At a coffee shop in Hobart earlier this week I heard a tourist say to a companion the paper here is $3.50, they’d never get away with that back home. They were pointing at The Mercury on a stand. I can see how they would think that.
We see this in retail, shoppers misunderstanding a sign or price. It is on us in retail to create better signs just as it is on the folks at The Mercury to be clear that the paper is $1.40.
Our sales of the latest issue if Better Homes and Gardens for the first week of the on-sale are three times sales for the whole on-sale of the same issue last year. I am hearing terrific reports from other newsagencies with the baking pan gift. This is great news for the stores and title. Success comes from strong displays promoting the gift.
This photo of a terrific display is from newsXpress Glenorchy, where I visited this week.
Westfield, bless their heart, has removed the ability for us to discard old spinners in the rubbish / recycling area of the large shopping centre in another cost cutting move taking away serves previously available to tenants. Rant over.
At the weekend we found ourselves with a spinner we no longer needed and so placed it at the front of the shop with a Free to a good home sign. Sure enough, our trash became another person’s treasure in quick time
Problem solved.
It is easy to get side-tracked by obstacles that change what we can or can’t do in our businesses. There can be a comfort drawn from being angry about something we think is not your fault or outside our control to address.
More often than not in these situations of anger and frustration there are solutions if we look at the situation confronting us differently.
I have been talking with many different small business retailers over the last few weeks at workshops about social media and e-commerce and at these sessions I have talked with small business owners who only see barriers. They see them as that, a barrier. The alternative is to see the opportunity, the road over, under, around or through. Yes, I appreciate that may sound easier said than down. However, every barrier has an alternative.
I am guilty of this. The Westfield policy change re spinners being dumped happened months ago. It frustrated are and still frustrates me. However, trying this alternative has eliminated it as an issue – unless I prefer to be drawn to remaining frustrated at Westfield. But there is no sense in that, no business value from that.
If only I had thought of a lateral solution when Westfield changed their policy.
I was talking with a small business retailer yesterday about a challenge in their business that had them stopped in their tracks. Every suggestion would not work for one reason or another. many suggestions were put. Every one of the rejected. It was like they did not want the issue to be addressed, like they preferred to have the challenge remain in front of them. It was like the challenge put them in a place of comfort.
It is hard work to think through, around or over a problem. You have to choose to think this way, to think beyond the problem. It is important your happy place is with the challenge or problem gone. Otherwise you get into an unhealthy mental health funk that can be personally harmful and harmful for the business and everyone served by the business.
Small business newsagents have no control over the range of magazines they receive. Nor do they have control over the volume of magazines they receive.
An average newsagency sells 55% of all magazines received. 45% of what is sent to the business fails to sell and is either returned for resale or dumped.
Unsold magazines are handled in two ways:
There is also a mix between the above two points where a newsagent may return covers of some titles and full copies of other titles.
In supermarkets, my understanding is they do not return unsold product. They get to trash it locally.
The amount of paper water must be considerable. Yet no one appears to care about this.
That magazine titles continue to be sent to small business newsagents in a volume that is often far greater than would ever sell is a financial and operational overhead on newsagents. It disadvantages us because of what we have to do to process returns. Since our competitors are not confronted with the same costs it gives them an advantage over us.
Shame on those in a position of power who have refused to act on this.
The big issue here is the waste of paper, labour and fuel on the 45% of magazines printed that do not sell.
What a waste to the environment and a waste of small business newsagent resources.
Despite lots of talk, little has changed in terms of the magazine supply model. Sales data provided by newsagents is not used to drive a more efficient and more fair supply model.
While the model for supermarkets evolves and serves those big businesses, small business newsagents are stuck with a model that is out of date and environmentally unfriendly.
What newsagents want is for supply to more closely match sales. It is a simple request. Those setting supply have the data. Yet too often they ignore it – probably for reasons that serve their ad model. Plus, supply is too often a manual process when it should be automated and 100% data driven.
I think our best chance of addressing the continues oversupply and cutting the 45% failure rate to 10% or less is to target Greens senators. We need to educate them about the wastage of paper, labour and fuel in the magazine returns process. We need their engagement politically to force the matter to be addressed.
If nothing is done, more newsagents will get out of magazines.
For the record, click here to see changes I proposed to the magazine supply model, changes that would benefit Australian publishers.
In this pop culture obsessed world we are in good times for selling journals and other stationery items that are branded for the top-selling licences. It is amazing what a brand can do. Take this Star Wars journal – the base journal without the branding is a journal to be sold as stationery only whereas with the Star Wars branding it can be sold as a gift for a Star Wars fan of any age.
Licences offer us an excellent opportunity for growth in stationery item sales. There are several suppliers already playing in this space. My experience is quality matters to real fans of licences. Cheap China product does not cut it.
Click here to see the email sent to newsagents seeking business performance data for the September benchmark study.
Local libraries often claim to play an important community role. That role has expanded to hurting local small businesses that used to supply them. Revenue that would have remained in the community now hits the overseas bank account of Zinio.
A deal between Zinio and state run libraries, like the Zinio deal with Libraries of South Australia, sees digital versions of more than 400 magazines available through local libraries across Australia.
Many local libraries used to purchase magazines from local newsagents. That revenue is now lost to the local community.
The Zinio move reaches beyond the four walls of the local library though. Whereas magazines newsagents would sell to a library remained in the library, some libraries offer Zinio platform access outside the library. People can use their library number from anywhere and access Zinio magazines. The reach of the Zinio / library relationship can go way beyond magazines newsagents might have sold to a library.
I understand the move to digital from print. There is no stopping it. Indeed, the pace of change will increase in my opinion.
I understand the need for a statewide deal that makes magazines available at a low cost. This is a result of cost-cutting at all levels of government.
The community needs to understand the consequences of Zinio access through the local library.
Newsagents are among the most hit-up businesses by local community groups for funding, prizes for raffles and the like. The capacity of the locally owned small business newsagency is diminished by moves like we have seen by libraries.
Newsagents can confront the Zinio / library challenge by educating people about it. Explain the loss of revenue and the need for this to be replaced somehow for the business to continue its level of giving. However, such an approach could come across as weak.
For me, the best response is to be relevant in new product categories, outside of what has been traditional for newsagents. Focus your frustration at a Zinio / library tie-up in your area into changes in your business. Look away from this problem toward opportunities you can leverage for a brighter future.
No amount of complaining will make the issue go away so move on and look over the horizon.
If you have Frankie in your newsagency check where you have it placed in relation to the Frankie 2017 diary and Frankie 2017 calendar. The best placement is for them all to be placed with each other. This photo shows our current in-store placement.
We will move the items around over the weeks to keep it fresh and try and maximise multi-item purchases. It has been our experience over the years this is key to success.
While sales have dipped this year, Frankie continues to be a strong brand for us. The brand appeals to a valuable demographic to which we can pitch other items.
The service that collected our magazine returns has cut back and now picks up only once a month. They say they may stop altogether because they don’t make enough from providing the service.
Magazine returns are a high cost for us, for those newsagents who have to send back full copies.
The photo shows some of the current returns boxed up waiting for collection at the end of the month.
Since I had no control over supply it is unreasonable I have to carry the storage cost and freight cost of these returns. But I knew that going into the business so I shouldn’t complain – except that magazine publishers have brought on competitors who don’t have to do returns, who don’t have the stage and freight cost.
It is time those of us doing full copy returns tapped into the benefits of the many newsagents already exempt from full copy returns.
The business where I took the photo has no store room. It is in a Westfield mall with a high cost of space. The returns take up space that could otherwise be earning income. Opportunity cost is a factor.
Unless I have absolute control over magazine returns I should not have to send this failed to sell product back.
This system is horribly out of date. It places newsagents at a disadvantage to other retailers brought on to compete with us. Unless it changes soon I suspect more newsagents will stop seeing magazines.
We re promoting the Better Homes and Gardens December issue that is packaged with a free baking pan on this stand at the front of the shop – placed on the lease line facing into the mall.
Most people entering the shop will pass this stand.
We also have a double waterfall placed in the magazine department showing off the pan and the magazine.
Plus we have the placement in the photo below at the counter. All three placements are about maximising the opportunity in the first two weeks of on-sale.
We are supporting the News Corp. newspaper sales promotion of board games with this display with newspapers. It is a bold display well placed to pitch to the right shoppers. Yesterday saw terrific engagement.
In addition to this promotional space with papers we have a ton of games product to manage and fund – the timing of supply is another cost burden on newsagents for such a slim margin promotion.
Most independently owned retail businesses do not have a marketing budget, an amount they spend promoting the business outside the business. My rule of thumb marketing budget advice for a retail business like a newsagency is at least 2% of revenue where revenue is product sales revenue plus commission from all agency lines.
A newsagency with, say, revenue of $500,000, the suggested marketing budget would be $10,000 spent over the year on out of business advertising and marketing. This amount should not include banner group fees or association fees. It would include print ads, flyers, local radio, local TV, facebook and other special media ads.
Setting a budget is important as it guides your weekly activity. The $10,000 plays out at $192.30 a week. There is plenty you can do with that. The key is to measure success from each spend, to ensure the business is benefiting.
Using a close-up photo of part of a magazine cover can get you a significantly better result from a Facebook than using the whole post. Take the current issue of Better Homes and Gardens. While it looks terrific, a close up of the pav was the hero so that is what I used for a post yesterday. And it worked a treat. Hundreds of shares in a few hours – extending the reach of the post beyond the like base of business I was promoting.
Here is my marketing tip: If promoting a magazine, look for the image that differentiates your pitch from what others will do to promote the same title. If you pitch the whole cover you are not offering a differentiation for your business.
One reason suppliers maintain reps on the road is the results they can achieve by being in front of retailers. Some people find it harder to say no to someone in person than by email or on the phone. Too often I see retail businesses, not just newsagencies, overloaded with stock that does not deliver the return necessary.
If a rep claims a product is working particularly well, ask for proof. It is your money. Satisfy yourself the claims are true and that you can expect such results for yourself.
It is okay to say no, even to a rep who has become a friend.
I have reports from some newsagents that their local supermarket is selling games from the Hasbro collection ahead of the start date of the promotion in the area. Some others, where the promotion has already commenced, have reported supermarkets not asking for the coupon News Corp. require.
The purpose of this post is to give newsagents somewhere to comment about what they see in their area.
Smiggle stores have a terrific Advent calendar and there are two key points to make about this:
1 – wow! Brilliant idea and execution by Smiggle including the Golden Ticket promotion. The calendar is excellent value at $45 – I have seen all the products included. Parents will love that it is not chocolate.
2. Get Advent calendars out now. Majors have them out already.
Here is a look at the products in the Smiggle Advent calendar. They have one at the counter for people to see and they happily hold it for you to take a photo. Nice.
It is frustrating hearing from a retail only newsagent who is not supplied promotional material and giveaways. This happend recently when a capital city daily had a free for all who purchased the paper yet the distribution agent, who also has a retail outlet, refused to supply the freebie to their competitor retail only sub agent. They had plenty of stock. The only problem was their inability to fulfil their obligation as a distribution agent. This is the attitude of a business person scared for their future.
Officeworks outlets across Australia have boxed Christmas cards, Christmas gift bags, gift tags and more out on display in-store with this ready-to-display unit. The unit is delivered to them loaded with stock, retail ready.
On the unit there are two major colour themes. Here is the second:
The products have a low cost feel yet the prices are not all that low. To me, this is typical Officeworks – source from China and price with a generous margin yet still pitch to connect with their we’ll never be beaten on price pitch.
I think Newsagents need to respond to what Officeworks is doing. We need to not cede ground to them. we do this by being engaged, now. Even if you don’t have an Officeworks located nearby you should be engaged. Here is the advice I provided newsXpress members when I first saw the Officeworks boxed Christmas card pitch:
The best way to respond to what Officeworks is doing is to engage with boxed cards as if you are serious about them.
Shari recently commented on my post: Toy insights help newsagents grow sales, sharing insights so valuable that I wanted to post them here to ensure a wider audience. In Shari’s own words:
I’m an occasional reader here; I discovered this blog while looking for some info on Frankie magazine several months back and ended up becoming fascinated by the insight into news agencies. (As an American living in Australia, it took me awhile to realise that my local newsagents weren’t the Oz equivalents of overpriced/dodgy convenience stores.)
Today I was catching up on posts and this one struck close to home. My husband and I are modern board gamers. If you’re familiar with board gaming, you might know that we’re in what everyone is calling a golden age for the hobby. With every passing day it seems that more and more people are finding out that not only has the world moved on from Monopoly/Cluedo/Life/etc., but board games aren’t just for kids. Many of today’s board games are suitable for couples, families (with willing participants at all ages), co-workers, and so on – even solo players. (Much of this might be laid at the feet of Wil Wheaton’s excellent Tabletop series on YouTube.)
In recent months the amazing growth of the hobby and its penetration into the mainstream has been exemplified by US retailer Target’s changes to their toy section. Not long ago, Target’s board game selection was about the same as what the Target stores here in Australia carry: the usual classics, a lot of kiddie games, a few party games, and a bunch of flash-in-the-pan games based on current TV shows and movies. But now, not only does Target in the US carry modern “gateway” games (Pandemic, Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne…) and a few ‘heavier” games, but they’ve licensed exclusive editions of the most popular games. Meanwhile, uber-bookstore chain Barnes & Noble’s game section has, in many stores, started to rival a dedicated game store.
Why am I mentioning this? Well, Australia’s mass-market retailers still have cruddy game selections. Not every town has a game shop, and many game stores either don’t appeal to the general public (the nerd factor) or else people don’t wander into a game store in the first place because they have no idea that board games have changed so much. (I hear “I never knew board games had become so cool!” over and over when teaching games.)
As a fan of the blog, I wanted to pass on this info. Some news agents might do well to investigate the modern board gaming phenomenon for themselves and consider stocking and showcasing a few gateway games. After introducing a modern board game to someone, I usually have to direct them to an online retailer for their own copy, which is a shame when they’re excited and want their own copy or something similar ASAP.
Anyway, just passing on thoughts. There’s a hole right now in the marketplace where “regular” people in Australia aren’t discovering modern games naturally nor finding anything other than the same-old at Toy World, Target, Big W, etc. when they try to seek something out. (Meanwhile, chains like Games World can be overwhelming and seem like a sea of serious fare.) An attractive display with a few titles, some signage about date night or family game night or office lunchroom, and who knows? Obviously this gap isn’t going to last, but there’s definitely an opportunity to differentiate.
Thanks for the enjoyable and informative posts. I always buy my Frankies from a news agency now!
Online retail giant Amazon is reportedly to introduce convenience stores in the US. Milk and groceries. Disruptive.
This Tweet from Tim Burrowes demonstrates ridiculous action by Fairfax in my view – to read the rest of the column you have to go online where you have to pay to get to the column after paying a hefty cover price for the ever thin Australian Financial Review.
News Corp. in Queensland has released details of a Hasbro games offer with the purchase of News Corp. products. This is timely promotion given the terrific growth in game sales in Australia this year. Engaged newsagents will promote other games at the same time as this promotion to make the most of the opportunity.
