We were lucky to have stock of the 75th Anniversary of the Australian Signals Directorate – 50c Uncirculated coin 2022 released by the Royal Australian Mint.
It sold out quickly and while we’d like to have had more stock, having it helped us attract new shoppers. This is good because coin shoppers are habit based shoppers and they return, and they tend to purchase other items when in the shop. They are valuable customers.
Habit based shoppers are tremendously valuable in any retail setting as their habits offer an opportunity for predictability and it is this that helps us in our business planning.
In a typical newsagency, the key habit based shopper opportunities relate to the magazines (special interest and crossword are the two best for us), greeting cards (birthday is key here), stationery (home use tends to outperform office use) and, of course, lotteries.
So when we unlock a new habit based product opportunity we analyse the results and work on ways we can leverage it for broader success in the business.
This is where the mint coin products do work a treat. But it takes time and management. I have seen some newsagents get into this space and give up after a few months. Others have worked at it, tuned it, and after 6 or so months found a level of wonderful and valuable consistency.
Too often I see retailers take a step with a new product and toss it out if that one step does not fail.
As retailers we need to work our shops and the products in them. If something does hot work, we need to look at location and the support we have, or have not provided, to the product. We need to do our best to find shoppers, to cultivate them.
Now with this new coin from the Mint we were lucky because of excellent publicity around its release. It made it a dream-run product. But it does not always happen this way.