Newsagents need to take back control of their counter. The counter is the busiest part of any newsagency, the key profit generator, yet in many newsagencies it is suppliers who are in control. Lottery companies, magazine publishers, just about everyone, wants in on the action. They want their stands, display units and products at the counter. So much so that in an average newsagents the counter is mess of mixed messages.
Reclaiming the counter should start with the lotteries area. Lottery companies like a defined part of the counter where nothing but lottery product is sold. They tend to prefer the best counter location. It means customers wanting lottery product can make their purchase and leave – without being tempted to purchase other items. It also means that customers purchasing a newspaper, magazine or some other product are less likely to be tempted with a lottery product purchase.
I am all for integrating the counter, mixing lottery sales points and regular register points and merchandising the counter appropriately. A properly integrated counter, against the rules of some of the lottery organisations, should increase sales of lottery and non-lottery product.
In integrating the counter newsagents ought to focus on higher margin repeat business, thereby building the business so it can weather a downturn in newspaper and lottery sales – both categories of products are being impacted by online developments and are the top two traffic generators for newsagents. In other words, newsagents will be hit hard if/when traffic and sales from these two fall.
By leveraging existing lottery and counter traffic with an integrated counter, newsagents can start to reposition their business and re-educate customers about their offering. This is exactly what publishers are doing with their online and free models.
While some lottery companies will resist the integration I propose, newsagents need to put their business needs first.
Today we have great traffic, among the best in the country. By acting now and leveraging that more efficiently and across a broader range of better GP product at the counter we can weather generational change.
As a regular lotto buyer I’m glad I don’t have to put up with buying from newsagents as it sounds like you do in Victoria. In NSW/ACT we just duck into the specialised lotto kiosks where we get quick service without having to battle people buying newspapers etc. These lotto kiosks have quite a small footprint and are in every shopping mall and suburban shopping area. Many also sell tobacco products so given their small size I find them somewhat analagous to the “Tabac” kiosks of France. I find them especially good at peak sales times because of the very quick service and not having people buying newspapers and magazines slowing things down. The other advantage to a lotto kiosk is that they sell both Victorian and NSW lottery products and their computers accept customer cards from both systems whereas newsagents are aligned to one or the other but never both.
I think you’re mistaken about what kiosks can sell versus newsagents. In Sydney, kiosks operate under the sale rules as newsagents.
Smart newsagents provide excellent and fast service – this is why lottery sales are strong in them. The point of my post was to suggest to newsagents that they promote, albeit subtly, other product where they sell lottery product and therefore build a better business for the future.
Aub, I also think your mistaken. To my knowledge, Victorian lotteries are not sold in NSW. Many of the games are cross border (national) but the tickets can only be checked by an agent of the same body (eg, NSW Lotteries, Golden Casket, Tattersells).
I also think your mistaken in refering to specialised lotto kiosks. As far as i am aware, the majority of NSW Lottery agents are newsagents.
I would suggest if you had been to a clever newsagent, they would have had a staff member serving soley at the lottery counter.
I agree with you Mark in respect to newsagents getting smart about their sales counter. There are great opportunities for ‘smart’ sales to be made at the counter. It has to be a balance of clever counter marketing, integration and above all, customer friendly. If the customer’s experience at the sales counter isnt enjoyable then they’re going to leave with a bad impression. Not something you want, especially if the rest of their expreience in the store was enjoyable and impressionble.
Im not sure about the lotteries integration. We currently serve lotteries from both the normal sales points and the dedicated lotteies sales point. The majority of lotteries marketing is visable from all the sales points, so it works well in informing the customer. I dont think lotteries should be ‘fully’ integrated into the entire sales counter; we dont need lotteries to have an identity crisis. But i do think a sales counter needs to be ‘lotteries friendly’.
Were having a complete store refurb this year and have been looking at our new counter very very closely as so to maximise its potential. Its something all newsagents need to look very closely at, its one of the most valuable parts of their store and often deserves more attention than is given.
OK, I’ll look a little more closely next time I’m “over the border” in NSW. However, here in Canberra the specialised lotto kiosk is an expanding speciality (Canberra is in the middle of a large retail expansion at the moment). I find them to be much more convenient than a newsagency because of the quick service and because they handle both NSW and Victorian lotteries. At my local shopping centre the newsagent is aligned to NSW Lotto so I can’t use it as I have a Tatts Card but the kiosk two doors away can handle both my card and and wife’s NSW Lotto Card. Alternative is to drive 20 minutes to a newsagent that is aligned to Tatts.
As you say Jarryd, a staff member could be used solely for the lotto but I think our local shopkeepers across all businesses see a need to make better use of staff in a very tight business environment. At busy times I’ve noticed that if you stand at the lotto section of a newsagent you won’t be served. One must join the milling group at the general counter and when you are served the staff member will walk to the lotto machine to process the transaction. It may be just an ACT thing but newsagents don’t have any sort of queue system to deal with crowds in an orderly way leading to the ocassional shout of “Oi! I was next!” Perhaps that is something newsagents could learn from Australia Post.
The combination of NSW Lotteries and Tats must be an ACT thing.I cant really see Victorian lotteries being popular in NSW, and i have never seen a Tats in NSW at all. Interesting 🙂
Although there may be some problems with some newsagents system of serving customers, i hardly think Australia Posts system is the answer. Aus Post have customers in a queue that stretches through the middle of their store and often outside the entrance. The queue blocks other customers from freely browsing and wandering at their leisure. Id like to also think that you would be served much quicker at a newsagent than at Aus Post, their queues are dreaded for their lengthy waiting time.
Jarryd it is an ACT thing. It’s the same with papers: local, NSW and VIC.
Aub newsagents have experimented with a queue but customer feedback in the 1990s was please don’t get like Australia Post. So, what do we do?