Gifts

Check out this fun products.  It’s a stress ball shaped and packaged to look like an over-sized Viagra tablet.  It’s a bit of fun and shoppers see it as this,  a good laugh.  Surprisingly, it works as impulse item.  It is something unexpected to find in a newsagency.  Having fun products on the shop floor brings fun to the business and helps customers leave with a smile (no pun intended).

The GNS Market Fair is on in Sydney this weekend.  It it follows the Perth event last weekend it will be busy.  It was terrific catching up with Western Australian newsagents.  The second trade show this weekend is the Gift Fair and Home and Giving trade show combination in Melbourne.  This is a five day event.  If the Melbourne fair is the same as last year, we will see several hundred newsagents through.

My software company, Tower Systems will be at both.  In NSW we have 651 newsagents using our software so the Market Fair will be busy with existing customers as well as newsagents keen to switch.  At the Home and Giving Fair in Melbourne the newsagents we will see will be in gift mode – quite a different head space to if they were at a newsagency trade show.  We will also get to see plenty of gift, homewares, garden and other retailers.  This can be existing as we get to talk retail outside our usual niche …  it’s a wonderful learning opportunity.

I am not comparing both trade shows as they are very different in terms of focus and the type of event.  I hope that the Melbourne event does not pull traffic from the GNS Fair.

It took less than a week for us to just about sell out of our new range of Super Mario plush … offering more evidence of the value of selling popular brand related products.  What an excellent result! What was most interesting about this small range is the new traffic it drew.  It was on a display facing out into the shopping mall.  People walking past noticed and approached the display.  Once they picked up an item you had them in most cases. The shoppers most often drawn to the Super Mario product were Gen X – players of the game.

I was uncertain about this product.  It has sold much better (faster) than I expected. Once again there is the lesson – I am not my customer.

Yesterday saw even more newsagents at the Home & Giving fair at Homebush and the Gift Fair at Darling Harbour in Sydney.  This is terrific.  It feels like newsagent attendance numbers are significantly up on last year.  I will be interested to see if there is an impact on the traditional newsagency trade shows later in the year.

Newsagents wanting to get into gifts should consider getting to Sydney this weekend to the Gift Fair and the Home & Giving Fair.  Both fairs are excellent events packed with products which many newsagents already have good success with.

Take your time walking around the fair. Visit all venues.  If you are new to having a gift department, focus on products which work well together to provide you with a point of difference.

Don’t spend any money until the second day at least. Remember that you are not your customer and that your customers are probably not your colleague’s customers.

I’ll be at the Home & Giving Fair on Saturday on the Tower Systems stand and on Monday walking the halls of the Reed Gift Fair and at a catch up drinks on Monday night.

Many newsagents still do not have a gift department in their businesses even though gifts is one of the strongest performers in the sales benchmark studies.

Gifts usually deliver a better margin, drive good impulse business from existing customers and attract new traffic.

I know of newsagencies where the gift department is the defining point of difference department for the business – financially and in terms of Yes, the opportunity is considerable.

When I see a newsagency without a gift department and ask why, the most common answer is … I don’t know where to start. Here are some tips on how to start with gifts in your newsagency…

1. Carefully assess your greeting card sales. Many cards are purchased for occasions at which a gift would be given.  If you are particularly strong in a certain gift occasion then consider this as an ideal starting point of establishing your gift department.
2. Consider joining the AGHA (Gift and Homewares Association).  For a small fee, membership gets you access to an excellent database of suppliers.
3. Look at gift shops nearby, take note of what appears to be working and not.
4. Establish space within your store.  This needs to be near the card department and near high traffic.
5. Go to Gift Fairs.  Don’t buy unless you have a plan.  Spend at least the first visit looking carefully at what is around.

There is no doubt that creating a gift department has its challenges.  It is a significant step away from the protected world of sale or return retailing.  You need to be prepared to back yourself.

I have seen newsagents take a couple of years to access a reasonable return.  Others have been successful almost immediately.  It all depends on the work you put in prior to making your move and the extent of your investment.

Gifts present an excellent growth opportunity for newsagents and a good use of space reclaimed from older categories.  Gifts also fit well with the consumer perception of the traditional Australian newsagency.

We have sourced a better range of bands than magazine distributor Network Services sent newsagents last week.  The range is broader, better priced, better packaged and offers a better margin.  The look stunning on slatwall.  The range is bigger than in the photo.

The supplier of the bands sent by Network ought never have been given access to the newsagency channel.

We moved this display of the Hoops and YoYo gift lines to the front of the store on Friday for the weekend and the impact was immediate.

Not only was the product selling, it was attracting shoppers as they walked past us in the mall.  Kids are women are particularly attracted to this range based on what I observed – they love that these products are interactive.  I love the new traffic the range is drawing.

While we cannot give everything we sell time at the front of the store facing into the mall, we have enough well known and popular brands with which to attract passers-by.

We are promoting the Hallmark The Night Before Christmas recordable storybook at one end of out mall outpost at Forest Hill.  The oversized display book is drawing good attention and generating sales.  Shoppers recognise this because of the considerable TV coverage from advertising and program coverage in the last week.  This innovative product from Hallmark creates a whole new product category which is easy for us to leverage thanks to the considerable advertising and PR support from Hallmark.  It’s nice when a customer spends $29.95 on impulse in addition to their destination purchases.