Ink sales at our newsXpress Forest Hill location are tracking at 50% up on last year for the last month. This is all the more amazing when considering it is happening outside a promotion. We put the growth down to competitive prices, focusing on the top sellers and A1 posters in the shopping centre – courtesy of the landlord. The posters promote our focus on brands and competitive prices. If people are visiting the centre to buy in and see the posters they will be compelled to at least look at us. Once they do, we have them.
During the same period, stationery sales have fallen. Not through lack of attention mind you and not dramatically. That said, most days ink trading from three metres of slatwall outperforms more than 25 metres of stationery.
Ink customers are great because they are loyal once they develop trust for your range and prices. Their age and economic situation varies too. Take Forest Hill – we are in an old area yet on the weekends the centre is full of young families. Both demographics buy ink.
If any one group dominated our ink customers however it would be the older customers. I mention this because several newsagents have stayed away from ink because they saw it as appealing only to younger people.
we had a dead corner could not get anything to sell there,put inks in there 3 years ago,have not looked back,growth on growth monthly and has lead into gaining some big clients which has led to other big stationery sales etc
Interesting that some newsagents see ink as appealing only to young people. We’re have a young family demographic and the majority of our ink customers would, at a guess, be around 30+
Young people are probably less likely to use ink than their parents. They’re happy to keep everything paperless and electronic. I’ve only used my printer at home once in two years (to make a photocopy). Young people are likely to use the printer only for school/uni work, but even that is declining as more schools encourage the use of USB drives, online portals and notebooks (such as the federal government’s new initiative).