Is your plastic bag plan sorted?
With plastic bags about to banished by several national retailers and new rules to apply to degradable bags, time is short to have a new shopper bag strategy in place.
I know from my work with newsXpress that the issue is top of mind for consumer groups and engaged newsagents. I hope all marketing groups and other sources of plastic bags for newsagents are advanced in preparation. Time is of the essence here. now.
The approach by the supermarkets is helping to change shopper attitudes. It is when they came on board that the most significant shift occurred. The cynic in me says they became engaged once they realised how they could make money from the move. Regardless, every retailer needs a plan and stock ready to implement the plan.
The ban is an opportunity to review your approach to bags and, maybe, recast the image of your business.
Pitching cards for religious occasions to drive traffic for the newsagency
Our expanded range of unique Christening, Confirmation and First Communion cards is helping is attract a broader range of shoppers for these occasions. However, like all special interest cards, you only maximise success by promoting the cards outside the business. That is what we are doing with an integrated online and physical campaign where we help people connect with the religious life occasions through the sharing of a greeting card, and maybe a gift.
The range in the photo is a small part of a bigger range that is not part of the usual everyday range you see in a newsagency. This point of difference is proving to be useful.
Greeting cards is a valuable category through which to pitch the newsagency. The return form a small investment can be considerable and valuable beyond a single sale. Too often this category is left by newsagents with the expectation that cards will sell themselves or that others will attract shoppers. I think it falls to us to do this work for our own businesses. Rewards are there to earn.
Pitching cards for impulse purchase
Cards work at the newsagency counter, as I have mentioned here plenty of time previously. If you are not pitching cards at the counter for impulse purchase you are missing out on certain sales.
The key to success is product choice. The cards need to look unique, be easily understood and be of a type people will purchase without an immediate use in mind. Here is an example of a card that works well:
I place no more than three cards, in a purpose made stand. I don’t distract from the placement with signage. I find it is better for the cards to speak for themselves.
We have to do anything possible to get more people buying cards and people buying more cards. It is an excellent margins category that can be more valuable for us. But it needs work, by us in-store.
Campaign against The Sun in the UK continues
There has been a long campaign against The Sun newspaper in the UK. Some newsagents refuse to stock it while some customers buy up all copies…
Ok – we’ve been here before. But tomorrow, once again, I will be going to the local newsagents, buying and burning their entire stock of Sun newspapers. Because those feeble minded enough to be affected by this should not be exposed to it. https://t.co/lhyVzAFkxI
— John Niven HQ (@estellecostanza) June 11, 2018
And burn them…
Anyway – here’s the newsagents entire stock of today’s Sun and Express. Them boys are sure burning good. pic.twitter.com/gzXF6PPxUz
— John Niven HQ (@estellecostanza) June 12, 2018
Fairfax publishes an ill-informed crack at newsagents
Check out this piece published by Fairfax:
Cardigan brigade
It is pretty tough for any bricks and mortar retailer at the moment as wave after wave of online players hit our shores.
And it is not just big department stores like Myer which are losing the commercial plot.
Our newsagents are also wringing their hands at the thought of losing their own lotto bonanza to online players like Lottoland, as well as the slow migration of Tatt’s lottery to online.
Luckily for our newsagents they’ve got the hilarious Australian Newsagency Blog to help ward off the online threat.
The blog, which appears to be backed by the Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association (ALNA), has some sage advice for newsagents on “ways lottery retailers could, through their actions, push back on Lottoland”.
This includes “always have the youngest person working at the lottery counter.” Make sure you provide free breath mints at the counter for staff, and “blokes should not wear cardigans or jumpers”.
CBD would like to pass on this advice to the new bosses at Myer and David Jones, they need all the advice they can get.
Here is my response, send by email to the journalist responsible:
Whither journalism?
Basic principles of journalism were ignored in the article, Cardigan Brigade, published by Fairfax yesterday.
The Australian Newsagency Blog was established by and is written solely by me. I have no affiliation with ALNA. That would be obvious from the About page on the blog and from a phone call to me, on my mobile phone number published on the blog.
In the article, Cardigan Brigade, your correspondent claims newsagents have a lotto bonanza. What is the basis for this claim? Where is the evidence? Had basic enquiries been undertaken about the income and required business costs your journalist would not have included the claim.
The blog post to which your correspondent refers includes vital context to my advice, context which you have ignored as it did not suit the narrative of your piece.
Shame on Fairfax for sloppy reporting, for misrepresenting my blog and for publishing false and misleading information about small business newsagents.
I have a question for you: what or who brought this blog post to your attention?
Leveraging the World Cup
We are embracing the World Cup opportunities in the Herald Sun as part of a broader World Cup engagement. The dual value of this promotion is good for us and for newspaper sales.l Since we compete with two Coles supermarkets each 100 metres from the newsagency, our engagement is an opportunity to reinforce our business as the newspaper destination.
Through a range of products we serve the World Cup fans too. Cards at the counter are especially popular as they are easily added to an existing purchase. Careful buying of World Cup merch has helped us differentiate our businesses.
Teacher gift inspiration
Check out this teacher gift display that I saw at a stationery / gift shop in the US a couple of days ago. Click on the image to see a larger version for detailed inspiration.
I like the display because of the variety of product and that it was placed to interrupt traffic flow.
I saw this display at the end of the season. The initial display, setup a month ago, was four times the size of what is in the photo.
A confronting armed robbery
Staff at newsXpress Silver Sands in Western Australia were challenged in an armed robbery earlier this week. Here is the story of the confronting attack:
Watch the moment a man armed with a hammer, wearing a scuba diving mask was chased down in a citizen's arrest in Silver Sands.https://t.co/VlfISl5tvN
— Nine News Perth (@9NewsPerth) June 6, 2018
I was talking to a local butcher last week. They went cashless around three years ago. They commented that one reason they did this was to reduce the risk of robbery. It is an interesting discussion for retailers to have.
Promoting Knit & Stitch launch issue
The launch issue of this new part series should sell out thanks to the TVC. The best way to leverage this is with front of store promotion. Basket data indicate partworks shoppers are more likely to purchase other items than regular magazine shoppers. Here is the TVC:
Check out the new partwork Knit & Stitch Creative Australian TVC – Part 1 on sale now for the low introductory price $1.99 – at newsagents @EaglemossLtd pic.twitter.com/eA5CQb5T0x
— Gordon and Gotch AUS (@Gordongotch_au) June 5, 2018
Embracing the Win A Car opportunity to drive magazine sales
The Win A Car promotions from Pacific Magazines always work for us, driving traffic and sales. We leverage the opportunity with a terrific in-store display, which is matched by out of store marketing pitching the display so people visiting the centre have an opportunity to recognise it.
I encourage all newsagents in Nexus, the Pacific Magazines newsagent marketing program, to promote Win A Car.
How could the Amazon decision to block overseas sales to Australia play out?
Amazon recently announced they plan to block the sales of goods from its overseas sites to Australian shoppers because of new GST rules that apply from July 1, 2018, to items purchased overseas.
I think this issue will take time to play out. I say this based on Amazon being essentially a landlord for many businesses on its Marketplace platform. Those suppliers stand to miss out the most in that Amazon itself is already locating in its new Australian warehouse the items it is likely to ship from its own inventory.
Amazon Marketplace acts as a landlord with supplier pricing similarly structured to what we see from shopping centre landlords. There is a cost to place products on then platform and layers of other costs depending on services you leverage. However, it offers even more services.
For example, an Amazon Marketplace supplier can provide Amazon products for fulfilment by Amazon from Amazon warehouses.
The Amazon announcement that they will block purchases from overseas could result in overseas located Amazon Marketplace suppliers moving inventory to Australia for local fulfilment. That would be a win for Amazon as local fulfilment is a fee for service offer.
I expect that plenty of Amazon Marketplace suppliers are agitating Amazon re their announcement. If sufficient do complain, the company could address its apparent tech barrier to collecting the GST imposed by the Australian government. If these suppliers do not want to locate product at the Australian Amazon warehouse and if the business is important enough to them they will find another solution. If that solution cuts revenue Amazon wants, it will find a way to solve the problem.
Regardless, what actually happens will be driven by Australian consumer demand. The higher demand for a product the more likely it will be purchased by Australians through Amazon.
Amazon is a pragmatic, commercially driven, business. While their announcement last week was at first glance a shock, I can see ways this plays out well for the company, possibly helping it make more money without Australian consumers missing out on anything.
What does this have to do with newsagents? Plenty. This whole topic is at the heart of business discussions among large and small retailers today given the important of online in the retail mix. If the discussion feels foreign to you, there is much to learn about online and how it is impacting event consumer facing business around the world.
A breach of trust: the theft of a newsagency business
A long term newsagency family with two businesses was finding things tough. They had been trying to negotiate a solution to an expensive lease in a shopping centre, relying on help from an advisor with whom they had had a commercial relationship for such matters.
With each offer rejected and cash reserves perilously low, they decided to close the business. The landlord agreed.
They were shocked to discover a close business associate of their advisor, someone well connected with the company their advisor is part of, signed a lease for a newsagency business for the space they vacated, a considerably better lease than they were advised the landlord would agree to for them.
Their many years of work building goodwill for the business was lost when they gave up the tenancy. That goodwill is the gain of the party stepping into what was their space.
While I am no lawyer, here are questions one could ask the advisor, the business they are part of and the landlord:
- How do you explain your associate getting a better rent deal than the newsagency family, who are also business associates?
- When was the first discussion with the landlord about a possible change of tenant?
- Who instigated the discussion?
- What specifically was discussed?
- Did you disclose the details of all discussions between yourself and the landlord with the newsagency family? If not, why not?
- Why did you not ever disclose that another party, also a business associate, might be interested in the business of the newsagency family?
- What are your financial dealings with the associate who has not got the tenancy?
- Is the associate who has not got the tenancy in a commercial relationship with your business similar in nature to that the newsagency family had with your business?
- How many other times when you have been negotiating on behalf of a business associate has the landlord rejected their offer only to subsequently accept an offer from another party with whom you are associated?
- What are your qualifications to represent any tenant in negotiations with landlords?
- What are your qualifications to represent the interests of the newsagency family?
- How was the transaction but to Tatts? What specifically did you or your associate represent to Tatts?
I would also seek access to all correspondence, written and electronic, between landlord representatives, the advisor, the now new tenant and any related parties.
This could be a case worth litigating as I see it happening too often. It would only be through litigation that the matter could be properly and fully explored. However, our channel being what it is, individual newsagents rarely litigate.
Note: To avoid litigation against me and to protect those involved, identifying details of this story have been necessarily left out.
Have you been overloaded with Frankie magazine?
Several newsagents have reported being overloaded with Frankie magazine in recent months. Here is data from one store. Outside of the Christmas issue bump, the numbers are clear. The oversupply for issues 83 and 84 is obvious. Whoever is in control of setting supply, the publisher or Gotch, owes an explanation.
Other magazine publishers take note – oversupply like this gets newsagents cutting magazine space allocation. Based on the history for this business I’d say supply of 40 to 50 copies is reasonable. 115 is bad. 130 for the latest issue is ridiculous.
Newsagents face considerable costs in oversupply situations due to the out of date and broken magazine distribution model.
What can newsagents do to achieve a better retail tenancy occupancy cost?
The usual go-to place for any discussion about reducing occupancy costs is the landlord. Retailers, including newsagents, blame their landlords for high occupancy costs.
The thing is, we all sign our leases. We all agree the terms of our leases. While leases from years ago can be problematic today, the challenges of our channel were obvious ten and more years ago.
Here is a list of things I think newsagents and other retailers could do to improve their occupancy cost situation where occupancy cost is the ratio of all lease related costs to revenue for products (and commission from agency lines). You should also assess it as a ratio of GP.
There are many steps one can take to improve the occupancy cost situation:
- Negotiate with the landlord. I place this first as it is the usual go-to place for retailers. If you plan to seek a better deal, make sure you have a strong commercial case, a case backed by evidence. However, also know that a rent reduction does not provide long-term, growth like, benefit.
- Grow your overall GP%. Do this through broadening your product mix with a focus on sought-after higher than average GP% for your business items. It depends on the suppliers from whom you purchase and the extent of point of difference you leverage in what you sell.
- Increase foot traffic. Do this through ranging more diverse products and promoting your business outside the business. Success with this depends on the range of inventory you offer and how this is promoted outside the business. It depends on the reasons why you attract people to your business.
- Increase basket depth per transaction. Do this through shop floor engagement, sales counter product placement, key traffic freeway disruption and your business format.
- Increase GP for everyday items over which you have pricing control. Plain and simple – increases your prices. Success with this depends on thoughtful adjustment where you know it can be done without reducing unit sales volume.
- Broaden the appeal of your business. This idea picks up on some thoughts above but adds more. Here is what I mean – your business up to today attracts shoppers for a set range of reasons / purposes. Note those down. Now, contemplate adding sought-after considerably higher than average GP for your business products and / or services that are genuinely new for your business and that are not satisfied by a nearby business. Each new product / service reason, if successful, improves your occupancy cost situation.
These are items you can action right away, regardless of your occupancy cost situation. Items 2 through 6 and tasks that should be core business activities you pursue relentlessly.
The cost of retail space is Australia is higher than most countries in the world. It needs to reset. However, the level of reset necessary will not happen as long as people keep signing leases that are not viable.
Here is how the opportunities I have outlined above can play out. I have two scenarios for you:
- Traditional newsagency. Shopping centre based. Average GP% between 28% and 32%. $1M revenue (product revenue plus agency commission). Occupancy cost of 25%.
- Transitioning newsagency. Shopping centre based. Average GP% 45%+. $1M revenue. Occupancy cost 25% – but closer to sustainable because of higher GP%.
My core point here with this post is that as retailers we can take steps to buttress our businesses against high occupancy costs. However, to do this we need landlords to agree flexibility with what we sell as it will likely need to be outside the old-school permitted use clause for a newsagency.
There are those in this place and in our channel more broadly with strong opinions about what will work and what will not. Some even tell those in businesses and claiming success that what they claim is not possible. The thing is, we all live our own truth. For some, that is in what has happened in our businesses publicly while for others it is what we see happen daily without public disclosure.
Newsagents can run sustainable businesses in shopping centres as long as they have the right opportunities in their leases, the right approach to managing a retail business today and a love of change.
Winter marketing ideas for newsagents and other small business retailers
These months between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day can be challenging in retail businesses that rely on seasons. Here are some easy and cheap to implement ideas for promoting retail in these cold months:
- Run a sunshine themed art competition. Get people drawing bright pictures and sharing photos of sunshine. Create a wall of brightness for people to see and embrace.
- Cook a tasty winter slow cooker dish and invite people to taste it. The small will make the shop more appealing and, hopefully, help you sell the book the recipe is from.
- Run a SHARE THE WARMTH PROMOTION where you encourage customers to send a card to a friend, loved-one or a family member just because … to share warmth with them. Warm a heart this winter.
- Contact any local quilting, knitting and sewing clubs, clubs that engage in winter-themed crafts – invite them to do a craft display. If you execute this well they will tell their friends who will come in and check out what’s on show. Offer some hospitality for their engagement.
- Call your discount voucher coupons (on the bottom of your receipts) WINTER WARMER CASH – save money with $$$ savings off your next purchase. Thank you for shopping with us.
- Run a HIBERNATION SALE – themed for winter. Offer products your customers can hibernate with at a discount. It doesn’t have to be much. This sale is more about getting them to look at items you have that they would not usually buy.
- Contact local businesses and offer FREE DELIVERY for all stationery orders for the next two months to introduce them to your competitive range of stationery. Promote it as a SAME DAY DELIVERY SERVICE.
- Give team members WINTER THANK YOU COUPONS. These could be, say, 10% off. Each staff member could give away a set number each day to someone they help on the shop floor to spend above a pre set trigger point. The goal here is to get your team engaging with shoppers and rewarding shoppers who respond by buying more.
None of this is brain surgery or all that innovative. Some of the ideas have been pitched here before at different times. My point is that right now, in the middle of Winter, we need to act to drive traffic, to make our shops warmer and more appealing … to get our communities talking about us.
Embrace Winter as something to celebrate. Give shoppers near your business a reason to visit.
News Corp. shows the future of news access is digital
Check out the ink and paper being invested in in the Cairns Post promoting the digital news delivery channel, as seen Tuesday this week.
On the front page…
Pages 10 and 11…
In the sports pages…
For the record, the publisher is doing what I would do if I were them. The circulation level for the paper along with a drop in ad revenue and increased production and distribution costs mean the question of closure of print is a discussion of timing only.
Newsagents need to be running businesses that do not rely whatsoever on newspaper customers and revenue for success.
VANA claims responsibility for Tatts possible movement on remuneration
Several newsagents forwarded me n email sent to them by VANA yesterday in which the Victorian association claims the Tatts move is a result of their efforts.
Not one newsagent who contacted me was complimentary of the VANA email.
Dear Retailer,
Recently you would have received communication from Tatts outlining the possibility of “a comprehensive and holistic review of the remuneration” received by retailers.
We are thrilled that our lobbying efforts, at state and federal levels, has outlined the detriments of monopolistic behaviours and has allowed Tatts to focus on redressing the remuneration model. Without a doubt, the unintended consequences, if the Interactive Gambling Legislation Bill is passed, will further entrench a monopoly in the lotteries space.
Keep in mind, Tatts decided almost 2 months ago that there would be no commission growth after months of deliberations in Victoria.
It is obvious from this concession by Tatts that none of this would have been possible if we did not take a strong and unified stance. Showing leadership and purpose for a more equitable remuneration/revenue share model which has now elicited from Tatts a welcomed response. It is only through having a complementary product in the lotteries space that will redress the power imbalance currently at play and provide the competitive tension that is needed.
Unlike others, we did not seek to be compromised as a committed and dutiful representative body, who fears no one and battles for our small business sector. Why would you expect anything less?
By aligning with overseas entrants, whose product does not compete with Tatts and whose customer base is made up of novelty punters, we were able to create competitive tension in the market, which ultimately has led to Tatts recognising the value of a “shared future”.
If there is no intent to change the model, then the only future that we could see evolving was one where their online sales would grow towards 25% putting undue pressure on the channel in a stressed retail environment.
It’s important to also note that revenue which comes in from lotteries goes into consolidated government revenue. From here, it is the government who ultimately decides where to spend lotteries revenue. It is the government that builds hospitals and schools, not lottery organisations. When these organisations donate to charities then we applaud them all the way and we applaud Tatts for making these valuable contributions to our communities.
It should also be noted that VANA has ACCC accreditation and can, on behalf of its members and the wider industry seek ACCC involvement if need be. We also support a tax framework that taxes betting on overseas lotteries and the obvious consumer protections around this. We believe the point of consumption tax being introduced will redress any shortfalls.
There has been talk of “Trust”, well it’s ironic that words such as this and a “shared future” are now part of their vernacular. We would argue that the competitive pressure from VANA and our sister organisation in NSW / ACT NANA, has been able to bring about the stated possible concessions which we hope will construct a future online revenue share model.
As your representative body, we will never give up the fight and we will only trust those whose actions align with our members/industry interests. Representative bodies must always put their members’ interests before those which inadvertently align with a strategy to erode physical lottery sales.
Deliberations with the Victorian State Government have added to the narrative, where our industries pain points are taken into account by Tatts. We applaud the recent notice from Tatts and can see a genuine purpose from them to address the imbalance as their online lottery sales grow.
We received a letter from Minister Kairouz outlining her government’s recognition of our concerns pursuant to schedule 4 of the license. She has further added that it is her expectation that Tatts will review comprehensively the remuneration available to distributors.
VANA is not only encouraged but thankful for the Minister’s input and efforts to ensure our industry is treated equitably with respect.
Newsagents / Lottery agents need strong leadership to fight on their behalf, not roll over when tough decisions need to be made.
VANA is confident that as we work through these issues with Tabcorp/Tatts, there will be positive outcomes not only for the franchisor but also for the franchisee retailer.
Newsagency sales benchmark results: Core categories in retail newsagencies challenged while specialty categories grow.
This newsagency sales benchmark study reflects sales results as tracked in 149 retail newsagency businesses in Australia for the January through March quarter of 2018 compared to the same period in 2017.
Only businesses with accurate data are included in the study.
With under 3,000 businesses in this channel, the number of participants is considered as a good indicator of overall channel performance. In collating data, I have removed businesses at the extremes where other factors are at play such as major construction shutting a street or a newsagency in a centre with two newsagencies where one closed and thereby giving an unnatural boost to the other.
Each data point is the average, mean, of all data for the data point.
In collating results, I have only included data for each category businesses trading in that category.
OVERALL BUSINESS PERFORMANCE METRICS.
- Customer traffic. Down 3%
- Overall sales. Down 4%
- Basket depth. Flat.
- Basket dollar value. Flat.
CORE PRODUCTS.
- Newspapers. Unit sales. Down 9.3%.
- Magazines. Unit sales. Down 8.8%.
- Greeting cards. Revenue. Down 2.7%.
- Stationery. Revenue. Down 7.6%
- Lotteries. Revenue. Flat.
- Tobacco. Revenue. Down 16%.
- Agency. Parcels, gift cards, betting account top-up. Down 6%.
SPECIALTY PRODUCTS.
- Gifts. Revenue. Up 2%.
- Toys. Revenue. Up 9.2%.
- Plush. Revenue. Up 3.1%.
- Collectibles. Revenue. Up 2.4%.
- Craft. Revenue. Up 3.1%.
- Coffee. Revenue. Up 11%.
What does this mean?
These core products numbers reflect continuing challenges in the core for newsagency businesses. This is not news given the benchmark results for years now.
In my opinion, the decline in newspapers, and magazines to a lesser extent, impacts the results for other products in the core such as stationery and cards. If this is true, it reinforces the importance of having other traffic drivers in a retail business, giving shoppers other compelling reasons to visit.
The occupancy cost challenge – a note for landlords.
Landlords want newsagency businesses in their retail mix. They want the store with papers, magazines, lotteries and other core items for the channel. Often, they restrict the space available for non-core, imposing a low gross profit model on businesses, thereby increasing occupancy cost.
Newsagencies today cannot sustain occupancy costs of more than 15%. The goal must be 11% for the business to be profitable and able to serve the usual level of debt needed for such a business.
Landlords need to be aware of the changes in product mix, the challenges of low-margin core products and restrictions they place on what businesses can sell. They need to be flexible on rent so newsagency businesses can be sustained and thereby provide the service they want in their centre.
If landlords want a newsagency business they need to price the space to reflect the nature of a sustainable business in that location rather than any premium rent they could get from a retailer with higher margins.
Labour cost – dealing with the challenge and opportunity.
Labour cost for an average newsagency sits at 16% of revenue where revenue is product revenue plus agency commission.
On a pure benchmark analysis, this is too high. However, the right labour invested in the right location in-store generates a good return. For example, a skilled person working the shop floor in high margin product categories can deliver valuable benefits whereas the right person working newspapers or magazines is less valuable.
When it comes to labour investment and management the core focus must be on customer-facing. That means having the maximum labour time possible situated to be accessible to customers. You do this by shifting to the shop floor as much work as possible – pricing, returns etc.
Newsagents need to manage their roster carefully and manage employee hours to be customer facing focused and engaged on a shared goal of driving revenue from each customer visit. Sharing information with employees is key to achieving this.
The specialty opportunity.
It is easy to say to newsagents get into one or more of the specialty areas. There are suppliers who will pitch products in these areas. The challenge is how you drive success. Getting the right product is part of the story. Visual merchandising, employee training, shop floor engagement and out of store marketing are all important factors. These all require relentless focus. Putting a category of products on the shelves is not sufficient.
Specialty products are rapidly evolving, presenting more opportunities over time. Keeping yourself informed of the opportunities, especially ahead of any wave, is key.
Mark Fletcher.
Email: mark@towersystems.com.au Website: www.towersystems.com.au Blog: www.newsagencyblog.com.au
M | 0418 321 338
UK survey claims WH Smith worst high street store
Which?, a 60 year old consumer survey and advocacy business ran a recent survey that resulted in WH Smith being named the worst high street retailer in the UK.
The challenge is that the survey results are not based on large numbers and the survey process itself is not ideal.
What is interesting to me is the considerable defence mounted by news outlets. Of course, they are conflicted in that WH Smith is a major retailer of their products.
In my own experience, WH Smith stores on the high street are uninteresting. They are destination stores for magazines, newspapers, books, greeting cards, candy and stationery. However, there are more interesting specialty retailers in each of these product categories.
The old department store approach of WH Smith has no future in retail today on the high street. In transit I think it has a place. On the high street,. however, supermarkets other specialty retailers and online have all made the old general store or mini department store uncompetitive and, as I noted, uninteresting.
All of us in retail need to have a unique selling proposition, USP, that draws shoppers in, something we stand for that is compelling and interesting. While some might argue that a USP is less relevant where convenience is a factor, on the high street convenience is not what it once was given the blurring of lines between retail business channels and online.
The other aspect of WH Smith that is uninteresting for me is the shop floor experience. There is little experience from what I can see. The stores are formatted and run for destination shopping. This sees less shopper interaction. The tone is set especially strong in stores with self checkout. The subtle message of these is do it yourself because we are not here to help you.
There has been considerable media coverage in the UK about the survey. This is good as it leads to a discussion about the role of WH Smith and, by association, newsagency businesses. While some discussion I have seen has been uninformed, there have been interesting points from which those interested can learn.
For me, the survey is a reminder of the importance of … creating fresh and engaging shopper experiences, providing genuine and personal shop floor experiences, respecting your customers and being known as a destination store for products people like. This is not a complete list FYI.
Tips for managing casual employees
Casual employees are important in the employee mix in retail businesses. The nature of the work, being casual, can challenge consistency of service. Here are some tips for making the most of casual employees:
- Roster early. The greater certainty you offer about the roster the more encouragement for certainty from your casual team.
- Train. Everyone in retail needs good training and regular training.
- Set expectations. Be clear as to what you expect each shift.
- Delegate responsibility. Each person on a shift including casuals, should have tasks (and goals) for which they are responsible.
- Reward. If you pay the award expect expect award (average) engagement and results. Paying a bit more, once earned, shows appreciation beyond the average.
- Change the roster. Being casual, this is important. Roster to need. If someone’s roster does not change, they could be more suited as permanent part time.
- Team. Make sure casual employee feel welcome and part of the team.
- Listen. Casual employees who are not in the business every day can provide you fresh-eyes insights.
The best casual employees who want to work and who want their time with you to count for something. Since we hire, train, motivate and fire we can influence this.