Comic print sales down in your newsagency?
Check out this blog post at Comic Book resources listing digital innovation in the comic space.
1 in 5 Americans to own a tablet computer by 2014
Folio is reporting the results of a survey predicting that one in five Americans will own a tablet computer by 2014. I expect this penetration to be reached before 2014. Sales of the devices have been extraordinary and they will grow as a flood of tablets reach the market this year. In a few days, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas will a bunch of new devices which will take the tablet hype to new heights.
Those in doubt need to do some research into what happened following the release of the first iPod.
Calendar Club all over the place on calendar pricing
Calendar Club pricing is not consistent across the outlets. There are outlets currently selling calendars at 40% off RRP and others offering more than 50% off. Some were discounting well before Christmas while others were full price up to Christmas.
Maybe it’s just me but they don’t appear to have been as tough a competitor on price this season as they have been in the past.
Calendar Club outposts have dominated calendar sales in major shopping centres for many years, offering a broad range. Their presence has been a major factor in newsagents reducing their commitment to calendars. In recent years, I have seen stores compete successfully with Calendar Club while maintaining a healthy margin.
Good counter offer: Angel Flames
I first wrote about Angel Flames as a good counter offer two and a half years ago. They are just as good today. We can easily sell a box in two weeks … at an excellent margin. If you sell plenty of birthday cards for 1 through to teenage years then they should work for you. I’d encourage newsagents to put them in the counter offer roster – bring them out probably once a quarter. We get our stock from Jasnor – other suppliers have them too.
New sales benchmark study announced
Newsagents are invited to provide data for my next sales benchmark study. I am looking for sales data for two periods:
- December 2010 compared to December 2009.
- October through December 2010 compared to October through December 2009.
Newsagents using newsagency software from Tower Systems can participate by producing two Monthly Sales Comparison reports covering the periods noted above – with the 2010 date on the left and the 2009 date on the right and with the category box ticket (for more detail). Save the report as a PDF and email it to me.
While overall performance will be interesting, I will be looking at sales efficiency – items in the basket as well as overall basket value – along with unit sales and revenue by department.
By ticking the category box I can look at specific categories, such as women’s weeklies magazines, and compare them with overall magazine performance in newsagencies.
By analysing trends, we (individually and collectively) will be better able to plan for the future and to make good decisions for 2011.
I will publish the results here and elsewhere.
Open New Year’s Day
Thanks to the comments here I decided we would open today and see what the day brings. So much depends on what traffic the majors in the centre draw.
Barnes & Noble sells 1 million eBooks
US bookseller Barnes & Noble said a couple of days ago that its Nook e readers are the biggest-selling items in its history. It also said that sold nearly 1 million e-books on Christmas Day. Click here to read the press release from the company which includes the following…
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world’s largest bookseller, today announced that with millions of NOOK eReading devices sold, the line has become the company’s biggest bestseller ever in its nearly 40-year history. The new NOOKcolor Reader’s Tablet, introduced just eight weeks before Christmas, is the company’s number one selling gift of the holiday season. Barnes & Noble also announced that it now sells more digital books than its large and growing physical book business on BN.com, the world’s second largest online bookstore. With its growth across device and NOOKbook™ sales over the critical holiday selling season, Barnes & Noble has successfully established itself as a leader in digital reading.
The curve we are in with sales of physical books versus digital is similar to the curve we saw with music five or six years ago. What is different this time is that key retailers are riding the wave rather than scrambling to catch up.
When I first started writing about tablet computers a few years ago, some in the newsagency channel derided me. History is proving that I was right in saying that these devices would significantly impact how we operate.
The late Collingwood magazine misses Christmas opportunity
On the last day of the year, three months after the AFL Grand Final, we received Black and White magazine – celebrating the Grand Final victory by Collingwood. While we will place the title on the shelves, I suspect it will not sell that well. But who knows, Collingwood supporters seem to hang onto their wins for a while. Had this title arrived a couple of weeks ago it would have been snapped up as a Christmas gift by many.
Italy bans plastic bags
Plastic bags are banned from retail businesses in Italy from today. Good stuff. Now if only we had clear leadership on this issue here.
2010, the year that was
What a challenging, memorable and terrific year.
I have enjoyed 2010.
I like that tablet computers and other disruptive devices are making their moves. I feel like sending an I Told You So card to some people.
I like that newsagents are starting to realise that their future is in their own hands.
I like the customer traffic, sales and margin growth some newsagents are seeing through embracing change.
I like the benefits of a smaller format newsagency and achieving a significantly better per square metre return.
I love the excellent continued growth in ink sales.
I am looking forward with excitement to 2011, the changes it will bring and the opportunities which will be mined from them.
I own two newsagencies and have a 50% share in two more. Yes, 2010 has had its challenges, especially for shopping centre newsagencies.The year is finishing very well though.
On a technology front, my newsagency software company has had a terrific year. Our market share is up, major new software for newsagents is out, newsagency efficiency has improved and millions of dollars in employee theft has been discovered, stopped and is being pursued.
With more than 1,700 newsagents using our software, the Tower newsagent community remains the largest newsagent community in the country. In 2010, this community has helped the channel by providing access to the only regular sales benchmark data – data which is widely used and reported. The growth of the Tower newsagent community will continue in 2010.
I am excited about 2011. It will be a year of great change and, I hope, achievement.
New Year’s Resolutions
Here’s a grab bag of resolutions for 2011 newsagents could consider.
- Reconfigure the floor space allocation of your newsagency to reflect your plans for the future.
- We drive serious debate about the green challenges of the magazine supply model.
- To act on what you think needs work with the traditional newsagency model.
- To get serious about theft management in your store.
- To stop supplier reps from placing orders and take full control of reordering for yourself.
- To reconnect with the local community.
- To carry stock which actually sells rather than being the retailer of last resort for many lines.
- To more actively engage in managing the magazine floorstock by more intelligent and timely early return.
- To present a fresh face to the newsagency from the front window and throughout the store.
- To introduce at least one completely new department.
This could be a year of significant change if we decide to lead our businesses rather than follow.
Why aren’t we using women to design newsagencies?
More women shop in newsagencies than men yet our businesses, which depend on women for survival, are designed by men.
Why is it that we do not have women designing newsagencies?
If we did, what changes could we expect to see in newsagency layout and the overall experience provided by the shop fit?
Too often, a newsagency shop fit is approached as a carpentry job when it should be approached as the single most important business development and positioning investment by the business.
If you expect to attract women to your next shop fit, consider adding their voice to your design team.
Press reader app could hurt foreign newspaper sales
Check out this video showing off Press Reader on the iPad – an app providing access to more than 1,700 newspapers from anywhere in the world.
With foreign language newspaper sales so strong, local access to this app could slow the growth.
Is it a policy to greet customers in your newsagency?
The most common complaint newsagents make about anything, and I do mean anything, is that they (we) are too busy.
It is an excuse trotted out if we miss a notice or an email from a supplier, are late in paying a bill or have been discovered not running our business as well as it deserves.
Too often, I fear, we trot out this excuse to excuse us of good retail manners.
Take greeting customers. Do you do this in your newsagency in a structured way?
While we can get into a discussion about whether we have the time, I’d rather think about the kind of ‘newsagency’ we would need to have in order to make offering such a personal greeting to customers as they enter worthwhile – to us and to them. What does that business look and feel like?
With an average sale value in newsagencies of between $6.00 and $10.00, an average margin of around 30% and with hundreds of transactions a day, it is no wonder we don’t place too much attention on the customer greeting. We see little value in this.
What if you had an average sale value of between $15.00 and $25.00 and a margin of 35% or more? The importance of personally greeting customers increases dramatically. The margin opportunity is triple. You could afford the additional labour resources to deliver the personal greeting and related shop floor service.
Newsagents say that their personal service is a key point of difference. Do we really show this in our businesses?
Why is it that we do not demonstrate this by ensuring that customers are greeted as they enter the store – rather than waiting until they get to the counter?
The challenge for us in 2011 and beyond is to reconfigure our businesses to make offering a personal greeting commercially valuable to our businesses. Think of it as a goal, to have that kind of newsagency. How much we change our businesses is up to us.
XchangeIT needs to realise that newsagencies are open this week
If XchangeIT was serious about providing good customer service to newsagents who are forced to use it, it would be open and providing assistance this week.
Their security device requires access to a key when XchangeIT is installed on a computer, A computer trashed by flood, fire or a major hardware crash will require re-installation. By not being open this week, XchnageIT makes a mockery of the claimed commitment to customer service.
The Help Desk team at my newsagency software company were trying to help a couple of newsagents in dire straits yesterday. They called the XIT help line and expected to at least be directed to a mobile phone. Had they not hung up they would still be listening to the music track not, almost a day later.
Appalling customer service.
Ladies and diaries
It never ceases to amaze me how sales come in waves. This week it has been pocket diaries. Excellent sales. Especially of this Letts range. Our customers (women 40 and over) love them. The post Christmas sale is pulling new people into the store and they are buying other items, like these diaries. Of course, we are getting asked in the diaries are on sale. When we say no and that we never discount diaries they buy anyway – no harm in asking I guess.
Editorial choices harm newspapers more than new devices
Bloggers and online commentators have been doing the heavy lifting on the St Kilda and AFL footballer scandal. While The Age, the Herald Sun and TV and radio news outlets have taken a back seat with this story, Derryn Hinch, Mike Stuchbery and Phil Quin and been providing the level of commentary and assessment a story like this deserves.
Derryn Hinch in particular has written some excellent pieces teasing out the real story behind what is now called the dickileaks scandal.
Mainstream media outlets worried about their future in this era of significant disruption need to look at how they handle stories which are connected to commercial partners. By bowing (pandering) to the AFL (and related parties) and not reporting without fear or favour (as they should), as appears to have happened in this case, mainstream media has lost the story and with that the respect of some consumers.
This is what will kill newspapers, evidence of them not doing their job. With easier access to platforms such s Twitter, people who would buy a newspaper or switch on to TV or radio for the latest on a story have options which do present a without fear or favour perspective on major stories.
Can’t give away a cricket calendar
Australians are savage when national teams fail. One only has to look at how the nation has turned on the Australian cricket team this week to see this in action. The comments across the counter are blunt, everyone has an opinion it seems. Fair enough given that many of us define ourselves as a nation by the success of those representing us on the field.
I was looking forward to the Boxing Day test to move our stock of Australian cricket calendars. Sadly, we look set to be left with this stock. If I had the room, I’d set the calendar up as a dart board and run an in store competition to take out those who have let their country down … and at least have some fun with the calendars I have left.
It’s pathetic really, talking like this about a national team. I ought to be ashamed.
Are you open New Years Day?
The centres in which my stores are located are usually closed New Years Day. This year, a couple are open for optional trading. I haven’t yet made a decision about whether to open and would be interested in feedback from others.
Interactive Hammer magazine
The latest issue of Hammer music magazine is interactive, playing sound when the cover is opened. It’s a nice touch and likely to appeal to the target reader. Given the continuing (market leading) strong sales in Hallmark interactive sound cards, I am surprised more magazine publishers have not embraced this technology to lift sales.
Is Myki for the chop?
The Herald Sun is reporting today that the new Victorian State Government is set to scrap the Myki ticketing system. Myki is a dog of a system. The previous government allowed it to provide 7-Eleven with an advantage over newsagents by agreeing to integration with their in-house systems. This was promised for newsagents, after my lobbying, and then dropped. So much for the Government back then supporting small business. If scrapping Myki pulls this back then it’s a good thing.
Very different sales mix during post Christmas sales
We have been running very different newsagencies these past two days. As the sales graph shows, most of our business have been greeting cards. To give some perspective, we still did close to $500 in calendars in this store from which I extracted the graph. 95% of the card sales are boxed Christmas cards which were brought in especially for the post Christmas sales – so margin remains excellent.
Based on experience from previous years, we expect this sales balance to continue until Friday, after which we will transition into a more regular school holiday mode. By then, most of our sale stock will have been exhausted.
A hallmark of the post Christmas sales so far has been customer attitude. There has been little grumpiness or complaint – even though the line for service got quite long sometimes. Customers tend to come in massive waves in shopping centres around sale time. One minute you may have a couple of people in the store and the next minute you have a line of fifteen at the counter. It is a great time to be behind the counter.
Of the Christmas boxed cards we had on sale, the charity cards are by far the most popular and among those, the religious themed cards and the most popular.
Cool magazine packaging
The latest issue of Jewellery magazine, out yesterday, comes in a clear strong plastic bag – promoted as a beach bag. While I am not sure of the appeal of the bag to readers of the magazine, I like the creativity of the packaging. While it is a challenge to fit in a magazine pocket, we made it work. It looks different enough to draw more attention than usual for this title.
Drowning in NW magazine
We continue to be oversupplied with NW magazine from ACP. Based on current supply, we are lucky to achieve a sell through of 30%. This is odd for a weekly title from ACP, they control supply tightly as a rule. Given the space allocation, we need a sell through rate of 60% and above for this title. NW is not a popular title with our customers. That said, this week we are giving it a shot with the best pocket placement in with the weeklies as well as a full facing with our newspapers.
Terrific Boxing Day
We had a terrific day of trade yesterday for the start of the Boxing Day Sales. Christmas products were the hit – Boxed and single cards and Christmas decorations sold like hot cakes. Much of the product sold had been sourced especially for the event – our margin was excellent. $3,000 in boxed cards alone in one store is a terrific result.
There was also nice business in calendars, stationery and general gifts. Not so much for magazines and newspapers but I can’t complain as they have had a brilliant seven days.