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

CES provides an insight into the newsagency of the future

The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week was terrific. Beyond the gadgets and fun items, there was some very cool technology of relevance to retailers. Some new and some and extension of what I got to see last year.

For commercial reasons I am not going into my insights in detail here. However, I will note that what I saw at CES reinforced my view that we are facing continuing significant changes in retail.

How, when and where people purchase will change beyond what many of us imagine today.

New technologies will be embraced by shoppers wherewhere – city, country and rural. Retailers in shopping centres, on the high street and in rural and regional centres will be affected.

While I have been saying this for a while, seeing new hardware and software last week has reinforced it for me.  I plan to share more detail in the next Newsagency of the Future series.

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newsagency of the future

Terrific advertisement for newspapers

Check out the excellent TV commercial promoting The Guardian and The Observer newspapers in the UK.

How optimistic! It’s great to see a publisher promoting their newspaper in this way and, subtly, reinforcing what readers like about engaging with the print product.

Thanks to the colleague who pointed me to this.

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Newspapers

A new approach to displaying bananas

I was fortunate to get to a Whole Foods Market store on the Upper West Side of New york yesterday. I went having heard their CEO speak earlier in the day. I wanted to see if his pitch carried through to the shop floor. It did. Whole Foods is an excellent model, I took plenty fro  what they do … many ideas.

One such inspiring idea is how they display bananas. They hang them, as the photo shows.  This different approach to presenting merchandise plays out through the store. I can see how it would make shopping more enjoyable.

Not only do they hang their bananas, they have a wide range and provide excellent information with the range.

While the supermarket is drawing on a population much bigger than we see locally in Australia, there are many Whole Foods Market stores service Australian size populations.

Walking out of the store I was thinking that I had not expected to see a fresh (to me) approach to displaying bananas. Just goes to show innovation has no bounds.

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visual merchandising

Electronic cigarette vending extends reach

The reach of electronic cigarettes is increasing. They are mentioned now by airlines, including them in the list of what you cannot smoke in-flight. I am seeing them in more stores and I am seeing more people smoking them on the streets.

Also, I have seen the vending machine in the photo.

So, the reach is increasing. this means that retailers of tobacco product in Australia will need to consider their position on this type of product.  There are many businesses working hard to leverage the product from being niche to mainstream.

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Tobacco sales

Experts agree, Facebook not an ideal platform for retailers

In several sessions during the first day of the NRF Big Show 2013 in New York yesterday Facebook was discussed in terms of its value and usefulness for retailers.

I was interested in this in the context of what I wrote six weeks ago on this blog about Facebook.

Three experts noted that Facebook should not be considered a key marketing platform for many retailers.  They cited Facebook’s playing with feeds, their approach to advertising and that it does not fit a traditional call to action need. yes, I know of newsagents who are happy with Facebook. This is especially the case in regional and rural Australia.

For my newsagencies I don’t see Facebook as important as email and Twitter. Indeed, Twitter has been (and is) a gem for us.

What was interesting was the support for email. The experts cited the price model (free), the lack of attention competition within a message and ease of use. While they noted that email is not the ideal platform for the important millennial demographic, they pointed out that it is ideal for women 35 and over – the most valuable demo for newsagents today.

I’ve written here a bit about email and its use. I especially like what Pacific Magazines has done for so many of us with an excellent email sending platform as part of their Nexus program.

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Newsagency management

Fun Valentine’s Day products

Check out some of the fun Valentine’s Day products I saw in a store in New York yesterday. What you can see in the photo not even a quarter of the range in this store, a gift store , of around 200 square metres – to give you a reference and comparison point.

The store has a range of regular gists but it’s this mix of fun Valentine’s Day products I like. They really are fun products, products that open up giving opportunities for Valentine’s Day beyond the traditional. I like that, extending the reach of the season beyond the traditional. we need to do this with Valentine’s Day and more season.

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Newsagency opportunities

Selling newspaper subs in a department store

I was surprised to see subscriptions to the New York Times being sold from a table inside the Century 21 store on the Upper West Side of New York yesterday, Sunday. They were offering home delivery at 50% off plus free access to online content. That was no big deal.  No, it was the location, the pitch being made inside a department store.

I guess publishers need to go where they are likely to be able to win customers. I noticed several shoppers sign up in the few minutes I was watching.

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Newspapers

The name says it all, usually

Check out a store I saw on the Upper West Side of Manhattan yesterday.  There is nothing unique about Unique News & Smoke. Their name is a lie. The products are available from hundreds of stores here. The service was barely average.

I wondered is they used the name to, of itself, suggest they are unique but that doesn’t make sense. Who knows?

Seeing the shop was a reminder of the importance of trading under a name that makes sense and reasonable represents the business. It’s got to be a name that reinforces what the business is an offers. This business offered nothing unique.

 

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Newsagency management

The value of embracing fads in retail

I am grateful for the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks looking at retail situations in the US last week and this.  While I’ll write more about what I am seeing later, there are some things I have seen along the way that are terrific and worth sharing as I go.

I saw this range of moustache related products in a gift shop in New York and thought they are something I give a go.  In this shop their moustache range was twice as large as I captured in the photo. It looked impressive. But better than that, it brought a sense of fun to the products, pitching them at just about any customer for a broad variety of situations.

These moustache products are the type of products that could fit in a gift department where the focus is on fad type or funky gifts. We have this in a couple of my stores, hence my interest.

No, they are not for everyone, I am not suggesting this. I am also not suggesting that we can set out future on the success of these. The real point is that looking at products like this, beyond what is traditional for newsagents, is what we need to be doing.

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Gifts

Marketing tip: engage with your local chamber of commerce

One was to connect with other small business operators is through your local chamber of commerce. Whether as a regular member or a more active role, being known to and friendly with other local businesses can make them more aware of what you do and how you can help them … and them you.

For a few hours a month the reward from networking can be considerable.  I’d rate mixing with other local business people ahead of mixing with other newsagents for your business.

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marketing tip

Newsagent management tip: 5 tips for saving your time

  1. Tell suppliers who do not provide you with an electronic invoice that you will cut them off – they are costing you time.
  2. Put barcode labels on fewer products. If they have a barcode, use it. For magazines – your software will tell you what to return.
  3. Stop ordering replenishment stock manually.
  4. Stop entering sales data into a spreadsheet for analysis.
  5. Run your business with processes as well as checks and balances that enable it to open and close without you.
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Management tip

New survey: How was Christmas 2012 for you?

It’s been a couple of weeks since Christmas, enough time to think about the season and collate some data. I have put together a quick survey, just four questions, seeking your data on how the season was for you. To me the most important question is the last one – where you get to share your most significant learning from the season.  Please participate in the survey here.

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Newsagency management

Nice Valentine’s Day display

Check out the Valentine’s Day themed window display in a Sanrio store here in Las Vegas.  While it is specifically promoting Hello Kitty product (which is huge here) it could be promoting other plush.

Beyond being eye-catching, this display is terrific because of its simplicity. It’s something any of us could create in our newsagencies with the right product mix. The display is something anyone with only basic VM skills could put together.

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visual merchandising

Newsagents in the Coles firing line?

Today’s report of Coles Express outlets targeting corner stores in their latest milk pricing moves ought to concern newsagents. Coles and their duopoly partner Woolworths are certain to target more everyday, habit based, shopping. Some of what we sell fits their model – newspapers, weekly magazines.

The only way to fight this is to band with other independent retailers, before it is too late. We ought to be working even more closely together with butchers, greengrocers, small and independent supermarkets and primary producers and product manufacturers and publishers to drive local shopping.

It will be no use complaining down the track.

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Newsagency challenges

Time to rethink lighting in your newsagency?

I am seeing more retailers use lighting, darkness actually, to great effect. I was in a Hollister store this week, in the US, and their use of darkness is excellent.  The store is made up of a series of small rooms, each with a two or three spotlights.

What I like about the Hollister use of darkness is that it adds to the feeling of stepping off the street or out of the mall and into a completely separate environment. It’s very conducing to shopping.

While darkness would present challenges for newsagency businesses, it is something we could use in certain parts of our stores where we want shoppers to really immerse themselves in certain products that require different feelings. For example, some gift and homewares lines lend themselves to this as would the occasional seasonal offering.

In most newsagencies today, the lights are either on or off. Maybe it’s time we played with this.

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retail

Deep discounting for magazines in the US

Check out the subscription offer from the US publisher of Woman’s Day and Good Housekeeping magazines.

Click on the image to see the detail of the offer.  At it’s best, you can get two magazines for a year for $12 delivered to your home. Just amazing.

The discount for subscriptions is considerably higher than what we see in Australia, reflecting a different magazine distribution model for the US compared to Australia.

I thought I’d post the subscription offer ad here, from a US newspaper this past weekend, to show that when it comes to subscriptions, discounts in Australia are not as high as publishers can get in some other locations.

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magazine subscriptions

Funny newspaper poster

Check out the poster from the Border Mail earlier this week. Unfortunate spelling.  Maybe it was a talking point with customers for those who used it to promote the title.

Click on the image for a larger version.

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Newspapers

Do you sell magazines at other than the recommended price?

I’d be interested in hearing from any newsagents selling magazines for more than there cover price and thereby achieving an above-average GP. Either comment here or send me a private message.

As more newsagents venture into new product categories, the 25% we make on magazines comes under greater scrutiny.

While magazines can generate excellent traffic and thereby provide a broader value than they GP themselves deliver, GP of between 50% and 75% on other products in attention-grabbing for newsagents. Once way newsagents can address this is to charge more than the cover price.

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magazines

Ink is working behind the counter

Since moving Ink from next to stationery to behind the counter sales have risen by 15%. we have not altered our advertising or promotion of the category other than the move.

In terms of performance of the behind the counter space, ink is more financially rewarding for us – from direct sales – than other products we have placed here.

Ink continues to account for more than 30% of our stationery sales.

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Stationery

Time to quit adult magazines?

Our magazine sales were up 13% in the three months to December 31, 2012. Adult titles, Picture, People and Zoo, declined against the overall trend.  Indeed, their sales are so low that they are not paying for the space they occupy. Further, these are not efficient titles – they are often not part of a larger basket.

So, we are considering cutting adult titles altogether. We can use the space support magazine segments that are growing.

Here is the challenge for newsagents – I want to grow magazine sales by allocating space based on sales. The current newsagency magazine distribution model makes this difficult. While our competitors can do this, we can’t. It’s unfair and impedes our ability to run efficient businesses and compete.

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magazines
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