We are promoting the latest issue of the Australian Women’s Weekly (out today) with Julia Gillard on the cover – out the front of the store and two other high traffic impulse purchase locations in-store.
I expect strong sales, it’s a good looking cover. The issue has been getting strong radio coverage on talk radio in Melbourne this morning.
Australia Post got a fair bit of news coverage yesterday. Chairman David Mortimer and new CEO Ahmed Fahour Check were widely quoted talking up their retail network and the rest of the business. Having read many of the reports, one is left with no doubt that Australia Post is on the move, hunting down more business.
While the stories talk about electronic business, fixing the queues in their stores and chasing revenue from superannuation business, I have no doubt that they will continue pursue revenue currently the domain of newsagents.
The stories also made it clear that regardless of who wins the federal election, Australia Post will not be privatised.
Over the last ten years, Australia Post’s 860 (or so) corporate stores have pursued Australia’s family owned newsagencies. They have directly targeted our customers by moving deeper into non postal related products of greeting cards, stationery and books. They do this on the back of a government nurtured and protected brand. Their monopoly gives them a lower cost of entry into new areas of business.
Politicians say that Australia Post is a best practice model. I don’t think so. They have no competition for mail. In the EU, best practice is considered genuine competition for mail services. Also in EU countries I have visited, the retail post offices are, well, post offices and not general stores like Australia Post operates today.
I would like to see newsagent representatives target the government ownership of the retail channel. If we sit back as we have for the last ten years it will be only a matter of time before they have more of our product categories.
Check out the story in the Sydney Morning Herald and the story in The Australian.
We have added a follow me on Twitter button on the top of this blog. This is not entirely accurate since I do not post on Twitter all blog posts, not many at all in fact.
I decided to add the link because of something I am doing for the federal election campaign. I am posting a series of questions about small business which I would like to see put to all politicians.
While I have been registered with Twitter since January 2008, I have been sporadic at best with my tweets. It was after the first week of the campaign that I realised that I should do something to get small business questions out there.
The Hallmark Cards free photo frame offer we currently have in-store is working well, driving welcome incremental card business. Customers buying three Hallmark cards get a free frame.
While we are promoting the offer in the card aisle with some terrific Hallmark marketing collateral, we are having more success when we mention it to customers who present to the counter with a Hallmark card in their purchase. It is good to see some ask us to hold the sale while they go back and choose another one or two cards. These are sales we would not have got that day or maybe not at all. It helps that this is a limited time offer.
More stock of the Women’s Weekly Slow Cooker title is now in. We are following the tried and true approach with this title by tactical placement – with weeklies and in a pocket at the counter. Current indications are that there is no slowing of interest in this and other slow cooker titles. Since most are purchased on impulse, it is a valuable extension to the basket. I’d note here my surprise that newsagents have returned the Slow Cooker title without giving it a go.
We are promoting the People’s Friend Summer Cookery Made Easy is three locations in-store to try and tap into the strong interest in food titles. The display in the photo is in a pocket above newspapers. We also have the title in a column of food titles in with our weekly magazines as well as placement in our food category. We will move this around and include a couple of pockets with People’s Friend itself.
OzLotto jackpotting to $20 million tonight is welcome to every newsagent who sells lottery products. We should see a traffic increase – small given it is only $20 million but welcome nevertheless. This extra traffic at the lottery counter will, in plenty of businesses, drive sales elsewhere in-store.
Tomorrow’s Australian Women’s Weekly has Julia Gillard on the cover and a 4,000 word article and an excusive photo shoot reports The Australian.
Newsagents can embrace the opportunityhere. Declare a Julia day. Redheads get a discount. Put staff in red wigs. TNW have these. There are plenty of other marketing ideas around the cover story – brainstorm with your team.
If you do a traditional display expect a traditional outcome. If, on the other hand, you have some fun and engage in a more energetic and personal way with the title, expect a more energetic response from your customers.
We know that shoppers at our Forest Hill store like dogs and cats. We know this from sales of calendars, books, pads and rocks (with cats painted on them). So, this weekend just gone we decided to place four mini books at the counter – dog and cat books.
Look at the photo and you can see them placed on the right hand corner of the glass counter top. Just below we have our cat pads.
We sold enough books to make the tactical placement worth it. Each sale was in addition to the main item(s) purchased – newspapers, cards, magazines and or lottery products.
In some cases we sold books and a pad together. Many sales were to customers buying a single newspaper or a single card … a nice extension to the basket and a nice additional margin on the sale. We made $2.17 off of each mini book sold. Add that to the less than 50 cents we made selling each newspaper.
I appreciate that the part of the counter in the photo may look cluttered, it is not compared to many newsagencies I visit. It is structured. There is not much else on the counter, certainly nothing else in this counter position.
While newsagents will not be able to retire on the money made from putting these $3.95 cat and dog books at the counter, do this every day with careful consideration and we will.
We have wonderful traffic in newsagencies from newspapers, magazines, cards and lotteries. Too often, we fail to leverage that traffic and therefore achieve the full sales potential available to us.
We have taken the four books off the counter for the busier Monday traffic. However, we are looking at how to leverage the opportunity in busy periods without encroaching on counter surfance space.
We are promoting the latest issue of Burke’s Backyard out the front of the store and facing into the mall. We are trying to attract traffic with this simple yet bold display. The cover looks terrific.
We plan to leave the display up for a week, space pressures notwithstanding. We also have Burke’s in its usual location.
I like the impulse stand from Pacific Magazines for New Idea. It has a small footprint – meaning we can locate this where we want for maximum impulse opportunity. Given how much we enjoy change in our businesses this flexibility is important. We will locate the stand with newspapers this week, at the counter next week and somewhere else the week after. It helps us combat store blindness and drive impulse purchases. While it is another floor unit to service, it’s a nice looking unit with a bright and happy message.
We are promoting the latest issue of Woman’s Day on the back of a display unit which faces customers as they leave our busiest magazine aisle. This placement is tactical since we have food titles in this aisle and the cover story relates to the high-rating Masterchef TV show. We will leave this display up until tomorrow morning when we will be short of display space given the volume of titles coming in. Click on the image for a bigger version.
We are promoting the Ultimate Wildlife partwork on the dance floor in a high traffic location toward the front of our Forest Hill store. We also have it in our wildlife section. At our Frankston store, it has been located on the counter between the two busiest sales positions. This price space focus is all about driving impulse purchases. It’s a good looking product. I hope sales are strong.
The questionable ethics of key people in the newsagency channel has been on show over the last couple of days as they have spread far and wide reports of winding up action which has been commenced against my software company, Tower Systems.
Rather than ask me if the report is true, they have been quick to send emails or make calls to spread their spin on the story.
Thankfully, some in the channel have called me. These are the ethical people, people who are want to know the facts of an issue before spreading gossip.
Yes, we have had a tax dispute with the State Revenue Office. We are not the first business to have this nor will we be the last. The issue is resolved. We’re busy installing systems and helping newsagents.
I am happy to take a call from anyone with concerns on 0418 321 338.
I am also happy to receive evidence of those spreading this story along with their spin.
UPDATE: (3:50pm) Someone calling themselves “concerned retailer” has mass emailed newsagents today trying to fan this story. It says something about their character that they would do this anonymously. I know who is behind the emails today as I have the email trail from Saturday night to selected newsagents.
Tower Systems is in a competitive marketplace and has caused some pain for others. It is to not a new experience that a misstep by the company is leveraged by others no matter whether their spin is inaccurate, slanderous or defamatory.
UPDATE: (9PM) POS Solutions has put a post on their blog asking for people to send them this email. From the evidence provided to me, they had the email on Saturday and forwarded it on. So, I am not sure why they are making a public show about asking to see a copy of the email they had two days ago.
UPDATE (Tuesday 7PM) POS Solutions is continuing spin on their website which is contrary to the evidence. As one industry association discovered today, the facts I have published here are true, the issue is over.
Newspaper publisher Fairfax is bundling newspaper iPad apps with weekend home delivery of print newspapers. Check out the Fairfax press release here. I am not sure that this is a smart move but I’d expect that they have done their research.
Thinking about this purely as an iPad user for the moment, this idea seems ridiculous to me. Forcing me to get a print product to get access on my iPad. No thanks. I’ll get my news elsewhere – like the ABC or The Australian – or both.
Forcing me to get the print product is like, well, being forced to use a medium which I have moved on from. The print subscription is something else I have to worry about. With my iPad I take it everywhere whereas with the home delivery, I would have to remember to stop and start when I am away – I wanted to get away from all that by moving to the iPad.
The price is the other issue. $18 a month? What are they smoking?
No, I can’t see much upside in linking the iPad to a print edition.
Now, from a newsagent’s perspective … cheers Fairfax! Smart move connecting the old technology product to the new technology. It maintains a feeling of relevance for me and my print centric business. That will make me feel good and worry less about change bring brought about by technology.
Seriously, I don’ think this is a smart move from Fairfax but the market response will be more important than mine.
Newsagents reading this should not take any comfort from the Fairfax move. Change is here, on our doorstep. Publishers will do what they need to do for their future. We should do the same in our newsagencies every day. No supplier is going to put our needs ahead of theirs, nor should they.
At our Frankston store, the discounted bundle of Woman’s Day and Recipes+ which was provided by ACP Magazines last week sold out within a day. At Forest Hill, 80% of the sales were achieved between Friday and Sunday.
We treated the offer differently in each store. At Frankston, it was promoted in a high traffic location whereas at Forest Hill it was placed in two pockets at the top of the column of Woman’s Day stock.
My preference with offers like this is to ensure that the core high traffic product comes first – hence my decision to display it is such a way as to not disrupt the bulk of our sales at Forest Hill. I don’t want to train our high volume customers, Monday to Wednesday customers, to expect bundled (discounted) magazines regularly. That said, almost selling out from our passive display is a surprise and welcome.
Our sales of Australian Property Investor magazine are in a slump. Indeed, the last issue saw only a 20% sell-through. This is despite prime positioning in our property and business category and time in one of the pockets above newspapers. The publication itself looks good. I suspect that the sales slump is more a reflection of the market and economic conditions generally.
As the week unfolds we trim the waterfall of New Idea and Woman’s Day, but usually leaving the flat stack in place. Recently, we have taken to using the flat stack space to promote a book which will appeal to shoppers browsing the weekly magazines. This is working for us.
While we have always blended book offers in relevant magazine categories, we have not done this in our weekly space because of space constraints. By engaging in this tactical move Friday through Sunday we are attracting some book sales we might have otherwise missed.
I choose the titles carefully – hence the Heath Ledger book placed below New Idea.
The credit card scam which I blogged about on July 9, has hit more newsagents. A couple of days ago, a newsagency in a Melbourne bayside suburb was hit and is facing a loss of more than $2,000.
There scam is the same – they use credit card numbers to buy mobile phone recharge and to load prepaid debit cards. They say they have forgotten their card but have the number in their mobile phone. They usually purchase multiple mobile recharge coupons. In the most recent case they said it was for employee rewards.
If someone is buying many, more than three, mobile recharge vouchers at once, be suspicious.
Here is a repeat of the advice I blogged two weeks ago:
You could also:
The incident last week involved a male. Another, a couple of months ago involved a female.
These people are exceptionally good.
The Age is reporting that a criminal investigation into Bill Express executives is under way thanks to evidence gathered in the recent liquidators hearings.
While there will be no economic joy for newsagents from this, those who feel ripped off by the whole Bill Express saga will derive some comfort that those in control of the company are being pursued.
We received the Beckett 2010 World Cup Guide in store on Friday, long after the last goal of the 2010 World Cup had been kicked. Gotch should never have sent out this title. Sure there will be some die-hard fans who will want it as a souvenir but I doubt sales will be enough to justify the cash-flow cost to newsagents. I would have given the title a go had I received it two months ago. We received three copies at $21.95 each. I broke with my own rule and early returned them all. I am not prepared to have $60 worth of out of date stock sitting on my shelf when I have more current and fairly priced stock available. And while on the price, this magazine sells for $9.99 in the US. How do we get to $21.95 here given the current exchange rate. Surely freight cannot be that much.
We are finding that Jamie magazine, the food magazine built around Jamie Oliver, works best as an impulse item in each of my newsagencies. While we run the title in our food category, it actually works best when located in a pocket in the middle of our weekly titles – as shown in the photo. Here, it is purchased on impulse, extending the shopping basket and driving good value for the business.
We have tried Jamie with newspapers, at the counter and even in a food display at the front of the store. It is in with weeklies where it works best – for us.
We have placed Men’s Health on a stand just in front of AFL card albums at one of our sales counters. This placement for the weekend is tactical because of the number of men we have shopping with their kids and buying AFL cards. Money magazine did okay here following the same strategy.
we know that Men’s Health sells well when promoted with newspapers. We wanted to discover other locations where it can work as an impulse purchase. We also have a good display in the usual location for the magazine.
We are promoting APC magazine with an in-location display. This display confronts everyone entering our men’s magazine aisle. This is next to the location we use to promote The Monthly. That display had to come down as we sold all but one copy in a couple of weeks.
APC is struggling like most computer titles. It is well browsed but the conversion rate to sales is lower than other titles in the aisle. I’d note that this is my feeling and it is not based on accurate measurement.
We plan (hope) to leave the display up for a week at least.
Flipboard is an iPad app which provides a digital magazine like experience on the iPad based on social media content. It has taken the world by storm in just a few days, so much so that the developers are struggling to keep up with demand.
Flipboard is disruptive to print media beyond it being an iPad app. It relies on everyday people for content from sites like facebook and Twitter. Check out the promotional video and see how it works.