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

Jamie’s cheap plush @ Woolworths

jamiescheapplushAs part of the Jamie’s garden feature at Woolworths is this range of cheap plush being pitched near checkout counters. This plush is of the same quality as $3.00 plush items I have seen in in deep discount stores. At Woolworths it’s priced at $5.00. To me, the price seems high for the quality of what you get.

These gripes from a retail competitor aside, it’s a very clever and well thought out integrated campaign from Woolworths. They have a world renowned celebrity chef running a healthy eating campaign that has plants, plush, books and food being promoted. It’s this broad base across multiple departments that makes it an interesting campaign to watch. Very clever by Woolworths.

As for the plush, a couple of stands I looked at were almost empty so I guess people are buying these things.

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Competition

Another retail theft

crookretailThe shop I mentioned a few weeks ago as having experienced a violent break in experienced another break in at the weekend.

If there can be such a thing this was a good theft. Seriously, a good theft.

At 5:30am, the lone burglar broke in through the front door, wandered around the shop a bit, pocketed two products and, after seeing there was no cash around, left – without doing any permanent damage.

The security system picked up some excellent face shops. I can see his defence – alcohol affected and therefore of diminished responsibility.

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theft

Sunday newsagency management tip: run your newsagency to afford your replacement

BEFORE YOU SCROLL ON: This is the type of blog post here that attracts little comment, few likes and little attention yet it goes to the heart of what hundreds if not thousands of newsagents need to do in their businesses today. This like all the other Sunday tips is a challenge.

If you want to sell your newsagency it will need to generate sufficient net profit to pay for someone to work the hours you work in the business. If your businesses is not generating sufficient to profit to pay for your hours and deliver a profit it will be of less interest to prospective purchasers.

I understand this suggestion will frustrate and or challenge newsagents who today cannot draw even a basic wage in return for their time. If you do want to sell at some stage you will need to address this.

Newsagents have more capacity to improve net profit than they often think.

The three top areas on which to focus to improve the money you make in your newsagency: overall business gross profit, average shopper visit spend and frequency of shopper return. Focus on these and you will improve the profitability of your newsagency.

You improve gross profit by working on the price of what you sell (for products where you have price control) and the range of products you offer. You improve shopper visit spend, basket size, with more active shop floor management, better displays and a better range of products. You bring shoppers back more often with a loyalty program attuned to the needs of your shoppers.

If your newsagency today is not paying you a reasonable wage for your time, you need to act with urgency to address this. It is unacceptable to blame others. It’s your business. You decide what you sell, how it is displayed, how it is priced and how your customers experience the business.

I’ve seen newsagents realise this and reenergize their focus on their business with success. I have seen newsagents add ten percentage points of gross profit to their business and more. It starts with the decision to take control.

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Management tip

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: give shoppers something to play with

sandsellsAlways have something at the front of your newsagency, at your entrance or just inside the front door if you are on the high street, for people to play with.

The right product to play with will attract new shoppers or people who, like kids, bring shoppers.

This product does not need to be something you traditionally sell but it needs to attract shoppers who will purchase products you traditionally sell.

For us, recently, the right product has been kinetic sand. Like many newsagents, we have sold many packs of sand, thousands of dollars worth, in the last few months. More than half has been purchased by people who never shopped with us or were infrequent shoppers.

The sand attracted them because they could play with it. Most who played purchased. Many who purchased sand purchased cards, magazines and other products.

The sand was a very effective marketing tool for us.

It’s a policy we have – always have something at the front of the newsagency facing into the mall that shoppers can play with.

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marketing

Nude Pink cover shot helps drive Who sales

whopinkThe nude photo of Pink on the cover of Who magazine is driving shopper interest in Australia and gaining media attention overseas. This is a magazine where the full cover needs to be displayed to get the full impact of the stunning artistic cover shot. Pink remains a hot performer in Australia – she’ll help us sell more copies of Who.

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magazines

Any other newsagents missing the Spectrum from The Age

I heard from a newsagent today who is missing the Spectrum part (part 2) of The Saturday Age for three quarters of his supply. There other newsagent in town received full stock – putting this newsagent at a disadvantage with will surely cost sales.

Has anyone else experienced this today? It is poor Fairfax customer service that it is not easy for newsagents to get issues like this handled on the weekend.

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Newspapers

Excellent visual merchandising of cushions

couchVMI saw this display of cushions at the Gibson / Unity showroom in Melbourne earlier this week. While the cushions themselves are impressive and make a perfect gift offer for a newsagency, the display itself was even more stunning. Using a couch as the ‘stand’ is perfect. It’s the type of visual merchandising that is perfect for this item and perfect for a newsagency: casual, fun and visually impactful.

How we display what we sell is as important is the products we offer.  Suppliers who offer visual merchandising inspiration – like on show at Gibson / Unity right now – are more valuable for us as more newsagents transition from the traditional newsagency offer to something more current.

While the space taken by the couch could be a challenge for some newsagents, I could see a reasonable impact being achieved with a chair or two as the ‘stand’ for the cushions – using the couch idea but finessing it to the space available.

Some products work better when not placed on regular shelves. 

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visual merchandising

Selling the visual merchandising fixture

fixturesaleWe purchased this wire frame of a female torso for a display we are creating in-store and another retailer saw it and purchased it at a nice margin. It’s cool when this happens, and surprising. It’s a reminder to not underestimate what we can sell in our businesses.

A newsagency selling a wire female torso – who’d have thought!

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visual merchandising

No room for some of these Bauer discount packs

bauerbagsspaceWe have no spare pocket for the discount pack of Cosmopolitan so we have the discount pack at the back of a pocket with the single copies of Cosmopolitan. We try and find space but sometimes there is no spare pocket. Rather than taking space from another title our view is that the discount pack has to be in the pocket of the Bauer title. I’d prefer to not get these.

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magazines

FIFA World Cup title too late

latefifamagThis Official Match Program for the FIFA World Cup arrived in-store on Thursday, just hours before the first game. Too late to be of any interest to football fans who had already spent up on the terrific range of other World Cup titles. I don’t know where the blame lies for such later delivery but the publisher should expect considerable returns.

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magazines

Newsagents: beware ink buying scams

Dynamic Supplies has shared this timely warning of an ink buying scam:

NOTIFICATION OF SCAM EMAILS

We would like to bring to your attention scam emails that have been transmitted to distributors, resellers and the like attempting to purchase product.

Below are some specifics to look out for:

– Request for procuring genuine HP product.

– No contact details are provided (i.e. phone numbers).

– Email addresses are typically from a hotmail or yahoo webmail provider.

– Unauthorized credit cards are used for payment. Quite often, more than one credit card number is supplied until the transaction is approved.

– Some credit cards get approved stating they have sufficient funds, but within a couple of days the money is withdrawn and the bank informs you that the transaction is indeed fraudulent.

– The order value fluctuates between $2,000 to $6,000.

– Delivery requests are always to a freight forwarder who have no prior knowledge of the order.

A typical example:

—–Original Message—–
From: Dr Richard Hudson [mailto:supplieshudson@yahoo.com]
Sent: 21 September 2006 09:37
To: QLDSales
Subject: Supplies

Dear Sirs
I would like to request for the unit prices of the
following underspecified OEM cartridges;

(1)HP INKJET CARTRIDGE # 78D
(2)HP INKJET CARTRIDGE # 28A
(3)HP TONER CARTRIDGE # 29X

I would like your goodselves to send me detailed
information as to the prices and forms of payments
accepted.

Your earliest response will be highly solicited.

Thank You,

Dr Richard Hudson
PO Box 374,
St Marys NSW 2760
AUSTRALIA

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Newsagency challenges

A good free-standing magazine fixture

magsfixtureHere’s another magazine fixture I saw recently in a transit newsagency. This is a sturdy free standing unit with pockets that hold a good amount of stock.

I like that this stand is a space-efficient way of displaying magazines away from the magazine department.  This is often a better way of driving sales than a billboard-like display that publishers tend to prefer.

Click on the image for a larger version.

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magazines

Who helps new newsagents?

I heard a story about a young couple who decided to open a new newsagency in an area already well served. After they sorted out a lease they next met with a rep from a major supplier to our channel. This rep signed them up to take on their products and offered to help them get the business up and running.

The rep connected these green newsagents with some service providers who had no experience with newsagency businesses. The service providers delivered  sub-standard products and services for a price considerably higher than originally promised.

The rep failed to provide advice essential to the opening of the new business. The business did not have some core newsagency basics right from the outset.

A while back I heard a story of someone planning to open a newsagency in a country town already served with a newsagency. The local newsagent offered all sorts of help to their prospective new competitor – genuine help with suppliers and other trusted industry connections. The prospective new newsagent ignored much of the advice and is doing it tough as a result.

Two very different stories. One about a young couple who needed better advice and connections they could trust and another about a new newsagent who was offered excellent advice and ignored it.

Back in the days of regulation (pre 1999) it was easier to ensure the right help was given to new newsagents thanks to the firm control exerted by newspaper publishers. In today’s unregulated and more competitive marketplace support for an of new newsagents is rarer.

The first story suggests that there is a role to play, maybe by associations, where a new newsagent not affiliated with any of the groups is provided start up assistance services they can trust. Suppliers with a vested interest in successful start ups could financial support such a service. The challenge is that in a free and competitive marketplace, newsagents like in the second story could reject a good offer of help.

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Newsagency management

A different approach to flat stack display of magazines

magsasianflatstackCheck out the photo for a magazine display unit I saw in Hong Kong a few weeks ago. I meant to post this at the time and found it again last might when cleaning up photos. Notice their approach to the flat stack of bulk titles on the floor.

I like that they use an acrylic fixture to hold the magazines in place as this presents the product more professionally. I also like that it allows a higher stack without any chance of it being knocked over – this is essential in the small-format high-volume trances stores where I noticed this approach to flat stack magazines.

With many newsagents reconfiguring their magazine space I’m taking more notice of what other retailers do and will post more photos here of what I find interesting. I hope it helps.

Click on the photo for a bigger version.

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magazines

Here’s a gift with purchase that works a treat

pfgwpEvery time there is a book bagged with People’s Friend sales lift. My experience is that every gift places with People’s Friend lifts sales. I mention this because of discussion here recently about the value of gifts with magazines. Sure the do not work 100% of the time but them they do, like with People’s Friend and current Women’s Health and Prevention – as I mentioned Wednesday – they work a treat.

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magazines

Learning from excellent newsagent retailers

It’s been a privilege over the last couple of weeks to meet and learn from some exceptional retail newsagents. Yesterday, newsagents shared stories that demonstrated the value of knowing about what you sell.

  1. One newsagent had heard from several customers about how good the Ravensberger jigsaw puzzles were so much that they decided to take one home and do it. What they learned along the way about these much-loved quality puzzles now plays into how they can help sell them in the newsagency. Jigsaw puzzle customers can be passionate. Talking from personal experience and sharing the passion helps drive the sale. On hearing the story another newsagent shared the idea of sorting puzzle pieces an another product available for doing that – extending the opportunity from selling puzzles.
  2. Another newsagent shared a story about a kinetic sand and how it was being recommended by a local speech pathologists as something that would assist and another shared a story about how kinetic sand was developed specifically for use by kids with special needs and another story about how local therapists recommend it. In my own case I know of a shopper buying the sand to help with arthritis. While some newsagents see kinetic sand as a product that sells, others, thanks to customer interaction, know they are selling a product that does good – and that makes us feel good.

There is no doubt that the more we know about what we sell the better we are at selling it. In some cases, this knowledge can help beyond the sales themselves, we can touch lives for the better and that’s a wonderful feeling.

Big businesses we compete with would stubble to match newsagents for shop flow customer engagement. This is a strength we can play more to.

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Management tip

Terrific World Cup bounce

fifacardsThe extra traffic and sales that have come our way because of the World Cup have been excellent. From these card packs to the magazines new customers have been terrific to see and serve. We do our best to give these new customers a reason to look around and or come back again – otherwise the single visit is not worth as much.

Too often with a major opportunity like the World Cup retailers focus too much on that opportunity and not enough on how to leverage the new traffic bounce beyond the event itself.

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Newsagency management

Another magazine cover story on sugar

masghealthyfoodFurther to my post on the weekend about the terrific cover story in The Monthly about sugar, the latest healthy Food also has a cover story on sugar. This is a rare and good opportunity to put these two magazines next to each other. Sugar is the in the news and we can increase sales because of this.

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magazines

Woolworths exclusive magazine promotion

ww-magdispCheck out the stand pitching an Exclusive competition being run in Woolworths supermarkets by Bauer at the moment.

The Woolworths in Sydney where I first saw the stand had two of these in their magazine department and a smaller stand elsewhere in the store.

Customers need purchase one title to enter. More than $100,000 worth of prizes are on offer.

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Competition

Does WH Smith plan to expand in Australia beyond Wild Cards and Gifts?

In March this year a rumour was put to me that WH Smith had purchased a newsagency related business in Australia. I reported the rumour to one of the owners of the Australian business. They denied it and that was the end of it as far as I was concerned.

A couple of weeks ago, I was told another rumour about WH Smith acquiring a local newsagency related business. This, too, was denied.

Last week, yet another rumour about WH Smith acquiring yet another newsagency related business.

Either many people are jumping at shadows or there will soon be an announcement to put meat on the bones of the rumours. That the name WH Smith is being spoken of so much in newsagent and newsagency supplier circles speaks to the interest and / or fear we have here of this large UK business.

The speculation is heightened by the company not saying much on the back of their swift and unexpected purchase of the local Wild business.

My view is that WH Smith is not a small or medium-sized operator. Their model relies on a mass network. In the UK it is transit and high street businesses. In Australia it is hospital related retail, transit retail and a mid-size gift franchise group. What they have today feels, to me, incomplete. I am expecting news about WH Smith in Australia – I am not sure when and I am not sure what, specifically, the news will be but I am expecting news.

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Newsagency challenges
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