We are promoting The Friendship Book for 2015 with placement in front of magazines, next to People’s Friend. As we do each year, we’ll order more stock. Our problem with this title is under supply! It’s feast or famine when ti comes to magazines!
I was pleased but concerned to see News Corp. promoting newsagents with its tweet this Sunday gone promoting the free tote bag in support of Shop Small, the American Express promotion: FREE tote bag with the paper at metro newsagents today. Support the locals.
My first concern related to the Amex connection. Amex is not small business friendly. They have no place promoting small business because they suck crazy fees from us. The Show Small campaign is more about getting small retailers to offer Amex than it is about supporting small business in my view.
My second worry was the supply of the bag itself. Sure enough, the News Corp. supply chain failed us. We did not get the bags – making the News Corp. tweet irrelevant to my newsagency. #fail
I like that News Corp. wants to support retail newsagents. It needs to sort out its communicate channel so bumps like this do not occur in the future.
Our 2015 diary sales are up 160% compared to sales of 2014 diaries to the same time last year. This is off a good base.
The one change this year over last is the placement of some diaries in front of newspapers and magazines. We have the space for this placement following the removal of two magazine fixtures a few weeks ago.
While Collins diary sales are up it is our fashion diaries that are benefiting the most. They are located on the other side of the table – out of view in the photo.
We source diaries from several suppliers covering business and personal needs. Stock starts out on the floor in August and builds in September.
Our experience this year is that placement is key to driving diary sales.
Did you receive the reissue of The Ashes magazine? This old title has had its day and reissuing to newsagents as happened this week is a space and money grab.
Had we been asked I suspect many newsagents would have said no thanks, been there, done that.
This is a perfect example of how magazine distributors make newsagents less competitive than supermarkets.
We are promoting the latest issue of Feast magazine with a simple acrylic fixture that places copies of the title in front of the magazine shelves – it makes it stand out ahead of other titles. This issue of Feast with the yellow cover is perfect for featuring from the crowd in this way.
While other retailers in shopping malls are required to open Public Holidays, Australia Post corporate stores are not. Today, Melbourne Cup Day, Australia Post avoids the crazy penalty rates while retailers competing with them are hit by the cost. This situation is a benefit available to Australia Post solely because of their protected status as a government owned business. It is a perfect example of government ownership and protection providing them an unfair competitive advantage.
In you have a front window to your newsagency use it as a window and not as the back wall of a storage cupboard as one newsagency I saw recently does.
The photo shows what you see from the outside of the shop looking in.
There is no appeal to people walking past the window of the newsagency in the photo, none whatsoever. This window is a missed opportunity.
There are two things wrong with this newsagency window: the products in the window are not placed to appeal to the passer-by and you can’t see into the business. It’s a window – you ought to be able to see through it to something enticing.
The use of this window is a fail on two counts, a missed opportunity for this business.
Landlords consider windows a feature. They factor having a window into the price they set for the space. In this case, the newsagent could be paying a premium for storage space that is more likely to turn people off than entice them into the shop for a browse.
The best way to leverage the value of a window is to take everything off it – all magazine posters (you should never put magazine posters on your windows) and stickers as well as any products placed inside the window. Clean it and take a look inside. If you like what you see, terrific. If not, make sure what people see through your window is ideal. Once it is, you can then figure out how to use the window itself, if you want to.
A good window and what you can see through it could be the most important marketing you have for your newsagency. It is important to get it right, to ensure it is relevant and to keep it fresh.
This is basic retail advice. Getting your window right could boost traffic and sales with little capital investment and who doesn’t want that?
I was asked last week in response to my post that we had cut 250 magazine pockets and no titles how we fitted magazines. This photo shows how we fit in UK titles. In the top row we have eight titles in three pockets. This is more efficient.
This photo shows how we are fitting in more car titles by placing titles over each other. In the lower row we have four titles taking up two pockets – still very efficient. We do this with food, UK, music, photography, cars, motorcycles and craft sections – not not all of craft.
This approach works best when done in segments where shoppers will look for the titles they are after and where the full cover is not as vital.
It is important to note that we give titles displayed in this way time in the spotlight with a feature placement elsewhere – to try and reach people not currently purchasing the special interest titles.
The story in The Canberra Times about privacy concerns re the OPAL card in NSW should be used by newsagents to drive traffic and sales in their businesses. @CartwheelPrint provided this advice on Twitter with a link to the news story:
Buy your Opal ticket from Newsagents & DON’T link it to your bank account, was 1st thing I told pals.
This is a marketing opportunity for newsagents – even though the margin on top ups as set by the State Government is appalling and disrespectful.
The young girl was giving her dad a hug as she said this right after purchasing another Beanie Boo on Saturday morning. Thanks Dad! That’s twenty-nine I’ve got now.
While she was a joy to see, it was more moving to see the Dad’s smile.
After completing the purchase they stood at the display talking about the next one to purchase.
We know they will buy from us because they use the discount voucher from each purchase for the next purchase and because we have the best range in the shopping centre – better than Toyworld and the majors who stock the same brand.
Watching father and daughter was a reminder of the value of the habit based shopper who relies on your business to build a collection. Understanding the role we play for them helps us be better retailers. It also makes us more aware of allied opportunities.
Being known in a region as the go to supplier for collectors is an excellent loath through which to redefine your newsagency business. Some have been doing this for years while others will read about it here for the first time. We can grow our businesses – by being engaged retailers.
I sensed from the nod and smile as he left that the dad is grateful we provide this opportunity for him to share with his daughter.
Placement above Better Homes and Gardens magazine has helped us achieve a 55% sell through already for this BHG branded puzzle title. While it is selling from our crossword section, the pocket above BHG is performing the best for us. We found the extra pocket because of the BHG floor display unit promoting the Christmas tin.
We had no space for the additional SKU from Bauer – Elle and Bazaar and so we early returned them. What’s unfair is that we have to send back the whole bag. What a waste of my money! I know newsagents who compensate by early returning other titles for ‘balance’. Asking me if I have room for a new SKU would be a smarter move Bauer.
We have The Walking Dead product together: magazine, desktop calendar and full size calendar to make the most of one of the most successful TV franchises this decade. This franchise is a good example where placement of themed products together is more valuable for the retailer than leaving the products in their category locations.
It’s natural to fear failure in personal and business life. Online and offline gossip about friends, colleagues, competitors and others is often about failure, intensifying our own fear of failure. Today, news of failure is amplified more than ever because of the ready access to the megaphones of social media.
My uneducated theory is that volume of gossip and talk by some about the failure of others reflects more about them than those of whom they speak. But that’s not what I want to write about this morning.
We need to embrace failure. Indeed, if we are to fail, we need to fail well.
By failing well, I mean we need to leverage value from the failure. This could be getting it right the next time, helping others from our experience, having fun with the failure or in some other practical and life lesson type way.
Every failure, large and small, presents the opportunity to fail well. Whether we do fail well is up to us. It is up what we do as a result of the failure. We can choose to fail or fail well. My management advice today is for us to fail well. This starts with us owning the failure. Next we have to think about how to leverage it. Finally, we need to talk about the experience with others, to share positives from the experience.
It could be that you have a dud product that you have brought into the business. Call it out. Have fun with it on the shop floor. I now of situations where this has been done in a fun way and the dud product has become a success. Think of some dreadful movie failures that have become cult classics and commercial successes.
If the failure is on a bigger scale, like a whole of business failure, own it, walk through it, learn from it and confront every challenge head on. The best advice I can give is to look ahead and take a small step at a time … oh, and don’t listen to those talking about you.
Running and hiding from failure denies you the opportunity to grow and others the opportunity to learn from your experience.
As for those who enjoy talking about the failure of others, ignore them for they live in a sad world.
There are plenty of exclusive to newsagents competition opportunities that we can leverage to market our businesses. The keys to success are knowing which competitions are exclusive and good supplier support.
Promoting these competitions position us competitively to others nearby selling the same products. The competitions are a point of difference for us – if we fail to make the most of these opportunities we lose out – more fool us.
I embrace these opportunities and promote them with the products they are supporting and elsewhere in the business – to get the most from the point of difference opportunity. With one Coles a few metres in front of the entrance to my newsagency and another around the corner and a couple of minutes away, any opportunity to demonstrate additional value in shopping with me is worth it.
The WIN! A SHARE OF $10,000 FOR CHRISTMAS competition from Pacific Magazines is one such promotion through which newsagents can promote a valuable point of difference over other magazine retailers. We are promoting it at the counter, with the magazines supported by the promotion and on the lease line – facing into the mall.
This is my marketing tip today – actively embrace every promotion and competition that is exclusive to newsagents. Use them to show off a point of difference for your business. This is low cost marketing at its best. The more we embrace these the more suppliers will run them.
Halloween 2015 saw an increase of just over 10% of Halloween 2013 in terms of revenue. It accounted for just on 6% of total October sales.
What is also interesting in our October numbers is that Christmas revenue is already very strong and well up on last year. Calendars are up 185% off a terrific base and cards are up 17% off a terrific base. Magazines slowed but they are still up 2% in October year on year. Stationery is up 19% and plush is up 34%. In October for everyday plush (non premium lines) we did more than $7,000.
Halloween played a role in growth in other departments thanks to the additional traffic it attracted. It is a vital season for us.
Footnote: I am posting this to reinforce that we make our own success. We can grow our newsagency businesses through our buying, product placement, promotion and management. Every day matters.
I love the advice on HOW TO HAVE A LOVELY DAY written on the out the front of The Bra Bar in Perth this week.
This sign made a walk in Perth inspiring.
This is a lesson in how to market your business without directly promoting it. The advice could be provided by anyone in almost any situation. It is practical and accessible. The inspiration to have a lovely day is subtly connected to their business, not in your face.
Well done to the folks at The Bra Bar.
I’ve seen people use boards like this out the front of their shop for a word of the day or a quote or a joke. The Bar Bar sign is different, more personal – I guess as personal as the products they sell. They are speaking to you. That’s how it works for me.
Newsagents could do a sign like this have and wives under headings like:
Think of ideas for telling stories and sharing inspiration without overtly marketing your business. It’s a terrific way to get people on the street and in the mall to stop and notice you.
Changes to the enforcement powers of of the ACCC from January 1, 2015 could benefit newsagency businesses that operate under franchise agreements. The ACCC announcement this week outlines how increased powers could boost compliance of franchisors.
Dr Schaper said the ACCC will focus on particularly serious conduct, including breaches of the ‘key pillars’ of the revised Code.
“This is likely to include failure to act in good faith, failure to provide a disclosure document, refusal to attend mediation and unlawful termination of a franchise agreement.”
The code of conduct is comprehensive. Where it could be of particular interest to newsagents is in the disclosure obligations around the use of funds collected for a marketing fund.
More Calendar Club outlets are opening as calendar season gets into full swing. While their range commitment is a point of difference, their presence is not currently harming our situation. As I noted last week, calendar sales are up 150% on this time last year.
Browsing the Calendar Club locations is instructive to find products we don’t have already and to discover the product adjacencies they prefer. Time spent browsing can be instructive.
We’re having terrific success with the Better Homes and Gardens placement with newspapers on the shop floor – facing people once they are half way into the business. The pockets of Family Circle and the All I want For Christmas title are working well too. The two stands – newspaper and BHG – look good next to each other.
A letter from the Victorian Minister for Gaming Regulation to Intralot outlets opens an issue of concern for newsagents. The last paragraph on page one of the letter notes Tattersalls will offer current Intralot outlets the opportunity to become Tattersalls outlets.
I know of newsagency businesses with Tattersalls located next to or near supermarkets that have Intralot. What will happen there if those supermarkets take up the offer to which the Minister refers?
I have been approached by several newsagents in Victoria about this letter. They are most concerned. here is what one newsagent has said about their situation:
This is a concern for us as we have a IGA Supermarket in the next town 5 minutes away which currently sells Intralot products only. In the past they have applied for a Tatts license, but were denied because Tatts recognised that there would be no benefit to having an extra outlet in country towns on a 10km stretch of highway (there are already 2 including our newsagency).If this letter is to be believed, they would now be given the right to sell all Tatts products, which will have a significant impact on our lottery sales. We will be meeting with our local member for parliament and with our Tatts rep to discuss this issue.
I expect a letter like this would have gone through several reviews prior to release. If it means what it says then newsagents with Tatts and a supermarketer other retailers nearby selling Intralot ought to be concerned.
If I was in this situation I’d write to the Minister for Gaming relation immediately, seeking urgent clarification.
Have a great day in-store today. Halloween is an opportunity for plenty of fun. We are very close to selling out. What little we have left will be discounted from late today.
Halloween is a perfect segue from Father’s Day into Christmas. It’s also a day to blow off steam if you’re into dress-ups in-store.
Check out how one shop that looks like a newsagency but is not a newsagency in Melbourne is promoting Christmas cards. Their pitch is up to 70% off. The sign should say up to 70% off a retail price we made up that has no real connection with what we actually paid for this stock.
Looking at the stock as I did yesterday, I doubt any of the cards would ever have been priced in retail at $16.95 as they claim on their sign. Their pitch is inaccurate in my view.
At $4.95 the price is about right for these cards. They are nothing special. Some appear to be remainder stock from last year while others are cards I’d expect in a discount variety store.
My initial reaction is to be frustrated at this retailer making what I think is a dishonest pitch and in doing so taking business from the nearby newsagent and card retailers. The reality is we cannot legislate that our competitors act honourably and ethically. All we can do is ensure our offer is the best it can be in terms of value and its presentation.
retailers promoting only on price may get sales for some of their deals but they will not attract loyal shoppers as their shoppers will remember price ahead of range, experience and value. Give people a brand or specific product they really want and price is less of an issue.
Check out the display a colleague sent me of a display at a Woolworths supermarket offering and exclusive to Coles gift with purchase for a range of titles.
This is a stunning stand promoting an excellent gift. It’s certain to drive sales of the promoted titles in Woolworths.
It is disappointing that Bauer promotes supermarkets ahead of newsagents with opportunities like this, shopper competitions and discount magazine bundles.
Every magazine customer lost from the newsagency channel to supermarkets is a cost to us beyond the loss of Bauer title sales.
The pie tray gift offered by Bauer is excellent. Getting the gift with purchase right and promoting it on a good stand with good marketing collateral can drive sales – as the exclusive to newsagents Christmas tin with Better Homes and Gardens has shown.
A colleague sent me this photo of Halloween in a Woolworths supermarket in regional NSW. I like that they have created something for shoppers to step into and through. This approach works well for Halloween – it’s an interactive season.