This data is from one regional newsagency in Australia. It reflects a comparison of 2 weeks in December this year to the same 2 weeks last year. On top of the more than 50% in revenue growth and and excellent growth in overall business gross profit percentage, there is this:
Here we see, on the left, data for 14 days in December this year, next, data for the same 14 days in December 2019, and, finally, the difference.
The transaction count is down because several regional newspapers closed. It is the compounding value of average sales value, average item value and average items per sale that fuel an excellent result.
If you have been able to gently drive higher prices as well as bring in new product categories from which you can achieve higher than your average gross profit, focussing on basket depth can deliver the valuable compounded result. This is about guiding a shopper to purchase more in a list than they might have otherwise.
Achieving a higher average items per sale result comes from an ideal shop floor layout, good product placement, leveraging hotspots, having awesome shop floor staff and having a counter configured for easy impulse purchase decisions.
Building this level of success is like building a jigsaw, without having a clear picture of what the end result will look like. But … it does involve placing many pieces. It’s trial and error, daily work, small steps work.
Any newsagent can do it. Capital is not a barrier. Location is not a barrier.
Focussing on smaller datapoint is a good start as small wins from small steps can be motivating.
Our success is up to us.
Mark,
All good stuff but for me you miss out the 2 key factors.
Buying to a plan is absolutely essential. You need to know your customer and plan to stock ranges that are varied but still complimentary. You cannot buy just anything.
Secondly good customer service is essential. Staff need knowledge of the products, they need to able to hold meaningful conversations. Not just “over there madam, second aisle”.
Colin, the post does not reflect all I would advice / say / encourage on this.
While knowing your customer is good, it is important to be sure to truly understand who the customer could be. Today, more so than ever, customers are likely to be the people you least expect.
Colin,
Nice in theory, but do you ACTUALLY know your customer, or are you buying to what you perceive your customer wants? I would suggest that in most cases (mine included) it is the latter and I don’t think many of us actually categorically know what our customer wants.
Had you asked me 3 years ago if my customer wanted to buy clothes, or furniture, or artworks, or $200 artificial flowers etc etc in my newsagency I would have categorically said no. Turns out I would have been wrong.
I think it is critical to step outside what we perceive as our boundaries and test the waters. I am constantly surprised at what my customers do actually want.
I agree that buying to a plan is important, but you need to have scope in that plan to introduce those left field items you would never expect to stock or your customers to buy.
Very good point Glenn and probably the first and foremost one.
It’s simply “connecting” with your customer.
The most effective way is by personal one on one conversation, getting to know them by feelling out their scope of likes etc, Placing this individually and if one feels it fits the general core demographic of your customer base ten comes the broader base of ‘themeing” the thought patttern accros the full Social Expression field. The latter then will find its own level of connection for the theme presented.
there are big themes and smaller everyday day ones. Stuff you hear on the radio or saw on the T.V. or the kids mention or rave on about are all tiny and instant connections that bring your business alive.
Themeing, price point, timing depth of range, single focus , multiple choice, one on one shop talk, staff involvement, on-line (essential today) all of it is retail theatre. The script has to be constantly changed. This comes from the structure, the plan of ‘this goes with this goes with that at ” my store’
It’s all good stuff.
Enjoy it, Merry Christmas, to all I hope for you all that it will be successful with te New Year even better.
Back in the day, Graeme, that’s what retailers would do. Today, knowing our customer is harder and easier all at the same time. Last night, for example, I got a big sale to someone in India, for delivery to a family member who lives a few minutes from the shop.
The customer is non traditional for the business. However, thanks to smart tech. I know how they found the website, what they were looking for, what was on their mind. In fact, I know more about them than if they had walked into the shop.
With 15% of sales online, that’s a chunk of non-traditional business for which the traditional approach to knowing the customer does not apply.
Mark, thanks for that, I agree and I embrace the future on line as well for the past is the apprenticeship and the on-line the growth. There is much to learn about this structure -good and bad. however customer connection is what it is all about. How the store, the product is presented within this structure, for it is the connecting method whereby a person in India knew where to look and te what to buy and how to make the sale complete, without a word in making the sale.
That’s connecting in today’s market place.
It’s all good and it’s encompassing progress.
It should be a great year 2021 for much has been learned from the COVID experience .
All the best.
Glenn,
Now that you have found your customer. The buyer of clothes, artwork, flowers etc. What are you going to do. Ignore them and go looking for coin collectors, puzzles enthusiasts ?
My point is when you find the customer get to know them, buy with them in mind. Build the store around around them, make it a destination for them and more like them.
Diversifying from traditional newsagency is not meant to be revolving door of attracting new customers then ditching them. It is about finding a new focus and ditching the toxic newsagency label.
Yes, we know our customer.
Colin, your point and Glenn’s are interactive. The newsagent can look up the Consensus statistics 2016 for the latest area detail of the community the newsagent serves. It has disposable income age groups and schools, empees occupations etc. this myriad of information gives a foundation There is all I have posted here then there is the Growth, the non -connect growth of the on line shopper the one we need to embrace and find out how to connect with. Mark says it all the time, it’s true the best do both. Look at JB HiFi puprplke hair , ring in noses, tatoos great product knowledge, great service and great on line management. I have shopped withe them for 20 years at least. Harvey Norman – Many thought he was not a good retailer. How wrong can they be. I know he’s a good retailer, he is one of the greatest retailers I have seen. On-line , at first he ignored it then he realised this is where it is going, he re adjusted and refocused taking on both using one with the other Bricks and mortar plus on line. He can’t even use a computer -these are his words.
There is the perfect of yesterday’s neswagent with today’s opportunity ..a Billionaire retailer old fart showing the way. (sorry Gerry) you’re not that old.
It’s all there and many ways of achieving the goals.
Enough words, Just Do It!
Unnecessarily churlish Colin. Your comment suggests that I write about success with coins and puzzles to encourage others into those categories. I don’t. Here, at this blog, I share some of my experiences. What people do with that is up to them.
When I write about success with products, it is to encourage people to look at what is beyond the usual for them.
On your point about the revolving door, one thing that has changed forever for independent retail is that you never reach a destination for shoppers. That is, you need to always chase, nurture, new shoppers. Tougher competition, online and the dilution of borders between retail channels has made it thus.
Footnote: looking at jigsaw data for one high street newsagency, in 2019, they sold $1,900 worth off jigsaws. In 2020, they sold more than $20,000 worth. For a product category with 55%+ GP, it’s a good result.
Mark,
Churlish is a strong term which I find offensive. My point was in response to knowing your customer. It was not a dig at your business.
That you find my points offensive does not surprise me. Disappointing though that you sometimes cannot debate without taking offence if the narrative is not of your preference.
Colin,
You referenced coins and puzzles, two categories I have raised here and encouraged others to consider. It was a dig. It was churlish.
If I was not welcoming of debate, commenting ts here would be closed. They are not. I do, however, prefer constructive comments.
Colin,
My point is I don’t believe we should ever be comfortable thinking we know what our customers want. It can foster complacency. Tastes change, trends change and people have interests we only discover by changing what we do.
As retailers our challenge is to keep the customers coming back, and to do that we need to continually evolve and learn about our customers, new and existing.
I don’t see that evolving our offerings and trying new things is ignoring existing customers or feeding them through a revolving door, I see it as a pursuit of continual improvement in service to our customers and a reason why customers keep returning. It’s part of a never ending search for the new focus.
If you are happy you know your customer that is great and each to their own. Maybe I am a slow learner, because after 22 years of searching I am still learning things about ours I never knew, and that’s part of the reason we still love opening the doors every day.
If Colin is churlish then you have overdosed on arrogant petulance.
Post that one.
Glenn, I totally agree I often express retail as theatre yet I don’t explain that it is reactionary theatre.
the audience is what we play to and the audience changes our presentation of the same play in fact we please them to react so they can tell to tell us how to change the play to react again and so on.
It’s not a set play with a continuous start to finish. It is as you say an adjustment every day every moment plus and overall plan of what or who you are in relationship to your immediate community then there is On Line -new exciting same thing different method.
Glenn you are not a slow learner at all. Evolution is key in retail. It always has been. This year, though, it has been bigger and faster, which has played well for those who embrace change.
I never used to sell jigsaws in my newsagency until I read about how they were doing here. I am pleased to say that I have sold $8,500 worth this year. I could have sold more if I could have got more stock. I have been surprised at the people who bought jigsaws. It has changed how I see things.