without the dedication and enthusiasm of the newsagency channel.

Thanks to you, we’ve seen each issue grow from strength to strength with Australian readers.

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magazines

Newsagents tagged in Home and Away one-shot TVC

Here is the TV commercial currently airing promoting the Home and Away one shot. This is not a title to ignore. I started a small social media campaign on the weekend and interest has been excellent, driving traffic to the store already.

The tagging of newsagents in the TVC is important and it’s good to see Pacific Magazines get that and support us.

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magazines

Vodafone commission cut to 1% in UK

Vodafone has cut the commission made by newsagents in the UK selling mobile recharge to just 1%.

If this happened in Australia, newsagents would make thirty cents on a $30.00 recharge voucher sale. I’d have to consider seriously whether to continue offering the product.

The current margin structure is dangerously slim. I know we can achieve more if we sell handsets but that has another traffic-flow and labour cost making to not viable for everyone.

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Financial services

Supporting newsagents raising money for Movember

Allan Wickham of newsXpress Eli Waters is growing a mo to raise money for men’s health as part of Movember. I urge you to click here support Allan here as he chases a fundraising goal of more than $2,000 this year. Other newsagents and newsagency employees growing a mo for Movember and raising money should let me know so I can promote them here. Since we see so many customers every day in our stores we can be great ambassadors for this wonderful cause.

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Social responsibility

More suppliers join the interactive product play

I have written here previously about the tremendous success we have been having with the interactive story book, card and toy range from Hallmark.  They and interactive products from other suppliers, are now a vital part of the card and gift mix in-store with excellent year on year growth.

Bloomberg recently published a story about US toymaker Hasbro refreshing it’s popular Furby product into an interactive toy. They are targeting Furby players from decades ago with a retro pitch and today’s kids with an interactive pitch.

A good gift department in any newsagency today has an excellent mix of interactive toys and gifts, taking the product beyond the static of yesteryear and somehow interacting with people as well as devices such as the iPad, iPod and iPhone. These toys that interact with sound from other devices are hot this year in Australia from what the sales data I can see. We are gearing up for Christmas by expanding the range.

The Merry-Oke product from Hallmark was a top-seller last year. While we expected good sales this year we did not anticipate the very strong early interest. Indeed, sales have been so strong we have ordered more.

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Trends

Terrific Christmas card range La La Land

I love the range of Christmas cards released by Australian company La La Land. We received our stock late last week.  These wonderful cards from Australian and international illustrators are visually fresh and well made. Customers love their point of difference. I love the point of difference.  Customers also love that they are made in Australia and eco-friendly … yes I have had shoppers comment on this.

While major card companies rightfully dominate space allocation and sales in our stores, some fringe companies can help us drive revenue we otherwise may have missed. They achieving by producing products that speak to a consumer who may not shop the major brand. La La land, for example, speaks to the frankie magazine buyer. With frankie being such a good selling magazine in our business it’s natural we want to help that customer spend more with us.

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Greeting Cards

The paywall challenge for newspapers

The Guardian published a report today on website access for Britain’s newspapers. The News International titles come off badly – because of their pay walls according to the report. It would be interesting to see data for The Herald Sun.

Charging for something readily available elsewhere for free was always going to be a challenge.

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Media disruption

Sunday management tip: turn the unknown into the known

I get to see sales data from many newsagencies and one of the most frustrating lines in sales data is a line labelled as unknown. This is where the software does not know what has been sold. Most often, it is because the sale has been done as what is a called a department sale. The sales person presses, say, stationery, and enters the amount for an item. While this does track the sale as stationery, it does not track the item itself.

There is a cliché saying: you can’t manage what you don’t track. The thing is … this saying is true.

Every department sale, where a physical item is not tracked specifically, is an opportunity for fraud. It is also a missed opportunity to know about your business and therefore to make better business decisions.

Most concerning of all is the message that a department sale gives your employees. It tells them that you don;t respect data. They can take this as leadership and not respect your data too. We need to lead by example in our businesses. respecting business data is an important part of this.

There are no excuses for department sales, for using a computer system as a glorified cash register.

Get rid of the department sale and you will reduce the opportunity for theft, know more about your business, save time through fewer keystrokes, save mistakes through fewer keystrokes and be a better newsagent.

Your software company should be able to help you eliminate department sales. It’s easy.

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Management tip

Sunday marketing tip: price compare where you can

We know from consumer research by several organisations that Australian consumers think newsagencies are expensive places to shop. While I think it is too difficult for us to address this nationally, some newsagents can address it locally.

If you are in a high street situation and unencumbered by landlord rules, why not choose some common everyday items and regularly price check against national competitors located nearby. I tried this in a couple of shopping centre situations and each time the landlord pointed out the lease clauses my action breached. High street newsagency leases should not have such restrictions.

While there is the risk that the chain you target strikes back, if you are not rude and promote the price comparison in a professional and consistent way you could slowly educate local shoppers to change their shopping habits and that has to be a key goal for any newsagent.

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marketing

Read Mark Colvin’s excellent Andrew Olle lecture

I urge newsagents to read the edited version of the Andrew Olle lecture delivered Friday night by Mark Colvin, respected journalist and presenter of ABC radio’s flagship PM program. Colvin gets to the heart of challenges facing journalism and media outlets, he talks about facts and truth … and makes a lot of sense. The last paragraph sums up the core message:

If we want a world where journalists can be paid to tell the truth we have to negotiate these massive changes at the same time. Good journalism – journalism of integrity – is a social good and an essential part of democracy. We have to do everything we can to try to preserve it.

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Ethics

Chasing superdraw sales online

OzLotteries make it easy to buy a ticket for tonight’s $21 million and Tuesday’s $100+ million. Their website delivers a compelling pitch as does their email campaign. Click on the image to see the email I received yesterday. They are doing what they need to do. I love their pitch even though it frustrates me.

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Lotteries

Quick survey on customer and employee theft in newsagencies

I have created a three-question survey on customer and employee theft in newsagencies this year compared to last year. I’ll leave this up until Monday afternoon.

To take the survey please click here. It will only take a few seconds.

Every week over the last few months I have taken calls from newsagents facing sizeable theft situations. Talking with someone yesterday I had the idea it would be good to harvest more data about the extent of the two key types of theft in a newsagency. Hence the survey.

The survey software (Survey Monkey) doesn’t track your details, you can respond anonymously and it only allows one response per computer.

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theft

Pitching The Monthly with newspapers

We are pitching The Monthly with newspapers because of the terrific cover and the story headline: The Honest Woman. This cover will polarise shoppers, that’s why we wanted it in a higher than usual traffic location. I am confident we will a sales boost as a result.

This is how we can grow sales of some magazines, by being tactical in our placement and engaging in pursuit of impulse purchases. I see plenty of cases where this works to the benefit of the newsagent and the publisher.

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magazines

McHappy Day opportunity with New idea

10 cents of every copy of next week’s New Idea sold will be donated to the McHappy Day campaign run by McDonalds. The fund raising goal this year is $3.6 million. Connecting us with the campaign through the New Idea donation is a good reason to give the magazine extra attention.

We know from boxed Christmas card and Mother’s Day card sales the value of a charity tie in and newsagents often push this with extra collateral. Our plan in my stores is to draw attention to the charity component of a New Idea purchase next week.

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Newsagency opportunities

Being positive about magazines

Check out the video from a couple of days ago shot at the Australian Magazine Awards were Ita Buttrose was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Watch Ita talk up magazines beautifully.

I love her positive attitude about a product so important to us. Yes, she discusses digital products – but in context.

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magazines

Christmas purchases kicking in

Almost as if following direction, shopper interest turned 90 degrees to Christmas this week. Without considerably changing product placement and disc plays, Christmas related purchases took off. Cards were the biggest beneficiary of the interest in Christmas for us. Our major Christmas offer goes out over early next week. We’ll get done what we can on the weekend given the strong showing ver the last couple of days.

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retail
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