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

Frozen working at the newsagency counter

frozencounterThis counter placement of Frozen product is a small part of our overall Frozen pitch. We chose these products as they are easily purchased on impulse – including the $15.00 vinyl collectible characters. While there is Frozen overload in retail, having different products is important as is ease of purchase – hence the counter offer.

Stocking stuffers are especially popular as impulse purchases at the counter. We think very carefully about what we place here and we change it regularly through the week.

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Gifts

Who magazine shines with Hughes coverage

whohughesThe Who cover story on the passing of Phillip Hughes was timely and respectful. It’s one of their best issues of the year, showing how a magazine can stand apart with coverage of a major local news story. Well done to everyone involved. We embraced the opportunity with full cover placement with weeklies and with newspapers.

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Uncategorized

Disappointing newspaper cover-up

newspapercoverupOn the front page of the Sunday Herald Sun today News Corp left the its spin piece from the Prime Minister’s office un touched while it covered up part of the heartbreaking story about a child hit by a fork lift. This house ad for cheap home delivery of the newspaper disrespects the news and the retail newsagents who rely on over the counter sales.

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newspaper masthead desecration

Sunday newsagent management tip: let them play and enjoy a sales boost

sandplayingOur team members are encouraged to regularly play with the kinetic sand we have on display. The photo shows a display from Wednesday.

We have found that the better the display the more it is noticed and the more it is noticed the more people play with the sand and the more they play with the sand the more we sell.

Playing = sales!

Our job as business owners and managers is to encourage our people to do things they like that help the business. They enjoy their work more and we reap rewards from this.

While kinetic sand is in many more retailers today than when we started with it a year ago, our sales remain strong in part because of displays like this. the majors don’t pay this level of management attention to a product that demands interaction on the shop floor. the majors would prefer the supplier to send someone in to create the displays. Haha.

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Management tip

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: create a local photo op

tourismtrafficI saw this photo opportunity at Hung Hom Station in Kowloon last week and thought it’s something that could work for some newsagents.

If you are in a country town in which people stop off as they pass through, why not create a display in your window or in front of your shop and have a couple of holes for people to stick their heads in for photos.

Make it fun, and local – leverage a local connection. Include the name of the town – and your business somehow. If your town is known for an industry, a crop or a particular natural wonder, use this as it’s a local feature people are more likely to want to be photographed with.

If you don’t have an appropriate local connection, consider having life size art of royalty or movie stars in a pose holding a sign – with my friends at XXX newsagency.  In other words, if you can’t think of a local feature, make one!

faceHere’s one of several characters at Adelaide airport right now as part of their Christmas promotion. Whiel I was there plenty of kids wanted their photos takes with their face in the gingerbread character. This is another example of how you could engage with this marketing opportunity.

Ask a local school or craft group to make the display – extend the local connection and drive more traffic. It’s a terrific way to show off local talent.

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marketing

Low cost Tatts fit at On The Run in South Australia

otrlott1Here’s the Tatts (SA Lotteries)  fit at an On The Run outlet in Adelaide. On The Run is a statewide convenience operator selling fuel, food, toys, cards, some gifts, magazines and Tatts products. This is a small footprint counter deep in the store, on the back wall.

I’d heard about the small footprint approach they had approval for and wanted to see it for myself. It looks good – certainly noticeable from inside the 250 sq m shop.

otr2Here is the signage you see as you enter the shop from the fuel area. Again, professional, a clear message.

I like the connection between this sign and what is at the counter.

Maybe is Tatts concentrated on facilitating consistency in messaging newsagencies rather than forcing shop fits that are bigger than they should be and bigger than is financially justifiable newsagents could grow sales.

The different rules demonstrated for representing Tatts products in newsagencies versus bigger groups like On The Run is concerning and needs attention.

If I was involved in representing newsagents I’d be collecting photos like these and collating information about the diversity in standards. I suspect there would be evidence supporting a case for fairer treatment of newsagents and for reducing their capital investment in regulation shop fits.

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Lotteries

The emerging new channel for bonbons

bonbnsYears ago newsagents used to be the place people would shop for Christmas bonbons and over time that changed as supermarkets and mass retailers embraced the category. Some of us are winning back customers with bon bond at the everyday through to high end.

While sales of bonbons were slow at the start point the Christmas season they have kicked into gear now.

This is another product category through which we can attract shoppers at Christmas time. There are several good suppliers already serving our channel who have good bonbons from which to choose.

We can compete on range, price and service. Supermarkets and mass tend to have poor quality product at high price.

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marketing

A very different office supplies range

officesuppliesCheck out the office supplies wall I saw while looking at retail in China earlier this week. It’s unlike any office supplies wall you’d see in just about any retail shop inAustralia, except Typo. Impressive. Inspirational.

The shop was busy.

Years ago, newsagents would have called this more of a social stationery range. Today, it’s a volume business for several key demographics we struggle to serve.

While I am not going into detail here on how to create this offer here in Australia, the purpose of this post is to call out to newsagents with another example of how everyday stationery focus is shifting.

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Stationery

Inspiring hamper display

giftbasketsI was impressed with this hamper display I saw in Hong Kong last Sunday and share it here as inspiration for newsagents who are offering hampers or gift baskets as a service.

The display in the photo is used for harvesting orders for deliveries. I know of newsagencies in Australia where hampers are offered off the shelf.  It’s a niche offering that can work well in our channel during major seasons. They can open you to new customers and provide you something to pitch o local businesses.

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Newsagency opportunities

Magazines in small footprint retail in Hong Kong

magoverlapSee how a small footprint (25 sq m) convenience store at Hung Hom station in Kowloon displays magazines. This fanned out approach is what newsagents in Australia used to do decades ago before moving to full face in the 1980s.

With rent and labour increasing annually and magazine revenue flat or declining for many, newsagents need to cut overheads associated with magazines. One way to do this is to reduce floor space. The fanned magazine display approach lets us do this without reducing range as much as otherwise might be the case.

Note the lower shelves where more space is dedicated to these titles.

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magazines

Is a newsagency a good business to own?

Here is a brief video I did last week to answer this question I am asked daily by potential newsagency business purchasers and others interested in our channel – Is a newsagency a good business to own?

I decided to do the video because of the negative press around the tatts and some other issues playing out at the moment. Let me know what you think.

What we achieve with our newsagencies is up to us. The more we rely on others like suppliers the weaker our future. The more we rely on our own ideas, energy and networking with like-minded newsagents the brighter our future.

I could have talked for longer and have done on other videos I have published here and elsewhere. This time, I wanted a brief and clear statement about why I think a newsagency is a good business to own.

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Newsagency management

Take a look at how one Coles supermarket presents greeting cards three days in a row

I visited my local Coles supermarket on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week to see how they presented cards, to see if the display was cared for through the week.

c1Here is how I found the cards by my local Coles supermarket on Tuesday this week at around 5:30pm. The display was messy and uninviting. I figured it was the end of the day and that the cards would be tidied overnight or in the morning. I was wrong.

c2Things had not changed when I visited at around the same time Wednesday. Some card placements had not altered at all indicating that there had been no tidy up or refresh of the card offer. Is this not a daily task? They refresh dairy, why not cards?

c3Last night, Thursday, this is what I saw when there at 5:45pm. Some cards out of place as they had been for three days at least. Is no one responsible for cards here? The display remains uninviting. This is the untidiest part of the supermarket.

We can compete with Coles, Woolworths and other supermarkets in the card space by managing our card displays, tidying them daily, ensuring the offer is neat and fresh and offering shop floor service to our customers. We can pull people from supermarket shopping for cards through loyalty offers and engaging with shoppers.

Our competition starts with professional displays as this is where many supermarkets fail. If I had a newsagency near my local Coles I am sure I could hurt their card sales given their treatment of the product.

Supermarkets have cards because of their extraordinary traffic and not because they respect the category. We have cards because we offer a superior experience. The more engaged with the card department in our shops the more money we will make.

I am writing about this today to encourage newsagents to compete through their card offer. The better you manage cards the more you will sell. It’s probably the most financially rewarding department you have in your newsagency in gross profit percentage terms.

There is only one reason for newsagents to engage more effectively with their card department – because it is financially worth it. There is no better motivator for engagement and compliance than profit.

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Greeting Cards

Ideal gift with purchase from Your Garden

gwpmagsThe latest issue of Your Garden magazine comes with a perfect gift with this title: seeds with a Jiffy planting pod. With the low frequency of Your Garden we find we have to chase customers – hence our placement with newspapers, weekly magazines as well as with garden magazines for the first couple of weeks of the on-sale. The extra locations work.

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magazines

A challenging gift with magazine purchase

gwpAustralia is not the only place where magazine publishers challenge retailers with gifts with purchase. The photo shows a plastic bottle with a drink of some sort bagged with what looks like a food title – in a Hong Kong convenience store. There is no easy way to display it.

Magazine publishers tell me that gifts work. I’d believe this for the gifts we see repeated as there is no point in them repeating something that is not working.  I am not sure sure about bags with fashion titles though – I think customers are over those – and scarves and cheap jewellery we often see with teen magazines.

The best gift I have seen in-store this year is the Christmas tin with Better Homes and Gardens. It helped us achieve a sell out.

I am all for gifts as long as we can display them professionally with the accompanying magazine and as long as they deliver better than average sales.

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magazines

Coverage of WH Smith acquisition of Supanews

The Courier Mail has covered the purchase of the Spanews newsagency group by WH Smith.

BRITISH high street newsagent WHSmith has acquired the Supanews chain in Queensland, a deal set to provide tougher competition for the traditional family-owned paper shop.

Privately-owned Supanews, founded by veteran newsagent Adrian Gaskin in 1992, has 29 stores in Queensland, the ACT, New South Wales and Victoria with an annual turnover of $80 million.

The investment in Supanews by the UK retail giant could transform an industry suffering from stiff competition from convenience stores and supermarkets selling lottery products and magazines.

I am over how newsagencies are represented in reports like this. We sound like tiny struggling micro businesses. While some are, there are plenty that are small for sure but strong and healthy and enjoying change.

Newspaper reports should focus on how core parts of newsagency businesses are being constrained by rules imposed by commercial suppliers in some products categories, rules that make us less competitive.

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Newsagency challenges

How the Rolling Stones helped us with a Beatles sale

beatlesA customer a couple of days ago purchased a Rolling Stones calendar after much deliberation – they didn’t want to pay the price we had it at.

Our team member encouraged the purchase commenting that they’d get a discount voucher. It worked.

Once they got their voucher they surprised us by then purchasing a Beatles mug without a second thought – using the discount voucher for some $$ off. This is happening regularly – people worry about how much they will spend on an item and then use the voucher they receive to make a less considered purchase.

Our year on year sales were up 14% in November and I’d put the majority of that down to discount voucher engagement by our team and our customers.

We have learned that discount vouchers fundamentally change shopper engagement. Concerns disappear as do price perceptions about the business. We are known for the vouchers, they are generating net new traffic for us. Plus they make visits, like that of the Rolling Stones fan, more valuable as they extend their basket.

With many shops in our 300+ store centre having access to most of what we stock, the discount vouchers are a point of difference. Our sales results demonstrate that they are a bankable point of difference.

But back to the Rolling Stokes shopper. I’m wondering why they worried about price for the Stones item but not for the Beatles item. Then there is they question of why one customer would purchase both items because back in the day you were either a Stones fan or a Beatles fan. These are questions for another day.

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Gifts

Licenced products that ought to be on newsagents’ radar

License magazine has published the top toy licences for boys and girls for 2014. It’s a shopping list for newsagents who want to be strong in this space.

2014 Top Toys for Boys

  1. LEGO
  2. Cars and trucks
  3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
  4. Video games
  5. Hot Wheels
  6. Xbox One
  7. PlayStation4
  8. Transformers
  9. Remote-controlled vehicles
  10. (Tie) Marvel action figures–Tablet/Apple iPad

2014 Top Toys for Girls

  1. Disney Frozen
  2. Barbie
  3. Dolls (generic)
  4. Monster High dolls
  5. American Girl
  6. LEGO
  7. Tablet/Apple iPad
  8. My Little Pony
  9. Disney Doc McStuffins
  10. Apparel

While independent newsagents will struggle to get into some licences because of how suppliers operate, the list provides an excellent goal shopping list when planning for 2015. Sure, there are some entries that do not play in Australia – but overall the list is very useful not only in the toy category but elsewhere in the business.

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Newsagency opportunities

A reminder we are not our customers

notourcustomersAlmost daily there is a reminder that we are not our customers and we should not assume we know what our customers will like. One of our team members thought these Be Jolly wind ups would not sell. In a week, almost all are gone. I like it when this happens as each occasion is another lesson learned.

The more we experiment outside what we usually do the more we stand to learn.

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retail

The right magazines with newspapers work in newsagencies

mpapersWe always place one or more magazines with newspapers and over the years we have learned the titles that work best for us placed with newspapers.

Different newsagents would have different experiences as to the magazines that work best with newspapers.

In our case, Better Homes and Gardens continues to be the best title to place with newspapers. This time of the year we like to give Your Garden a go. We pocket count knowing the number we place so we can measure success or otherwise.

I urge newsagents without key magazines with newspapers to give it a go.

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magazines

A social responsibility connection can help attract shoppers to your newsagency

Screen Shot 2014-12-02 at 9.21.51 pmAt Christmas, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day we see terrific engagement from shoppers in our newsagencies with products that have a social responsibility or charity connection. Card companies have been particularly good at this engagement.

As retailers have built their businesses around ethical product sourcing and charity support or social responsibility engagement in some other way, it has become more important for us to be aware and active in this in our newsagency businesses.

Think about Toms, The Body Shop and Life is Good – helping others is at the core of the pitch they make to their shoppers.

While you probably have products that help fund charities and community groups through their purchase, how much do you pitch this?

I have seen a good example of this working recently when we introduced a line of handmade pure soaps from a local family business. While they sold well, it was only after the social responsibility story was pitched with the product that sales really hit their stride.

There are many shoppers today who like to do good with their purchases. Sure there will always be people looking for cheap imports but the more valuable shopper is the one who comes back to you because they know you stock products that do good beyond the use of the product itself.

Look for opportunities to tell the stories of those helped when customers purchase a product from you, expect the appeal of these products.

The soap offer supports a family in Nepal where the packaging is made from scratch. Sales of the products helps the family have a life they otherwise might not have had.

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Ethics

Newsagents can sell more photo frames

framesNewsagents have been selling photo frames for decades. Too often we place them on the shelves without care and this can deny us sales.

For inspiration, here is a photo of a frame display in a shop I visited last week. It makes the product the hero, makes them look appealing, pitches them as a gift.

With many photo processing shops now closed, good frames are hard to find. This is a category newsagents can do well in – from everyday frames, to occasion frames to high-end frames as gifts. It’s a category I think we can generate traffic with if done right.

The goal of this post is to say to newsagents selling photo frames – step back, create a completely different display making frames hero products. Reach beyond what you usually do and achieve more than usual.

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visual merchandising

A product name you double-take to

fattiesWhen I saw the products name Fatties I did a double take … they really called a product Fatties? That’s what I thought. I saw it a few days when I was overseas. The store owner said it was popular. I guess it is a cultural thing. I’m not sure a hot water bag grand called Fatties would take off here. Maybe this is a reminder that I am not my customer.

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retail
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