I’ve taken a look at the posts on Twitter by the Lott (Tabcorp) this morning and it’s clear their focus is all about driving online sales. It starts with the banner for their Twitter space
While I get that as a business they need to promote their business, the pressure they put on small business retailers to promote the Tabcorp business, usually to the detriment of the retailer business, is considerable.
If I was a lottery retailer, I’d like to see Tabcorp more engaged with encouraging shopping in physical retail.
Mark in all fairness Tabcorp is in the business of selling the Lott and they cover all markets on line and Retail Franchises.
newsXpress does the same On-line you preach it here as well as Retail and what you do is very good.
You encourage all newsagents to have an on line focus as well as retail. Once done and
by letting the Market place decide the wholesaler or outlet can’t lose or at best they minimise their losses. Harvey Norman -JB Hi Fi do it well.
Most purchasers of the business want Lotto-it is money in the Bank without having any knowledge of the product or cost for the stock.
Problem here Graeme is that Tabcorps online sales promotion is in direct competition to our in store sales of their product . They share a lousy 1 per cent of Omni channel sales through players registered in store and look to penalise in store franchisees through their remuneration model wherever possible.Other problem is that do not pay market rental for our floor space or advertising space nor fair wages for hours worked on selling their product.
Did you fuckwits read the post? Obviously not.
Tabcorp claims to support retailers in its marketing. They have said this to those who represent retailers, almost as an undertaking I’m told.
My post is an example of them not doing this on a key social media platform.
Yes, Graeme and Jason, I get that Tabcorp needs to go where the customers and are will be. Indeed, I have written that here many times. Social media is good for this.
Yes, Graeme, I encourage newsagents to focus online. Tabcorp does not let them sell lottery products online. Tabcorp requires newsagent to promote them and their online business in-store. That requirement is not reciprocated.
Jason, If you actually read the Twitter feed you’d see it’s the feed, not just the banner.
Graeme, this has nothing to do with newsXpress whatsoever.
So, why did I write the post? So lottery retailers and those who represent them are aware of how Tabcorp uses Twitter to promote online. That is what this post is about.
Steve, I agree with what you’ve said.
Mark and Steve,
It is what it is and as you have said Mark you chose NOT to have Lotteries which isn’t exactly correct, you actually chose NOT to have lotto on their terms at the time. So be it, it was your choice. Steve Lotto is not in your own words a very big part of your business. Tourism is and you do it well. There are many newsagents that make well over $2k per week in commisions many at $3k per week and some at $5k and $6k p.w. Look up the rankings Servo’s and IGAs rank the poorest. Of Market share in the retail segment Newsagents have had growth withion this retail pie -Pre COVID that is.
We would all like to see Tabcorp spend more on retailers promoting their businesses however it’s a bit like it’s not in their best interest as on line is cheaper than outlets as in the proven situation that the outlets are “host franchises” not stand alone ones.
Newspaper companies did the same however their product was in declines and still is Lotto has a market in retail and we need to promote it for our own good and in this case treat on line as our competitor.
COVID is working for On Line participants. COVID is NOT working for Retail B & M neither are Shopping Centre Landlords.
These are the main Retail focus for newsagents and in all fairness there will be many wholesalers that compete with their retailer outlets especially in the Gift and Toy areas check then out as well They too are on twitter and Facebook and email and they don’;t promiote the retailer just themselves.
Such is life.
Graeme, the post is not about me. Oh, and I know what I have decided for my businesses.
The original post is what matters in this thread.
Graeme and Jason my concern is not so much about Tabcorps online growth strategy as like you say most evolving businesses are heading this way. My concern is more around them sharing their online growth with existing franchisees rather than Tabcorp simply increasing their own margin. If Tabcorp’s online sale growth was fairly shared with franchisees we would all be happy for such advertising . You also need to remember that players signed up in our stores are hit with this marketing.
Like you say many in our channel are very heavily dependent on lottery sales and lottery sales growth to cover their ever increasing labour and rental costs. These costs rarely decrease. I particularly worry for naive purchasers of large lottery books and for vendors struggling to sell.
Mark,
Point taken this is exactly what I am saying as well. It works for you and Lotto works for others. TabCorp are doing what they can for themselves.
This is the message I recieve from such a post.
s Jack Lang said Self interest is the name of the horse that wins the race.
We need to devlope this more as retailers rather than spend time critisizing Major partners especially when their sel interest is evident.
Use customer service -one on one there its on its own beats on line all the time. Make friends -make sales you say this all the timeand as I said do it well.
Why do we need an over kill of negativity? COVID is plenty to cope with.
Steve, thanks for your answer I have had these worries about the industry for some time especially as I am a Broker (as you know) well the good news is we have had record sales of newsagencies 4 this financiual year so far -All with lotto big enough to cover occupancy costs and most if not all staff wages. This is despite COVID. I have also pointed out what other suppliers are doing as well.
We are all trying for the consumer discretionary dollar. The buyers we talk with are not naive, tey know exactly what they want and do it their way…not so well sometimes I believe.
The fact is, the price the customer pays for a lotto product (whatever it might be) is the same if they buy online vs buying in a store. And if they buy online, TabCorp gets to keep all that money and doesn’t have to pay the retailer anything. Ergo buying online is more profitable for TabCorp so they are going to encourage people to do that.
While Tabcorp’s TVCs do mention in-store, it is done is a way that makes it the least promoted purchase point pitched in TVCs.
That’s the difference between The Lott and Lotterywest, a profit driven business and a government own not-for-profit organisation. The Lott only cares the profit, Lotterywest tries the best to keep retailers alive.