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

Happy New Year

May 2013 be a healthy and happy year for all who engage with this blog.

I believe that in business we make our own success or failure. We have to own our situation.

2013 will be a year of more change for newsagents and in the midst of change we can pursue opportunity. It’s hard work. It requires us to look at our businesses with fresh eyes and outside what we and others expect of us.

We all ought to make 2013 a year of pursuing change on our own terms and for our own benefit rather than waiting for it to walk through our front door and do its thing.

Newsagencies are good businesses to own, 2013 will give us plenty of opportunities to prove that.

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Newsagency management

New Year resolutions for 2013

A year ago I published a bunch of New Year resolutions for newsagents.  I have revised the list in the light of what 2012 has delivered and what 2013 looks like. Here are my top three New Year resolutions for 2013:

  1. Take control of your inventory. Order stock based on what has sold. By stopping supplier reps doing orders for you will probably find that you cut your stock holding and increase your stock turn. Included in this is trimming your magazine department.  My view is that 700 titles in the max I would carry.
  2. Answer the questions: what do you stand for? Answer this in what you stock, how you merchandise it, the service you provide and how you promote your business. Just relying on a shingle – NEWSAGENCY – above your door to declare what you stand for are over. You need to own your unique selling proposition.
  3. Cut debt. This is the most important of all. Debt is a high cost on any newsagency business. Every dollar of debt you eliminate is interest saved. A lower debt level will make navigating change easier.

If all newsagents did these things we would be a commercial force, a retail network, to be reckoned with.

Please add your resolution suggestions.

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Newsagency management

Customer service survey results

Click here to download the newsagency customer service survey results.  The results provide a good insight into the customer service issues newsagents face.

48.6% receive complaints rarely, 27.1% a few times a month and 20.0% a few times a week.

53.0% of complaints are product related outside the control of the newsagent and 33.3% are service related outside the control of the newsagent.

55.7% of newsagents have a complaint handling process in place.

I hope that these results are of use to other newsagents. I certainly find them useful – particularly as a reminder to have a clear process in place for handling complaints and recording feedback to go to those who can improve the situation.

After all, customer service is our most important point of difference.

I am grateful to the 75 newsagents who took part in the survey.

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Customer Service

Pumpinator sales strong a year later

We bought in stock of the Pumpinator to have for school holidays. It sold exceptionally well in January this year and while we did not expect the same interest we thought we’d have a second crack. It seems that we have a new generation of water bombers.

We had space so we put the stock out before Christmas. We sold out in two weeks.  While we have ordered more stock for our expected January school-holidays interest, the sales success goes to show that getting stock out ahead of a planned season can be commercially valuable and educating.

We are getting known for fun and interactive products by shoppers who visit the shopping centre mainly at holiday times. We are buying products accordingly.

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retail

Newsagency marketing tip: tell your community why shopping with you matters

The major retailers pitch price as the reason shoppers should shop with them.  Some use service. the latest Officeworks ads pitch price, through a guarantee, and service.

Each of us needs to make a marketing pitch to promote our business. It should connect with our unique selling proposition.

If you do not tell people why to shop with you then what will they decide on?  … because they like you? In this marketplace we need to regularly remind shoppers in our catchment area why they should invest time with us. We need to explain to them the benefits for them and their community of shopping with us.

In ads, on social media and in flyers – we need to tell people why shopping with us is better than the supermarket, convenience store, online store, major retailer or any other outlet competing with us.

No one else is doing this in a way that is relevant to your business sin your local situation.

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marketing tip

Newsagency management tip: target basket depth

Most newsagency software reports on items in each sale and average sale value. Both are important KPIs in retail but most newsagents do not not take notice of or target these KPIs.

Both items in each sale (in the basket) and average sale value measure the efficiency of sales in the business. the more items per basket and the greater average sale value the more margin dollars you get to bank per sale.

Long-term success for any retailer in today’s marketplace is all about small steps. Small increases in basket depth and value can add significant profit today and value to the business over the long term.

How do you grow basket depth and average sale value? …

  • Relevant counter offers placed with little competing visual noise.
  • Well-trained and motivated shop floor staff.
  • Compelling displays.
  • Products people want.
  • Good external marketing of the business.

All this is just a start.

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Management tip

Fairfax in play, again

Reports over the last couple of days indicate that Fairfax is in play, again. This time it’s Gina Reinhart and John Singleton.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

The recent history of millionaires and billionaires getting involved in media ownership has not resulted in good outcomes for consumers and those working the the organisations. The Fairfax print business has already been gutted and is struggling with the loss of many good journalists.

Reinhart has little connection with real Australia and as her writings show she has little understanding of what is good for the country. John Singleton owns the station that gives us Alan Jones. That he permits Alan Jones to rant on radio and wreak the damage he does makes me worry for Fairfax and its media outlets.

While I am jumping to conclusions here that go against the Singleton statement a couple of days ago, actions do speak louder than words.

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Media disruption

A quick survey on customer complaints

Given the comments here over the last couple of days about the story run on A Current Affair about the customer complaint to a Queensland newsagent, I have decided to run a quick survey on newsagent customer complaints.

Do you get many? What are the complaints about? Do you have a complaints process?

Click here to participate in the three question survey. I’ll publish the results next week.

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Customer Service

Good Boxing Day Sales results

We have enjoyed good trading over the last three days seeing excellent sales for items we sourced to pitch as part of our port Christmas sales offer. Several other newsagents I have spoken with have said they are experiencing excellent sales as well.

As I mentioned a few days ago, to make the most of these opportunities we sourced product especially and offered valued discounts. Plus we promoted the sale outside the business.

It is at major sale times like this that being in a shopping centre helps.

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retail

The challenge of e-singles to print media

People interested in disruption by digital platforms should read the PaidContent article about 2012 being the year of the e-single.

Articles and short form fiction and non fiction breaking free from mastheads will fundamentally change publishing and significantly challenge the models of newspaper and magazine publishers. With reader use growing the route market has never been easier.

There is nothing new for newsagents to fear here … change brings opportunity.

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Media disruption

Newsagents not put in a good light in A Current Affair story

Several people have contacted me to say that newsagents were not fairly portrayed in a story on A Current Affair on Wednesday night.

I did not see the story so cannot comment.

On YouTube you can see a video posted earlier this year which was apparently mentioned on A Current Affair and partly played in the story they aired. Read the comments posted on YouTube following the airing of the story.

I have posted this here today for anyone who wants to comment. I’d be particularly interested in comments on the ACA approach.

The work involved in crediting customers for the non delivery of a newspaper for a day like Christmas Day is easy with most newsagency software.

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Ethics

News Limited IT failure impacts newsagent customer service

Check out the email to distribution newsagents in Queensland from News Limited:

Dear Newsagent

We recently discovered holiday stops from the subscriber website were not being transferred into our system from November 17th to December 16th 2012.

As a result of this problem you did not receive any notification from News Queensland to suspend newspapers for some customers during this time.

The credit that was to be applied to your account for the papers that would have been delivered during this period was unfortunately debited to your account dated week ending 23/12/2012.  To rectify this, your account for the week ending 30/12/2012 will have two credits applied, the first to reverse the incorrectly debited amount, the second to apply the appropriate credit.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.  If you have any queries please contact your area sales manager or Circulation on 1800 648 591.

Circulation
News Queensland

I feel for the newsagents and the challenges the News Limited failure would have caused for them.

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Newsagency management

One Direction gives at Christmas

One Direction, the manufactured boy band from the UK, has delivered us an excellent christmas gifts with amazing sales of calendars, cards, scrapbooks, pencils, folders, puzzle books and magazines.

I really thought 1D sales would peter out at christmas but this has not happened. indeed, sales have jumped.

Having the best 1D range in the centre has helped. On Christmas Every one girl spotted our range and brought friends. These are current Dolly & Girlfriend shoppers and future frankie shoppers. While many 1D shoppers look only at 1D product, others browse and purchase other items.

The 1D phenomenon is a reminder of the importance of spotting trends early, leveraging multiple supplier relationships to make the most of the opportunity and using appropriate media – social media in this case – to promote the products and attract new traffic.

We have punched way above our weight with this product, attracting many new shoppers because of our range of product and commitment to the One Direction band. I am confident we could have done as well outside a major shopping centre.

Newsagents can attract new traffic and through this reinforce their relevance to Australians of all ages.

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Gifts

Very happy to have veri.live magazine in stork

veri.live is another special interest magazine title we have added to our range thanks to IPS. It’s a magazine for lovers of independent music. It fits well in the Melbourne music scene.

Carrying veri.live on our shelves shows our interest in and support for independent music. Without wanting to offend anyone, it’s kind of a frankie of music titles.

Taking on this title is another step in our goal of expanding our range special interest titles from IPS. I like that I can choose the titles and determine the quantity I wish to receive.

Check out the veri live page at IPS here. This is the page the publishers point people interested in the title to. Note the newsagency locator – it’s brilliant.

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magazines

The Twilight Zone between Christmas and New Year

For businesses used to having fresh product in-store, newsagencies would be feeling less than fresh today with thin newspapers, bumper editions of papers and magazines and not the usual three times a week magazine delivery.

It’s a bit Twilight Zone like … a perfect opportunity to consider changes for 2013 as we face the challenges and opportunities of falling newspaper and magazine sales.

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Newsagency management

Update on a the secondary plush move

A while back I wrote about our decision to create a secondary plush location in the middle of our stationery department. We needed to fill this gap until we made some other shop floor moves and to accommodate plush we could not fit into our plush department.

What was a stop-gap move has worked a treat. Sales from this spot in the photo have been excellent. Even the two rows down the bottom have been selling which is amazing given that we have these items in a spinner in the plush department.

The success of this spot is a reminder that breaking with rules and traditions is often good for business. It is also a reminder that shoppers do browse and purchase on impulse based on what they discover in-store. This spot is over half-way into the store and on the other side of the shop to our cards and gifts.

Footnote: Plush is now a separate department for us. We report on it separately and track its performance against key related departments – gifts and cards. What was once a seasonal focus is now key to our business plans for 2013 and beyond.

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Plush

Another example of calendars with magazines

We have had stock of our remaining tattoo themed calendar, Lady Ink, with our tattoo magazine titles. This is where those interested in tattoo related products will browse the most.

The nature of today’s newsagency is such that success will come from many small steps rather than one or two much bigger steps.

Obsessively chasing special interests, like tattoos, is what will deliver in return traffic and deeper baskets.

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Calendars

Boxing Day Sale posters

Click here for a PDF of a blue Boxing Day Sale poster. Click here for a PDF of a red Boxing Day Sale poster. The artwork was created by my newsagency software company for free use by any newsagent.

Boxing Day is expected to be huge in Victoria this year. It’s a market where the Boxing Day Sale tradition has been around for many years. We embrace it with gusto. We bring in some stock especially. We dress the store. We aggressive mark down the items we want to move.

The keys with any Boxing Day Sale are:

  1. Offer genuine bargains.
  2. Go out with your best offers right away.
  3. Make the price easy to understand (half price is easier than 50% for some shoppers).
  4. Quit old stock, keep marking down to move products with speed.
  5. Know what is next for the space and the business.
  6. Give the shoppers you attract a reason to come back … a flyer or a coupon to entice then to return.

Boxing Day success depends on excellent and timely shop floor management, making decisions to move stock based on placement and price. It’s hard delivering, usually, good rewards.

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newsagency marketing

Analysts talk up News post split.

Anyone interested in News Corp. and how the company will look as it splits into two should read the article at PaidContent, the Bloomberg article and the Reuters article at Huffington Post.  While the latest results for News aren’t great for print, including Australian newspapers, they say the upside is good post-split.

Crikey has a more more detailed and local perspective on the latest results and split including this:

Like Fairfax in Australia and Gannett in the US, News Corp is hostage to the advertising sector. The Australian pay TV businesses — 100% of Fox Sports, 50% of Foxtel and 44% of Sky in NZ — won’t be enough to offset this weakness, nor will the Australian digital real estate business, the Harper Collins publishing entity (which is facing pressures of its own from e-books) or the nascent education business called Amplify.

And this:

For the three-month period to September 30, new News Corp relied on advertising for 48% of that $US2.13 billion in revenues, with 28.5% coming from circulation and subscription income. In total, more than 78% of revenues for the quarter came from the traditional analogue media sources (82% in the same quarter of 2011). Newspaper revenues fell 6% or $US102 million from the September quarter of 2011 to the same quarter this year.

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Newspapers

Stunning Time magazine cover

The latest issue of Time magazine, the Person of the Year issue, looks stunning. We have positioned the issue so the whole cover is on show, thereby giving it a better opportunity to sell.

This is an issue for the non-traditional Time magazine customer. We are chasing them with our placement. I’d note that the supply boost for this issue makes sense.

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magazines

I love last minute Christmas shoppers, especially guys

They have a look of fear in their eyes and an ADHD approach to shopping. Yes, I’m talking about the last minute Christmas shopper, those who leave Christmas shopping to the very last minute.

While they first appear a few days before Christmas, these last minute Christmas shoppers shine the day before Christmas. They are fun to watch, a delight to serve (because they are thankful to have made a purchase) and valuable to our businesses.

I have seen these shoppers today, plenty of them – most spending up big. I chatted with one – he leaves it to the last minute for the thrill of it. The way he explained it, he gets a bigger buzz out of only having a couple of hours available to buy for ten people. He said he even likes it if shoppers give him some attitude. Seriously. That’s some fetish.

The last minute shopping we have seen today and indeed the last few days is a reminder of the value of having a broad offer, holding the line on margin and providing an efficient shopping experience.

This has been a terrific Christmas season.

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Newsagency opportunities

Burke’s Backyard to close

Bauer announced last week that Burke’s Backyard magazine is to close. With sales falling it was only a matter of time.

It’s interesting that garden magazines do not appear to benefit from a strong interest in gardening. Garden centres and nurseries are doing bumper trade so Australians are spending in this area, just not on magazines like they used to. That said, Better Homes and Gardens remains very strong.

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magazines

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.

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EFTPOS fees
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