Maximising Magazine Sales Through Effective Merchandising

A well-executed magazine relay can significantly boost sales in a short timeframe. It delivers an excellent return on investment in my experience.

A few hours of dedicated effort results in a revenue boost, fresh social media content and more value.  There Is no down side. Fundamentally, it drives increased sales.

The Mechanics of a Magazine Relay

A typical relay can be completed in two hours or less.

While it’s possible to delegate this task, taking ownership of the process is highly recommended. A hands-on approach reinforces your leadership and allows for a more streamlined operation without the complexities of team management. It’s essential to remember that a magazine relay is an ongoing process, not a one-off event. Regular adjustments to the magazine layout are crucial for maintaining sales momentum.

Optimising Magazine Placement

Ideally, magazines should be displayed on a dedicated wall space rather than occupying valuable centre fixture real estate typically reserved for higher-margin products.

The visual impact of magazine covers can be diluted by excessive clutter. To maximise their appeal, avoid using product headers.

Full facing, where 100% of the magazine cover is visible, generally delivers optimal results. This is particularly effective for smaller assortments of under 500 titles. For larger assortments, consider tiered fixtures with one title per pocket.However, in some cases, accommodating two or three low-volume, specialised titles within a single pocket can be beneficial.

Leveraging Beacon Branding

Highlighting specific magazine categories through beacon branding can effectively attract customer attention. Dedicate the top two or three pockets to a single title to create a visual focal point.

The Relay Process

When undertaking a magazine relay, focus on creating an engaging and visually appealing display. Work systematically,removing and rebuilding sections of the fixture while maintaining clear spaces to avoid confusion. Continuously assess your progress and consider how each placement contributes to the overall narrative.

The Art of Adjacency

Experimentation is key to discovering the most effective product adjacencies. While there are general guidelines, the ideal arrangement can vary depending on customer behaviour and preferences. For example, consider whether grouping titles by brand or by interest category drives better sales.

Some potential adjacency combinations include: cricket, golf, and swimming; wrestling, boxing, and fitness; and creative arts (painting, writing, craft). However, it’s essential to avoid mixing unrelated titles such as soccer and rugby.

Customer Considerations

When designing the magazine display, prioritise customer ease and comfort. Avoid placing titles aimed at older customers in difficult-to-reach locations.

Post-Relay Actions

Once the relay is complete, share your vision with the team and encourage feedback. Monitor customer behaviour and sales performance closely. The insights gained from these observations can inform future adjustments to the magazine layout.

By following these guidelines and maintaining a focus on customer needs, you can significantly enhance your magazine sales through effective merchandising.

Feedback from suppliers at the Melbourne Gift Fair over the weekend and yesterday, including from the team from my POS software company, is positive. In fact, more positive that many had expected.

Retailers have been spending at the trade show. Plenty are happy with business. I suspect this is a local small business thing. We are less likely to be surveyed by media. We’re not connected to major nosy retail groups.

The optimism has been across the mix of retailers at the fair: gift shops, jewellers, newsagents, garden centres, toy shops and more.

Hot topics on the trade show floor I’ve heard about include EFTPOS surcharges (whether to or not, how to and how mush), suppliers who sell direct to consumers (more seem to be doing it and some preference their direct sales over supporting retailers), imported vs. made in Australia (Australian made preference is strong) and delays from order to fulfilment (some suppliers ask for a deposit before they order manufacture of goods).

While I’ve not been able to make it myself, those I have heard from are happy with the the trade show. The big surprise for them was the optimism among retailers attending.

Footnote: it’s interesting that my POS software company was the only software company exhibiting at Reed.

My newsagency software company Tower Systems last year launched easyEDI, an absolute game-changer for sending invoices electronically.

Made for small suppliers, easyEDI set out to make creating electronic invoices easy and low cost.

Retailers love electronic invoices. They save time and money, and they help reduce data mistakes.

If faced with a choice, retailers will choose the supplier offering electronic invoices over the supplier of similar product who does not offer electronic invoices.

I mention it today since electronic invoices is a hot topic at the Melbourne Gift Fair this weekend.

easyEDI will create either a CSV file or a DD2 file, commonly used by newsagencies and card and gift stores. You can also link it with the popular Unleashed inventory management system we know plenty of suppliers use or supply your own product list so your files are even more useful by containing barcodes and/or RRP prices.

easyEDI costs $55 a month, which includes 500 invoices sent per month for no additional cost. Each invoice beyond 500 costs 12 cents.

There is no lock-in contract, you can cancel at any time.

Setup is easy for the supplier. easyEDI is a Xero approved integrated app.

Suppliers ready to sign up should go to www.easyedi.com.au.

Tower Systems first engaged in EDI (electronic data interchange) invoice creation by developing standards that were adopted for the Australian newsagency channel more than thirty-five years ago. Those standards formed the basis of file formats in use in the channel today.

While XchangeIT serves magazine suppliers and a some other suppliers, easyEDI is a lower cost and easier to implement solution. It’s made for small suppliers.

Suppliers and retailers using easyEDI today have taken the product beyond proof of concept and into the real world. It shows it as a reality, helping every day.

I’ll finish up with a pitch:

• User-Friendly: We’ve designed easyEDI with simplicity in mind. You don’t need to be an EDI expert to use our platform effectively. Our intuitive interface guides you through the process seamlessly.
• Efficiency: Save time and reduce manual data entry errors by automating your EDI file creation. Focus on growing your business while easyEDI takes care of the technicalities.
• Compatibility: easyEDI seamlessly integrates with Xero, ensuring a smooth data flow between your financial and EDI systems.
• Dedicated Support: Our customer support team is always ready to assist you. We provide ongoing assistance to ensure you get the most out of easyEDI.

We let the landlord know that we would not renew our newsagency lease at Westfield Southland a year and half out from the end of the lease. We did this because our focus had shifted from shopping centres and wanted to be clear we had no interest in remaining. Our high street businesses and online businesses are doing so much better and on a lower cost base.

We are now eight weeks from the end of the lease. On Monday last week we launched our first step of inventory sell down with this post on our Facebook page:

We are truly grateful to the Cheltenham community for their support over the last 7 years. Thank you.

Our lease has come to an end and we have decided to focus on our shops in Malvern, Mount Waverley and online.

The response online and in-store has been wonderful, heartwarming. Sales have been fantastic. With everything paid for, the sale is all about converting inventory to cash.

Some suppliers are working with us to reduce their inventory, which is helpful for margin. We are also moving stock from our other stores if it’s not moving there as fast as we’d like. It’s not often you have an opportunity for a clearance outlet like this.

We have reset the shop floor to reflect our focus. There are no pretty displays of awesome visual merchandising. The approach is practical and easily shopped. We are also focussed on refreshing shelves when we sell low.

The landlord does not allow end of lease signs or anything similar, which makes for some challenges. This is where social media is vital. We are grateful that the Cheltenham community page allowed us to share our farewell post, which worked a treat.

Given that the shop requires a two-week defit, we have, in real terms, just under six weeks of trade left. This will be a daily dance of moving stock to keep products in the best positions to move and attention paid to any further write downs.

We are not being firm on our actual closure date since if we sell out sooner, we will close.

In the meantime, even day we have customers coming in, spending and saying farewell. It’s bittersweet. We are grateful to be leaving on our own terms though.

Selling a retail business is like selling a house, you need to prepare it so that it looks appealing to prospective purchasers. Selling a newsagency is more challenging because of assumptions about the channel and what a newsagency is can could be, especially today in 2024.

If you have control over the timing, start work on preparing your business for sale six months, preferably a year, out from putting it on the market. This enables you to make changes, benefit from improvement in performance and thereby achieve a better price.

Here are steps I recommend on preparing a business for sale.

1. Make it look and feel appealing. While there are people who will look for a challenge, a fixer-upper.  Most buyers will want two see a business they understand and feel they can run. It needs to look easy for them. They need to be able to imagine themselves as the owners.
2. Eliminate dead stock. Dead stock 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. Our view is that anything older than six months is dead.
3. Streamline operations. Make the business look easy to run by ensuring it is easy to run for you.  This means:
   1. The best opening hours.
   2. An efficient roster.
   3. A structured goods inwards operation.
   4. A streamlined sales counter.
   5. Tight back office management.
   6. Job descriptions so everyone knows their responsibilities.
   7. Good internal communications.
4. Maximise profit. What anyone will pay will depend on actual profitability of the business.
5. Be happy. Owners who talk their business down will find it harder to sell the business. be happy and make the business look happier.
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, Instagram and elsewhere.
7. Get your paperwork in order. Early on, get business documents together:
   1. Premises lease.
   2. Equipment lease.
   3. Employee records.
   4. Product forward orders.
   5. Franchise documents.
   6. Supplier agreements.
   7. Details of all forward orders.
   8. Any other documents relating to the operation of the business including manuals for any equipment items.
8. Choose a broker for your circumstances. This could be a local because of the likelihood of a local buyer or a specialty broker to attract someone looking for your type of business from afar.

Success at selling your newsagency business depends on the work you do to prepare it for sale. Focus months, even a years, out can make for an easier and better sale.