We have started the process of establishing an online stationery business under separate branding to our newsagencies, along the lines of our three year old Inkfast business. We will be chasing customers who are unlikely to think of visiting a newsagency for their stationery purchase. This approach has served us well with Inkfast where revenue is many times that of total stationery department revenue in either of our newsagencies – with a fraction of the overheads.
I’ll blog more details once we have launched the new website.
We too have recently launched our office supplies & stationery website and are experiencing some success. As a local newsagency we have expanded our market to Australia wide.
We are seeing local businesses come BACK to us after they had made the move from the local newsagency to purchase their stationery online or at Officeworks. One of the biggest advantages is we can now advertise and sell all the items our supplier carries, rather than the 3 metres of wall space (stationery section) in our small newsagency. Let’s face it, it’s not hard to beat Officeworks and others on price, but convenience and product range is another issue.
BTW….If there’s any interest from NSW, QLD, TAS or WA newsagencies for a similar site with all the bells, whistles, products & pictures you can direct any queries to Robert Staff.