At my small suburban high street newsagency on Saturday, not long after opening, we processed a transaction worth close to $3,000.00 for one customer. It was a new customer for the business, someone who contacted us through social media, chasing some of the high end limited edition collectibles we have access to.
We arranged to meet Saturday morning. Not only did they make the purchase, they made it clear they would be back in a few weeks. They are not local to the business but are happy to drive for the personal service and access to hard to find high value product for their collection.
This all happened in a shop that serves an older conservative community, a shop that deals daily with the challenges of competition from massive shopping centres (Chadstone, The Glen, Knox), a shop that has to reach way outside its four walls to fine people who will travel for what they want, a shop not relying on any high-traffic agency business to get people through the door.
I share this story today too make several points:
- Any newsagent can achieve a sale of $3,000, even more, to a single customer. Plus, they can bank on repeat business.
- Out of store marketing is key to attracting new traffic.
- Having unique, loved, products is key to attracting new traffic.
- Being accessible online is vital to serving people who find you online.
- Promoting leveraging respected brands is more important than promoting your brand.
- The first transaction like this will change our you see your business, forever.
- What you can sell is not bound by your shingle, what you like or what you have sold in the past.
- The sale was achieved 100% in the business and by the business. There was no corporate support, no corporate spend. This is important to reflect that any newsagency anywhere in Australia could achieve this.
This story of what happened on Saturday is not isolated. I know of other newsagents who have done it and who have gone on to repeat the extraordinary sales from the new customer they found and others that person introduces to the business.
While for sure, our channel is surrounded by challenges, which can bring one down, there are also many opportunities for us, often outside what we have ever considered for our businesses before.
Be open. Connect with people who can help you be open. See out success stories and unpack them to learn whether you could try the same.
$3,000 at 45% GP is equal to 3,600 newspapers.
Fantastic sale. Less convinced an open forum is the right place to talk about it.
I don’t see why not Colin. As always this blog is a place for ideas and inspirations and here we are Mark is out there to show proof to some naysayers that newsagents can sell high end products.
It is the right forum. One of my goals here is to encourage newsagents they an be successful outside what is usual for their retail channel. This sale is a good example. The thing is, I am not alone, I know of others achieving this too. It starts with believing it is possible.
It is possible and it is imperative that newsagents chase this change. Whilst a $3000 sale is amazing, chasing growth in sales not tradional to our industry is probably more important. When I joined newsXpress (no this is not an ad for nXp) my store was doing 40k a year in gifts, this year I am knocking on the door to get close to 250k. It is hard work but I wouldn’t like to stop long enough to ponder what might have become of my store had we not put the work into making changes. I encourage every newsagent to be bold, to be different, to ensure your own future.
Cheers
Al
I am with you all. I agree with the comments about encouragement, ideas, inspiration and change.
But this is a sale that stands out. If the customer reads the blog, the effects can be negative.
I am record of criticising the blog for too little detail. In this in stance I feel there may be too much detail.
As I said … fantastic.
I wrote the post carefully to not identify the product category or specific store location. I also wrote knowing the customer would not visit here. However if they did, I see no harm. They are thrilled with and proud of their purchase – as are others who make similar purchases of the niche product.