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

Tyro beats bank EFTPOS at the counter

While the Commonwealth Bank has been spending up big promoting fast settlement of EFTPOS transactions for retailers, they have done nothing speed up transactions at the counter from what I can see. A colleague waited two minutes last week for a Comm. Bank EFTPOS unit to dial, connect and approve a transaction. Shoppers leave when such delays occur at busy times. I know from my own experience in my own newsagencies in this very busy Christmas period that I can process an EFTPOS transaction on Tyro in seconds. Ne delays for customers, no delays for me. This helps me make more money. The Comm. bank advertising is useless unless they find their throughput bottleneck. Tyro links to newsagency software systems.

7 likes
EFTPOS fees

Cool magazine for wannabe music DJs

I was able to pitch this magazine, How to DJ, to a shopper yesterday who was looking for a gift for his son who was into music and nothing else. He needed something extra. The guy liked the magazine as it showed he understood his son’s passion.

It’s pretty cool when we can demonstrate our relevance like this – by having a personal conversation that helps someone validate themselves. It’s a magazine specialist newsagent point of difference and reinforces the, for me at least, the value of this category  in our newsagencies for years to come.

6 likes
magazines

Barnes & Noble giving ebooks away

US book retailer is running an interesting promotion, giving away an ebook with each purchase of an ebook from a list of selected titles. It’s an in-store offer, potentially driving store traffic. paidContent has more on this story.

Book retailing is facing extraordinary challenges, even for those playing in the digital space as Barnes & Noble are finding.

1 likes
Book retailing

A kind of okay ad stuck on the front page of a newspaper

Since I bang on here about ads covering newspaper mastheads and main stories, I thought it appropriate to publish this photo of a kind of okay ad stuck on the front page of the Sunday Mail in Adelaide yesterday.

While the stuck-on ad encroaches on the masthead you can easily see title. It also does not get in the way of the main page one story. It’s a placement that works if you must have an ad stuck on the front page of the newspaper.

3 likes
newspaper masthead desecration

Newsagency marketing tip: leveraging knowledge for value

Something to think about for marketing your newsagency next year. What knowledge do you have that adds value to what you sell that, in turn, makes shopping with you more valuable.

While other shops sell magazines, cards and stationery, we have a personal connection with our products and our customers. We need to find more ways to show this off, to promote our personal point of difference.  This starts with us leveraging knowledge.

While Officeworks, for example, spends considerable sums advertising customer service, newsagents can go a step further and actually deliver it on the shop floor … many do this every day already.

I think retail in 2013 will depend more on points of difference that are valuable to shoppers. We can excel in this compared to major retailers. Value is what will bring shoppers back.

5 likes
marketing tip

Newsagency management tip: take a visual view of your roster

A visual representation of your roster can help create a more efficient allocation of employee resources. Good roster software should be included in your newsagency management software. Use this to review shift allocation with a view to developing the best roster structure for your business. I know of newsagents who have gone from a manual approach to a visual, drag and drop, approach and saved over $100 a week from seeing inefficiencies they had missed.

5 likes
Management tip

Promoting calendars with magazines

With magazine sales exceptionally strong in the lead up to Christmas we have had some spare space for the last couple of days we have filled with calendars. We selected calendars based on the placement below weekly titles. It’s worked with some calendars having been purchased from here.  Moving stock around, filling spaces, leveraging high traffic items – it’s what delivers icing on the cake in this last week before Christmas.

0 likes
Calendars

What’s next?

Okay, so the world did not end. We had a bit of a laugh yesterday. Customers joined in the sprit. It was a good break from the last minute Christmas shopping stress.

The buzz around the so-called Mayan predictions has left me thinking even more about the need for change. While I don’t believe in the predictions of catastrophe, I have no doubt that newsagency businesses (retail and delivery) and retail more broadly are experiencing extraordinary change. Some big.  Some small.

Over the next few weeks I plan to take the Newsagency of the Future workshop material I have used this year and add to this the latest research and data insights and create a fresh new workshop for newsagents on steps we can take to own our businesses.

14 likes
Newsagency management

Making the most of the Angry Birds opportunity

We are promoting the Angry Birds 2013 calendar with our other Angry Birds products including this plush – just as we have been doing for Moshi Monsters. This placement makes a stronger pitch for the brand and helps shoppers purchase more items in each basket.

On this focus on driving basket depth, our year to date data reports we are achieving a 9% increase in average basket size this year over last year. A valuable result.

5 likes
Calendars

Serving Android phone users

We’re happy to have this range of Android titles in-store right now. With gadgets like mobile phones popular again this year for Christmas, magazines like these are a good add of or for other family members to give. We’re leveraging the opportunity by making sure that we have all Android titles placed together.

4 likes
magazines

Wary of For Arts Sake loyalty program for newsagents

The terms and conditions of the loyalty program being launched by For Arts Sake indicate that newsagents need to have broadband and install a device to feed scanned sales data of items sold to FAS.

All data goes to FAS.  This could breach supplier agreements including magazine agreements. It could also give FAS data about a business that the business may not want FAS to get.  I suggest newsagents get professional advice before signing.

Basket data is valuable to newsagents. The moment they allow basket data to leave their business the opportunity for them to leverage value is diminished.

A device like this was mooted with newsagents five or so years ago. It was knocked on the head then because of the same data and contractual issues.

The email from FAS promoting the opportunity gushes. It includes…

No other supplier in the Newsagent industry has ever developed such a program to help support and grow their retailers business.

This is the BIGGEST opportunity for Newsagents since Lotto was introduced in 1974.

My experience is that both statements are not accurate. Caveat emptor.

11 likes
Ethics

Are you leveraging end of the world talk?

I’d be interested in hearing from newsagents who are making fun of or leveraging in some way in-store the (miss but widely) reported prophecy of the mayans that the world will end today.

Disagreeing with myself (and conflicted about this), we are running a one day only end of the world sale opportunity on calendars and diaries. I went with this as it made me laugh. Anyone who does think the world will end today does not get the discount.

11 likes
Newsagency opportunities

Seeing magazines purchased as Christmas gifts

I talked with a couple yesterday who purchased four magazines as Christmas gifts for nieces – specifically choosing magazines with free gifts. Dolly, Girlfriend, marie claire and InStyle featured. They said they’d be back tomorrow when it’s their shopping day for nephews.

As we have done in the past, we are investing time and space to make the most of the opportunity of magazines as Christmas gifts. It’s paying off.

7 likes
magazines

Clouded Thoughts a welcome new magazine title for our newsagency

If you have customers who could be into graffiti and the art of graffiti, I recommend Australian magazine Clouded Thoughts to you. It is distributed by IPS.

We have decided to take on the title for at least the next few issues as it appeals to a demographic we’d like to encourage, one that will be likely to purchase the art-focused tattoo and similar titles.

We are carefully building our magazine range, working with those in control of allocations who want to work with us, giving us the ability to choose what titles we take and the volume.

Clouded Thoughts is a natural fit in our desire to be a relevant specialist magazine retailer.

The beauty of social media is that you can research new titles like this. Check out the Clouded Thoughts Facebook page here. Check out their reader blog here. Check out the IPS page for the title here.  Hey, while you are on the IPS page, click on the map and see the stockists. We are there. This is a brilliant resource and wonderful support for retailers from IPS.

9 likes
magazines

Moshi Monsters magazine and 2013 calendar

We are promoting the Moshi Monsters 2013 calendar in the magazine fixtures with the latest issue of the Moshi Monsters magazine. The two items make a perfect Christmas gift and are more likely to be purchased as a Chriostmas gift when displayed together in this way.

We do this where we can – display magazines and associated calendars together. It works a treat for us.

The Moshi Monsters brand is important for newsagents. It serves a demographic vital to us and gives us the opportunity to extend the basket and significantly add to margin dollars.

6 likes
Calendars

Fanning New Idea to drive sales

Our ‘fanning’ of New Idea to allow us to properly display the free tub of Olay product that comes with this issue is working. Shoppers can see the value-add and we can keep the stock neat and, indeed, in more of a feature display.

We don’t have any flat stack space – takes up too much floorspace – so we need to make these odd packaged work. This fanning is working for us.

5 likes
magazines

Mayne predicts end to Fairfax dailies in five years

Shareholder activist, founder or Crikey and now Melbourne City Councillor Stephen Mayne predicted today on ABC local radio in Melbourne (Rafael Epstein’s drive program) that Fairfax would be out of the daily newspaper delivery business qwithin five years. He predicted we’d still see weekend newspapers and maybe one weekday but that the seven day service would be gone.

What was more interesting than the prediction itself was the reaction. The program moved on as if it was not that big of a deal. A year or two ago…

5 likes
Media disruption

Christmas so far

We are thrilled with December trading so far.  Gifts up more than 200% (off a good base).  Magazines are up 8%.  Stationery up 8% – this is after our consolidation. Boxed Christmas cards are up 22%.  Most pleasing is a 9% increase in basket value.

Footnote: newspaper sales are down 20% – primarily because we are starved for stock by our newsagent supplier who continues to short supply.

3 likes
retail

Premature calendar discounting

I was surprised to see a newsagent discounting calendars by 20% a couple of weeks ago. This was in a centre without another outlet offering this range of calendars.  While I have written about this before – premature calendar discounting – It surprises me when I see it.

Years ago, confronted with a Calendar Club in one centre where I had a newsagency, we discounted when they did. The next year we did not discount and it did not hurt our sales volume … but it did help the money we banked.

Discounting calendars before January 1 educated shoppers to expect to not pay full price for a premium item. I’d encourage all newsagents to not discount calendars yet.  If you have a good range you’ll make more money and get better known for value rather than being cheap.  This will be more valuable to you in the long term.

The only type of calendar discounting that does make sense is where shoppers purchase multiple items – say buy 2 and get your third for 30% or something like this.  This offers a reward for genuine loyalty rather than what shoppers may do anyway.

10 likes
Calendars

The magazine outpost

At the Mall of Asia in Manila is this permanent magazine outpost. It offers a good range of special interest titles and not so much of the high volume.  The layout is hard to shop. In Australia this space would cost around $15,000 a month to lease.

3 likes
magazines

The gift card Christmas

We are promoting gift cards at several locations, to make the most of selling gift cards as Christmas gifts. It’s the range of iTunes, online game and related that work the best for us this time of year. They are a good point of difference.

Our main stand is at the counter, pitching to shoppers needing to make the last-minute purchase with little shopping time left.

The product mix suits our shoppers.

7 likes
Gifts

New store Zoodle impressive

I was fortunate to see Zoodle, a new retail concept from WH Smith, at the international terminal of Melbourne airport earlier this week.

From the bright yellow fixtures to the brand-name products mix to the name, this is a fresh new business that could fit nicely in a variety of retail situations. It’s very kid friendly, very fun.

In terms of brands, the store offers excellent representation of Lego, Moshi Monsters, Hello Kitty, Crayola and more.  Inside the store, the brands are the hero. Zoodle appears above the entrance.

What WH Smith has done with this new format is to pursue change in a way similar to what we need to do in our channel.  They have a well-known brand yet have gone with a new brand ahead of this to chase new customers. While it looks like they are still playing with the model, you can see that they are using the new name to drive a departure form a traditional Children’s focused book and other retail store.

Our Newsagency of the Future could benefit from a similar approach.  Starting with a completely different name and under this building a new retail format that is relevant to today and the future. What many newsagents have today is more of a homage to a fading past.

Read more about Zoodle at Retail Week.

12 likes
newsagency of the future
Trending Articles

Fairfax changes approach to TV Guide, disrespects newsagents

Published on April 20, 2011

What do you think of the Powerball changes?

Published on February 16, 2018

IPS releases new magazine contracts

Published on June 21, 2011