How to sell more crossword magazines

If you want to sell more crossword titles, place a selection of titles from the category next to your women’s weeklies section. The photo shows our display at Forest Hill on Saturday. This space in a high traffic area to your target demographic will work, crossword sales will increase.

We know from UK newsagent sales data that crosswords outperform our sales here – this may be due to their location next to women’s weeklies.

Newsagent magazine benchmark data I have for more then 100 newsagencies indicates that crosswords should account for between 6% and 8% of total magazine sales. Newsagents aggressively pursuing magazine growth are achieving unit sales increases of 10% and more year on year.

Here are some tips for how we manage our approach to co-location:

• Create the space by compressing slower moving categories further along in the display.
• Only use this found space for Lovatts and Puzzler titles.
• Put Lovatts titles next to each other and the same with Puzzler titles – don’t mix the brands.
• Place titles so they colour contrast – for example, don;t put two titles with green covers next to each other.
• Know your demographic in selecting titles. For example, if you aree in an older area, be sure to include the Lovatts Large Print product.
• Use the first column – otherwise you may confuse browsers.
• Place the same number of each issue in each pocket – this quickly shows if there has been movement from this space.
• Remember to update the titles with new product.
• Rotate the titles weekly.
• Use the whole column and flat stack area for crosswords.

If you try this, please let me know how you go.

We have tremendous opportuniies in our magazine department since most other retailers do not have or range or our space. The tips in this blog post about crosswords are all about us demonstrating our range, showing off our point of difference.