Boxed Christmas cards take off
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.
Why Recipe to Riches was excellent TV
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.
What’s allowed at your counter?
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.
Is Tuesday still the quietest day of the week for newsagents?
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.
If you want Blackhawk gift cards – Hurry!!!
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.
Fat Enduro magazine!
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.
Promoting Feast magazine
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.
Newsagent fined $1,000
A perth newsagent has been fined $1,000 for selling outlawed lanterns.
Kevin Spacey speaks about dealing with disruption
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.
Promoting small gifts at the newsagency sales counter
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.
How to get the wrap sale with Christmas boxed cards
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.
Featuring Christmas Ideas magazine
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.
Sunday newsagency marketing tip: embrace the season within a season opportunities
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.
Sunday newsagency management tip: use a pre-interview call to screen employee candidates
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.
Leveraging the taste TV campaign
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.
Sheriffs clogging shopping centre car parks
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.
Terrific clean window display @ Kikki K
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.
We need an audit by channel
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.
Pedi scrub gift set to drive Good Health sales
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.
marie claire Invisible Zinc gift to drive sales
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.
Weekly magazine sales dive
Sales of weekly magazines dropped significantly the latest sales audit shows: Famous down 17.69%, New Idea down 5.97%, NW down 8.0%, OK! down 17.52%, Take 5 down 7.96%, That’s Life down 11.23%, Who down 8.9% and Woman’s Day down 4.9%. A tough audit all round. AdNews has the details.
Massive declines in newspaper sales
The sales decline experienced by capital city newspapers in the latest audit is considerable: The Age, down 15.46%, Sydney Morning Herald 15.23%, The Daily Telegraph down 15.15%, the Herald Sun down 13.19%. Mumbrella has the details.
It’s interesting to see the declines for one newspaper towns: Courier Mail, Advertiser, Mercury – all down significantly.
Start now on Halloween 2014
I noticed more schools and community groups engaged in Halloween events this year – like Spooky Night – Ghosts of Abbotsford Past being run by Abbotsford Primary School. This is the type of event a newsagency could support as part of their Halloween marketing campaign. It’s a good way to support the school and tie in with what your business sells. My experience is that schools welcome support.
Newsagents planning on embracing Halloween next year should reach out to local schools around now and negotiate an exclusive promotion / sponsorship arrangement. The dollars don’t have to be high. Indeed, support could be in the form of an art project.
It’s small marketing projects like this that can be far more beneficial than one large campaign when everyone else is running campaigns.
Bauer makes us fat with too many copies of cheesecake cookbook
We received twenty-three (yes, 23!) copies of the Cheesecakes mini cookbook from Bauer yesterday. Under ACP we used to get ten and ended up returning five or six. Bauer takes over and now we get twenty-three. This is ridiculous, a waste of time, space and cash. Maybe this over-allocation is a result of less human resources involved in the allocations process. Something is wrong and if others have been oversupplied like me small business newsagents are suffering the consequences. Bauer are supposed to be the sales based replenishment experts.
Instead of spending money on conferences and training sessions and telling newsagents how important we are to their business, Bauer should invest in a fairer allocations process. This is what newsagents care about the most – fair allocation based on sales data.
Gotch takes on Network’s magazine junk?
The Mega Trading Card Collector Pack units that did not sell when distributed through Network Services have made their way to some newsagencies through Gotch. They – the publisher? the distributor? – didn;t even have the courtesy to remove the old pricing stickers. Appalling.
This scale out of stock that failed to sell is a perfect example of how broken the magazine distribution model is. The stock now doing the rounds again is failed stock. Newsagents are being asked to provide space, labour and cover the freight of stock that fails to sell again.
Magazine publishers who want a healthy newsagency channel need to lobby to fix this. Every time they use magazine distributors they are aiding and abetting this other behaviour that harms us.