I let a staffer at Coles know that the cap was off the balm on the cover of a copy of Elle. These gifts are terrific but when a cover comes or a tube is punctured the damage to stock can be time consuming to address and costly to the business and publisher.
That’s Life is another magazine supporting Halloween. This is another reason all newsagents should embrace halloween as a season. It’s growing in interest in Australia and those not selling Halloween products are missing out.
Check out magazine placement I have seen this morning. I suspect this was done by a shopper having some fun. Made me smile. Adapt your strategy to any location … nice.
Placing a spider on his polo as shown in the photo immersed Chris at one of my newsagencies into Halloween in a way that is fun for plenty and scary for some.
This is a terrific marketing initiative in that it encourages engagement in-store with a category of products many shoppers may not have come in to purchase. Even if it gets one shopper a day engaged with Halloween products who otherwise may not have it’s a success.
The added benefit is the customers who are taken aback. Their momentary fear is quickly followed y a smile and that, too, is good for business. Were the shop where we don’t take things too seriously.
It’s not new to engage on our uniforms with seasons. I like the subtlety of the spider over the usual dress up.
I should set this post to re-publish every month as every week I get a call from a newsagent with an issue about a supplier that would be resolved if there was a signed contract documenting all obligations.
This week I have had calls about a newsagency software company and a shop fitter. Last week it was a landlord situation for which there was no signed lease. Earlier this month it was about a supplier who promised goods were sale or return but did not back this with a written contract.
If you agree terms with any party on any matter, document it and have the agreeing parties sign it. Anyone refusing to document anything they have agreed to is not actually agreeing anything with you.
It is that simple.
We also have Better Homes and Gardens with Newspapers. Stock counts tell us this is working a treat for us. While it’s a bigger pack size and we have space for less stock, that it’s exclusive is the winner for us here.
We are doing a rare aisle end display to promote the Christmas tin gift which comes with the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens. In the three days on-sale so far sales have been excellent, ahead of usual for BHG. We’re very happy. A couple of customers who purchased the mag elsewhere and didn’t get the tin have commented. You can click on the image for a larger version if you like.
There is no evidence in our sales data going back three months for Bauer Media increasing supply of Yours magazine by 5%. IIt is increases like this that demonstrate sending data back through XchangeIT is a waste of time. For all their bluster against newsagents and data, XchangeIT should look closer to home for misbehaviour with data.
FFS Bauer why can’t you get your allocations right?!
Our sales were up 15% year on year in the September quarter. This is an excellent result which I put down to a combination of a terrific in-store offer, excellent staff and our discount voucher loyalty program.
Indeed, discount vouchers are driving basket depth, shopper return and bringing in new traffic thanks to word of mouth. The discount vouchers are getting destination shoppers shopping more of the shop.
Nowhere is the value of discount vouchers more evident that weekly magazines – up 12%. These are retail only sales by the way. Everyday counter cards are up 10% and stationery up 27%. Calendars are up 28% on last year and in the transactional data I can see the vouchers driving this.
The keys to success are clarity of the discount voucher offer, consistency of the pitch, generosity in value and pulling levers in your software to drive higher margin business.
In addition to the 15% increase in revenue there is excellent growth in gross profit.
POS Solutions published yesterday a post about a newsagency pulling out of what they call discount coupons. In their blog post they link to a previous post of theirs where they refer to a report about my business and suggest that the discount vouchers are not delivering the benefits I say. The evidence does not support the claims they make. It is unfortunate that they have published what they have as it distracts from the truth.
Newsagents need to choose the best loyalty solution for their business. This choice requires thorough research and talking with newsagents with experience. This is why I have published my results here over the years, to be transparent.
The Tower newsagency software offers four different types of loyalty facilities of which discount vouchers is one. I am confident that right now discount vouchers is the best practice approach for newsagents. The success is a combination of good software, properly and fully used in a well run newsagency with a good range of product.
Using discount vouchers or discount coupons in a poorly run business or in software that does not have appropriate business levers will not give you the results I am seeing. It would be wrong to assume that all discount voucher / discount coupon facilities are the same.
Last night I watched the Better Homes and Gardens TV show through for the first time in years and as a result have a better connection with and understanding of the latest issue of the Better Homes and Gardens magazine in-store now. I was thrilled to see the magazine plugged plenty of times in the show and in ads in which our channel is mentioned first. If you haven’t seen the show recently, look out for it, give yourself an hour and put it down to business research. It’s thoroughly enjoyable.
I enjoyed time earlier this week at the head office / warehouse of a wholesaler of gift products in regional Victoria. The visit was an insight not only into their business and their products but more broadly into the segment in which they operate. I learnt plenty.
This post is not about this specific visit though – it’s about the opportunities for suppliers hosting opportunities at their warehouses for newsagents and other retailers learn more about their products and how to sell them.
Often in a supplier showroom or warehouse we will see products displayed in a way that tells us more about them than if we only see them in our retail situation. We can probably talk with the buyers who know more about the heritage of the products. We can learn abut future plans for products. Plus we can see what else suppliers would place with a product.
Often our buying is done in store from a catalogue or at a trade show with relatively limited range on show. At a suppliers own location we can get a more compete picture that can help us be better retailers and thereby improve sales of product from the supplier and thereby benefit our business.
I’d like to see more suppliers to newsagents open their offices to help achieve these win win outcomes.
The Age newspaper is 160 years old today and some have used social media to say long live newspapers. I wish I could say that. The weekday editions of The Age must be perilously close to the point where printing and distributing them is loss making, where falling advertising revenue is not being covered enough by a rapidly (in newspaper terms) rising cover prices because copies sold are decreasing at double-digit levels.
Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood has said that newspapers will stop being printed when they are no longer profitable. They must have reached that conclusion with the community newspapers they have decided to close.
With costs cut to the bone and cover prices up 50%, they have little else they can change. The reality is there is no upside for print newspapers. They have been trumped by technology for delivering access to news and the print model has not adjusted to provide on a daily basis something consumers want in sufficient quantity. As with anything you cherish, one hopes for a good death.
On the two major Australian publishers, what is different for Fairfax compared to News is the ratio of subscriptions to over the counter sales. For Fairfax, the percentage of subscriptions is far higher. But long-term subscriptions come at a bottom line cost to the business and only those inside the company have the data to know how close to the line their mastheads are each day of the week.
I still expect to see a capital city daily newspaper to cease daily publication in the next twelve months. I don’t want to see it but I expect it will happen.
We found these two cards ripped and shoved in the back of a display unit this morning.
While vandalism by customers is not new in newsagencies, it is disappointing each time you discover it.
Check out the packaging of bananas at a Starbucks outlet I visited recently. I was surprised to see bananas packaged like this. But thinking about it, it’s the type of packaging I’d expect from a corporate business withers it is less about the product and more abut the packaging and how it serves the needs of the business.
If I owned a coffee shop near to this Starbucks and sold bananas I’d have ben, un-bagged, in a bowl at the counter.
This is something we need to think more about as newsagents – not how we package and sell bananas but how we can differentiate ourselves from the supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol outlets that are targeting more of what we do in our newsagencies. These national businesses are all about the supply chain – streamlining processes, cutting costs and maximising profits. For many newsagents the business focus is different.
My suggestion to newsagents is to look carefully at where these major retailers are competing with you and to find ways to speaks with your own voice through your product mix and how you represent the products.
It feels odd seeing bananas bagged as I did at Starbucks. The packaging is another step away from the natural product.
The arrival of pallets of pumpkins on the shop floor at Coles supermarkets lifts the attention for the season, making it easier for newsagents to promote products connected with the season. The approach front of store appears to be all about pumpkins and candy while at the rear they have costumes and pitchforks and the like. Their support for the season and the support of other retailers makes it easier for us.
Dolly is another magazine supporting halloween and reminding newsagents that this is a season to get behind. Their engagement with the season provides an indication of who we could pitch Halloween products to. Newsagents with Halloween products in-store should include all magazines engaged with the season in their displays.
I’m a fan of brands and prefer a branded product over a cheap copy because national and international brands support their products with advertising which helps us turn stock sooner.
I was discussing this recently with a newsagent around an alternative they said they had to the internationally successful Sylvanian Families. Sure the product they sourced was cheaper. However, it had to be sold for less due to poor packaging and product quality and due to the ‘brand’ being unknown.
Buying products for your newsagency on price alone can be false economy. Take Synlavian Families, the products in the range are supported with a strong narrative, consistent TV advertising, excellent in-store collateral, product quality and good packaging. This makes them appealing to kids as well as to collectors – who can be your most valuable shoppers.
When I consider a new supplier I want to know what they are doing beyond their products in-store to help drive traffic and sales. When it comes to cheap unknown brands the answer is usually nothing.
For the second consecutive year, WHO Magazine has won the 2014 The Maggies Magazine Cover of the Year award.
Its ‘Sexiest People 2013’ cover (25 November 2013) won from a field of 60 outstanding shortlisted covers in a national online poll voted by the public. The cover features the celebrity judging panel from the X Factor TV show photographed together in a bed.
View the full list of winning covers in all 12 The Maggies categories here.
The Maggies are a good promotion of the print medium.
UK newspaper and magazine distributor Smiths News is facilitating newsagents offering Amazon product purchase pica-up service. Items ordered before 11.45am will be able to be picked by 4pm on the same day – in 500 participating newsagents and local shops. Check out Gizmodo for the story.
Bauer Media has emailed newsagents with details of a new format of AWW cookbooks to go on sale from October this year.
The notice from Bauer focusses on the positive and ignores the negative. If I read the flyer right, these new format cookbooks will be two and a half times thicker than the current cookbooks. They will take up more space. Space costs us money.
The flyer notes an improvement in revenue of $2.00. Than pans out to an increase in GP of 15.44%. If I am right about the space requirement newsagents will be worse off with these new format cookbooks.
I am able to satisfy customer interest in cookbook titles with proper books off of which I make between 40% and 60%.
Network needs to respond positively to newsagents who want to opt out of receiving these cookbooks.
Only members of the nexus marketing program from Pacific Magazines will have this terrific gift with purchase of Better Homes and Gardens which goes on sale tomorrow. Since we compete directly with two major supermarkets in the centre we are embracing the opportunity of exclusivity with a range of promotions – to show our offer as different.
Kudos to Pacific Magazines for this exclusivity, excellent forward notice to newsagents, a fantastic video on how to assemble the stand, investing in marketing to drive traffic to our stores and the cash on offer to reward newsagent engagement. The video is especially useful – other suppliers should take note.
Dairy Queen talked this week about the data breach of their systems which provided hackers with customer names, credit and debit card numbers and expiration dates. This announcement continues a sting of such announcements from major corporations, about breaches compromising millions of customer records.
K-Mart discussed their data breach Monday. Click here for an amazing info graphic on breaches by industry.
These breaches are relevant to small business newsagents as a reminder over security arrangements, the risk of storing customer data yourself and the danger of inadequate data you have stored on the cloud. If you don’t understand your risk you need to as you are responsible for your own and customer data.
We have the latest issue of Frankie plus the Frankie diary and Frankie calendar all placed wityh each other in the middle of our women’s magazine aisle.
We are also giving this issue of Frankie time in the spotlight nearer to our weekly magazines.
The Frankie diary and calendar are products we’ll cop a lower than preferred margin on as they attract a shopper who is valuable to us.
I was surprised to see this Ugly Doll stand on a shop floor Monday. Maybe I am being obesely sensitive but this stand and the product name feel like a negative message to me. The Ugly Doll name alone calls out a difference which I think is unhelpful. But maybe the pitch has worked because I noticed it.
Plush products are happy and positive. This product does not feel like that.
The Walking Dead is a massive success in Australia and with episode one airing in the US 24 hours ago I bet it’s already been downloaded many times in Australia. If you stock Empire TV magazine, leverage interest in this show by making sure the full cover of the latest issue is on show where it will drive impulse purchases.