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

Thursdays now vitally important to newsagents

magstlt5While sales of Take 5 and That’s Life remain flat, Thursdays, their on-sale day, are more important than ever in newsagencies. It’s the busiest day of the week for magazine sales for many newsagencies I have seen sales data for. Indeed, magazine sales are up 20% and more on Thursdays in some newsagencies when comparing to before the magazine on-sale changes in 2013.

In one newsagency, Thursday magazine sales are up 35% while overall magazine sales are up only 1%. This data is providing the newsagent with opportunities for other changes in-store through which to leverage the Thursday opportunity.

On  Take 5 and That’s Life, I see a greater difference between the titles today than a year ago. Whereas in the past you could put them next to each other and they would look like twins, today, they are noticeably different.

We newsagents need to engage more with these titles if we are to help them get out of the sales slump. We need to be especially proactive on Thursday and Friday as this is when more than 80% of sales in newsagencies are usually achieved. By proactive, I mean: co-locate on the counter or with newspapers. Engage your staff to talk about what’s in the titles. Ensure they are full-face displayed with weekly titles.

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magazines

Who is the Australian Women’s Weekly customer?

aww-youngerLooking at the latest issue of  The Australian Women’s Weekly, I wonder if Bauer is chasing a younger reader for this title. This latest issue feels like it is targeted women under forty. Maybe they have been pitching there and I’ve not noticed it. The cover shot looks like it could be on the cover of Cleo or Marie Claire. The stories, too, feel younger-skewed.

While I am no magazine expert, I did a double-take when I saw it, thinking – that’s odd. Then I started to wonder if they are chasing a younger reader.

With the launch of Yours imminent, maybe Bauer are trying to segment their readers more clearly. Yours is targeting women 50+ – what used to be the more typical AWW reader. The challenge is that AWW is historically bought by women in their forties, fifties and beyond. This latest issue appeals less to that older demographic in my view.

I can’t see my 40+ customers who purchase AWW based on the cover or a quick browse purchasing this issue. To balance that, however, there is an opportunity for a younger shopper to purchase this issue. But to leverage that opportunity I need to change where I place the title. I wonder if this is what Bauer wants us to do.

Knowing your customer is vital in retail. For example, the typical newsagency shopper is female 35 and over with one or two kids, more often working than not. While local situations will see differences, what I have described is common.

Knowing the customer targeted by products suppliers is also important. The suppliers who share demographic information can find retailers more engaged.

If Bauer is changing the focus of AWW I’d love newsagents to be given more information – so we can adjust in-store behaviour to reflect the change.

It will be interesting to watch customer interaction with this issue of AWW.

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magazines

Quirky Back to School items

btsquirkyWhile the core stationery / school supplies products are not core to our newsagency, quirky products are. For example, this 2 in 1 sandwich cutter / lunch box set is a good product for the start of the school year – for younger kids. We have it on show at the front of the newsagency as part of a range of quirky products speaking to the back to school shopper. These products attract good traffic and they make people happy.

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Stationery

Promote your newsagency for sale to your customers

sellingyourbusinessConsider a sign in the window if you are selling your newsagency. A customer could be in the market for a business and yours could be a good fit. Brokers tell me buyers in rural and regional situations are more often locals.

A sign in the window can work – as long as the business – the shop itself – looks healthy and appealing. A FOR SALE sign in the window of a shop that looks like it is on its last legs will not help drive a sale.

Too often retailers selling their business go to considerable lengths to hide that the business is for sale and through this they miss opportunities – including selling to existing staff and or customers.

By putting a sign in the window you also remind yourself every day that the business is for sale and that you need to keep it looking at its best. It also reminds you to talk more about what there is to love about the business than what you don’t love.

Yes, this approach will have people asking. You could be the best sales person of the business. Be sure to have a broker as a backup for the more formal questions.

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buying a newsagency

Cool ways to display products: a skateboard

vm-skateboardA retail store near a holiday destination uses a skateboard as a prop for displaying shoes. this is excellent visual merchandising. The skateboard speaks to their target shopper better than if the shoes were placed on a traditional shelf.

Sometimes the simplest ideas work best. The test of any display is the revenue it generates.

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visual merchandising

FOUND! The missing Australian Open Tennis programs!

austopenI was in a couple of transit location newsagencies yesterday and discovered plenty of stock of the Australian Open tennis programs. The sighting of all the spare stock made me wonder if these were the copies Network failed to supply me. Regulars here will know that we expected to sell close to 30 copies this year based on previous sales. The allocations geniuses at Network cut us back to 2 copies, denying us hundreds of dollars in revenue. Calls to the company resulted in nought.

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magazine distribution

New magazine for women 50+

ImageGen.ashxBauer has announced the imminent launch of Yours, a fortnightly magazine aimed at women 50 and over. The local title appears to be a carbon copy of the Bauer UK title of the same name.

Check out this YouTube video of the UK editor talking about the magazine:

Yours fills an important niche. It will work if it’s filled with Australian content. If it’s re-purposed UK content then the current swag of UK titles will continue to sell well.

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magazines

The hamper opportunity for newsagencies

idea-hamperRight now plenty of newsagents and their staff are business packing school book orders. This process is a bit like packing hampers. So, why not put the planning, management and packing skills to use in other seasons and create gift hampers for key seasons.

While some newsagents do this already, the vast majority do not. And I wonder why not.

I was in a business overseas just before Christmas and took this photo of a small selection of the Christmas hampers they has assembled for customers. The range was impressive. Looking at the sea of hampers I realised that hampers did not need to be filled with what we usually, sell. No, hampers could be items we bring in especially for the gift giving opportunity.

You can source the baskets and celo-wrap for little cost. The contents can reflect the price you wish to charge. Include a magazine to suit the target recipient – to pitch the circ. part of your newsagency.  Pitch a greeting card opportunity to add avalue and you have something unique.

Hampers could work for any of the major seasons if done right.

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newsagency marketing

Customers love an inspiring message

magnetspositiveWhile we need sales revenue to pay the bills, some days the memorable reward is a customer who enjoys being in your space.

These magnetic signs have sold  well. Better than that, they have made people browsing feel good.

I saw a customer reading the signs reach out and gently touch one, as if to touch the goodness in the words. It made me feel good when I saw this because I knew that visiting our space touched the customer.

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Gifts

Large Papyrus card range in Woolworths

papyrus-premiumCheck out the large range of Papyrus cards in a Woolworths store I visited Monday. This store is  near a newsagency with Papyrus cards. I thought that Papyrus was originally pitched as a range with which newsagents could promote a difference to the majors.

This display of 200 pockets was not the full range of Papyrus in the Woolworths store.

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Greeting Cards

Gift with purchase for Food Ideas & Taste

magsfoodideastastePeople purchasing Food Ideas or Taste magazine at Woolworths get to choose a free lunch bag displayed with the titles in an exclusive promotion.

This promotion at the front of newsagencies across Australia would drive better sales at Woolworths because the placement would be more noticeable than toward the back of a Woolworths store in a less-visted part of the business.

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magazines

GNS stock delays impact some newsagents with Back to School

Several newsagents have reported delays in receiving GNS supplied Back to School stock. In some cases the newsagents claim significant sales are being lost while in others additional labour costs have been incurred to get back to school packs completed in time. In one case the newsagent has 48 hours to do what they should have two weeks to get done at a leisurely place and using spare time in the roster.

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Stationery

Consistent message from Coles on Back to School

colesbts2014Check out the Back to School display in one inner-city Coles outlet I visited a couple of days ago. Click on the image for a larger version – you’ll see more of their range in detail. What I like is the visually consistent message. Back to School owns this space. The in-store collateral connects with their out of store advertising and marketing – all integrated.

I have posted this photo to provide a reference point for newsagents doing back to school, to ask whether your display is as consistent and as visually impactful. I think it’s important we compare ourselves to those competing with us.

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Stationery

Quitting old greeting card stock

cards-cheapCheck out how one retailer I saw was quitting unsold greeting cards. Cards were in cardboard boxes and shoppers needed to leaf through to find product they wanted. There was no shortage of shoppers prepared to browse the heavily discounted stock.

Sometimes a no-frills approach works best.

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Greeting Cards

Promoting marie claire and L’Occtaine gift with purchase

magsmcfrontWe are promoting the latest issue of marie claire on this floor display unit at the entrance to our main women’s magazine aisle.

We also have this title in a half-waterfall display and featured at the counter as magazine of the week – supporting the premium value L’Occtaine hand cream gift with purchase.

This small footprint display unit continues to work well for us, generating excellent incremental business beyond what more traditional displays tend to achieve. The keys to success for the star are: product selection, stand location placement and that it’s a compelling offer worth inter upping the shopper for.

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magazines

News Corp. heavily promoting digital subscriptions

herald-sun-subscriptionThe relentless full-page and double-page ads in News Corp. capital city newspapers promoting digital access with one or two day home delivery are an indicator of the plans of the company. The marketing reads as if the print product is the gift with purchase for the main item – the digital subscription.

If you look at what some newspaper publishers have done overseas, the apparent News Corp. ought not be unexpected. Newspapers are more profitable some days than others. Focusing on the most profitable days makes sense.

I think the ads speak volumes about the focus of News. While the company has not turned its back on print, it is investing considerably in looking beyond the medium.

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Media disruption

Celebrating the 100th issue of Australian Healthy Food Guide

HFG 0214_Cover finalThe 100th issue of Australian Healthy Food Guide magazine goes on sale today. I’ve written about this magazine before – I like it, – it sits in an important place among food and health related titles.

This issue of Australian Healthy Food Guide is timely because of its coverage of back to school lunch options – promote this with back to school.

Take a moment to ensure you have this magazine in a high profile location. We will have the full cover on show in the usual location as well as pocket placed with our weekly magazines – featuring content from inside.

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magazines

How to make your newsagency business worth more

Regulars here will know that in addition to owning newsagencies, I also own Tower Systems, the supplier of the software used by 1,850+ newsagents. Tower also serves in other retail channels. I recently shot a video to put into context an important goal for 2014 for newsagents and other independent small retailers:

The video can be accessed from a special landing page at the Tower website.

While I am promoting Tower here, I am more importantly focusing on the need to work on our businesses, to chase growth and chase efficiency – for ourselves and to better compete.

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newsagency marketing

Sunday newsagency management tip: beware category dependence

Given the history of today’s retail newsagency business and the regulation surrounding the supply of several core categories, it is not unexpected that we see some businesses heavily dependent on a small range of product. I think this is unhealthy.  I know newsagents who like this, that half or more of their sales come from a single category like magazines, cards or lotteries.

With the changes we are seeing with print media, how where and when people purchase lottery products and with retail in general, now more than any time in the history of our channel we need to be less dependent on core categories.

As a guide, I would suggest that a single product category should generate no more than 25% of revenue. If we were to use this benchmark, it could guide us to expand what we sell to thereby drive the efficiency of our business and make it less dependent on a smaller range of categories.

I am suggesting a glass is half full approach, not a glass is half empty. By that I mean: say 40% of your sales are magazines – don’t cut magazine sales. Introduce new product categories which will sell to magazine shoppers so in terms of percentage of overall revenue magazines account for less. This is a win win. Yes, it’s hard work – but it’s what smart retailers do.

Newsagents who address the category mix will create for themselves a business that is less buffeted by changes impacting these large for categories. Here are other categories you could consider if you are not in these already: gifts, plush, toys, hardware, garden products, coffee / cafe, party, furniture, pool supplies, specialist printing, locally grown fruit. As this list shows, there are no rules – certainly don’t be bound by the shingle above your door.

I know of newsagencies that closed last year in Australia that relied too much on one or two categories and when those were hit, it was too late for them.  A business closing because of a decline in just one or two product categories is a weak business. You can plan to not be as impacted by this.

I urge newsagents to act on their product mix now, with urgency. Your first steps can be guided by your existing business data.

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Management tip

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: use social media for a conversation

Social media – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and others – can be powerful and free or low cost tools for small business retailers like newsagents to reach your existing customers and to reach out to a wider audience.

Success with social media, however, depends on how the various platforms are used. Importantly, it comes down to how you pitch your voice.

It is important to not look at social media as a means for advertising – unless you are running a paid ad. No, it ought to be viewed more as you having a conversation, actively engaging with your customers. By conversation, I mean two way with you getting as much out of the interaction as your customers.

For example, let’s say you want to promote a magazine. One way would be to put up a photo of the magazine and say come and buy it while stocks last. An alternative approach would be to comment on an article on a topic that you know will have broad interest with your community and invite your others to share their thoughts. This engages your customers in a conversation, it better connects them with your business.

Another example could be you sharing a story about a customer who came in looking for the perfect pen be used with a condolence book at a funeral. Share how it made you feel serving the customer. Take people beyond the transaction and into you as a person.  This type of personal story can help you love your business more and help you better with the community in which you serve.

In another example let’s say you have just got a new range of jewellery in-store. You could publish photos of some of the jewellery pieces and say that the team in the business can’t decide which they like best. Ask a question:  what do you think? This, too, brings your customers into a conversation. The more you can do this the better – as long as the conversation is authentic.

If you look around at what smart corporate businesses are doing on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram you will see them doing this – engaging in conversations with their customers. It works.

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marketing

Target data breach to have implications for everyone involved in card payments

Just as we see insurance rates rise on the back oif a huge natural disaster such as bushfires or floods, retailers and other businesses receiving payments online or over the counter by card will be forced to shoulder some of the costs associated with the extraordinary data breach reported by US retail giant Target.

While there is talk about fines and other costs for target and its partners, a knock-on effect for even retailers in Australia is something we should anticipate as card issuers, consumers and, yes, retailers, seek a more secure card processing environment. In saying this, I am well aware of the difference between the card processing platform in Australia and the US. That does not mean regulators and or card issues won’t use this extraordinary data breach to increase security. I am certain retails will bear some costs associated with this either in infrastructure changes or an increase in fees we pay.

Given that authorities are saying the Target breach is part of a broader attack, there are bound to be worldwide implications. This will be a cost of being part of a connected always-on world, a cost that will continue to rise.

My concern is that small business retailers will end up paying a higher price as a percentage of turnover than companies like Target that are, in my view, more vulnerable to attack.

Forbes has published an article documenting the timeline of the breach which is good reading. The Chicago Tribune has a good backgrounder on the breach.

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theft

Chinese New Year cards working at counter

chinese-new-yearWe are finding the placement of Hallmark Chinese New Year cards at the counter is working for us.

Chinese New Year cards are more of an impulse purchase than a destination purchase – hence the ideal location for customers to add a card or a red packet to their basket – it’s important we offer both options.

These cards can sell to a range of nationalities.

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Greeting Cards
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