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IPS making inroads in magazine distribution

I am happy with my relationship with magazine distributor IPS, they are a welcome addition to the magazine distribution mix. I like the flexibility in selecting titles. I also like that their model is forcing publishers who use Gotch and Network to look at their engagement with newsagents.  I like that I can order what I think I will sell and access top up stock the next day if needed.

When IPS launched I noted that they will be an agent for change. I think we are close to seeing this play out now. With 4,000+ newsagents with IPS accounts, they have distribution critical mass to benefit publishers.

I met with some of the IPS management team a week back and with their permission publish a summary of IPS achievements so far:

  • Increase commission to newsagents, minimum of 27% commission on ALL IPS titles.
  • Provided approximately $600,000 (FY12) in additional revenue to newsagents through increased commission.
  • IPS gives primary control of supply back to the newsagents.
  • IPS is committed to continue building a Sustainable Distribution Model for the future.
  • IPS is helping retailers and publishers to reduce wastage that results from over supply into the market.
  • IPS provides newsagents with a next day top up service.
  • Increase marketing & promotions for newsagents to earn higher commission on sales of IPS titles.
  • IPS welcomes newsagents to provide positive feedback on our systems and policies.
  • IPS works with newsagents to develop new business rules and policies to assist them in determining the optimum supply levels for each IPS title.
  • IPS is committed to improving Customer Service by streamlining internal processes, providing additional training and development.

I am confident that the more we as a channel engage with IPS the more Gotch and Network will change their model in response to greater competition.

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magazine distribution

Unmerchantable Little Friends from ACP

Check out what the Little Friends bundle pack from ACp looked like yesterday. Inside the sealed pack is an old copy of the magazine with a sticker from the previous newsagent. Someone, I am guessing at Network, put a line through the price and the barcode. They damaged the cover in doing this. It would have been easier to remove the sticker as it has a non-damaging adhesive.

I can’t sell this copy of the product – it is not compliant in my view and is being early returned.

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magazines

A welcome increase in supply

I complain about oversupply here so it’s appropriate when supplies are increased with justification. I’m thrilled with the bump in supply we received for My Weekly magazine and their royal jubilee feature.  we are supporting the opportunity with stock in the usual location for the title as well as with placement next to our weeklies like Woman’s Day and New Idea.

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magazines

Promoting Take 5 and free jewellery

We have our display for Take 5 up as well as placement of the magazine in a second impulse purchase location as well as the usual allocation for the title.  With the sales decay for Take 5 and That’s Life falling away once we hit Friday (that’s a good thing by the way – not a complaint) we expect to have the main display up for three days.

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magazines

Welcome moves by RBA on EFTPOS fees

I was pleased to see the announcement from the Reserve Bank yesterday banning excessive EFTPOS related fees. While the regulation is not as simple as it should be, it is a start.  My concern is that it is open to interpretation and you need to complain for an issue to be resolved.

The RBA also announced a process of consultation on the future regulatory framework of EFTPOS Hopefully plenty of small business representatives make submissions, particularly around the control the big banks in Australia have over current arrangements.  You can access a paper outlining the thinking of the RBA on the future framework here.

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EFTPOS fees

Brilliant airport magazine and book store in Auckland

I was in Auckland last week and got to get another look at the bookmarque store at the Auckland airport. I love because it’s different to the usual airport magazine / book shops. It’s funky, presents products well and attracts shoppers for a good variety of reasons.

They have good coffee, a good selection of snacks, an excellent range of books, funky gifts travellers will like and a good range of magazines well merchandised. The store is well zoned. It is also designed and laid out to draw you in.

bookmarque is the kind of shop which could only work in a classy shopping mall or a premium airport shopping situation like I saw in Auckland. It would not work in a b-class mall with sub-standard shops around nor in a high street situation. That said, there are some learnings to take away for trying in a newsagency situation.

What was particularly interesting to me was how they blended a cafe, bookshop, magazine shop and travel gift shop together without disrespecting each of these categories yet connecting them.

I’ve seen bookmarque plenty of times in recent years but only looked at it from a retail layout and management perspective this trip.

Click on the image to see a much bigger version.

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Newsagency management

Tapping into news coverage of New Idea cover story

The media coverage of the news that Kerri-Anne Kennerly has been diagnosed with breast cancer has been considerable.  Without wanting to look crass (but we are retailers after all) we placed copies of the magazine at each sales counter position. The placements served as a reminder to customers about the high-profile cover story. It is driving impulse purchases for us.

Nothing beats getting the right product in front of shoppers at the right location in-store.

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magazines

Promoting Australian Traveller and camping titles

We have been supporting the latest issue of Australian Traveller magazine and a selection of camper and 4WD titles with this display in a pillar facing shoppers as they enter the store.

The idea here is to bring a category out from the usual location to the rear of the newsagency and show shoppers who shop the front of the business to see them.  I chose Australia Traveller as the headline title because of the cut through of the collateral and that the proposition of the title is easy to get by a browser.

Regulars here will notice that we have done several of these category specific off-location displays. They are working, achieving additional sales for us. Magazine sales are up 12% comparing the last four weeks to the same four weeks a year earlier. I think this is in part due to this off-location support.

Click on the image to see a bigger version.

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Uncategorized

Why the 50% increase in supply of Picture Premium?

Despite zero (0) sales of the last two issues of Picture Premium, ACP decided we should get two more copies, a 50% increase. This does not make sense. ACP pushed to get sales data from newsagents, citing more accurate supply as a benefit. Given that we are sending back accurate sales data on time through XchangeIT it appears to me that for some titles ACP is ignoring our sales data. I can’t see any reason for the increase in supply of this title.

My assessment of the data is that we should not get the title at all. However, if we must then one or two copies.

Click on the image to see our historical data for this title.

ACP subsidiary Network Services is agressive in its handling of newsagent debt. Newsagents ought to be equally aggressive in pursuing the company over oversupply.  My experience is that it happens too much with these porn titles.

I’d like ACP to research why oversupply has happened here and for the previous title I wrote about this morning. Yes, I could have approached the company. I am writing publicly about the on behalf of myself and others who experience oversupply like this.

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magazines

Too many home girls for this newsagent

Despite selling 1 and two copies respectively for the last two issues, ACP decided not adjust supply and send us 8 copies of Picture Home Girls annual. I’d take two copies but not 8, these titles don’t sell in our family oriented conservative area. the sales data shows that. ACP has the sales data to supply at a fair level.

Click on the image to see our historical data for yourself. ACP prides themselves on scale our based on sales. Not with this title.

We are early returning four copies just in case there is something in this issue which results in us doubling our best sales of the last two issues.

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magazines

Promoting Men’s Health magazine

We are promoting the latest issue of Men’s Health magazine with this display in the usual location for the title. There is no better way to promote the magazine and the free razor gift with the title than to give it prime position at eye level in with our sports and fitness titles in our men’s magazine area. There is no missing Men’s Health when you walk into this area.  As for the razor gift, I love it – perfect for this title.

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magazines

Trendy / funky gifts selling well

Racing Grannies is part of a range of trendy / funky gifts which account for 10% of our gift product sales now. The range is not what shoppers expect to see in a newsagency so we regularly promote it at the front of the business, facing into the shopping mall. Our simple Racing Grannies display works a treat at attracting traffic and converting into sales as well as into browsers for other parts of our business.

While I think we have room to expand the trendy / funky gift range, we are not ignoring other gift niches. It’s all about balance for us – balance in what attracts shoppers so that we see a balance of ages an interests covered by those visiting the store.

We are also using gifts to drive a point of difference for us. Given that magazines, newspapers, stationery and cards are elsewhere, gifts are an area where we can drive our USP.

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Gifts

Enhancing our support for the marie claire marriage equality campaign

Check out the display created by our team at one of my newsagencies supporting the latest issue of marie claire magazine.

Themed to tap into coverage of the marie claire marriage equality campaign, I love the use of rainbow colours running to the floor.

The display also gives coverage to the free Napoleon Perdis lip gloss which comes with this issue of the magazine.

Placed at the front of the newsagency and facing into the shopping mall, the display has been situated to drive the most attention from shoppers in the centre. I stood and watched as shoppers noticed the display and approached it. This is what a good front of store display is about, getting shoppers to notice, stop and engage with the product.

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magazines

Reinforcing relevance with tech magazines

Our range of iPad, iPhone and Android device titles is proving to be not only a sales hit but also a hit at showing off the relevance of tech titles in-store. Every few weeks we give them a run outside their usual location to shop people not necessarily looking for technology titles that we have titles like these that could appeal to them. Displaying the full cover is vital, especially for the app guide.

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magazines

June numbers show sales balance strategy working

June off to a good start and looks set to continue the trend of a good quarter so far. We compare performance against ourselves and our category of business in the shopping centre – the landlord publishes retail category results.

The categories performing the best are those on which we focus attention: magazines (up 12%), cards (up 6%), gifts (up 214%), stationery (up 23%) ink (up 91%). These are all off healthy bases.

We are thrilled that traffic is up 6% yet sales are up 13%. Our focus on deepening the basket is paying off.  We are also chasing balance across categories. For example, a year ago gifts accounted for 2.92% of our sales. Today, they account for 9.66%. We are wary of turning the newsagency into a gift shop and so are managing the growth within our goals. Stationery sits at 7.85% of sales, up from 7.18% a year earlier. Ink is closer to where we want it at 7.55% of sales, up from 3.41% a year earlier.

While growth is vital to any newsagency, balance across our various product categories is vital. A good balance will ensure a more sustainable business.  I want a business where I am not relying on one or two product categories or one or two other factors to generate the majority of our shopper traffic.

We all have levers we can pull in our businesses through buying, merchandising, shop-floor management and external marketing. Today more than at any time in our past we need to do this. Relying on suppliers doing this for us will fail our businesses.

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Newsagency management

Plenty of money for State of Origin products

Several Queensland newsagents I have spoken with recently have raved about the thousands of dollars in sales of State of Origin merchandise. While origin themed circulation product sells, it is the t-shirts, caps and other supporter products which have been flying off the shelves. Sales have been between $4,000 and $8,000 in the newsagencies I have spoken with. In each case sales are up on last year.

Most sales are to existing customers who visit to purchase something else – making for a valuable basket extension.

The success with origin products reinforces my view that people have money for purchases which matter to them. Our challenge is retailers is to ensure that we keep putting such product before existing shoppers while also actively promoting outside our businesses to draw new traffic.

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Newsagency opportunities

Poor supermarket compliance

I was in two Woolworths supermarkets yesterday and each had stands from ACP for promoting ACP magazines half filled with titles from other publishers. I have has suppliers say compliance is easier in supermarkets. Not from what I saw on the weekend. ACP would be more frustrated in that they probably paid Woolworths for the floor display unit space.

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magazines

A reason to promote Reader’s Digest

We are using the cover story relating to the Queen’s Jubilee to give Reader’s Digest magazine some time in the sunshine. Our approach is very simple as the photo shows – we have placed the magazine on top of our magazine filtering, above our british magazines which also feature the Queen’s jubilee.

Reader’s Digest is not big for us but this does not mean we should ignore it when it has a cover story we know will connect with our shoppers.

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magazines

Sunday marketing tip: Do you offer fries?

We are now regularly offering ‘fries’ with each purchase at the weekend in at least one of my newsagencies. By ‘fries’ I mean an over the counter offer, an up-sell as a deal.

Hey would like [insert product here] we have it on special today only for [insert $off offer] off the usual price.

That’s the pitch, plain and simple.

The offer is not promoted in-store, it is only offered as an up-sell at the counter to shoppers who are making a purchase.

There are three key factors impacting the success of this: the product offered, the person offering it and the pitch. Get these right and you should see a terrific lift in sales.

If the up-sell product offer is a magazine we will typically run this late in the on-sale – week three and beyond for a monthly and day five and beyond for a weekly.

Our target discount is around the 20% mark but we will discount to cost in some situations. My thinking is that the shopper has come to the counter with what they want. Also, being a shopping centre and on the weekend, more than half our customers are not regulars so we are likely to not be doing ourselves of a later possible purchase. Every cent we get is bonus revenue we get to bank.

A side benefit is that we are offering our customers a deal which enforces that shopping with us has value beyond the usual for a newsagency.

People have money contrary to what some commentators are saying. The trick is how you help them spend it. For us, this over the counter pitch on weekends is working.

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magazines

Misleading tweets from The Age

While it was terrific to see The Age using Twitter to promote their Good Bar Guide, a disconnect in their distribution system saw not all newsagents with the title. Shoppers see newsagents as newsagents. They don’t know if they are retail only and relying on a commercial distribution newsagent to support their publisher supplier by placing a product in the newsagent outlets they supply.

I did not get the Good Bar Guid yet shoppers see my business as a newsagency.

I wish for a distribution system which enables me to access supply of newspaper related product from elsewhere. I have an account with IPS, why not use IPS for this type of title?

A distribution newsagent making petty decisions in an effort to block or harm my business also lets down their supplier and consumers. Dumb.

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Newspaper distribution

Being harsh on employees who steal

I was talking with a newsagent yesterday who has been stolen from for a second time by an employee. They let them off the first time as they believed it was the first time and the person was in a bind. There should be no excuses. The same with customers who steal – ban them and call security or the police if their return.

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theft

Are you a retailer of last resort?

In a newsagency recently I noticed a selection of fax rolls on a shelf and available for purchase.  I was surprised since we stopped selling fax rolls in my newsagency two or three years ago.

While there is demand for fax rolls, it is not sufficient for us to warrant the stock investment. Instead, we offer to get in any fax rolls a customer wants. Given the range of roll sizes, this is a better course of action.

If I did carry fax rolls I’d have a mark up of 300% or more to reflect the long time fax rolls will sit waiting to be purchased.

Hey, Australians think newsagencies are expensive so why not meet the expectation – especially for hard to source items that turn slowly?

If we are to be a retailer of last resort, we need to embrace this as a value proposition, pricing the last resort type items to reflect the service we provide our customers. This is how diamonds are priced so why not humble stationery items which shoppers visit newsagents for because they can’t find them elsewhere?

I am all for newsagents stocking hard to get stationery items. However, those who do need to do so with a price model which reflects the service.

I have talked to newsagents about this recently, the need to price items, stationery particularly, in a way which reflects time on the shelf and ease of availability of the item elsewhere.

We need to shake off the fear of being as expensive as shoppers expect us to be.

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Newsagency management
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