The core of a good newsagency: stationery

This week I am looking five cores of today’s newsagency. I have selected five that relate to every retail newsagency, or should at least. Each core is important because of traffic and that mastering it defines our business in the eyes of these we serve.

Core #3: stationery

There was a time when newsagents dominated stationery sales in Australia. This should be the case today as we are the best positioned businesses to serve people buying stationery for home, local businesses and local community groups. We are the best local business selling stationery.

Sure we may be a little more expensive – but our service is more personal, thorough and trusted. Too often we try and compete on price while ignoring the opportunities of our points of difference.

Despite recent sales falls, stationery traffic and revenue remain important in your average newsagency. This is why I say it is a core product category.

I say we can do more to make stationery more valuable. We can do this in a number of ways:

1. Pitching stationery outside the stationery department – and buying protects that enable us to do this.
2. Pricing our products to reflect our service. By this I mean charge more for the more comprehensive local service we provide.
3. Focus on known bands ahead of generic brand product. Brands = trust.
4. Sell singles ahead of packs.
5. Let people try before they buy.
6. Show people what to purchase and why.
7. Talk about stationery,
8. Run an education program.
9. Ensure your employees are trained.
10. Talk about stationery on your social media platforms.
11. Use stationery as a reward for prizes, school awards and the like.
12. Manage stationery – you control your buying, pricing and display. Engage with this in the best way possible.

How you approach stationery is one way you define your newsagency in the eyes of those who shop in newsagencies. The more you disconnect from expectations the more you risk not being identified as to what people expect.

The purpose of this series is to remind newsagents what sits at the core of today’s newsagency business. And I am talking about today. Tomorrow may be different. Hat we need to do right now is manage for today to achieve the best we can with today’s traffic.

I am not including tobacco and lotteries in this list as not every newsagency has these.