A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Why media companies should not be listened to on media reform

I am disappointed that politicians are listening to media companies about media reform. Here is another issue where the voters are ignored in favour of conflicted special interest groups. One only has to look at how the media companies are reporting on reform to see why at the very least a public interest advocate is a good thing.

These media companies have a vested interest – profit. The reform is about a balanced media we can trust. Trust is not part of the profit equation.

Every time I see another story about a media owner or manager lobbying a politician I wonder why smokers don’t get to lobby on tobacco or fat people on food laws or communities on fracking. Hang on, the companies that stand to profit get to do the lobbying.

Politicians go where the money is for counsel. Media companies go where the money is on lobbying.

The reporting of the debate on media reform in and of itself demonstrates the need for reform.  The sad thins is that many Australians will not see this as they have been told otherwise – by some of the media companies most in need of more oversight.

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Ethics

Small regular employee theft can be hard to track

I’ve been helping a business recently where an employee was stealing between $10 and $30 a day. They were stealing by not recording services the business charged for, services which were not reconciled in the business – thereby making uncovering the theft difficult.

It was only when the employee was not in the business for a time that it was noticed.

It’s important that you have processes to track everything, that all revenue, including for services, is reconciled.

This low-level theft, lunch money theft I’d call it, is as disgusting as employees who steal tens of thousands of dollars. The emotional cost is as high and the impact on the business can sometimes be almost as great.

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theft

Zoodle continues to evolve

The Zoodle new retail concept from WH Smith I mentioned in December continues to evolve. The Melbourne airport store is more complete today – as one would expect. There is no mistaking the focus of the business – it’s all about kids. They are using excellent signage in-store to direct you to key sections. They are also using well-known brands to attract shoppers. Being able to see Scooby Doo and Hello Kitty high above the product from a distance outside the store is very smart.

I could imagine that a Zoodle shop in a major Australian shopping centre would do excellent business.

It’s almost worth newsagents booking an international flight out of melbourne just to look at Zoodle live.

Well done WH Smith.

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Newsagency management

Peppa Pig is an excellent traffic-generating brand for newsagents

We have been enjoying good sales of Peppa Pig products for some time. Now, thanks to a new range of products in-store, we are set to generate more traffic and sales from Peppa Pig.

This is another example of the importance of brands to our businesses. Good brands generate traffic for us and generating traffic is vital as other key traffic generators do not generate the traffic they used to.

There is no big new traffic generator for newsagents but there are plenty of these smaller, valuable, traffic generators – such as brands like Peppa Pig.  Thanks to more suppliers being prepared to sell to newsagents we can play in this space, leveraging well established and popular brands to bringing new traffic to our businesses.

Every trade show and product buying opportunity we attend we look for brand-name products we can add to our mix to make our newsagency more appealing to shoppers who are not currently regulars with us.

We currently have the Peppa Pig display at the entrance to our magazine department.

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Gifts

OK! to close?

The Daily Telegraph has run a piece asking whether Bauer is to close OK! magazine on the back of falling circulation. In the latest audit, sales were down 11.4%.

Moves like should not be unexpected of Bauer, new owner of the ACP business. I expected them to take a look at all current titles and close some in preparation for some launches.

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magazines

How can you price compare when other retailers don’t have the products you have Officeworks?

I received an Officeworks catalogue at my home on the weekend and went to check their ink price against ours. The few ink products listed were value packs. Most I’d not seen before.  It’s possible that Officeworks has products exclusively for a period and that their price, for such a period, would always be the lowest as it would be the only price. If this is the case, Officeworks should tag the product as exclusive so shoppers know they can’t price compare.

Why does this matter? Officeworks make a big deal about having the lowest prices and that they themselves regularly price compare. This can’t be done for products they have exclusively.

I’d love the see Choice do some work on this. Better still, maybe the ACCC could look at it given their renewed interest in the supermarket duopoly.

The Officeworks catalogue says they do price checks twice a day to make sure they are the cheapest. This work is easier if some of the products are exclusive to them.

Australians think newsagency businesses are expensive. This is in part due to the advertising might of our major competitors like the supermarkets of which Officeworks is part.

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Ethics

New Visa card surcharge rules come into force today

New rules come into force today on the application of surcharges for processing payments made by a card. The RBA website has background to the creation of rules relating to surcharge here. It’s worth newsagents checking out the Visa press release here. Visa’s new rules apply from today.

It’s also worth reading what change.org is saying and doing about this in terms of Jetstar.

Newsagents who apply a surcharge to any card payment transaction need to look carefully at how they calculate and apply the surcharge.

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EFTPOS fees

Appealing to cat lovers drives plush sales

We usually don’t see plush as plush. No, we see it as the recipient will see it – the expression of love, the message of congratulations, the warmth of a hug or something offering companionship. Yes, these plush cats are something customers purchase as gifts for friends and family in hospital or other places where they can’t have a cat. Appealing to cat lovers is proving to be good for business with these cats being picked up on impulse, adding to a deeper and more valuable basket.

Often, newsagents and other retailers have looked at plush through narrow eyes. By focusing on the occasion we see more opportunities than ever in plush products.

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Plush

Supporting the latest Smith Journal

We are supporting the latest issue of Smith Journal with placement in three locations in-store including this placement with men’s magazines. We have found the best way to cut through with this title is to show off the full cover in this type of wide placement. It’s eye-catching without needing to be dressed up with anything more. Smith Journal appeals to an important demographic for us.

 

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magazines

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: reward genuine loyalty and customers will reward you

There are loyalty programs and then there are loyalty programs. The former are more about collecting shopper data than offering a reward for loyalty. The latter are about getting shoppers to act in an above-average way – rewarding you business in return for you rewarding them.

It’s easy to accrue points on purchase … what are you doing with them?

It’s easy to let a lucky customer win a prize … how do other customers feel?

Before you start with a loyalty program, work out the sort of program you want. This means working out the outcome for your business.  It should be to drive sales and achieve a higher sales efficiency from your customers.  If this is the case, then your loyalty program has to relentlessly target these goals.

In my experience working with a broad range of programs – at the single store as well as networked group levels – programs operating at the single store level work best. They drive loyalty to your business.  Next, programs that reward shoppers and encourage them to return sooner work a treat.

Setting up and managing a loyalty program takes time to get right for your business. Invest in this and the rewards should be good.

In my newsagencies at the moment I am trialling three different programs to see which best achieves my goal of bringing shoppers back in sooner. As with any loyalty program tracking shopper engagement using the newsagency software is the key … tracking, reporting, tweaking.

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marketing

Sunday newsagency management tip: how do you manage your time?

This is pretty basic really. Management 101. But I have to ask everyone who manages a newsagency: do you start your day with a to do list? My follow-up questions is: do you check that you’ve completed everything?

I am sometimes surprised at how much management time is spent running a newsagency. It’s usually considerably more that a chain store (or department) of a similar revenue size. I’ve noticed in some newsagencies where there is way more management time spent that I;d expect – there is no plan for the day, week or month, no to-do list. Days happy … they’re always busy … I am told.  But I am also told that they don’t get to important projects because there is no time.

Time availability is a function of how you manage it.

I start every day with a to-do list. Always have.

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Management tip

What’s your revenue per retail employee?

I have been doing some work with newsagents recently on labour cost and comparing revenue per employee to gauge the roster efficiency, or otherwise, of a newsagency.

Revenue per employee is a good metric to compare as long as you agree on some common rules.  For example, I don’t include hours or revenue for non directly retail related activity, I add up all hours worked for a year and divide by 38 to get to employee years and I include commission only on agency lines.

I have seen newsagencies with annual revenue per employee as low as $98,000 and others with annual revenue per employee as high as $304,000.  In one of my newsagencies for which I have done the calculation the figure is $246,000 per employee per year. This is a retail only newsagency with what I’d consider to be a lean roster. However, we are into growth in gross profit.

Comparing newsagencies demands that the businesses are similar and this is becoming more of a challenge as our channel evolves and diversifies. For example, a newsagency with a higher than average GP could sustain a lower per employee revenue figure. This is why annual GP per employee is probably a better measure.

I’d love newsagents to share their annual revenue per employee figures here. Just calculating it is instructive and eye-opening. Working on it by trimming the roster and or driving sales is the essential challenge.  I’d love people to share their number so we can get a feel for the range in the channel.

This is not a competition, not at all. It’s a KPI we need to each be aware of for our respective businesses and to drive – for our future. Sharing can be motivating.

Check out revenue per employee data from the US National Retail Federation from 2010.

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Hiring employees

Cynicism in media regulation arguments

It’s interesting to see the media companies get into a lather about the possibility of more regulation when some of these companies have refused to give newsagents an operational environment of less regulation. They have self determination today and reject the creation of a new office to advocate public interest yet they have been happy to leave us in a high regulated state with little control and a model that is competitively disadvantageous to most we compete with.

10 likes
Ethics

Inspirational gifts sell

We have expanded our range of inspirational gifts and homewares and are thrilled with the result. Shoppers are commenting and buying! What is interesting is that the customers span generations. We had assumed these would be purchased mainly by older shoppers but have been surprised that people as low as their early twenties purchase these – for themselves and older people. We need to stop assuming how our customers will behave.

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Gifts

Knowing where to place magazines

Someone here mentioned supermarkets and planagrams to guide product placement. here’s a photo showing what the engaged team at one of my newsagencies has had in place for ensuring correct placement of titles.  This is in a store with all new staff – the backing cards have helped guide accurate placement and show customers where a title would be if we had it in stock – when we’ve sold out.

Click on the image for a larger version.

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magazines

Four gluten free cookbooks fail to sell

Gotch sent us these four gluten free cookbooks in January. They all failed to sell. What is frustrating that we were sent some of the titles twice. even more frustrating is that Gotch has not sent us some titles that could sell. How they work out what we should and should not get is beyond me – clearly it is not based on data they should have about what would work for us. It feels like some scale out decisions are based purely on moving stock from a warehouse to another location – even if temporarily.

This is what we need the ACCC to look at. They oversaw the deregulation that left us with a magazine distribution model that makes newsagents less competitive.

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magazine distribution

Shock as NRL range sells in Victoria!

The NRL branded Beanie Kids are selling in Victoria and we’re shocked – when we should not be of course!

We have customers purchasing these as gifts for friends interstate and we have some purchasing them as they do follow NRL. Either way, we’re happy to have the range and to be in a position to use them as a traffic generator.

We have the AFL and NRL stands next to each other on the lease line facing into the shopping mall, next to our broader plush display.

The experience is a reminder: you /  not your / our customer … risks can pay off … having a unique product generates excellent word of mouth and additional traffic.

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Gifts

Excellent cover Rolling Stone

The new David Bowie album is getting plenty of media attention and that should drive interest in the latest issue of Rolling Stone. This is a good reason for newsagents to promote it with the full face on show. We are going run it with the newspapers at the weekend as the shoppers we see then are Bowie fans – in our heads at least.

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magazines

Cheap Easter cards get even cheaper and I’m not worried

A deep discount shop near one of my newsagency appears to be having trouble selling their Easter cards. The have upped the ante from one dollar a card to now offering three for two dollars. In the meantime, our Easter card sales are on track to deliver 15% year on year growth off a good base from 2012.

While it’s annoying to see these cheap product shops in what is otherwise a premium shopping centre, I do understand that they attract a different shopper who is loyal only to price. In other words, not that loyal at all.  We has shoppers coming back to us for easter cards because of our range and the exceptional customer service – we have several instances of this very specific feedback. These customers, returning because of an experience they love, are more valuable than someone going back to the deep discount shop to purchase a $1 card.

I talk to many newsagents who feel they have to compete in this cheap card space. While I tried this ten or twelve years ago, I am glad I stopped confusing my shoppers and offering cheap product in a quality service based business. Today I don’t try and compete on price as I see it as confusing my shoppers.

I make more from one Easter card than what my deep discount competitor makes from twelve cards. I am glad to be in my position compared to theirs.

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Greeting Cards

Electronic cigarettes in the counter

Check out the e-cigarettes a colleague saw on the counter of a tobacco retailer in Clayfield Queensland recently. They are at a good price point and certain to interest some shoppers.  There are now many brands of e-cigarettes available in Australia.

Had these e-cigarettes on his counter. As you can see from the display they are priced a lot cheaper than a standard pack at just under $20 and they do not take up a lot of room either.

A colleague from one of my shops was in the bank earlier this week and someone there was ‘smoking’ an electronic cigarette. While he was getting glances, no one challenged him.

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Tobacco sales
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