Thirteen ways newsagents can combat declining sales

As the latest newsagent sales benchmark study indicates, newsagents experienced a difficult Christmas and fourth quarter of 2011.  While we each need to reflect the current conditions – economic challenges and structural changes – in our own business plans, there are steps we can take immediately to improve sales.

Here are thirteen simple and low cost steps newsagents can take to arrest declining sales or improve sales if they are not experiencing declining sales:

1. Rebuild your sales counter.  De clutter.  Think about every item you put on the counter and behind the counter.  Have a plan for moving the items around.  Look at your counter from the customer’s perspective.  Ensure that you are showing customers on the counter and behind the customers – especially at eye level – what you want them to buy.
2. De clutter your shop floor and shelves.  Walk through the store from a shopper’s perspective.  Make paths easy to navigate.  Make what you want to sell obvious.  Newsagents are great at buying (or being sold) stock and lousy at selling.  Less can be more.  Less stock on the shop floor can increase sales.
3. Promote deals.  Between the front door and your top selling hot spots and the sales counter, ensure that you have strategically placed deals – preferably in dump bins. Promote on price and create an impression that yours is a GREAT DEAL place to show. Talk to your suppliers about end of line or other exceptional deals they may have which work with your plans.
4. Remove all old stock.  If something is more than six months old discount it or throw it out – unless there is a very good reason it should stay.
5. Undertake a magazine relay based on your sales data.  Build better title adjacencies. Create more more shopper friendly zones. Support better selling titles. Cull dead titles.
6. Refresh your greeting cards.  Contact your major card supplier. Have them undertake an urgent review and develop a re-plan as a result of this review.
7. Make business decisions.  Look at the return from each department and category in your business.  Make tough business decisions based on your data.  Maybe you are carrying departments or categories which do not justify the investment.  be prepared to make tough decisions.  Also plan for what you will place in the freed space.
8. Use your top selling items.  Look at the top ten items in your newsagency by unit sales.  Brainstorm other products you have which could be easily promoted with these. develop a plan to use your top selling items to lift sales of other items.  For example, it lottery products are your top seller, what are you promoting with lottery products.  yes, your sale people need a simple pitch. If they resist, ensure that they understand the business imperative.  If you resist, sell your newsagency as you are not a hungry enough retailer.
9. Community engagement. Through a local area marketing campaign (talk to your marketing group for ideas) engage with local community groups and charities.  Mobilise their members to promote your business.Your local connection is a key point of difference you have over national supermarkets and other businesses which may be competing with you. Create offers for community groups.  Speak at their meetings.  Find ways to engage and encourage their support.
10. Use your business data.  If you have a Point of Sale system, use it.  Make sure that you know what business decisions you can make from it. get your data checked and tested by your software supplier for quality.  Have them tell you what decisions you could make based on your data.  they should do this for free.
11. Refresh displays.  Ensure that you promote with excellent value based displays as customers enter AND leave.  Too often displays are one sided and the exit opportunity is missed.
12. Establish new rules.  That you, the owner or manager, must approve all orders.  That all staff wear uniforms and badges. That up-selling at the counter is part of the business.  That all supplier reps MUST make appointments. That all supplier reps stop placing orders – use your computer system to do this. That ALL SALES are rung up through your software. No eating or drinking at the counter by staff.  No mobile phones at the counter. No stool at the counter.
13. Clear up your front window. Let people see into your store.  Be proud.

Share these ideas, discuss them, challenge them, add to them.

This list of ideas is by no means difinitive.  Consider it a starting point.

It is easy to complain that sales have dipped. Smart business people see the numbers and act.  How about you?  Start today.