Newsagents are generally risk averse compared to other business owners. I realised yesterday that I take more risks in my non newsagency businesses than in my newsagency, risks which don’t feel risky but are not taken in a newsagency.
I have been thinking about risk taking in newsagencies recently because it is what we need to do to reinvent our businesses. In my own case I have been thinking specifically about the gift department and how safe we play in selecting products. We have had tremendous success with gifts, almost trebling last year’s sales thanks to our choices.
Take the Chubby Geisha money boxes in the photo. We would not stock them as we’d consider that they are too far removed from what we think our gift offer should be. What is odd is that gifts are new to us in this location so we don’t really know how far outside the traditional we can play. We have allowed our own blinkers to restrict what we can achieve.
In my gift shops we are far more adventurous, allowing our customers to tell us what works and what does not work. We experiment more – probably because gifts are central to the business whereas in a newsagency they are often a small department.
Realising how conservative we have been, we are committed to experimenting more and pursuing the boundaries of what we can achieve in terms of product category, style and price point. The only boundaries will be margin and overall feel – we do not want to look like a $2 shop.
We will take more risks, try the Geisha moneyboxes and try other items we have said no to. We’ll have fun funding the new level.
While there are many newsagents taking risks, more of us need to – and share the results.
Our book sale is in full swing and delivering good sales. Being at the front of the newsagency, it is is drawing in passers-by and adding to the basket of shoppers in-store. Book sales like this, managed well, deliver an excellent margin on good sales – lifting the overall margin achieved by the business. While we try outposts from time to time, we prefer an in-store offer because of the lower labour and real-estate cost. We are supporting the sale with a flyer featuring many of the titles we have on offer.
