Specialty paper is another ‘habit’ based product which newsagents could do well with. It fits with our demographic and lifts the look and feel of the shop. Once people have made an invitation to a party or some other event they are hooked and come back for more specialty papers and the bits and pieces needed to do the job.
This fashion related product sits well near the greeting card space – they serve customers chasing similar outcomes.
The keys with this category are to partner with a good supplier; refresh the stock regularly; display it well; and, locate it near your card space – it’s not a stationery item. Each of these ‘keys’ requires the newsagent managing, indeed driving, this part of the business. The rewards for such entrepreneurship are good.
To those who note such things, and there are plenty, for all the difficulties faced by newsagents there are opportunities which, if seized, deliver handsome rewards. This specialty paper area is one.
Specialty paper also crosses into another habbit based product area … scrapbooking!
Its interesting that you note specialty paper is a ‘fashion’ product. The hardest thing with such products is to keep up to date with the fashions. This, like you say, comes from such partenering with a good supplier. It can also be extremely helpful to seek opinions/advice from staff that are interested in such trends. We benifit at back-to-school because we have staff with children in a range of years, as well as junior staff to keep us up with the latest trends.
Even though specialty paper is a habit based product, it is important to recognise its reliance on being sustained by trends. If the trands change and specilaty paper goes out of fashion, then the amount of space allocated to the product (if any), needs to reflect this. If it is not longer fashionable, a product that is needs to take its place.
Habits not only come from specific products but from following trends. If a store can follow trends and been percieved by consumers as ‘fashionable’, that is very powerful point of difference.