We are seeing good sales of single Christmas cards early in the Christmas season. We have the full range of Christmas cards in the front section of the newsagency, on the dance floor. This is directly opposite our card department, so nice and close to regular card shoppers.
We will move our Christmas card offer twice between now and Christmas, to refresh the offer and combat store blindness among our regular shoppers.
Cold calling is one of the most successful methods used by companies to grow sales. It is the process of approaching someone to offer your products, in person or on the phone. It works in all sorts of businesses, why not newsagencies?!
If you want to grow your stationery sales, try this. I have seen newsagents enjoy excellent success as a result of cold calling.
Visit at least six businesses near your newsagency which do not currently purchase their stationery from you each week. Introduce yourself. leave a flyer with current prices for popular office stationery items. Make your that all your contact details are on the flyer.
Have a brief, one or two minute pitch ready. This should focus on why they should support your business.
Do this for four weeks, six businesses a week. That’s 24 businesses in a month. 24 businesses not currently buying from you having received your pitch.
If you get no new business think back on your pitch. It could also be that you need to allow time for their stationery needs to evolve. If you do get business then repeat what worked for you.
It is vital that your approach is natural and friendly. Have something you can share which is valuable. An idea or suggestion which is stationery related. This could build goodwill.
It’s rare that a newsagent has a cold call sales program in place. Try it, it could work! I am sure that your stationery sales could do with a boost.
Here are answers / responses to objections concerns I expect some newsagents will have.
The more work you put in promoting your newsagency outside your newsagency the greater the rewards you will reap.
Gordon and Gotch yesterday supplied 12 copies of the The Friendship Book 2012 edition to one of my newsagencies. We have not had the title since we opened in 2009. In my view, there is no justification for them sending the title.
We were supposed to be on a list to not receive new stock unless requested or approved. This newsagency does not have flat-stack space, meaning that displaying the book in the appropriate place is challenging.
The only reason I can think of Gotch sending us this stock is that they had spare stock and wanted money from getting this out to stores, for the distribution fee. They will say this is not the case. Until I see proof of this I am a doubter.
We will give the title until the start of the last week of November. We’ll make space somewhere. If there are no sales and no discernable interest in the title, we will early return it to avoid the cash-flow hit.
It is activity like this, unexpected and unwarranted supply, which causes newsagents to act, sometimes early returning other titles without justification. Magazine publishers need to understand this – the behaviour of a distributor in their handling of one title can cause newsagents to strike out against another title.
What should have happened here? Here is my suggestion:
By forcing the stock on me Gotch gets me offside and has me more likely to strike out against such (in my view) gross over supply. This only gives them another excuse to tell publishers and others that we are not good retailers.
I am off too the second day of the two-day conference in Sydney which is being held as part of Magazine Week today.
While some on the magazine publishing and distribution side are working hard to strengthen their relationships with and support for newsagents, we, all of us, are only as strong as our weakest link.
Every time magazines are oversupplied newsagents hurt, other publishers suffer and the reputation of the distributor in question is tarnished.
Every time a retail competitor of a newsagent gets a better deal, promotion of some other benefit not available to newsagents you strengthen their position and weaken that of newsagents.
Every time newsagents are under supplied you reduce the opportunity for full newsagency sales potential to be reached.
Every new title distributed without consideration of the cost of newsagent floor space, labour and inventory cost is an additional burden which other channels most likely do not have to face.
Every time a newsagent over claims on returns the entire channel suffers.
Every early return which leaves a newsagency with less floor stock than recent average sales harms the newsagency, the newsagency channel and the publisher.
The Australian newsagency channel could have a bright future in magazine sales if we lifted our professionalism, were supplied based on sales, treated fairly when it comes to returns, rewarded for our support and respected in terms of title ranging. Achieving this depends on all stakeholders having common goals. Right now, not enough of us stakeholders do.
I have written here a couple of times about our success with Angry Birds products. Each time it’s sold out for us. We are planning on a range of Angry Birds branded products as part of our Christmas mix.
It surprises me that more newsagents are not engaged with this extraordinarily successful global brand. With more than 500 million downloads of the game, this is a well-known brand.
Building genuine customer loyalty is about offering products customers want to come back and purchase again and again. This is more valuable and important than giving prizes and things away to create what I’d call false loyalty.
It’s plush for Gen Y through Gen X. A good Angry Birds display will pull new traffic. Some of those customers will purchase other product. Plenty come back for a second or third purchase.
So it surprises me that so few in our channel get behind such an excellent opportunity.
Maybe some newsagents prefer to be angry birds than sell angry birds.
I am liking these cup cake notepads as a counter offer. Anything cup cake sells at the moment. The $2.95 price point makes these notepads especially appealing.
While we got this product as part of our Christmas offer, we have them placed at the counter as this is the location from where we think we are likely to achieve the best impulse purchase return.
We continue to keep on the lookout for counter offers, items with excellent GP which are easily added to a purchase by shoppers as they stand at the counter.
A dollar purchase added to an existing purchase is the best kind of dollar to get.
Click on the image to see how we are promoting the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens at one of my other newsagencies. This is located on the corner of the busiest entrance at this newsagency, leveraging the best traffic advantage we have. The title is also being promoted with newspapers and in its usual location in the magazine department. Sales have been excellent and this issue has only been out for a couple of days.
We have sold 85% of our allocation of Coach magazine, a title launched a couple of months ago by Pacific Magazines. We did a bit of work around the launch to drive sales. Most sales, however, have come later in the on sale. This is an example of a title performing well over a period longer than 30 days. Our sales success may be in part due to our newsagency being located near a Fitness First. Whatever it is due to, the sales achieved for us by the launch issue are terrific.
I have recently made a decision to not rely on Facebook for the marketing of any of my newsagency businesses.
I reached this decision based on recent behaviour by Facebook which reminded me that it is a corporation and not a community. As a corporation, Facebook will act in the interests of its shareholders first, as is required by law. This means businesses need to approach using Facebook as we would approach purchasing services from any corporation.
Since Facebook does not currently charge businesses, they are leveraging revenue in other ways, such as using data gathered through use of the site.
I expect that even when Facebook does charge businesses for their pages, they will continue to use activity data to leverage revenue for themselves.
With a Facebook marketing campaign I am reliant on Facebook for ensuring access to friends of my business. Other marketing channels do not rely on a third party in the same awl: mail telephone, email.
I don’t want to be at the mercy of a third party even if access to their service is free. It would be frustrating four a business to find that marketing plans are forced to change because of a change in policy or operations by Facebook.
Good luck to businesses using Facebook today. My only caution would be that they retain control of their marketing database and that they have a plan B for leveraging this should Facebook get in the wear of their activity.
Our Halloween sales this year were up 40% on last year. The financial value of this season continues to grow for us. despite some people complaining that it’s an American tradition which we don’t need (um, it’s not American), it is commercially very rewarding. It also expands us beyond traditional newsagency product lines and shopper traffic.
Our selection of Beanie Kids products are proving to be an early hit in Christmas sales. The display attracts attention for other products placed nearby … this is the value of promoting such a well known brand.
What is especially appealing about the Beanie Kids success is that the advertising capping has not yet hit so most purchases are on impulse by shoppers visiting for other items. Very nice margin dollars added to sales!
While Christmas for us this year is built on traditional offers of cards and wrap, our rang of gifts goes outside the traditional for a newsagency. We decided to concentrate on these rather than Christmas trinkets and decorative items given our proximity to variety stores and supermarkets. We have found that being different works better for us.
As with most gift purchases, most of our buying for christmas has been outside traditional newsagency suppliers.
Empire is one of those magazines which troops on issue after issue. We are giving the latest issue of Empire some time in the spotlight this week with double space allocation in support of the 1001 greatest movie moments cover story. Our plan also includes giving Empire a feel of co-locatiopn with weekly magazines – they are located in another aisle, our busiest magazine aisle.
I decided to promote Empire because of the terrific cover, it stands out when displayed in a block like this. The feature is enough to get people who do not usually look at the title to pick it up.
We are promoting the latest issue of Feast magazine with this in-location display in among our food titles. It is the only magazine being featured in this way in this aisle. We also have Feast in an impulse display unit facing into the shopping mall.
Even though we are only a few issues in, Feast is well established among food titles. It offers broader appeal than the more traditional recipe based food titles. Our own basket data shows that it it is often purchased with other magazines, more so than some of the other food titles.
Check out the display created by the team at one of my newsagencies this morning promoting the free wrapping paper with the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens. The team used paper from some damaged issues for the display – along with the terrific collateral provided by Pacific Magazines.
This issue of BHG sells well every year. The key from my experience is to promote the issue in high traffic locations: front of store, window, next to newspapers, at the counter.
Co-location is vitally important.
Go out hard and early. Be sure to promote around the weekends as this is when BHG shoppers are out in force.
We expect to sell out of what we have been supplied so plan on reordering stock by the end of this week.
Ian Turner, former owner of Rutherford Newsagency in New South Wales, passed away last night. A long term member of the Board of NANA and a strident supporter of the newsagency channel, Ian was well known among newsagents and suppliers. Ian liked to innovate the newsagency retail offer and often played outside the traditional model, providing inspiration for other newsagents.
There is no reason in our sales data for magazine distributor Gordon and Gotch to increase our supply of the air-freighted Heat magazine. With our sales data showing that we sell 2 copies, occasionally 3 (twice our of the last 12 issues), Gotch has decided to increase supply to 6. No phone call asking if they could borrow our cash, just an increase in supply.
It is behaviour like this which makes newsagents hit back at magazine distributors and, inadvertently, some magazine publishers.
Gotch should have a system which advises my of a planned increase and I should have the opportunity to say yes or no. It is my money, retail space and labour they are taking advantage of after-all! Why not ask my permission? Because that does not suit their model which requires the trucks to be as full as possible.
Gotch will say it is a ridiculous idea to let newsagents say yes or no to a change in supply. They will have reasons why it will not work. Smart technology which respects newsagents and the investment they make in magazines could help better connect newsagents and the category and lead to an increase in sales.
What happened to my newsagency with Heat magazine this week is just one example of poor magazine distribution management by Gotch. Publishers of popular titles need to be aware of the damage this behaviour is having on the newsagency channel and on their titles.
Like many newsagents I suspect, we received stock of Pat Callinan’s 4X4 Adevntures last week. It’s the first time we have received this title. Given our sales of 4X4 titles, the price point and the thickness of the title, I would have preferred to receive three copies to start with. I’d draw down more if sales warranted.
Magazine pub lispers and distributors need to stop using newsagencies as their warehouses. We should have no more stock of monthly (or longer) titles than could be reasonably sold in 30 days. As it is with Pat Callinan’s 4X4 Adevntures, we have been supplied to satisfy a sales expectation of three months. I’m not making enough money to justify warehousing the title for there months.
I have recent experience in the supply chain to homewares stores. In this retail channel smart suppliers have implemented just in time supply principles and thereby eliminated the need for retailers to warehouse stock. They have done this out of respect for the tough conditions in which retailers find themselves today. I’d like to see the same implemented in the newsagency channel.
If a title has an on-sale of more than a month, introduce multiple drops aligned with sales expectations. Stop using small business newsagents as the warehouse.
The mini crossword titles from Puzzler in the UK get lost in newsagency fixtures. Check out the photo I took of a mini Puzzler title on top of a mini format Lovatts title.
Lovatts provide a holder for their mini titles so they fit into traditional magazine fixtures. Puzzler need to address this if they want their titles to be easily seen by shoppers. Without physical support, they will not achieve what they could.
We are promoting the latest issue of Good Food magazine and the free goodie bag which comes with it with this aisle end display facing to the front of the newsagency. Sales are already good – the goodie bag is easily understood and excellent value.
We also have the magazine in an excellent location in with our food titles.
You can see in the photo that we have one goodie bag turned around – to make it easier for shoppers to see that the bag really is packed with goodies. This is to attract the browsers who are less likely to pick up the bag.
We have some copies of Hot Boys of TV placed next to our newspapers as well as next to TV Week and in an aisle end display. Being a one-shot we have to work a bit harder to grab the impulse purchase … hence all the activity. early interest in the title is encouraging.
I am frustrated that my newsagency software company, Tower Systems, continues to lose time working on XchangeIT issues for newsagents which have nothing to do with our software. We have to do this because too often the help desk people at XchangeIT tell newsagents that our software is to blame – when it is not to blame.
It is my experience that the XchangeIT help desk can be quick to blame and slow to accept responsibility. They act with the arrogance of a protected supplier.
The reality is that my software company has been around more than three times as long as XchangeIT. They got their customers by demand, Tower Systems got its 1,760+ newsagent customers through hard commercial work. Newsagents stick with them because they have no choice. Newsagents stick with Tower Systems because they like the choice.
It is frustrating to have to spend time disproving an XchangeIT claim that the problem a newsagent has been having is to do with our software. This waste of time ultimately hurts newsagents.
Every month the Tower team racks up hours of valuable help desk time researching these misleading claims and often fix the problem even though it has nothing to do with our software. Newsagents ultimately suffer because this takes time away from us supporting and helping newsagents.
I have complained about the level of support and assistance XchangeIT provides newsagents with since the company was formed. Occasionally things change, but not enough. Each time there is a reason or excuse. The overriding message is that they know better. Occasionally there may be an apology. Yet the behaviour of ill-founded blame continues.
I guess they continue to under resource and poorly manage their XchangeIT customer service because they know that my team at Tower, serving more than 50% of all newsagents with computer systems, will cover for them. We demonstrate our support by not charging an XchangeIT support fee like some others do. Maybe we should introduce such a charge to cover for the work we do on behalf of XchangeIT.
The quality of XchangeIT support is on my mind because of an incident which was resolved last week. The XchangeIT people convinced my customer that it was a Tower problem, we lost hours working on this. Even when XchangeIT realised that it was directly related to their software and how it was installed, they changed their story and said it was Gotch and Network related. It was never a problem with Gotch and Network. I was shocked that their spin to the newsagent.
The most recent incident is a good example of the costs I am bearing on behalf of newsagents because of unjustified blame shifting by XchangeIT.
If you represent XchangeIT and are frustrated or upset that I have complained here rather than to you, think back to the many meetings, emails and calls about this issue and the level of service you provide newsagents. It’s time you did something. The current approach is unfair against newsagents.
There is irony in the report in The Australian yesterday reporting an expert claiming that print will be dead in 5 to 10 years. The report is behind the new paywall if you navigate through the newspaper website – offering commentary about the changing nature of digital access to news. You can get to the full story, outside the paywall, here.
I think that it is inevitable that daily news will move from print to digital formats. The nature of today’s news cycle and the growing ease of availability of mobile digital devices make it inevitable. The challenge is what happens in the meantime and how we leverage the opportunities which flow from disruption to print.
We refreshed our small crossword display on the weekend. I’d left this since the magazine relay six weeks ago and found that a mixture of titles were being placed in this premium front-pocket space. Most were overseas titles. I early returned a bunch of under performing overseas crossword titles and allocated this prime space to Australian titles, as you can see in the photo. This is in addition to two columns of space allocated to the Lovatts smaller format titles.
While I am happy to have overseas titles in the mix, they, like every other magazine, must pay their way per pocket. Magazine distributors too often do not allocate with this goal for newsagents, especially when it comes to overseas crossword and puzzle titles.
So, our policy when it comes to crossword titles, is Australian titles first. We will act sooner on poorly performing overseas titles.
We have placed The Monthly magazine at the counter to leverage media coverage for the issue over the last few days. The cover is terrific and Paul Keating’s photo is bound to draw attention.
I wish the publisher would invest some money in supporting the title in newsagencies. Cover run ons would help. Sales volume is too small to enable practical use of a large poster but cover run ons would provide flexibility.
The other promotional opportunity I’d like to see is an A5 flyer with teases about stories in the latest issue. We could hand these to customers and include them in bags. If there is room for newsagents to stamp their details I am sure that the flyer would be supported.
Our sales of The Monthly are volatile so anything we can do to make an issue more appealing I am up for.
UK corporate newsagent business WH Smith is to open three retail outlets in the revamped retail offer at Southern Cross Station in Melbourne.
This move reflects further expansion by the 1,000+ store strong UK based group. I suspect it is only a matter of time before we see their stores in Australian shopping malls.
The WH Smith model in the UK includes shopping mall and high street operations. There is a big difference between their model and the traditional independent newsagent model in the UK.
The three new outlets in Melbourne are part of an expansion into transit locations here.