Newsagency management

In my work with Tower Systems, I am often asked this question by small business retailers: What’s the best website platform for a small retail business Wix, Shopify, Woo Commerce or Squarespace?

I  years of experience using websites in my shops and advising Tower customers about  websites using Shopify, Magento, Big Commerce and WooCommerce. Recently, I’ve had more questions asking to compare Wix, Shopify, Woo Commerce or Squarespace.

Below are my thoughts, which I wrote this morning for the Tower Systems POS software blog. This advice is relevant to newsagents considering a website for their business. Now, here is the advice:

The advice we provide in this article is based on our years of experience serving thousands of small business retailers.

The best e-commerce platform for your business will depend on your technical experience, your budget, your position in your online journey and the goals you have for your website. Each of these platforms offers different benefits. from the outset, though, in our experience, Shopify is the best solution for easy of use, ease of change without technical skills, the ability to scale and ease of winning shoppers from the already considerable Shopify customer ecosystem.

Wix offers easy drag and drop, which can see like a big time saver for the novice. In reality, Wix websites can often become messy, overloaded. It can be a good platform to figure out what you want but our experience is that it’s not ideal once you are up and running and building your online business. We think it’s unlikely you’ll find hero websites for small business retailers based on Wix. If you need a site up in an hour and want total freedom to drag things around the screen, Wix could be a good choice today.

WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress. It’s made for use by technically skilled people. You do the work, and once you;’ve done that you will tend to have to do more work. This tech work can distract you from running your retail business. Woo is terrifically flexible, which comes as a labour cost for you or for the web developer you hire. If you already have a WordPress site and want to avoid monthly subscription fees, this offers the most freedom, provided you have the technical skills and truckloads of time to manage it.

Squarespace is offers beautiful looking websites with an easy to use back end for adjustment. It’s heavily image-focused. You can’t “break” a Squarespace site as easily as a Wix site because the editor forces you to stay within a grid. Squarspace lacks some of the finesse of Shopiufy for businesses that need more, especially when it comes to shipping flexibility. fI selling “the vibe” is as important as selling the product, Squarespace might be your answer.

Shopify is the best solution for local small business retailers in our experience. Shopify themes make it easy for you to change the look and feel of your website without hiring a web developer. Shopify integrates with terrific local shipping options (Sendle, My Post Business etc) and Shopify validates Australian addresses incredibly well at checkout, which saves you money on “return to sender” errors. It is the industry standard for a reason. If your goal is to grow, Shopify handles the “boring” stuff (hosting, security, checkout compliance) better than anyone in our experience.

We have years of experience using Shopify ourselves – when we offer advice to retailers on e-commerce, it comes from a place of personal experience as well as extensive technical experience and years building Shopify websites for so many different retailers.

Now, we’re not saying Wix, Squarespace and WooCommerce are bad. What you choose for your business needs to be what you want/need.

What we are saying is do your research – choose the ecommerce platform that serves your technical skills, budget, business plans and how you see your business living online.

Low cost websites may be low cost because of the work you have to do to manage and modify them.

Fast to setup websites may be fast because they don’t go as deep within your business.

Key to success is you knowing what it is that you want / need for yourself and for your business. Saying you want a website is not enough. What do you want from it?

Take your time. Figure out what you need, want and can afford. Look at examples of websites for your type of business. Consider web developers local to you, people who understand your business, people you can speak with. Ask why they recommend what they recommend.

We recommend Shopify for speed to launch, ease of change, non technical back end management, ease of scale, wonderful integrations and access to a huge ecosystem of shoppers. It’s what we use and what many of our local small business retail customers use.

Web development is unregulated. Be careful. There are some who know the words to say to dazzle less technically literate folks into spending money with them only to never deliver what the business wants / needs. Get any promises in writing – including delivery timing and website functionality.

Be sure you know the business you are dealing with. Often, we developers are not local as they may pitch.

Do your due diligence before you sign any contract or pay any money. We’ll say again: take your time.

This decision rests entirely on your business’s ultimate ambition. If you view your online store as a serious, scalable retail channel, one that you need to easily manage alongside your physical operations, integrates effortlessly with local logistics, and provides a reliable, secure foundation that won’t require a developer every time you want to make a change, then Shopify is our recommended investment.

While Wix and Squarespace offer beautiful simplicity for the start-up, and WooCommerce offers technical control, Shopify is purpose-built for the commercial rigor of a growing retail business, offering the best balance of ease-of-use, power, and a vast ecosystem of apps and support designed to help Australian retailers move more stock with less technical overhead.

Shopify is a good small business e-commerce solution, which can grow as you grow. We had one customer using Shopify go from $50,000 in their launch year to $2.5 million by year four. The growth came from their smart business decisions. Shopify made it easy to manage the growth.

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If you are considering a website for your retail business, consider Tower Systems. Call 1300 662 957 in Australia or 0800 444 367 in New Zealand. Or, email sales@towersystems.com.au. If we feel we are not right for you, we will say so.

A supplier rep told retailers they visited how awesome a new product they were pitching was. There said other retailers had found it successful. retailers bought up. The product failed. The rep doubled down, suggesting that the retailers failed and not the product.

Retailers listened to the rep because of the origin story they always pitched on the first meeting – years of local small business retail experience.

I get it, supplier reps have one job to do to sell the products they represent. The thing is they will fail if they sell products that fail.

The rep in the story above did have retail experience, from more than twenty years earlier, for a couple of years when they were in high school. The way they told the story is sounded more recent, and more significant than part time counter sales.

Unless someone has current retail experience relevant to you, be skeptical about their advice. Do your research. Check their claims. get any promises in writing. And, if you encounter a rep giving bad advice, discretely tell fellow retailers so they don’t get caught.

Thoughtful Verification: Key Steps for Supplier Due Diligence

1. Seek Peer Confirmation: Ask the representative for the names of a few other retailers who have been successfully selling the product for some time and have placed multiple restock orders.
2. Request Performance Clarity: Request documented figures for the typical sell-through rate experienced by new customers in their first few months. This turns success stories into a predictable, quantifiable expectation.
3. Establish a Protective Agreement: For a new product, formally agree upon a buy-back or stock credit option for a portion of initial inventory if the item does not move as projected within the first six months.
4. Confirm Commitments: Ensure that any agreed-upon details, including promised support or performance metrics, are confirmed in writing (an email is sufficient) to provide clarity and mutual understanding.

Now I know what I’ve written here is vague. That’s deliberate. I am not in the mood for a legal letter or worse. It’s happened before. I have a theory, those misbehaving tend to be quick to fire legal shots.

The goal of a Sunday reset is to make a noticeable difference to the shop for you and your customers.

It’s easy to become ‘shop blind’ to your own retail space, walking past the same displays day after day. This routine can make your business feel stale to both you and your regulars. The goal of a Sunday reset is to shatter that stagnation and make a noticeable, energy-boosting difference for everyone. The key to success is you not overthinking it; this is about decisive action, not perfect planning. Give yourself no more than 2 hours.

Follow these easy steps:

1. Declutter. Be ruthless. Chuck out what you know for sure is not selling and will never sell. Holding onto it costs you valuable space. Throw away anything at the counter that’s not used or of value there. Remove all products currently at the counter. Take down main product displays and placements in the first 2 metres inside the shop.
2. Rebuild. Rebuild with fresh eyes. This is your chance to experiment. Put products at the counter people will understand and can easily grab. Include some high-margin products you think people would never buy at the counter. Create product displays and placements in the first 2 metres featuring items you would never normally put at the front of the shop.
3. Talk about it. Jump on your business social media pages and brag about what you’ve done. Post before-and-after photos to highlight the change.
4. Create a “Discovery Zone”. Designate one small, high-traffic area, a single shelf, a small table by the entrance, or the corner of your counter, as your dedicated “Discovery Zone”. Commit to changing only this spot every single week, no matter what. Feature a single product, a small collection of related items, or something completely unexpected. This trains your regular customers to look there first for what’s new, creating a sense of anticipation and ensuring your shop always has a fresh point of interest, even on weeks when you don’t have time for a full reset.

Do things you’d not do in your business, even things you are unsure of – for it’s this type of exp[erimentation where you can find fresh success.

What you want is shoppers entering the shop to notice that it’s different and to comment on it. This alone is a win for you since they are connecting change with your shop, it means they notice you.

You should feel good about a Sunday reset. Its good work to do on your business.

Too often, small business retailers including newsagents think their payday will come when they sell the business. It won’t. Thinking it will stops too many retailers focussing on what matters most:  daily profitability.

A valuable business tomorrow is built upon the profitable decisions you make today.

For this reason, I have long championed a simple, powerful mantra: Make every day your payday.

This principle sharpens your focus on the single goal of driving business value every day. It provides the lens through which you should evaluate every decision. I encourage you to ask yourself constantly: Does this action add to the profitability of my business today? If the answer is no, it’s worth asking why you are doing it.

The challenge, then, is how to put this into practice.

Here are the actionable strategies I recommend for building daily value in your retail business:

• Optimise Your Roster. Most businesses can find opportunities to lower labour costs without compromising the customer experience. A lean, effective roster is key. Use tech tools, like the recent AI innovation, to reduce hours you pay for.
• Quit Dead Stock. Look at dead stock weekly. Cut what’s not working. Too many retailers do not look at dead stock at all because it upsets them. This denial can cost a business thousands of dollars every few months. Dead stock is one of the biggest drains on profit I’ve ever seen.
• Trade outside what’s expected of you. Don’t stock only what’s expected for your type of business. Offer products people don’t expect to see. This speed bump approach to what you stock can slow people, have them notice, and buy.
• But The Best You Can. Negotiate the best possible terms and always pay suppliers on time to capture valuable settlement discounts.
• Price Strategically. Don’t hesitate to adjust your prices. Mark up as high as you reasonably can without harming unit sales.
• Increase Average Transaction Value. Help shoppers buy more each visit. Loyalty programs, product bundling, strategic product location and multi-buy offers are effective tools.
• Curate Your Counter. Reserve the point-of-sale area for high-margin, impulse-buy items that are easily understood and complement a customer’s primary purchase. Change the counter weekly.
• Deploy Your Best People. Your bets sellers should be always customer-facing.
• Analyse Category Performance. Measure every product category by its gross profit ($GP$) contribution. Discontinue underperforming lines.
• Sell 24/7. Ensure your business can make sales even when the doors are closed. A functional and user-friendly online store is essential.
• Expand Your Customer Base. Actively promote your business beyond your usual foot traffic and brand recognition to attract new demographics.
• Create Compelling Displays. Use stunning window displays to attract passersby and design in-store layouts that encourage customers to browse beyond their intended purchase.
• Leverage Product Adjacency. Understand what products are frequently bought together. Position them strategically to encourage a deeper, more valuable shopping basket.

Take Ownership of Your Profitability

For me, this is the most critical step. Ultimately, the financial health of your business is your responsibility. It is easy to blame suppliers, landlords, or other external factors, but I’ve learned that profitability always comes down to the decisions you make and the actions you take.

1. Pay down debt.
2. Always have access to an up to date P&L.
3. Keep a clean balance sheet.

A relentless and clear focus on daily profit is the most reliable path to growth. This is far more powerful than waiting for a potential payday from a future sale.

This entire approach relies on one crucial habit: measuring the performance of your business. Your POS software provides the data you need to make these informed, profitable decisions. Use it as the essential tool it is.

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I first shared make every day your payday 17 years ago when I saw that valuations of small retail businesses, like newsagencies, fall. This post today is refreshed and refocussed.

If you’d like to talk about this, I can be reached on 0418 321 338 or mark@newsxpress.com.au

There is relevant Australian data for August 2025 from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Monthly Household Spending Indicator. I think there are insights here for our channel.

Here’s a breakdown of the key figures and trends for August 2025 (seasonally adjusted, month-on-month change, current prices) direct from the ABS website:

• Total Household Spending: Rose slightly by 0.1% month-on-month. Annually, it increased by 5.0% compared to August 2024.
• Goods vs. Services: Services spending rose by 0.5%, while goods spending fell by 0.2%. This suggests a continued shift in consumer preference toward services.
• Discretionary vs. Non-Discretionary: Discretionary spending saw a small increase of 0.2%, while non-discretionary (essential) spending declined by 0.1%.

Key Spending Categories (Discretionary and Others):

• Largest Increases:
  • Transport (+0.8%) – This category includes discretionary items like vehicle purchases as well as non-discretionary motoring goods and services.
  • Miscellaneous goods and services (+0.8%) – This is a broad category that includes discretionary items like personal care, personal effects, and other services.
  • Clothing and footwear (+0.5%)
• Largest Declines:
  • Alcoholic beverages and tobacco (-0.9%)
  • Recreation and culture (-0.9%)
  • Furnishings and household equipment (-0.1%)

Now, for some context for newsagents:

• Newsagencies sell items that fall into several of the discretionary spending categories, such as:
  • Recreation and culture: (e.g., magazines, puzzles/games, toys often sold at newsagents) which overall saw a significant -0.9% decline in August.
  • Alcoholic beverages and tobacco: This category, which is traditional on some newsagency businesses, also saw a decline of -0.9%.
  • Miscellaneous goods and services: Discretionary sub-categories like Personal effects (e.g., stationery, gifts) saw an overall increase in this broad category.

Industry-specific reports for newsagencies suggest:

• Traditional pillars struggling: Newsagents continue to experience year-on-year declines in traditional areas like magazine sales, newspaper sales, stationery revenue, and tobacco/candy sales (as of late 2025 reports reflecting recent trends).
• Growth in hobbies/gifts/books/homewares/collectibles: Growth is being reported in categories like toys, cards, games, jigsaws, gifts, homewares and collectibles like pop culture and related items – suggesting that a newsagency with a diversified product offering might be experiencing a better result overall, where the decline in traditional items is offset by growth in hobby/gift-related discretionary purchases. Typically, this diversified business has an overall better gross profit position.

Overall, the August 2025 household spending data shows consumer activity moderating, particularly for certain discretionary goods, while services and some goods like transport saw increases.

After all that waffle, the question has to be: where is your business in this?

If your business performance is flat or declining, taking action, new action, is the only option. Continuing doing what you’re doing will continue with the results you have been experiencing.

Three weeks ago newsXpress announced to its members Project Deep Dive, an off-site three-day small group retreat for newsagents to unpack, assess and refocus their business, in pursuit of a brighter future.

The one retreat planned quickly filled, so we scheduled another.

The Deep Dive is a confidential off-site session for no more than 8 businesses (more likely 4) and some of the newsXpress head office crew. Each Deep Dive will be conducted in places like Wellington, New Zealand, Seminyak, Bali and Port Douglas, Queensland. While the locations may seem exotic, the objective is, as much as possible, to take people away from their world, to provide them space to look at their business with perspective, to find a valuable path forward.

Each day starts at 8am with 4 hours of business. Each participating business will  have 20 minutes to present their business over the three days being transparent as to business performance, the local situation, opportunities and challenges. This will be followed by discussion of those businesses and workshopping options to fit the needs of the owners of the business.

Some will want to explore when and how to exit, others will want to discover new revenue streams, others will want to grow their retail footprint while others will want to turn their business profitable.

The goal of the deep dive is to offer a safe and confidential space in which all participating can work on each other’s business, consider opportunities and help plot a path forward.

I am keen for each participating business to come away with achievable action items they otherwise may not have discovered.

newsXpress is funding the meeting room, catering and accomodation for attendees. There is no fee to attend, no participation cost other than getting to the location.

Now, why am I writing about this here in this public place? I am considering making a Deep Dive session available to non newsXpress newsagents. If this interests you, please reach out direct and confidentially to me at mark@newsxpress.com.au. I don’t care if you are part of another group. What I do care about is that you want your business to thrive.

For any newsagent, member or not, who feels “stuck” or is seeking a new direction, this is an incredible opportunity. The value offered is disproportionately high compared to the cost required to participate. This project will be a huge success. We think others will copy it, which would be good.

Project Deep Dive is an exclusive newsXpress initiative.

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Mark Fletcher founded newsagency software company Tower Systems and is the CEO of newsXpress, a marketing group serving innovative newsagents keen to evolve their businesses for a bright future. You can reach him on mark@newsxpress.com.au or 0418 321 338.

How long should you hold stock for in your retail business? Someone once said never let a stock item have a birthday in your shop.

The total cost of holding inventory is a combination of direct holding costs (like storage space and labor) and the opportunity cost of the capital that was used to purchase the stock.

Imagine you have $10,000.

• You can either buy $10,000 worth of stock (inventory).
• Or you can put that $10,000 into a savings account that earns 5% interest ($500 per year).

If you choose to buy the stock, you give up the chance to earn that $500 in interest. That forgone $500 is the opportunity cost. It’s separate from the money you then have to spend on a warehouse shelf (holding cost) to store your new stock.

If your $10,000 in inventory is not generating at least a good interest result, you’re behind.

1. Identify and Categorise: Use your POS software  to run a Stock Aging Report. This is your most important tool. It will show you exactly which items haven’t sold in 30, 60, 90, 180, or 365+ days.

2. Create a Markdown Cadence: Don’t wait for the birthday! Create a store policy for taking action. For example:

• 60 Days (No Sale): Review product placement. Is it visible? Is it merchandised well?
• 90 Days (No Sale): First markdown. A small discount (e.g., 15-20%) to encourage a sale and start recouping capital.
• 120 Days (No Sale): Second, more aggressive markdown (e.g., 30-40%). Move the item to a dedicated clearance section.
• 180 Days (No Sale): This item is officially “dead stock.” The goal is now liquidation, not profit. Bundle it with a popular product, reduce it to cost, or even sell it at a loss.

Why sell at a loss? Because the $20 you get back from a $50 cost item is $20 of fresh capital you can reinvest in a new product that will sell. Keeping the dead item on the shelf gives you a return of $0 and continues to incur holding costs.

3. Learn and Prevent: After you clear the dead stock, analyse it. Why didn’t it sell?

• Was the price wrong?
• Was it a poor product choice?
• Did you buy too many?
• Was it a seasonal item you bought too late?

Use this data to make smarter buying decisions in the future.

I see too many retail business owners ignoring the age of stock, allowing dead stock items to take up space on the shelves, not providing a return for the business. This is poor retail management.

The local Aussie newsagency is likely to not be the newsagency of your memories if you’ve not visited for a while. What we sell and how we sell has evolved. You can no longer assume what a newsagency sells. Sure, some of us offer some products and services you remember us for. We offer much more, too. Check this out:

Two days ago I shot some videos in my newsagency on Glenferrie Road in Malvern Victoria, stitched them together, ran them through a comic filter and laid some music underneath. All up, the video took less than ten minutes to produce.

If your newsagency is different, outside of assumptions people make about newsagencies, show the world, make videos and other social media posts to tell your story.

I made this video as a pitch for newsXpress, the marketing group I own. newsXpress has a single focus: to help newsagencies evolve. Evolution is vital to the future health of any newsagency business.

Change is vital for our channel, essential for its future and for the future of the businesses in the channel. There is no one-size-fits-all change though. What is needed and right for your newsagency will be different to the newsagency down the road or in the next town. Finding changes that are right for you takes work and time. Be wary of those who say they have the answer, especially if they have not looked at your business, it’s data and your own situation.

The extent of change we can bring to our newsagency businesses has no barrier. The shingle itself is irrelevant, it’s what you do in the business that matters. I see too many newsagents restricting their businesses because of a belief that they need to live within outdated expectations about their shingle.

The video is nothing special. Like all social media content, it’s disposable. That’s one reason I didn’t spend much time on it. It’s also disposable because next week I’d have different content to film, and the week after that. The thing about successful retail today is regular change. It’s what makes owning a local indie retail business exciting.

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Mark Fletcher founded newsagency software company Tower Systems and is the CEO of newsXpress, a marketing group serving innovative newsagents keen to evolve their businesses for a bright future. You can reach him on mark@newsxpress.com.au or 0418 321 338.

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s recent consultation paper on merchant payment costs was a critical opportunity for reform. Instead, it signals a profound disconnect from the realities faced by small businesses, threatening to entrench an inequitable system dominated by major banks and multinational payment organisations.

A month ago, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) released its Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging Consultation Paper. While sounding procedural, its implications could be serious for small businesses, especially small business retailers, like newsagents.

Are you paying attention?

The paper’s proposals, or lack thereof, fail to address the fundamental unfairness baked into the Australia’s payment systems, leaving small businesses, what we are told regularly is the backbone of our economy, vulnerable while protecting the interests of powerful incumbents.

The RBA’s review overlooks the core issues and, if its current direction holds, could force small business retailers into an impossible choice: absorb unsustainable costs or lose competitiveness.

The are three critical flaws in the current system.

1. Least-cost routing (LCR): savings left on the table. Least-cost routing is a simple and powerful mechanism. It automatically processes a customer’s tap-and-go debit payment through the cheapest available network, typically eftpos. The RBA’s own data suggest that merchants with LCR enabled enjoy debit card transaction costs nearly 20% lower than those without.

Yet, LCR is not the default. The RBA is merely considering a formal mandate. This hesitation leaves significant, achievable savings out of reach for small businesses who are often unaware the option even exists. In a landscape of rising operational costs, withholding a straightforward tool for cost reduction is inexcusable.

2. Interchange fees: A system rigged for the big business. An inequity exists in the structure of interchange fees, the fees paid between banks for the acceptance of card-based transactions. Big businesses leverage their bargaining power to negotiate substantially lower rates than small, independent businesses for the exact same transaction. The cost to the provider is identical, but the price for the small business owner is artificially inflated.

The RBA acknowledges this gap and says it is exploring measures to address it. This issue does not require exploration; it requires regulation. A fair system would establish a level playing field where the cost of a transaction is not determined by the size of the business processing it.

3. The surcharging ban: treating the symptom, not the disease. Perhaps the most alarming proposal is a potential ban on surcharging, promoted as a $1.2 billion saving for Australian consumers. This figure is a mirage. Banning surcharges does not eliminate the cost; it simply transfers the full burden onto the business owner.

Without first mandating LCR and legislating fair interchange fees, a ban on surcharging would be a dumb. Small businesses would be forced to either absorb these costs  or raise their prices. This punishes customers, makes small businesses less competitive, and ignores the problem. The surcharge is a symptom of excessive costs, not the cause.

What you can do now

While we must demand the government and RBA work in tandem to fix this broken system, waiting is not an option. Small business owners can take immediate, proactive steps to mitigate these unfair costs.

1. Mandate least-cost routing on your terminals. Do not assume it is active. Contact your bank or payment provider (e.g., your bank, Tyro, ANZ, Suncorp) and state clearly: I am calling to ensure that Least-Cost Routing is enabled on my payment terminal(s). I want all eligible debit card transactions to be processed through the cheapest network. This single phone call can reduce your debit transaction fees by 15-20% at no cost to you.

2. Scrutinise your merchant statements. Analyse your most recent statement to understand your true cost of acceptance. Calculate your “blended rate” by dividing the total fees paid by your total card sales for the month. This will give you a clear percentage. If you pay $150 in fees on $10,000 of sales, your blended rate is 1.5%. You must know this figure to effectively negotiate.

3. Leverage a competitive market. Armed with your blended rate, shop around. Contact other payment providers, from traditional banks to modern fintech companies. Ask them directly: My current blended rate is X%. Can you offer a better rate? What are your terminal rental fees and is there a lock-in contract? Loyalty to a single provider can be expensive; in a competitive market, providers must earn your business.

Politicians from all parties laud small businesses as the engine room of the Australian economy, now is the time for them to act. Without decisive intervention to create a fair, transparent, and equitable payment system, our nation’s retailers are about to be dealt a significant financial blow. It’s time for policy to match the rhetoric.

I have written about this again today to put in front of newsagents again. Complaining later will not be as powerful as acting now.

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Mark Fletcher founded newsagency software company Tower Systems and is the CEO of newsXpress, a marketing group serving innovative newsagents keen to evolve their businesses for a bright future. You can reach him on mark@newsxpress.com.au or 0418 321 338.

The Independent Payments Forum, a lobby group of which ALNA and newsXpress are paying members, is working on the RBA and politicians in relation to merchant. They’d like input from small business retailers, like you. This quick survey is anonymous. Your response will strengthen small business representation.

Here is a link to the survey: https://forms.gle/nhpzXd1GN7ncTjZp9

If you are concerned about the costs of payments in your shop, spent a minute or so and complete the survey, please.

Before I get into this I note that by parcel pickup service I do not mean Australia Post parcel services through a Licensed Post Office. I happen to think an LPO in the right location inside a newsagency can be a good move.

No, here I am writing about agency business, where a newsagent acts as an agent for a parcel pick up or drop off service.

The financial compensation is low. You get paid peanuts, often not reflecting the time involved.

The time spent can be considerable. Customer queries and more can take up too much time.

Customer anger can be high. Having to wait while you serve people buying products tends to frustrate parcel people who want immediate service. Product customers can be angry too when you serve parcel pickup customers ahead of them.

Space requirements at a premium location in store can be high. And it can vary based on volume.

Distraction from high margin retail can cost profit. The time spent dealing with parcels is time spent not being a retailer.

These are the key reasons why I think offering a parcel pickup and drop off service is hot good for an Australian. newsagency business.

A core argument for these services, that they generate valuable foot traffic, is often a myth in my experience, looking at plenty of business performance data from newsagencies over the years.

The parcel customer is typically a destination visitor, not a shopper prepared to browse.  Their goal is speed and efficiency. Any delay, whether waiting for you to finish with a retail customer or seeing you serve someone else, creates friction, not a sales opportunity.

Newsagents offering parcel pickup and drop off services are absorbing the courier company’s final-mile delivery costs. These newsagents are often seen as the face of service failures. When a parcel is late, damaged, or missing, it is the newsagent who can cop the customer’s frustration.

Regulars here would know I am not a fan of agency business as it is not good retail, it is not you investing in your business. Parcel services are that – not you working on and in your business for your profit.

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Mark Fletcher founded newsagency software company Tower Systems and is the CEO of newsXpress, a marketing group serving innovative newsagents keen to evolve their businesses for a bright future. You can reach him on mark@newsxpress.com.au or 0418 321 338.

Hallmark has emailed customers advising that the supply chain challenges impacting the company is recent weeks have been finally resolved. The disruption happened at a less than ideal time for the company in a year with complexities.