Mid last year I was approached by XchangeIT about their consideration of changes to IT infrastructure to facilitate the elimination of labelling magazines.
I explained to XchangeIT at the time:
- Smart newsagents did not label weeklies or high volume monthlies.
- Labels provided a vital role in shop floor management of magazine inventory.
- Labels provide for operational consistency – barcodes placed by publishers are not placed in consistent locations.
- The alternative was time expensive.
The XchangeIT representative put to me that newsagency software companies, like my own, profited from selling labels. I explained that while we do sell labels at Tower Systems, the margin is slim and the overall contribution to revenue less than 1% of annual sales. So, no, my thoughts are not commercially related.
If XchangeIT is concerned about newsagent productivity it should invest its time and money in ensuring fair and equitable supply of magazines. The largest overhead on a newsagency today is the labour, paper and retail space waste of oversupplied magazines. With an overall average sell through rate of around 50%, the cost to newsagents of too much stock and too many titles is clear. It is frustrating that XchangeIT remains party to management of newsagent supply in such a way that disadvantaged our channel.
This sticky label project is a distraction from the real issue at hand, the only issue at hand – to gross oversupply of magazine product to newsagents.
The XchangeIT suggestion that newsagents use additional hardware in their businesses does not make sense – it is something else to learn, that can break and that has a cost.
I see the sticky label project as a possible barrier to early returns as there is this suggested extra technology involved. The current approach is easy, lower cost, fail-safe and easy of immediate action on the shop floor.
XchangeIT is owned by the magazine distributors. Not sure about today but the ANF was also a shareholder in one XchangeIT business some years ago.
Interesting email from xchangeit about sticky labels – whether or not we need them.
I would love to NOT use them as they take so much time (which is money) to find, attach and put on the shelf and then the opposite when returns are due.
I don’t use them for volume Oz titles both weekly and monthly but I do use them for
all other mags and I would be against the
demise of labels.
1. they tell me how many items I am getting
2 They are a fantastic guide when putting new product on the shelf as to how many of the new mags need to go on the shelf.
3. when labels are over you know you have a shortage
4. labels tell us tops and fulls
5 labels tell us which company to return the product to.
6 labels are tremendously useful for early returns (publishers/dist won’t like that one.)
7 Labels tell us when to pull for returns
8 labels allow us to pull returns on the day prior to mag deliveries which saves time on a not so busy Wednesday instead
of a very busy Thursday.
9 Labels ensure mags go into their correct category.
10 Labels tell us when there is a re-issue
or forward billing so that we don’t remove it before we can request a credit.
I can’t actually see any way that I would be happy to get rid of labels.
However, I don’t know what xchangeit are
planning yet so I just thought I would air it here.
June,
Agree with everything you stated – now imagine for a moment, if every magazine’s details were placed in the same position with the same format data (Mark has stated this several times in the past)
Price
Return Date
Distributor
etc
OK you would need to go back to counting the incoming stock but a lot quicker than stickers.
This is one change the distributors could make to show they are listening to Newsagents wanting to reduce cost.
But, I think I’m dreaming!
Interesting to see if XIT include a question about common placement of magazine details in their survey.
John
John,
Please don’t forget who is the owner of XIT.
Is it the cynic in me? The only reason I can think
Of for this change is to try and slow early returning.
The most important date on my magazines now is
Day of arrival I could no longer care if a return date
Is printed at all.
Now when a magazine is Delayed Billing it prints
that date but I would still prefer to have the arrival date
Bretts, on delayed billing mags we write the arrival date on them in red pen, so we don’t miss early returning them!!
Also agree with everything June says plus labels are used for other departments, like stationery, books, gifts, etc. So we will always need the barcode printer and labels.
It amazes me (but it should not) that for an organisation supposedly committed to efficiency, XchangeIT fails to address the one big efficiency gain opportunity for newsagents – efficient (fair) supply.
Mark, please stop using the terms smart retailers and best practice, just because it is the method you use.
I am one of your customers and I am tired of you inferring I’m dumb.
Profit not paperwork is Xchangeit’s motto.
Please explain to me why the use of my data for years has not resulted in any significant efficiency in sell through rates.
To have my data an still get is so wrong on allocations is a disgrace which I hold the publisher fully accountable. They are the beginning of the food chain, the buck stops with them.
We should be paid a commission for every unsold we return that has been kept for the full on sale period. Imagine half our commission paid on these returns. Allocations would soon resemble reality.
In the mean time I will return in full any allocation that is an abuse of my data.
Bill I write from a personal perspective, not a business perspective. Everyone is entitled to write what they want using the terms they want in the comments. My use of smart newsagents was considered as it does not seem smart to me to label weeklies and high volume monthlies. If you disagree that’s cool.
I can’t find a reference to best practice in this post.