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

Author: Mark Fletcher

Here we go…

BoxingDay15(horizontal)Yesterday is done. The Boxing Day Sale begins. We set the shop at the close of business Christmas Eve to make today easier. We have excellent deals that offer terrific margin for us. Plus we are clearing out stock to make way for the new.

The next few days will be massive as we work through product and make the most of the extraordinary traffic the Melbourne Boxing Day sales bring in.

We will add to sale stock over the next few days, to provide a fresh look for people who visit several times between now and New Year. It’s what we do every year – it works a treat.

We are also promoting the Boxing Dale Sale online – but not crazy as everyone else in centres are doing the same thing. we are staying within budget. Plus we are being tactical.

If we follow tradition, the Boxing Day sale will run two weeks.

The bonus traffic also leverages Valentine’s Day opportunities – yes, that season has started as has, sorry, Easter – with some items in-store already and selling.

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newsagency marketing

Loving the last minute Christmas shopper in the newsagency

It’s an annual ritual to pay homage here to the last minute Christmas shopper. They are a delight: usually happy, spending big, relieved that you have good stuff to buy and ready to make quick decisions. They are usually male, between 25 and 40. The only thing better is two or three of them together, usually brothers. We leverage the opportunity by helping them – with pleasure … because they spend without thinking.

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Newsagency management

The $200 Christmas gift selling in the newsagency

IMG_2941This Star Wars robotic talking, moving R2D2 droid has been a hit with last-minute Christmas shoppers with nine being snapped up in a couple of days.

We brought it in once we knew the majors had sold out, leaving us with a blue ocean opportunity. Plenty of shoppers have been relieved to find it in the newsagency this week. Our social media marketing helped attract people who have not shopped with us.

Selling gifts at $200 and more is easy with the right product. Our most expensive item sold this Christmas cost $500. The customers are thrilled.

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Gifts

Empire hot for Christmas

IMG_2930Thankfully we got extra stock of Empire magazine. It has been a hot item this Christmas. Having it with all the Star Wars product at the front of the shop helped. This has been an amazing franchise, driving excellent traffic.

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magazines

Thank you Coles

Harpers Bazaar have sold out thanks to the Coles ban. The publicity helped and that there are two Coles in our centre helped more. More prude decisions please Coles.

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magazines

Merry Christmas

Have a great Christmas everyone. Enjoy the day off tomorrow after what will be, for many, a crazy day today. Eat good food. Drink what you enjoy. Have some laughs. create some memories.  And in a quiet moment think about everyone receiving a card or a gift sold by your business. You did that – you helped spread plenty of Christmas cheer.

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Newsagency

Stunning Christmas window in Mount Morgan

charlie bear window collage-1Click on the image to see a larger version of the photos of the Christmas window created by the team at newsXpress Mount Morgan. Mount Morgan is about an hour from Rockhampton and has a population of 2,100.

I am showing off this window display as it reflects a different approach to pitching christmas in the newsagency. This could be any shop and that is what is important about. It is the type of display people will drive into town to see.

The more we attract people to our newsagency for non traditional newsagency lines the better for our future. Every newsagency is different. The challenge is to create window displays to leverage local opportunities and to serve local needs. This window in Mount Morgan pitches the newsagency differently to other businesses in town that sell some of what the newsagency sells.

The window is a result of deliberate decisions made in the business, decisions every newsagent can make.

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newsagency marketing

Christmas keepsakes drive traffic for the newsagency

IMG_2842The Hallmark Christmas keepsakes have been a hit this Christmas, attracting shoppers who previously have collected by shopping online from the US. They love that they have a local retailer then can purchase from. These are people who purchase dated keepsakes for each year – building a collection over the long term. They have been a valuable item for us this Christmas.

FYI the photo is one side of the four sided display atop the unit, showing off the keepsakes in a way that makes purchasing easy.

Limited retailer availability is key to success with the keepsakes.

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marketing

Gift tag gold

IMG_2841These last couple of days before Christmas are perfect for selling gift tags for good margin. While supermarkets and others have sold out, we have plenty of stock – specifically for this opportunity. Sales have been excellent and will be up to the end of today. We leverage the opportunity with tags and cards in several location. While we do not price gouge we could, easily.

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Newsagency opportunities

Newsagent bankrupt

A newsagent was declared bankrupt last week with debts on more than half a million dollars. Their failure has cost suppliers to the channel:

  • Newspaper publisher: $34,000.
  • Tatts: $16,000.
  • Magazine distributors: $12,500.
  • ATO: $41,000.
  • Landlord: $29,000.
  • Touch: $3,000.

While the majoring of the $500K is owed to banks, each time a supplier to our channel is hit by a failing newsagent, the rest of us in the channel bear a cost as it leaves less in the kitty of the affected suppliers to support our channel.

We are connected to the failure of a newsagency where the failure results in a loss for our suppliers.

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Ethics

The 2015 Christmas hero product drives sales and traffic for the newsagency

IMG_2849With Christmas all but done, I can note Perfect Petzzz have been our hero of the season, delivering thousands of dollars in high margin sales in the newsagency.

Customers often purchased more than one at a time. Others would come back to purchase more one they showed family and friends how the dogs and cats breathed.

Being the only retailer nearby with the range drove excellent new traffic.

All we did to promote the range was to place a video on Facebook showing a dog breathing. Within a couple of hours of the video being posted we sold our first two pets. Now, a couple of months on, we are selling out of our fourth shipment.

Every Christmas there is a different hero product. This year it is these Perfect Petzzz. The results have been stunning – not only for the products themselves but the many allied products we have for dog and cat lovers.

As this range was a newsXpress promoted range it was appropriate I not provide free access to the insights until the end of the season.

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Gifts

Women’s underwear and batteries?

IMG_2839I constantly look at other retail businesses to learn from product adjacency decisions. Supermarket s are particularly good to watch – usually at least. Check out the adjacency I saw at a Coles supermarket a couple of days ago: women’s underwear and batteries. I suspect it is not a deliberate decision but a placement more out of necessity.

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retail

News Corp extends firm sale newspaper trial

News Corp. is working with selected newsagents on another firm sale trial for The Daily Telegraph. This new trial follows what News says is a successful firm sale trial earlier this year.

  • The Daily Telegraph trial will run early next year over a 5-7 week.
  • Newsagents receive a minimum of 20-25% (in some cases where numbers are low it could be as high as 40%) commission on your retail copies – you currently only receive 12 1/2% commission
    No returns.
  • Firm sale.
  • News would credit newsagents weekly.
  • Not available to sub agents.
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Newspapers

When is the best time to discount Christmas items in the newsagency?

When is the best time to discount Christmas items in the newsagency? The answer depends on your situation. If you are a few days out from Christmas and the majority of your Christmas-themed have not been sold, start right away. If, on the other hand, Christmas is selling well, do not discount until after Christmas.

Another retailer near you discounting Christmas should not be a factor in your decision. What you do in your business depends on your own situation.

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Newsagency management

What is your plan if you sell out of newspapers?

IMG_2850 (1)Every newsagency needs a policy on what to do if you sell out of a newspaper and cannot get more stock. The policy needs to guide what to put in the place of the sold out title. Leaving a shelf location empty is not smart given the cost of retail space.

My suggestion is you be specific about what is to be put in the location of the sold out newspaper.

The photo shows the approach in my newsagency. On the weekend we sold out of The Sunday Age. Home Beautiful was put in the location as we know it sells well to newspaper customers.

Decisions like these, what to do if a paper sells out, are easy for us to make so that employees have a structured approach to any such situation.

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Newsagency management

More junk from Fairfax and Consolidates Products Holdings

IMG_2869We received this junk product from Consolidated Products Holdings via Fairfax with magazines today. As it is not circulation products, we have treated it as junk mail and binned it. I can source these iPhone products elsewhere at a better price.

Sending this out the week before Christmas is nuts, doomed to fail. Sending it out to newsagents at all is an abuse of the magazine distribution model.

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magazine distribution

Publishers should learn from the Coles attack on free speech

IMG_2811So Coles Supermarkets caved into the prudes who complained about the Harpers Bazaar Miranda Kerr cover. What a pathetic and weak stand the supermarket giant has taken. Shame on them.

The skin Kerr is showing on the cover of Harpers Bazaar is less harmful in my view than the tobacco products Coles peddles, the sugary drinks on the Coles shelves, the fat packed goods and other junk the retailer promotes.

The skin Kerr shows is nothing compared to the social and economic damage Coles has wreaked on farming communities by forcing farmers to pay for Coles low prices.

Coles ought to be ashamed.

Small business newsagents should promote Harpers Bazaar and remind shoppers that we are local businesses, employing local people, paying fair prices for goods and respecting the whole community and not just a small group of prudes.

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Ethics

Ignorant penalty rate comment on Fairfax Radio

A talkback caller to fairfax radio 3AW yesterday said retailers were wrong to complain about penalty rates for teenagers. They claimed they were earning $10 an hour. At the cheapest rate this is out by 50%. Add weekend penalty rates and the hourly rate doubles, even more.

It is frustrating Fairfax radio allowed the comment to go unchecked as it perpetuates the myth by a small band of anti-vaxer like people who claim retail employees are low paid employees.

I know of plenty of small business retail newsagents who would love to earn the equivalent of junior employee hourly rates.

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Newsagency management

Tactical quitting of iGear in the newsagency

IMG_2840We made a decision Friday to quit the iGear mobile phone related accessories. In two days we sold everything we had on the just over half full stand. Three factors drove the quick success of the move: price, location and location.

We decided on prices less than half price and marked the price of each item with a bright sticker. We placed the stand at the front of the store. Plus, we placed the stand near Dick Smith as this closest to iGear likely shoppers.

We have had iGear for a while, it was time to move on. The return we were achieving from the large stand was not covering the shopping centre rent.

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Newsagency management

Sunday newsagency challenge: ask for it

Choose a product you want to push and ask everyone working at the counter on one day to offer it to every customer they talk to and / or serve. get them to record how many times they do this and how many of the item they sell.  Compare numbers.

Almost in every situation I have seen, asking for the purchase is enough to achieve a measurable and valuable increase for the business.

This is a challenge because most newsagents don’t want to ‘offer fries’ with the purchase.

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Newsagency challenges

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: give a courier a drink

In the peak of summer give each courier delivering product to your business a bottle of chilled water for while they driving between drop-offs.

How is this marketing? Couriers talk. They will share their appreciation of your thoughtfulness with others.

Regardless of what they say to others about your gesture, you will benefit from doing good.

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marketing tip

Sunday newsagency management tip: ask for a report

As soon as possible after Christmas, call a staff meeting and ask each team member prepare a brief report on a different department of the business and how it performed in the three months to Christmas.

The goal of this exercise to to engage them with data, to see what they come up with. My hope is that their perspective is eye-opening for you, beneficial for your business planning for 2016.

The exercise could also separate those who look at the business through anecdotes compared to those who look at the business through business data. This second group will produce better results for you as data trumps anecdotes every time.

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Management tip

How is Christmas trade in your newsagency?

Christmas kicks in at different times of the season for different types of newsagencies. The most important comparison we can make is against our trade to this time last year.

How is Christmas going for you?

One of my newsagencies is up 14% year on year while in the other is up 9%. Moreimgportant than the revenue increase is the growth in GP. In both cases, the gross profit percentage being achieved is up by close to 20%, reflecting a further shift to higher margin lines. Magazines account for under 15% of revenue and newspapers under 3%. Cards account for 34%, plush 11%, gifts 24%, stationery 4%, toys 4%.

In terms of year on year growth, cards, gifts and toys are all experiencing double-digit growth. we have chased this through buying, floor placement and out of store marketing.

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Newsagency management

Christmas christians drive religious sales

IMG_2772People watching is a pastime I suspect many working in retail enjoy. I do.

I am fascinated by people who purchase religious cards and items at Christmas and Easter, especially people who tell you I’m not religious, when they male the purchase. I have had several people say this, almost as an apology, during the transaction.

I find it fascinating. But when you think about it, the nativity scene or the item in the phone could be to them like a star or an angel for the tree – more about tradition than the religious nature of the item.

Religious cards sell very well. Indeed, we always sell out of them first – which is odd for a country where 22% of the population claim, in the census, to have no religion.

I would love to hear others comment on this and the sale of religious cards and gifts more generally.

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Gifts

What do you charge for envelopes for calendars?

IMG_2774I was surprised to see a discount retailer charing fifty cents with their $2.00 Bartel calendars. These are envelopes the retailer purchases for twenty cents each with the calendars or less. Fifty cents is a bit rich for a discount variety store that claims to sell for less. 60% GP is excellent for the retailer and unfair for the shopper.

Newsagents have an opportunity to compete in this situation as we are more likely to have a market for the calendar envelopes beyond calendar season.

I think a better approach would be to offer free envelopes in return for purchasing three or more calendars in a purchase. That said, I got out of this low end calendar space when the Reject Shop next door started promoting them.

In my view it is rare that a deep discount or discount variety store offers the level of value they claim.

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Calendars
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