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

Obsessing about magazine placement can drive impulse purchases

magazine-placementAn observant team member in my newsagency placed the latest issue of New Scientist far away from its usual location, next to People’s Friend and we sold it in 24 hours. They made the move in response to the cover story on New Scientist – Defeating Dementia. A terrific initiative and the kind of initiative newsagents who grow magazine sales need to take.

With all our major magazine competitors operating planagrams that do not allow for this type of shop floor response to magazine cover stories, we in newsagencies have an opportunity to drive impulse purchases based on cover stories. We should all embrace these opportunities. Good choices will result in impulse purchases as we are seeing.

Every week we have magazines outside their usual locations – responding to cover story opportunities. It’s working for us with our year on year magazine unit sales performing considerably ahead of the newsagency channel trend.

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magazines

You never know someone

george-bushWhile I am not a supporter of George W. Bush’s politics and feel that he let down his country and the world as president, I appreciated and learnt from his talk at the NRF retail’s Big Ideas Show conference a few days ago. He was there to talk about leadership. In fact he said: I don’t need you to agree with me or what I did but to just understand what got me to that point. I found him compelling to listen to – but I was not expecting to. This is a takeaway for me – people when you hear them speak for themselves or away from a 15 second sound bite on TV news pr not being represented by others who gossip about you or tell others what you have said on a topic can be more interesting and more understood.

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Newsagency management

E-cigs gaining more traction with US retailers

ecigsIn convenience stores and some supermarkets I have seen e-cigarettes being offered in more locations than my last trip to the US six months ago. Then, at the Retail’s Big Shop conference and trade show there was strong representation. This is where I picked up the Convenience Store News guide (pictured). The guide was bagged with the magazine. It’s packed with excellent information on what is clearly a growing category for tobacco retailers. It will be interesting to see the brands develop.

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Tobacco sales

Finding the right way to tell the community you are serving them

wholefoodsnycAt each check out point at the Whole Foods Market at Union Square in New york they have a sign which reads: It’s only fair to let you know our New York City stores donated $275.000 to local nonprofits through our quarterly 5% days in 2013.

While it feels like marketing for Whole Foods, I can’t see any easy way for them to share the good news of what they donated. Click on the image to see a larger version of the sign.

I checked the Whole Foods website for details of how the 5% days work at raising funds. This money really does come out of their pocket:

Our Community 5% Days are one meaningful way we give back to our community. On designated days throughout the year a total of 5% of the day’s net sales are donated to local non-profit organizations. Customers help support our selected organizations just by shopping on these 5% Days. Contact us directly if your organization is interested in applying for this program.

Good for them. I like this program a lot – the money it raises, their transparency, the community good.

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Newsagency opportunities

Brands matter in retail and for newsagents

barbieNo matter where I turned in New York in shops closest to what a newsagency is, brands were in full shop, used as traffic drivers. In toy shops, stationery shops, card shops and gift shops, they were featuring brands front of store and rear of store (as shown in the photo from FAo Schwartz where the Barbie wall is at the rear) to engage shoppers.

Regulars here would know that I think brands are vital and that we newsagents ignore them at our peril. This latest trip has reinforced this view.

The other aspects of well-known consumer brands is that they usually support us with marketing and collateral.

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retail

Drones as toys are huge

orbitor Drones as toys makes sense with them being in the news for killing people and doing others things less expensively than manned planes or other methods.

Every toy shop I went into this trip – at least six or seven – they had drones on sale. The most popular were around the US$100 mark and they had stacks of them close to the front of the shop.

While there are regulatory issues they are selling like hot-cakes.

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Newsagency opportunities

Cookie party adds to the theatre of retail

coopiepartyWhen I was at FAO Schwartz on Fifth Avenue a few days ago there was a cookie party running in, where else, the cookie party room. The kids appears to be having a great time.

The lighting for this space was different to the rest of the store, giving it a feeling of being it’s own space.

This is an excellent example of retail theatre and while we can;t run a cookie party in a newsagency (or can we??!)  there are plenty of other interactive events we can run. Depending on our specialisation, we could have space set aside and offer regular events as a practical demonstration of and commitment to our key point of difference.

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retail

Staples redefines the stationery store

soda-streamIn New York this week I visited several Staples stores – large and small format stores. This business continues to play with their model and with what they can sell in a stationery business. Take the aisle-end I saw in a Staples store on 3rd Avenue – they were promoting Soda Stream products – do it yourself flavoured carbonated water.

This Soda Stream display begs the question: what can be sold to a stationery customer?

Okay, so plenty of people shopping Staples are not looking for traditional stationery. I get that. However, this Soda Stream display is at odds with most of what else was being offered in this location.

Just as Staples is not bound by tradition of what a stationery store would / could sell, now should we. Overall, as a channel, we have been constrained. The world has changed. retail has changed. Much relating to our core product categories has changed. Combine these changed and we have no choice but to change as much or more.

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Stationery

A massive trade show for retailers, opportunities for newsagents

microsoftnrfAcross two huge levels at the Javits Centre in New York, Retail’s Big Show has been presenting an extraordinary array of technology, data, management and other solutions for retailers. From the giants of IBM and Microsoft to tiny players, retailers at the trade show and conference have had access to the very latest in innovation to make business more efficient and successful.

It has been a thrill to speak to some visionary experts about opportunities they see in retail generally and, with some, in specialty retail, and how they are preparing for the the opportunities. It has also been exciting to play with some very cool gadgets. What I have really loved, though, is the opportunity of seeing how businesses at the conference, the trade show and on the streets of Manhattan define themselves – how they speak to their point of difference.

In this market that is becoming more crowded and with consumers who are more powerful than ever before, if you do not speak with a clear voice about who you are and what that matters then you will not be heard. Many retailers are not being heard and their numbers speak to that. Some, large and small, are being heard because their values are clear and easily understood.

I wish I could have had a bunch of newsagents with me here here at the trade show, conference and on the streets on New York.

Over the next few weeks I will be gathering my thoughts and considering these in the context of the latest Newsagency sales trends. I am preparing for a fresh look at the Newsagency of the Future and plan to offer a round of workshops shortly with completely fresh content that is relevant to recent innovation and opportunities.

We are in the midst of the most exciting period in the history of the newsagency channel. We have decisions to make, decisions that are for each of us ours alone, decisions we have not had to make previously. Exciting times ahead!

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Newsagency management

Online shopping collection points gaining traction

collectionpointI’ve seen more locations open as online shopping collection points out on the streets and more businesses offering collection point solutions at the NRF Big Show over the last few days than in previous visits. This stands to reason as online shopping grows and with this so does the challenge of the last mile delivery – collection.

I’m not sure about the viability of these lockable collection points for newsagencies, certainly not shopping centre newsagencies where rents are higher and space is limited. Maybe in a high street situation but then with services like Parcel Point and N Parcel newsagents already have it covered and we provide a more personal and focused service.

I know locked collection point boxes are something Australia Post is rolling out. Expect to see stand-alone businesses open up in this area just as they are in the US.

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Newsagency management

Kiosks and retail and retail newsagencies

razor-kioskExperts at the National Retail Federation conference and the Retail’s Big Ideas Show I have spoken with offer no support for in-store kiosks. I think this is because technology has changed so much and much of what a kiosk was used for in the past can either be transacted from home, mobile or on the POS itself.  This is a shift from a few years ago.

While there are kiosks in use, they tend to be out of store and more for lookup like finding a store, checking on for travel or buying event tickets.  Or like buying rasors as shown in the photo I took yesterday.

The other reasons kiosks are not a future is because they disrupt the core of your business – if your business has a core focus.  And, of course, in retail today we must have a core focus. The days of the general store type newsagency are over. retail has evolved quickly where specialisation and core focus are key.

But back to kiosks. Retail is rapidly moving out of store. More and more that a retail business offers is transacted away from the business. Any investment in kiosk needs to be considered against these trends.

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Newsagency challenges

Now this is a St Patrick’s Day range!

stpatsCheck out the range of St Patrick’s Day cards and other products I saw at a Hallmark store yesterday. Quite extensive – beyond what I got in this photo. While you’d expect a strong representation for the day given the Irish families in New York, I’d like to see more of this type of range here.

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Fun

The easy to shop wall of magazines

wallofmagsI made the mistake of installing fixtures like you can see in this photo from a Barnes and Noble store in New York. What they have is better, easier to shop. The only difference is that they have a single wall with space in front. Mine is in an aisle with not enough space.

The single wall of magazines at this Barnes and Noble store is terrific – easy to shop and a bold statement for their range. It’s something that would work well in a newsagency instead of the traditional magazine valley.

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magazines

Selling Pop Tarts to stationery customers at the sales counter

pop-tarts-upsellAt of the Staples stationery stores I visited a couple of days ago had Pop tarts at the counter as an up-sell item. In fact, they had a box at each of the register points.

I’ve noted Pop Tarts as something else to try at the counter in our quest to expand the range of what we offer our customers to purchase on impulse. The most successful counter line we have had is the $24.95 plush dogs and cats … they worked a treat.

We need to keep challenging ourselves to play outside the field in so many parts of our businesses – including counter lines.

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Stationery

Party stores big business in New York

party-shopI thought the first party store I visited in New York might have been so big because it was the main destination store. This store, where I took the photo, was – I guess – two thousand square metres.  The fifteen or so aisles – like the one in the photo – were stacked with products that are party related.

Over the course of several days I have seen another five or six party stores and while not as big as this one, they were sizeable.  While these business exist to serve needs, their very range and presentation creates demand by showing people how to create parties and events they otherwise might not have created.

Of course, being in a location with an extraordinary population density such as New York gives retailers opportunities of scale unlike what we see in Australia. That said, my take away from the party shops is that this is a retail category where we can create demand through range and shop floor theatre. The alternative is to serve only as a destination business – this will constrain us to serving only destination shoppers.

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Newsagency opportunities

Smart retro connection at Urban Outfitters

retro-vinyl-recordsUrban Outfitters is a funky fashion, kinda homewares and kinda impulse items chain that always connects well with current trends. Check out the display of vinyl records in the foreground and the players for these in the background.

I’ve been in three Urban Outfitters stores this trip and each has this.  This is a company that knows what it’s doing and would only make such a inventory / floorspace investment if they were certain of a return.

Venturing into an area like this is not only about immediate sales, it is also about appealing to shoppers who like to see that you have the items.

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retail

Another example of colour blocking in visual merchandising

colours-vmFurther to my recent posts  about colour blocking in retail, check of the photo of the window of a storage business in New York. They are showing there is no limit to what can be colour blocked. Coat hangers! Amazing.

I only noticed the window because of the colour blocking. The first goal of visual merchandising is to get a display noticed. The colour of the display makes hangars more appealing.

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Colour blocking

Extraordinary commercialisation of Valentine’s Day

valentines-petsI am amazed of the size of Valentine’s Day across a range of retail businesses in the US. It all starts with the the people you would / could purchase Valentine’s Day cards for. Take the photo – it’s a Valentine’s Day card from your cat (yes it’s in the wrong pocket as the header card says from dog).

A Valentine’s Day card from your cat?! As a retailer, I’d love the season to reach this level in Australia. I’d love to sell Valentines Day cards from your pets, to your pets, to teachers, neighbours, pastors, parents, grandparents, kids. I’ve seen packs of cards for kids to give to fellow students.  The season would grow tremendously for us.

That said, I suspect Australians would not approach the broad range of captions I am seeing here in the US. We’d need to educate them to show that the season is about more than it has been, that it’s about appreciation.

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Greeting Cards

$7.5 million prize drives scratch ticket sales

silver-spectacular-lotteryHere in New York these posters are everywhere on the street promoting the Silver Spectacular scratch lottery ticket game. First prize is US$7.5 million. That’s a nice prize for a scratch ticket game. Tickets cost $25 and I’m told they are selling well.

More generally, buying a lottery or scratch ticket in New York – they are mainly available from c-stores and newsstands. Very little corporate image – a couple of posters and a floor unit listing the current prize values.  I talked to a couple of retailers and they were shocked that Aussie lottery retailers were required to spend money on fixtures, What the retailers have here, and it’s not much, is all provided.

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Lotteries

Whole Foods Market shows hot to promote local connection

shop-localIn today’s uber-connected and mobile-enabled world retailers need to find more ways to promote their local connection. But even more important is that they have a genuine / practical local connection to promote.

Saying you live locally and support local charities will not be enough to some consumers, they want to buy products you have sourced locally and they want you to be transparent about it.

At a Whole Foods Market in New York on the weekend I saw this sign next to the juice made from the fruit grown by the growers promoted in the poster. Here, Whole Foods is saying here is the proof we support these local growers and you should too. This goes considerably further than a simple plaintive shop local.

In a newsagency this is challenging since so much of what we sell is sourced outside our local area by necessity. So, we need to work harder at building a local connection that is not product related.

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Newsagency management

At National Retail Federation Conference in New York

nrf1I am in New York at the National Retail Federation’s Retail’s Big Show. This is a conference and trade show for retailers large and small and on a scale unlike anything in Australia – close to 35,000 attendees and hundreds of technology and retail back end suppliers.

This is a truly international event with retailers and suppliers from many countries including China, India, Great Britain, Brazil, Japan, Canada and Germany to name a few.  Australian attendees are few, representing large businesses. Click here for a breakdown of the 2013 demographics.

This is my third year here and even after just the first day I can tell it will be as useful, exciting and motivating as the first two I attended. This challenge is to choose sessions – from a wide variety available. Today, for me, was about retail challenges, online versus bricks and mortar, loyalty, payments and embracing the size of your business.

Parallel to the conference is the opportunity to consider one’s business from afar while soaking up insights from conference speakers and spending time looking at best-practice retail on the streets of Manhattan. In addition to specific conference take-aways, there will be practical take-aways that will lead to changes back home. (No, that’s not code.)

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Newsagency management

How often do you read emails?

If you’re reading your business emails once a day or less frequently it’s not often enough. While already an out of date form of communication for some, email plays an important role in business. Some suppliers have migrated to email away from mail and fax. Checking it less frequently than once a day is not enough.

Twice already this year retailers have told me they check email once a week if that. They were dismissive of the b=medium. Once said that if someone wants him to know something they will call or fax. I don’t think so.

Email replacing mail and fax is one way businesses can cut costs. It takes less time to read emails plus they are in a form to more easily file, pass on or delegate.

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Newsagency management

Newsagency armed robberies a security reminder

The robberies of Victorian newsagencies going back months and now recently being reported is a reminder to newsagents to review physical property security, review security procedures including money transfer, remind employees of best practice for handling a situation like this, checking insurance and ensuring you have some form of camera system to capture any incident.

Victoria Police has a useful security kit available from their website.

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theft

Beware: Ukash fraud could hurt your newsagency

I received this report from someone in the insurance business Friday about a Ukash related scam perpetrated on a Australian business:

A shop employee took a call from a man stating he was a technical manager from our phone Epay and UKASH voucher provider stating they will be upgrading our system the next day at 1pm and will this be convenient please confer with the store owner , the person had store owners names which made it more convincing.

The employee was very busy at the time preparing the shop for closure so did not immediately contact the owners. Some ten minutes later this person called back stating they required some vouchers to be printed off in preparation for the upgrade and gave a reference number and asked for nine vouchers of various amounts totalling $1,800 to the printed off and quote the reference number provided earlier.

In the process of doing so the employee became concerned and went to their mobile to call the owner as the caller had tied up the shop phone line. Once owner was informed he immediately went to the store to discover the vouchers had already been cashed even though the caller was still holding on the shop line.

All staff were aware that they are not to sell vouchers over the phone but this person convinced the employee that things were in order stating both owner and managers names along with other technical references.

Fortunately we were able to settle the claim but we believe this is a timely warning to take extreme care.

Please warn all your staff about this. Not all insurance policies would cover the newsagent.

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Newsagency challenges

Getting your Blackhawk gift card mix right can drive sales

giftcardmixI was talking with a newsagent last week about the larger format gift card stands at Australia Post and other retailers. While I think we need to be in the space, each of us needs to do so in a way that is appropriate to our own business.  For example, this small footprint stand from Blackhawk works for me – I can move it around and it holds enough top-selling cards to cover several demographic needs.

Click on the image to see a larger version – in particular the cards on this side of the stand as we selected them for a younger demographic.

Note: As I noted last year, Blackhawk is not open until feb. 3 for reorders. Newsagency can get pretty much anything they want from Blackhawk through Touch Networks.

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Gifts
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