Singles Day, November 11, has grown into a massive business opportunity in China. Check out the Business Week story on Alibaba and their massive turnover. The Telegraph in the UK provides more background.
While it’s another commercial occasion and therefore open to criticism, I’d be all for it. Anything to attract various sections of society into shop for even a made-up occasion.
Allan Wickham from newsXpress Eli Waters is going a mo as part of a Movember fundraiser. Click here to support Allan. I’ll happily promote any other Movember fundraisers here.
It used to be that Tuesday was quiet for newsagencies. With OzLotto and Powerball regularly jackpotting and with the change in magazine delivery days it’s time to ask newsagents about their busiest and quietest trading days.
This survey has two quick questions by store location and type. Click here to take the brief survey.
This bear is an example of plush products that work as gifts for more occasions that we traditionally target in our plush (or soft toy) ranges. It’s an adult style bear that could work for an older person. It could also work as a gift for someone dealing with health issues.
This is my favourite bear in-store.
25% of our plush appeals to non-traditional plush situations. This has been key in driving our sales.
See the effective use of balloons I saw recently to draw attention to a business. I love the two columns, on either side of the door, in the corporate colours. We could do this for at seasons or other times to draw more attention to the entrance – and get people inside.
Click on the image.
We’ve had an excellent start to boxed Christmas card sales. We’re up more than 10% on last year. Placement flat on a table is the best way to merchandise these.
I caught the final episode of Recipe to Riches on Network Ten tonight and wish I had seen more of this excellent reality show. Packed in this food / cooking themed show was some excellent business information about developing commercially successful products. It’s this business side that I loved. There was excellent education about key business terms such as sell through and practical information shared about the process of bringing a product to market.
That the winning product was selected based on sales is an excellent lesson in what makes a winning product.
Too often game show winners and other business award winners are not selected based on data. A lack of transparency of process and criteria can be a turn off. Not so here. Recipe to Riches was a lesson in transparency, business education and delicious food all rolled into one.
I was talking with a newsagents today who faced the challenge of employees spending time handling text messages and checking Facebook on their phone. When I said they should have a no phones policy the newsagent, a new owner from a public service background, questioned a no phones policy. I said I’d open the topic here for discussion.
My view when it comes to employees what’s okay at the counter is: no phones, no bags, no notebooks, no food, no drinks, no smokes, no wallet. the counter is a work place and only items related directly should be there.
It used to be that Tuesday was quiet for newsagencies. With OzLotto and Powerball regularly jackpotting and with the change in magazine delivery days it’s time to ask newsagents about their busiest and quietest trading days.
This survey has two quick questions by store location and type. Click here to take the brief survey.
Blackhawk has advised that new Blackhawk Merchant Applications will not be processed between 18 Nov 2013 and 3 Feb 2014 due to the seasonal closure of the Blackhawk offices during this time. Last re-orders for card stock will be processed up until 6 Dec 2013 and will recommence on 13 Jan 2014.
If selling store branded gift cards is important to you, get onto this.
The latest issue of Enduro magazine is taking considerably more space than usual thanks to the free calendar packages wit it. While I like the idea of the gift, we have to increase space with either a second pocket next to the mag or by not using the pocket behind the mag. The publisher needs to realise that their decision has doubled the retail real estate investment that has to be made by newsagents to support this issue.
Okay, this is one title, let it slide is what some would say reading this. Newsagents carry between 700 and 1,500 titles. Multiply this type of challenge out by, say, 33% of all titles. No wonder we get frustrated. We’re taken for granted too often.
We are promoting the latest issue of Feast magazine with this in-clocation display right at the start of our food section. We also have Feast with weeklies as the featured title.
Next week we will run it with newspapers for a week. Feast responds well to this type of promotion.
A perth newsagent has been fined $1,000 for selling outlawed lanterns.
This video of part of a speech by Kevin Spacey is excellent. While it’s about disruption to the traditional TV distribution model, his core call is relevant to print and to newsagents.
Yes, we need to give customers what they want, where they want and how they want.
I love the sign they created at one of my stores to draw attention to small gifts. Need a small gift? is a simple question and by asking it our smart team is drawing attention to a niche of gifts we have to serve the need. Sales have been good of these and other small gifts in the small gifts section. It’s at the counter, making the promotion more valuable since many are purchased on impulse by shoppers who have already made their selection.
It’s simple attention to detail like this that can drive incremental business.
Here’s another success store for the discount vouchers we have now been running since February. Yesterday, a customer purchased two boxes of boxed Christmas cards. On receiving a voucher offering $2.00 off their next purchase, they went and selected a roll of Christmas wrap. This customer is not a regular. They didn’t want to miss out on saving $2.00. Over the two purchases we gave away just under 7% of a total spend of $26.00. I’m happy with that. their reaction tells me they will tell others.
A points-based loyalty offer would not have worked in this situation – because the shopper is not regular and because the value of points is not as obvious as a $$$ amount on a coupon.
Our card sales are up 12% year on year in this store and I think this is in part due to the discount vouchers program.
We are promoting Christmas Ideas from the US publisher of Better Homes and Gardens as our feature magazine of the week at the entrance to our main magazine aisle this week. This tactical placement is sure to sell copies as we’re getting it in front of the right shoppers at the right time. This placement is also promoting our point of difference in the magazine space. We will maintain the promotion for a week. Our placement of Lovatts Holiday Crossword in the sale location facilitated the sale of four additional copies in a week.
While Christmas is the major focus in newsagencies and retail more generally this time of the year, there are valuable season-within-season opportunities that could help you make even more money from Christmas overall.
By promoting these with separate displays, through your Facebook page and in single topic flyers you can make your business look more appealing to those eating to connect with threes opportunities. I’m not suggesting you reduce focus on Christmas. No, I am suggesting extra work for extra reward. Each opportunity could run for two weeks and be a special hero opportunity in store.
The opportunities include: graduation, Kris Kringle, end of year student / teacher gifts, neighbour gifts, sports team achievement awards. There are others I am sure.
The less our newsagency businesses look like a general store and the more we look like specialist retailers the more appealing we become and the more we will be remembered.
For years I have screened job applicants with an unscheduled pre-interview phone call. This has helped me eliminate candidates from further consideration.
I usually all saying that we have a ton of applicants and am screening them for a bit more information before deciding on the shortlist. I ask them to tell me more about themselves beyond what’s in their application and why they applied to us for work with us. These two questions are usually all I need to either confidently move to the next step or to eliminate a candidate from further consideration.
In retail we need people who are attentive and can engage with people they have never met before. While some may be uncomfortable on the phone, I think a call is a fair part of candidate assessment.
I have eliminated many candidates who didn’t know they had applied to work in a newsagency. One guy said I just clicked apply on every retail job I could find, I didn’t read the ads – and I didn’t consider him any further. I have eliminated others who had dreadful phone manner – sometimes there are so many applicants that you need even the slimmest excuse to cull someone from the pool.
I often follow up the two questions with a comment that we’ll do a police check if they get through the interview. I think this is the reason I sometimes receive an email following the call saying they have found a job elsewhere.
These pre-interview calls have helped boost candidates to the top of consideration because of their attentiveness and engagement in the call. What I love the most about the calls is their unpredictability. Since they are not scheduled and are unexpected to the recipient, they can go in any direction. I’ve found this to be a terrific help in finding people appropriate to the demands of a newsagency business.
taste is being advertised extensively on TV at the moment, making it a good magazine title to have in front of people who may not visit looking for it. We are promoting taste in food with a double pocket placement and a second location (varies between weeklies, newspapers and the counter) as a result of noticing the TV coverage.
As is shopping centre car parks in Australia are not busy enough this time of the year! Today at one shopping centre, several times I saw a court appointed sherif with lights flashing slowing moving past rows of cars checking number plates. If they find a plate that matches the computer system showing fines owed, the car is clamped.
While I understand governments want to collect their fines, they should not do it in such a way that disrupts retail, especially in a busy retail period! Click here and here for one of several stories showing this this really is a thing.
I like the window display I saw at a Kikki K store last week. Bright colours – blocked. A nice clean display – neat. Very appealing – eye catching.
This display is a good example of less is more.
Newsagents with window displays could do this with newsagency products given the colours of some products we sell.
Thinking about the magazine sales results out yesterday and the newsagency sales benchmark results released earlier this week I’d like to see a sales audit by channel: newsagents, supermarket, petrol and convenience and other. I’d like to see how our channel is faring against our competition.
Then, for clarity, I’d like to see the newsagency data cut by high street, supermarket etc by region.
This level of channel comparison would be useful in helping us not only understand year on year trends related to the medium but also trends flooring from the change in magazine delivery days. For example, in the latest newsagency sales benchmark, I saw some shopping centre businesses do reasonably well and high street situations in comparative locations drop close to 10%. While I have not looked at this in full detail yet, I suspect the change in magazine on-sale days in imp[acting high street newsagencies in a negative way and shopping centre newsagencies in a positive way.
This is an analysis we need to see so we can help high street newsagencies respond to the trend if my suspicions are real.
The free pedi scrub with the latest issue of Good Health magazine is a terrific gift for this title. It looks and feels substantial. Too often gifts with magazines are insubstantial. This gift is far from that and should drive excellent sales for this issue. It’s an issue to promote in a secondary location where those not looking for the title will see it.
The free Invisible Zinc gift with the latest issue of marie claire is another excellent gift with purchase in-store right now. The yellow card and the Zinc stand out when next to the pink of the magazine’s masthead. This is another title to promote in a second location to maximise the value of the gift.