At my Malvern (VIC) newsagency we advised customers earlier this week that we are quitting offering MYKI public transport ticket recharge services.
We will stop offering all MYKI services including card top-up from the end of March.
For years, offering MYKI services has been loss making, costing us more in time than the government pays.
Most MYKI customers don’t buy anything else, making it hard to justify the service.
We’re a business and need to pay our staff as well as rent and other overheads. MYKI is not commercially viable for us.
We understand this will be disappointing.
By letting you know now you have time to consider other locations for your MYKI services.
Thank you.
Your newsXpress Malvern crew.
This is the only agency service we offer at the business. They were doing it when I bought the business a few years ago and we kept it on so as to not disrupt the relationship with customers, just as we have remained committed to the $400K a year on magazine sales.
While MYKI top-ups offer good shopper traffic, it’s unprofitable traffic. Commission is small and 80% of MYKI customers do the top up and nothing else. Of those who purchase something else with a MYKI top-up, for most it is a newspaper, another small margin product (12%).
A review of gross profit contribution versus labour cost made the decision appropriate. It was made even easier by the decision, finally, by the government that public transport users will be able to use their credit card to tap on and off from early 2026. In the meantime, our MYKI customers have a train station where they can top up a few minutes from out shop.
It will be good to be finally done with this last agency line we have. MYKI customers tend to want to tell us their public transport challenges. They also expect us to resolve issues they have with MYKI and no amount of telling them we are not the company by MYKI time is spend being polite to them.
At this newsagency and elsewhere we are not chasing shopper traffic. While good shopper traffic can make you feel busy, it, too often, does not sufficiently support profitability. We are focussed on efficient business profitability.
Selling high ticket price high margin lines for which the business is known and sought out is more valuable than these micro margin agency lines.
I’ll take being profitable over shop business every time.
In considering all of this we have to let go of the shopper expectation of the shingle. Aussie newsagents can sell anything. Being bound by the shingle in 2025 is unprofitable.
The reaction to our MYKI decision has been one of disappointment by customers. They are grateful for the advanced notice and our convcersations around how unprofitable offering the service is.