We have moved one of our Darrell Lea displays to an aisle end which is usually used for magazine displays. Our goal is to introduce new customers to the Darrell Lea range. The move is one of several significant changes developed by our newsXpress Forest Hill team and introduced on the shop-floor by them to freshen the retail offer.
The changes certainly freshen the business – they were obvious when I walked in this morning. While we regularly move products, yesterday’s changes are the most significant in one day for more than a year. I am confident we will see a sales kick in all categories impacted by the moves – indeed we have seen this already.
Too often, newsagents see their retail businesses as set and forget in terms of product placement and visual merchandising. Retail is brutal, now more so than ever. We have excellent traffic in newsagencies yet fail to make the most off that because we resist change. Moving the Darrell Lea was not hard. The hard part was letting go of a magazine display space. But, hey, we have plenty of other magazine display spaces we have created so no real loss.
The key to change is to accept that it is not an end game. The Darrell Lea stand will move again. The aisle end may once again become a magazine display space or it may be used for something else. As I said, change is not an end game, just another step in the journey of retailing.
This move is in line with my blog post recently about stationery and the importance of change.