A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

How to advertise for new staff for your retail newsagency business

As newsagency businesses transition to broader-appeal businesses, how we acquire new employees needs to evolve.

Whereas in the past newsagency retail experience was important, today this is not the case. Today, ideal employees will be more likely found away from the business.

For years when I needed a new employee I’d put up a sign in the business. Now I place an ad on Seek to draw from a bigger pool to present more opportunities the sign might otherwise not uncover.

Here is the text of an ad I have currently running:

Casual retail assistant: Knox and Southland
newsXpress Knox and newsXpress Southland are unique businesses. Their core products are cards, jigsaws, Ty Beanie Boos, jigsaws and gifts.

We are looking for people who love working in retail and want to be part of an innovative and changing business.

While the roles are casual, chunky hours are available. Candidates must be available to work on any of the seven days of there week.

We are not looking for people with newsagency experience as these businesses are not newsagencies as you would know them.

Good communication, professional presentation station, customer care and appreciation of the value of work are essentials we are looking for in the candidates we will choose. Visual merchandising skills are a bonus.

Check out our Facebook pages to find out more about us.

In three days the ad attracted 266 candidates. While some are clearly not suited, many are, coming from diverse retail backgrounds through which we can benefit.

It is vital we expand the retail experiences in our businesses, beyond what has been traditional in newsagency businesses. One good way to do this is to bring in new employees with experience in other retail channels. That is what I am seeking to do through this latest job ad pitch.

Footnote: I have used Seek as it shows you are serious about hiring retail professionals. A free ad on Gumtree will not, in my opinion, attract the same calibre of candidates.

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Management tip

Has Tatts redefined its retail standards?

Here is a photo that a Tatts representative posted to its private Facebook group for retailers showing how one business is promoting St Patricks Day products. In a comment, a Tatts person on the page complimented the look of the business.

I am told by Tatts agents that this photo shows breaches of what Tatts permits.

Now, before the folks at Nextra call their lawyers about this post, I think what the store is doing looks okay. My issue is with Tatts and their promotion of a display that appears to be outside what it says to others is acceptable.

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Lotteries

Why I am not embracing the reduced Sunday penalty rates in my retail business

Here are my reasons for deciding to not embrace the Sunday penalty rates decision in my retail businesses:

  1. I value my employees. To pay them less as a result of the decision could suggest to them they are worth less. I have hated it when suppliers reduced margin or commission and argued then that they value me and my business less.
  2. I want to be competitive for good labour. Paying a competitive rate is key to this.
  3. The business reward. It is open to employees who are now told their pay will not be cut to return the favour to the business.
  4. Competition. A range of competitor business have made a similar announcement.
  5. While of economy fairness. While I agree with the decision, it should only be taken as a whole of economy review that fairly adjusts economic touch-points for all and not only salaried workers.
  6. Weighing everything up it is the right thing to do.

This is not a permanent decision. It is possible I will modify my position as the marketplace situation evolves. If I did and thereby embraced a saving in labour costs, I anticipate through would be invested in more hours.

All business owners need to reach their own conclusions on this matter. Unfortunately, as a country we are bereft of leadership on broader issues that should be confronted in any economic setting adjustment as has been done with Sunday penalty rates.

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Management tip

Five things you can do to leverage low-margin value high-volume shop traffic

Many retail newsagencies are traffic and margin poor businesses. Such businesses are high-risk businesses as most low margin products and services are delivering less traffic year on year … high-risk of financial failure.

In addition to low margin products and services experiencing traffic decline year on year, minimal or no retail price movement see a decline in margin in real terms. Further, too often we see the percentage cut by suppliers for selfish reasons, further diluting the value to the retailer.

But it is not all bad news with low margin products and services. If they are generating good traffic, the opportunity is to be proactive in leveraging that traffic. Here is a list of five must-do things to leverage this low value traffic in your business.

  1. Place at least one offer / stand at the door facing people as they leave. If you have room, have one stand / offer either side. Make sure the offer is easily understood and relevant.
  2. Use a portable table for pricing stock and other stock work and place this with a staff member doing the work during busy periods between the door and the destination for most traffic.
  3. For the highest volume items, like newspapers, weekly magazines and lotteries in a retail newsagency, always pitch other products such that these destination shoppers see the other products.
  4. Always have an offer at the counter unrelated to the low margin destination purchase. Get creative as to how you pitch this at the lottery counter if you have Tatts.
  5. Establish a floor unit to guide counter traffic. the right type of unit is best used for holing products people are likely to purchase on impulse while standing in line to make their destination purchase. All sorts of retailers do this, even if they do not have the shopper to warrant such a floor unit. The impulse purchases should make the space valuable for you. if Tatts complains, explaining it is about best practice traffic management.

My advice is do all five of these things. If you don’t do some or all you are most likely only benefiting from destination business from low-margin high-traffic products and services and there is no upside in that.

For the record, margin poor products and services are those with a GP percentage of less than 50% in my view.

This post shows how to turn a negative into a positive. I hope it helps.

FTYI this advice is an example of one of many types advice newsXpress provides its members.

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Management tip

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: discount vouchers continue to be the best loyalty offering

Four years in and the discount voucher loyalty program continues to be the best loyalty offering in the business.

Managed automatically by the software, the vouchers provide to shoppers encouragement to increase their spend in the visit or to come back soon for another purchase.

Customers continue to respond with delight. This is because more than a third of shoppers we see are first time or infrequent.

I call the vouchers front end loyalty because they put the incentive in front of the customer to get them to act beyond average. Most loyalty systems only reward the customer after they have jumped through the hoops and carried a plastic card around.

The discount vouchers are easy.

  • No paperwork.
  • No card.
  • No confusing points.
  • Easily understood currency.
  • Automatically managed by the software.
  • delivering incremental business.
  • They cost the business nothing.

The vouchers are particularly useful for habit based purchases such as magazines, greeting cards, collectibles and similar where a customer can comfortably purchase more as they know they will want the additional purchase at some point in time.

I had a shopper yesterday who purchased a bag and a bow and received a voucher for $1.00. They used that to purchase two cards and with that they received another $1 voucher. They used that to purchase a  $20.00 item for a future birthday.

The business gave away $2.00 for an additional $33.00 in revenue to a customer who is not local and will not be back in the centre any time soon. The additional GP earned was $18.45. I am happy for this to cost $2.00 as banking $16.45 is better than banking nothing.

If this was the old-school points based offer they’d have to sign up, visit a few times and then maybe get enough to get a discount. That is why points based loyalty programs are regarded as past their use by date and no longer relevant to retail today.

Things are moving faster. Shoppers want more and sooner. Social media has educated people to seek instant gratification. Discount vouchers provide this. 

The engagement with discount vouchers is across demographic groups and this another thing to love about them. While different demos respond differently, they all respond positively and valuably for the business.

So, my marketing tip today – embrace discount vouchers and make more money in your business.

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Management tip

Sunday newsagency management tip: manage cards for success

Don’t leave everything about cards to your card supplier. Take initiatives yourself to drive sales. For example, setup a small display of Easter cards from current stock at your counter. I’ve done this and it is working a treat. Choose the right images and you will win additional Easter card revenue for no additional investment.

The Hallmark range this Easter is terrific by the way. New on-trend designs. Some selling out already.

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Greeting Cards

Lottoland mocks newsagents, again

The original Lottoland from months ago has been shown again this week with an update on prize money. This is the first ad, when they clearly depict and newsagency business and make fun of the newsagent.

In my opinion this is a disgusting attack on small business newsagents by Lottoland. I think it is unethical and demonstrates a lack of social responsibility.

Shame on them and shame on Tatts for doing nothing to counter the attack on their retail network.

Here is the ad from months ago that is the basis for the current airing. The lotto land YouTube version has been taken down – I guess because they don’t want people like me to draw attention ion to it in a negative light.

Like I said, shame on Lottoland for what they are doing here and shame on Tatts for not supporting its retail channel.

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Competition

An important warning to newsagents about contracts

You should take a copy of every contract you sign at the time you sign the contract. If you don’t have access to a copier, take a photo with your phone.

If there is no way at all for you to take a copy, initial and date every page.

These actions will stop the other party to the contract demanding you honour clauses not in the contract you signed. They could do this by writing new clauses and slipping those pages in so that when you ask to see the contact it looks like those clauses are in the contract.

Yes, sadly, this happens.

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Ethics

Is News Corp helping Tatts migrate shoppers online?

Queensland newsagents are disappointed with the latest promotion launched by Tatts and News.

The information put to me is this really is a Tatts driven promotion with News doing what it is told.

My concern is that entry is via online. That’s is where Tatts is focussed.

If I was a retailer I wold refuse this promotion until Tatts actively supported me as a retailer against the continues attached by Lottoland.

Here is the pitch:

News Corp + Crosswords Promotion
From 5 March to 1 April we are partnering with News Corp to give away a $20,000 holiday voucher and 4 weekly $5,000 holiday vouchers.

Customers must purchase any Crosswords ticket and an eligible News Corp Newspaper to receive a promotional Scratch Card. The Scratch Card directs customers to holidaygiveaway.thelott.com to enter their details into the draw.

Eligible Newspapers:

The Courier-Mail
The Sunday Mail
The Cairns Post
The Townsville Bulletin
The Gold Coast Bulletin

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Ethics

Take a walk through my ‘newsagency’

I shop this video at my shop on the weekend. Watching it you can see how the floorspace is zoned to appeal to different demographics, how we use key international brands to attract choppers and how we pitch the business as it’s own thing and not as a newsagency.

Take a look…

I share this here to show how we are using brand name products to attract shoppers from the mall and to pitch, through the products, that we are not the business they may think we are.

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Management tip
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