I love this Tweet today from Lomas News in the UK
Old Newsagents proverb “Always try new chocolate lines” 👍 #Oreoegg #OREO #Cadbury #CadburyOreo @CadburyUK @Oreo pic.twitter.com/Dcmgz8GyLh
— Newsagent (@LOMASNEWS) December 17, 2019
Westfield misses with fake snow theme for Christmas
I was at Westfield Southland in Melbourne today and saw their centerstage Christmas feature event – a snow village, complete with fake dry snow falling at regular intervals. I heard one kid say this is Australia mum, we don’t have snow at Christmas while most kids were standing under the falling ‘snow’.
The snow theme interests me as one of the push ks I hear from shoppers and newsagents is relates to snow themed cards and gifts at Christmas. People usually say it’s not appropriate for Australia. The marketing ‘experts’ at Westfield disagree based on how they spent the considerable marketing dollars provided by their tenants.
For me, the snow theme is a fail. However, the queue of families wanting to experience it and have their Santa photo moment was long.
Website advice for newsagents and indie retailers
Here is a video I created a few weeks ago for retailers using POS software from my Tower Systems company. In the video is advice that could be useful to newsagents considering websites for their business. I see many retailers app0roach their online presence with a plan to place all in-store inventory online and to do this under the banner of the physical shop. I think both these moves are a mistake, and I explain why in the video.
Attracting new shoppers to the newsagency
Usual product categories attract usual shoppers. If we want new traffic we need to do this with products that reach beyond what is traditional for us.
Here is a video I made Saturday to promote Pushed, a very successful new traffic products for us.
I shot the video using my iPhone. I used iMovie to clean up the sound and freshen the colour. Then, I used a web app to lay in the text and underlay music.
The whole process took fifteen minutes. I have a video that we will use four or five times. Already,k it’s resulted in some welcome revenue.
This post is not about the content but, rather, about the process of creating the content. More newsagents should do this as contents you have created will be more meaningful and more connected to your business. This makes it more valuable to you.
An early look at Christmas trading in newsagencies
I have looked at sales data for ten newsagencies for the last four weeks, comparing 2019 performance to 2018. The businesses are: 3 x capital city shopping mall, 3 x high street suburban, 2 x regional (pop. 25K+) and 2 x rural (pop. 2,000 – 4,000). None of them are mine.
The businesses are not all in one newsagency marketing group. I did seek out businesses that traded in all of the reported product categories.
While this is not a statistically sound sample size to project results for the channel, the numbers are interesting. Here is a summary of the overall stats.
- Cards (overall): down 3%.
- Cards (Christmas): down 2.5%.
- Christmas specific gifts / homewares: up 6%.
- Gifts: up 6%.
- Toys/games: up 10%.
- Jigsaws: up 5%.
- Homewares: up 2%.
- Newspapers: down 14%.
- Magazines: down 11%.
- Stationery: down 9%.
Looking at the businesses in the data pool of 10 that are performing better, they share several things in common:
- The front of their shops, as much as permitted for those with lotteries, do not look traditional.
- They are active on social media with 500+ followers, daily posts, engaging and entertaining posts.
- They offer diverse product and overall non-traditional range.
- They encourage shoppers to try what they sell.
- The encourage staff to have fun.
- They are community connected.
- They don’t see themselves as newsagencies.
Now, what does all this mean? Well, that’s up to you and how you see your business. Digging into the data deeper, for the majority of the 10, Christmas is under way and is, overall, slightly better than last year. I think they are seeing Christmas under way because of how they are engaging with the season in-store and out in social media and elsewhere.
We really do make our own success, through our buying, visual merchandising and out of store messaging.
I appreciate that most news outlets are reporting on declining retail sales. National data represent that. Below the national data is the battle between rooftops, retailers winning retail revenue from competitors. While there is plenty to not like about being in a shopping mall, it is in a shopping mall situation that you can more easily engage in competition with a nearby rooftop.
There are retailers doing well and, yes, there are retailers not doing well. I think that we have more control over where we land than we think. The more we actively manage for success the more likely we are to achieve it.
Awful day for Myer yesterday
All Myer department stores across Australia suffered major POS system tech failure yesterday (Dec. 14), a vitally important day for Christmas trade this season.
Most consumer facing tech at Myer runs on XP from my understanding, an operating system that was at end of life years ago.
Among IT professionals in retail, the Myer tech infrastructure has been a running joke. Clearly those in control of IT capex within the company have not had the stability and efficiency interests of the business at heart in their decision making.
With Windows 7 at end of life in four weeks, what happened to Myer is a reminder of the importance of having sound and current IT infrastructure in retail or any business for that matter.
The Myer IT infrastructure is old, out of date and technically unsafe.
My newsagency software company Tower Systems, we have been sharing advice with our 3,500 indie retail business owners about the soon to be end of life of Windows 7, providing options cost effective upgrade.
We provide a personal hardware and software upgrade service, tailored specifically to the needs of each customer.
We have also, in 2019, delivered comprehensive POS software updates, keeping our specialty POS software at the forefront of each marketplace in which we serve: Jewellers, garden centres, bike shops, produce stores, pet shops, toy shops, fishing and outdoors stores, rural supply businesses and newsagents.
What happened to Myer Saturday could have been avoided with better leadership, decisions focussed on managing IT and data as core business assets.
Take a moment and check your hardware and software.Make sure they are up to date. If you are running Windows XP or Windows 7, you must change to something more up to date. If your POS software has not been updated this year, look around at something more modern and fit for the needs of today.
Our Retailer Roam portable POS software and our Retailer cloud based and desktop POS software provide indie specialty retailers tools through which to better serve and compete locally. As active retailers ourselves (3 shops), we willingly share broader retail insights we see in our travels.
The Myer story from yesterday is timely. It need not be scary if you are prepared.
Kudos Greta Thunberg
Not that many newsagents in Australia stock Time magazine any more. This is an issue to pitch at the counter.
You don’t have to like Greta Thunberg to appreciate the extraordinary influence she is having on debate and discussion of climate change.
Personally, I respect Greta and appreciate her work on this existential issue the world faces and which too many ignorant politicians dismiss.
People love buying The Saturday Paper
Many who purchase The Saturday Paper comment positively when purchasing. This happens rarely with other newspaper purchases. Today, I heard, thank god this paper still exists.
What I like about The Saturday Paper is it hits its mark, offering deep analysis of top news stories of the week and breaking stories dailies have missed. It is a good newspaper, always challenging.
It looks better than the fading product from Nine. The Age used to be a newspaper of record for Victoria. Not now, sadly.
Missing the days newspapers looked like newspapers and not ad catalogues
BTW, the Herald Sun claim is we’re for you. They way News Corp. minimises the tax it pays I suspect the motto is not true.
First autonomous commercial truck freight run across the US
Off topic for here yet on topic, this is an extraordinary story. AI is this the industrial revolution of our time.
A perfect magazine to pitch on social media
This one-shot, Inside The Crown, from Pacific Magazines under the Who banner is perfect for pitching on social media right now.
With season 3 of The Crown TV series out now on Netflix to critical acclaim and achieving extraordinary viewing engagement, this accompanying magazine should be selling well. That’s why I suggest pitching it on social media. It is the type of magazine product that could drive traffic.
I’d also suggest placement of the one-shot with newspapers as well as at the counter. It is a perfect title for impulse purchases.
Make the most of the opportunity. Even as a low-cost Christmas gift it works.
While I get the magazine margin remains offensively small, we have the stock so we might as well chase incremental business.
Reserve Bank head talks about phasing out cheques and the move to cashless
Phillip Low, governor of the Reserve bank in a widely reported speech Tuesday this week spoke about the rapid decline in use of cheques and cash.
Addressing the Australian Payments Network Summit in Sydney, Dr Lowe revealed the bank’s traditional survey of payment systems has found another huge fall in the use of cheques.
Over the past year, the number of cheques written has fallen by 19 per cent with the value down by 30 per cent. Much of this is due to the real estate sector moving to electronic property settlements.
…
Dr Lowe said the use of cash was also falling away with 80 per cent of retail transactions now tap-and-go. That rapid take-up of tap-and-go is faster than in most other countries, aided by the “willingness of Australians to try something different” including wearable devices.
“There has been a further trend decline in the use of cash, with cash now accounting for just around a quarter of day-to-day transactions, and most of these are for small-value payments,” he said.
I appreciate that cashless retail is not a popular topic here. There is no denying that it is on the horizon and approaching us.
I see evidence of cashless in my own shops as well as in other retail, in government, in banking service changes and elsewhere. I think there is no stopping this move.
By the way: my preference is cash.
What if magazines drop from 2 days a week to 1 day a week
I would not be surprised if magazine deliveries do drop to one day a week. With the number of publishers and retail outlets contracting, it is challenging to make efficient use of the logistics necessary to land magazine at retail outlets.
Dropping to one delivery a week could be economically essential for the current magazine specific delivery situation.
If magazines could be cost-effectively delivered outside this single purpose and single supplier controlled process the days of delivery could be different, more flexible.
At the Bauer Media Connections conference on the Gold Coast in September the General Manager of Ovato posed the question of dropping to one day a week delivery.
So, that’s what I am interested in today. If magazine deliveries were to drop to one day a week, which day would you prefer?
Delivery one day a week would impact local newsagency foot traffic. If such a change was contemplated, maybe a Wednesday works better for labour management, shop floor workflow and shopper traffic attraction. What do you think?
Another look at Amazon Go
I was fortunate to get another look at Amazon Go last week. Here is a video I made of some of the insights I took away.
What an awesome shop local pitch in this video from Hafod Hardware in Wales
Brilliant marketing from this small family business. #Inspiring
Australian Banking Association is looking at the use of credit cards for gambling
This news, from the ABA website:
Today the Australian Banking Association has released a consultation paper on the use of credit cards for gambling.
Banks have introduced a range of initiatives to help customers better manage their financial arrangements and mitigate harms related to problem gambling – technology solutions such as tools to help customers track their spending, customer directed blocks, trained customer support teams, referrals to support services.
The ABA is seeking views from the public on the place of a credit card and its use for gambling. Currently credit cards can be used when gambling online, however when in a gambling venue of a licenced venue or casino patrons cannot use credit cards or make ATM cash advance on their credit card.
CEO of the Australian Banking Association Anna Bligh said that banks had an important role to play in helping tackle the issue of problem gambling and were seeking feedback from the community.
“For many Australians gambling is a form of entertainment and recreation, however for some it can become a problem that potentially has devastating consequence for the individual and their family,” Ms Bligh said.
“As an industry we are currently assessing a number of options to help tackle problem gambling.
“We are seeking feedback across the community on a number of important questions, which will then help banks as they each consider further reform on this issue,” she said.
The ABA is seeking community views on the following questions:
- What are the risks and concerns associated with gambling with credit cards?
- Should the use of credit cards for gambling be restricted or prohibited?
- If so, should the restriction or prohibition apply to all forms of gambling?
- What are the potential consequences of prohibiting or restricting the use of credit cards for gambling?
- Should there be a transition period if banks choose to implement changes relating to credit cards?
For a copy of the consultation paper click here. Submissions on the topic are due by March 4, 2020. Submissions can be emailed to submissions@ausbanking.org.au. The ABA requests that submissions make use of empirical evidence as far as possible. A survey option is also available on the ABA website here.
For this to work, banks will either need access to what’s in a shopping basket to assess whether it is approved, or they will require POS software through which cards they issue are used to undertake such basket assessment – if this project of theirs moves forward.
A positive message for WA lottery retailers
Lotterywest continues to lead in the communication and community engagement stakes in the lottery category in Australia. Their comms, sent every Thursday, are focussed, optimistic and updating retailers on promise delivery. Here is a note from their email yesterday afternoon:
A message from the Premier and Lotterywest CEO
This year has been an exciting one for us all, delivering record sales and increasing our return to the Western Australian community.We’re pleased to announce that as of last Friday, the planned one percent increase in retailer commissions has fully come into effect.
The commissions increase is part of a larger package of initiatives to build a successful retail network.
Early in the new year Lotterywest will be working with you to shape what this looks like so we can develop the right model to support these initiatives together.We look forward to another fantastic year ahead and wish you and your loved ones a very happy festive season and New Year.
Kind regards,
Premier Mark McGowan and Susan Hunt, PSM, Lotterywest CEO
There is a lot to be said for government ownership and management of state licensed lotteries.
Don’t buy your Christmas cards at Coles
The best place to buy Christmas cards this year is a local newsagency. It will be a small, locally-owned, family business, which supports local community groups. You are also like to find a good range of Christmas cards rom fancy to basic.
At supermarkets like Coles, there is less of a choice. Typically, they pitch cheap looking and packaged cards at a high price point. The cards themselves are shoved on a shelf and not respected as you would usually find in a specialty card store, like a newsagency.
The Christmas card range this year at Coles is mediocre and expensive in my opinion.
As a channel we need to do more to call out the difference between what we offer in getting cards compared to supermarkets. We need to subtly remind shoppers how we bring value to this category and provide them with a shopping experience they will appreciate. We can do this through social media and elsewhere.
We can beat the supermarkets and similar by being more engaged with this category and reaching outside our four walls with stories representing our differentiation.
Updated Facebook tutorial
Here is a new video I created last week for newsXpress marketing group members on using Facebook to reach new shoppers. It reflects changes to some practicalities in how Facebook works. I hope some find it useful.
Video training is helpful in that it can be reviewed when you want, easily shared and played at a time to suit.
Facebook is another small step marketing opportunity for indie retailers.
Cyber Monday
With Black Friday now a settled retail event, regardless of whether we like the label in Australia, it will be interesting to see how Cyber Monday develops.
Cyber Monday began in the US in 2005. It is the first Monday after Thanksgiving. This year it is today, December 2.
In my own retail businesses I am following a US tradition of running Black Friday offers through to the end of Cyber Monday. It is lazy for sure. It also reflects lesser engagement in Australia with these events compared to the US. This approach worked well online and in-store Saturday and Sunday.
Given how much we rely on online and how global retail runs today, we have no choice but to embrace opportunities like Cyber Monday.
I get that some newsagents in regional and rural locations will say events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday do not impact them. In their town, people looking for Cyber Monday deals may not be looking in the Main Street as much as they are searching the Net. Their engagement with the day will not be seen in physical retail, unless physical retail engages with the event.
Solomon Lew attacks retail landlords
In a story in The Age by Dominic Powell, Solomon Lew and CEO of his Premier Investments, Mark McInnes, have attached landlords:
‘Killing jobs, killing retailers’: Premier chiefs Lew and McInnes unleash on landlords
Premier Investments chief executive Mark McInnes and billionaire rag trader Solomon Lew have intensified their attack on major landlords, accusing them of “killing” local businesses by offering cheaper rent to international retailers such as H&M and Uniqlo.
Mr McInnes pointed to the recent collapse of womenswear chain Bardot as evidence landlords offering cheap deals to international retailers had forced up rents and ruined the retail market.
“Landlords have incentivised international retailers into this space. They’ve diluted the market and killed companies, and Bardot is just one of those,” he said.
“By incentivising [retailers like] H&M and Uniqlo and offering them more capital and better deals … they’re bringing down Australian companies, they’re killing Australian jobs and they’re killing Australian retailers.”
…
Rental pressures have compounded the broader issues within the retail sector over the last 12 months, which has been afflicted by slowing sales and weak consumer confidence despite tax cuts and three interest rate cuts.
Trade figures for the month of September failed to show any response to the recent fiscal and monetary stimulus and Mr McInnes confirmed the company was yet to see any meaningful response.
I think the way to get the attention of landlords is for retailers to not sign a lease unless they are certain they can make money, unless they are completely happy. Empty space focusses the attention of any landlord.
Appreciating evolution of boxed Christmas card packaging
It is good to see some Australian card suppliers, Paper Street and Henderson Greetings, offering boxed Christmas cards in open packaging this year. Packaging without the usual acetate all-enclosing container.
In this type of packaging, a slim cardboard box frame is used to hold the cards with most of the surface area front and back open so that customers can touch and feel the actual cards. It is an open box approach.
I like this. I like that it is a good environmental story as well as a good customer service experience.
Feedback from customers in-store has been terrific so far this year. since we have the traditional and new packaging from various suppliers in-store, it is interesting hearing unprompted comparisons about the packaging being made.
The open box in the photo below is from a card company in the UK. I am holding it so you can see what I mean about the benefits of this type of packaging.
Where cards have treatments, such as embossing, the open box approach works well, offering shoppers a tactile experience that could / should more effectively guide purchase.
I anticipate a consequence of more card companies adopting the open box approach to the traditional boxed Christmas card packaging will be better product, product that leverages the tactile shopping experience. Customers will benefit as will retailers and card companies.
Anything we can do to grow card sales has to be important, right?! I think this open box approach pursues that goal.
With physical retailers chasing opportunities to offer experiences, it is appropriate and timely that innovative card companies are facilitating a better experience in Christmas boxed card shopping.
As competition with online intensifies, anything we in physical retail can do to leverage in-store tactile experiences matters.
Boxed Christmas card sales are important for the newsagency channel in that compared to everyday card sales, we perform very well in the boxed Christmas card space. Being on the front foot with innovation matters as it is differentiating. This is where the work by Paper Street and Henderson Greetings is important as it provides indie retailers with an advantage.
Black Friday update
Further to my Black Friday post yesterday. To come in this morning and see $1,500 in online sales overnight for one store when usually overnight sales would be at $250.00 is heartwarming. This result is almost as good as the result the night before.
Not one of the sales is to a shopper within two hours of the business.
Accounting for shopping, the GP% achieved is 46%, which is terrific for a sale event.
As fulfilment is from existing leased space and labour resources, there are no additional overheads.
While the name Black Friday has a very different meaning to Australians, online being what it is, there is no opportunity to swing against the tide. Embracing it more fully as we have done this year will see thousands of dollars bottom line benefit well ahead of Christmas.
I think this is where Black Friday plays most interestingly – pulling forward what for us might have been Christmas or Boxing Day Sale purchases, or net new revenue – I say this given that it’s online and I suspect many of the shoppers were looking for a deal so if we did not get them now we would not have got them later. the reality is, who knows?! I am okay with that as a $ banked today is real.
Update: 5:20pm. $3,000 in revenue today from this niche website. Not one sale to a customer within 2 hours of the small suburban high street shop. All on the back of a Black Friday promotion, on which we spent $0 in marketing.