#4 of five provocative suggestions to challenge how you view and manage your retail newsagency

This week I will publish five deliberately provocative suggestions on aspects of retail newsagency management and operation. My goal is to challenge newsagents and their suppliers to break free from the past and engage in more present day retail

Suggestion #4: mark your stationery up by 125%.

We are often told that people think stationery in a newsagency is more expensive than elsewhere.

My advice today is for you to meet their expectation. If you mark your stationery up by 100% or less, increase your mark up. I suggest you go as high as 125%.

I know of newsagents who have done this and not dropped any sales.

People shop for stationery in newsagencies because of convenience in most cases. This also gives you permission to charge more.

If you are not sure about this suggestion, do it for a category and track sales for three to six months. I am certain you will soon mark all stationery up by more than you have in the past. It’s money in your pocket.

While I am publishing the suggestions I am not necessarily advocating them for all newsagents. I see this blog as playing a role in challenging how we look and manage our businesses and from that encourage newsagents to think carefully about decisions they make.