kikki.K is making its mark in Hong Kong with store openings in good locations. Their approach is as consistent as in Australia. Emotionally pitched displays in their windows and in-store. Retail in Hong Kong is competitive and displays are high-end. The kikki.K offer is competitive and fits in the busy city. Here is the Mother’s Day themed window display I saw at the Times Square outlet.
Mother’s Day can be pretty boring when it comes to gifts in newsagencies and gift shops. There is the usual run of photo frames, plaques, mugs and inspirational books and while they serve a purpose, they are easy gifts, the sorts of gifts you can get from any store.
We have sought out more unique gifts, like this quirky book “How it works” – The Mum. It explains what the mum is and how it works, in a retro style. The book is a ton of fun.
We have the book as a centrepiece gift in our large Mother’s Day gift display as we like the statement it makes about us the gifts shoppers will find.
It is a thrill when someone picks up the book and has a laugh. That’s when you know you have a winner of a product.
Further to my post below. While it does not work in regional and rural towns, the local editions of Monopoly are a treat for businesses in the cities covered – not only for local shoppers but also as gifts for visitors when they arrive or leave. Sometimes we have to show and tell customers what to buy and why as not all its,ms are purchased for one reason.
Further to a discussion here, I decided to publish updated newsagency performance benchmark targets, to reflect the rapidly changing nature of our channel. These are some of the benchmarks I have provided to newsXpress members, but not all.
I say rapidly changing nature of our channel because that is what we are seeing. The traffic mix is changing as is the mix of what successful newsagents sell.
The benchmarks below are guidelines. They are subject to change as the suggested business model evolves.
It is important to have a goal, a target and that is what these benchmarks represent in my view:
These benchmark figures don’t all need to be considered together. You can pick one, measure, work on it, measure and adjust as the numbers indicate. The goal is to continually improve to pass the benchmark and work on the next.
I acknowledge these benchmarks are not close to what newsagent associations have recommended or would recommend. My focus is on the future whereas their focus tends to be on old-school products and services. Success in the future comes from diverging dramatically from the past including past benchmarks.
If you have any questions about any benchmark, please contact me. I’d be glad to help.
The Reed Sydney Gift Fair and the Home and Giving Fair kick off today. For plenty it will be a busy few days, up to five for some, navigating the two fairs, looking for new product opportunities.
Change is what people will be looking for, significant change. Differentiation from what we have done in the past is important as is differentiation from what other retailers with which we compete is important.
If you can get to the fairs and have not planned to do so yet, I urge you to go. For inspiration alone it will be well worthwhile.
I will be there for Tower Systems and for newsXpress. Anyone who wants to catch up can call me on 0418 321 338.
In terms of preparing for the fairs, I know newsXpress published two weeks ago a guide to the fairs along with maps and supported by on the ground buying assistance from a team of merchandise experts, ensuing exclusive deals are understood. This is supplemented by a couple of social activities for networking among member newsagents. I expect the other marketing groups will have offered the same services to their members. It is at large fairs like this that marketing groups can show off their point of difference and demonstrate value of membership.
It was a thrill to spend two days at the New York Toy Fair this week. Serving a US domestic market of $22B, you can imagine the scale of this event.
Covering 415,00 square feet and covering a broad range of segments, this trade show was extraordinary for its size, the range of products covered, the nature of supplier engagement and the fresh ideas revealed.
While clearly aimed at national buyers there were plenty of small business representatives there. There was a strong Australian contingent too. I ran into a couple of other Aussie retailers as well as several wholesales representatives.
Looking back on my photos on the flight home, I took more at this trade show than any of the six international trade shows I have attended already this year. I have been inspired on product range, visual merchandising, marketing and innovation. The inspirations will play out in what I do over the next couple of months.
While I expect the Toy Fair in Melbourne next month to be good, it cannot compare to the New York experience because of the sheer size difference between our markets. There are plenty of opportunities from New York I know we will see in Australia in the coming months. The race is on.
I am grateful to have been at the Spring Fair in Birmingham last week. This is the biggest card / gift / homewares fair for the UK – over twelve massive halls, some with their own side hall extensions. Our largest fair in Australia is tiny by comparison.
In the greeting card space alone there were between 40 and 50 companies with creative product on display.
The halls are arranged by product category, making comparison easy and intensifying the competition.
The Fair was insightful in that I could see what some of our local distributors do not pick up for the Australian marketplace. It also introduced me to suppliers not represented in Australia and, of particular interest, product lines not currently available in Australia that could work well.
I especially appreciated spotting trends that I can expect to hit Australia in the second half of this year and into next.
Being able to connect with brands we already sell was terrific as it builds relationships not only for my but for the Australian distributors.
While I appreciate it is challenging for retailers to travel overseas for shows like this, I encourage people to consider it sad the insights are truly worthwhile for immediate business and into the future thanks to stronger business relationships.
While I have a bag of brochures and a stack of business cards to work through I have already connected several suppliers with local Australian distributors. I was not at the fair to source product to direct import but rather facilitate relationships that make it easier for me to buy what I like from Australian distributors.
I am excited for the opportunities I have seen as they will help continue to evolve the retail model that used to be called a newsagency.
From what I could tell, the attendees were mainly specialty gift, homewares, toy and garden retailers. I did not notice any newsagent attendees.
The Melbourne Gift Fair this weekend is the first of the year. It is a small fair with a reputation for nothing that new given the major fairs overseas releasing new products are happening around now. While I’ll attend the fair, if it is like last year I do not expect to discover too many opportunities I am not across.
I would be interested to hear if others are attending.
Here is an on-trend Valentine’s pitch that I saw earlier this week. It is aimed at the 18 to 35 year old from a small card and gift shop situated outside the city, in a high street location. I am sharing the photo so people can compare their offer. Sometimes, thoughtful product selection for a display is the best way to attract the right shopper into the business.
I am grateful for the opportunity to walk the many floors across the three buildings of the Atlanta gift fair last last week. While there were plenty of suppliers with the squall products, there were some exciting new products to see along with new approaches to retail and visual merchandising.
This year was different to last year with suppliers more keen to do business. For example, within 24 hours of meeting with a supplier I received an email from them. This is not usually the case. – no, they wait for the long show to end and then do the follow up. The more attentive response this year indicates a keenness in a tough marketplace.
What is fascinating about the show is the range of what constitutes gifts. In Australia we are bound by what the buyers of our wholesalers select. Getting to Atlanta I get to see what those buyers miss. It is fascinating and can open to opportunities.
Every newsagent with a gift department needs to continue ti evolve the offer. They need to decide what their specialisation is. The days of being a general gift store are gone. Price is an issue too. Restricting yourself to lower price gifts could deny you destination traffic that could be valuable. In fact, at Atlanta I saw many opportunities for specialisation that could work in newsagencies.
Country newsagents are especially fortunate in the gift space as they tend to have the retail space and captive market to work well for them.
The fair itself is attended primarily by women 35+. Our group of three guys with funny accents was a bit out of place. But since Americans love a good accent we were able to charm our way to some cool stands.
Here are my top five takeaways:
I have more than 300 photos from the fair. Here is a small selection to reflect some what I enjoyed.
The free gift of a tub of Nivea cellular anti-age day cream with Prevention magazine is terrific. We are displaying the gift with the magazine. But we have deep enough shelves for this to work. In more regular magazine fixtures and in the magazine wave wall fixtures this issue would not hold up well.
A couple of newsagents contacted me saying they had removed the gift. While I understand their need to do this, it means the gift cannot help drive sales.
This is another example of challenges presented by some gift with purchase campaigns.
This Star Wars robotic talking, moving R2D2 droid has been a hit with last-minute Christmas shoppers with nine being snapped up in a couple of days.
We brought it in once we knew the majors had sold out, leaving us with a blue ocean opportunity. Plenty of shoppers have been relieved to find it in the newsagency this week. Our social media marketing helped attract people who have not shopped with us.
Selling gifts at $200 and more is easy with the right product. Our most expensive item sold this Christmas cost $500. The customers are thrilled.
With Christmas all but done, I can note Perfect Petzzz have been our hero of the season, delivering thousands of dollars in high margin sales in the newsagency.
Customers often purchased more than one at a time. Others would come back to purchase more one they showed family and friends how the dogs and cats breathed.
Being the only retailer nearby with the range drove excellent new traffic.
All we did to promote the range was to place a video on Facebook showing a dog breathing. Within a couple of hours of the video being posted we sold our first two pets. Now, a couple of months on, we are selling out of our fourth shipment.
Every Christmas there is a different hero product. This year it is these Perfect Petzzz. The results have been stunning – not only for the products themselves but the many allied products we have for dog and cat lovers.
As this range was a newsXpress promoted range it was appropriate I not provide free access to the insights until the end of the season.
People watching is a pastime I suspect many working in retail enjoy. I do.
I am fascinated by people who purchase religious cards and items at Christmas and Easter, especially people who tell you I’m not religious, when they male the purchase. I have had several people say this, almost as an apology, during the transaction.
I find it fascinating. But when you think about it, the nativity scene or the item in the phone could be to them like a star or an angel for the tree – more about tradition than the religious nature of the item.
Religious cards sell very well. Indeed, we always sell out of them first – which is odd for a country where 22% of the population claim, in the census, to have no religion.
I would love to hear others comment on this and the sale of religious cards and gifts more generally.
Christmas is the best time of the year for the newsagency channel to shine for the sale of premium pens. Shoppers think of newsagencies first for these ideal Christmas gift items. We need to leverage the opportunity – online and in-store.
I am promoting premium pens on Facebook – reminding our customers and others locally that we are the destination retailer for premium pens.
This is an example where a small spend online can generate traffic at Christmas and remind people of products for which we are the ideal destination retailers.
Being able to serve this opportunity depends on good buying and and practical placement in-store to make the most of the opportunity.
This post is a reminder: place your premium pens in an ideal location and pitch them on Facebook.
I love this display of teacher gifts at the counter of a newsagency in Cairns I visited on Monday. I love the mix, the placement and the layout. I also love the circular nature of the display as it makes shopping the display easy.
Teacher gift giving season is an opportunity for newsagents to own more so than other retailers. Doing this starts with a terrific range of products tactically displayed as in the case in this Cairns business.
For years I have included a targeted occasion-focussed gift offer with cards in my newsagencies. The actual occasion gifts pitched vary over time with seasons. The range also can vary based on card location and placement changes.
The placement of gifts here in the card department, as you can see in this photo I took yesterday – works as it breaks the sea of colour in cards and also invites shoppers to contemplate a gift purchase with the card.
Cards generate excellent traffic for us and it is important we leverage this with occasion appropriate cards placed to leverage that traffic. One way to do this is to allow room in your card space allocation to achieve the impulse add-on purchase.
Of course, this is different to the front of store work using gifts as their own net new traffic driver – that is a separate strategy.
With the Reject Shop, Coles, eight discount variety stores, Target, K-Mart and twelve gift shops in the centre, it is important our Christmas pitch is different otherwise price is what people compare. This owl is part of a unique range of premium Christmas decorations we have this year. It is working a treat. The owl reflects our view that competing starts with product sourcing.
I have written here several times encouraging newsagents to promote selected small plush items in the card department, outlining how this low-cost up-sell pitch is easy to implement.
This is something we have been doing for more than two years. We keep doing it because it is successful. I am surprised more newsagents do not do this. As I noted, it is easy and low-cost.
The placement also works at attracting shoppers to the card department when they notice the small plush items. So, it drives plush sales as well as card sales.
Our most recent engagement with the tactic is by promoting new Beanie Kids from Korimco with new parent and new baby cards in the card department. It is working a treat.
It s vitally important we make the most of every opportunity in our newsagencies. Deeper baskets, increased margin dollars per purchase, are key factors to success. We achieve this by working every opportunity possible.
The Reed Sydney Gift Fair is only two and a half hours old and already it is busy. In fact, busier than expected for a Saturday. That show itself, while smaller than most others for the year, is good. I have walked the whole floor and there is plenty to see. Several suppliers are using this show to pitch model line refreshes and extensions in the run up to Christmas.
What is interesting is this is a local trade show – pretty much NSW only businesses, from right across the state.
It is also the sort of show you can do in a few hours and that seems to be appealing.
Here is proof that what I wrote a few days ago about graduation is true for newsagents. We have sold three Graduation Beanie Kids from this location in the card department in the last week. A tiny investment in a fixture, placement with cards and it we are achieving easy add-on revenue.
With the graduation cards being the destination purchase, we have brought the bonus opportunity to the shopper rather than expecting them to walk the shop looking for the add-on.
Newsagency businesses are full of add-on purchase opportunities – and those that are not ought to be. Leveraging them starts with basket data assessment to understand basket revenue extension opportunities.
If you are reading this and think it sounds too hard, it is not, ask your marketing group for help or copy my idea.
If you think it won’t work in your newsagency, you are wrong – thoughtful placement of impulse purchase lines can work anywhere if you offer the right product with the right execution.
This is another example of how we can make our own success trough simple cost effective moves.
In a recent episode of Family Feud on Network Ten the top answer to the question name something your would expect to find in a joke shop was Whoopee Cushion. This fun product from decades ago is still popular. But it not a destination product – so we take the product to the people with placement at the counter. Some purchase it on impulse as a prank gift while others purchase for nostalgia. Either way, the Whoopee Cushion is a good item to have in the newsagency – and at the counter from time to time.
I am finding more success with items like this at the counter than old-school lines such as confectionery you can find at convenience stores and supermarkets.
Graduation Gifts sell all through the year with people purchasing for more than what has been traditional. We now pitch graduation gifts all year round. One successful engagement is this placement of the Korimco graduation Beanie Kid with cards. It is the right size and price point to be purchased as an add-on to the card.
What I have described here is action we can take in our shops to chase above-average performance.
The average approach to graduation gifts is to concentrate these toward the end of the school year and to promote them together, usually away from the cards.
My suggestion in this blog post is to promote them through the year and to pitch some of them in with your card fixtures. By doing this you are guiding your customers to make a more valuable purchase.
Here are some examples of all year graduation gift opportunities: a puppy graduating from obedience school, someone graduating from vocational training, a driver graduating from P plates, someone moving up a level in living circumstance.
We need to not restrict when we can sell items by making assumptions that to not reflect how shoppers could behave.
