Looking at the post-Christmas sales, I’m very happy with the results. Close to double-digit growth in good margin categories. Every sale is an opportunity we leverage for return business by using the discount voucher program with a date-based offer to bring those sale shoppers back in a reasonable period.

In retail here in Australia or anywhere in the world for that matter year on year growth has to be appreciated.

We drove this latest sale with a strong offer right out the gate from December 26, with plenty of product purchased for the purpose. The sale success gets us closer to the key shop floor reset we have planned for a few weeks, as we further transition the business into new areas.

I appreciate Boxing Bay / post-Christmas sales are not for everyone. In a major shopping centre in suburban Melbourne, they are an essential event on the retail calendar.

Further to my posts about cashless retail, I found our recently that Adelaide oval is cashless.. This, from their website:

All credit and debit cards will be accepted and will be exempt of any surcharges imposed by the venue. This change has been implemented to deliver faster service for patrons (less fumbling for change) and is more convenient for patrons who don’t, or don’t want to, carry cash.

Various locations around the stadium are clearly signed as card only outlets. Near these card only locations are outlets that will accept both cash and card payments. Also available are booths where patrons can exchange cash for a food & beverage cash card should they wish.

Adelaide Oval event day staff are familiar with the locations of all card only and cash/card outlets and will be available to direct patrons as required.

More and more locations are making this move. The ATO recently made a statement about its preference for cashless retail. I think going cashless something more retailers in our channel and similar will be dong in 2019 and beyond.

We are all set for a massive Boxing day event starting today and running for the next two weeks. Being in a large shopping centre, it is essential we participate in this. It brings in plenty of first time and rare shoppers so squatting product will not adversely affect sales to regulars though the year, many of whom will stay away for the next few days.

We have bought in for this, as we do every year, to maintain terrific margin %.

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone. If your shop is closed, cherish the day off. If you are not closed, I hope it’s a successful day of trading.

Today is unique for retailers, as Christmas Eve always is. There will be places that are quiet and empty and others that are crazy busy. My own experience is more crazy and busy thanks to being in a shopping mall and located near food.

The most fascinating shoppers are those who have left everything to the last minute. They can be a lot of fun. they can also be stressful in that they expect you to have a full range of options available.

Our core shop floor focus is shopper traffic flow and stress. We want the shopper experience to be the best possible. In between this we will start to be ready for the Boxing Day sale.

We refreshed the location of bags at the same time we enhanced the range in the shop. The refresh delivered a sales boost. Placing them such that more shoppers walk through the alley of bags is a key factor here as is the regular moving of bags between rows and hooks, so the range looks different to regular shoppers. This photo is part of the range.

I think we should be selling more gift bags in newsagencies. Data I saw a while back indicated the channel underperforms in this category compared to other greeting retailers. We can do better with placement, range refresh and through owning the category. One way to look at it is unit sales yer on year. Growth has to be the target.

The next three days are critical for Christmas retail sales. It’s for this reason that everyone in the business should be on the shop floor.

You can’t sell from the back office.

So, all staff including business owners, should be on the shoot floor either helping customers or keeping products tidy or doing other work that makes them interruptible by customers with questions.

This may seem like obvious advice. That’s good if it is for you. There will be some, however, will see this as new advice and others who will ignore it. That’s okay. However, it works, especially over the next three days.

Here are starter suggestions of things you could do on the shop floor over these three busy days:

1. Offer a cool glass of water.
2. Offer a slice of homemade fruit cake (with a layer of marzipan and white icing).
3. Give our Shopping baskets.
4. Have a selection of cards to add to the purchase, and Christmas bags.
5. Manage a discount area where you place items you want gone from the shop.
6. Maintain a small, easy to access, card writing station.
7. Put out as part of Christmas something you have stored away and not one the shops floor, something you could not sell previously.

While Christmas sales have already been terrific, the next there days should be even better as you will have the last minute shoppers for whom price is less likely to be an issue as well as the savvy shoppers looking for a deal this close to Christmas Day.

With changes coming to ensure that gift cards / gift vouchers have a three year expiry, smart retailers have made the switch, playing ahead of the wave of change, demonstrating that shoppers come first.

I am talking here about the cards /. vouchers over which retailers have 100% control, those for their specific business.

While Blackhawk and Touch are responsible for the other store vouchers newsagents sell, your own v vouchers / cards are your responsibility.

I say make the move now and promote the fact. Customers will appreciate it. It is a small business opportunity.

Crabtree & Evelyn wrote to retailers a few days ago announcing the imminent closure of their Australian wholesale business. It came as a surprise to plenty of customers, including newsagents, gift shops and independent pharmacies. Crabtree & Evelyn is a solid brand, well recognised and appealing to a valuable demographic.

This move is one of many recently by suppliers, retreating or trimming operations in light of challenges in retail and allied areas.

I think 2019 will see more suppliers dealing from a head office, with less investment in field representation – especially in dealing with small business accounts.

As I noted here a few months ago, representation is expensive, especially compared to being able to deal with a national account that covers hundreds of locations. Here is what I wrote about the cost of reps min the road.

A rep on the road has a cost to the business of around $100,000 made up of salary, maintained vehicle, on-costs such as work cover, insurance and related as well as any incentive for performance.

A rep is on the road, on average, forty weeks of the year allowing for annual leave, other leave, training, meetings and times when retailers don’t want to see any reps. While the 40 is a generous number, let’s go with it.

Forty weeks is 200 working days, or 1,400 working hours after allowing for breaks.

A rep needs to earn at least $71.42 in gross profit per work hour to cover their costs to the business let alone other business costs.

However, reps and suppliers tell me that rep travel time accounts for around 30% of work hours. This takes the work hours in a year to 980. At 980 work hours a year, a rep needs to earn $102.05 in GP to cover just their cost to the business.

The reality is, given business overheads, the cost of a warehouse, marketing and other costs, a rep would need to earn between three and five times this in GP to cover the business costs.

While not ubiquitous in the newsagency channel, the Crabtree & Evelyn is well represented.