Making our own luck from the $20 million lottery superdraw

As a result of discussion here I have reviewed the financial benefit measured in my newsagency from last night’s $20 million lotto superdraw. I only looked at yesterday because this is when we saw the biggest increase in traffic driven by the $20 million on offer.

We prepared our business for the traffic with good-value impulse offers carefully placed at each counter and key traffic areas such as our newspaper stand and women’s weeklies magazine section. We also pitched the OzLotto $50 million prize at the counter and elsewhere in the business as achieving an impulse purchase of lottery product in a lottery sale is easy.

At the front of our shop we ran carefully considered offers associated with the newsXpress STOCKTAKE SALE – this shows off to new visitors that we have great deals and drives impulse business.

To assess the results I compared yesterday with an average Saturday. In determining an average Saturday I looked at a collection of Saturdays outside of major seasons and lottery superdraws.

Here are the numbers as reflected in revenue:

• Art up 53%.
• Cards up 23%.
• Stationery up 9%.
• Ink up 270%.
• Confectionery up 21%
• Trading cards up 50%.
• Magazines up 4% – especially those targeted in our impulse strategy.

Many of these numbers are off good bases.  In overall measurement, we achieved considerable more from each customer than we usually achieve.

In addition to using the shop to drive impulse, we ensured that the traffic generated by the superdraw did not overly impede business – we were strong on queue management and over the counter service. We understand the importance of not having a line snaking out the shop and acting as a barrier to would-be shoppers.

As a pondered yesterday, maybe there are other factors which determine the efficiency of superdraws for newsagencies. It could be our demographic. That said, the numbers suggest that our preparation is a key factor to our success.