I have seen data (without store names) from two publishers detailing early returns of their titles for a recent issue. In each case, newsagents returned stock which their own sales data shows would have sold.
One newsagent early returned nine copies of a magazine a week after it went on sale and having sold one copy. Their own sales data shows that they sell, on average, seven copies of the title. There is little volatility in sales. So, this newsagent, by early returning without checking the facts in their own business data, has denied themselves of the benefits of the sale of six copies. In this same store there were other titles with very poor sell through rates which were not early returned.
Newsagents embrace early returns and claim that it is a control mechanism they like and want. This would only be rue if newsagents were using early return intelligently, based on good business data.
What I have seen for these two titles indicates that there are too many newsagents making dumb and irrational decisions on early returns.
Yes, it is a cash flow management mechanism. I get that. I have used early return for that. However, when I early return I look at data for the title and make a considered decision which will not deny my business sales.
Alf Santomingo from Morrison Media has a publisher perspective on this issue at the Morrison News blog. I urge newsagents to read this and think about the early returns challenge from a publisher perspective. It is a compelling store, especially the example of a newsagent returning stock and effectively rejecting guaranteed sales revenue from Powerhound magazine.
On Powerhound, it is a niche title, exactly the type of title which is vitally important to our channel. It attracts enthusiasts and enthusiasts and important to our fuure in the magazine space and other product categories.
I am not a fan of cutting back range so that we only sell the top selling titles. My ideal range sits between 700 and 900 titles depending on space. So, cutting special interest titles is not something I would do. Even if I was on an early return mission, I would do this based on a review of sales data and not at random as some newsagents seem to do.
We owe it to ourselves, our customers and magazine publishers to not be dumb about early returns. It is a magazine supply management process which should be used for magazine product which will not sell.
All you have said I would agree with.
I only add one thing. Those magazines that are expected to sit on the shelves for 2 and more months. may i suggest that they delay bill if they want it to stay. Otherwise if you cant sell in a month it must go back.
Wally I’d agree if they titles are not selling and have not sold in the past. In the instance to which i refer the newsagent early returned after a week and despite evidence that they would sell most of what they received.
Mark, It seems to me that time poor hard working fatigued newsagents are an easy target.
Apply the Pareto Principle – If the 2 main distributors got the model right there would be no need for early returns. Therefore fewer “dumb” newsagents would need, rightly or wrongly, to use the only blunt instrument they have. Who wants to spend money early returning.
They have the data – it’s not rocket science. It’s just not in there best interest.
So what do we do. Blame the many when the problem could be largely fixed by the few.
Leon regardless magazine distributor behaviour, I don’t understand why a newsagent would knowingly return stock which would definitely sell. This is a simple business choice.
This channel spends too much time blaming other people and looking at things with a glass is half full perspective.
Mark, data on it’s own only doesn’t always tell the who story. Maybe there was a reason behind the early returns. Maybe the newsagent due to cash flow had to decide between selling mags at 25% or selling something else at maybe 80%. I don’t know the full story & neither do you. Maybe he was dumb.
But – are we talking about 20% of newsagents or 80%. I repeat what I wrote earlier. Fix the problem & early returns become a non issue. This is in the publishers best interest as well as ours.
I think maybe the distributors glass is 80% full.
Leon, any newsagent returning stock which they would sell is an error of judgment. If they are early returning to manage cash flow then I am sure that they could find other titles.
We are our own worst enemies.
We need to stop making excuses. Life is too short.
Mark,
It is also a process used by many newsagents to control range. Many newsagents, us included, do not have the physical space to range everything sent to us. We set a KPI, (in our case it is 3 copies) and those titles without enough sales to meet it are early returned.
Mark, I don’t disagree with you. But if the model is fixed, there is no problem.
You know as well as I do that getting the allocation right is not difficult. Stop the abuse & there will be no need to early return.
If a publisher is giving you data to highlight early returns being poorly managed by a few, I think they are missing the big picture.
Pareto’s Principle. Fix the biggie & the tiddlers take care of themselves
today i recieved 35 copies new mag -‘ life support’ , i don’t care if it is delay billing or will be popular ( i don’t think so) so i just returned 16 of them. next week i will only keep 2 copies the most. before this coming wednesday i will go around the shop and return those mags that are 3 weeks old and current odd titles that are more than 2 copies. i am not a banker here.
eric
i to received 35 copies, have it in 3 locations in the shop, near the entrance with womens weeklies, in the health and fitness section and on the front counter, i will push it hard for a week as i think it will sell well, cancer touches so many people we are not even aware of, put it out there and see what happens, we are retailers and we have to sell our products, not expect people to just buy
It could also be a slack staff member doing this. We used to have staff who had been here much longer than we had. It was a constant battle to stop them from removing titles that they “didn’t like” , when we had made a specific business decision to give them a go. In the end the only way to fix it was to take on staff members who were trained by us and not ingrained with bad habits from previous owners.
In a newsagency environment a new(ish) owner can very easily be a victim of contrary staff.
Ricky,
You do make a good point re the bad habits of existing team members. Our magazine lady is actually leaving at the end of the month and I plan on personally training her replacement.
We’ve had out fair share of staff members resistant to change (both legacy staff members and new ones that don’t like the fact that we constantly change things in the business). You mange each person on an individual basis as best you can – stepping them through the process, explaining why things are changing and listening to their concerns. Some come around and embrace it, others, unfortunately, have to be let go.
Given the traffic the department generates, managing magazines is one of the most important tasks in a newsagency.
We need to own the decisions taken in our businesses and be accountable to the consequences.
a little off topic, has anyone had and bad comments about the life support mag?
not directed at our store, but i had 2 yesterday “can you belive they have a magazine for cancer now?” and “who makes that magazine, profiteering from cancer”
i think the sooner the advertising starts and the actual consumers come into newsagencies looking for it, then we may see some sales. i dont think many will chance upon it.