The terrific coverage again this week for Annette Sym’s Symply Too Good To Be True cookbooks is a key reason for newsagents to pro mote these titles in a high profile location. It’s why there was a supply increase – to enable us to leverage the additional media coverage for Annette Sym and her healthy eating books.
We are still running our behind the counter promotion and promoting Take 5 in a good location to connect the two.
Check out this PBS Newshour video which puts the Google US$12.5B purchase of Motorola Mobility this week into context.
Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour.
Google is building its channel, gaining a stronger direct to the user relationship … just as Apple has done successfully much to the frustration of content makers such as book, magazine and music publishers and film producers.
A QLD newsagent received 11 copies of the latest issue of Australian Traveller magazine. They early returned 8 copies. They subsequently ordered four more copies because the issue had sold well. They should never have early returned the magazine, not right away at least. Three issues prior they sold 10 copies. While sales in their store are volatile, they had the evidence to know that early returning would likely lose them sales. At the very least they had not given this issue an opportunity to show what it could do. Early returning was not justified.
How do I know all this? … from a discussion on Twitter between the newsagency and publisher.
Some newsagents make ill-considered decisions on early returns which feed a self fulfilling prophecy and drives volatile sales.
A smart magazine manager would not have handled Australian Traveller in this way. I appreciate it may come across as harsh to say this about another newsagent. If we are to improve we have to call a spade a spade. It is dumb to take action which costs sales.
On Australian Traveller: promote it with your weeklies or women’s magazines as more women make travel decisions than men. For us, it was worked here as well as at the counter.
Of course, early returns are driven by magazine distributor behaviour around other titles. It’s no excuse, however, if we consider ourselves magazine specialists.
It’s not just Australian Traveller. Early returns is costing newsagents thousands of dollars in sales every week, maybe tens of thousands of dollars.
Fairfax has granted Victorian newsagents a delivery fee increase from September 5. The increase is 4.5% for subscription deliveries and up to 66.7% for newsagent direct (i.e. not subscription) deliveries. Given the continued heavy push by Fairfax for subscription deliveries, the 4.5% increase is what newsagents will see for much of their delivery business.
In a genuine open and competitive marketplace, publishers would not control the fee newsagents can charge. Publishers only want a deregulated marketplace for the bits which interest them.
I have been in Vietnam this week looking at retail and customer service in general as part of an Asian retail study tour. A couple of things stand out for me from what I have seen in several cities: customer service and cheerfulness.
The attentiveness of retail and service business employees is excellent. Not push. Just there with help and assistance in retail and in cafes. Just wonderful. I have been left feeling that they really do appreciate my business, that serving me is not a chore.
Underlying the service is a cheerfulness among retail and service business team members. It’s like they really love their jobs. It made me wonder whether we are breeding workers in in Australia who work in retail not because it’s a career but because it’s a means to an end – education, travel and the like.
Maybe I am wrong but I get a feeling that I have encountered more career retailers here in Vietnam than I encounter in retail in Australia. Sure there are career back room retailers but what about the shop floor. What is our mix of casual versus full time today compared to, say ten years ago.
One of the best books I read about working in retail and service was How Starbucks Saved My Life. I have written about it before. Sure it is a little, well, American, in parts. However, this book nails what we need in retail – employees who love their jobs because it is their choice to get up in the morning and take the job.
It’s what I have seen in my brief time in Vietnam, people who love their job and reflect this in the service they provide.
We are promoting Father’s Day with this display at the front of one of my newsagencies – facing out into the shopping mall.
The display is already working at attracting passers-by from the shopping mall into the newsagency. We are already seeing good sales of Father’s Day gifts and Father’s Day cards.
The signs are good a good season.
I love this display because it makes good use of the height of the entrance to the newsagency and because it pitches cards and gifts together. It’s bold and big and this pitches us well against other nearby retailers.
We are chasing growth in Father’s Day cards and gifts again this year over last year. I think that newsagents have an excellent opportunity with this season despite the doom and gloom in the media about retail. We have purchased gifts with an eye to value.
Check out the display for launch issue of The Art of Knitting partwork at another of my newsagencies. I love the textured engagement with the title by using wool. It makes for a different magazine display. The result is what you want from a display like this – excellent sales. Click on the image for a much larger version of the photo – it’s worth it.
Early next month, Coles opens what I am told is their most innovative supermarket yet. At Burwood East, at the revamped K-Mart centre, Coles is opening the latest in their new concept supermarkets. I’d urge newsagent to check it out. I will be.
The Coles transformation is extraordinary.
It begs the question, how are we transforming? This is an unfair questions for small independent retailers. But we should ask it nevertheless. How are we transforming?
Here are my personal thoughts reflected in my shopping centre based businesses as space and other opportunities permit:
In the meantime, if you’re in Victoria, get to Coles east Burwood when it opens in early September.
Supermarkets promote mobile phone SIM cards at the checkout. The photo is of a display unit at a Woolworths outlet I saw a few days ago.. They do this because grabbing incremental business from such promotions works. It’s something we should do. We have excellent traffic, as do supermarkets, and if they can drive incremental business from such tactical placement then we should be able to as well.
Newsagents not sure how to get into this space should talk with Jenlist. They can help with product as well as visual merchandising material.
The launch issue of Feast magazine has been performing well for us. In my own newsagencies it’s sold more than twice as many copies in the first week than we usually sell in a month of Delicious, Gourmet Traveller and MasterChef. Not that these comparisons are fair – it’s the launch issue, has been brilliantly promoted and it is targeting a different market, except maybe for Gourmet Traveller.
I could be wrong but I think that Feast will sell right through the on-sale. i.e. not in a burst with a sharp sales decay as we see for the higher volume monthlies. Frankie magazine is very much like this – selling well right up to the end of the month.
Titles which sell right through the on-sale are good as they provide us with impulse promotion opportunities which are not bunched up at the start of the on-sale.
I know of some newsagents who early returned Feast. It makes me wonder what they have missed. I can think of no reason to early return Feast yet.
The creative team at one of my newsagencies has gone for a very stylish look for the latest display promoting Cleo magazine. I really like this less is more approach. I think it’s more includes to be noticed than a display which uses just the posters and magazine covers. It is the type of change which will drive more interest in the title.
I wrote here recently about the challenges we are having selling the chess themed salt and pepper grinders. Not wanting to give up on a product in which they believe, our team found a way to make them look more appealing – by better connecting with the chess theme. This change in display has helped move some additional stock without deep discounting.
I was pleased to see the team try this more creative approach rather than the planned price reductions.
The Block magazine is proving to be a runaway success in newsagencies based on sales reports I have received. I’ve heard of sales in the first two days passing 20% in many newsagencies and some selling out. This one-shot is a hit! Indeed, there appears to be a problem getting extra stock.
The bad news for The Block magazine is that some newsagents early returned the title on Monday. Seriously!
I can’t think of a single reason any newsagent would want to return this title, especially not on the day of on-sale. especially given that Nine is running a TVC telling shoppers to buy the magazine from their local newsagent.
Maybe I am wrong but from where I sit, early returning The Block magazine is a dumb move. It’s another reason to not trade with the newsagency shingle.
Hopefully, this lost opportunity stock returned by these newsagents will quickly get to newsagents who have sold out and have been told by the publisher that there is no spare stock left.
UPDATE: (10:17am) More stock is being sent as part of SBR to stores based on their sales data. Netonline also has more stock now available.
I have been looking at sell through rate data for Commando Library, the small novella size magazines supplied through magazine distributor Gordon and Gotch. In one newsagency for which I have sell through rate data, this title achieves an average sell through of 40%. It’s a loss making title. Yet Gotch continues to supply.
The challenge with this title is the quantity supplied. The newsagency for which I have data (not one of mine) gets 2 copies of each issue. They never sell both and often sell none. I think that the newsagent needs to quit the title from the shelves and convert the regular customer, if there is one, to a putaway.
Newsagents need a way with which we can handle cutting a title like this and ensuring that a new title is not supplied to take its place – to help the magazine distributor to meet its financial budget.
So, how is Commando Library performing in your business? It could be a title you want to kill if your sales are like those in the newsagency I have just received data from.
We have been enjoying excellent sales with the Angry Birds plush range in my stores. It has worked brilliantly at the counter as well as part of a feature plush gift display. In the photo we have it in one of my stores as part of a Father’s Day promotion. This makes sense given that the Angry Birds game is being played by people of all ages including dads.
I love that we have such a trendy product in our mix as this demonstrates relevance. It also attracts shoppers to the newsagency who might otherwise pass us by.
We have gone for Angry Birds plush of different sizes so that we can pitch to different price points. This has worked a treat.
We are promoting the re issue of the Art of Knitting with this display which faces shoppers as they enter the newsagency.
While some newsagents are concerned about the reissue of partworks I’m not. We are now on our third order of the issue 1 of the reissue of Real Life Bugs. We expect to sell out of this – that will take us to sales of three times the initial allocation.
I expect the Art of Knitting to be a hit. It’s being backed by TV and it has excellent market awareness off of which to build from the first time around.
We are promoting Real Living magazine with this in-location display as well as a billboard display. The in-location display will be up for the entire on-sale and the billboard display will be up for a week. Real Living recorded a sales lift in the last audit. This should encourage newsagents to promote the title.
These in-location displays work a treat for us in driving incremental business. Indeed, they are my preferred magazine display given that the promote the usual location of the magazine and drive good sales – based on historic sales data.
The iPad and other tablet devices are impacting newsagency businesses in a number of ways operationally as well as at the sales counter.
In response to a comment here, here are my thoughts on the impact of the iPad and similar devices.
How the iPad can impact operationally on a newsagency:
How the iPad is impacting on newsagency sales:
Ideally I would spend a couple of hours presenting about this at a conference or meeting, teasing out each of these and other points. The notes above are just some of the highlights. I hope they satisfy the interest of people here.
I’d love other newsagents to share here how they are using their iPad in their business.
Famous magazine had another good sales audit. Sales were up 2.2%. Sales of NW were down 13.14% in the same period.
I think that it’s reasonable for us to look at Famous and wonder what else we can do to boost the title. Clearly, it’s a favourite with shoppers. This makes it low hanging fruit in my view. So, what are you doing to grab your share of sales growth?
Co-location at the counter or with newspapers are two steps which you could easily take.
While there is also a reasonable case for us to push competitor NW (and we do), it’s easier to promote a title already enjoying growth.
Kudos to Helen McCabe and the team at The Australian Women’s Weekly for their latest sales audit result.
To achieve a decline of only .4% in a market which recorded an overall decline of 5.3% is an excellent result.
It is challenging to change a product as well established and loved as The Australian Women’s Weekly. The sales numbers suggest that the editorial and publishing team are heading in the right direction.
They have made some non-traditional cover choices recently as part of their pursuit of younger readers.
Accounting for close to 500,000 copies sold per issue, we need AWW to be strong and healthy. This latest audit is a good sign.
We are leveraging the continuing glow of the Cadel Evans win of the Tour de France with this co-location promotion of cycling titles at the sales counter.
Cadel’s visit to Melbourne late last week extended the interest in all things cycling from what my friends in bike shops tell me so it makes sense for newsagents to pitch cycling magazines at the counter to drive sales.
We will continue this support for cycling titles for a while – until it ceases to work for us in terms of incremental business.
We are promoting The Block one shot in each of my newsagencies. The respective teams have done a terrific job – if I do say so myself. They are using the title to leverage advertising and pull traffic and to drive impulse business with high impact as well as tactical displays.
In this terrific display, one of my stores is promoting The Block on the column facing into the shopping mall, leveraging excellent out of store traffic. Click on the image for a larger version. I love the additional visual merchandising materials they have employed (from the Reject Shop) to bring the display to life.
In this display, in another of my stores, they have a main counter based display for The Block which they have kicked up with additional creative collateral created in-store to connect with the theme of the TV show (a block of homes) and the magazine. Again, click on the image for a larger version.
Given that ACP is promoting that this title is available in newsagencies, I’d encourage all newsagents to get behind it.