I got my first look at Australia Post package pickup lockers a few days ago – at a 7-Eleven store.
Located at the front of the business, facing the fuel pumps and the street, the lockers are noticeable. The branding achieved by Australia Post in a 7-Eleven location is extraordinary. The apparent strong partnership between these two businesses should concern newsagents. It surprises me.
The newsagency channel should have had the front running on a closer commercial relationship with Australia Post given the number of newsagencies that are Licenced Post Offices. However, for the parcel pick up model Australia Post would have sought a partner offering easy parking, discipline and the ability to deal on a network wide scale. Newsagents don’t offer any of these.
I see the link between Australia Post and 7-Eleven on this parcel pickup project as a sign of a deeper relationship between the two giant organisations, one that could ultimately impact on newsagency businesses – LPOs and others as it is the type of relationship others will notice and make their decisions on.
Newsagents unhappy with a closer Australia Post / 7-Eleven relationship need to think about what the newsagency channel could have offered Australia Post that would have been more compelling than a 7-Eleven pitch. To that I say we could offer them nothing.
We need to have a realistic view of ourselves when considering the channel. I think we are more demanding than we deserve to be. Newspapers and magazines are the only categories connecting us and even they are done differently right across the channel: to different standards, to different scale and with a different future in mind.
Our independence and local ownership which we see as an asset are what lead organisations like Australia Post to look elsewhere.
The sky is not falling.
The lights are not flickering.
But we need to take note of these changes happening around us. We need to be aware of the strategies of networks like 7-Eleven. We need our own plan for our future that we can build around our business or those we are commercially connected with.
We need to look at moves like Australia Post working with 7-Eleven and know we’re okay because we know where we are going and how we are going to get there.
Aren’t all the LPO operators complaining about the pitiful remuneration for parcel pickup services. Parcel pickup sounds an awful lot like yet another agency service that is a “traffic driver”. Competition in this space is intense and becoming more so. In the instance above it seems the customer doesn’t even need to go into the store. I’m not a believer in the parcel pickup channel saviour concept.
My daughter lives in Broome and she picks all her mail up from an Australia Post secure box pick area at a service station. They have a key to a meshed in area and then a key to their box.
Mark,
The issue (as I see it) is the nature of the marketing groups – if they could all come together and say “we’re in competition on these 8/10 area’s – But on these 2/10 common items we will act as one then there maybe we would have a chance at a truly national deal.
I know there maybe issues around this – but when if ever have the Marketing groups sat down (as a group leaving ego’s etc at the door) and discussed national issues they could tender for?
John
John, there are four marketing groups representing roughly a third of all newsagents. Two thirds are in no group. Not all the groups are interested in the channel as a unifying channel. Take stationery, two of the groups promote stationery from suppliers outside the newsagent owned GNS / Ancol businesses. This, to me, speaks to an extraordinary difference between the groups.
The best chance of unification among groups or a section was when Newspower proposed newsXpress to run it as a sub group a few years back and again a year or so later. That proposal was voted down by Newspower shareholders.
On this issue of parcel boxes, I think it’s more interesting to look at this from the type of business – one away from a mall, with parking and offering fuel and convenience services. That’s a strengthening battleground.
John there is a huge problem with lack of unity in the Newsagency industry. We also have a stationary group who have pretty much missed the boat with their out dated and hard to use online ordering system. We had to source a lot of our back to school items elsewhere because they had no stock. We have a toothless association who do not seem to be able to look at the industry as an evolving business so no support or change seems to happen. We can never compete when as an industry we are not unified.
Carol there is no way now to unify the whole channel. The best hope is behind the various emerging brands.
The associations missed their chance years ago. Unfortunately they are becoming less relevant in helping Newsagents move forward.
To pick up on the latest blog why haven’t we heard about a fresh approach about magazine distribution from the associations?