Competing with ourselves

It’s been a year since we opened Sophie Randall Cards and Gifts at Forest Hill, the same centre as the newsagency we have owned for twelve years.

Sophie sells a range of cards and gifts including social stationery. Around 50% of sales are cards.

Over the course of the year Sophie has been compting with the newsasgency, card sales in the newsagency have increased by 12%.

Around 30% of the card range is duplicated in the stores.

That the newsagency has grown card sales while Sophie has had a very good first year underscores the difference between customers a newsagency attracts versus customers a specialist card and gift shop attracts. Various captions perform differently in the stores – this is a source of considerable fascination.

We now have three Sophie stores in Melbourne – all linked with a common technology platform, enabling group buying and management. We are learning every day and enjoying the experience of branching out immensely.