We’re promoting Military Vehicles, the new partwork in a couple of locations including with military magazines. We’re not expecting big sales because of the special interest nature. I’d have preferred the launch issue to come out a bit later – close to Father’s Day.
The latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine in the US features a photo of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the two accused of the recent bombings in Boston. 7-Eleven has removed the title from sale as has national drug store (c-store) chains CVS, Walgreens and some other retailers – see the report in Time for details on this. The Huffington Post report is also worth reading.
You can read the cover story article here.
I am interested in the story from the perspective of a retailer – would I take this issue of Rolling Stone off the shelves? This question is different for an independent retailer compared to a national chain as the stakes for the national chain are higher and the pressure that can be brought to bear through social media far greater.
From what I can tell many complaining about Rolling Stone are more concerned abut the cover photo than the article itself. They say it disrespects the victims of the bombing and glorifies the alleged bomber. Others say it’s not the role of the music magazine to cover the story. The attention the cover is receiving on Twitter and Facebook is extraordinary.
To me, Rolling Stone is demonstrating its relevance as a media outlet by covering this story. I’d go as far as saying that controversial as it may be, the cover makes commercial sense for the magazine. The best news outlets are those that take us places we may otherwise ignore, showing us angles we may not want to see. Democracy will not be well served by us only being fed stories and images we want to see.
Would I have this magazine on my shelves? Yes. Would I have this magazine on my shelves if my business was located in the US? Probably but I’d take on board feedback from customers. I’d not want to get into a position where customers control what I sell as it’s my business and I’m less likely to be successful if I let the tail wag the dog.
Of course I can’t truly say what I’d do if I were in the US as the politics and emotions around the issue of the Boston bombings and terrorism generally cannot be fully understood from this distance.
The photo is from the Rolling Stone website.
Rather than wait to see what happened s a result of the change in magazine delivery days, we introduced a new promotion to attract shoppers. The posters were placed to be seen in the mall, to attract people into our newsagency, to try and break into their destination shopping plans.
This is my newsagency marketing tip today – work with suppliers to unlock offers you can promote to get people into your shop on a day they would not usually visit. Run the offer for a limited time, a time that suits your needs. A secondary tip is: don’t wait to see how a cahnge impacts you – get on the front foot and drive change for yourself.
If you’re not tracking it you’re not managing it. Newsagents who do not track every stock item that enters and leaves their business are more likely to find their business harder to sell. The excuse of I don’t have time doesn’t work as the time involved is not excessive. A newsagency purchase fell over recently because the vendor did not have accurate data including purchase price and, importantly, time in-store.
A newsagency with accurate data is more appealing to buyers.
Kenny’s Cardiology yesterday sent an email to some newsagents encouraging them to rebrand their business as Kenny’s Cardiology as a solution to crisis. I’m not sure how many newsagents were sent the email – I received copies from several newsagents. It was an odd communication to get out of the blue from a company not in direct regular communication with newsagents.
Kenny’s Cardiology is using fear in their brochure by including headlines like BREAKING NEWS: DON’T LOSE YOUR BUSINESS, UNDER THREAT and GOING OUT OF BUSINESS. The brochure claims that the solution to what they label as a crisis is to rebrand as Kenny’s Cardiology.
The brochure also runs some headlines about digital print, lotto moving online, newspaper sales declining and while these things may be true, many newsagents are responding to these challenges by embracing them as opportunities for change.
I wonder if one motivation for the Kenny’s promotion to newsagents is that there are some newsagents doing well in the gift space Kenny’s has occupied for many years. I don’t include cards there since newsagents sell more cards than any other channel. It’s possible that newsagents who have moved into the gift space have taken sales from Kenny’s. If that’s the case this campaign from Kenny’s could be their way of fighting back, addressing, maybe and I am only speculating here, a crisis for them or some of their branded stores.
Think about it, newsagents account for considerably more gift sales today that even three or four years ago. Some of the gift sales have been won from other retailers, maybe some from Kenny’s stores.
The brochure says that rebranding as Kenny’s Cardiology would give newsagents – the brochure is squarely aimed at newsagents – brand recognition and card and gift credibility. Many newsagents have card and gift credibility today. As I have noted here over the years there are many newsagents doing excellent business with gifts and cards already and achieving great year on year growth.
Newsagents wanting to research Kenny’s can find out more at their website.
Footnote: I am a Director of newsagency marketing group newsXpress. I mention this as the pitch from Kenny’s appears to place them in the newsagency marketing group space, competing with Newspower, nextra, news extra and newsXpress.
The Scooby Do Holiday Hi Jinks ‘magazine’ pack is expensive at $12.95 in my view. Inside the pack are four small booklets. The package is made to look bigger with a large plastic sleeve. It’s not worth $12.95 in my view. We received this in-store after school holidays so it’s late connecting with holidays – too late for me to justify keeping it on the shelves. So, I’ve early returned this title.
The supply of this title is an example of something that only gets to newsagents because of a magazine supply model that does not respect us. We have to give our space and labour for a product that’s late and too expensive. The only way our major competitors would get this title is if they are paid a fee to take it.
One day magazine publishers and distributors will wonder why newsagents are getting out of magazines.
Sales of the Knit & Stitch partwork have been excellent in the first few days on-sale – no thanks to the lack of reasonable supply of marketing collateral and a display unit.
We have Knit & Stitch placed on the lease line, facing into the shopping mall as well as deeper in-store. We’re chasing a sell out by the end of next week – for sales as well as for space reasons.
Here is another newsagency business performance assessment I have completed. This regional high-street business (population 3,200) is in the middle of significant owner driven change, building a higher average GP and basked size. Here’s what I sent the owners…
I have reviewed your business sales and other data for the year to June 30, 2013 and compared it with data for the year prior. I have selected the year on year comparison, as opposed to my usual three month comparison, as it provides a better analysis of the changes you have made to the business.
In your business data I can see that you don’t scan all stationery items with 4,405 items being sold using department keys in one six month period. While this could be cardboard or loose paper, it’s important you check. In my own newsagencies we do not use department keys at all and the result is more useful business data.
Your newsagency is what I’d call traditional in product mix. yes, You are introducing some new products – but you need to do more to keep ahead of the waves of change hitting your business and all newsagencies. Bring on change through your actions and not as a reaction to what is hitting you.
- OVERALL SALES. Total sales fell by 5% in 2012/13 compared to 2011/12. That’s on average 163 sales each week. This decline requires a response from you as business owners – what are you doing inside and outside the business to bring in new traffic?
- OVERALL REVENUE. This is down 3% year on year, meaning you are earning more from each transaction than in a year earlier.
- AVERAGE ITEMS PER SALE. You have 1.734 items per sale. This is a good number, nicely above average for a newsagency in Australia.
- AVERAGE SALE VALUE. Your average sale value of $9.49 is terrific – up 7% on a year earlier. This is what is softening the impact of a small decline in sale transactions.
- CALENDARS. I can see this is your first year with a separate calendar department. $1,362 in sales at 60% gross profit is a good starting point. Your magazine data could guide you in calendar purchasing. I have found magazine sales data to be the best guide in this area.
- CARDS. Your sales are up 4% year on year. The data shows the shift from one card company to another and in this a shift in price point focus. While the 4% increase is good, I’d stay on top of the card relationship by requesting a review to tweak what you have … chasing more growth this year. Your card data can better inform your gift, toy and plush buying. for example, I think you could increase plush sales by 500% on the basis of your card sales.
- GIFTS. While you had gifts the year earlier, your sales result in 2011/12 of $1,312.61 is nothing compared to $15,402.26 this year. As well as increasing revenue from gifts by 537% you have increases your average GP. Based on your card sales I am certain you could grow gifts further this year. I suggest you target $25,000 as your sales target for gifts this year. I am certain you can achieve this. I’d suggest you move toys to their own department for more accurate reporting. Looking at Toys I can see this accounted for most of your 2011/12 gift revenue – making the result in 2012/13 even more stunning. Well done.
- INSTANT SCRATCH TICKETS. With ticket sales down 6% and revenue down 10% you have to look at how you promote these. Are you and your team engaged? Are tickets being offered across the counter? The data indicates the decline is in the lower denomination tickets.
- MAGAZINES. Unit sales down 5% and revenue down 7%. These figures are not bad compared to the newsagency channel average. Whatever you are doing – keep doing it but do more to ensure that you keep the decline in check.
– Women’s Weeklies are only down 3% – an excellent result considering what I see elsewhere. Since they account for 26.72% of your sales the good performance is important to you.
– Your commitment to special interest titles sees them accounting for 12.39% of your magazine sales at around $500 a week. This is important since special interest titles are usually only sold in newsagencies.
– Well done on the 13% year on year growth in teen magazines and 15% in buying and selling.
– I can see from your magazine data that your shoppers are more likely to be women: craft 7.55%, Home & Lifestyle 8.19%, women’s Interests 4.89%, Women’s Weeklies 26.72%, Food 2.59% and Crosswords 4.34%. Are all your women-focused titles in the one area? Is this easily shopped? Could you improve their shopping experience?- NEWSPAPERS. Unit sales are down 7% just below the newsagency channel average. The concern is that this reflects a decline in traffic, a decline you need to replace. The other question re the 37,919 newspaper sales in the year is – what’s next to your top selling newspapers? You ought to have products you want purchased on impulse next to them. For example: better Homes & Gardens Thursday through Sunday, Women’s Weekly the first few days it comes out etc.
- STATIONERY. You dropped $14,500.85 in revenue over they year, a decline of 7%. This is higher than the channel average. What’s interesting in your data is the growth for account books – 25% year on year, Binders – 15%, crepe paper – 25%, Notebooks – 21%. A deeper analysis is challenged because you’re slack in managing your data – you have $11,509 in sales sitting in unknown category. This can be easily fixed to give you accurate data. In terms of stationery overall, connect with your GNS rep and ask for an assessment based on their top selling stationery items in the area. It could be that you have some opportunities here.
- LOTTO SALES. Well done on the 12% increase in sales, this is better than average. What are you doing to encourage and guide your lotto customers into purchasing other items? You had 38,172 transactions in 2012/13 – plenty of opportunity for promoting other parts of your business.
As I noted above, what you have is a reasonably traditional newsagency but I can see transition underway in some areas. I think you need to pick up the pace on this transition, chasing new traffic by expanding your product offering.
I feel for newsagents who sell lottery products as they would have had additional challenges yesterday with Powerball at $30 million and handling the first Thursday delivery of magazines.
I suspect the newsagencies with larger magazine departments will need a few weeks to settle in operationally with the changes. I know we will. There are many factors in addition to getting stock out: promotional displays, processing returns, placement management and setting the shop for the weekend. This is work that was spread over two days with one of those days being regular hours.
It will take a couple of months for us to see any change in traffic caused by the change. That said, magazine sales yesterday were up but Wednesday and Thursday combined were down on what we usually experience across the two days. This will be something to check on in a couple of months.
Here’s how we used the cards provided by Pacific Magazines for promoting the Thursday on sale of Who and That’s Life – with placement under each title. This unit sits on the lease line as a second location for the titles displayed.
I like the poster Bauer provided access to for promoting the change in magazine delivery day and we used it to pitch the change.
I wish publishers helped us present a completely unified message to our customers. We have plenty of other great magazines now on sale Thursday.
The ANF advised newsagents last night that it had met with the ATO re the tax pack mess. There is to be another meeting next week. As long as they are meeting there is hope of a fair outcome for newsagents – but I’m not confident that the ATO cares about fairness for newsagents.
I remain keen to know what the distributor to newsagents got paid. I am also keen to hear the ATO explain why their representatives will say to one person that they have two million tax packs in warehouses yet to the ANF they say they don’t have enough to distribute to newsagents.
The behaviour of the ATO is disgusting. Newsagents are being paid less than a welfare payment to carry a public information burden the ATO should take responsibility for.
If I had a newsagency in a high street situation I think I’d be looking at breakfast on the go opportunities for attracting more shoppers. While I know some who have gone with coffee, I am not aware of any newsagent taking a strong stand with a breakfast offer.
In the breakfast on the go mix I’d include yoghurts, meal drinks like Up & Go, pre-packed fresh bakery items – hot and cold if possible and practical, fruit, breakfast bars and hot drinks.
Depending on location, I could go further as some newsagents already have by creating a cafe. My thoughts this morning are about tapping into the breakfast on the go opportunity specifically and noting that newsagents in the right location could move into this without dedicating too much space.
If you’re not sure about the scope of the opportunity for you look at convenience stores, supermarkets and petrol outlets nearby. They will most likely have this covered and they are grabbing your magazine customers – and maybe customers looking for other items you sell.
Every newsagent needs to be working on attracting shoppers for more than magazines, lottery tickets, newspapers and greeting cards. Breakfast on the go could work for some.
Touch Networks asked newsagents how they would like suppliers to communicate with them. The survey results make interesting reading. Click here to see the survey results in full – I provide the link with permission from Touch.
The results show that newsagents prefer to receive information via email, website, social media and industry magazine in that order. none want to receive information from suppliers via a phone call. Suppliers note!
One trend I have noticed recently is a supplier emailing and then calling a few minutes later to see if I got the email.
This research from Touch Networks is terrific. It’s part of their focus on further improving their own communication with newsagents. They offer a good suite of mobile phone recharge products, phonecard products and other items we can easily sell in our newsagencies.
I like the retro pens we’ve got in from Parker. They are a nice fit with a retro display and they work well at the counter stand alone.
With retro being so in right now, the launch of this range is well timed. Also, it’s to celebrate Parker’s 125th anniversary.
The display unit is quite small so it needs to be called out in some way to appeal to fans of retro product. We are trying some things here to connect with these shoppers.
Golden Casket newsagents in Queensland have won an increase in commission to 9.3%. The Newsagencies For Sale website has the information. This is great news for QLD newsagents. It makes newsagency businesses more appealing to buyers.
There are two types of traffic generation I obsess about in my newsagencies: getting customer inside and getting them further inside.
Often in a newsagency customers only shop the front part of the business. We need to work hard to lure traffic further inside our newsagencies. We can do this by giving shoppers a reason to shop the shop.
One product we use to lure shoppers deeper into the business is the humor spinner from card company Spirit. I find this works a treat. The stands attracts two types of people – those looking for a funny card and those who pass time reading funny cards. The stand is a perfect browsing opportunity.
We move the Spirit humor stand around the store every few weeks. Right now it’s located in front of our magazine department where it is attracting more shoppers to our magazine department. I’d encourage other newsagents with the stand to try this placement. You’ll see upside in Spirit card sales as well as upside in magazine sales.
The other day I noticed a shopper browsing the cards and then moving to browse magazines. While I can’t be certain, it looked to me like they only got to our magazines thanks to the card unit. They bought a magazine.
It’s important we do this, place products such that they bring shoppers deeper into our shops. Indeed it is this above average behavior as retailers that will help deliver for us above average business results.
Newsagents who run their businesses in an average way will achieve average results. Yes this is a glib comment. It’s also true.
I urge newsagents reading this to look at their product placement to assess whether they are, through this, luring shoppers deeper into their shops. Excellent spinners, like this one from Spirit, can help us achieve better results from existing foot traffic.
FOOTNOTE: Reflecting my obsession, I’ve asked staff to ensure the spinner is turned to a specific facing of cards as I see this as working best to get people engaged. Crazy, yeah – but chasing sales.
I noticed iPad & iPad mini for Seniors in a newsagency earlier this week. It’s a title I could sell easily in my three newsagencies. To get it I have to chase it. Despite their claims otherwise, too often the magazine distributors do not scale out based on what their data shows will sell in a newsagency. This failure drives oversupply as well as undersupply and causes plenty of frustration for newsagents. This failure is what we will find is one cause of newsagents getting out of magazines in the future.
We received five boxes of Teen Beach Movie postcard packs from Network Services Monday in what appears to be gross oversupply. One of our team members checked and discovered Teen Beach Movie is a made for TV Disney Channel movie to be broadcast in Australia on August 9 on the Australian Disney Channel. Unless there is something missing
Here is another newsagency performance assessment I have recently completed. This is an interesting business facing traffic disruption in a high tourism location – challenges faced by many newsagents.
My comments are direct and to the point. My intention is not to offend but to get your better engaged with the management of your newsagency business.
Good data feeds good business decisions. I can see in your Monthly Sales Comparison Report data that you do not scan everything you sell. For example, in the three months I have data for, you sold 546 stationery items without scanning them and 4,248 newspapers without identifying the titles (by scanning them or using a hotkey). It’s important you scan everything.
Now, onto my analysis of sales by each part of the business comparing three months this year to the same period a year ago.
- OVERALL SALES. Number of sales is down 11%. This is worse than the average I am seeing for newsagency businesses.
- REVENUE. This is down by 15%. It is concerning that the fall here is bigger than the fall in the number of sale transactions. The best way to assess this is by looking at GST collected.
- CARDS. Sales are down 3% off a low base. I am not too concerned here. however, I note that you;re doing only $500 a week in cards. Is this an opportunity. While I appreciate you see mainly tourist customers, could you change your card offer to better connect with tourists?
- CIGARETTES. The decline of 18% is considerable. You’re now doing $2,200 a week in sales. You need to check your stock holding as if it is greater than $5,000 you are probably losing money. The other option is to look at your price. Are you making the highest margin you can based on your convenient location.
- GIFTS. Sales are up by 599% off a tiny base. $75 a week in gift sales is hardly earth shattering. Based on your card sales you should be doing at least $200 a week in gifts however I suspect you could do far better than this. The gift category is important since it lifts the overall gross profit of your business.
- INSTANT SCRATCH TICKETS. Your sales are down by 22% and this is worse than the average decline for Queensland. This needs urgent attention.
- LOTTO SALES. Your lotto sales are up 4% and while this is good news, the increase is lower than the average I am seeing for Queensland. Yu need to do better. how are you promoting. If you are only doing what is asked of you it is not enough. Come up with your own ideas for promoting lotto products. A good campaign can draw shoppers from the street.
- MAGAZINES. Some good news here. Unit sales declined 8% and sales declined 9% – both lower than your overall store average. That said, your weekly sales total of $1,550 is low. In fact, it could put your accounts at risk. I’d urge you to take a hard look at your magazine department: undertake a full relay, make your magazine layout compelling and enjoyable. Entice shoppers with your placement.Your data shows the convenience nature of the business with women’s weeklies accounting for 19.74% of all sales Your 3% growth here is good. Continue to focus on this category as the hero.
– Women’s Interests magazines account for 12.96% of sales but they are down by 15% year on year. This is where a relay should help.
– Sport magazines account for 15.85% of your magazine sales. Excellent news. However, your sales are down by 23%.
– I am surprised at the small contribution of some categories and would encourage you to work on growing their sales: food, crosswords, motoring and computers & gaming.- NEWSPAPERS. The decline in unit sales of 22% must be of concern to you. That’s a decline of 535 newspapers a week. You have to be asking yourself what are you doing to replace this lost traffic? Now is the time for this question to be asked and an action plan put in place.
- STATIONERY. Revenue is down 22% and stationery sales are down to $700 a week. I’d be looking very carefully at your range and wondering if you have the right mix for your convenience / tourism shoppers.
Your location and product sales mix makes me ask the question: Is it time for you to cease identifying as a newsagency and start trading with a different business identity more attuned to people walking past your business? Give people more reason to walk in and browse your shop than the old newsagency approach that may not be connecting with shoppers in your unique situation.
Your data shows a fundamental shift away from traditional newsagency products and if this is not responded to by the business then a predictable end for the business will be reached. This does not have to be the case. Your data also shows opportunities in terms of the types of customers and what they are buying. Use this data to kick start your business plans.
If it were up to me I’d rebrand as something fresh – after I had reconfigured the business to sell products to the unique people who walk past your shop front every day. I’d look carefully at the successful retail businesses nearby. I’d also look at how I could make shopping with me easier and more enjoyable.
I hope these comments help.
In a follow-up discussion with one of the owners of the business I’ve got an excellent answer for the department sales of stationery – cardboard and paper without barcodes.
We’re enjoying excellent success with Forever Clover, a trading card product for girls.
Our success is a direct result of the intervention of the manager of one of my newsagencies. He went looking for a trading card product for girls and found this. Forever Clover had not been sent to us by Gordon & Gotch – we chased it.
We have Forever Clover at the counter next to the AFL cards – a strategic and successful placement.
We’re seeing excellent sales of the inflatable card range from Hallmark. They are an easy shop floor pitch to card browsers as the card becomes a gift in itself. I think our sales have been helped by the header cards – a line in a row makes them stand out from all kids cards. Innovation in card products is important as it helps to us to reach a broader range of shoppers with the category. Today’s card shopper has more options than ever for expressing feelings and card design needs to innovate to be competitive.
The Age today published a good report about challenges faced by online retailers, focused on a specific example of challenges faced by bike retailers. This article drew many comments – 417 by 1pm when comments were closed. It shocks me that they would shut down comments. Okay some were off topic while others were used to push commercial agendas but most comments were contributions to a good discussions.
Comments are the lifeblood of online content. I have seen situations where comments have given otherwise missed content a stronger life.
Fairfax management charged with the online / digital future of the company ought to review their position on comments.
I’d be interested in hearing from newsagents on what they offer in terms of rest and meal breaks. I am especially interested in rest breaks and how you roster to minimise the interruption in smaller newsagencies. I prefer an approach that’s more relaxed re access to drinks and bathroom breaks than a formal break.
Here’s what the retail award says FYI:
Unit sales of AFL cards are up more than 25% year on year for us and we’re very happy with that. As the photo shows we’re not doing anything special other than giving over a small amount of space at the counter. I’d be interested in year on year sales data comparing newsagencies to convenience and other outlets with the products.
The benefit for us is more than the 25% sales growth of the AFL cards thanks to products we have placed next to the cards through the season.