Several newsagents have mentioned they saw a measurable boost in sales this past Monday which they attribute to the new Monday lottery just started this week. They’re thrilled and hope it keeps up.
There is no doubt that lottery games can change traffic flow and this can be a good or a bad thing depending on how much or how little you rely on lottery traffic for growth and how much you leverage lottery traffic.
That first draw was way to hard to measure with the oz lotto and powerball being so high ,next week will give maybe a better indication on how it will go .
I was really pleased with the Monday Lotto sales. The sales breakdown reflected very good figures for the new Lotto draw. What was even more pleasing for us was Magazine sales were up by almost 30%, something that I hope continues. I have felt that the move to a Thursday Mag delivery handed the supermarkets a free kick, maybe the Monday Lotto will hand us the same when it comes to Mag sales.
For the record my Lotto sales were up 50% on a normal Monday.
We don’t get our magazines until Tuesday so we hope this will bring some extra Monday shoppers in. We have just done a re-vamp with lots of gifts at front of shop so need customers to come in as see what we have got.
How’s the revamp going Carol? We recently did a new shop fit with a huge gift focus at front half of shop and are FLYING with gift sales. Card and wrap sales have also grown as a result. Really excited about Xmas this year……going to be bloody huge…!
Al
Allan being quite isolated we have to do a lot ourselves. We have used the very front area of our shop, we are moving the newspapers half way down the shop and will use that space for Christmas, Diaries and at other times latest arrivals of gifts. it is work in progress as we have to order in slat wall to replace cigarette display and come up with a new place for cigarettes. Sales are going well. I was a bit worried about price but people have gone mad on the buddas and are happy to pay $150.00. I went to the Sydney gift Fair and have been spending a lot of hours on line buying. Now all seem to be taking a long time to get here. I am excited about my business for the first time in many years. Staff and my husband too are really enjoying the change and this results in happy people serving happy customers.
Great work Carol. When I joined newsXpress we “dressed up” our store on a shoestring budget. It was amazing what you could do with a coat of paint and some fantastic advice from very experienced people. It doesn’t have to cost a couple of hundred thousand to get results. Having said that though our store reached a point where we just had to do the full refit and I can tell you the difference in sales in key departments has been amazing. I am aiming to take gift sales to 150k this financial year. Card sales for this month so far are up 15% and should continue to climb. I look back at what I had before becoming a newsXpresser and thought I was a good retailer but after learning from some very smart people we continue to grow and grow and grow. Not a lot of small retailers can boast growth over the last few years, I’m proud to say that we have done just that. Keep up the great work Carol, it sounds like you are really enjoying the same challenges as I am. Keep GROWING….!
Cheers
Al