Syndicate sales are down as a result of the new Tatts mandated digital signage according to several tatts retailers I have spoken with over the last few weeks.
Some have been specific in their comments, looking at Sydney irate sales on a like for like basis in terms of jackpot value and at super draw times for Saturday sales.
Some have commented that customers struggle to know what is available given how tatts has required they place signage in their businesses.
Whereas in the past, signs were placed to interrupt shoppers, the Tatts digital and future image requirements take away what was successful space for promoting syndicates.
In one case, I am told the Tatts rep told the newsagent to stick signs in such a way that the auditors tatts sends out would breach the business.
My question is genuine: Is the Tatts new digital signage responsible for a decline in syndicate sales?
Please comment here. By all means use a fake name so the tatts people who read this blog cannot identify tiny you an therefore pay you a visit.
Two newsagents have told me of them having to purchase more unsold syndicate tickets following the installation of the new image and digital screen. In each case they don’t have the capacity to fund such underselling. The situation is forcing them to rethink their syndicate strategy.
I am posting this today because I have been asked to. Newsagents what to know if they are alone in their declining syndicate sales experience. Are you?
Same here Mark,i have to remind every customer that we have store syndicates.
Why can’t some of the Tatts ppl responsible for all this comment here.If what they have made everyone do is working why not let us all know of the improvements they have seen.Its not alot to ask just an honest assement
Only 2 outlets in town, one with upgrade 8 months ago, one without. Latest Tatts ranking, upgrade store down 40 year on year, the other store up 35 and is trading less hours than last year.
The audits are a joke and are not applied equally across the channel.
Yep, had the refit done 10 weeks ago. Syndicate sales down to the point where I’ve stopped doing one that has been run for over 10 years. I even brought up with the territory manager that there are so many faults with this new fitout and how it interacts with customers that it isn’t funny.
Now Tatts is apparently allowing an option to have either 1 or 2 screens and while I argued that by sales and shop size that a single screen would make more sense by size and revenue was forced to fit two. Needless to say I’m fairly pissed off and have spoken to a lawyer this morning who is looking further into it for me.
Paul, do the screens or brightly lit scratch-it dispenser distract customers from seeing your syndicate signs or is it another issue?
I actually don’t turn the lights on on the dispenser most of the time because when they are on you can’t see which scratchy the customer is pointing to in the display on anything but the top row (and you can’t ever see the bottom row without bending over the counter to look at what is being pointed to). It’s one of the faults with the design of the unit.
It seems to be, in part, that the syndicate board is now effectively so far away from what is the prime place of doing business at the till that people don’t even notice them unless they are waiting for a long time and look around. so with that in mind we stick some syndicates on the scratchy dispenser and they at least get noticed. I think they shot themselves in the foot in part by insisting on so much area for their TVs and back display that there is too much for people to take in. Having said that I still have customers who have been in at least twice a week since the refit and have only now asked “when did you have that done? ” . So the visual impact may not be what tatts expects !!
Ditto everything Paul S wrote at (6)
We too have cut back on syndicates and had to purchase a ridiculous amount in the Superdraw immediately after our refit was done back in May. Murphy’s law, of course the syndicate we outlayed the most tickets on was the one that didn’t pick up a single prize too! Would be interested to know how your legal advice went – think GC are relying on us being so broke after the refit to challenge them legally!
If I did have Tatts and I had done the refit as they demanded and not achieved any commercial gain I would start agitating legally, but without spending much. My starting point would be VCAT, QCAT or similar. It is possible I would engage any state based small business commissioner while at the same time leveraging the small business commissioner federally.
I would do anything possible to get Tatts into a forum where they have to account for their forcing of me to spend the money. An adjudicator may succeed in demanding access to the business case data from Tatts. That would be most revealing in my opinion.
I too have been forced to upgrade to the new Digipos Tatts shop fit and like most have two screens. My sales have not declined as such but nor have they improved. I was frustrated to hear that Tatts have already put in place plans to supersede the latest shopfit and probably new this when mine was being approved. If we are to seek legal advice would it not been more sensible to adopt a class action where all those affected work through one legal team ?
I would be happy to join can anyone suggest a law firm that specialise in these matters.