We are leveraging the Toy Sale promotional activity of Toys R Us, Target, K Mart and others with a small Toy sale of our own. We have chosen toy products which are not part of the promotions being run by the majors. This means that we are not swimming in their red (price focused) ocean. By having products which they are not featuring we are leveraging a nice point of difference.
One of the products I really like is the bonus board game packs. We have several. Check out the Monopoly bonus pack in the photo. By offering Taboo shrink-wrapped with Monopoly for less than the RRP for Monopoly shoppers see that we are delivering value and pushing back on the consumer sentiment that newsagencies are more expensive than other businesses.
All of the advertising from the majors about their toy sales makes buying toys top of mind for many shoppers. It makes sense to us to leverage this opportunity.
We are promoting our own toy sale with a display facing out into the shopping mall. Shoppers pass this as they head toward our card department. So, toys are pulling new traffic. They are also driving incremental business, especially among card shoppers.
Toys is a department where newsagents can leverage and show off their retail skills. What we achieve is up to us. We do our own buying, set out own pricing, undertake our own marketing and manage our team.
Our success comes down to us. We can’t complain about a supplier, oversupply or a return policy.
Not enough newsagents engage in retail opportunities like this, where they have more control. More should. I’d be happy to share more insights into our experiences. Call me anytime on 0418 321 338.
Great idea Mark. I do try this from time to time and get great results. I think we should all be making attempts at getting Newsagencies top of mind when it comes to customers thinking about toys, books, ink etc. One of the major challenges we have had is getting customers out of the “Newsagency as a last resort” type mentality. It works for me with ink and increasingly with stationery. Where possible I would go with large adverts outside the shop to push these types of offerings.
ARTICAL IN THE TOY & HOBBY RETAILER GHOST WRITER. TO ME HE IMPLIED HE LIKED GOING TO THE INDEPEMDENT FOR THE KNOWLEDGE & SERVICE UNFORTUNATLY COULD NOT JUSTIFY PAYING A 50 PERCENT PREMIUM ON EXACTLY THE SAME PRODUST MAJORS HAVE UNFORTUNITLY I GET THIS ALOT I GIVE THE SERVICE EXPLAINING THE PRODUCT THEN THEY SAY ONE MOMENT AND GO NEXT DOOR TO PURCHASE
Averill, we compete by not offering the same product as much as possible. This makes price comparison easier. Also, we usually play a season behind. On well known items we can compete with the majors by doing this and maintain a healthy margin.
Toys are big for us too. Like Mark says, we don’t try to go head to head with majors, we try to have different toys. We have the advantage that our competition is a twenty minute drive away, and we capitalize on the people not willing to make the effort.
Our primary focus is on toys under the forty dollar point as we find that over this, people will shop around or buy online. Its a valuable part of our business,