I had a customer complain that they did not get Good Weekend magazine in The Saturday Age yesterday. I had convince them that what they thought was an Optus catalogue and threw out after leaving the shop was in fact Good Weekend magazine with the front covered by an Optus ad.
At the suggestion of a colleague I’m opening for discussion here a conversation about the impacts on a relationship where both parties own and or work in the newsagency business.
Is it stressful? Or not? Does the experience enrich the relationship? Or challenge it? Who’s the boss? Does it work? Would you recommend it?
Does it work better with one partner not working in the business?
I look forward to reading what people think.
A point of difference for newsagents is our range of single pens since the majors sell pens in packs. Yet often single pen displays in newsagencies look untidy. One way to make pen tubs tidy is to use a sig-sag acrylic like the one in the photo. This simple acrylic keeps stock upright and pushes pens forward. I was telling a newsagent about this earlier in the week and they had not heard of it – hence the mention today. It can make an untidy pen display look excellent.
The team at one of my newsagencies refreshed Christmas a couple of days ago, creating a zone focussing on single and boxed cards, plush and some decoration items. While previously we had all the product out, the various items were too far part, in different parts of the shop even … there was no focused Christmas pitch. Bordering the area with a terrific line of single cards and framing this around with Christmas themed categories, the result is a strong presence that is delivering a nice sales boost.
The placement of the large Hallmark plush items right at the front is excellent. Customers are drawn to them.
Christmas has kicked in early this year. sales are excellent.
Like many newsagents I’ve spoken with, lighting a Yankee Candle on display also ignited sales. We’d had the stand for a few weeks but it was only after we started lighting a candle that sales kicked in for us. we got the idea from another newsagent who was enjoying excellent sales. The experience is a reminder that physical store shopping is about interacting and engaging with products. This is something online can’t offer yet.
FYI we have the Yankee Candle stand next to the counter so everyone either buying something or leaving the shop walks past it.
My newsagency software company Tower Systems on Monday shared information with newsagents on the instant asset write-off opportunity for small businesses that looks set to expire on January 1, 2014. Following my publishing of information advice was put out by another company that could be confusing.
The ATO website is clear on this issue. The opportunity applies to businesses with a turnover of $2 million or less. The maximum asset value that can be written off per purchase is $6,500. For example, you could not purchase $20,000 worth of assets in one transaction and seek an instant asset write off for $20,000 unless the items are identical.
My advice is that you get advice from your accountant to ensure that asset purchases prior to January 1, 2014 are structured appropriately for your situation.
Customers love the personalised label that many newsagents place on magazines they put away for collection by customers. Beyond the professionalism of the label with the customer name and other valuable details, customers like that in the computer system we can be certain about what they have and have not collected. I like that I can use this to track collections too.
The process of producing the personal label is handled automatically and triggered by the receipt of the invoice from XchangeIT.
We also use the automatically generated text message service where customers are sent a text advising them that their put away is available to be collected.
None of this is new. The labels and txt message serve has been available for many years.
To any reading this blog who think newsagency businesses are old-school, check out how we handle putaways. Most do it in a very cool and smart way.
I was talking to a publisher this week about newsagent putaways and they had no idea that the backend management in a newsagency had become so technically sophisticated, smart and customer-focussed. Indeed, what we do in Australia is world best practice based on what I have see this year overseas in this put away / special order space.
There is an opportunity here for magazine publishers and distributors to leverage newsagency magazine putaways, especially for lower volume / fringe titles. we can offer a service enabling us to sell a single copy of an issue of a magazine without having to dedicate a pocket. The put away service we offer could be more useful than a mailed subscription cost.
Our professionalism, as best indicated by the label on a magazine, presents us as professionals. Customer feedback encourages me that we can grow this part of our newsagency business.
I love this display of socks I saw in David Jones in Sydney this week. It was away from the sock department, next to an escalator. It was placed to grab attention of those leaving the floor heading down a level and probably to the exit door. The strategy is to try and grab an extra sale to someone who’s done shopping and is leaving.
I love this idea and think newsagents can do the same with exiting customers. I often ask newsagents who are concerned about inefficient lottery and newspaper customers what they place as an exit offer. I touched on it is my Sunday newsagency marketing tip last weekend.
The other thing to love about the sock display is that the display itself is a terrific Christmas decoration for the store. There are products we could display where they become a decoration for us.
The head of the second largest newspaper chain in the US says paywalls are a short term tactic reports Matthew Ingram writing at gigaom. The report quotes Digital First CEO John Paton:
“Let’s be clear, paid digital subscriptions are not a long-term strategy. They don’t transform anything; they tweak. At best, they are a short-term tactic. I have said that often enough in the past. But it’s a tactic that will help us now.”
We don’t hear this from Australian publishers. Paton also need:
‘“Print dollars are becoming digital dimes. But costs are still in dollars and, like most newspaper companies, we are radically reducing those costs. Companies like Digital First Media have to manage the decline of one medium while building for – and in some cases, waiting for – the new revenue streams to grow.”
The article is a fascinating and rare insight into how paywalls are playing our for US newspapers. Australian publishers will say our market is different. Maybe so. However, as a recent spat between News and fairfax on digital subscriptions shows, it’s a challenged space. In the meantime, from a newsagent perspective, all we know is that over the counter sales continue to be challenged.
News Corp. and Fairfax are pushing subscriptions hard. Here is the full page ad in The Daily Telegraph yesterday.
Unlike the Fairfax push, this ad from News is only promoting their print product. Also unlike Fairfax, News ran the ad inside the newspaper and not covering up the front page of the newspaper.
A couple of weeks ago O changed Captcha codes to reduce spam and attacks on this blog. Following feedback from what was implemented and complaints from many that they could not get their comments up, today a more human-friendly Captcha process has been put in place. I hope this works better for people.
The contract between Gordon and Gotch and each individual newsagency business covers the supply of publications. On the second page of the agreement is a definition:
publications means:
The publications distributed by Gordon and Gotch on behalf of Australian and overseas publishers.
Any other kinds of publications or products distributed by Gordon and Gotch to you or newsagents generally on or before commencement date
Any other kinds of products agreed by you and Gordon and Gotch, in each case as nominated to by Gordon and Gotch from time to time.
While I expect that Gotch management would argue that supply constitutes nomination, I suspect others would disagree. Indeed, I would argue that the entire contract is built around the supply of publications and that publications are magazines. The processes outlined, the obligations documented all relate to magazines as the publications.
This is not a contract contemplating supply of products other than magazines. For example, while the definition above contemplates non publication products, the Magazine Ranging and Supply Policy does not. Indeed, there is no documentation in the contract on how Gotch will range non publication product to newsagents.
So: Is the supply of Christmas cards by magazine distributor Gordon and Gotch outside the terms of their contract with newsagents? I would say yes. This is a question better put to a legal forum where a determination could result in rewriting the contract. A VCAT, QCAT or CTTT could be an appropriate forum.
The contract we have with Gordon and Gotch is where newsagents need to start if they want to resolve what they could consider to be unfair behaviour against their business by Gotch.
This is a matter that the associations could take up on behalf of newsagents. Not by meeting with Gotch but by organising and managing test cases in state jurisdictions. That they have not done this is a poor reflection on their commitment to resolve the issue of most importance to newsagents.
This week the Body & Soul insert in News Corp. Sunday newspapers will have this ad promoting the Astro diary range in newsagencies. As the only retailers offering the product our channel is well placed to leverage the opportunity. In my stores we have the floor display unit in a high-traffic location and its working.
This is a product offered to the channel by Universal Magazines at sale or return with delayed billing until 2014.
We’re making the most of the Christmas themed issue of the cake decorating partwork with prominent display. Sales of this part series continue to be strong. We regularly promote it away from its usual location.
Convenience Store News has a story today about the increased traction in retail being achieved by electronic cigarettes. The shopper data is particularly interesting. While I know some newsagents playing in the category here it is yet ton take off in a mass way. I suspect that is because it does not have major brand awareness yet.
Check out the premium floor display unit promoting a range of magazines in Woolworths supermarkets at the moment. It’s a stunning unit promoting the bonus gift with purchase – a much better unit than this publisher provides newsagents …very frustrating.
I be the publisher is paying for floorspace.
The federal government has introduced legislation to end the Mineral Resources Rent Tax (MRRT). Included in that legislation is an end to the small business instant asset write-off.
The legislation ends the instant asset write-off for equipment installed after January 1, 2014.
Newsagents planning on purchasing assets such as new computers or other new equipment for the business in the next year or two should act now to get the instant asset write-off.
You have six weeks to act and lock in your instant-asset write off.
You can finance the purchase or pay COD. There are finance broker businesses that support newsagents and through which finance can be arranged.
I was in a newsagency late morning on a Saturday weeks back and from the lottery counter back the store was roped off and the lights turned off. All I could access was around 50 magazine titles, newspapers, a small range of cards and the lottery counter.
The roped off area was not under construction. To confirm this I’ve been back twice on a Saturday.
This business is in a high-street situation with fifteen shops on their side of the street and another twelve on the opposite side of the street. All were open each time I visited.
The first time I went in there were four people in line to buy lottery products. Because of most of the shop being roped off and dark, this felt and looked like a business in decline – certainly not a business to revisit or remember for good reasons.
Some newsagency businesses in decline are being helped by their owners, they give others trading under the newsagency shingle a bad name.
We’re seeing excellent Australian Women’s Health Diary sales from our stand placed directly above our weekly magazines. This location is working the best for us – even better than stock placed with diaries. We chose the weekly magazine location to pitch the diary to people who are likely to purchase it on impulse.
The nail art kit packaged with the latest issue of Dolly is getting trashed when customers put it bcd into magazine pockets since the box containing the kit is quite flimsy. We don’t have a flat-stack shelf in our magazine fixturing, pockets are the only option. Some of the returns of this issue will be because of damage to the nail art gift.
The Age today has a wrap-around four-page ad promoting subscriptions as christmas gifts. as a retail-only newsagent I’m not keen for a product to be hidden by a promotion seeking to reduce my foot traffic.
The inside two pages of the wrap-around contain the details of the digital-only and print and digital offers for access to the newspaper. Digital is clearly the pitch here. tellingly, there is no print only offer being promoted.
The results from the survey I ran last week on the busiest and quietest day in your newsagency are interesting. The responses to the two questions from the 86 participants indicate differences between shopping centre businesses and others, especially when looking at the busiest day of the week.
In terms of the quietest day of the week, it’s interesting to see Sunday being nominated by 26.74% of all participants. Given the cost of labour on this day you’d be hoping for it to be the busiest – only 2.3% of all respondents nominate Sunday as the busiest.
Click here to download the survey results in a PDF.
The busiest day is an opportunity to drive a deeper basket while the quietest day is a challenge to meet.
Gordon and Gotch sent these Christmas card packs with magazines yesterday morning. They look cheap.
Why a newsagent would want to sell this pack at 25% GP is beyond me. What are those responsible at Gotch thinking? The supply of this product is an abuse of newsagents.
NANA recently commenced a CTTT claim on behalf of a newsagent against Tower Systems. NANA prepared the claim, paid to lodge it and provided resources to manage the matter.
This began when Chiang Lim, NANA CEO, called me a couple of weeks prior to lodging the CTTT claim to ask about a then recently installed Tower Systems newsagency site. I explained that after the first day of the installation, after all hardware had been installed and use commenced, and following an argument between husband and wife, the husband advised they could not proceed with the computer system. The story as to why they didn’t want to proceed changed several times that day and in the time since. At no time did they say they had not received what the ordered or that the software was not appropriate to their needs.
I explained to Chiang that the newsagent signed a contract to purchase the system after two meetings to look at and discuss the software and that there was no pressure on them to proceed. I also explained that since they did not honour the COD terms and had not done so for weeks, Tower had commenced recovery action.I also advised Chiang about the argument between the owners about the system. Chiang said he would look into it and get back to me.
The next I heard was the CTTT notice to appear at a hearing.
I’ve not heard from Chiang since. He didn’t show at the CTTT hearing – where the matter was dismissed because lo lack of appearance. Tower had challenged CTTT jurisdiction since legal action had reluctantly been commenced for payment prior.
In Chiang’s letter accompanying the CTTT application he claimed there was a language barrier. What Chiang did not research was whether Tower offered training in Mandarin and Cantonese. Both offers were made an the newsagent advised they were not necessary. The language Chiang indicated the newsagent preferred is not the language they actually preferred. Chiang also said a trial period of the software was not adequately offered yet he took no steps to determine if that was the case.
I expect there would be NANA members who would be disappointed that NANA has spent newsagent funds on this. While the association should support members wronged by suppliers, it should thoroughly investigate any claim to ensure that wrongdoing has actually occurred.
It appears that NANA rushed to take legal action and then let the matter drop once they realised they had acted in haste. They were quick to call with an allegation and then went missing once the evidence stacked up against them.
As for the newsagency, the matter has been resolved by agreement, system has been paid for and installation is proceeding.
Dannii Minogue promoted Aussie newsagents in a tweet to her 1M+ Twitter followers promoting the latest issue of Who magazines.
Every promotion of our channel by a celebrity or a company with a decent number of Twitter and or Facebook followers helps promote our channel and reinforce our relevance – especially if we’re the only outlet mention as in Dannii Minogue’s tweet.
if you go to Twitter you can see the engagement that followed the Tweet.