ABC News recently ran a story suggesting the future of the local Australian newsagency was in trouble because it had not kept up with the times. I know of many local Aussie newsagencies that have kept up and are more relevant today than any time in their past.
This video I made showcases a few of these awesome local businesses, shops that look nothing like the old Aussie Newsagency. I made it, and others to follow, to show that the local Aussie newsagency may not be what you think it is.
These newsagencies offer products outside of what the old Aussie newsagency carried. Gifts feature along with clothing, handbags, gourmet cooking items and more. These are businesses serving a diverse mix of shoppers – far away from lottery, newspaper and magazine customers.
Smart newsagents started transforming their businesses 20 years ago. Moving into gifts, homewares, toys and more – attracting new shoppers and selling products at margins four and five times more than newspapers.
The easiest local newsagency to transform today is one in a small country town. This setting presents opportunity, and I am glad to say that many newsagents have embraced it.
This is the story ABC News should be covering, a story of a channel navigating extraordinary change with plenty of local retailers, local newsagents, evolving their businesses to be relevant, vibrate and valuable.
We made the video because we know a picture is worth more than a thousand words. This video is worth thousands of words showing off transformed local Aussie newsagencies that aren’t newsagencies in the historic sense of that label.
While news outlets and suppliers consider newsagents a channel, newsagents are not a channel and have not been for many years. You can’t go into a newsagency expecting they will have what you want if your expectation is rooted in decades ago.
I don’t think the shingle matters. What matters is what shoppers feel when they enter a retail businesses. If they step into a shop that nurtures a feeling of comfort and happiness and offers them a treasure hunt retail experience they will tell others, and they will come back. The shingle above the door is irrelevant.
My Tower Systems business is a small business focussed POS software company developing, and supporting POS software for niche specialty retailers, like newsagents.
I am are grateful that Tower serves close to 1,800 newsagencies with our industry-standard newsagency software. This helps Mme do this advocacy work for our channel.