The Age today has another ad stuck on the masthead. While it obviously generates revenue for them it creates trash for retailers and frustration for some customers. They should remove their coat of arms and sell the saved space.
Every day which passes intensifies my disappointment with the book situation on the iPad in Australia. The lack of an agreement between Apple and Australian publishers means that we miss out. This is the dark side of the device, where it controls by geographic borders what we have access to. The internet, the FREE internet, is far more useful and valuable in this regard. Apple, publishers and others controlling who can access what and when are diluting the positive impact of the iPad and similar devices.
The Wrap is reporting that News Corp is considering bidding for the Texas Rangers Major League Baseball team and has bid for the Dallas Stars a National Hockey League team. Makes sense given the success they have had owning Australian NRL teams and half the NRL itself.
The next seven days just got better for newsagents with lotteries thanks to OzLotto jackpotting tonight to $30 million. Those of us with an impulse purchases strategy will make the most of the traffic boost.
I am looking to add to the pool of newsagents I am working with on researching the cash flow implications of the magazine supply model. While I have good data from my benchmark participants, I want to extend the reach to ensure the best possible representation. This next round of magazine performance data will be the most comprehensive ever gathered for newsagencies. I plan to make good use of it on behalf of newsagents.
If you would like to participate, please email me privately at mark@towersystems…
State and federal governments have used first home owners grants to stimulate the building industry. I am surprised they have not established first business buyers grants to encourage first time business buyers to enter the marketplace. This could be the stimulus needed to increase the sale of businesses.
Newsagencies are excellent businesses for anyone buying their first business. Talk to just about any broker around the country and you will discover that there are plenty of newsagencies for sale and not too many moving. A first business buyers grant could be the encouragement prospective buyers need to get into the market.
I’d like to hear what the politicians seeking our votes think of this idea.
At one of my newsagencies yesterday morning I counted thirteen different sudoku titles. Thirteen! Obviously, the magazine distributors think that is not too many. If I complained, I am sure they would claim to have sales data showing that this level of supply is justified. In my view, this level of range of sudoku titles it is not justified in my newsagency. If I carried half the range I bet my total sudoku title sales would not change.
Distributors say we can early return product. Sure we can, but we pay the freight. They say that we can control supply through their website and other processes. Nonsense.
Australian magazine publishers often complain that newsagents don’t engage with their titles and miss opportunities to grow their businesses. That is because we are drowning in junk, like some of the sudoku titles in this photo. We need these Australian publishers to help us to get distributors from abusing newsagents. If they can help reduce the overseas junk for a start we will have a publishing and retail businesses.
We also need to take firm action ourselves to exert more control over our assets. We pay the rent and wages bills after all. I hold no hope at all that newsagents will do this though.
Sure we complain. But we don’t organise ourselves. Too many industry leaders are seduced by a nice lunch, sponsorship for an event, a trip or some simple ego stroking to deliver the strong leadership newsagents need on this issue and to push back against this appalling behaviour.
In today’s marketplace, with magazine sales falling, newsagents must act on inefficient supply. Too many newsagents are losing too much money for the current situation to continue.
We compete with supermarkets, convenience stores, petrol outlets and others for magazine sales and while the newsagency channel accounts for 50% of all magazines sold in Australia, I suspect we have the least control over supply. That is how it feels at least.
We are have tactically placed the latest issue of Prevention magazine (out yesterday) between New Idea and Australian Women’s Weekly for the next week to drive impulse purchases. We also have Prevention in its usual area with women’s health related titles as well as on the dance floor of the store. Our obsession with basket size is working with growth achieved in July 2010 compared to July 2009.
This is the other Zoo Weekly display we have created in our newsagency at Forest Hill – the main display being at our newspaper stand. This is on the back of the ACP basket builder stand and is seen by shoppers as they leave our (mainly) men’s magazine aisle. As they walk past this display they can easily see the stand by our newspaper stand – that’s the plan at least.
Zoo Weekly is $1.95 this week and that means that driving impulse purchases of the title is easier than usual. We have stock next to our main newspaper stand as well as the usual location for the title. The stand has been deliberately set so that picking up the magazine is easy for customers reaching to purchase the Herald Sun.
While I am not a fan of these cover price discounts, I understand that they play in getting infrequent customers sampling the title. I want to do everything possible to sell out as early as possible in the week.
We have placed New Idea next to our main newspaper stand to attract impulse purchases over the next few days. We know that a Schapelle Corby cover story works well for us so it makes sense to leverage this to the max. We also have New Idea in its usual location with our weeklies. The floor stand makes it easy to move the title around.
Sales for the latest issue of the MasterChef magazine are excellent if the data I have seen is anything to go by. Achieving a sell through of 75% in the first three days for a monthly magazine is excellent. In one of my stores, we have sold out. In that location MasterChef was used to attract shoppers to the store by way of a display facing into the mall. Hopefully we can get extra stock and really push sales figures for this issue.
Newsagents I have spoken with on the weekend have reported excellent results.
While some in publishing circles are wondering what will happen now that the TV show is off the air, my feeling is that clever promotion and the forthcoming Junior MasterChef TV show should see the magazine continue to do well. Customers love it and they are happy to say so across the sales counter.
Revenue from books in July was up 38% compared to July 2010 at our Forest Hill store. This is a brilliant result since around 75% of books are purchased on impulse. The remainder are purchased as a result of external marketing we do to drive new traffic based on the book offers. With an excellent margin, the value of the sales increase is considerable.
The success of the book sale is down to the work of our in-store management and team – constantly moving stock, refreshing displays and engaging in tactical placement in the store away from the book sale.
The second day of the GNS Market Fair in Melbourne today was excellent. Busy. Plenty of newsagents through. My feeling is that it was busier than last year.
Congratulations to GNS for such a good fair.
I split time between the Tower Systems stand and the newsXpress stand. Both did well, coming away with new business and leads from newsagents keen to do business. You know you are doing well when competitors spend time watching your stand.
I enjoyed the business discussions I had with many newsagents and many newsagent suppliers today and yesterday. There is a developing conversation among many around the question of basket size and how newsagents can improve this. This started off at the recent Newsagency of the Future sessions and is now developing more widely as more in the channel realise that this is a key issue and opportunity for us.
Since my blog post yesterday about employee theft I have received more than fifty emails, twenty phone calls and plenty approaches at the Melbourne GNS Market Fair from newsagents wanting to know more and or wanting to share their stories.
Almost everyone I spoke with agrees that it appears more prevalent today than a year ago. There is no discrimination on business size, geographic location or any other factor.
Here are nine suggestions for cutting employee theft in your newsagency:
Yes, I know, I was not following my own advice. That is a lesson in itself.
Newsagents may want to check the cover of IdN Magazine. While the message of the content is excellent, the means used on the cover used to draw attention to the magazine will be a challenge in some stores.
Be wary of customers relocatating the titlet so that the cover is more obvious.
At our Tower Systems stand at the GNS Market Fair yesterday we were demonstrating a new smart customer display which will offer another integrated impulse advertising platform to newsagents. This display coulpled with customer coupons on receipts offers a structured and consistent platform through which any newsagency and newsagency supplier can influence impulse purchases at the counter or immediately after the sale.
With 1,700+ newsagents already in the Tower network, suppliers are interested.
The GNS Market Fair in Melbourne has been terrific today. Plenty of newsagents came through the new venue at the exhibition centre (hall 10). When I checked the numbers were in line with last year. Suppliers have mounted professional displays with excellent offers. Newsagents I spoke with enjoyed the show and did some good business.
If you are a Victorian newsagent I’d encourage you to get along. Tomorrow’s hours at 8am through 4pm.
I feel like an idiot. For years I have helped newsagents deal with employee and customer theft. I have spoken at regional newsagent meetings about this, I have helped police gather and understand evidence in several states, I have sworn affidavits as an expert witness, I have helped insurance companies verify claims. I have even published guidelines for newsagents on how to cut the cost of theft.
If only I had followed my own advice.
On Monday this week we discovered an employee theft situation at one of the stores with which I am involved. We discovered it when hunting down a discrepancy from Sunday’s numbers. Our Point of Sale software Audit Log provided excellent evidence indicating criminal behaviour. Our linked camera system provided the visual proof we needed.
The rest of Monday and Tuesday were spent researching how long this had been going on for. We were shocked – and this is when I began to feel like an idiot. The evidence indicated that upwards of $20,000 had been stolen.
Following discussions with the police and our insurance company I approached the person involved. Within two hours we were paid $12,000 as settlement of the matter.
While we may have got more by pursuing it through the police, the costs to us would have been considerably higher, it would have taken longer to get paid and there would have been a knock-on impact on our insurance policy. There was also a risk that we would get far less.
Having worked with police previously, I knew there would be a challenge on what they would consider admissible evidence. The recent camera footage and companion data from the computer system is good. While this establishes a pattern of behaviour, it is a challenge to get a court to accept that this was going on months or years before to determine the quantum of the theft.
The best way to cut the cost of employee theft is to:
I am embarrassed that this happened in one of my businesses. Hopefully, I have learned a lesson. There is no doubt that I am less trusting now.
Anyone who wants to know how the theft was done is welcome to call me on 0418 321 338 or email me at mark@towersystems.com.au for details. I have a document with practcial suggestions on how to determine whether employee theft is a problem in your business.
Newsagency employees reading this post who are stealing from their employer, resign because you will ultimately be caught.
Footnote: before anyone says that they have a computer system which blocks many types of employee theft, ours does too. My view is that is someone is desperate to steal from you they will avoid the technology and find another way. By not erecting all of the barriers I could have in this business, it was easier for me to gather evidence and, ultimately, fix the problem.
I am happy to talk to any newsagent about what happened and how we discovered it. The more we share this information the better.
We have a small footprint display of the Lipsmacker product at the counter. It’s offering a product young girls will like and with an excellent margin. I have the product in three of my stores – I want to see how far I can go in terms of pricing so we are trying three prices. As the photo shows, at my Forest Hill store we have it next to the popular Better Homes and Gardens counter promotion.
If I had more than one copy, I’d have placed the latest issue of Mining Monthly in a high traffic location somewhere. The Kevin Rudd cover story is yesterday’s news but there are some out there who would have collected this. He was on the last issue as well – a caricature at least.
We have the latest issue of MasterChef magazine on display at our newspaper stand as well as with weeklies and in the food section. The tactical placement next to the newspaper stand works best for us, especially in the first two weeks.
While MasterChef magazine has established regular customers, being in a shopping centre we see plenty of impulse business.
We are chasing extra stock expecting this issue to be hot.
Our newsXpress Forest Hill store is set for some changes early in the new year. With major construction being undertaken on level 3 of the centre, directly above us, the landlord has asked us to move to a kiosk temporarily during the construction phase. This coincides with the end of our current lease. The landlord has offered us a new lease for a permanent location to kick in once the construction is over.
The original plan of the landlord, three weeks ago, was that the construction would start immediately and impact our tenancy next week. That all changed last week when their construction plans were delayed. Plans may change again – we have told the landlord that we will try and work in with any changes which occur.
We have been at Forest Hill for more than fourteen years and have been moved by the landlord three times.
Why have I mentioned this now? Because nextra is trying to undermine us by putting a different spin on the story in the members area of their website.
In addition to some excellent stationery deals from suppliers, my software company, Tower Systems, will be showing how newsagents are already using the iPad to help in running their businesses at the GNS Market Fair in Melbourne this weekend. See you there…
It is interesting to see what a newsagency customer has to say about magazine back issues in a bag at the Caravaners Forum:
Went to a News Agent this morning to pick up a caravan magazine, the large format one and the one which I do not subscribe, despite it being my favourite.
Unusually it was in plastic & I thought beaut, there is something free inside. The bag says save 28% (from memory). The other mag was some Caravan & Motorhome Trader thing. No interest to me. I’m thinking if I run out of newspaper I can use it to start the fire at home. $9.95? Hang on it is normally only $7.95 so how am I saving 28%?
I will have a look at other News Agents & if I can’t buy it on it’s own at $7.95, I won’t buy it at all.
I am not overly concerned, just that I am not paying an extra $2.00 for landfill.
The forum itself, which I found out about yesterday, will be of terrific interest and help to newsagents with strong sales of caravan, motorhome and camper titles. Forum members love newsagencies because they can get their magazine fix easily from us while on the road.
There is an opportunity here to somehow better connect with caravaners – especially if you see plenty coming through your town.