With commercial advertising being out of the reach of many newsagents I thought it worth sharing this cool idea I saw in Hong Kong at the gift fair – suitcases with sign writing being walked around.
I could see this working at local events with family members in uniform pulling the suitcases around.
I could also see something similar being done with sports clubs for kit and the like.
Of the76 respondents to my Newsagents Confidence Survey over the weekend, 60% indicated their confidence has decreased this year and 67.11% said the confidence of their customers had decreased this year.
Click here to access the full survey results.
What I found interesting in the results is that 26.32 of responders are either very confident or somewhat confident about business right now. That’s a good base off of which to build greater confidence in the newsagency channel. The 27.65% who feel average confidence is okay as well.
The other aspect of the survey is the gap – between very confident and not confident at all.
Confidence can be driven by many factors including noise coming at us from all sorts of directions. The real indicator of confidence ought to be how our businesses are doing and this is often a function of the investment we make – not as much money as attention.
The confidence of our customers can be boosted by us presenting a more confident and optimistic business. This comes back to how our business looks and feels.
I’m happy with the profile published by Stationery News recently. It accurately reflects my views on stationery and opportunities we have. For me, the key quote is:
Newsagents have control over stationery – what they range, how it is displayed, how it is priced and how it is promoted yet they all to often do not embrace these opportunities.
Our success or otherwise with stationery depends on us. reading the article again is a reminder that we can do more with this core department.
Tatts Group has announced that from June 30 7-eleven stores will no longer be selling their products:
By mutual agreement, from Monday 30 June 2014, Tatts products will not be available fro purchase from Tatts Quick Outlets which are located in 7-Eleven stores.
This change has followed an assessment of the viability of the Tatts Quick model, which sells a reduced product offering, as a distribution channel for Tatts products.
This is great news for newsagents and other lottery retailers – a reason to promote Tatts products and your business as the go to retailer for these.
This photo shows a window display in a Bridge Road Richmond fashion business – promoting home delivery. They’re encouraging you to go online, order clothes and they deliver them.
This is a smart, proactive and relevant fashion business.
Not only is the home delivery idea very cool, their promotion of it using a simple blackboard placed in the window is eye-catching.
I think newsagents could copy this approach – in terms of promoting home delivery of anything you ell as well as promoting it in such a low cost yet impactful way.
Delivery was at the heart of our channel’s start up yet we’ve retreated from that. Have we given up a service that is more relevant today than ever?
We’re supporting the Adrenalyn World Cup cards in response to the support in social media of newsagents as the exclusive retailers for the cards. We have the cards at the counter and are tapping into social media activity through our own activity.
We’re card specialists in newsagencies so it’s natural that we have a range of cards available for International Father’s Day. It is small seasons like this that define us – they show us off as the destination retail businesses for all greeting card occasions.
Following up comments here yesterday I thought I’d put up a photo of Woman’s Day and New Idea together. While the yellow mastheads look similar the rest of the respective covers look different.
I was kind of surprised to see the article in The Age reporting warm weather is affecting sales. While I understand the impact weather has on fashion, I didn’t expect much impact elsewhere, especially not in the newsagency channel.
What do others think?
Click here to take a 4-question survey on your confidence levels and those of your customers: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HN7RKLS
This photo shows how we are using a $4.00 hair straightener stand to place Hallmark Itty Bittys with cards in our card department.
We first started using a hair straightener stand to promote plush with cards six weeks ago. It’s won incremental business for us. When we got the new Itty Bitty line we put a second hair straightener stand in place – the photo shows the result.
Every card purchase is an add-on sales opportunity. We have to be engaged, smart and innovative to make more from these opportunities.
The beauty of the stand is that you can see if someone has purchased from it. It’s a great feeling.
The stand reaching out from the card display also helps gets the cards noticed more. I think this is a factor in excellent growth in card sales.
As I mentioned in my post yesterday on product placement, we need to stop the compartmentalised approach to our newsagency businesses.
The latest issue of InStyle is selling out in part due to the excellent gift with purchase – the CAMILLA iPad case and clutch – and in part due to the marketing email sent by Nexus to our customers promoting this very special offer. Email is a very effective tool for promoting offers like this to shoppers.
We have given the launch of Everyday Gourmet excellent positioning with food titles to leverage the TV exposure for the show and accompanying title. I expect this to perform as well as Good Chef Bad Chef. My advice is don’t early return.
Click here to take a 4-question survey on your confidence levels and those of your customers: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HN7RKLS
Before you can promote a product you need to place it in the right location in your shop. Put it in the wrong place and a good product will fail. Put a mediocre product in the best location and it may well succeed.
Placement is everything in a retail business jet as the location of the shop itself is everything.
The cliche of location location location is true inside the business.
The traditional newsagency was compartmentalised and rarely did products get placed outside the department. Stationery was always in stationery, cards were always in cards and so on. This is old school. It is not relevant to what a newsagency should be today – unless you want to achieve the old gross profit percentages of between 28% and 32%. Those numbers are not sustainable for a newsagency so I hope you don’t want to run your business a way that maintains your performance in that sub-par band.
The most successful gift shops I have seen provide a treasure hunt type experience where browsers are lured further into the store. The key to success for this approach is product placement.
When I talk about product placement I am talking about where you place products in-store, what they are next to … for so that displays as that’s visual merchandising. It is important to think carefully about product placement and change what you have done as you observe shopper interaction.
Think about who is likely to purchase the products you are placing and why. Be sure to place these products next to or with products that speak to the same shopper and near to other categories of products these shoppers will purchase. The most obvious is placing wedding related products near wedding greeting cards. Another is placing toys and kids gifts near cards for young kids and magazines for young kids.
My tip for thinking about who will purchase a product is to look at it, touch it, feel it, sniff it (if appropriate) and read up about it. The more you know about a product the more you will know who the customer could be.
There is money to be made getting this right. Think of the time you invest as improving the return on your inventory investment. This task of product placement is not something to delegate to someone who is untrained and does not understand the importance to the business of getting it right.
Every product we place on the shop floor or display on shelves needs to be placed in its location deliberately and with careful thought – not placed in a department as that is old-school retail. Look at your space by who is shopping and why and keep moving products until you have a clearly articulated story that will appeal to your customers as they move through your shop.
While we do have some departments that need anchor space: magazines, core stationery, lotteries … there is much today;s newsagency can play with in terms of placement. That’s my suggestion today – look at product placement in your newsagency through fresh eyes. Challenge convention. Place products together that speak to the same shopper.
Winter is often the slowest of the four seasons in retail … make it one of the best by making your shop warm. Dress your window in warm colours, feature warming products – warming physically and or for the soul – play your mix of warm music, offer warm soup or at least coffee and tea as a treat and, if you have the right facilities, why not fresh warm food like cookies or cake?
While some of these ideas will take time and could only be done on certain days, others such as the window and product placement could be season long with changes to keep it fresh.
Push back on winter being cold and dreary – make your shop appealing and comforting through the season. Customers will remember you for proving this.
StKilda is the cover story in the latest issue of Time Out Melbourne and that’s a terrific reason for Victorian newsagents especially to feature this issue of the magazine outside the usual location. I had one customer today comment that it could be a good gift for a friend overseas who they want to get visiting here. I like that idea!
We have The Saturday Paper settled in between our two major dailies. Customers still comment – usually that it’s good to see a new newspaper launch. We promote it through the week given the content that will appeal beyond the 24 hours news cycle.
I’ve put together a quick four-question survey on newsagent and shopper confidence. With the shopper confidence survey results earlier this week I got to wondering where newsagents and their customers rate. I think it’s a useful health check for us to think about own own confidence levels re business and those of our customers. Click here to take the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HN7RKLS
I’ll publish the full results here in a few days.
Foreign language newspapers are good for newsagents. Their customers are loyal and their unit sales are holding up better than their English language counterparts in most places in Australia. They are space efficient and often have a less demanding shelf life than the traditional daily.
Foreign language newspaper customers are usually happier in my experience. That’s my perception at least. I put it down to them being happy that they are about to get their fix of news and stories in their native tongue and that makes them feel good.
While some customers buy only the newspaper, plenty buy other products at different time. The key is they are regular customers and we can bank on them. They are not getting their newspaper one day from us and the next from a petrol outlet and the next from a supermarket. Newsagents own foreign language newspaper customers and they love us for it!
I love seeing a terrific range of foreign language titles in a newsagency. One I saw earlier this week had fifteen titles. It warms my heart because it is a selection of product so unique to us. We offer a service customers love, something our competitors don’t touch.
In fact, I wish it was easier to get even more foreign language newspapers.
Foreign language newspapers are a reminder to newsagents of what we stand for and that there are opportunities for commercially valuable specialisation for us.
The latest issue of National Geographic is one promoting outside the usual location. The cover story on food has a wide appeal. It could sell from next to women;s weekly magazines, at the counter or with newspapers. I suggest you check where your copy is and maybe give it a second location for the next week.
Newsagency software company POS Solutions has published concerns at their company blog about Network Services invoices and a recent meeting involving Network and the ANF: over the problem with network invoices. The post goes on to explain the concerns they have:
I am not sure what happened maybe the ANF team were ambushed so they were not briefed in advance on the issue. Anyway as a result the ANF have announced they have a solution, but it does not work.
That is why so many people are complaining.
The main problem is that network’s NEW system is a major set backwards for newsagents processing magazines and despite many complaints by almost everyone in the industry, little has been done to fix it.
Note when I say NEW we are talking over fours years, this is how long the problem been going on.
My own experience does not match that being complained about by POS. The changes by Network to item sequence and moving from multiple invoices to one invoice were first implemented in Victoria years ago. I and many newsagents I know adjusted in-store processes and soon adapted to the changes.
While there is a change to digest, it is not a big deal in my view. Printing magazine labels on A4 sheets makes it easier to find labels for titles. I suspect that labels on a roll might be more challenging.
Using the Network supplied early file, printing alphabetically makes it simple to match labels and title. Using the later file from Network it is sequenced as close as possible to the bundled sequence – so no issue there.
Having one invoice makes account reconciliation much easier.
Network went into this change years ago through a process of full consultation. All stakeholders had an opportunity to be heard. The first releases in NSW and VIC led to adjustments following feedback from newsagents and software companies.
It is frustrating to see time being spent on such a non issue. I can’t see any reason for the ANF and Network to have met to discuss this – given the prior consultation and the years of happy use.
The only real issue I am aware of is where in some remote areas newsagents are invoiced for stock to be received at a later date. This is the one thing that I see network needing to resolve.
I was trawling Twitter last night and found a recording of a recent speech by respected economist Richard Dennis speaking at a forum on Tasmanian forestry. I was surprised when he said that there are more people working in Tasmanian newsagencies than in forestry. He then notes that he likes newsagents and that they are a strong poddy in Tasmania.
It’s a fascinating short speech that provides useful background on the debate on forestry in Tasmania and a couple of n=good asides about newsagents.
The first page of the latest Discount Voucher Report I have run for my newsagency shows that 28% of vouchers issued between February 1 and May 16 this year were redeemed. Of these, 18% were redeemed the day of issue, 40% redeemed between days two and seven and 42% redeemed more than seven days.
We have been running this program for fifteen months. It took between three and six months to really settle into the business fro the over the counter promotion through to measurable shopper awareness. Now, it is a considerable traffic driver and shopper engager.
A check of reports by other businesses and business consultants online and at business media sites indicates that the 28% redemption is at the high end. We know from our sales data, especially for magazines, cards and plush we are seeing discount voucher driven specific engagement.
I look at this data monthly as it has become a key measure of shopper engagement. It guides business decisions I make such as tweaking the loyalty program settings as well as encouraging team members by showing the positive impact of what they are doing.
Click on the image to see the detail. This is the first page of a report detailing all engagement. I use other reports for more detailed shopper trail analysis.
While I appreciate suppliers promoting brand-based loyalty offers in our businesses, I prefer the program I offer as it promotes my business and this is what matters most to me.
What we are doing in this business is easy for anyone to do. Any computer software should be able to offer you something like this including the reports. It’s much easier than getting cards made and having customers sign up for a program that may not be relevant to them given how often they can shop your business.
We are testing interest in the Monopoly brand with a selection of Monopoly themed gifts as one of several new brand stories for Winter. With Monopoly being a winter rainy day game for many we figured this is a good time of the year to promote this brand.
We have the range displayed adjacent to cards – promoting it as a gift with card opportunity.