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

Are you at the Loom Bands party?

loombandsIf you have never heard of Loom Bands or are just considering stocking this product now you’re coming late to a craze than has been hot for months. Kids, especially young girls, love these things. We have been selling them since last year and have struggled to maintain stock – especially when the craze hits a new school. You can tell based on th wave of new shoppers.

If you are coming new to Loom Bands, be careful as interest will wane. You want that to occur when you’re almost out of stock. But, hey, what do I know. I thought YoYos would never come back.

We are stocking expecting to get a few months more out of the craze so by mid year we will reassess our stock plans.

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art supplies

Magazine publishers need to stop using newsagents as warehouses

storagespaceWith the cost of retail space increasing and magazine cover prices not keeping up with this and other costs of business, it’s only natural that newsagents look at operating costs. One cost we could do without is that of storing magazines with a greater than 30 day on-sale period. Once you consider the cost of storing a long shelf life title until their either sell or are returned it is often loss making.

Delayed billing does not address this issue. The only solution is replenishment drops through the on-sale based on sales.

While using newsagency businesses as warehouses works for the publisher, it no longer works for newsagents. The numbers have changed in recent years, our costs have risen far more significantly than margin dollars for some of these titles we are asked to warehouse. This is especially true those in shopping centres with higher occupancy costs and especially for titles where the cover price has not kept up with the CPI and increases in our operating costs.

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magazines

Much interest in UK Mother’s Day?

ukmumWith Mother’s Day in the UK this past Sunday (Mothering Sunday) I am curious about the value of this minor season for Australian newsagents. We had a range of UK cards out and on show and while there was some interest it was not as strong as I have seen in the past. I would love to hear how it went for others compared to previous years.

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Greeting Cards

How long before we see a capital city daily newspaper retreat to weekend publication?

Each of the Melbourne daily newspapers carried full page ads on the weekend promoting Saturday / Sunday home delivery. It leads to the question: How long before we see a capital city daily newspaper retreat to weekend publication?

newspaper-futureThe Age promotion is a pure weekend-only play for the home-delivered print product while offering seven day a week digital access. The price of $12.50 a month for three months is compelling.

I’d expect Fairfax is running this offer because they know it will work based on current subscription, retail sales and readership data. It does not augur well for the Monday to Friday print product.

paper-weekendnewsThe Herald Sun offer is different, it is specifically tied to AFL interest and packages weekend home delivery, seven day digital access as well as access to FOX Sport and Supercoach access. It speaks to a key reason many must buy the newspaper – AFL coverage.

While this is an AFL offer, it highlights the strength of weekend product versus weekday.

While I don’t want to see a capital city daly retreat from six or seven days a week publication, declining sales mean it will happen at some point – at the point where production is no longer viable based on subscription and over the counter sales revenue plus advertising revenue.

Coupled with declining weekday sales is a change in shopper behaviour. In the city more so than in the country newspaper, a high proportion of newspaper purchases have migrated from the newsagency channel to supermarkets and petrol and convenience.

Our channel as a destination for newspapers is as challenged as the products themselves.

We can either sit by and ponder these changes and complain about the publishers focussing on weekends or we can look at our own businesses and our business decisions and challenge ourselves to bring in new traffic for other products. Yes, it’s hard work. It’s also retail.

We alone are responsible for our own future.

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Newspapers

AFL footy cards challenge cash-flow for a micro margin

promostockweightWhile I like the traffic for the AFL foot cards being promoted with the Herald Sun, there needs to be a discussion about billing and margin. The slim margin and the early payment coupled with customers who only want cards challenges the viability.

While you could say it’s up to use to sell something else, it is challenging with customers coming in the the coupon and wanting only the cards. More than a third of them are frustrated at having to shop for the cards and are therefore not in a head space conducive to up-sell.

I’d prefer a model where we are paid a retail margin of 30% or more.

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Newspapers

Promoting The Block Fans + Faves

magsblockWe have been promoting The Block Fans + Faves here at the entrance to the magazine aisle, with weeklies and with home improvement titles. While sales are not what we need, we will keep these three locations at least until Thursday after which we will scale back to the location with weekly magazines.

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magazines

Should we read anything into discounting Yours magazine?

discount-magazines-wdyouI was surprised to see Yours and Woman’s Day bundled together in a discount pack last week. Yours is just a few issues old and should be enjoying a honeymoon period. Also, I thought it was targeting an older demographic than Woman’s Day. This discounting leaves me wondering if we should read anything into the move. For example, is Yours struggling and in need of support from the higher volume Woman’s Day? While we won’t know until the next audit, I can’t see any other reason for discounting a new title so soon after launch. If this is the case and Bauer wants to reach more prospective Yours readers they should engage newsagents and pay us to give sample copies away to people in the target demographic.

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magazines

Sunday newsagency management tip: use your receipt as a powerful marketing and management platform

newsagency-receiptsReceipts are important in retail. In addition to documenting a sale, they remind a shopper of your professionalism and they act as a lure to bring a customer back.

Too many newsagents treat receipts as a cost of business. They either don’t give them out or their receipts are not professional. Receipts should be printed using thermal printers as they are quieter, faster and can produce a more professional marketing message.

I  give out receipts for just about everything except for a single newspaper. Every receipt contains an opportunity, a promotion of something in our business. In recent weeks we have been promoting the Pacific Magazines WIN A CAR competition. Our receipts also include the discount voucher – to bring the shopper back.

We have used receipts to promote cards, magazines, stationery, ink and other categories. Some promotions have worked better than others. We finesse our offer based on shopper response.

Don’t worry about the cost of receipt rolls. Buy them in bulk and they’re not expensive. Shop around.

Your newsagency software should offer flexibility in serving receipt content. This can help you tailor your use of receipts to better serve your business plans.

Receipts offer a structured, consistent and low-cot platform which can help you manage and promote your newsagency. Use it!

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magazines

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: leveraging brands to get more from magazines

magpepEvery week magazines offer us opportunities to earn more than the 25% of the cover price of a title. Investing time in looking at each issue and leveraging opportunities can deliver handsome rewords.

The latest issue of Practical Parenting is a good example. The Peppa Pig DVD gift with purchase makes it an ideal magazine to place with other Peppa Pig items such as plush, activity packs and stationery packs. This off-location placement of the magazine takes a few seconds and it extends the reach of the pitch you can make around the Peppa Pig brand.

The photo shows our placement of Practical Parenting at the top of a Peppa Pig stand. This is on the lease line – facing into the mall.

Using nationally and internationally recognised brands to promote your business – in your window, on the lease line, in flyers, in the local paper – can attract new shoppers to your newsagency. Magazines often offer us opportunities to do this.

Too many newsagents treat magazines as a chore, something to be done without thinking. I see magazines as a vitally important opportunity while at the same time being realistic about the challenges the medium faces.

Look at magazine covers for opportunities to locate elsewhere and to promote with other products leveraging the same brand – like with Practical Parenting and Peppa Pig.

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magazines

To the person taking photos in my newsagency

Ask. Next time you want to take photos of products and displays, ask. Twice yesterday someone, a middle-aged male, walked around my newsagency taking photos. The first time as I approached him he fled. The second time he fled when a team member made eye contact with him.

If I take photos inside another shop I ask and if there is no one in authority to ask I do it openly. This guy was being sneaky, holding his phone camera close to his chest, positioning himself with his back to the counter where he could. He was photographing gift products and displays.

We get plenty of visitors and the majority ask if they can take photos and we agree.

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Ethics

Must read: The Demographic Cliff: How To Survive And Prosper During The Great Deflation Of 2014-2019 by Harry S. Dent

the-demographic-cliff-how-to-survive-and-prosper-during-the-great-deflation-of-2014-2019I’ve just finished reading The Demographic Cliff: How To Survive And Prosper During The Great Deflation Of 2014-2019 by Harry S. Dent.

To take in a book like this you need to trust the author. While Dent has his critics, he has an excellent track record of success in predicting economic  trends. The book itself is heavy with evidence supporting his prediction. It is hard to find a hole in the foundation he lays.

Whether you believe all the data Dent provides or not does not matter to the part of the book that is most relevant to business owners including small business owners like newsagents. In the chapter Business Strategies for the Winter Season, Dent provides wise advice that is relevant to all of us. He lays out what is important for us to focus on, what we must get right in our businesses.  Each step, decision and strategy he proposes can work for us regardless of whether The Great Deflation occurs or not. This is the chapter I copies onto A4 so I could make notes and refer to it over time.

Many times I have written on this blog that we need to run our businesses as if the toughest competitor ever has opened next to our newsagency. It is hard getting in the headspace of a hypothetical situation. In The Demographic Cliff: How To Survive And Prosper During The Great Deflation Of 2014-2019, Dent provides statistics and other evidence as a means for getting into a headspace where we can see a possible / likely future – with a view to acting now to be stronger through the challenges.

If there was a newsagents book club, I’d propose this be our next book for discussion. Anyone in any leadership role with / for newsagents – such as association directors – should read this book.

If you plan to read this book, be sure to purchase an Australian published copy as it contains an introduction written especially for Australians. This was an excellent part of the book.

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Newsagency challenges

Night Owl evolving the convenience store of the future

Convenience World reports the Night Owl convenience store group is refining its model to chase growth as part of a broader push by several c-store operators to expand and refine. The latest Night Owl store reflecting next steps in their future model is in Townsville:

“The concept of the convenience outlet has evolved and customers can find everything from basic groceries to confectionery and snacks and a wide range of ready-made meals,” he said. “The store-of-the-future concept is about providing a one-stop shop for customers’ needs.”

The 162sqm store is open 24 hours and features an extensive foodservice offering including grab-and-go healthy options such as wraps, Turkish breads and toasted sandwiches, and ready-made meal solutions. Over the coming months, the store offer will expand to include innovations such as a ‘Fun Wall’ offering gelato, confectionery and frozen drinks that can be mixed together.

An in-store ‘Owl Café’ with seating overlooking Flinders Street will also open eventually, offering a range of sweet treats such as donuts, cakes and danishes and its own brand of ‘Hooting Good’ coffee.

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Newsagency challenges

ACCC set to authorise VANA to negotiate with Tatts and Intralot

The ACCC announced Thursday that it proposes to authorise VANA to negotiate with Tatts and Intralot on behalf of its members.

The proposed ten year authorisation covers collective negotiations with Tattersall’s Sweeps Pty Ltd (Tatts), Intralot Australia Pty Ltd (Intralot) and any other public lottery provider who may become licensed to operate a public lottery in Victoria in the future.

VANA represents around 460 newsagents in Victoria, many of which are lottery agents selling Tatts and Intralot products. At present, Tatts and Intralot are the only licenced lottery providers in Victoria. Both have exclusive licences to operate until 2016.

“Collective negotiation can allow members of a collective bargaining group to have more effective input into contracts and deliver agreements that are better tailored to their needs,” ACCC Commissioner Jill Walker said.

The ACCC has previously authorised the Lottery Agents Association of Victoria to collectively bargain with Tatts and Intralot on behalf of its members, as well as similar collective bargaining arrangements in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Queensland and Tasmania.

As with these previous authorisations, the ACCC is not proposing to authorise VANA to collective negotiate on issues relating to the impact on existing lottery agents when new lottery agents are proposed, due to concerns that this may raise barriers to entry for new lottery agents.

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Lotteries

We need to look for stationery that sells outside the stationery department

postitbagOne way retailers Smiggle and Typo are driving traffic and sales success with stationery is by pitching stationery outside of the usual approach for pitching stationery. They are doing this through innovative packaging and product selection whereby everyday items look more appealing that much of what newsagents have in their everyday stationery department. They focus on stationery as a fashion more than functional purpose.

I was reminded of the opportunity of pitching stationery in a newsagency outside the stationery department when I met with some folks from 3M yesterday.  Among a terrific range of products (available from GNS) that I saw was this handbag post-it note dispenser. While the majority of newsagents have post-it notes on their shelves, few have this and other fashion and fun post-it note dispensers.

Our narrow buying of stationery, buying as if we were buying for the 1980s and 1990s shopper, misses opportunities for us. Here is 3M, a relatively boring (sorry guys) consumer products firm offering more fashion oriented versions of traditional products that enable us ti pitch stationery as gifts and too few in our channel embrace the opportunity.

Let’s make stationery fun. This starts with us buying better. We can do this by talking more with suppliers and seeking out fun and fashion related stationery products – for seasons and through the year.

Stationery sales are challenged in many newsagencies and we have only ourselves to blame since we do the buying, merchandising and promotion. Let’s stop letting Smiggle, Typo and others win by buying better.

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Newsagency opportunities

Oversupply of Franchising magazine has to be a mistake Network Services

magsfranchisingI feel for the newsagent who had their supply of Franchising magazine bumped from one copy an issue to eleven copies of the latest issue – on the back of zero sales for each of the last eight issues. Click on the image to see for yourself.

I’m sure that this bump from one copy to eleven copies is a mistake by Network Services. The challenge is the cost to the newsagent. The time it will take to resolve, the frustration and, if it was a full copy return, the freight cost.  If it’s a topped return then pity the publisher having their product topped and trashed because of a supply mistake.

With Networking having all the data it needs mistakes like this should not happen. Indeed, this newssgent should not be down to get any stock of this title given its long-term zero sales in this business.

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Magazine oversupply

H&M wraps up Vogue

voguehmWhile the ribbon around Vogue magazine holding a tag promoting the arrival of H&M in Australia is sure to raise awareness of the new store, it will frustrate the many shoppers who want to browse Vogue. Browsing is important to magazine sales – just check out the magazine browsers at any newsagency almost any time of the day.

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magazines

Found! Old Partworks

partworkslostOverseas earlier this week I found a large bookshop with plenty of old issues of partworks including these Treasures of the Earth priced at A$5 a copy. I could have bought up and satisfied some customers seeking back orders.

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partworks

Newspaper publishers should work together to help the category

It is frustrating that Fairfax and News often work against each other in their support of newsagents with collateral and fixtures. Where both company have local capital city dailies they target different shoppers – so there is no reason to block working together.

I’d like to see both publishers invest in a small footprint movable acrylic stand that we could use to place newspapers in different locations.  This week it could be at the front of the newsagency and next week adjacent to the counter.

A stand holding the dailies and room for high volume foreign language titles would help newsagents promote newspapers. It could also provide n alternative to retail only newsagents placing newspapers at the back of the shop as is being done more today.

I say to publishers – get over competing with each other and compete for eyeball attention by investing in something that helps you, newsagents and your advertisers.

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Uncategorized

Newsagency marketing tip: be the local news outlet

This is an old-world approach to driving the relevance of your business. It’s also a repeat with a twist on the idea of a noticeboard in-store that I have written about many times before.

Setup a news-themed noticeboard. Local stories only. Weddings. Passings. Featuring a community group some weeks. Done well, this becomes a living newspaper.

The idea is for you to have a place where interested locals can post and read local content. While local newspapers have dominated this space, their model is changing too and I see an opportunity in some areas for newsagents to engage and be a local news ‘publisher’.

The noticeboard could equally be your Facebook page. The key is that your brand is associated as the source people trust and go to.

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Management tip

A different looking Easter Egg

mseggsCheck out one of the different Easter Eggs I saw yesterday at a Marks & Spencer store. This ‘egg’ is targeted at a younger person, broadening the appeal of the season opportunity in UK retailer Marks & Spencer.  Very clever.

Easter is under-done by some newsagents. It can be a growth season. Cards, gifts, chocolate, plush – it’s a season to push as anyone of any age can be your customer or someone being purchased for by our customer.

The idea of playing outside stereotypical product, as is being done with these headphone eggs, really appeals to me.

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Gifts

Be careful how much you rely on Facebook to promote your business

Sam Biddle, writing at Valleywag, raises questions about the viability of Facebook as a marketing platform for business, saying the company could be about to make businesses pay.

Will Oremus writing for Slate and republished in Australia by Fairfax, picks up on the story and explores further the place of facebook in promoting businesses and others who want to be heard. It all makes for interesting reading, especially if you question the long term role of Facebook in your business marketing plan.

I published my own thoughts about Facebook over a year ago. While I use the platform for business, I am not relying on it.

As with any investment – of time, space or money – do your research, be frugal and cut your losses if it’s not playing out as you need.

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marketing

Newsagency marketing tip: Improving customer service

feedbackGood customer service is facilitated with open communication with customers. A great way to hear what retail customers think is through a feedback book. While a facebook page, Twitter and other online platforms can provide feedback channels, a book in the shop can provide a more immediate opportunity.

A customer feedback book can also give pleasure to the customer and to you. It can develop into a keepsake about your business.

The photo is from a page in a customer feedback book in a coffee shop I was in two days ago: cute and happy drawings. While it’s not necessarily practical feedback, it is useful to the business owners and staff in that this is what a customer left for them.

Whether it is a noticeboard, a whiteboard or a book, giving customers an opportunity for feedback in-store could be a point of difference your customers appreciate while at the same time giving you information to improve your offering.

While many who shop in a newsagency are in a rush, more of our customers are spending longer as our shops transition from the old newsagency model to something more attuned to today. More customers will have more time to leave feedback and we have more products that could encourage feedback.

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Customer Service

Reusing a supplier stand can confuse newsagency shoppers

chupstandI was intrigued by the tins of Chupa Chups on the stand I noticed in a shop (not a newsagency) yesterday. On closer inspection I discovered that they were tins of shortbread biscuits on a Chupa Chup branded stand. The message was confusing.

If I was this retailer and I no longer had access to the Chupa Chup product for this stand and I wanted to reuse the stand – at the very least I’d remove the Chupa Chup branding.

Too often small business retailers including newsagents use stands for products they were not intended for. Take magazines in our channel, I often see Pacific titles in Bauer supplied stands and Bauer titles in Pacific supplied stands. Such misplacement of stock harms our suppliers and us.

We need to be more diligent about supplier supplied branded stand use. Suppliers spend money promoting our brand and if we work against this is dilutes what we can gain from their investment.

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Ethics

Report published by News Corp. says newsagents will be gone in five years

Michael McQueen, writing for news.com.au in a report published this morning says, among other things, newsagents will be gone in five years:

Newsagencies were once a gold-plated business. They had a bulletproof revenue model centring on the exclusive rights to distribute and sell the magazines and newspapers we all purchased on a daily basis. Then came 1999 — the year of deregulation. From this point onwards, newsagents no longer enjoyed the protected market they once did and business began to get tough.

Today, newsagents have one remaining cash cow — lotteries. With increasing noise from governments that lotto could also be deregulated in the coming few years just as it has in other countries, this may be the last nail in the coffin.

It is entirely likely that the only newsagents still standing in five years time will be those who have diversified to the point where their business model is almost unrecognisable by today’s standards.

I have written here many times over many years about this – the need for diversification, the need for new traffic generating products and services as well as the danger in relying on a single product or service like lotteries.

The stronger newsagent retailers are more likely to not have lotteries as they do not have the considerable labour, space and capital demands that come with this.

I know of newsagency businesses today that are growing. Maybe News could publish some reports about these.

I am optimistic, not out of desire but out of what I see some doing. Our channel will continue to shrink but those remaining and those entering will be stronger and more successful.

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Newsagency challenges

Gifts for the frankie shopper

gorjussThis Gorjuss range from Artique appeals to the younger frankie magazine reader. We’re using it to attract possible frankie customers and to be purchased by a destination frankie shopper.

Gorjuss is out of the UK. It has achieved extraordinary commercial success.  The keys for the brand to work in a newsagency are to have a broad range of products and that they are displayed to leverage the brand. The floor display unit from Artique helps us do this.

I am mentioning Gorjuss today as an example of how gifts and magazines can speak to the same shopper and support each other. That’s our goal for this new brand to our newsagency.

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Gifts
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