I like the counter unit from Pacific Magazines for Total Girl and K-Zone. We are using the counter unit to promote the titles off location, away from the regular base for the titles. We have chosen to place the unit near our popular kids area toward the front of the shop.
Tatts has loaded the barcodes for the Set for Life game that launches next week. Newsagents should follow the advice from their newsagency software companies ASAP so they are setup and ready.
Where do your have your large greeting cards? If you are like me they are all in a low traffic corner, probably at one end of the card department. This is done in the belief people will ask for them. What about those who could buy a large card on impulse?
Card shops I have seen in the UK and the US have large cards on a spinner in mid and high traffic locations that are far more noticeable than is usually the case in Australian newsagencies. They also have a bigger range of designs.
Thinking about this and my desire to sell more large cards, we have established two placement of large cards in the middle of our card department, near relevant captions. This is not a permanent change as I want to find a way to do this without taking up the premium space you see in the photo.
I selecting the card to be placed near Thank You cards I looked at all the designs we had, tried each in this large pocket and selected the card that stood out best. In addition to promoting the crd itself, it promotes the Thank You cards that are placed on the wall nearby.
In a newspaper that has participated in raising the profile of Q&A on the ABC, the A media pages of the The Australian today refer to Q&A as a low profile program. Pathetic.
We are promoting the latest release of Good Chef Bad Chef inside and outside the business to leverage publicity surrounding the launch. The series has a good following and the best way to make the most of that is through promotion outside the business in my view.
Give a staff member who has never had responsibility for purchasing stock up to $500 to spend on a new product for your business.
Tell them to find new products you have never sold that they think will help attract new shoppers to the business.
Stay out of their way. Let them spend the money, price the goods, display them and promote them outside the business. And watch what happens.
Hopefully you and your staff member learn plenty from which both of you benefit as well as the business benefiting.
Sure its a risk but is it any worse than plenty of products you have spent money in your shop on are performing today?
Tell stories about what you sell and this will encourage greater engagement. For example, telling a useful story on your business Facebook page about a product you sell will help those who otherwise might not know about you discover that your shop is a place to visit.
We did this recently writing about a gluten free product we sell. People with Celiac read about it, told friends and soon enough we had some new customers.
If your sales are declining and if closing the doors of your business for good is an option you find yourself thinking about, ask for help. Asking for help is a sign of strength. There are plenty of people in our channel who will help.
Selling newspaper subscriptions is apparently more important to a newspaper than the photo selected for the front page of the Sunday Herald Sun newspaper today. So sad to see news treated this way.
For years we have sold more Angel Flames at the counter than in the usual location in the party department. I encourage all newsagents to do this – you will for certain have customers purchasing these terrific candles in impulse, adding valuable margin dollars to purchases.
We get our Angel Flames from Jasnor.
When writing about National Geographic today I neglected to call out Australian Sky & Telescope. It’s terrific to support an Aussie title at this time Pluto is in the news. We have the full face of the magazine placed so more than those seeking it will discover the title.
If you know of someone keen for a newsagency manager role please have them contact me with their resume.
The world is in love with Pluto right now. Yes, pluto the planet. The photos from the NASA project are stunning and they has people not usually interested in space and planets talking about Pluto.
This is why you should have the latest issue of National Geographic somewhere it will be seen by most people in your business, by people who would not usually venture to the dark corner where most since related titles get hidden in most newsagencies.
We are leading with this on social media, leveraging the Pluto love to attract people to the newsagency who might otherwise not have shopped with us.
This is an easy move every newsagent can make and from which every newsagent will benefit.
Whether your newspapers are stacked flat, in a stand or on a shelf like we have, make room for one stack or pocket of Better Homes and Gardens and your sales of the magazine will increase.
If you are worried about having this space allocated all the time, do it at least Thursday through Sunday. Your sales will increase.
This is not new advice from me, I have written about it here many times over the many years I have been blogging.
What frustrates me is the newsagents who have read the advice and not acted on it. It will take a couple of minutes and the return over the year will be well worth it – probably the best return from a magazine move you could get.
If your attitude is why should I do this when I only make 25%, I’d say consider stop being a newsagent. This move only has upside for you.
It is good to see UK partworks publishers not including the N symbol on TV commercials currently running. The N symbol is not a unifying symbol as many newsagents do not use it and among those who do there are several versions dating back to the original release many years ago.
Newsagents the world over are told by some existing and would-be suppliers: you will win because this product / service will drive foot traffic. We know from our own basket analysis data in Australia this is not true for transport ticket top-up, newspapers, lottery products and bill payment. They are all inefficient in terms of basket mix yet suppliers continue to beat the foot traffic boost drum.
Newsagents in the UK are concerned about foot traffic (footfall) in their current challenges with the PayPoint bill payment and parcel service according to an article at BetterRetailing. The article is interesting as it puts data on the table in analysing the knock-on benefits of PayPoint in a business.
Where newsagents are asked to take on low margin products or services there needs to be more than a claim by a supplier about foot traffic. They need to back the claim with evidence and to agree or a reasonable KPI below which the fee they pay increases to make offering the service financially viable to newsagents. That said, my preference is that from the get go the fee paid represents fair compensation for costs of servicing the transaction including labour, prime space costs and opportunity cost relevant to what else could be achieved with that space – plus a margin.
Foot traffic of itself is not useful for any business. The traffic must be relevant to the business. Newsagents ought to be wary of a foot traffic benefit claim where there is no analysis of the deeper value of the specific traffic expected to be generated.
Retail Times reports Western Union will place kiosks in 300 UK WH Smith stores.
Another dumb headline coverup on the front page of the Herald Sun newspaper today. That said, I guess it is not really a headline – hey have obscured the headline for another of their anti-labor pieces. If only this newspaper would publish fair and balanced coverage of news rather than biased nonsense. Regardless, covering front page headlines with a post-it note type ad is nuts in my view.
In another example of the challenges for book, music and filmed entertainment retailing, the ABC has announced it will phase out its shops.
While challenging news for ABC staff, this move presents opportunities for some newsagents. In our shops every day we serve customers who like that they browse and purchase in store rather than online. While the ABC announcement says it will focus on digital strategies, I suspect they will want retailers to offer in-0store purchases for plenty of their lines.
In the three years since I published my article How to do a magazine relay in your newsagency plenty has changed. In this post I provide up to date advice. I hope you find it useful.
Before you start the relay, consider the amount of space you want to allocate to magazines. Do not allocate space to fit what you are sent. Allocate space to make money.
Today’s newsagency needs somewhere between 15% and 25% of floor space allocated for magazines. With the category one of the least valuable in pure gross profit terms efficient use of space is key.
Once you have your floor space allocation and know your fixture situation you will have a pocket count.
Now you can get down to your relay.
The relay you do in your business is your relay. There is no right or wrong way. There is also no end point. What you do today will need refining next week and the week after. So, do not over think what you want to do as that would be a waste of time.
The goal of the relay has to be to disrupt magazine traffic in pursuit of an increase in sales. What I mean is: change everything, upset customers and staff, sell more magazines as people discover titles they did not know you had.
PLANNING
Determine your zones shopper: garden, food, men, women, sports etc. In some locations you will full face titles while in other locations you will fit three titles into two pockets and in others as many as six titles into two pockets. The categories where I use less than one pocket per title is: special interest, British weeklies, food, comics and some craft segments.
Yes, customers looking for a destination title for which you receive a small quantity will look for the title. Save money, use less space for these titles.
Look at the percentage of sales delivered by each magazine category and look at sales trends for the categories. Tote up broad groups. For example the percentage of sales for women’s weeklies, women’s interests, crafts & hobbies, crosswords, home & lifestyle and food & wine. If your newsagency is like mine, this grouping will account for more than 50% of your magazine sales.
Use your data to broadly map out a plan.
NOW, THE MAGAZINE RELAY
I suggest it is done by one person, an owner, working alone.
What I do in women’s is the same for the other zones I create. I do each zone separately and try and get into the head space of the shopper of the zone – using the most popular titles to act as beacons, or signposts, for the zone.
I also take note of covers and give really good covers, eye catching covers, time in the spotlight.
I am careful what I place next to top selling titles. This is a prime spot, next to the popular titles. Choose wisely. Choose titles that naturally fit next to the big titles, titles shoppers are likely to browse and purchase on impulse.
If I am not sure about where to put a title I put it aside and move on.
I take extra time with special interest and hobby titles. For example, I put railways and model railroad titles near each other but I am careful to ensure that they are separated as they appeal to two shoppers and only occasionally do you see titles from both segments in the same basket.
Within the zones I look for and respect specialisation. For example, within men’s lifestyle and sports I create a clean space for the quality serious fitness titles like Coach, Men’s Health and Men’s Fitness.
REVIEW, FEEDBACK, FOLLOW UP
You’re not done when you think you are done. Track sales, listen to your team and your customers. Tweak where you feel it is necessary.
Bring new issues to the fore. Continue to be engaged in how your magazine department looks.
Continue to look at your sales data. If there is no lift be open to further change.
FINAL WORDS
Doing a magazine relay can be like doing one of those kid’s puzzles – you move them around and around until you have the completed image. That image can look and feel like a work of art once you are done.
I can’t stress enough the importance and value of a magazine relay to your business and you personally. This is you placing your stamp on the business. It is you breaking free from being a conveyer belt newsagent. It is you taking ownership of your business.
If you have made it this far, thanks for reading. Magazines really are a point of difference which we need to work harder at embracing – despite the challenges of the distribution system.
I’d be happy to answer questions or discuss magazine relays with anyone: mark@towersystems.com.au or 0418 321 338.
Over to you…
WH Smith has self-checkout units in many of their retail locations and today I used one for the first time. The experience is as you would expect – the same as we have with our supermarkets in Australia. I purchased a newspaper and found the multiple steps tedious. However, it was faster than the line for human service at the counter. But then the human service is what retail is all about. The smile, comments extra help are what differentiate shopping with us from online.
I think we should want to encourage more human interaction and not less. But WH Smith is a massive company with a good track record so for them this must be an appropriate offer for them to have in their shops.
WH Smith appear to manage counter staff allocation as our supermarkets manage human checkout operation – to a minimum.
There must be a point at which a self-checkout terminal is cheaper than human labour. However, I expect this would be years as the terminals are not cheap.
I don’t know if it is the highly competitive marketplace or more due to a concentration of creative designers, card shops in the UK have the best cards of any retail I have seen around the world. Between Scribbler, Paperchase, Clintons, Hallmark stores, WH Smith and many independent card shops in the premium space there is considerable competition. Even at the discount (value) end there is extraordinary competition.
At the Harrogate Gift Fair over the last two days I have seen close to twenty independent card suppliers – all with unique designs. British card retailers are spoilt for choice in terms of range and quality.
The standard of small independent greeting card lines I have seen here is superior to what we see from independent card publishers in Australia. From humour to artistic to locally themed, they do it well.
Here is a photo of the floor display unit promoting the free bottle of water with The Telegraph at WH Smith outlets that I mentioned in my previous blog post. I have loaded a larger version so you can click on the image to see it in detail.
While I am not a fan of the stand – it looks ugly, outdated – I do like that the water and the newspaper are together and that there is space on the stand for a further up-sell (Mentos). I also like that there is a choice of water.
WH Smith outlets at transport locations I have seen in the UK over the last week all had offers to drive newspaper sales.
The most substantial was this boo discounted by 50% when purchased with The Telegraph paper. Given the pricing being used by many bookshops it’s not much of a deal.
The most common offer was free water with a newspaper purchase.
Curiously, I did not notice these offers in high street newsagents I visited. I suspect this is because the newspaper purchase in a transit location is more an impulse purchase and because of the challenge of dealing with independent retailers compared to a network like WH Smith.
We are seeing more of these newspaper related promotional offers in Australia. News Corp. is the leader in this field. They are demonstrating considerable flexibility as to the products they promote with.
3M products are brilliantly represented in stationery outlets in the UK, especially the Ryman Stationers outlets. There, they have floor display units with terrific seasonal value propositions as well as good ranges on the regular shelving – satisfying broad demand.
We don’t see promotions like this from 3M in newsagencies. I am not sure if the problem is at 3M or at GNS. Regardless, we are not pitching 3M in a manner that is competitive with Officeworks. This costs us revenue. It also costs 3M revenue.
I’d like to see the company develop appropriate floor display offers with newsagents and pitch these as a package to our channel with a target of, say, 1,000 engaged retail newsagency businesses. The most efficient way for it to do this would be through each of the newsagency marketing groups.
Stationer banner groups in Australia already do this with a range of suppliers. If we don’t we will lose even more stationery sales.