If ever I want inspiration for visual merchandising I go to The Works in hawthorn, on Burwood Road, newer my office. There you can see what their buying and VM experts consider to be best practice for the season.
Yellow is in. We have access to similar products – recreating this display or something like it is easy for newsagents in the gift and homewares spaces.
I’m posting the photo as inspiration.
The money (ink and paper) being spend by newspapers promoting their various subscription packages must be considerable – more than at any time I cal recall. While some ads promote the newspaper and digital products, more often they promote digital products only. Either way, digital is the focus over print yet print is the medium used for the pitch.
All newsagents need to factor this into their own planning.
Here more examples of magazine publishers supporting newsagents as the go to retailers for their titles. The screen grab is from Twitter this week. It shows how the two publishers are specifically promoting our channel.
While Australian Boxing Legends and Stage Whispers are not volume sellers, people who purchase them are valuable to us as these titles are unique to us, they reflect a point of difference.
Australian Family Tree magazine is another special interest title promoted on social media and actively pushing newsagencies as the businesses from which to purchase the title.
These special interest titles are more important than ever for us. We need to support them and be more aware of how they are supporting us in social media.
Relay stores at airports in Australia are always worth a visit. They are in traffic rich locations and need their displays work at drawing people into the store. This display at their Canberra outlet is on the corner of the lease line.
I stood across from the store for five minutes and saw four people walk across to look at the promoted book. One purchased.
The relay approach is simple to follow: make the product the hero and tell people who the product is the hero.
I got to see the Exclusive to Woolworths gift with purchase stand from Bauer first hand this week. It’s impressive in terms of the stand itself and the gift. While I am not a consumer of the promoted titles, I expect the promotion to work for Bauer and Woolworths.
This practical and shopper focussed offer is what Bauer should promote in newsagencies and not the Connections points program. Giving Woolworths a competitive advantage will not end well.
This stand promoting a range of News Life media and the terrific gift with purchase of any of the titles which I saw in Woolworths gives the supermarket chain a valuable advantage over newsagents for the promoted titles. The stand is Woolworths branded – making me think this is a offer exclusive to them.
Note: I had to pout four titles in the stand for the photo as the pockets were empty – such is their lazy approach to managing magazines.
In what is becoming a series, here is another slim newspaper stand. This time at the news and gift outlet at Launceston airport. It has a small footprint and is strong – allowing it to hold the heavier Saturday newspapers. Flexible too – it could hold more titles with more shelves installed. You low the deal: click on the image for a larger version.
Network Servcies has two titles out this week with the same barcodes. This is a dreadful error by the publishers.
03/11/2014 – THE CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE
Bipad 3748 Issue 201401
Correct Barcode 978099258495506/11/2014 – GUIDE TO THE CRICKET WORLD CUP
Bipad 3817 Issue 201401
Correct Barcode 9780992584948
Make sure you handle this according to advice from your newsagency software supplier otherwise your returns credits could be affected..
In Launceston yesterday I discovered from newsagents that Fairfax charges a Remote area publishing fee for The Age, the Melbourne newspaper, which is printed locally, in Launceston, for Tasmanian customers.
This seems like an odd charge to me. Fair enough if freight was involved but it’s not. It’s a fee for using a local printing facility. I would have thought that this benefited Fairfax.
My understanding is that the fee is one reason sales of The Age in Tasmania are down.
I’d like newsagents to share other charges they see from publishers for local printing of interstate papers or freight applied for shipping such papers in.
While not the same as is happening in Port Lincoln about which I wrote last week, it’s similar in that publishers are recouping more costs now their products are not as popular.
I love this newspaper stand from News Corp. which I saw at a Coles in suburban Melbourne a couple of days ago. It’s space efficient. strong, flexible and easily relocated. Very smart.
I like this stand more than the stands I have seen on offer to newsagents in recent years from News and Fairfax. If publishers were to offer something as efficient as this to retail newsagents I am sure we should see better engagement by that channel.
Click on the image to see the stand in more detail. Notice the strong construction, flexibility and marketing at the top.
I love it when a customer comes in and asks specifically for an item, something that has driven them to us. This is happening regularly at the moment for the Women’s Weekly Health Diary. I appreciate the traffic for the product – generated in part by good and wide promotion of the product recently.
One customer shared a but much Saturday saying I get all my magazines at Coles now and I thought they’d have this there. I smiled, thanked them for their business and pointed out the discount voucher they now had from us for spending on magazines from us.
I was pleased but concerned to see News Corp. promoting newsagents with its tweet this Sunday gone promoting the free tote bag in support of Shop Small, the American Express promotion: FREE tote bag with the paper at metro newsagents today. Support the locals.
My first concern related to the Amex connection. Amex is not small business friendly. They have no place promoting small business because they suck crazy fees from us. The Show Small campaign is more about getting small retailers to offer Amex than it is about supporting small business in my view.
My second worry was the supply of the bag itself. Sure enough, the News Corp. supply chain failed us. We did not get the bags – making the News Corp. tweet irrelevant to my newsagency. #fail
I like that News Corp. wants to support retail newsagents. It needs to sort out its communicate channel so bumps like this do not occur in the future.
Our 2015 diary sales are up 160% compared to sales of 2014 diaries to the same time last year. This is off a good base.
The one change this year over last is the placement of some diaries in front of newspapers and magazines. We have the space for this placement following the removal of two magazine fixtures a few weeks ago.
While Collins diary sales are up it is our fashion diaries that are benefiting the most. They are located on the other side of the table – out of view in the photo.
We source diaries from several suppliers covering business and personal needs. Stock starts out on the floor in August and builds in September.
Our experience this year is that placement is key to driving diary sales.
Did you receive the reissue of The Ashes magazine? This old title has had its day and reissuing to newsagents as happened this week is a space and money grab.
Had we been asked I suspect many newsagents would have said no thanks, been there, done that.
This is a perfect example of how magazine distributors make newsagents less competitive than supermarkets.
While other retailers in shopping malls are required to open Public Holidays, Australia Post corporate stores are not. Today, Melbourne Cup Day, Australia Post avoids the crazy penalty rates while retailers competing with them are hit by the cost. This situation is a benefit available to Australia Post solely because of their protected status as a government owned business. It is a perfect example of government ownership and protection providing them an unfair competitive advantage.
In you have a front window to your newsagency use it as a window and not as the back wall of a storage cupboard as one newsagency I saw recently does.
The photo shows what you see from the outside of the shop looking in.
There is no appeal to people walking past the window of the newsagency in the photo, none whatsoever. This window is a missed opportunity.
There are two things wrong with this newsagency window: the products in the window are not placed to appeal to the passer-by and you can’t see into the business. It’s a window – you ought to be able to see through it to something enticing.
The use of this window is a fail on two counts, a missed opportunity for this business.
Landlords consider windows a feature. They factor having a window into the price they set for the space. In this case, the newsagent could be paying a premium for storage space that is more likely to turn people off than entice them into the shop for a browse.
The best way to leverage the value of a window is to take everything off it – all magazine posters (you should never put magazine posters on your windows) and stickers as well as any products placed inside the window. Clean it and take a look inside. If you like what you see, terrific. If not, make sure what people see through your window is ideal. Once it is, you can then figure out how to use the window itself, if you want to.
A good window and what you can see through it could be the most important marketing you have for your newsagency. It is important to get it right, to ensure it is relevant and to keep it fresh.
This is basic retail advice. Getting your window right could boost traffic and sales with little capital investment and who doesn’t want that?
I was asked last week in response to my post that we had cut 250 magazine pockets and no titles how we fitted magazines. This photo shows how we fit in UK titles. In the top row we have eight titles in three pockets. This is more efficient.
This photo shows how we are fitting in more car titles by placing titles over each other. In the lower row we have four titles taking up two pockets – still very efficient. We do this with food, UK, music, photography, cars, motorcycles and craft sections – not not all of craft.
This approach works best when done in segments where shoppers will look for the titles they are after and where the full cover is not as vital.
It is important to note that we give titles displayed in this way time in the spotlight with a feature placement elsewhere – to try and reach people not currently purchasing the special interest titles.
The story in The Canberra Times about privacy concerns re the OPAL card in NSW should be used by newsagents to drive traffic and sales in their businesses. @CartwheelPrint provided this advice on Twitter with a link to the news story:
Buy your Opal ticket from Newsagents & DON’T link it to your bank account, was 1st thing I told pals.
This is a marketing opportunity for newsagents – even though the margin on top ups as set by the State Government is appalling and disrespectful.
The young girl was giving her dad a hug as she said this right after purchasing another Beanie Boo on Saturday morning. Thanks Dad! That’s twenty-nine I’ve got now.
While she was a joy to see, it was more moving to see the Dad’s smile.
After completing the purchase they stood at the display talking about the next one to purchase.
We know they will buy from us because they use the discount voucher from each purchase for the next purchase and because we have the best range in the shopping centre – better than Toyworld and the majors who stock the same brand.
Watching father and daughter was a reminder of the value of the habit based shopper who relies on your business to build a collection. Understanding the role we play for them helps us be better retailers. It also makes us more aware of allied opportunities.
Being known in a region as the go to supplier for collectors is an excellent loath through which to redefine your newsagency business. Some have been doing this for years while others will read about it here for the first time. We can grow our businesses – by being engaged retailers.
I sensed from the nod and smile as he left that the dad is grateful we provide this opportunity for him to share with his daughter.
Placement above Better Homes and Gardens magazine has helped us achieve a 55% sell through already for this BHG branded puzzle title. While it is selling from our crossword section, the pocket above BHG is performing the best for us. We found the extra pocket because of the BHG floor display unit promoting the Christmas tin.
We had no space for the additional SKU from Bauer – Elle and Bazaar and so we early returned them. What’s unfair is that we have to send back the whole bag. What a waste of my money! I know newsagents who compensate by early returning other titles for ‘balance’. Asking me if I have room for a new SKU would be a smarter move Bauer.
We have The Walking Dead product together: magazine, desktop calendar and full size calendar to make the most of one of the most successful TV franchises this decade. This franchise is a good example where placement of themed products together is more valuable for the retailer than leaving the products in their category locations.
