Melbourne will be the city to be in for the next week with several related trade shows on covering gifts, homewares and related products. While the main show in town is the Gift Fair (the biggest of its type in Australia), the Home and Giving Fair is a place where you tend to see innovative products beyond the usual for the gift space. The Life Instyle event is also interesting in terms of innovative products.
I know of newsagents who will be in Melbourne for five days to get around these events. Some will be there to be inspired and others will be there to buy up stock for the next six months or so. Some come with an amount to spend while others will buy on impulse.
The average spend I hear newsagents planning on spending is between $10,000 and $20,000. I mention this to provide context for newsagents who have never been to a gift fair before.
In 2008 I wrote here about the importance of gift fairs for newsagents and some at the time criticised that. History has shown that these gift fairs have become more important than any other trade event for newsagents.
wish I could be there. I have just got my first order of gifts in that I bought of the Net. They are selling before we can get them on he shelf. I will continue to search out opportunities on line and would love any tips on good lines. To of set costs of travel and accommodation to the Gift Fair I would need to be buying far more than I can afford.
Same here Carol, just can’t afford to travel from WA to Vic as I wouldn’t buy enough to offset the cost. I’ll have to stick with buying on the Net for now, but I know it means I miss opportunities.
Carol & Vicki,
I understand what you are both saying but consider these points….
Melbourne and Sydney fairs are 6 months apart. The dates are rock solid. This gives you an opportunity to book airfares well in advance at a much better price.
When you find suppliers you like you can sometimes negotiate trading terms and staggered delivery dates.
A trip to the gift fair is a welcome break from the day to day of the shop and is a business trip (check with your accountant).
The tremendous opportunity to meet suppliers and build a network of contacts is truly fantastic.
Because you might be so far away allows the chance to find new and exciting product that your “stay at home” competitor may not know about.
But the best part is networking (read socialising) with like minded business owners to discuss ideas and to share successes and failures in each others stores.
Can you really afford NOT to go to the gift fairs?
Cheers
Al
Allan you obviously have more cash flow than we do. I make the decision to go to the GNS fair annually even though this is a costly. It would be ideal if these were co-ordinated so we could flow from one to he other but that won’t happen. To employ extra staff accommodation, fares it is our of my reach. I subscribe to The Australian Gift Guide and work very hard to find suppliers on line. I can’t plan that far ahead. Take today for instance , no staff all going away for the weekend as we have a local long weekend! No asking can we have the time off.
Carol,
Cash flow? What is Cash flow? I’m a Newsagent, I don’t have cash flow….! Lol!
Carol, ditto that for me.
Then throw in trying to get the time to go when you have a newsagency / LPO, two kids, a farm business and a husband’s aging parents who need help and you have a recipe for going no-where. Certainly struggle to plan more than a week in advance.
Carol,
Ditch the GNS fair and go to just one of the gift fairs. The ROI will be far better. The range of suppliers and product opportunities at the gift fairs are vastly superior.
Even if you only go once a year, make sure you get put on the email list of every supplier that has even the slightest potential. That way you’ll get plenty of info throughout the year.
How did no one ask for leave? Are all your team casual?
Vicki, Carol, this is where being part of a marketing group can help, they have ways of bringing gift fair opportunities and insights to you.
Marketing groups costs too much to belong to.
Carol, a good marketing group will help you achieve considerably more net profit in a year than it costs to below.
Carol, the good ones more than pay for themselves 🙂 nXp member
Got in before me Brendon!
After a quick back of the envelope calculation I’m confident that our membership fees be covered by the discounts and rebates we receive from newsXpress preferred suppliers.
And then there are all the other savings from having a head office team that reduce the work individual stores have to do. The newsXpress team is at this very moment walking around the gift fair in Melbourne, finding new products and opportunities for all the stores that couldn’t make it down. We would not have discovered half the suppliers we now use if it weren’t for newsXpress.
Then there is also the opportunity development they do. Bringing new ideas and categories and concepts into stores that would be very difficult, if not impossible, for retailers to develop on their own.
We also get a number of exclusive products throughout the year that allow stores to differentiate themselves from competitors without fear of having their range stolen or undercut.
Then then there’s the practical advice we receive from in-store visits by the Retail Development Managers. Little things that we’ve missed or could do better.
The networking opportunities with other stores is also invaluable. Sharing ideas at events like the gift fairs, conferences and cluster meetings is at the very heart of what makes newsXpress such a great resource.
I could keep going but I’m incredibly hungry so I’ll have to end the list here while I go scavenge for food.
Carol, ditto to all the above comments. Since joining a nXp we have gone from $700 last July to $7000 this July in giftware (big % is plush). Our card rebate should cover our fees then all else is extra profit. For the last seven or so years I have wanted to get out of retail but now I have a new positive interest in my shop and it is paying off. Unfortunately we couldn’t go to the gift fair because of delivery problems (new drivers to train) but just using Facebook and the website I know that we will gain lots of ideas from other members.
Whilst I am sure many could benefit from been a member many wont. Jenny whilst you have gone from 700 to 7000 assuming 50% profit all you have done is paid your fees. I am guessing with such a low base you could have done it on your own and made more money. The card discounts that are available are not that different to what is available to individuals with their own shelving. My biggest problem though is the amount of the lots that haves to be purchased to get the discounts. I now have 70sqm (thanks to a greedy landlord the only way i could get a rent reduction.) I dont have the space for many of the offers that are made. Also often you are left with the remnants of a range that you either give away or throw out to make room for the next big thing.
The busy shopping centers can benefit but the little guys battle to pay the fees.
Wally that’s nonsense. I know members of several different groups who easily pay fees and profit from membership. Easily!
Before we sold our shop and went distribution only, we explored joining a marketing group and are most likely to have joined Newsxpress. We only had a small shop, and I think that we would have definitely made more profit by joining than if we stayed independent.
Wally we are a small newsagency in a struggling country town with enormous direct competition. We would not exist today if we didn’t join newsXpress. Not spin, just stating a fact.
Wally, sorry that should have read $700 to $5000, yep maybe I could have done that on my own but I probably would never had. The initial help and ongoing ideas have given me a new interest in my shop.
I own my card fixtures, I have replaced over half of my stationery fixtures with giftware and I rarely order over $1000 at a time. Gradually I am making larger purchases as I see how well everything is selling.
I can leave the group next month (12 month contract up) save the monthly fee and continue on my own if I want to but we will choose to stay.
Wally that amount is gift sales for the month of July only, not 12 months.
Wally,
I call bullshit!
$700 to $5000 is a increase of $4300. Assuming a margin of 50% that’s a profit of $2150. That’s over $1500 in profit after monthly fees! And this is just for one department!
Some stores would pay their fees from supplier rebates alone!
We’re not in a large shopping centre (only a strip shop in a residential area) and are relatively small. The benefit we derive from being part of newsXpress is enormous.
Guys don’t fortget a shop fit plus fees . newsXpress would be the group of choice if i was to join any group ,it is just a case of having the coin without going further into debt to join up .
Shaun’s – no shop fit – bit if paint/signage inside, outside sign ($800) purchased from a shop that had one made and never used, few staff shirts and name badges, a bit of imagination with existing fixtures, so not a big outlay at all.
And when we do decide to spend more money on fixtures,it’s a business expense that we would need regardless of being in a marketing group, if we want to be able to sell more gifts and keep our shop looking fresh.
I am shocked at the ignorance about the costs of being in a marketing group. Not all groups require shop fits, not all groups charge $100 a month or even $500 a month. I’m not aware if any newsagent going into debt to join.
Mark , if you are saying it will cost me zip to join up send me the paper work and i am on board tomorrow .
Every newsXpress store i have ever walked into looks good because of the standard that newXpress must have, it stands out . Jenny i have never walked into a newsXpres store that just has a sign out the front with a bit of paint in side .
i take it i must have it wrong and there might be different standards or something.
Shaun there is a monthly membership fee and that can be as low as $295. What else you spend is up to you. The outcomes you want for your business also guide your spending.
Mark any chance of sending me through an email with some info .
Sorry it must be rabbit shit. I am obviously on a different scale to all of you. I had assumed $700 to $7000 PER YEAR.
And to remake my point as a small(micro???) retailer I couldnt buy $1000 per month in gift stock as I would have no place to put it. I think we may be comparing watermelons to grapes.
I am now going to crawl back in my little hole and close the lid.
Wally, as a benchmark, your gift sales should be equal to around 33% of your card sales. So, if you did $50,000 a year in cards you should be able to achieve $15,000 a year in gifts. I’d see this starting with a spend of under $1,000 and no more than $7,000 over the year.
There is no future in being a traditional newsagency without a strong gift presence unless your model is 100% convenience focused and you make good agency revenue.
Ditto shauns comment about some details on newsXpress Mark. If there is minimal shopfit required and approx $295 per month in fees I’d be interested to know more. I also assumed that I’d have to do a complete shopfit as thats what all of the other newsXpress shops I’ve seen appear to have done.
Will do. Any reps from other marketing groups, you;re welcome to post your details here too.
Hi Mark
Would also like some info
Thanks
Jessie