We’re promoting diaries and calendars in our magazine department with special interest titles placed with or adjacent to magazines appealing to the same shopper. This placement is using recently released magazine space for the next couple of months before we replace it with regular shelving for other product.
In a communication to members yesterday, Ann Nugent QLD CEO of the ANF provided advice on insurance. My understanding is that Ann is not licenced to provide this advice. If Ann was licenced to provide the advice the licence number ought to appear on the advice. Ann could have sent the information saying as advised by the QNF brokers but she has not done this.
Ann’s advice refers to the risk of underinsurance. There is evidence circulating in Queensland of underinsurance being offered by providers to the newsagency channel. One can only guess that this is being done to achieve a lower premium. Such a goal does not make good business sense. As with any such business decision, be cautious and be satisfied that you know what you’ve got. Seek the advice of a professional.
The QNF is an industry association purporting to represent newsagents. Their communication needs to declare any commercial arrangement on the matter being communicated.
Despite small businesses employing more Australians than any other business block we receive less attention from our politicians. This is in part our own fault driven by disconnected representation and a lack of unity on issues.
One way to redress the disconnect between small business and politicians would be to require every politician, federal and state, to spend a week a year working in a small business in their electorate – paid real work.
The business should be chosen by random ballot – to remove the opportunity for mates looking after mates.
Besides the practical work experience, the politicians would gain a better understanding of the life and challenges of everyday Australians.
I am confident that after a couple of years we would see this small business work experience program drive a more practical narrative from politicians of all sides- and not just a small business focused narrative but one also more connected with real life.
We can’t compete with the lobbyists who are paid a fortune to guide our politicians to outcomes they want. Hence my call for a legislated week of small business work every year for every politician.
Imagine what discussions about paid parental leave, GST changes, assistance for the car industry or workplace relations changes would be like in the cabinet room if everyone at the table had done a week of real work in a small business beforehand. They would have reference points relevant not only to our small businesses but also to our employee colleagues, their constituents.
We’re enjoying this Slippery Wiggler product. It’s another impulse-purchase fun item we have our team members playing with, showing off to shoppers and selling as a result. It’s hard to hang onto – hence the name. It’s a perfect product to demonstrate.
Slippery Wiggler connects with the newsagency shopper as a gift line and as a counter line. It helps us serve younger shoppers and those who buy for younger shoppers. Like all product categories we need to balance the number of these funky / disposable fun products with everything else we sell – but this is retail management 101.
I was talking to a newsagent about Slippery Wiggler a couple of days ago. Their preference is to sell a more expensive gift. I want to sell both as both work in different situations to different shoppers. To me buying products to sell in my newsagencies is all about maximising the basket as greater shopper efficiency is vital to the success of any retail business.
Check out the two-page spread in the Herald Sun yesterday, promoting their print and digital offering. It’s a deal I suspect is more about the digital sub.
I was wrong. The original post earlier today said this ad covered the front page. This was my mistake – the ad was deep inside the newspaper. I could have taken the post down altogether but felt it best to leave it here to set the record straight.
Liberal leader Tony Abbott picked up a Geelong Advertiser at Highton Newsagency and then Tweeted about it. Welcome to another election stunt designed to promote a local candidate and show a small business connection.
As I found out when John Howard visited my Forest Hill newsagency in the 1998 election campaign, they want the photo in a small business but ignore you once they are in office.
The newsagency channel faces disruption of a similar scale to the TV networks yet we’re not getting hundreds of millions of dollars to help us navigate this. The Australian newsagency channel faces similar competition to the car industry in some respects yet we’re not getting hundreds of millions of dollars of handouts.
No, I’m not actually asking for handouts. Rather, I am suggesting that instead of opportunistic photos, politicians should meaningfully engage with newsagents and other small business people.
We’re lucky to have the P!NK 2014 calendar in-store in time for more P!NK concerts in town. We are embracing the timing opportunity with prominent placement of the calendar where shoppers who may like P!NK can see the calendar since they are probably not shopping today for a calendar.
By buying the calendars we want (as opposed to magazine publisher calendars) we are able to build more valuable brand-based stories that connect with other products we sell including magazines. The connections between key product categories in a newsagency are considerable. Cards, magazines, calendars and gifts ass relate to each other in a range of ways. Our business data shows the extent in each of our newsagencies.
No single supplier is going to connect the dots for us. This is where we need to be the retailer, we need to source products to connect the dots across product categories, so that we are able to tell more valuable retail stories in our businesses.
We’re promoting the new Peppa Pig partwork along with Peppa Pig plush and activity packs in a move that is driving sales of all products.
Our only frustration is the lack of stock of the Peppa Pig partwork. I am surprised the publisher was not more prepared for the success of this. The data on sales of Peppa products in Australia indicated the scope of the opportunity here. No matter, we’re selling all we can and reordering extra stock when it becomes available.
Peppa Pig is a good example of the value of brands in our businesses. By sourcing what we can from multiple suppliers we can leverage traffic generated by a partworks launch to drive margin dollars per sale. The result is excellent for us as it takes the small GP we make on the partworks launch issue and increases that many flow thanks to the 50% and 60% GP on the plush and other items.
This is another example of how newsagents can make money out of magazines.
Check out the collateral for Father’s Day being used by Whitcoulls in their downtown Auckland store. The poster has good visual cit-through – I noticed it from across the street. I like that it’s used consistently from the window through the store as it presents a consistent call-to-action message.
My first reaction was that the stop sign approach was not ideal but then I realised that it had had the desired effect on me.
When I meet with newsagents at industry events and conferences the most common question I’m asked at the moment is about the new discount vouchers approach to shopper loyalty. Better than the old and me-too approach of VIP card points-based programs, discount vouchers are changing shopper behaviour as I outline in a new video:
The beauty of discount vouchers is the ability to tweak management levers to customise the program specific to the needs of your business.
In one of my newsagencies confectionery is not strong enough to justify premium counter space so we have been trying more impulse purchase items. Our requirements are 50% GP or more, rapid turn and small footprint. These USB car chargers are ideal for our purpose – easily understood, good margin and good price point. We’re making more money from these than we make selling chocolate bars.
I appreciate our situation is not common in that most newsagents continue to enjoy success with chocolate at the counter. I expect that newsagencies in shopping centres will sell less confectionery in the future with the growth in convenience stores and stronger competition from new generation petrol outlets.
Check out the photo from a newsagent yesterday showing off the quality of NRL Poweplay as received in-store. labels from other newsagents stuck on the product. T
his is shameful. Network should have cleaned up this returned stock before sending it out to other newsagents. Now they have to make the product merchantable.
The bagged bundle of Cosmopolitan and OK! is frustrating. With OK! at the front the expectation is that we have it with weeklies. There’s no spare room there though. There is no point putting this with Cosmopolitan as it would look out of place. My understanding is supermarkets are paid for extra pockets. That we’re sent this additional ‘title’ imposes a cost burden on us that makes us less competitive. As a recent comment here showed, these bundles also impose frustrating management challenges.
For a recent thread of comments on bagged magazines click here. Also, to help keep track of this issue I have created a new category: Bagged magazines. I’ve retagged some past posts to build the history.
In an example of social media chronicling more than we’re used to from traditional media, Anne O’Keeffe a producer for ABC radio in Brisbane posted on Twitter about the closure of Nextra Booval Fair. Accompanying her tweet was a photo of the closed newsagency.
More and more newsagents are asking what I think about Hubbed. My answer is the same to all: do your homework, make sure you understand how it works, be certain it is right for your business before you sign anything and get every promise and commitment in writing.
I don’t know if Hubbed is good for newsagents because key information has not yet been made available. What I do know i that I will not, at this stage, be signing my newsagencies to Hubbed. I can put the $7 a day or $17 a day to more profitable use. Also, I see myself as a retailer and not an agent.
Hubbed is for agents who want others to generate traffic for them and who are happy to make a tiny amount from transactions.
Newsagents can’t rely on their industry association for guidance as it became conflicted when it accepted a 5% share in the Hubbed business. This is a mistake on the part of the ANF in my view.
At the Sydney GNS Market Fair the Hubbed people told newsagents to go to the Tower Systems stand and ask if the company will support Hubbed because POS Solutions is. (I own Tower Systems). Hubbed has never approached Tower. If they wanted to integrate to any newsagency software then they should approach this in the same way any supplier does and follow well established industry standards and not engage in juvenile trade show antics.
Ashley McGrath and David McLean from Hubbed reached out to me in January to talk about Hubbed before the launch. They sought my thoughts: We are shortly moving to pilot and, as an industry leader, I felt it would be worthwhile touching base and getting your thoughts on what we’re doing. Before engaging I wanted to know if they had a commercial relationship with the ANF. They refused to answer so I declined to meet. I wanted to understand whether newsagents were being represented by their association.
So, I’ve had no meeting with them and they have not approached me since. Yet here they are playing games talking about newsagency software integration when back in january they were adamant that such integration was not part of their plan.
All I have to go off is the contract offered by Hubbed to newsagents. Read my questions on the Hubbed contract for newsagents.
In terms of the business areas being pursued by Hubbed, I see bill payment as dead, especially the apparent approach being taken by Hubbed – the Australia Post offer seems far superior and more shopper friendly. The Visa card offer exists already thanks to Touch and ePay. Parcel handling is available for no up front cost thanks to N Parcel (ANF owned) and Parcel Point. Subscriptions are available through Touch. Gift cards are available through several suppliers.
I don’t see enough traffic generating value for $7 or $17 a day. But to assess the cost one needs to add in the retail space (costing between $5.00 and $10.00 a day in a shopping centre) and the labour cost.
I am raising these questions here because the ANF has abandoned its responsibility to its members and all newsagents. It is not able to objectively ask questions that need to be asked so that newsagents are more informed.
Hubbed may be good. Right now there is not enough information. If they have something so good and so valuable maybe we should setup a debate which newsagents can attend for the issues I have raised here can be explored.
All I want is for newsagents to be fully informed before signing any contract.
So, is Hubbed good for newsagents? I don’t know and I don’t see how anyone can know based on the incomplete information out there right now.
Footnote: my questioning of Hubbed here is leading to some attacking me behind my back. Anyone doing this is more suspicious in my mind. Every question I have raised could have a reasonable answer. Attacking me and not answering the questions should raise alarm bells. I’ve been open about my questions. I wish answers we being provided in a similar open way.
The Grow Your Magazine Sales video I posted here Thursday last week has been viewed 538 times as of this morning. While I’m pleased with this number, I’ll be even happier if newsagents watching the video chase magazine sales growth as a result.
Several newsagents have mentioned to me that during the Bauer Connections conference last week a comparison was drawn between the performance of magazine titles from Gotch versus Network with the inference being that Network success reads as Bauer success over Pacific.
If the feedback I’ve heard is anything to go by the comparison did not help build support for Bauer / Network. On the one hand Bauer people say they want the channel to be stronger yet their newsagent engagement is selfish, often seeking to drive consumers to their titles and away from competitor titles. A publisher focused on the broader health of magazines in newsagencies would take a more co-operative approach.
It’s been good to see newsagents engaging with Pacific Magazines on their stand at the GNS Market Fairs. Pacific has been pitching their nexus newsagent partnership and showing off the tools within nexus that make this a real partnership. At the fairs newsagents have been able to get free training as well as insights into how newsagents are driving shopper traffic and in-store engagement using the free tools in nexus.
It’s disappointing other magazine publishers have not embraced the trade show opportunity this year to better connect with newsagents.
While it still has a few hours to run, the GNS Market Fair in Sydney has been considerably busier than Melbourne. To me business is measured by newsagents on the floor, their level of engagement and the business being written by suppliers. I’d go as far as saying this is one of the best GNS fairs in Sydney I’ve been to.
NSW newsagents at the fair were upbeat too, talking about changes they are making in their businesses, talking like retailers more than agents. This has been good to see.
Only newsagents in regional and rural areas have access to TV advertising that is cost effective for an individual store. Get within 250km of a capital city and the price is prohibitive.
My tip today is: shoot your own TV commercial. Stick with the 30 second limit. See how you go pitching your business in a commercial as if it was to go to air. Okay it won;’t get in a TV network – but this idea is not about that. This idea is about you nailing your message.
What is it you pitch about your business, what makes your business so compelling that they will remember the ad and visit your shop?
Preparing an ad for your business can be good for the business as it forces you to think about your business from a different perspective.
So go on, let’s see You Tube flooded with 30 second ads made in-house by newsagents. Have fun.
Newsagents are time poor. This statement is made too often and it is rarely challenged. I think we need to challenge it – if only to think before we spend our time doing something.
I see newsagents doing things like ordering stock manually that they could do in a more automated way. I see newsagents running a business with full time management overhead which not be the case if owned by a big business operator. I see newsagents work from offices that are a hoarders dream more so than an efficient and organised office.
We can choose to NOT be time poor. Now before you say I have no idea what I talking about, consider what you do in an average day if you’re 100% in your newsagency. List down every single thing you do. I did this recently with a newsagent, they kept a notepad in their pocket. When we reviewed the list a day later they agreed that they could cut a third of what they do by delegation and close to another third by saying NO, I WON’T DO THAT. Yes, we need to say no to some things we do today, things that if they are not done the business will not be hurt.
For example, cut the time you spend with reps. If the relationship makes you money – sure see them. If it’s not making you money, cut it off. In another newsagency where I had this discussion the owners listed six rep visits a month they could cut. Will they? I suspect not. Should they? yes … because they say they are time poor.
In another example, consider outsourcing tasks that are more efficiently handled outside the business. I know a newsagent who uses an external bookkeeper. This provides another set of eyes on the business, keeps them on top of paperwork and frees the office / back room time for more productive work. yes there is a small cost but once they looked at it it was cheaper to use a bookkeeper than twice or three times the time for the owner to do the work in the shop or at home.
We can all make choices to stop busy work or work better handled in another way. We can have more time for work that matters in our newsagencies. We can make the decision to not be time poor.
The sales data from my stores yesterday shows Father’s Day in full swing with cards and gifts selling well. We’re on track to achieve a better result than last year. I’ve been interested to see the season unfold given some have been concerned about the impact of a much earlier Father’s Day this year – September 1. I expect this last week to deliver some excellent numbers.
We sold close to $600.00 worth of plush today in one of my stores, more than three times the usual amount. The person in charge of the store noticed centre management was running a Peppa Pig stage show. Here’s Jayden’s story – all his own initiative
The centre had a peppa stage show today. It was packed, there were no free spaces in the car park!
I had the stand on the lease line at the busiest entrance to the store. I haven’t provided a price on the stand. If a customer wants to know how much they are they have to ask one of us. At which time the customer has already convinced themselves that they want the product. Rather than walking up to a stand that says $12.95 and contemplating wether they want it or not.
Same rule applies to beanie boos which are now $8.95 up from $7.99.
I had a hand full of customers buying a plush item and then redeeming their Discount Voucher on a Father’s Day card, or vice versa.
Brilliant!
I’ll be at the GNS Market Fair in Sydney today and tomorrow. I’d be happy to catch up with anyone wanting to talk newsagency channel issues or matters relating to their newsagency. M | 0418 321 338.
These plush snakes did not work for us. We tried them in several locations and we could not sell one. The moment we cit the price they started moving. In fact we sold half our stock in a little over a week. We’d not sold one for ,ore than two months.
The lessons for us snakes are probably not right for our customers and a slimmer margin should be tried sooner on slow moving stock. Yes we’re disappointed but we are grateful for the experience. Oh, and NO, I di not wish they were sale or return. Sale or return is a blight on our businesses.