We have ensured customers see the full Jamie Oliver cover for the current issue of English Woman’s Weekly as this is what will drive impulse business for us. If you leave this issue in a usual magazine pocket you are less likely to achieve impulse purchases. I obsess take notice of covers as they are an important factor in driving magazine revenue growth.
We have one copy of the current issue of Woman & Home left thanks to the Hillary Clinton cover. I am certain interest in her has been the driver of this excellent result – demonstrating the value of a strong cover to drive incremental sales. We drove the success through prime position placement and with the full cover on show. Yes, we can grow magazine sales.
With shopping malls and the high street to be empty from just after lunchtime today as almost all of Victoria and plenty of Australia turns to the AFL Grand Final, it’s a terrific opportunity to work on your shop floor – relocating products, creating new displays, resetting your business.
Take a moment this morning and create a plan for the few hours or quieter than usual time you have this afternoon. Make it count.
The name of the product screams: STABBING MAN WITH BLOOD CLOTH. A few weeks ago I thought this was pretty cool. Today, with the higher terror alert and the recent tragedy in Endeavour Hills I wonder about the name of the product and whether it has a meaning that does not work today as it might have a few weeks ago.
No offence is meant by the product name but the news of the day could impact that and invite offence and this concerns me.
I’m not taking it off the shelves or hiding it from display. In fact, right now it is a feature in the Halloween display. I guess I am raising it here to see what others think about the product name. Personally, I have no issue whatsoever but I would not want to unreasonably offend someone touched by recent events.
I’m thrilled with the sales of the My Little Pony products we have got in. They are appealing to a different shopper than the other plush we have in store – including the Bronies I wrote about almost a year ago … a non-traditional plush shopper.
We have them on the lease line – to attract traffic in this business school holidays season … and they are doing just that. I wasn’t sure, I thought the current interest may be fading. That does not appear to be the case.
The good news is the traffic they are generating leads into sales of other items.
It is a challenge for card companies advertising their cards in industry journals. Cut through is difficult promoting products that often need to be see in person to be appreciated.
Card company is Spirit cleverly using their irreverent cards in an ad in the latest Greetings and Gifts magazine with excellent effect. Their ad gives us the can they really say that? thought by showing off what makes their humour range different. Good on them – their cards sell well and their spinner attracts people looking for some entertainment.
In a retail business earlier this week I was offered a discount of $5.00 off my next purchase and subject to a charge of 3% for using a credit card for payment. My purchase was $165.00 as it happens. the credit card surcharge was $4.95.
The discount off my next purchase was funded by the store – it was not a brand related offer.
As a shopper, the message I received was confused. It certainly did not encourage me to consider returning to the store.
If you have a surcharge applied based on method of payment, think abut this carefully in the context of any loyalty offer you make at the counter as you could be knocking the good out with the bad. Your messaging needs to be carefully considered.
The moment people at The Age discovered they had incorrectly identified a teenage boy in a photo on the front page of yesterday’s newspaper as a terror suspect they should have immediately recalled every copy from sale.
It is appalling the publisher allowed this dangerous and mistaken identification to circulate a moment longer.
The coverage of the story in The Age today is inadequate.
I love the use of Vine being made by the publisher of Empire magazine. Check out the Vine video – 6 seconds – they have done for the latest issue of this terrific magazine.
Vine is a brilliant platform for this type of social media promotion.
Their tweet mentions newsagents:
Empire’s #Interstellar issue is finally here, both in newsagents and on iPad and Android. https://vine.co/v/OZzbzFIZZBO
With selfies so much in the news, newsagents have had an opportunity. Earlier this week News Corp. ran a story about using a Selfie Stick for this. Newsagents have had access for some time. I know newsXpress has been promoting it to members. The product in the photo is from newsagency supplier Last Diary Company – all newsagents have access to this.
If you are thinking about selling this selfie stick you are coming to it late in the day. You need to work on being more engaged with trends through which you can drive more traffic and sales.
This is what proactive newsagents are doing – responding to trends through which they can broaden the relevance and appeal of their business.
Yes, it’s hard work being ever-vigilant looking for trends and opportunities. But it’s part of what being a retailer today is all about. Thanks to social media and mobile technology our world is moving faster than ever and the time gap for leveraging trend opportunities is shorter.
We need to be connected and aware of trends and linked with others who can guide us on trends. There is money to be made by being an early adopter. This Selfie Stick is a good example.
Australia Post has For Arts Sake cards at 50% off up until October. The offer excludes Christmas cards and Father’s Day cards when they had them out. I am not sure who is funding this discount. regardless, it is disappointing that government owned and protected retail businesses are so aggressively taking sales from small business newsagencies.
This is poor small business policy in action.
Yes, I get that Australia Post is run at arm’s length from the government. however, politicians control the act under which this massive retail network operates, they control how far Australia Post encroaches on our small businesses.
If I had my way, Australia Post would divest itself of all corporate stores with small business newsagents having first right of refusal on acquisition.
This photo reflects the value value of detail in visual merchandising. In addition to careful product selection, thoughtful adjacencies and compelling displays, you need to entertain and surprise when shoppers are close to a display. That’s what is happening with this Halloween display.
Yesterday, I was thrilled when a kid was scared when he saw the spider. He thought it was real. That’s just what we wanted.
We get a kick out of seeing people surprised and scared at the display. We love the sales that result.
Our nearby competitors in the Halloween space don’t engage with the season in this theatrical way. More fool them for not having fun with this season.
The souvenir edition of the AFL Grand Final Record looks stunning. We have it with sports titles, at the counter and next to our newspapers. I love their attention to detail on the cover, it stands out well – especially in this placement where one cover looks like a reflection of the other.
For a one-shot title, the this grand final edition of the AFL Record is important for us. Many copies are purchased on impulse – adding welcome margin dollars to a purchase.
We have been promoting this week’s Woman’s Day with this placement above our weekly magazines in addition to the usual stock on the shelves. It’s a call out to connect with theTV commercial running for this issue.
The acrylic with the title has been placed so that it is seen by people as they leave the aisle – small details like this are important.
While this video was created as part of newsXpress newsagency marketing group campaign, I’m sharing it here because it captures some of the excitement of participating in a newsagency conference.
The video was shot on the Gold Coast two weeks ago when more than 100 newsagents and 40 suppliers came together to work on their businesses for a day of conference sessions and a day looking at other retailers.
A good newsagency conference can excite and reenergise you and help bring your goals into focus.
newsXpress is not the only group offering these types of opportunities.
The Guardian has published a report on WH Smith which includes analysis from Barclays. Included is this about their international business:
For International, we estimate that the division will generate around £2m of earnings in 2014. However, with 118 stores now open we believe that earnings will grow to £9m by 2017 as store productivity builds and 30-40 new stores are added each year.
There continues to be plenty of chatter here in Australia that WH Smith will soon have more acquisitions under its belt.
For months now we have been selling meerkats from several suppliers as part of a campaign to leverage the popular meerkat TV commercials that have been running for several years. People are buying the meerkat figurines and plush solely because of the TV commercials.
Our most successful location has been the counter – yes, people will spend $20 and more on an impulse item like this if it’s something they like.
I was drawn to the colourful display of shredders at Officeworks in Sydney on the weekend. This is an excellent example of driving sales of stationery items based on fashion over function.
Someone who loves purple as their colour is more likely to purchase the purple shredder because it is purple than because of the specifications of the device.
Colour is an excellent way to sell office products as Smiggle proves.
The Walking Dead 20515 calendar is a perfect example of the type of calendars newsagents who want to drive traffic and drive impulse purchases should stock.
We can choose products like this and negotiate terms that are 50% and more better than the calendars we get through magazine distributors.
The difference between seeking out calendars like this and dealing with what is sent by magazine distributors is the difference between being an engaged retailer and a victim agent.
A small investment of time and money in calendars you choose can pay excellent rewards not only from the calendars but also from other products shoppers attracted by the calendars purchase.
Here is how we launched into Halloween 2014 las week:
This was done in time for the start of school holidays.
A few newsagents I have spoken with recently have said that Halloween is not a big season, not big enough for them to sell halloween products. My own experience is different. It’s bigger than some more traditional seasons for us. More fun too. The value of Halloween is reinforced with the cover story in Time Out magazine. Other titles will embrace the season in coming weeks.
The Gympie Times was the only newspaper with a positive result in the June audit results – posting .56% year on year growth and while not much growth off a circa. base of 3,776 copies, being the only paper to record growth in the audit it’s notable. They are currently pushing sales with a seedling offer – free seedlings with the newspaper over a two week period. Good timing and well-targeted to their readers. I hope it’s working.
The margin newsagents make on calendars from magazine distributors are a perfect example of the brokenness of the newsagency magazine distribution model.
Distributors and publishers think they are doing us a favour offering 40% gross profit can delayed billing to January. These terms are out of date, they are unacceptable.
I make 60% from calendars and I don’t pay for my stock until late in January.
What’s more – I choose exactly the calendars I want and I do this based on what I know about what will sell, data accessible through analysing magazine, card and gift sales.
Calendar publishers ought to not participate in a scaling out of calendar stock to newsagents who do not want this sub-standard margin product.
While I appreciate some newsagents will accept calendars through magazine distributors because they know no better, the current supply model is wrong and out of date.
Calendars are an excellent sales opportunity. In my experience, as a benchmark guide, you should be able to sell calendars worth between 50% and 100% of your monthly magazine sales.
To calendar publishers using magazine distributors I’d say – you need to offer terms that are commercially viable for newsagents. If your own model cannot then stop using our channel as there are other calendar publishers who do partner with us on terms that are mutually respectful and viable.
Some collectors of Beanie Kids like to take their time looking at what we have and we encourage it. Even though space is limited in the shop, we are happy to see someone so devoted that they are kneeling or sitting in front of the stand looking at each Beanie Kid in the extensive range.
The interest of an intense Beanie Kid collector can attract others and drive sales as I saw happen for myself Friday last week.
This girl in the photo was fascinated and another girl noticed and started looking. Soon the two were talking and the first girl was selling her new friend on collecting these Beanie Kids. It was a thrill to see.
Collectible products come in all shapes and sized=s and price points. Each is valuable in its own right if you have a good range and merchandise it how collectors like.
On social media as eel as in paid TV spots, Bauer is actively promoting this week’s Woman’s Day and the free RSPCA trading cards pack. I’ve see a bunch of tweets. Here’s the TVC: