Here at another of my stores is the lease line Easter gift pitch. This also flows to cards, plush and more items that connect with Easter opportunities.
This is the third wave of Easter in this business. The gifts in the first two waves sold out.
We have some of the same items you can see in the photo at the counter as some people need to see things two or three times to get them to register.
The Anzac coin collection yet to launch in newsagencies is available on eBay. Click here to see an ad. Click here to see and ad for the Victoria Cross medal. Here is someone else selling the Victorias Cross medal.
These activities diminish the value of the newspaper promotion. Right now everything should be about the mastheads connected to the promotion.
What do you think?
This photo is a terrific example of how to promote cards in the front window. This is a wonderful display – attractive, engaging and emotional. Look at the detail in the display. Whoever did this took care to tell a story. This is a perfect pitch for cards to people on the street out the front of this business. Inspiring!
Click on the image for a full size version you can zoom in on.
We can sell more cards in our businesses.
I got an email this week from an employee of a newsagency business I have no connection with. They wanted to know what you happen to their pay as their roster includes Sundays. They are too scared to ask the owner and wanted to know what other newsagents are doing.
My post on penalty rates brought them to this site where they found my contact details.
If you have not done so already, talk with your employees about your plans following the decision on Sunday penalty rates.
If you are an employee reading this, ask the owner about their plans. Discussions like these don’t need to be confrontational or stressful. The key is to get to the facts so everyone can make informed decisions.
Here is how we are pitching Easter on the lease line of the newsagency.
This lease line Easter pitch segues into plush and other items the Easter shopper could enjoy.
We are also promoting the excellent range of new Easter cards on social media to connect with a new community of shoppers who could be first time Easter cared shoppers. We are giving the a reason to engage.
As I mentioned yesterday, Hudson News in the US is a terrific business with well run retail stores that are consistently good at what they do.
I got to one of their stores yesterday in an airport location and saw the perfect pitch for this location of the business.
In the photo below note how they use the front of the store to attract shoppers while their shingle, their name, remains old school.
The main traffic driving unit at the centre of the entrance is promoting travel accessories for those listening to music and watching content on their devices.
Magazines and newspapers are there in the product mix but not front of store, not even where passers-by can easily see them.
This image and what Hudson News is doing is a good example of what I have written about here plenty of times, using products to tell people about your business, to attract them to the store.
The future offer businesses is less about the shingle and more about how the business under the shingle behaves. A brilliant named business that is not forward acting will be a poor business. A forward acting and shopper centric business with a name drenched in history will have a brighter future.
The folks at The West Australian were the first with details to newsagents abut the Anzac Coin promotion from what I can see. Here is what they provided newsagents Wednesday.
What we sell in our retail businesses defines us more than the shingle above our door. Likewise, product ranging decisions are how we can recast out businesses and how shoppers see us.
Take lotteries. No matter what else you put in your shop or how amazingly diverse your product mix is how locally connected your business is, the Tatts or Lotterywest corporate image is the first thing passers-by will see and this will define your business in their minds. It is what will define how they engage with and consider your business while inside and after they leave.
No, I am not saying get rid of lotteries from your even though that is what I choose for my businesses. That decision is yours you to make alone.
My point is, be aware of what it is that really brands your business, and be aware that the name you trade under is not as important as you might think it is.
It is your products and / or services that people see a the front of the shop in prime position. This is why I often write about what you need to display at the front of the shop. What you can pitch to change the conversation is key to attracting new shoppers.
Even with lotteries there are things you can do in-store to divert eyeballs to what else you have.
The one place where you are in control and define your business on your terms unencumbered by the branding and other demands of the lottery businesses is online, on Facebook and elsewhere.
Sadly, many newsagents blindly promote lotteries online, ignoring the freedom they have to be smarter.
Tatts and Lotterywest don’t force you to give space there so go for it. Recast your business online. Make a pitch that speaks to how you see your business outside of agency lines for it is in these places where you will find new shoppers.
Every time you make a lottery pitch online your remind people you run a newsagency. If that is not what you want to do, stop pitching lotteries and traditional newsagency lines online.
So, what type of shop do your customers think they buy from? Try and change their impression through what you stock and what you pitch online in the fresh clean space that you control.
Now more than ever you have to play against the history of the shingle and the expectation of agency lines that will not play as big a role in the years ahead.
I am grateful for the opportunity this week to have been immersed deep into conversations, presentations, workshops, introspection and plenty more on ecommerce and retail of all shapes, sizes and types at the SHOPTALK conference in Las Vegas this week.
This conference is the best ecommerce / retail business conference this year in thew world. I know because I did it last year and that is how good it was. SHOPTALK 2016 resulted in two tangible business changes in my businesses, changes that have helped us connect with new shoppers, raise brand awareness and evolve to more current models.
I am here with six colleagues from Tower Systems and newsXpress, and more than 5,000 other retail and ecommerce practitioners. Each of us in our group has different takeaways as well as group wide, whole of business, takeaways.
Inspirational, exciting and terrifying are words that describe the experience of SHOPTALK.
We have heard from the best of the best and those who want to disrupt those best businesses with fresh and engaged online and retail models that turn tradition on its head.
I appreciate that it can feel like this is a world away from the retail Newsagency where everyday challenges are the most important thing to you right now. The reality, however, is that this world of online is taking more shopper attention every day and you will probably not know the extent to which this is happening right now and will happen in the near term.
SHOPTALK has been excellent in helping us understand where these unseen online competitors are playing and strategies they are using to attract our current shoppers.
For a bunch of reasons I am not going to share specific information here as it is an advantage being here, attending the sessions and networking with so many innovative large and small retailers. Another reason is that with a conference such as this the most valuable insights take time to evolve into actionable items.
I do have one point to make though and that is: having an online shopping strategy is key for this is the most important and valuable way to find new shoppers and, of course, new customers are gold in this world.
Ignoring being online in multiple engaged ways is not an option for any retail business today large or small.
While one word I used was terrifying to describe what I have learned at SHOPTALK, the reality is that is a massive motivator … it is exciting.
The changes in retail today are at a faster and larger pace than in recent decades. This certainly is a time of extraordinary shift. And that is outside the changes and tectonic shifts occurring in the newsagency channel.
What is happening is happening. It is real. It will affect you. And, businesses of any size and in any location can be part of it.
Friction in retail is a hot topic at retail business conferences right now, in particular removing friction that can get in the way of shoppers doing business with you.
Here are key points of friction that if removed or addressed could improve customer relationships and increase revenue achieved in your business – if they apply to you:
I appreciate some of these will be controversial. The objective is to present ideas to be though through and evaluated as to suitability.
Lottoland looks set to disrupt lottery operations in Ireland and Germany. Click here for one of the many reports online. This organisation is getting bigger and bigger. Newsagents need to factor their growth and commitment into business plans.
Easter is weeks away and we have sold out of Easter plush a week ago. That is hundreds of pieces. Thankfully, additional stock arrived last week.
Plush sales are already past last year’s numbers, which were terrific in themselves.
Easter is a financially rewarding season for us. We love it.
For many years we played in then chocolate space. First with Darrell Lea, then with Chocolatier – with some Cadbury in the mix too. Three years ago we quit chocolate for an expanded plush offer.
What is interesting is the price range. Our Easter plush is priced from $4.95 through to $150.00. The most common item is $20.00.
Everything has sold well, including at the $150.00 price point. This is great news. It is also what makes Easter a commercially valuable season for us.
To drive new traffic we pitch the season on the lease line as well as in our out of store marketing. We use the Hallmark greeting cards for this too, especially the new on-trend releases for this year.
My advice to newsagents who are experiencing a flat Easter is take a look at your product mix and your marketing. If it is traditional, expect a traditional result. Our approach is anything but traditional and the result speaks to this.
We love Easter for then happy retail displays and experiences of the season.
Footnote: Easter is an excellent season through which to re-cast perception about your business and in particular, the type of business you run. This is what I mean when I talk about being traditional.
If your posters are traditional and your products then the result will be the same old. It can be nothing else.
If you find yourself sighing at flat or declining sales, that is your wake-up call to play outside what you have been doing. Easter would have been a perfect season through which to do this.
It is good to see more stationery brands prepared to deal direct with newsagents rather than going through the traditional wholesalers.
The closer the connection between these brands and retail newsagents the better for both those parties.
Stationery sales tell us that a shake up was necessary and from what we have seen over the years, the needed shake up was unlikely to be at the wholesaler level.
The more brands that deal direct with retailers the better as this should improve the investment by brands in the retailer relationship and investment by retailers in the brand relationship. Yes, a true win win.
No, I am not going to name brands here as that is not the point of this post.
My goal today is to acknowledge that change inn this space is occurring and to record my opinion that I think it is a good move. I do this hoping more stationery brands will explore direct relationships with newsagents, turning their back on the expense of wholesaler relationships that may not benefit them as needed.
There are opportunities for stationery growth in newsagencies and the best parties to work together to make this happen are newsagents and the supplier brands.
Thanks to integration between you newsagency software and accounting packages and easy expense and other tracking tools, the need for a bookkeeper for a retail business has all bust disappeared.
Many retail businesses I know have eliminated the bookkeeper cost overhead. This drops money back to the bottom line of the P&L.
If you use an external bookkeeper today, look at what you can do to reduce or eliminate that cost. The freed cash could help with inventory expansion or out of store marketing – two key activities for a transitioning newsagency business.
Engaged suppliers often have access to videos that are ideal for use on social media. Use these on your business Facebook page and elsewhere to leverage their professional and often fun content for promoting your business.
Here is an excellent example of a video ideal for promoting your business. Who doesn’t want to watch people playing with these new things that are arriving in-store shortly? This video is perfect for the marketing tip I offer today.
Pokemon product at the counter displayed professionally and competitively priced drives impulse purchases and drives return traffic to the business. Also, it pitches authentic Pokemon product. With some discount variety stores selling knock-off products, being proud about selling authentic products is important.
We have many products in our retail businesses that can make people happy. Every one of these products is an opportunity to reach new customers and to attract them to our shops.
You only have to look at how people use facebook to understand that people like optimism, that they are drawn to inspiring images and quotes.
We can leverage these in our own business-based social media engagement, and give people what they like and connect the positive emotional response back to our businesses.
Take the image of the duck with this post. The message, Quiet the mind and the soul will squeak, is simple, inspiring, optimistic.
This is not an image or text people would expect to see from a newsagency yet it is perfect for the business I want to pitch as mine.
The photo is perfect to load as is. That is all I need to do as it will do the rest. This is a perfect social media post in my view – because it does play against type, against what people expect from a newsagency business. Plus, it is happy, inspiring, heartwarming.
As I noted earlier, we have many products in our retail businesses that can make people happy. My advice is to find them, shine a light on them, use them to attract people to your business who might otherwise not be attracted to you.
But remember, once there you have to give them an experience that matches the expectation of the social media post. Don’t allow there to be a disconnect as you could lose them forever.
Click here for a copy of the announcement from News Corp. this morning of its newsagent commission fee review. Not great newsier newsagents in this.
