Wow, what a front page: The West Australian
Source: https://twitter.com/melaniebrockjpn/status/1496233950020501504?s=20&t=55FvZflhb1xYXIEdOj8-qw
Extraordinary sales growth for Amazon Australia
57% year on year growth achieved by Amazon.
Amazon has become one of the leading online marketplace in Australia in just four short years, zooming ahead of rivals such as Catch and Kogan during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
Amazon’s sales revenue hit A$1.75 billion in 2021, due to its “the everything store” status, coupled with a hefty streaming offering through Amazon Prime. In 2020, revenue more than doubled to reach A$1.12 billion.
Amazon.com.au, the online store portion of Amazon’s local business, generated sales of $883 million in 2021, a huge leap from 2020’s $517 million.
Amazon Prime memberships accounted for $155 million, and is a fast-growing arm of the local Amazon enterprise. In 2019, the nascent streaming service made just $35.4 million in Australia.
“Revenue from related parties”, which accounts for royalties from Aussie shoppers buying via international arms of the Amazon store, reached $471 million, up from $371 million.
Now, if only they paid a decent amount of tax.
AGHA Sydney gift fair “a waste of time”
Several retailers I have spoken with told me the Sydney AGHA gift fair held this past weekend was a waste of time. It appeared challenged to me when I realised that a chunk of suppliers in the fair directory were not attending.
For interstate travellers, retailers and suppliers, I suspect there is plenty of frustration at the costs involved.
More attention needs to be paid to transparency around faders as we come out of the Covid lockdowns. If there are more experiences like AGHA retailers and suppliers will be wary and that benefits no one.
Remembering the comic magazine segment
Conics were an awesome magazine segment back in the day, a perfect habit based product that brought shoppers back and back. While we still have some comics today, sadly, not enough for what remains a passion for plenty. Check out this as from years ago:
Happy birthday 2000 AD! Forty-five years ago today the comic of the future landed with a thermonuclear impact – along with this zarjaz TV spot!
What was YOUR first issue, Earthlets? Tag your replies with #2000AD45 and you could win free graphic novels! pic.twitter.com/KQQDWzGtfC
— 2000 AD Comics (@2000AD) February 19, 2022
Playing outside traditional retail seasons is vital to growth in retail newsagencies
Blue ocean strategy is all about positioning your business in clean and clear waters with less competition. Red ocean is where most are, it’s crowded and bloody.
Major seasons like Valentine’s Day are red ocean. Crowded. Competitive.
At the newsXpress newsagency marketing group business we love creating blue ocean opportunities for our members. Here is a short video from me, which I shot Thursday last week, in which I talk about blue ocean opportunities in 2022 for newsxpress members.
Going out early with Easter is important for newsagents
The Toyworld a couple of doors away from our newsagency has has had cheap $1 and $2 Easter cards on the lease line for several days. I can’t recall them pitching the Easter season two months out before, but here we are.
Thankfully, we had our stock so we could adjust plans and go out early, which we have done, and, yes, people are shopping the season early.
Right now, the focus is on cards. we will add gifts as they arrive, to tell a more complete seasonal story.
The card pitch today for us is all about friends connecting, using Easter as an opportunity to send a greeting or I’m thinking of you message to a friend, using an Easter card.
While Easter is a smaller card season, it is valuable, and growing. We don’t engaged with the $1 and $2 cards as we see that as a mugs game. Price based shoppers are not loyal.
What we are seeing this year, as with every year for Easter quite frankly, is that religious cards sell best early in the season.
We encourage this through gentle social media posts and tactical placement of these cards within the broader Easter card offer. It is not uncommon for this shopper to purchase several religious Easter cards at once. Since we have a good range of general religious cards in-store, we are able to cater to this shopper beyond the Easter season. It’s important that we try and make that connection.
My tip for newsagents: if you have Easter cards and they are not already out, get them out if you have the space. There are other retailers, like Toyworld, in this space and possibly taking sales you might have otherwise got.
Leveraging the loyalty differentiator in the newsagency
Shopper loyalty has become a maze of hoops, often with little real value at the end for shoppers, and retailers. Almost 9 years ago to the day my newsagency software company launched a new approach to loyalty. Yesterday, I shot this short video in which I talk about what continues to be a differentiating approach to loyalty. I know of hundreds of newsagents using this, and hundreds of other retailers.
Sure the video promotes my software company. It also encourages you to look at what you do in the loyalty space and to question whether what you do values shoppers and differentiate your business.
This simple approach to loyalty is easily understood and this helps people engage with it sooner, even those who make a one time only visit to the shop.
New AFL Record hot!
The new AFL Record which came out a couple of days ago is hot on social media, well worth placement with daily newspapers or even at the counter and well worth promoting on Facebook.
One season ends. Another begins. This on sale today in Victoria, nationally later this week. @AFLFantasy @1116sen @AFLNation pic.twitter.com/NQhGtRIAQm
— AFL Record (@AFLrecord) February 13, 2022
Retailers keen for OzLotto changes
The SA Government recently gazetted changes to the state’s Lotteries Act and through that offered.May 11, 2022 as the date from which changes to OzLotto will apply.
7 numbers from 47 are drawn and three supps.
The changes are expected to reinvigorate interest in OZLotto through an increase the jackpot opportunity, which plenty of retailers love.
For retailers reliant of lottery products, the changes are good news.
If you know the owner of Land Rover Discovery ANI 574
We have a video of someone driving their vehicle into our office car park in Hawthorn (VIC) yesterday, Feb. 15, at 5:48pm, and dumping litter on the ground, near our bins. We’ve reported it to the EPA.
Retail advice: you are not your customer
Talking with a newsagent the other day they mentioned their success with a product category they had rejected for several years. That category is now delivering close to $50,000 a year in good margin revenue to the business. Better still, it is attracting a category of shopper not common to their business.
They mentioned it because they heard me say to another retailer you are not your customer.
None of us in retail are our customers yet too often local small business retailers stock their shops with what they like, missing opportunities to give more local shoppers what they like.
Ranging new products is speculative, a risk. But, trying to attract new customers requires this type of risk taking, done carefully.
The key is the data analysis of the performance of what you have taken on, to measure whether it stays or goes. If it is working, the opportunity could be to expand into allied niche areas, to grow the opportunity further.
Accepting that you don’t know what you don’t know can free you to trial products you have rejected in the past and, through that, uncover valuable opportunities for your business.
My advice is to always have a modest inventory and space investment on the shop floor of new products that you would not usually carry. Let them show you if they work or not.
Covid rapid tests available for immediate delivery
Through my work with newsXpress and a national pharmacy group I have been sourcing Covid rapid tests. From the latest shipment, which arrived at the office this morning, there are a few boxes of spare stock.
Each retail pack has 5 tests. Each box has 240 retail packs. The wholesale price of $43.90 per retail pack (plus GST) delivered for 240. That is $10,536.00 for a carton of 240 retail test packs delivered. or $44.90 (plus GST) for 120 delivered, or $5,388.00 per 120 delivered.
The current retail price ranges between $55.00 and $75.00 for these 5-test packs.
The tests are the TGA approved Clungene tests.
If you are interested, please email me direct rapid@towersystems.com.au.
How to spot employee theft in a newsagency
Theft is a problem in retail. Too often, it is not discovered until after the event, primarily because of a lack of belief that theft is a problem, particularly theft by employees.
One of the best ways to detect employee theft is to look at your business transactional data. Good POS software not only tracks what is sold, it also tracks what is deleted from sales and entire sales that are cancelled, and it keeps this data in a hidden file, not accessible in the usual reporting way of the software.
In my experience, one out of ten times I have received this secret data for a retailer using my POS software I have found evidence of questionable behaviour. Laying this evidence out with video footage, ideally, and employee rosters, a person of interest emerges, or more depending on the video evidence with a money (in the pocket) shot.
I am not going to share here the incriminating keystrokes but I will say they have been court-tested in cases while providing expert witness for the prosecution.
My advice to newsagents and any retailer is to use the theft detection and mitigation tools in your POS software. learn about them. Use them. But don’t tell others what you are doing.
Some retailers think the best approach to reduce the theft opportunity is to lock everything down, making it very hard for people to steal. The thing is, people who want / need to steal will find a way and the harder you make it for them m in a retail setting the harder it will be for you to detect it.
I am not saying tempt them. rather, don’t lock your POS software down, give people reasonable access, and watch what they do – follow the advice of your POS software company on using the data their software collects for you to see if theft could be a problem min your shop.
Cases of employee theft in a newsagency in which I have been involved have ranged in theft cost from $5,000 to $245,000. In every single instance, using the secret tools I have mentioned here could have detected the theft sooner and reduced the financial an emotional impact on the business and others.
If you have read this far, thank you and well done. Most will not, because theft is not an interesting topic – until they are personally impacted.
Australia Post leverages government ownership (protection) to take revenue from local family businesses
The latest Australia Post catalogue has hit letterboxes and, once again, it shows this government owned and run business chasing revenue that would otherwise go to local family owned businesses. yet politicians in the government claim they support small business. Hmm …
If you are using the Find A RAT website
If you are locating Covid tests on the Find a RAT website, you need to re-register each day as listings drop off.
People are more curious of product origins
One consequence of Covid that I am noticing in retail is that shoppers are more curious about product origins. More are interested and ask, and, if there is a choice between locally made and imported, there are enough preferencing locally made to for us to speak to that in buying and marketing.
As a retailers we are more aware ourselves about products that pitch Aussie or an Aussie connection, which may have been made offshore. In these instances, more shoppers notice and comment, as someone did at the Coles checkout I was at the other day, pointing out these made ins China “Aussie” bags.
It is sourcing like this that can bite a retailer. And, rightly so in my opinion. The only Aussie thing about the bags is the use of chant often hears at sports events. Okay, it says they were designed in Australia. There does not seem to be much to the design.
The bags feel like a misstep by Coles to me, but I doubt people will care. They are cheap and at the counter for easy purchase when needed.
This is where local retail businesses can make a difference. Okay, local sourcing of bags means they will be more expensive, but through this we can call out those shipping Aussie cash and jobs offshore. It all depends on what people want.
In local small business retail we want shoppers and we seek this by being different. Sourcing more locally is one way we can speak to our difference. This matters if our businesses are hit up by local charities to support them. This is where the whole sourcing local issue becomes circular. We can only help them if they help us and helping us means helping keep more jobs and Aussie cash locally.
It’s a hard care to make when so many do buy on price. My experience is that there are enough buying based in value, as opposed to price, and they are more loyal to our businesses.
As a result of Covid and challenges in the supply chain, people are more interested in sourcing locally. This is an opportunity for us.
Photo background remover tip
Remove BG www.remove.bg is the best tool I have ever used to quickly and easily remove backgrounds from photos.
Before:
After:
And, with a black background:
From the 3 images above you can see the value of a quick tweak of an image, especially if you plan to use it online.
From the taking of the photo through to the final image, it took less than a minute.
We’ve been using this in the newsXpress community for ages along with other graphic design and adjustment tools for better images. remove BG is a must-have in the toolkit. It’s 100% free.
Leveraging the Better Homes and Gardens opportunity
It’s terrific when there is a feature in a magazine of products you have in-store. This is the case with the latest Better Homes and Gardens magazine.
We have the magazine open and placed with the products it showcases, products we usually carry.
What a treat!
And, yes, this is a display in a newsagency. It is placed at thew front of the store so passers-by can see it and, hopefully, enter as a result.
Homewares is one of the best performing categories in newsagencies right now, delivering good year on year growth, good stock turns and good margins. Plus we have access plenty of suppliers in this space.
Footnote: while the publisher may want a display that’s all about their magazine, this display we have created does more for magazine and homewares sales, and that is what matters to us as the retailer.
Having fun with Valentine’s Day in the newsagency
Where there is the traditional approach to Valentine’s Day in the newsagency of celebrating love, there is also the opportunity of having fun. The Valentine’s Day cards from the dog and from the cat cards are one example of this opportunity – these cards offer retailers an opportunity to subtly poke fun at the day, for us to not take ourselves too seriously.
Big retailers, of course, are all in, at one high-volume level, with front of store displays and, primarily, focussed on cliche items like chocolates, cheap plush sold at a premium price, flowers and cards. By playing with the quirky and at the fringe, I think we have an opportunity to stand out.
That’s what we are doing. Through some social media posts and in other ways, we are pitching an alternative, fun Valentine’s Day. Okay, we offer the traditional cards and are pitching them – but even there we are trying to be less commercial and more 2022 in the pitch. We really don’t want to get lost or unnoticed in the big retailer Valentine’s Day noise as that’s a cacophony that local retailers are less likely to win from.
I like the dog and cat card because they are niche and quirky, because they give us permission for some fun. So, that’s what’s we have been doing already on socials and in-store.
The more we play outside what is expected the more we are likely to be remembered. This is vital for our local retail businesses … and, seasons like Valentine’s Day provide is the perfect platform on which to speak to outpoints of difference, without being too obvious.
For the more traditional, but still nuanced, pitch, here;’s what we have at the counter at one of our stores.
I say nuanced because of the card selection chosen for the counter.
And, here’s what we have for Valentines Day inside the shop door. This is in a shop serving primarily retirees.
That’s not it though. We are pitching Valentine’s Day in three different locations in-store, to make the most of the opportunities its and knowing that shoppers will pass a pitch twice before noticing it the third time.
Valentine’s Day offers a unique opportunity in 2022 to pitch something to distract from the messy and challenging Covid situation and the heightened poison of this being an election year in Australia. It’s a distraction, a welcome distraction. The dog and cat card are, to me, a perfect example of welcome distraction that we can play with.
Magazines missing in Melbourne for plenty
5 truckloads of magazines did not make it our of the Melbourne depot today leaving plenty of newsagents without stock.
While this type of disruption is happening due to Covid, I expected Are Media too have a contingency plan and good communication processes in place. It’s a no on both counts.
What do you think of the Are Media Take 5 / That’s Life discount bundle?
On February 10, sone newsagents will have a Take 5 / That’s Life bundle on sale for $60.00.
That’s half price.
It’s an offer that makes no sense to me from a retailer perspective. It’s an additional SKU, an additional pocket, all to try and sell two magazines at half price.
Retailer revenue only comes from sales while. This discounting trial costs us money.
What do you think?
Covid rapid test opportunity
Through the newsXpress retail marketing group business I own I have access to Covid rapid tests. The first shipment sold out. We have access to two more charter flights landing Feb 11 and Feb 16. The tests being imported are TGA approved: Clungene and Alltest. Each retail pack has 5 tests. Each box has 240 retail packs. The wholesale price of $43.90 per retail pack (plus GST) delivered. That is $10,536.00 for a carton of 240 retail test packs delivered. The current retail price ranges between $60.00 and $75.00 for these 5-test packs, putting the 240 units at a retail value of between $14,000 and $18,000.
We have to finalise our next order today, and pay in advance for it on Monday.
If this interests you, please email rapid@towersystems.com.au with your business name and address and the number of boxes (240 retail packs per box) you would require.
We will get back to all who register with advice as to whether we hit the required minimum for the order. If it proceeds, we’d need payment by Monday.
Sorry, there is no opportunity to break the boxes.
The challenges with importing Covid tests are causing logistics costs to surge overseas and locally as there is a scramble for stock. This is a key factor in the wholesale being what it is.
Newsagents frustrated at delay to Suncorp EFTPOS funds settlement
Suncorp missed its daily EFTPOS funds settlement, causing challenges for plenty of retailers from what I am hearing.
The company issued a statement:
Overnight processing of Suncorp merchant settlement files from Wednesday, 2 February 2022 has not occurred and resulted in these being delayed.
Technical teams are investigating and options are being worked through at the moment but the outcome is likely that yesterday’s settlement will be paid tonight along with today’s so merchants will get two days in one.
This is only an indication at this stage whilst further investigations are completed.
The value of the loyal magazine shopper in the newsagency
We have this customer come in every three or four weeks and spend usually around $250.00 on special interest magazines. Here’s the transaction from yesterday morning.
Range is key to the sale is range of special interest titles. Shoppers like this one like to go deep.
Magazine segments like music, military, cars, crafts, home decor and similar offer opportunities to serve this type of niche shopper.
Yes, I can hear some of you saying but the 25%, it’s not enough. I agree, it is appalling in 2022 to make 25% from these price controlled / price suppressed products. But, if we’re offering magazines we need to do it on space and labour terms that work for us, and balance this with better margin products, and sales, from elsewhere in the business, which we do.
Anyway, I am not here for that fight today. Rather, I note that there are good magazine buyers out there, spending up, being loyal to newsagencies with range and, often, buying other items to make the visit more valuable to us. This is especially true with the niche segment magazine shopper compared to the weeklies shopper – the weeklies magazine shopper is less loyal.