A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Author: Mark Fletcher

Combatting illegal tobacco in New York

Plenty of tobacco retailers in New York that I visited last week had signs up in their retail shops making it clear about illegal tobacco and that their business only deals in legitimate tobacco. Displaying signs like this is a good way to demonstrate authority in this contentious area.

This sign is good as it shows consumers hot to spot illegal tobacco products – it shows the tax stamp. Helping shoppers spot illegal product is the first step in any good education campaign. It is unfortunate the sign looks so disheveled. I’d rather it be pristine and in a frame, showing with pride.

Illegal tobacco is a big issue around the world and retailers are on the front line of this battle. Using space in-store to educate shoppers is an important role for retailers to play.

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Ethics

ABC radio promoting newsagents

It was terrific hearing an ad for Gardening Australia on local ABC radio yesterday in that it mentioned newsagents as the only retail outlets for the title. Sure they pitched ABC shops online, but our channel is the only high street retailer with the title.

This is a good reason for newsagents to actively promote the title, to appreciate the active support from the ABC for our businesses.

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magazines

Tatts online subscriptions service set to divert more in-store traffic to mobile and online

Everyone logging into their Tatts (The Lott) app or website is pitched their new subscription service through a series of screens.

Subscriptions makes it easy or a regular shopper to always have tickets in the games they want.

Think of your regulars, who always purchase a the same ticket in one or more games. Once they try this why would they come to your shop?

Now, think about the capital expenditure Tatts wants you to spend on their corporate fit out promoting their brand. I am shocked newsagents are not challenging this.

Check out the Tatts subscription pitch:

Newsagents need to factor into their business plan what their business could look like without Tatts traffic and revenue.

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Competition

Clueless News Corp Retail Sales and Marketing team disrespect newsagents, again

The News Corp Retail Sales and Marketing in NSW has sent out a notice to newsagents about a complex promotion without first talking with the newsagency software companies about the practicalities of running the promotion.

This is another failure by the marketing ‘experts’ at News Corp’s Holt Street office – failing newsagents and the newsagency software companies.

Shame on them.

Click here to see the newsagent letter. It reveals a messy promotion in my opinion.

By not bringing stake holders in on this early, News Corp has generated a ton of calls to the software companies, passing on costs that News Corp itself should have to carry is this is their promotion. But they never see it that way. Like I said, shame on them.

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Ethics

How to prepare your retail newsagency business for sale

Selling a retail business, like a newsagency, is like selling a house, you need to prepare it so that it looks appealing to prospective purchasers.

The process of preparing a business for sale can take time, depending on the state of the business.

Here is an overview of what you need to do.

  1. Maximise profit. What anyone will pay will depend on the profitability of the business. While you should be on this every day, if it is a new project for you, start six months prior to putting the business on the market.
  2. Eliminate dead stock. It looks bad on the shelves and looks bad on the books. Purchasers should not pay full wholesale for inventory more than six months old as your poor buying or management is not their obligation.
  3. Streamline operations. Make the business look easy to run by ensuring it is easy to run for you. The easier it looks to run the more interesting to people who don’t understand the business.
  4. Make the business look appealing. Ensure displays are stunning, the shelves full and every pitch the very best you can make. You want them to want your business because they like it.
  5. Be happy. Owners who talk their business down will find it harder to sell the business. If you are complainer, keep it to yourself or in the family.
  6. Keep your social media presence up to date. Today, many people check out a business online prior to looking at it in-store. Maintain up to date Facebook and other
  7. Get your paperwork in order. Early on, get business documents together and check:
    1. Premises lease.
    2. Equipment lease documents.
    3. Franchise document.
    4. Supplier agreements.
    5. Details of any forward orders.
    6. Any other documents relating to the operation of the business including manuals for any equipment items.
  8. Choose your broker carefully.

Success at selling your business depends in part on the work you do to prepare it for sale. Extra focus now can help you get timely price satisfaction.

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Newsagency management

Newsagency of the Future workshops kick off next week

At this free workshop open to all newsagents I will outline a path forward for newsagents, a path that relies less on print media traffic, a path that could insulate the business against the inevitable migration of lottery purchases online. Please click on the link to book for the date that suits:

Each session will run for around two hours with time for Q&A. I am confident you will leave the session with practical things to do in your business in pursuit of a more successful 2017.

I started the Newsagency of the Future workshop series in 2004. This year’s session is the most important yet I think. At the session I will explain why.

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newsagency of the future

The latest Tatts Group analysis from Credit Suisse

Click here to access the latest research on the performance of Tatts Grup by the respected Credit Suisse group. The core lotteries information is:

Lotteries: exceeded previous TTS guidance, issued mid-December with a slightly better run-of-jackpots as TTS closed the period. Overall, the business was managed well, against some very bad-luck and the lowest jackpot run in about five years. The outlook appears more favourable and challenging comps should diminish as 2H17 progresses. We expect 8% EBIT growth in FY18, restoring lottery earnings above the previous FY16 base.

2017 will be an interesting year for Tatts and its retailers in this space with tough than ever competition from competitors. This is especially true for the online / mobile competitors.

Newsagents are especially at risk from the latest moves as their lottery revenue depends on over the counter whereas tatts and OzLotteries are established online.

These are reasons newsagents need to think carefully before making any capital investment supporting lotteries sales.

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Lotteries

Tatts a step closer to vending machine sales

The email sent Friday by tatts announcing a limited location trial whereby customers will be able to purchase tickets on a self-serve screen and pick up from a terminal is, in my opinion, the next step to complete self service in-store, in multiple locations not part of the network today.

Self service is the model for lotteries in many overseas countries so why not Australia? However, self serve overseas is real self serve and not this clunky approach by Tatts.

The main game for lottery sales in town is online. That will eventually dominate lottery purchases in my view. Technology demands it. Consumer convenience demands it. While there are fights about shoplifts and Tatts dedicates space, online is where the biggest battle is taking place and you can’t see it in-store.

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Lotteries

Magazine wholesale prices in the US

This invoice shows the wholesale prices for the sale or return model for magazines in the US:

The vast majority of magazine retailers here only sell the top 50 to 100 titles.

The returns process is similar, some topped, some full copy. Some titles, niche, are purchases firm sale.

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magazines

Sunday newsagency management tip: call out fakes

There are retailers out there who care less about licenced products and selling the real thing versus a cheap knock-off. Fans of licences eventually discover the fakes. However, those buying for them amy not. This is why we need to call out those peddling fakes when we discover it.

I saw this recently when a retailer posted this on Facebook.

I have blurred identifying detail as they are not necessary for this post.

If you see someone selling fakes, get the evidence and post it in-store and on social media. call out the behaviour and help educate customers that when it comes to licenced product chip is usually not good news.

While some may say they don’t want to pick a fight. Sometimes you have too pick a fight to shine a light on illegal behaviour. I did this eyers ago when a competitor was acting against the law and in doing so they were gaining a financial advantage unfairly. They were eventually hauled and forced to compete on their merits rather than their illegal behaviour.

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Ethics

Celebrity card designers

I have seen some amazing card designs at overseas trade shows this year, extraordinary designs, on point, different, fun, unique. And then there are celebrity card designs for which I suspect the publishers ay too high, like these:

Even though I am not the customer, I suspect these cards next to two of the best designs from an unknown designer targeting the same shopper would se the Taylor Swift cards remain unsold.

The cards are not bad. They are just not current to what cool designers are producing today. Sure, they have her name. But is that enough?

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Greeting Cards

newsXpress finding new customers on TV

This latest newsXpress TV ad just finished airing. This is a brand building ad rather than a call to action. With the promoted products costing from $150.00 to $800.00, the ad has a subtlety that plays to a style collectors are drawn to. It worked a treat.

Promoting outside traditional seasonal occasions is important in my view. The more non-traditional reasons we can give for visiting our shops the better.

Selling these items in the price range noted changes shopper perception of the business. Most important than this, it changes your own perception.

FYI, people selling these are in the city and country, on the high street and in centres.

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newsagency marketing

Who needs a shop to sell lottery tickets?

Lottoland is a pure online and app play. Tatts (The Lott) has a strong online and app play. OzLotteries has a a strong online and app play.  In the US there is online as well as self-serve machines like this one that does not age check and does not give change. These are all factors to consider when costing the capital expenditure demanded by Tatts.

Check out the vending machine I saw yesterday at the offices of New York Lottery and Gaming Commission:

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Competition

What should newsagents do about those who ignore publisher promotion rules?

Last week I received an anonymous note following my posts here about people selling newspaper promotion sets online. In the email, the correspondent included banking and address details which I have edited of the post below. I am happy to share these details with publisher folk to investigate:

Hi Mark,

I’m a fellow newsagent and a follower on your blog, your recent posts regarding a select few rouge agents selling magazines on eBay drew my attention.

I have done some investigating and hope you can forward my findings to the relevant suppliers and stop this behaviour.

Excuse the long email as I outline my findings.

One seller in particular I noticed is prolific at selling News Limited Promotions and other current magazines often at below cost price, with free delivery.

Link to this seller’s profile:
http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/auton_goyck/m.html?

I couldn’t find much initially, the item locations are mainly Carlton VIC, with a few others listings stating Sydney which are likely false too to throw off suspensions from News Limited.

Examples of the listings include the Roald Dahl Full set.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/The-MARVELLOUS-ROALD-DAHL-LIBRARY-set-14-books-case-advisor-courier-mail-/252760717924
We’re not allowed to sell without tokens and this eBay seller is selling for $39.99 inc postage.

AFL Season Guide
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-AFL-Record-Season-Guide-2017-By-Michael-Lovett-Paperback-Free-Shipping-/252762339055?
RRP $40 – Selling for $29.99 inc postage

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/OUR-WORLD-IN-CHARTS-UNDERSTANDING-THE-ECONOMY-MONEY-ALAN-KOHLER-/252688189246
RRP $30 – selling for $13 inc postage

By my calculations, with eBay and paypal  fees close to 10% and postage for 1-3kg parcel close to $12. This seller must be doing dodgy returns as otherwise the items are being sold way below cost.

I created a fake account and purchased a small item, found the banking details.

In the checkout process, eBay actually linked me to another similar product which I discovered was the same seller with a different account :

http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/32168732/m.html?

This account has over 2300 listings for sale, mostly old magazines dating back to 2013 and around 600 stationary items from GNS all with the item location in Glenroy VIC.

The photos in some of the listings from these 2 accounts share the same floorboard in the background and I found the banking details matched too.

 

Quick check online showed no recent rental or sale history,  presumably this seller own it, can’t really confirm it unless I do a title check but that has a fee.

With the AFL Season Guide I mentioned earlier, I bet not many newsagent’s receive over 12 copies for this title. I’m sure they are able to filter a list of newsagents receiving 12 or more (with a high history of returns) in Melbourne and cross check against Owner’s Names and address.

Hopefully this is enough of a lead to work with and you can forward this to the contacts at News Limited and Gordon Gotch who can do something about it, this character has obviously been around for a while given their feedback history.

There are of course other sellers on eBay selling magazines and promotion items, but none with the same  scale and magnitude.

If the outcome from this finding leads to an appropriate action (ie a full audit on the identified newsagency account) , I would be willing to dig through the other sellers and gather more Intel.

Perhaps you can also share this on the blog and enlist some help.  I myself do not seek any credit and wish to stay anonymous.

I, too, am concerned about people operating outside the rules when it comes to these promotions. It gives our channel a bad name.

For their part, publishers appear disinterested in what looks like rogue behaviour.

I welcome comments from others on this.

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Ethics

Any newsagents in Melbourne looking for staff?

A regular commenter here has a daughter with terrific newsagency experience relocating to Melbourne for study, and looking for casual work.

My 23 year old daughter Amanda, has just moved to Melbourne to study at Melbourne Uni for the next 2 years, to obtain her masters in Chinese translation.

She is living in Footscray West and looking for some casual work, up to 20 hours per week.

She has newsagency experience having worked in our newsagency since she was 10 years old. Since she was 18 she ran the business on a Sunday afternoon.

She has a masters in teaching and a bachelor of languages and has worked as a chinese teacher in W.A. for the past 18 months. She has also lived in China for 6 months whilst on on a scholarship.

I am hoping you could assist by post her details on your blog to see if any opportunities exist.

Contact Amanda direct on: akwareham@live.com

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Newsagency management
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