As newsagents look for more opportunities to attract new shoppers through new products, some are making poor buying decisions, thinking that cheap sells.
Customers buying on price are not loyal as the only way to bring them back to spend more money is through a price offer. There is little upside in that in my opinion.
Beautifully designed products with good margin are more valuable thank cheap products that are not visually different to tons of other products in the marketplace.
Design is everything for many categories of products. A good design makes price less of an issue. Products are only differentiating if they have a good design in my view. Design is where some wholesalers let retailers down. In such situations retailers are left holding stock they can’t move.
Of course, what each retailer buys for their business is their choice. For me, I look for differentiation and value to the business – where value is a combination of quality, usefulness and uniqueness. I don’t see value win cheap products. I am happy to leave that space to others.