We are promoting the latest marie claire with this aisle end display. The free Alex Perry nail polishes packaged with the magazine make it challenging for the pocket-type fixtures so allocating this space became essential to the merchandising of the product.
Newsagents with traditional fixtures will be displaying it flat but that will be challenging.
We have reduced the display space for stationery without significantly cutting the lines we have on offer.
The photo shows our main stationery aisle. The plush on the left is there to attract browsers – it faces a busy part of the shop floor. It is not the start of the aisle. To the left of the plush and out of shot is ink and our range of everyday pens. These two categories account for close to 60% of all of our stationery sales.
By reducing the floor space allocated our goal is to significantly increase to return on floor space for stationery, thereby making it more valuable in terms of our shopping centre lease costs.
We have looked carefully at what attracts shoppers to the business. The items shoppers are prepared to look for are placed appropriately. Stationery is one such item. As with many city based newsagencies, we are not the first destination for a stationery purchase. We considered this when we made these more recent changes to our stationery configuration.
Our stationery revenue was up 3% in November year on year. year to date is even better.
The team at one of my newsagencies decided tattoo magazines are better situated with photography and art titles so they moved the category. This is a significant move in that it’s across half the shop. It’s a result of careful consideration of the shoppers and the parts of the business they shop.
We see our magazine layout as quite fluid, being adjusted when we see opportunities for growth.
In this newsagency, our November 2012 magazine unit sales were up 9% on November 2011. This is significantly above the traffic growth for the store.. This tells us we’re doing something right – growing magazine sales in a market where many newsagents are recording declines.
Make-A-Wish is using twitter to promote newsagents as a destination for John Sands Christmas cards that raise money for the charity. Every promotion, no matter how small, helps. It’s a pity more newsagents do not use Twitter themselves.
New Idea and Woman’s Day are publishing three days early, tomorrow, according to the Daily Telegraph. I was told it would be Friday. Regardless, I hope the royal pregnancy delivers a good boost – it’s certainly a reason to restate your newsagency as a magazine specialist.
UPDATE (3PM) Confirmed both for Friday. Here is the press release from ACP about the special issue. Note it has the Carols by Candlelight carol song book included so it will be of extra interest.
Further to my newsagency marketing tip post on the weekend. Click here to see the flyer produced by the team at one of my stores this week. They created this themselves, based on what they think would work with the customers visiting that newsagency.
I like that they have included photos, rather than just text as I suggested, as this makes the flyer more useful if shoppers are looking at it away from the store. Picture = 1,000 words.
The flyer took a few minutes to make and provides us with an opportunity for reaching outside our newsagency with customers already familiar with us.
Retail success is achieved by many small steps (like the one percenter approach often discussed in AFL circles) more so than one or two big bold steps. This flyer is a tiny step that helps promote the business for a tiny cost.
As a newsagent and a supplier to newsagents I get to see our channel in action from a range of perspectives. While most engagement I encounter between newsagents and suppliers is positive and respectful, there is the rare occasion of a bad experience and, of course, it’s the experience you remember the most.
Some newsagents, very few in fact, are quick with threats against suppliers if they do not get what they want. They will say that they will tell every other newsagent that your product or service is bad unless you give them what they want. Or they will say they will complain to the association in an effort to have you accede to their request – even if the request is outside your documented trading terms.
It’s my experience that the scope and volume of the threat is the inverse of the facts of the situation. The few times I have seen or heard of this type of blackmail behaviour – I’ll hurt your company unless you give me what I want – the threats started before the dispute was even investigated and the newsagent is seeking something they to which they are not entitled – hence the over the top threats.
I experienced a situation recently, a newsagent emailed me about an issue. I said I was overseas but would rely on my person on the ground to look into it. Minutes later, they replied with an email saying they would never deal with my company again and had reported the matter to the association. The matter had not yet been investigated at my level and the amount in question was fractional compared to the decades-long relationship. They exploded too early and all because I wanted to research their complaint. The matter was complicated by them making the small purchase agreeing to the terms and conditions and the supply meeting these.
There was no other issue between us, no other history other than positive.
Because of their threat I decided to give them what they wanted. I know of other suppliers who have done the same in similar circumstances. We do it because ours is a gossip-fuelled channel where baseless gossip can harm reputations. I understand that giving in feeds the monster. It’s a judgement call that suppliers do all too often find to be necessary … unfortunately. We did this time.
Why write about this? To show that newsagent suppliers from time to time have to deal with situations that the vast majority of newsagents would never know about and to point out that a very small number of newsagents give the broader community a bad name. I also write about this to explain why some suppliers have complex account application and purchase processes.
After being flogged in the last edition of Media Watch on ABC TV last week over a string of inaccurate Kate Middleton pregnancy reports, the folks at New Idea would be (and should be) feeling good about their last report being proved to be right.
Now for the weekly magazine frenzy as we watch the bump grow through to delivery. I hope the public interest delivers for us.
Like many newsagents in Australia, we are promoting the latest issue of Top Gear magazine to make the most of the calendar gift. This is a perfect issue for Christmas gift purchases.
We know from last year that we can achieve a 300% uplift in sales through the Christmas buying season for titles that make ideal Christmas gifts. Top Gear is one of the titles we promote this way.
The latest cut in the cash rate by the RBA has come at a good time for retailers as it will further boost consumer confidence as they consider Christmas spending.
We are using the news by making sure all team members know about it and are ready to reinforce the confidence it brings.
While only small, we have seen a change this size boost shopper confidence – based on what people say and even how they act. Given the nature of our business, newsagents are likely to see a reaction sooner than some other retailers.
The Daily, the iPad based digital newspaper from News Corp. is closing. I agree with many commentators who observe that the closure has more to do with content and execution than the platform. It was a mainstream media product in the wrong place. News on platforms like the iPad should come from a completely different place.
Rupert Murdoch biographer Michael Wolff gets to the point:
Many business model reasons for why Daily died, but, let’s not forget, it was a dopey, tone-deaf, forgettable product
I love the window display I saw for a fashion outlet in Hong Kong on the weekend. Shoppers like me stopped to admire it as if it was a work of art. Click on the image to see the detail. While I don’t have space for something like this in any of my newsagencies, I have been thinking about how I could achieve something even close with some reconfiguring.
What I especially like about the display is the setting showing an outcome for what the store sells. Their clothes would be ideal for attending a dinner like the one featured in the display.
Outside and inside the massive Times Square shopping mall in Hong Kong is larger-than-life displays of Lego for Christmas and celebrating the anniversary of the company. This brand is massive the world over. I know of newsagents who do excellent business with Lego products. The displays I have just seen make me think it’s time to include the range in at least some of my stores. It certainly fits with the collectible focus we have.
Check out home one card and gift shop in Hong Kong is displaying their boxed Christmas cards. They even have them on the floor! I was shocked at first but then I watched shoppers. They reached down and selected boxes from the floor as much as from the table – defying what we have been taught over the years. And it’s not an Asian culture thing as this shop was being shopped by plenty of expats.
We have offered Christmas toilet paper in a past and it’s always sold out. We usually brought in 24 or so rolls, a couple of designs. When I saw this display a couple of days ago in Hong Kong I realised that our range was nothing, we were half-hearted. This display is so good that you almost feel compelled to purchase. It grabs your attention and wonder gee if they have this much plenty must be buying it. Someone once told me that smart retailers leverage psychology to drive shopper activity. I suspect that’s in play with this large display of Christmas-themed toilet paper.
Check out how one supermarket in Hong Kong is using cane baskets to make their impulse purchase pitch to shoppers lining up to pay. I like the passive nature of the baskets – they are more subtle than the traditional retail fixturing one sees next to the checkout line. In this supermarket they used the baskets to offer an unusual mix of items. I saw several shoppers purchase from them.
I was in a supermarket in Hong Kong recently and saw this display of Advent Calendars next to the line leading to the checkout and it struck me that this is a space newsagents should own channel-wide. We are excellent habit-based businesses – people visit for lottery tickets, newspapers, magazines, cards (more than any other retail channel). We should nail habit and key seasonal opportunities like Advent calendars. I know some newsagents do … our whole channel should.
Newsagents should watch the interview between News Limited CEO and Neil Mitchell on 3AW last week.
Newsagents get a mention as does the News Limited view on where newspapers are headed.
Further to my post last week about the magazine wall at the rear of my new newsagency, this photo shows another magazine fixture we have in front of the magazine wall in this new store.
While the photo was taken when we had only just opened and therefore had nowhere near the full magazine range, you can see that we have five pockets per column and three of those show the full cover.
I urge any newsagent getting new magazine fixtures to NOT get their shopfitter to build magazine units. It would be wasted money. Shopfitters should not have to construct any magazine fixtures for todays needs or the Newsagency of the Future.
Overall, the business can handle 700 facings. I think this is enough to satisfy consumer interest and to position us as a newsagency in the mind of our shoppers.
This is the newspaper display unit we decided on for the new newsagency just opened. The only title not fitting in the unit is the Herald Sun and the Saturday editions of the Herald Sun and The Age – because of volume. Being free-standing, we can place the unit where it best suits us. The unit makes finding your desired title easy.
Footnote: the distribution agent supplying this new location is allowing us a broader range of newspaper titles than the distribution agent in one of my other stores.
I noticed this hang-sell display of Christmas decorations yesterday. It’s a volume, mass merchant, approach. I was drawn to the display from 30 or so metres away because it looked like there was a big range on offer. It looked more bold than the photo suggests.
This is the approach I am thinking about for next year. Going out early and taking more of a mass approach than the boutique approach taken this year with Christmas decorations.
Any newsagent is welcome to participate in a free online workshop – Best practice magazine management – being hosted by my newsagency software company this Thursday @ 11am. The session will also cover how to early return without hurting your sales.
Every shopper leaving your newsagency should be given a DL size flyer with gift suggestions. Change it each week. This week, start with Kris Kringle gifts (for office parties and community group Christmas events). Next week focus on, maybe, gifts under $20. … and so on.
Creating the flyers will take a couple of minutes. They don’t have to be fancy. Slip them in newspapers and magazines at the counter during the sale as a bookmark. Put them in your bags too.
For a tiny investment you could drive some additional Christmas purchases.
In one of my newsagencies, we have already experienced Christmas sales this year as we did last year more than two weeks from now. It feels as if Christmas is early and bigger than ever.
I was talking with a newsagent yesterday who expressed concern that for their business Christmas 2012 may be worse that Christmas 2011. On current numbers, they are down 11%
While I am sure the difference between both businesses is, in part, a factor of socio economic circumstance for the demographics our respective businesses serve, it reinforces the need for us to manage and market our businesses for broad appeal. We can’t rely for next year on this year’s shopper mix.
There used to be a time when opening the door of a reasonably stocked traditional newsagency was all that was needed for business success. That is not the case today. The only things exclusive to any newsagency today are management skill and customer service. We have to leverage these.
To broaden the appeal of your newsagency think about your regulars and then think about what you need to change about your business and how you would market your business to appeal to shoppers who are not your regulars. It’s hard work, sure, but it is necessary in retail today.
Opening the door is not marketing or management activity. In today’s retail market we have to chase new customers, offer new products and deliver a service experience that is better than expected. If we do this we will broaden our appeal and that is one factor in Christmas success.
In my newsagency enjoying early christmas sales growth, a key difference is the pitch of the business out into the mall. The products on offer this year are less traditional for a newsagency. This is helping attract shoppers from the mall who are not regulars.
The melting snowman the perfect counter offer. We make more money off this in a week than we do from any candy line.
Customers who ask what it is are likely to purchase. It’s so easy.
Adding this value item to a basket on impulse at the counter is brilliant.