Gifts

Some newsagents think adding gifts to their business is the solution to turning their business around, to making it more successful. Too many of these business owners are making mistakes in the gift category, mistakes that cost the business dearly.

Here are 5 common mistakes I have seen newsagents make with gifts:

• Stocking products with a low price point. Many newsagents I have spoken with focus on gifts that cost no more than $50, some have a price cap of $20. By self-imposing a price cap you restrict what you can sell, you hold your business back from what it may be able to achieve. Time and again I have seen newsagents shocked at what they are able to sell when they offer items priced higher, even at $500 and more. Rarely when a newsagent says of a product it will never sell here are they right.
• Buying what you like. You are not your customer, no matter how much you may think you are. The only way to find out if something sells is to try it. The only way to attract new shoppers is with products your business is not known for and you pitching these outside the business. You need to buy from non traditional channels, away from gift fairs, away from businesses like Market Hub.
• Buying from suppliers who supply newsagents. Newsagent suppliers have a channel bias that focuses their attention on easy sales to the channel. Many of them like spinners or floor display units that come with a stock weight (volume) that is inappropriate for the retailer and that pitches products selfishly for the supplier and inappropriately for the retailer. A supplier who says they do not supply newsagents is more likely to offer product through which you can attract new shoppers and make better gross profit.
• Buying from traditional suppliers. Like card companies selling gifts. It’s so 1980s, often late to the party product. Let the traditional suppliers stick to their traditional product. Be wary of products pitched as being successful in newsagencies.
• Displaying products poorly. Retail today is about the treasure hunt, drawing a shopper in from the front door into the shop further and further. This is done with a through fully crated range displayed in edited displays. By this I mean displays with one or two of each item focussed on a theme and not a particular supplier. Suppliers, of course, want all their products together. For some products this makes sense. For most, though, it does not.

Being successful with gifts takes hard work every day. It’s uncomfortable work initially because you’ll be playing outside what you know. It’s important you do that as it is the only way to find a commercially successful path that works for you.

If your annual gift revenue is less than two times your total annual card revenue you’re not even close to what you can achieve with gifts. That’s a starting point benchmark I use.

If your average gift product price point is below $50.00, it is likely you are far from reaching your potential.

If you are buying from suppliers who focus primarily on newsagents, it is likely you are not reaching your potential.

Your success with gifts is 100% on you. It’s a category in your business over which you have complete control.

Reach out if you’d like help. mark@newsxpress.com.au.

Footnote: I know of some newsagents who hold back on what they do with gifts because of other retailers nearby. Your only obligation is to those who rely on your business to fund shelter and put food on the table. Even if you have a gift shop nearby, I guarantee you will have access to tens of thousands of gifts they do not stock. Don’t be limited by your shingle or a misplaced feeling for another local business. Put yourself first.

We did well with Jellycat, Squishmallows and other sugar-free treats this Easter. Card sales were excellent and customers loved the gift bags too. Our social media posts helped attract shoppers. Here are couple of the ready to go gifts we offered.

Wedding season,  is something our channel can easily own thanks to some awesome suppliers of bridal charms, keepsakes and more. Shoppers who find what hey want will tell others. The word of mouth for this is terrific. Customers also respond to social media posts. People buying these buy cards, bags and more. Such value there for the taking.

Like I said, this is a category our channel can own.

If you are in a marketing group, check their suppliers as wedding shopping is well under way. It’s a Winter bonus.

I’m so glad for the partnership between newsXpress and the Royal Australian Mint. These $10 Christmas ornament gifts will be a massive hit.

Coins have all but sold out since the death of the Queen and there is no indication off this slowing.

From a basket perspective, coin shoppers are valuable, often purchasing other items in-store, or online is that opportunity presents on the website.

Click here for the Reed Gift Fair registration. This runs Feb. 19 through 22.

Click here for the AGHA Gift Fair registration. This runs Feb. 18 through 21.

Life Instyle will run alongside the Reed Fair, in the same location.

These events will be the first major gift fair / retail trade shows in almost two years. I expect them to be full with suppliers and visitors as we all looks for business refresh opportunities.

I am keen to see fresh ideas and fresh products from suppliers.

If you are planning on attending, book now as accomodation is filling and prices are still pretty good.

We are seeing growth on thank you cards and gifts this Christmas. It’s a valuable segment of Christmas related purchases with these thank you shoppers often buying for several people at once. Having the easy gift and a card helps win the business. We target this shopper on socials as well as in-store with tactical placement.

Covid is certainly the key factor in growth in this segment this year. You hear it in conversations with customers.

While other Christmas gift segments such as Kris Kringle and teacher are strong, it’s the thank you gift segment that is stronger this year.

What I especially like about thank you gifts is that the gift price can vary more than in other segments, wallowing a broader pitch to this shopper.

2021 has seen terrific growth in sales of products featuring indigenous art. From bags to purses, wallets to folders, cards to Christmas baubles, indigenous art has been a real feature of sales in our newsagency this year.

I love it.

I am especially grateful for the clear acknowledgement by suppliers of the artists involved.

We have been fortunate to source a good range of products across multiple categories and from several suppliers to serve this growing area of shopper interest.

We first noticed growth in interest on social media last year when we posted about a product. we leveraged those insights and continue, well over a year later, to see interest and sales growth continue.

Sure, this is commercially good for us. It is good, too, for the artists with their work on products we sell.

Products featuring indigenous art speak to those keen to support shop local.

I was at the Sydney Gift Fair a few weeks ago representing newsXpress, the newsagency marketing group I own. I connected with several suppliers in niches not well represented in the newsagency channel.

The good news is that each has agreed to supply newsXpress stores. While this is good news for newsXpress members, it is good news for the suppliers as it opens their unique products to a new retail channel.

That the suppliers quickly got on board is a change. In the past, prospective suppliers have taken months to agree to sell into the newsagency channel, primarily because of how they remember newsagency shops and not because of what they see plenty of them as today.

The other interesting factor here is the price range. Most of the new products are priced at $100 to $500. While our channel has historically done well at the low end gift and homewares price point, we have not done as well as we could at the higher price point end. Hopefully that is changing.

Epay has a gift card program that may interest some newsagents. I’m sharing it here as the company is not great at communication. Click here for the brochure, which I also include below as an image. Click here for the interactive application form. Both documents have only just been released by Epay.

This post, by the way, is not me endorsing the gift cards. I offer it merely as a service, based on questions from newsagents.

The Centenary of Rotary in Australia 2021 $1 Coloured Uncirculated Coin is a hit. Indeed, it is a sell out to the point that supply has fallen well short of demand, which is a good thing. It’s proving to be a terrific success. We managed limited supply by limiting how many each customer could purchase.

From The Royal Australian Mint, the coin has a mintage of 40,000 and is available in a limited mix of retailers.

What I like about this coin and other special interest coins from the Mint is that each launch introduces new collectors and they can be valuable customers to find.

The mint coin category can be worth $20,000 and more in a newsagency with capital investment in space and inventory modest. The key is social media engagement as that is how you find new shoppers.

The Melbourne Gift & Lifestyle Fair will be held 20 – 22 March, 2021, at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre. Registrations are now open.

This trade show presents opportunities retailers in the gift and homewares spaces have missed for the last year.

I like that this is a three day trade show. Three days is a good amount of time, not too long. Here are the times:

• Saturday March 20, 9.30am to 5pm
• Sunday March 21, 9.30am to 5pm
• Monday March 22, 9.30am to 4.30pm

I like that retailers will have an opportunity for buying in a tactile environment and will be able to talk through questions around timing and logistics challenges.

This trade show has an opportunity to be a hit. I certainly plan to attend, along with plenty of other retailers I know who are keen.

Click here for a flyer about the event.

Reed announced a delay two months today:

This week has been pivotal in our planning for the upcoming Reed Gift Fairs event, scheduled for 20-23 February 2021. Unfortunately, it has become clear that the recent COVID-19 outbreaks are having an impact on our community sentiment.

Prior to these recent outbreaks of COVID-19, we were optimistic that Reed Gift Fairs Sydney would run safely and successfully next month. While we continue to have permission to operate the event under our detailed covid-safe plan with the venue and NSW government, with many of our community based interstate, border closures now mean they may be unable to attend in February. As a result, Reed Exhibitions has taken the difficult decision to revise the show timing and with this in mind, we will be moving Reed Gift Fairs Sydney to the new dates of 17- 20 April 2021, co-located with Life Instyle at the ICC Sydney.

While we understand that this is disappointing news for all concerned, we have as always, built a contingency plan to ensure that we are still able to support our customers over the coming months. Although the impacts of COVID-19 will be with us for longer than anyone may have originally expected, it is imperative that we work together to get back to business in the best way possible.

Why April?

A survey to our retailers at the end of last year showed a strong need for a Sydney show in 2021, with 75% indicating that April would be the preferred alternative month that would allow them to still achieve their business objectives, if we were prevented from running in our usual February dates. Additionally, not only does it give us another 8 weeks for the current pandemic conditions to come under control, it also does not sit too far outside the traditional buying period for many of our customers.

Reed Exhibitions remains committed to helping our exhibitors and retailers transact in these difficult times. Therefore, we are offering you a digital solution from February and a face-to-face solution in April. To help bridge the gap between now and April and to ensure we are still supporting your business sourcing needs during the traditional February buying period, we will proceed with the release of our Big Book – Digital Edition, along with our online Exhibitor Directory as scheduled. 

Further information will be shared in the coming weeks and we hope to see you in April. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Service Team on 02 9422 8686.

We thank our community once again for all of your patience and encouragement during this time and we look forward to your continued support over the coming months.

Not proceeding in February was the only option from a couple of weeks ago.

Sales of tea towels and related products have been excellent these last six months. Early data indicate the success is continuing, for plenty of stores.

Often, 2 and 3 are purchased in a transaction and half purchases are males for themselves, because they like the designs. Some even said they would put the tea towel in a frame for their man cave.

For what it’s worth, my take on the success is that it is due to:

• Unexpected. We are not a destination tea towel / apron / oven mitt shop so when they see them it is a surprise, they are noticed.
• Design. The designs are fresh, fun and local.
• Postable. Postable gifts have been very popular.
• Telling a story. Within some ranges, like the one featured here, there are multiple products that work well together, enabling a shopper to tell a story, completing a gift to a target value.
• Price does not matter. You know you have a winning product when shoppers are not curious about the price.

FYI the photo is from my own high street store, from a couple of days ago.

Here is same store year on year data looking at candle and fragrance sales for April 2020 versus 2019 in 13 different newsagency businesses. City and country are in the mix. High street situation mainly.

The surge in sales of candles makes sense given the growth in sales of Home and Living category titles.

The growth had no location or business size limits. That’s code for anyone can grab candle and fragrance revenue growth for your business.

Now, to qualify my claim that anyone can do this … candles and fragrances work when pitched with context. Context can be in the form of a broader range of products, product knowledge, local sourcing and more.

Products put out without context tend to not work.

Yes, success in retail takes work.

As you can see from the first store in the list – they were already well established in this category. That said, I’d not complain about the 2% growth as in their specific situation, with shopping centre challenges, this category did well for them in a tough month.

What any retailer can sell beyond what they usually sell can restricted by what is thought to be possible.

This small front of store dog and cat range is working a treat at attracting shoppers to the business. It’s an unexpected pitch for the business. The range includes some homewares as well as dog fashion – bandanas.

We were not concerned about product price point when choosing product as we are not of the view that we can only sell low price point gifts.

Every time we play outside what is expected from the business we find new shoppers, which is mission critical in retail today.

The opportunities to play outside what is expected are endless given the broad range of suppliers from which we can draw products.

This rabbit is one of 4 in the shop on show for Easter, each a different colour, playing in a more premium space for this small but important season. Artist designed and hand made in Europe, this rabbit is an interesting counter talking point and unlike other Easter offers in the mall of 300 shops. It’s also a photo op with people who like how unique it is.

The more we play away from what is usual the better the opportunity for us to be surprised with new traffic and revenue.

Gifts that can be easily posted with a card, like these Christmas 2019 mint coins from the Royal Australian Mint, work well at the counter in-store as well as on social media.

There are other gifts too, which can be easily posted, such as small format gift books, badges, tokens and more.

Plenty of people are keen for a gift they can post, something they are proud to give, which can be posted with a card, especially at Christmas.

I am particularly interested in gifts that people rarely see at a newsagency counter. That is why I like the Royal Mint coins so much. They are a genuine point of difference – driving impulse purchases and attracting new shoppers.

Differentiating is key.

We are having terrific success with the Hallmark Keepsake ornaments this year and we are still 12 weeks from Christmas. By terrific, I mean revenue that is about to hit what we did all of last year through the season. This is a niche product that people travel for – it broadens the catchment area of the business, thanks to online.