A newsagent I was speaking with last week was complaining about Officeworks and the stationery sales they felt they were losing to this national group. What are you doing about it? I asked. What can I do about it? I’m cheaper than them but they have more money to spend on marketing.
My challenge to this newsagent was – complaining about Officeworks achieves nothing. Prove your price advantage at every opportunity – on Facebook, in-store and through your team.
Make sure everyone has the Officeworks app and train your team members to openly discuss your price advantage over Officeworks.
The more you share the facts on pricing the further your message will spread. Officeworks does this, in the front of each store. They display pages of catalogues that usually feature equipment items and use a sticker to show their price next to a competitor offer.
If you are into Stationery and are serious about being competitive then the Officeworks app is a must. This particularly applies if you are keen on increasing your Ink sales but also for a lot of other general products notwithstanding their loss leaders. Officeworks and for that matter, the Post Office are generally hopelessly overpriced and this is not simply an opinion. It’s a fact. When I use the Officeworks app at the counter to show customers they are generally in shock. Word of mouth does the rest.
One thing for sure is that bleating about the opposition achieves nothing for you other than blowing off steam in a customers face.
Then of course you get people who go to the newsagent, get the newsagent price and promptly get Officeworks to beat it by 5% or whatever.
Stats show that this does not occur Jonathan. This is the reason Officeworks market so aggressively, they know that 99% people do not price check as they are time poor.