We are promoting Pies savoury & sweet at the main sales counter between newspapers as well as with our food magazine titles.
This new ACP Australian Women’s Weekly cookbook is set to sell well if our sense of taste is anything to go by.
The cover image is mouth watering … customers quickly get what this title is about – hence our impulse purchase chasing placement.
Our plan is to leave the title here for a week and then place it in another tactical location.
Yes, folks, there is such a thing. I found this title overseas in my travels recently. The newsagent I purchased it from said that it sold well to young girls. Of course it would. I know I could have sold this in one of my stores where the Bieber one-shot from pacific and the Bieber photo pack sold like hot cakes. What I like about this is that Bieber’s face could be used to introduce kids to their first crossword experience. Nice.
The Productivity Commission has today released its draft report into the Economic Structure and Performance of the Australian Retail Industry. While I have only read the overview so far, it looks quite interesting.
I particularly like that the draft recommendations call for action on the retail tenancies:
COAG should ensure that all current National Retail Tenancy Working Group projects are fully implemented. It should also re-examine the outstanding recommendations from the Commission’s 2008 retail tenancy report with a view to expanding the work plan of the National Retail Tenancy Working Group.
I also like their recommendation on the Fair Work Act:
The Australian Government should, within the context of the current system and consistent with the maintenance of minimum safety net provisions for all employees, examine retail industry concerns about the operation of the Fair Work Act. This should include consideration of options to address any significant obstacles to the efficient negotiation of enterprise-based arrangements, that have the potential to improve overall productivity. The post-implementation review of the Fair Work Act, which is to commence before 1 January 2012, should provide the appropriate review mechanism. The first review of modern awards, scheduled for 2012, is a further opportunity to address concerns that relate specifically to the operation of relevant retail awards.
The report also makes recommendations around the handling of GST on online purchases. It will be interesting to see if Amazon and others engage here on this issue as they have done in the US.
The ANF made an excellent submission on behalf of newsagents.
It is time for the government to engage with retail and support this sector of the economy. For decades government has thrown truckloads of cash at mining, auto and other sectors. Retail needs help, not handouts, but structural reform to enable us to be competitive.
All sides of politics have let retailers down for decades.
I have heard of newsagents recently being offered a margin of more than 50% for physical phonecards. This type of margin is unsustainable. You run the risk of selling a phonecard which will stop working before your customer has used up all of the credit. You wouldn’t want to be at the shop if that happens, when they customer blames you for them losing money.
The only reason I could see a phonecard company selling phonecards with a retailer margin above 50% is because they are desperate for cash. While extra margin for your business might be attractive, there is a real risk that this short term cash gain could do harm to your reputation.
What if the phonecard company pushing the bonus margin cards runs out of cash? What if they shut down as a result? What if your customers are left without a working phonecard?
I know a bit about phonecard company margins and offer the advice in this post as a genuine warning to newsagents who may not know of the risk inherent in such an unsustainable retailer margin.
This year’s VTAC Guide looks better than it has in the past. The bright and more appealing cover make it and easier product for us to place at the counter. For years this guide looked like a manual produced by the public service, which it was.
Anyway, in one of my newsagencies we have this year’s VTAC Guide at the counter and it is selling well. It’s terrific to see someone come in to purchase something else and add the VTAC Guide to their purchase. Every dollar helps, as they say.
We plan to move this title around, chasing sales, over the next few weeks.
We are promoting the reissue of this bugs part series. We’re not going all out because of space and because it is a reissue. We will watch supply and space carefully. With Father’s Day under way, then Halloween and then Christmas, display space in just about any newsagency is at a premium right now. I’m not against the reissue, just concerned about whether it is too soon.
More and more newsagents are finding themselves rostered in sales roles in their businesses as they work to cut labour costs. Cutting hours is a move many newsagents are reluctantly taking in response to tough retail conditions.
The risk of this approach is that the business replaces people who appreciate behind the counter work with those who are not so keen to be there.
Newsagents who are finding that they are spending more time behind the counter need to approach this work with a view to the bigger picture and with gratitude that they have this option.
Don’t be angry about it. Embrace it. If you have other staff behind the counter, be one of the team when you’re there. Use the opportunity to lead by example, for the good of the business.
I read a book a few years ago, How Starbucks Changes My Life. I think that newsagents who have had to roster themselves behind the counter because of tough times might find this book helpful, especially if you are not happy in a behind the counter role.
Personally, I like working the shop floor and time behind the counter. Every customer interaction is an opportunity. Every time I learn something. That said, I appreciate that my work week has plenty of diversity – I can’t say how I would feel if I had to do sixty hours a week there out of necessity.
Check out this photo of a busy newsagency / kiosk in Kuala Lumpur sent to me by a regular visitor to this blog. Talk about a different way of displaying magazines. Maybe this is the type of display some newsagencies will migrate to as we try and cut the overhead cost of carrying such a broad range of magazines … especially those of us in shopping centres where just the floorspace of our magazine department costs $125,000 or more a year.
Further to the recent discussion here about books, book sales are up by more than 20% year on year in my newsagencies. I think that the market for remainder books will be strong for some years to come. But it will not last forever. As we have seen with music, the refinement of content accessibility devices will drive shoppers to digital content. There is nothing we can or should try at the retail end to stop this. Our best approach is to make the most of today’s opportunity and to plan to make the most of what will happen tomorrow.
In the meantime, I am thrilled with a 20% increase in book sales and with being able to tap into more revenue from digital platforms.
We are promoting the latest issue of Cosmopolitan magazine with this display at the entrance to our main magazine aisle. We also have a pocket of Cosmo in the impulse unit out the front of the newsagency as well as a couple of pockets with women’s fashion titles. This placement gives the title coverage at three key yet quite separate touch points in the business.
Many of the street corners of Auckland have a newspaper vendor just like the one in the photo … located outside the Westfield Shopping Centre down by the harbor. They all look the same: well sign-posted, accessible, an easy way of buying a newspaper.
Passing so these newspaper stands reminded me that we have nothing like this (that I can think of at least) back in Australia.
They must work, otherwise why keep them there, the cost would be too great.
We have been promoting the latest issue of Burke’s Backyard with this display facing onto the dance floor since the on sale. While we have just moved the display you can see in the photo, we are still actively supporting the title with a beacon branding position (prime position) in with garden titles in our magazine department. During the rest of the on-sale we will also maintain a pocket with weeklies given that many magazine shoppers don’t go part this part of the magazine department.
Check out how one UK newsagent is dealing with the issue of declining margins:
Dear Customer.SUNDAY EXPRESS:
There comes a time in life when one has no other option but to put pen to paper, such time has certainly arisen.
Over the recent years the National Publishers have continually cut Newsagents terms whereby the normal profits of 28% have dwindled alarmingly in some cases today to a low 21%.
Even Wholesalers like Smiths News have introduced a carriage charge of £50 a week to retailers simply because Publishers have screwed their profits to a bear minimum and the carriage charge to us retailers is now the wholesaler’s main income.
However, the situations slowly worsen and the reason for this letter to you is to bring to your attention of the latest underhand methods of the Sunday Express boss Richard Desmond.
Desmond decided that when the News of the World went out of business he would reduce the selling price of the Sunday Express to ONE POUND (from £1.35p), in an effort to captivate the News of the World readers to his publication.
That’s fine, Mr Desmond can do what he wants with his own money, but the shock every retailer faced last weekend when Desmond informed all retailers by letter on Saturday morning he was taking 7p of Newsagents profits per copy to minimise the lost revenue!
Newsagents all over the Country are up in arms with the obnoxious attitude by this money tycoon, to make this decision without consultation with the retailers is simply unacceptable and many newsagents are refusing to handle the publication what’s so ever for this reason.
What will happen in the future no one seems to know at this time, but whilst we appreciate your custom and would never point the pistol at your head, it would be sincerely appreciated if you would pick an alternative Sunday Newspaper for the immediate future?
Should you still wish to continue with this publication please note in line with other retailers the Sunday Express will carry an additional 10p surcharge until Mr Desmond comes to commonsense and reimburse the retailers with the original profits.
Thank you in anticipation of your support,
Regards,
Brian Webb.
The Cadel Evans cover on New Idea and Woman’s Day out today is an excellent opportunity for newsagents, especially Victoria newsagents. We are placing it at the counter as well as with weeklies and on our impulse unit. The counter placement is key for leveraging interest in Cadel’s winning of the Tour de France.
There is a retail turf war breaking out to capture over the counter sales of eReaders in the US. Curiously, this is just in time for the Back to School market. Officemax is to sell the Nook eReader and Toys ‘R’ Us is to sell the Amazon Kindle.
As the devices have taken on more features, their prices have fallen and become, as headline News reported, closer to being impulse purchases. The article also points to a survey in the US indicating that 51% of families with kids at school planned on purchasing electronic devices this year.
With the move into mass market bricks and mortar retail, these items have gone from being for those who are online connected and savvy to being available everywhere like the pen and notepad.
Inside the latest issue of MasterChef magazine is a brief announcement about a MasterChef App. This is probably frustrating for newsagents but maybe smart for the publisher. Selling for $2.99, users of the App can access a digital version of the magazine with some extra features.
I say maybe smart because it could be that they have their pricing model wrong. Why discount the digital version when the people accessing this have demonstrated that they are prepared to pay for a premium access device? I am sure that NewsMags has thought this through. I’d love an insight into their strategy.
Whether the pricing model is right or not, newsagents need to get used to digital innovation like this from publishers.
The New Idea Masterclass title is selling well for us. Our tactical placement is attracting impulse purchases and our placement with food titles is attracting more considered purchases. We are also pitching the title as a gift idea. It’s mix of recipes is ideal for people looking for a good broad-based recipe book at a reasonable price.
Sometimes buy reading a new title you can find ways to promote it beyond treating it as just another magazine title. It certainly helps when talking with shoppers and answering questions about destination purchases they wish to make.
We have moved our Mastercook display this week to attract more new browsers.
When was the last time you reviewed theft management practices in your newsagency? It is something which should be done at least every six months.
Oh, and I don’t mean a soft review, I mean a serious review of business processes, a serious assessment of the employee theft risk you face, from the sales counter through the shop floor and into the back office.
Employee theft can kill a newsagency. It can sneak up and before you know it you are tens of thousands of dollars down, often more. Hundreds of thousands of dollars even. yes, I have seen this happen.
Sometimes it is not only businesses which are broken, marriages, too, suffer. The loss and trauma can be avoided or at least reduced.
Every week I hear of another employee theft situation. Through my software company I am often involved in gathering evidence for police prosecutors.
Here are seven steps which, if followed, will reduce the opportunity of employee theft in your newsagency.
You could also consider talking to your local police. They may have advice which is particularly relevant to your local area.
The more serious and consistent you are in managing the risk of employee theft in your retail business the more likely you are to reduce its impact on your business. The difficulty is that you will never know for sure.
I appreciate that it is difficult being tough in many retail environments, especially family centric businesses. Every newsagency is at risk, whether a family business or not. Treating employee theft as a genuine and high risk is essential if you are to mitigate the risk and protect your business asset.
This list reflects years of experience dealing with employee theft in newsagencies. Don’t be one of those newsagents who says to me I read your advice and thought it would never happen to me.
If you need help, call me. 0418 321 338.
It seemed like a good ideas at the time. We really thought these chess themed salt and pepper shakers would work. They haven’t. We have had them out for three weeks and that’s long enough in our view. We are currently on a program of price reductions to find the price point at which they do work. While the total cash exposure is not much more than $100, it’s a lesson in buying. As they say … you win some, you lose some. At least our humour toilet paper is selling well!
The current issue of Who magazine has a sampler for which goes on sale tomorrow. Sampling is an excellent way to introduce shoppers to a new title. The Feast sample is an excellent representation of what people can expect from the new magazine.
I’d encourage publishers to consider working with newsagents on the distribution of samplers of their titles. These would / should actively promote newsagents as go to places for the titles.
Any newsagent who is threatened with do business with us or we will come and compete directly with you ought to report this activity to the police as well as their state association. Write down the specific threat, who said it and when so that you can be certain when reporting it.
Fear and intimidation have no place in business let alone the Australian newsagency channel.
I recall when threats were made by one company to some newsagents a few years ago that if they did not sign up for their service they would put it into another business nearby. Newsagents outlasted the service.
If a business cannot win your business on the merits of its products or services then it does not deserve your business. Remember, you are the customer, not the servant.
I have written here previously about the online coupon phenomenon and in particular Groupon. I urge newsagents to go to Stardeals, the local Groupon website and sign up. It’s free. get a feel for a new digital advertising channel.
The Groupon model is tremendously successful overseas. I see the deals from a couple of cities in the US as well as for Melbourne. They are usually quite compelling.
Why do newsagents need to know? It’s important for us to see how some of our major competitors are using online mediums to attract shoppers.
Take a look at this excellent use of magazine posters. It creates a visual energy which is better than the usual flat placement of posters around a shop.
Rolling and standing posters like this presents a strong message about magazine range, that this business is a magazine specialist with a diverse offering.
Shoppers entering this newsagency could not miss the magazine display. I bet it leads to a nice kick in sales.
Well done to the team at newsXpress Eli Waters in Queensland for creating this.
While would be university students and their families will hunt down the latest VTAC Guide, the creative team at one of my stores is promoting the latest edition with this column based display in front of our magazine department.
I love this display a lot. It is set to drive incremental and faster sales of the VTAC Guide. With a long on-sale for this title we want to move plenty of stock in the first four weeks. This is our goal … the sooner we move the stock the better. This then gets us to a point where we have a choice whether we order and carry more stock.
We are promoting the latest issue of Who magazine and its Amy Winehouse cover with this respectful display on a column facing out into the shopping mall.
The folks at Who have created a tasteful cover for this tragic story.
Business is business … I think this issue will sell well.
I love Friday’s magazine delivery. It gives us an opportunity for a refresh of offers for the weekend. It also ensures a traffic boost as readers of the magazines which are published on a Friday visit for their fix.