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

Newsagent conference survey results

confsurvey114 people responded to the survey I launched a week ago seeking insights into trade shows and conferences.

Click here to download the survey responses.

Gift fairs organisers will be happy to see the popularity of their events.

Page 6 of the results shows how much newsagents spend attending conferences. The difference reflects the growing differences in newsagency businesses. 8.7% spend nothing while at the other end of the scale 13.16% spend $5,000 a year or more.

With 81.98% of responders noting that they like conferences and trade shows for providing access to new products, it is reasonable to expect a commercial pay-off from attending.

Newsagents clearly want relevant conferences with compelling content and trade shows with commercially valuable product opportunities. Those failing to deliver will suffer from falling and poor attendance.

The newsagency channel has been caught napping with gift fairs and the national toy fair attracting more newsagents in number than the traditional newsagency conferences and trade events.

I hope the survey responses are useful to those working with and for newsagents who organise trade shows.

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Newsagency management

Magazine distributors should not distribute books

returned-bookI was surprised to receive this book with magazines yesterday. We don’t sell books –  not full price titles and not for 25% in gross profit. We need to be able to stop products like this being sent to us without out approval. As it stands we have to pay to send back this stock we don’t want. Some newsagents will look for other ways to strike out at Network for this scale out. This is what all magazine publishers need to understand when wondering about why newsagents early return stock.

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Book retailing

Promoting the the My Kitchen Rules cookbook

mkrpromoWe’re promoting the the My Kitchen Rules cookbook with this aisle end placement as well as placement with food titles and a run for a few days with newspapers.

We are happy to allocate the space based on the extraordinary and enduring success of the brand on TV and in print and the support in the media of this new title.

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magazines

Exceeding customer service creates terrific memories and stories

exceeding-customer-serviceWaiting for your bags at the airport can be a frustrating experience. Often the only information you have is the carousel they will come out on. The wait gives you time to think about your bags being lost – as happened to me at the start of this trip – and other problems.

I flew from Kansas City to Los Angeles with Delta Friday (US time) and had a very different bag experience in LA. I scanned my ticket at the kiosk terminal in the baggage claim area and the resulting screen gave me certainty that my bag was on the flight I was on. Above the kiosk was a sign advising when the bags from the flight would start arriving on the carousel. They were on time.

The ability to get certainty that your bags were on your flight is a leap forward in customer service in baggage handling. The advice of bag arrival time it a leap beyond that. Overall it was the best baggage handling experience I have had and far more than I expected.

My low expectations have been set by mediocre experiences at many airports in Australia and elsewhere.

Giving customers a better experience than they expect leaves them with good memories of your business and wishing others were as good as you.

We have to ask and challenge ourselves – how is the customer service we deliver better than the average newsagency customer service experience.

Each of us in our own businesses can set the benchmark and deliver better customer service than other newsagents. We can be known for something over which we have good control in our businesses.

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Customer Service

Simple approach to promoting lotteries in New York

lottery-fitWhat you can see in the photo is the only promotion of lottery products in this news / convenience retailer I met with in New York. The retailer told me they met all the requirements of their lottery agreement with this placement of a promotional screen in front of the sales terminal. No actual shop fit is required of them. No major signage commitment.  Just what you can see in the photo.

The retailer was shocked when I explained that retailers in Australia were expected to spend anything at all on fixtures for promoting and handling lottery products. In this example they sell around $15,000 in lottery products a week from this terminal.

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Lotteries

Selling magazine subscriptions in-store – with magazines

masgsubsOn the retail tour in the US these last twelve days I have seen several versions of retailers selling magazine sin-store. This is the best and most tech connected – a tablet computer promoting subs in the magazine department and shoppers being encouraged to sign up on the spot. Now, this was in a transit location as were all I have seen. No high street magazine retailer was making a subscription pitch that I could see.

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Uncategorized

Sunday newsagency management tip: genuine customer contact vital

Good morning. No sooner has I stepped across the threshold into an independent card and gift shop and I was greeted with a warm smile and a happy Good Morning.  There was no pressure to say what I was looking for, no pitch of a special deal.

At the counter paying for a couple of items the sales associate said I hope you found what you were looking for – again with a warm smile.

None of this felt fake or forced. It felt like they cared about me and my experience with their business.

While your typical newsagency business has four or more times the foot traffic of the independent card and gift store I am writing about here, we have to find ways to engage in genuine customer contact.

I do understand that the experience is different in the country compared to the city, especially in smaller country towns – people are naturally more friendly and engaged with each other.

Imagine if every person entering newsagency was warmly greeted in one way or another without being over the top and if every person leaving the  was thanked for shopping today or asked if they found what they were looking for. Yes, it would be labour intensive. But executed right, you would have shoppers loving our channel more.

In surveys and when asked at conferences newsagents cite customer service as the most significant point of difference. I wonder if there is a difference between what we think and how we act. I know in my own situation we could do much better on customer interaction. It would require a bigger payroll investment but could / should deliver a bigger return.

If we want customers to remember our businesses we need to provide them with memorable experiences. Genuine and personal customer interaction is a key.

While this sounds like a marketing tip I have tagged it as a management tip as getting customer service right is a management function.

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Management tip

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: show the value of gift wrap

showWrapping paper is a boring sale in many retail businesses. Okay, designs on the paper can look cool – but the product itself in roll or flat form is displayed in a traditional and boring way.

Smart retailers show what can be done with wrapping paper – like showing how many boxes can be wrapped from one roll of Christmas paper or wrapping boxes, using bows and treatments to show how wonderful you can make any gift look with items you sell.

We have an opportunity to bring some theatre to gift wrap and to drive traffic and sales as a result. Consider a stunning window display of your wrap by showing what your customers can do with it.

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marketing

Rupert Murdoch on life, business and print

Rupert Murdoch sat down for an interview with Pattie Sellers of Forbes magazine and media outlets the world over have reported on the Forbes article. The Guardian has a balanced take. The interview also covers print:

Turning to the newspaper business, Sellers asked Murdoch: why keep the loss-making New York Post going? “I don’t know what it lost last year, but I think that in 2012 it lost $40m…

“Advertising has been very difficult. We’re looking at various plans for the Post. We are working very hard on the digital edition.”

Are you suggesting that in the next five years the Post as a print newspaper could go away and digital would be it? “I would be surprised. I’m not saying it’s impossible. I would think it might be quite likely in 10 years.”

What about the Wall Street Journal? Is that likely to exist in print form in 10 years? “I think so. Maybe not in 20. A lot of people are very happy to read their newspaper either on their iPad or — startlingly and faster and faster the figures go up — on their telephone, on their smartphone.

“At the London Times a third of our circulation is on a tablet. And people who read it on their tablet are spending 20% more time than if they’re reading the paper.”

Newsagents relying on newspapers to drive traffic and revenue should take this on board.

Click here to see the full Q&A with Rupert Murdoch.

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newsagency of the future

WH Smith reminds the importance of newsagency space reconfiguration

This quote from the WH Smith interim (six month) report released a couple of days ago speaks to the importance of reconfiguring retail space:

Optimal use of space is a fundamental part of the strategy for High Street, as we look to maximise profitability today in ways that are sustainable for future years. We work our space to maximise return on every metre drop in every store through improving margins, reducing costs and driving third party income opportunities. Each individual store has a specific space reconfiguration twice a year driven by many years worth of detailed space and product elasticity data.

The highlight in the quote is mine. I urge newsagents to take note of this.

Remember, in the UK, where the company has most high street stores, it competes with businesses like newsagencies. This quote and others in the statement speak to how a competitor operates. It’s very relevant for Australian newsagents.

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Newsagency challenges

Odd selection of Easter chocolate in the US

jesuschocI have seen few Easter Eggs in Easter displays in retail in the US despite obesity being a far greater problem here than in Australia. Easter candy is more regular candy repackaged and some marshmallow things called Peeps – not delicious marshmallow.

I have seen plenty of religious chocolate and while Easter is for many a religious season, I don’t understand the desire to eat Jesus chocolate.

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confectionary

Wine with sympathy cards

winecardsIn the card aisle of one drug store – a convenience store on steroids – they have wine in the card aisle. I am guessing the placement near sympathy cards is not intentional. It gave me a laugh.

Good for them pitching wine to card shoppers though.

If we could sell wine, this is the type of display unit I’d like. Slim. Efficient. Easy to place.

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Greeting Cards

Electronic cigarette outpost

ecigoutpThis is one of many outposts selling electronic cigarettes that I have seen in shopping malls this trips. While these products are in drug stores and c-stores where you;d expect, it’s the outpost mall situations that is surprising. Based on the number it must be working.

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Tobacco sales

WH Smith gives a peek into Australian strategy

The interim results announcement from WH Smith yesterday gives us a peak into their Australian strategy. I includes this:

Our international units are performing well and we have invested in additional resources to develop the business and support further growth. We have now won 156 units in international locations including 15 new units announced today: in the International terminal at Bali; Pudong Airport, Shanghai; further stores in Russia; and additional Fresh Plus hospital cafés in Australia. Additionally, we acquired a small cards and gifts franchisor in Australia in January 2014, Wild Cards and Gifts, which has 40 franchisees, enabling us to offer an additional brand to landlords and to develop further our international wholesaling.

To me, this reads like the Wild acquisition is a landlord play – getting a retail real estate footprint in Australia, facilitating their wholesaling operation. The wholesaling comment is interesting since WH Smith hived off its wholesaling division into a separate public company eight or so years ago.

On Wild, if I am reading the financials on page 5 right, the acquisition earnout cost to WH Smith was £2m.

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Newsagency management

Brilliant merchandising of vegetables

asparNow this is a different way to display asparagus and spring onions – standing up on a shelf. They also had broccoli and other vegetables on vertical shelves – very smart and enticing for the shopper.

This is excellent and inspiring visual merchandising – it shows what can be done even with something you thought you might not be able to display.

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visual merchandising

Refreshing Easter in the newsagency

easterrefreshThe workshops  I have been lucky to be part of here in the US this week underscore the importance of keeping the retail offer fresh.  This does not mean keeping displays tidy, no, it means creating fresh displays through a season pitching new opportunities.

In all major seasons here retailers in channels similar to newsagency businesses are encouraged to change their offer every couple of weeks in a reasonably major way.

In my experience this is rare in Australia. So imagine how thrilled I was to receive a photo showing a significantly refreshed easter offer in one of my stores. Regulars or semi regulars will see this as fresh and that will help drive sales.

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Gifts

Sand is a hot item for proactive newsagents

sandThe sand we ordered a while back has been on the shop floor this week and selling very well. I never thought I’d have customers buying a 5kg pack of sand. It’s terrific.

We have the sand in a floor display unit on the lease line – in our kids area. Notice the sand they can play with!

I am thrilled that sand is attracting new shoppers to the newsagency. Some of these shoppers then browse the store and purchase other items.

I’d suggest newsagents get into it but suppliers are out of stock as early adopters spend above expectation.

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Gifts

Memo to accountants and lawyers – News Corp. is not taking control of newspaper distribution runs

Lawyers and Accountants advising on the purchase of a newsagency have a responsibility to ensure that the advice they provide is accurate. It is frustrating hearing one or the other make a statement that is not based in fact.

One accountant recently told a prospective newsagency purchaser that it may not be a good business to buy because News Corp. is taking control of all the newspaper home delivery runs.

This is not true. Newsagents can hand their newspaper home delivery runs if they wish but it would be their choice.

The T2020 project trialled more than a year ago in South East Queensland to facilitate newspaper home delivery territory consolidation did not proceed as trialled.

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newspaper home delivery
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