For habit based shoppers, what you put in your front window will not be noticed by them, as they are more often than not destination shopping when them come to your shop.
This is why I suggest to retailers that they not pitch destination products in the front window or on the lease line. It doesn’t;t make sense to me to show off what you are known for.
I like to use a front window or a lease line display to pitch what I am not known for, to get people to notice or turn their head at least, and, maybe come in to check us out.
The more we can play against shopper expectations the better I think for the expectations attached to newsagency shops are rooted in history.
This display is from one of my shops from yesterday. It speaks to this desire to pitch what we are not known by most for. It speaks to a freshness and a warmth if you will outside of what may be associated with shopper assumptions re a newsagency.
The mix of colours, textures, product categories and gifting occasions pitches a diversity that we think will help us attract people who might otherwise have passed the shop by. We are really happy with the mix. Quite proud actually.
This approach to outside traditional newsagency category pitching at the front of the business is easier for us given that we don’t have lottery products. While we are asked daily (ugh!) by people who tend to not look around themselves, we are getting more people asking about gifts they’d like to give.
This display at the front of the shop will remain in this form for no more than two weeks. Then, it will start to evolve. depending on new sales and new inventory availability it may be completely replaced at that time.
Let me leave you with some sales benchmark guidance. Plenty of newsagents are doing gift revenue of two and three times their card revenue, some even more. Those doing less than their card revenue have excellent opportunity for growth and that is the key point I’d make as there are many Newsagency businesses with that opportunity on the table.
Oh, and one final point. To show what I mean by being on the lease line, look at this image as through it you can see the Coles supermarket that is opposite us.
