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

Author: Mark Fletcher

Here is why I prefer some suppliers over others

It has been interesting comparing suppliers at the Sydney Gift Fair, those who were their at least. Here is what I like in a supplier. If you are a supplier and don’t do this, I’ll mark you down in my view:

  1. Order confirmation – written or by email immediately on placing the order. This nonsense of excuses for not confirming means it’s not an order, not really – so don’t expect me to pay a fee if I don’t proceed.
  2. Electronic invoices. Not doing this puts you in the dark ages.
  3. Being in stock. Placing an order for a merchandising story and only having half in stock is not a solution.
  4. Ideal timing. Timing that suits my floorspace allocation is always a plus and helps me maintain shop floor space commitment to a supplier.
  5. Seasonal relevance. Suppliers that help me embrace major and minor seasons get more attention.
  6. Easy claims for damage. Goods can get broken during shipping. Making me wait until I have five or six to return or until a rep comes to get the credit demonstrates a lack of respect.
  7. Fast credits. Holding off giving me credits for unsold stock when you promise sale or return turns me off you.

I could add to this list. This is my top seven. It has been on my mind this week because of experiences I had at the Sydney Gift Fair. I got to enjoy some suppliers more than others.

What I am looking for in supplier relationships that provide benefits beyond good products. I want professionalism and operational efficiency.

We have too many suppliers with old-school ways that hold retailers back.

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Newsagency challenges

Update from Network Services re transition to Gotch

Click here for the latest update from Network Services on the transition from titles to Gordon and Gotch. network advises the list of Transition issues has been reduced from 150 to 92.  The updated list is hosted on both NetOnline and Gotch Connect.  Links to the portals are included in the communication.

The communication through the process is consistent and thorough.

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magazine distribution

When a newsagent supplier says: I’ve got a perfect product for you

I’ve got the perfect product for you, it’s perfect for newsagencies.

Rarely is this statement following by a pitch for a product that is perfect for my newsagency.

I am so over suppliers assuming they know what we should sell. I am over suppliers pigeonholing newsagents and their businesses in a way that denies smart newsagents the opportunity to genuinely change their businesses.

Many suppliers do not know today’s engaged and growing newsagency. Many don;t want to know as they have built their businesses around serving businesses rooted in the 1970s and 1980s. It is 2016 folks. Average sale value is way up, GPO is way up. What we can sell has changed forever and this is because many of us are buying from suppliers who to not look at our businesses as selling what newsagent can sell.

I am not angry at suppliers, just frustrated that they have not seen the change in many newsagencies, that they themselves are rooted in the past.

I’d prefer suppliers to start a conversation by saying tell me about your business and what you sell.

I met a supplier yesterday in Sydney who was like this. Their average wholesale price point is $100.00. Their products are unique, not newsagency like. This was a big plus for me as I am keen to continue to push the definition of my business through the products I range. This is one of the reasons why I do not want suppliers to see me as a newsagent as that locks me in a box that does not work for me or for my customers.

So, if you are a supplier reading this, consider a new opening approach:

  • Tell me about your business today – who you sell to and what you are looking for.
  • Tell me about the changes you are planning.
  • Tell me more about your customers.

The answers to these questions should guide a more productive discussion and relationship for both businesses.

Stop putting newsagents in boxes as that box marked newsagent or newsagency is crumbling fast. It has no future – the old school newsagency that is. The future, for the record, is bright and exciting.

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Newsagency management

More newsagent suppliers engaging with EDI

I have spoken to several newsagent / gift shop suppliers at the Sydney Gift Fair about turning on electronic invoices. Through my software company we are helping the suppliers get it right so all retailers can access the files regardless of the software they use.  This is exciting as electronic invoices makes suppliers more appealing to small business retailers. Time is money as they say.

I have encouraged the suppliers close to turning this on to use electronic invoices as a marketing pitch in their campaigns through 2016.

This is a good benefit of a trade show like the Gift Fair – the ability to get to suppliers to connect with them on a business to business level and make the pitch – and to have suppliers speak to each other about the benefits of this type of engagement.

As the channel grows and the supplier base diversifies, it is important for all of us to encourage newer suppliers to transact with us in efficient ways we have become used to.

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Newsagency management

Reed Gift Fair attendee numbers

UPDATED 9;44PM 23/2/16.

Here are the official attendance numbers so far for the Sydney Reed Gift Fair:

  • Saturday: 4,010
  • Sunday: 3,786
  • Monday: 3,307
  • Tuesday: 2,167.

I have been there on all days and the mix of people has changed.  Yesterday, for example, was better attended by corporate gift retailers whereas on the weekend saw better representation by family businesses.

While there are plenty of visitors from interstate, the majority are from NSW/ACT.

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Newsagency management

Price is not the first point to consider when looking at new products for the newsagency

What is the RRP? is a common question retailers ask of suppliers when considering an item and I think this is the wrong question to start a conversation with.

I have been talking about this with suppliers at the gift fair in Sydney over the last couple of days. One bemoaned to me about this question for their terrific range of beautiful giftware. The range looks expensive. But it is not expensive, not in the overall scheme of things as the purchase is an emotional one and with emotional purchases price is less of an issue.

Questions I’d love retailers to consider when contemplating new products include:

  1. Who is the customer for this product?
  2. Will this product attract new shoppers to the business?
  3. Is it a product people will easily understand?
  4. Does it lend itself to impulse purchases?
  5. Is this something I can promote outside the business, like online?
  6. How does it fit with why my shop stands for today?
  7. Does this product fit a niche I need to be in?
  8. What margin can this carry? No, this is not a pure price question – it is more about you looking at the product and wondering how far you could push price.

Asking the RRP as the first question and often the only question denies you the opportunity to consider that, maybe, price is not the issue.

I know of newsagents who have sold items priced at $100, $200 and more that they initially, on first seeing the product, said they could not sell. Price is often not the factor we retailers think it is.

We need to not be the barrier to shoppers spending money with us. We need to do this by being more open to products, more considerate of factors other than price as being more important.

Having products that are not easily compared or that can be packaged in a way to look unique to us is the another way to make price less of an issue.

Buying products for the shop based on price keens the business operating a price based model and while that works for Aldi and the like, it does not work for newsagency businesses where growing margin is important.

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Newsagency challenges

Build the Millennium Falcon video

Gotch has been promoting the new Built the Millennium Falcon partwork on Twitter:

Here is a video promoting the Millennium Falcon part series:

This video can be used on Facebook and in-store to bring the opportunity to life.

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magazines

Paranoia, selfishness and ignorance deny newsagents achieving a better return on newspaper publisher promotions

IMG_6106The Dr Seuss promotion run nationally by News Corp. over the last two weeks has been a terrific success, driving traffic and purchases in response to TV advertising and house ads in the papers.

Aside from the issue in some states of senseless cutting of newspapers supply by News and the appalling margin in most states for the Dr Seuss books at at the heart of the promotion, News has missed an opportunity tholepin newsagents make many times more from this promotion. This is why I say:

Paranoia, selfishness and ignorance deny newsagents achieving a better return on newspaper publisher promotions 

Paranoia because News will not share details in a high-profile campaign like this early enough for newsagents to source other product in the same licence.

Selfishness because News only looks at a promotion like this from the perspective of their company when a less selfish approach could make the promotion more profitable for newsagents and therefore drive greater support from them.

Ignorance in that News people have not made themselves adequately aware of the opportunities for newsagents with allied product.

Take the Dr Seuss promotion, given enough time newsagents and / or their marketing groups could have sourced licenced Dr Seuss product to sell alongside the News titles during the promotion. This would have made the promotion more valuable to newsagents. It could have also driven even  more newspaper sales than the promotion itself drove.

But these things take time to organise. In the case of Dr Seuss licenced product, given how decisions are made around it. it could have taken at least six months to undertake necessary negotiations. Once newsagents knew that it was a Dr Seuss promotion it was too late. The opportunity was lost.

News and other publishers need to consider more that their products are a piece of a large jigsaw for newsagents. They are no longer a stand alone jigsaw. For them to be genuinely valuable to newsagents we need earlier, more transparent and more thoughtful engagement. Stop worrying about a competitor finding out. When it comes to newspapers in Australia, we don’t have genuine competition – far from it even in two newspaper cities.

While News has in the past briefed some or all the groups on promotions, it is too late for sourcing licenced product that needs to be imported. I’d love to see this change.

This is not a blog post that should anger folks at News. No, they should see this post it as an opportunity to work smarter so newsagents make more money and more deeply engage with their next major licence promotion.

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Newsagency opportunities

Sunday retail marketing tip: 8 free ways to celebrate the birthday of your business

Business birthdays are important – for you and for your customers. Embrace the opportunity for a celebration. But be sure to not make it all about making more money. Take some time to embrace the achievement and love it.

Here are my tips for celebrating the birthday of any small retail business:

  1. Setup a photoboard and invite customer engagement. Let’s say your business is six years old: ask customers to bring a photo showing then at six years of age.
  2. Setup a noticeboard. Let’s say your business is twenty years. Headline the board with: We want a list of twenty things you love about this town.
  3. Recognise local heroes. Host an after drinks night in your shop and take a moment to acknowledge and thank local heroes. The number you acknowledge should be the number of years you have been in business.
  4. Hand out a flyer listing X hidden gems of your region (where X is the number of hears you have been in business). The flyer is your birthday gift to your customers.
  5. Have cake. Everyone loves cake. If for no other reason than to get to eat cake have a birthday cake.
  6. Party favor bags. Give every customer shopping on your birthday a bag of treats and favors you have chosen to celebrate your big day.
  7. The Happy Birthday discount. Offer a big discount to any customer who comes in on the day (or through the week if you wish) and sings, at full voice, Happy Birthday. Sure there is a sales element here – but it is sure to be a lot of fun.
  8. Say thank you. In your front window, create a stunning and personal display saying thank you to the town. Do it visually, creatively and with a full heart.

A key aspect of these ideas is to subtly remind people that your business stable and can be trusted.

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marketing

Sunday retail management tip: train staff on how to fold bags

How are paper bags handed to customers with their purchase? Are the scrunched up? Is the top of the bag left open? Think about it. Make a decision to handle bags, paper bags especially, a certain way, you way, a professional way, a way customers appreciate, a way that respects what you have sold.

Think about. Train your people. Manage the folding of shopper bags professionally and be proud of your point of difference.

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Management tip

Sydney Gift Fair kicks off today

The Reed Sydney Gift Fair and the Home and Giving Fair kick off today. For plenty it will be a busy few days, up to five for some, navigating the two fairs, looking for new product opportunities.

Change is what people will be looking for, significant change. Differentiation from what we have done in the past is important as is differentiation from what other retailers with which we compete is important.

If you can get to the fairs and have not planned to do so yet, I urge you to go. For inspiration alone it will be well worthwhile.

I will be there for Tower Systems and for newsXpress. Anyone who wants to catch up can call me on 0418 321 338.

In terms of preparing for the fairs, I know newsXpress published two weeks ago a guide to the fairs along with maps and supported by on the ground buying assistance from a team of merchandise experts, ensuing exclusive deals are understood. This is supplemented by a couple of social activities for networking among member newsagents. I expect the other marketing groups will have offered the same services to their members. It is at large fairs like this that marketing groups can show off their point of difference and demonstrate value of membership.

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Gifts

Get ready for another wave of colouring product

IMG_6693Looking through more than 2,000 photos I have taken at international gift and toy trade shows already this year it is clear we need to be ready for another wave of colouring and adult colouring products.

In addition to the color-in socks pictured, I’ve seen many ranges of colouring cards, place mats, table runners, wallpaper, jewellery, caps, t-shirts, books, books and, yes, books, calendars, plates. You name it there are businesses out there turning it into a colouring opportunity.

I am concerned that some of this product will come to Australia. My concern related to the copycat product. For each terrific product, there are plenty of awful cheap knock-offs, undermining the trend-setter.

As our market is small and we tend to follow launches from overseas, I think we need to be prepared to be pitched a new wave of colouring product.

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Newsagency challenges

Partworks at the newsagency counter

On one key counter location we have the new Doctor Who part series with a terrific display created by the team.

IMG_6824

At the other key counter location we have the first issue of the DC Comics Graphic Novel Collection.

IMG_6825

We are promoting both outside the business, ensuring customers in our area know we are the best destination for these titles. Partworks continue to be an excellent traffic driver for any engaged newsagent.

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partworks

Credit Suisse on the latest Tatts results

I am garteful to Credit Suisse for sharing analysis of the latest Tatts results. I encourage newsagents to read the full report. here are a couple of highlights that I think are of particular interest to the newsagency channel.

Tatts also has a number of other initiatives to stimulate growth in 2H16, including new website and app, expanded roll out of distribution into convenience stores.

Tatts did caution about margin expansion from digital growth. With growing digital sales comes savings in commissions Tatts needs to pay to retailers, however, during the half Tatts reinvested much of these savings into Facebook campaigns and Google search engine optimisation. Tatts indicated this spend was a few million dollars, broadly consistent with the commission saving Tatts would have received. Tatts will also need to grow the dollar value of commissions over time, in our view. Tatts’ agency network is responsible for nearly 87% of sales and therefore an integral part of its distribution. It would not be in Tatts’ interest to see falling commissions contribute to agency closures.

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Lotteries

This is not the month to indiscriminately early return magazines

My approach to early returning of magazines is not changing because Network Services is closing down. I am not engaging in a mass cull of Network titles prior to the end of the month. I am not acting out of ear or malice. No, it is business as usual.

The approach being taken by Network to handling returns as the business winds down is as it has said from then outset. The people running this side of the business have long term newsagent relationships at heart.  I am sure of that.

If you really return magazines you could authorised have sold based on your historic sales data then you are only hurting yourself.

I urge all newsagents to serve their businesses well as to serve the magazine publishers they hope to represent into the future.

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magazine distribution

Newsagents hit by ransomware

Several newsagency businesses have been hit by ransomware in the last week, malware loaded onto the computers blocking future access until a ransom is paid. Without appropriate precautions, the operational and financial implications of recovery for a business can be considerable.

  1. To protect your business, ensure you have regular reliable off-site backups in a secure firewall protected location for easy recovery.
  2. Do not click on any link in an email you do not trust or were not expecting.
  3. Never click on a link in an email relating to a prize offer.
  4. Never click on a link in an email purporting to be from a bank or the tax office.
  5. Read emails before clicking on anything. If you are unsure, do not click.

It is vital you protect your business by managing emails in a thoughtful way.

One business last week was shut down for more than a day because of poor protection. Once they got back up and running they had lost days of data because of inadequate backups. Trying to sell a business with such a data hole could be expensive.

Warnings like this will be ignored by too many people.

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Newsagency management

MPA magazine promotion driving sales

IMG_6827We have noticed a nice uptick in sales of weekly magazines from this display unit placed on the lease line facing into the shopping mall. While we are also promoting the MPA competition deep in the magazine department, it is this front of store pitch that works best for us. being in a shopping centre opposite a Coles it is good to have something they do not have supporting weekly magazines. We have moved the unit a couple of times to help it not get missed.

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magazines

Geraldton Guardian newspaper drops Monday and Wednesday editions

Screen Shot 2016-02-18 at 3.27.20 pmThe Monday and Wednesday editions of the Geraldton Guardian are ceasing with a larger Tuesday edition to take their place. West Australian Newspapers has made the announcement to newsagents. handling the attendant data changes will be straightforward for retail newsagents and a bit time consuming for distribution newsagents. I expect we see more changes like this soon in response to circulation challenges.

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Newspapers

Update on Network Services closure

Network Services has issued a third communication to newsagents, which I share here with permission.

They have also provided a list of ‘Transition’ issues – title issues that will be dispatched by Network Services but will be returned to Gordon and Gotch. There are 150 issues on this list.

Newsagents will need to ensure their software is appropriately setup to handle the transition.

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magazine distribution

At New York Toy Fair

IMG_6727It was a thrill to spend two days at the New York Toy Fair this week. Serving a US domestic market of $22B, you can imagine the scale of this event.

Covering 415,00 square feet and covering a broad range of segments, this trade show was extraordinary for its size, the range of products covered, the nature of supplier engagement and the fresh ideas revealed.

While clearly aimed at national buyers there were plenty of small business representatives there. There was a strong Australian contingent too. I ran into a couple of other Aussie retailers as well as several wholesales representatives.

Looking back on my photos on the flight home, I took more at this trade show than any of the six international trade shows I have attended already this year. I have been inspired on product range, visual merchandising, marketing and innovation. The inspirations will play out in what I do over the next couple of months.

While I expect the Toy Fair in Melbourne next month to be good, it cannot compare to the New York experience because of the sheer size difference between our markets. There are plenty of opportunities from New York I know we will see in Australia in the coming months. The race is on.

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Gifts

London vs. New York for newspapers

IMG_6026London is a newspaper town. Many daily newspapers are readily available in shops from newsagents to supermarkets. You can’t miss them. Newspapers are readily available for free in the afternoon on street corners. Newspapers are everywhere in London – not only in shops but you can see plenty being read on trains, in the streets and elsewhere.

It is hard to find newspapers now in New York. While there are newsstand kiosks in some streets, most will have one or two titles and even then they are tucked away. The newspaper space is taken by convenience likes like umbrellas, drinks and candy. Newspapers appear to be nowhere in New York – despite plenty of foot traffic on the streets.

While I have been to both cities plenty of times in recent years it was only when I visited each in the last week that the difference became obvious to me. I wonder why it is so? Is it a reflection of the place of newspapers in the respective countries? Is it as a result of publisher commitment? I don’t know.  What I do know is that in London I get the feeling that newspapers are relevant while in New York I get the feeling that the medium is dead.

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Newspapers

Spring Fair in Birmingham insightful

IMG_5845I am grateful to have been at the Spring Fair in Birmingham last week. This is the biggest card / gift / homewares fair for the UK – over twelve massive halls, some with their own side hall extensions. Our largest fair in Australia is tiny by comparison.

In the greeting card space alone there were between 40 and 50 companies with creative product on display.

The halls are arranged by product category, making comparison easy and intensifying the competition.

The Fair was insightful in that I could see what some of our local distributors do not pick up for the Australian marketplace. It also introduced me to suppliers not represented in Australia and, of particular interest, product lines not currently available in Australia that could work well.

I especially appreciated spotting trends that I can expect to hit Australia in the second half of this year and into next.

Being able to connect with brands we already sell was terrific as it builds relationships not only for my but for the Australian distributors.

While I appreciate it is challenging for retailers to travel overseas for shows like this, I encourage people to consider it sad the insights are truly worthwhile for immediate business and into the future thanks to stronger business relationships.

While I have a bag of brochures and a stack of business cards to work through I have already connected several suppliers with local Australian distributors. I was not at the fair to source product to direct import but rather facilitate relationships that make it easier for me to buy what I like from Australian distributors.

I am excited for the opportunities I have seen as they will help continue to evolve the retail model that used to be called a newsagency.

From what I could tell, the attendees were mainly specialty gift, homewares, toy and garden retailers. I did not notice any newsagent attendees.

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Gifts
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