Check out the ad which ran on the back page of mx newspaper in Brisbane yesterday. Coles is making mobile recharge about price, showing that they can’t win on service and other differentiation points with other retailers offering recharge, like newsagents.
I am surprised that Telstra is connected with this campaign with Coles. Newsagents do more to support Telstra and drive sales of handsets and new Telstra than Coles. I bet we sell more recharge than Coles too.
The implied 20% discount offered by Coles of smacks of desperation.
To counter this latest push from Coles, newsagents in the recharge space,, and that is most of us, we should look at handset and other opportunities to leverage off their campaign. We should also remind our team members to offer recharge over the counter. So many times just asking for the business can win it for you.
Woolworths has a deal with Vodafone for a permanent 10% bonus for Vodafone prepaid and not just at the supermarket, Dick Smith and Big W as well!
Perhaps the answer here is to offer our customers everything other than Telstra. Telstra are the meanest when it comes to margin yet they do a deal with Coles. The 4000 newsagents should promote the other companies until such time as Telstra offer a bigger margin to us or offer us a better deal. Not only is Coles desperate but so is Telstra losing the war on mobiles. Sell unlocked phones and promote the best margins for us.
Wally, it’s just not telstra did you see optus is dropping it’s margins as well to 4% or 8% if you sell a minimum amount of handsets/sims. How can someone offer 20% bonus if you only make 4-8%?
All the telcos are ripping us off because they can and no one is their to act on our behalf, it is bill express all over again.
For my 4% I sell what the customer asks for and advertise with a poster in the window. But I do not explain plans/caps to people, I do not offer advice on the best deals, I do not refund if they make a wrong choice, and I charge a fee on all recharge paid for using eftpos.
I have looked at the increased commission but when you factor in the service time required to sell handsets ( explaining how they function and handling browsers) it is not worth the small increase in %. You need to sell heaps of sims/handsets per month of each supplier just to qualify for the increase yet coles seems to be getting 20%. For 20% I would be interested but not 8%.
Luke I we started selling prepaid handsets last October, it takes on average less than five minutes per phone to complete a sale.
Our average sales per month are know $2500 at margins range between 15 to 28%.
We have a great supplier (JENLIST) working with us and we expect to double this amout over the next 12 months.
Every newsagent should be in this market
as it is the future.
Great to hear Ted, so are you offering customers the bonus 20%?
It might be a case of to each his/her own. Good luck to anyone that is on a winner as they are getting harder to find and once you have it it is even harder to keep it without the big boys muddying the market like Coles is doing here.
Would be nice to be able to pick and choose which telco to support, but Telstra is the only one which actually works in our area. Bit limiting!