The Australian Family Tree Connections magazine Christmas issue is out now. We should all support this title. It’s Australian, independently published, available in newsagencies and not supermarkets and the publisher actively promotes our channel in social media. Put this Christmas issue next to People’s Friend or AWW – to introduce it to a wider audience.
As if we did not have enough Christmas food and related magazines. I noticed today the Thomas Dux Christmas magazine. Consumers are spoilt for choice when it comes to Christmas food titles – I reckon more now than ever before yet I suspect overall revenue is not up. I may have missed this Thomas Dux title – let me know if it is scaled out to any newsagencies.
Beacon branding is the use of magazines to signpost a section of your magazine department. It is the use of magazine as the sign.
Beacon branding draws customers to specialist sections. You can use less signs and visually de-clutter.
This photo shows how we have been using beacon branding in one of my newsagencies to draw attention to the comic section. 100 ALL-TIME GREATEST COMICS was a perfect title for this. I placed it with two full facings not so much for this title but for nearby titles people will notice.
It is small engagements like this that newsagents can use to demonstrate specialisation in the magazine department and to separate us from supermarkets and others selling magazines. A small about of time invested can build your reputation and increase sales.
The alternative is to offer an average magazine layout that is not much different to elsewhere. This will result in average sales. Average magazine sales are declining – who wants that?
Check out the structured approach to pitching key product categories as used by WH Smith at one of their Sydney newsagency outlets.
It’s compact, focussed and carefully thought out – look at the fixtures, the shelf cards used in front of products to explain and promote them and the selection of products. It’s a complete story designed to maximise the basket.
This is what we will be competing with more as petrol and convenience outlets get stronger in traditional everyday newsagency categories and as WH Smith expands their newsagency footprint in Australia as I expect them to.
In posting the photo I am trying to encourage newsagents in everyday newsagency businesses, by this I mean more in traditional newsagency model, to take a more corporate and proactive approach to counter space allocation so that you are better prepared to compete in-store with these new operators in our channel.
While I could write about the whole shop, the counter is the core of retail activity and a goo place to start in considering how you might change your newsagents to compete with the changes emerging in our space.
We have been giving the latest issue of Yours magazine time in the spotlight since it comes with a free 2015 calendar. We have displayed the calendar so that customers can see the value of the free gift.
Passionate dog and cat lovers are valuable shoppers to attract and serve in our newsagencies. Calendars, mugs, books, magnets and even Christmas ornaments and trickiest sell easily when they have a dog or cat theme.
I have written here many times in the past about terrific commercial opportunities open to newsagency from serving pet lovers.
We can serve the passion of pet lovers and through this grow our businesses.
Visit pet shop and you will see them playing in this gift space serving dog and cat lovers. They have mugs, calendars, gifts for owners and gifts for pets.
We are finding dog and cat items work bets when displayed to tell a story. That is, not dotted here and there but placed together so dog lovers, for example, can see everything you have for them. The locations that have worked for us are on the table facing into the mall, at the counter and in our gift department in a dedicated dog and cat section.
I put the photo of the cat Christmas hat with this post as I heard a customer purr a few days ago when looking at this for her little cutie.
Our channel has been built on habit based purchases. Newsagents can navigate to a profitable future thinking about serving those who purchase out of habit. This is where serving dog and cat lovers is important for us.
We have customers travelling through many suburbs to shop with us because they know we stock the Frankie diary. Having travelled for this purchase, they often shop the shop and select other items they like. We deliberately source items to interest the Frankie customer not just at Christmas but all through as is a demographically important and commercially successful magazine title for us.
What we are doing here is a good example of how newsagents can use magazines to grow sales of other products under a popular magazine brand and unbranded products that will appeal to those who like the title.
We have been stocking the diary for some years along with the calendar and other items published under the Frankie brand. We chased the publisher and they ensured we got stock through the distributor.
I understand the temptation to say that it is a lot of work to do for one or two diary sales. To that I’d say it is not just one or two diary sales. Our basket analysis indicates it is considerably more than that. Our goal is to continue to evolve our offering to show the Frankie diary shopper that there are other reasons they should drive across suburbs during the year to shop with us and not just now for the diary.
We can grow our newsagency businesses by seeking out the hard to get products our customers are prepared to travel for. Sure it takes some work … the rewards are worth it!
Check out the aisle end I saw in a WH Smith shop in Sydney last week. This is the same style as one from Europe I wrote about six weeks ago. What most newsagents make decisions and manage their businesses from their local perspective.
I am posting this photo today as evidence of the global nature of the WH Smith business and to highlight the challenges and opportunities ow very close to our homes.
WH Smith is bringing to their Australian retail operations knowledge and experience from their worldwide operation. This will change the Australian newsagency model.
The more locally engaged and shopper enticing our newsagencies the better prepared we are for competition of any type.
If you ever wonder about how to quit stock that is not moving in your newsagency, follow what the majors do. They take it off the usual shelving, stack it without car on temporary shelving in a high traffic location and they price it to sell.
The photo is of a discount placement in a Woolworths supermarket in Queensland. See the simple shelving they are using and their pricing approach.
This is what we have to do when quitting stock – be unglamorous with placement and generous with discount. If you want to quit, act like you really do.
This is one area of our business where we can learn a lot from the supermarkets.
In a quiet part of your business setup a photo gallery or wall for displaying photos submitted by customers. Give the area fancy name related to the photos.
For example: [town name] SURPRISE CHRISTMAS PHOTO ART. In this example, create a small flyer now and hand it out to customers asking them to take photos of kids as they open gifts. They then bring in their best photo for displaying in your gallery. Families and friends will want to come in for a look as will others without families.
The opportunities for photo art displays are endless. Your newsagency can become known as the photo art place in town where people come and look and, hopefully, purchase.
Sure the photo idea is not directly connected to what you sell – it’s about generating net new traffic for you that no other shop in ton is generating.
I’d suggest you plan for up to six photo art displays each year. Try have ensure local themes. Here are suggestions for photo art displays you could consider:
Talk to your team, Ask for their ideas.
You’d need rules about what photos are acceptable, permission to display and a process for cataloguing what you display. Once you have done your first other displays should be easy to do.
If you go with this idea, promote it on social media, on flyers you have to customers and through your local paper – it’s a story they should love.
I did this in one of my businesses and had people coming into the shop with a photo who had never been in the shop before. Enough of them spent money to make this a valuable marketing campaign.
This photo shows how the newsagency at Sydney International Airport has The Saturday Paper positioned today. Seeing it stacked high between The Sydney Morning Herald and AFR Weekend would warm the hearts of the folks who launched it this year.
I like the ad campaign from Fairfax promoting their newspapers and featuring some of their best journalists and writers. This photo shows a digital ad at a Sydney airport newsagency. I have also seen the cinema, billboard and their TV ads in this series.
I like the campaign as it promotes a key point of difference for Fairfax – the people who uncover and write the stories. Stories make newspapers.
A terrific cover tribute to Phillip Hughes on the front page of The Daily Telegraph today is partially obscured by an ad for Hello Fresh. Given the interest in this story it would have been good to see the front page not obscured in this way.
We did a double-take when we read the inscription on this religious Christmas ornament. Was unto really written as unta, born really barn and Lord really Lard?
Everyone we have shown the ornament agrees, each o in the text is an a. They they say leave it out on display and see what happens. So that’s what we have done for now. It is the type of thing I can see people buying and never reading because they know what it says.
We have Frozen products from five suppliers. While everything is selling well and we’ll sell out, the Hallmark sound cards with the Let It Go song from the movie is the hero product. We have ordered more stock and are certain to order more again next week.
Frozen is the licence of 2014 and having not only this card and the rest of the licenced products on the Hallmark stand but Frozen products from plenty more suppliers has enabled us to do well from the opportunity.
To those newsagents who ask how can I grow my business? or how can I make more money? here is a perfect example … engage with popular licences with products from multiple suppliers so that you have a depth to your offer. Stay away from the cheap crap as when it comes to licences, quality matters. Price is less of an issue.
You have to chase the product. If you get on a bandwagon like Frozen only when a rep comes to you you are most likely getting on board too late.
This is an excellent example of how to grow the newsagency. That said, be careful with Frozen as the market is saturated with product and you don’t want to be left with items once the craze has passed.
If you have not seen the movie and have no reference point for the Let It Go song, watch the video of the song here.
We make thoughtful use of our customer displays connected to our POS software, carefully selecting what we show and when. Sometimes displays appear based on products purchased while other times we promote opportunities unique to us.
One effective promotion for us this one supporting discount vouchers. Other than the over the counter pitch, this ad on the digital customer display is the only mention of discount vouchers inside or outside the business. The ad on the display reminds shoppers to look for vouchers they may have. It also reinforces the pitch we make when we hand over a voucher.
Integrating an over the counter pitch with a visual cue such as what is showing on the digital customer display can increase customer awareness and from this flows engagement.
We don’t have any other digital advertising in the business as I only want to promote products available in my shop.
Note: I expect any POS software could offer what I am writing about here.
We are seeing good early Christmas card sales from our placement of cardboard units on the lease line at the front of the shop. We are using the interactive and premium cards to attract shoppers as they are seen as a point of difference to the usual.
The stands are not moved in an out – this is important as it maintains their structural integrity.
We use the cardboard units as I don’t want to take cards off the wall for seasons as that costs sales of those cards taken down. Indeed, that was a valuable lesson to learn years ago.
Sales are good. I think we’re in for a good Christmas.
Twitter can be inspiring sometimes. Check out the tweet I just found from @KarasAunty: Time we boycotted ALL chain supermarkets & reclaimed our High Streets. Local newsagents have emerged as the real stars 2day. #TheNational. Great stuff.
The more newsagents on Twitter and engaging in relevant local community discussion the higher the profile for our channel.
On The Living Room tonight on Network Ten Kinetic Sand is featured as a Christmas gift. If you sell this product make sure you have it out in a good location – to make the most of the publicity.
While the majors are now onto this product, our channel still has an opportunity here. We have sold more than $8,000.00 of this product in a few months.
Click here to see the letter NSW Lotteries (Tatts) send newsagents. It includes this paragraph relating to product distribution:
Distribution of lottery products
In terms of concerns about product distribution via supermarkets, Tatts Lotteries has been consistently open and transparent about the fact that a trial commenced in July 2013 selling lotto products in selected convenience fuel outlets in Victoria. The purpose of this trial is to thoroughly and carefully assess whether this new channel will provide an opportunity for Tatts Lotteries to capture incremental lottery sales. Results to date over an extended trial period of almost 18 months demonstrate this to be the case and accordingly the convenience fuel channel continues to be explored. However, we wish to reinforce that commentary by others that this trial indicates an intention to extend our retail reach to supermarkets, is an attempt to distort the reality and is not based on fact.
Further on the letter states:
As a consumer focused retail business, it is imperative that our products are conveniently available to our customers. As such NSW Lotteries must continue to respond to our customer’s needs, and it is in that context that we reiterate the value placed on newsagents facilitating this and that is why we are so committed to partnering with this retail channel going forward.
The letter also claims – NSW Lotteries focus has always been on driving growth for our partners.
As a public company, Tatts must put its shareholders above all others, they most do whatever is necessary to drive the share price. If this can be best achieved by growing the businesses of their partners like newsagents they will do it. But shareholders must come first.
A customer has been covering Monster Children magazine. I wasn’t aware of this until yesterday and had not seen the cover. It’s confronting. I showed it around the office and everyone asked why there had not been media coverage. While I find this cover challenging I still think it’s a terrific magazine.
With One Direction in Australia and on local TV here it’s a good time to get their 2015 calendar out for people who will purchase it for loved-ones at Christmas.
Many of our calendar purchases are not destination purchases – tactical placement pays!
It’s terrific seeing the RACV promoting newsagents as the go to retailers for Best Cars. Their promotion of our channel is welcome.
Well done RACV!
This is a product tip I heard about from Peter at newsXpress Emerald. The Drover by photographer Al Mabin is a wonderful photography book documenting a 2,000km cattle run of 18,000 head of cattle through two states. It’s selling exceptionally well at newsXpress Emerald and could sell well in other cattle country areas. Here are reasons for newsagents to get behind The Drover: It is self published, it beautifully documents Australia and this Australian event, customers love it, it’s a great Aussie story. Contact Al directly to purchase the book at wholesale for sale in your newsagency. You can be part of a terrific local story.
The appointment of Administrators to the Pie Face retail chain is disappointing for a high-profile Aussie retail start up. It’s never good reading about a retail group in such trouble.
News reports this week have gone into some detail about challenges for the business that led to the owners bringing in the Administrators. The stories are a reminder to all retailers to ensure the core of your business is healthy.
The core of any retail business is fixed costs, traffic generation, current cash flow and future plans to grow traffic and sales. These all play into the health of any business. Weakness in one plays into another and another. Each can be affected by weather, local economic conditions and consumer confidence. It’s why running a retail business is often compared to juggling.
To the credit of the owners of Pice Face, they are owning their situation and this is evidenced by them appointing managers.
Our channel continues to face extraordinary change. Like Pie Face we are in a competitive marketplace. Unlike Pie Face, our retail businesses have been around for a long time. Usually, longevity would be a foundation for strength. In our situation, longevity is a barrier to change.
The challenge for newsagents is to be alive to the challenges, be realistic in assessing your business health and acting early rather than late to build a better future.
While you may not feel a connection what is happening with Pie Face, there is one. Take a moment an consider your core health.