Our supply of Dolly was increased significantly even though previous issues were not coming close to selling out. While I would not usually early return such a major title I had no choice given the gross oversupply and no storage space for such a thick issue where we can fit only one copy per pocket.
It’s tough work running a newsagency, working 70, 80 and more hours a week covering many tasks from business manager to cleaner to customer service to creating retail displays. There is always something to do. Some days it can feel like no matter what you do you have more to do at the end of the day than when you started.
No matter how busy you are in your newsagency I urge you to take time out every day for a brisk 20 to 30 minute walk outside, in the sun, alone. Leave your phone behind – the shop worn’t burn down. Time yourself and try and get at least 3k, preferably 4k, of walking in. Getting your heart rate up will be good for your physical and mental health.
If walking every day during the day is too much of a challenge, try it early in the morning or once you close at night.
Being away from the business, other people an the phone will give your body and mind time to process. I walk between 8k and 10k every day. It’s the lunchtime walk that’s the best as it refreshes me for the afternoon. I find the business benefits of walking outside in the sun are considerable.
See the Vic. Government website for health benefits of walking for a brisk 30 minute walk each day. See the SA Government website where they talk about walking making us happy.
This marketing tip is for this last ten days before Christmas when every newsagency should be at their busiest. With all the marketing activity from major retailers now is not the best time for small businesses to spend as your voice will be drowned out. Instead, focus your marketing attention inside your business. Work to leverage existing shopper traffic.
Change things around. Move your highest traffic items to a different location to disrupt shopper flow so that they see the products they may have missed before. Newsagents often complain that shoppers don’t notice things. This is because the newsagencies don’t change that much.
By making two or three tactical moves you could get existing shoppers spending more. We did this just over a week ago with a significant move for weekly magazines. In the last seven days to last night weekly magazine sales are up 7%. This is more than overall growth for magazines.
We have ordered more stock of the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens on the back of success with this off-location promotion using a single purpose stand placed so that all of our magazine and newspaper shoppers will pass it. Many of our plush customers will also pass this stand. Sales are ahead of usual for the January issue at this short time in the on-sale. I think that’s helped by the stunning cover (a delicious-looking trifle that featured on the TV show on Friday night) and this second location promotion of the magazine.
We are giving the latest Australian Traveller magazine (with the popular reader’s choice awards) time in the spotlight with placement between our two daily newspapers. A couple of minutes work achieves extra sales. Newsagents can grow magazine sales.
This pack of Christmas Grinch Medication is a sell out for us. In less than a week it’s gone. Customers buying it usually have someone in mind. It’s fun listening to their stories and the Grinch they will give the medication to. Fun products like this make Christmas in retail more enjoyable!
The performance of the latest issue of frankie magazine has been stunning. We have sold 75% of our stock and ordered more. The higher cover price has not hurt sales whatsoever. Our additional support and the promotion by the publisher is paying off. Newsagents can grow magazine sales with the right product and store level engagement.
One newsagent was putting out boxes of impulse lines a week ago and one customer purchases four full boxes spending close to $300. While we have not experienced that, our impulse lines of funky gifts and toys are going exceptionally well. These Sp;at Balls are a good example – selling out in a week. These types of products are terrific financially and enjoyable for the delight they bring our shoppers.
While Christmas decorations and gifts are performing well, it’s impulse lines we are spending the most time keeping up with. Thankfully suppliers are topping up quickly.
The software managing this blog has been further updated. While most of the changes are behind the scenes, one change makes it easier for people to read and comment from their smart phone or tablet device. Enjoy.
The card holding the free gift of Ella Baché instant summer tan in the current issue of OK! magazine at Coles says Only at Coles. While I understand the importance of different channels offering gifts with purchase at different times, promoting a gift as only at Coles on the magazine is not ideal. I don’t recall a gift with purchase being promoted or ow with the title like this as only at newsagents.
While it may be opportunistic and/or bad taste, I wonder if there is value in us promoting or drawing attention to Holden themed titles with a get them while you can or similar promotion. While I am sure these titles will be published for many years, there would be nothing stopping us trading off fear .I’m not advocating this, just asking the question.
On the decision by GM to quit manufacturing in Australia, it’s disappointing. I worked for the company as an IBM Systems Programmer three years before starting my software company. While I enjoyed my two years there, the future of such labour intensive manufacturing in Australia was challenged the moment the world embraced a more global approach to trade.
You can’t have a fair global economy when resources central to manufacture are priced so differently in different countries and where some countries bend fair trade rules to make local products financially more appealing. We as a country need decide how we see ourselves playing in the global economy. We need economic settings that facilitate developing industries that are globally competitive. We need education policies that create a workforce that serves this.
The settings over multiple federal and state governments, covering decades, have failed us, they have not positioned Australia for the global market nor have they not positioned us as they might for the information age of this century.
I relayed the crossword section in a newsagency earlier this week to give greater prominence to Lovatts titles as the key brand in the crossword department and to use the AWW puzzle book as a border for the section.
The display before was a mess: Lovatts titles were sprinkled through and thereby missing an opportunity to promote the brand; the AWW puzzle book was lost; there was no order.
The display looked old and unappealing.
Blocking the titles, leveraging known brands and refreshing the offer shows the business taking pride in crossword titles. This will increase sales. Crossword magazine customers are loyal.
I shot a new introductory video for this blog earlier this week to outline my goals here and to explain what this place is all about. The old video was being viewed 20 to 30 times a week and had been live for almost a year and I felt it was time for a change. Here’s the new video (it’s also on the top right corner of the home page):
At Westfield Bondi shopping mall earlier this week I noticed this sign promoting instant scratch tickets outside of Coles. While there was no mention of retailers selling scratch tickets, the poster promoted scratcheclub.com.au. This is a Tatts owned website where scratch ticket customers can enter second chance draws, participate in a birthday draw, play puzzles and engage in other scratch ticket related activity.
Nowhere on the website are retailers promoted and this makes me wonder if this is site is about harvesting customer details for some other online engagement.
If I was a lottery retailer, investing in promoting Tatts related brands as contractually required by the company, I’d be asking tatts about their plans for this site; why they are not promoting retailers; and, why they are running a second chance draw when many of their retailers already do this.
If I was a Tatts shareholder I would be hoping that the company is developing a direct relationship with people buying its products as part of a plan to migrate more business online and thereby reduce product distribution costs.
Newsagents and lottery agents need to be aware of Scratcheclub at the very least. This could be a development that needs to be considered as part of your business planning.
I love the Christmas-themed scissors we sourced for placement with Christmas wrap. They are an easy add-on purchase, delivering terrific extra margin dollars to a basket. Placement is everything for getting the additional purchase of these scissors though. They have to be with Christmas wrap and cards. We have them placed vertically on a clip-strip.
These scissors were sourced from Pilot.
We have the two current issues of Better Homes and Gardens and Who placed between our two major newspapers. The Nelson Mandela cover story in Who makes it ideal for impulse purchase placement. BHG always works well when placed with newspapers.
The best way newsagents can grow sales is to respond to cover opportunities, placing relevant titles in a second location where more people will see the cover and thereby have an opportunity to purchase on impulse.
Embracing this opportunity separates engaged newsagents from all other retailers.
Newsagents with lotteries will have their work cut out for them next week with Powerball jackpotting last night to $40M and OzLotto jackpotting Tuesday to $70 million. These business owners need to serve the significant influx in traffic, ensure existing shoppers and one-off Christmas shoppers are not turned off by the lottery traffic and they need to leverage the lottery traffic for more value than agency business.
If I had lotteries in my newsagencies I’d be taking time today to plan to make the most of the opportunity and to take steps to neuter any negative impact of the jackpot traffic.
We received 13 copies of Top Gear ten days ago, we have 5 copies left and have just been advised by Bauer they will send us 12 more copies on Monday. This extra 12 copies is five or six copies too many based on the sales history Bauer has for the title for this store.
B&T is reporting that Jacob’s Creek winery has launched an online eCard service offering four different eCard designs for people to access for free. Check out the site here.
I don’t see this threatening greeting card sales just as online cards generally have not had a noticeable imp[act on physical card sales. People seem to prefer a greeting they can put on display and keep.
Coles is rolling out what it’s calling next-generation supermarkets in some of its supermarkets that borrows from the Whole Foods model in the US and also from tesco in the UK. They are also a bit like the Thomas Dux model from Woolworths.
The new look is a major change for the business in terms of look, shopping experience and product range.
I got to spend time in the Bondi Westfield store yesterday. This is an evolution of a model at Westfield Southland in Victoria. Inside Retail has more on the roll out and plans.
While these new-look Coles stores provide a new experience for Australian shoppers, The Whole Foods model in the US is streets ahead in my view but I am not an avid Coles shopper. For example, the Coles produce, fish and meat sections at Bondi pale when compared to what I saw at several Whole Foods stores earlier this year.
But I don’t want to detract from the new experience Coles is rolling out in Australia. This new experience is all about getting more of the food and grocery spend here and it should certainly achieve that.
Also part of the new model is fresh investment by Coles in their magazine department. This is placed at the front of the store to drive sales. You notice it as you enter and when you head to the checkout from the market area. It’s very shopper friendly. I think this will drive magazine sales.
This supermarket refresh is not the only work being done by Coles to drive market share. They are working in the local shop/ petrol / convenience spaces from what I understand.
The investment by Coles in a fresh retail offer is another reason newsagents with older shop-fits need to consider their investing in their own businesses. We are competing in a tough climate with aggressive ricks and mortar retailers and equally aggressive online retailers. Not investing in a relevant looking shop encourages shoppers to shop elsewhere.
I encourage newsagents to visit one of the new Coles shops. It needs to be seen live to get the full scope of what they have done and to see their commitment to growth. It’s impressive.
Click on the images to see larger versions.
I found a copy of The Girls of Zoo in our kids magazine section Tuesday and was frustrated that the person reading this had placed it in this kids space and not back where it belongs. It’s not a title to put in front of kids.
I know, there’s not much we can do about this other than regularly checking the magazine department.
But it is frustrating seeing this lazy and ill-considered action by someone who wanted to look at the titillating photos in Zoo. This placement magazines away from their usual location is almost always only done with adult titles. I suspect it’s because they are to embarrassed to take a few steps back to the home location for the magazine.
If only they’d think before they put a title like this in our kids section.
This desktop Zombie Shooting Set sold out for in a week. We have more stock on the way. The success of the zombie themed movies and the mega success of TV shows like The Walking Dead make products like this more appealing.
While not banded to a TV or movie franchise, this pencil and eraser set has sold because of the popularity of the genre. Customers have bought them as stocking stuffers and as Kris Kringle gifts.
We displayed this item as part of a funky gift range. This range attracted traffic for us. We are becoming known in the shopping mall as a destination store for these types of gifts.
On a side note, I like that we’re selling what is essentially a stationery item here.
The Big Rides magbook that came out late last month is a title we are featuring as an ideal Christmas gift for bike riders. Indeed, this title is an excellent example of magazines as a Christmas gift. It’s not something avid bike riders would necessarily purchase for themselves or even be aware of. This is why we are promoting it so that those buying gifts for bike riders can see the title and other good =bike magazines we have in-store.
Newsagents need to make sure they are aware of their long service obligations, especially around the time of buying or selling a newsagency. From what I can see there are different rules in different states. In NSW for example, it can kick in at five years whereas in Victoria obligations kick in at seven years.
I was talking with a newsagent yesterday who has discovered an obligation for two recently departed employees. They did not know they had the obligation. Ignorance does not eliminate the responsibility – this is what the authorities will say. Their accountant had not budgeted for the figure – that’s where the problem started in my view. Long service leave is an obligation that ought to be reflected in the financials of the business when you put it up for sale or at least dealt with in the paperwork reflecting obligations of the purchaser – even if there will be none.
This terrific paper aeroplane kit sold out in a week. We bought it on a nostalgia whim and a week later it’s all gone. You know from the nature of the product that all stock has been purchased on impulse, making the it an even more valuable product. A good impulse item can be empowering for your buying just as a failure of a product can result in you second-guessing purchases.
We report on seasonal items separately from gifts. This item, since it is not Christmas-themed, sits in our gift department. There we have it in a relevant category. This is important since buying is not only about sometimes buying more stock of a successful item. It is also about buying new items that appeal to the same shopper as those buying a very popular item.