Two of our newsagencies have recently started selling Met tickets – the tickets used for public transport here in Victoria. This move is part of the advance work for retailers who plan to sell Myki cards and top ups. What is intresting to me is the sales growth in Met tickets in each newsagency. Without any serious promotion, sales have grown quickly in a short time. More than 50% of the time tickets are sold with other items. This adds to their efficiency and makes the micro margin easier to digest.
Retail as being about balance. It is up to us to drive sales of higher margin items to Met ticket customers. the same is true for lottery sales, bill payment and mobile phone recharge. While I could easily refuse small margin service type items, my view is that we are better off with them and the traffic they bring than to risk losing the traffic altogether. I appreciate that this means we may be abused. To counter that we work harder at making the most of it.