Retail is detail as they say and there is no place in a busy newsagency that benefits more from detail as the main sales counter. It’s where the action is.
Too often, newsagents so much fill counter space with products, too many product, that it looks like a junk heap. Products that they can’t place elsewhere mixed in with items they are afraid shoppers will steal. This leads to a commercially ineffective counter, a busy counter, a counter giving off a mixed message.
I see the counter as a workplace where efficiency is important as is the success of the space in extending the shopping basket. Every item we have at the counter needs to be there for a reason, every item has to add value.
Often I’ll chose to use counter space for something other than products. Take the lead up to Mother’s Day. We placed the entry form for our $500 Mother’s Day give away in prime position at the counter – to drive entries. Each pitch we made for a free entry was a reminder that this was a newsagency where customers won prizes. I treated the pitch and the space for the entry form as marketing activity.
We need to be deliberate about how we use our counters. get it right and profit grows. Get in wrong and we tread water or fall behind.