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Gifts

Pitching Father’s Day in the newsagency

IMG_9112This photo shows part of how we have been pitching the start of the Father’s Day season in the newsagency. To the left of this is a display of products that guys purchase and that are part of our everyday range. For the core display you can see we are relying on the cards, gifts and the opportunity that one of our customers will win a Kogan Flat Screen TV to pull traffic.

We are leveraging the prize through promotions outside the business.

The placement is set to attract people to the display and further into the store with the next level and the level behind that. We use a finely tuned floor display placement principle to attract shoppers deeper into the store. This is done through thoughtful placement and creating display structure.

We are competing with aggressive and professional retailers for this and other seasons. It is not enough to stick products on a table with a Father’s Day sign. We need to emotionally connect so shoppers want to spend with us and feel good while doing it. Our emotional connection starts with the LOVE YOUR DAD posters headlining the display – they are a welcome departure from the usual Father’s Day pitch in retail, they are an especially good connection to drive card sales.

The range of products will evolve further next week as the season interest intensifies.

Part of our Father’s Day strategy is to use the increased traffic driven by the season to introduce people to our broader offer. We do this through product placement and our discount voucher program. We show shoppers what else we sell and we financially encourage them to look at what else they could purchase.

This is the value of the major card and gift seasons in a newsagency business – to the opportunity to showcase and leverage the rest of our business. It is why we must look at seasons as being far more valuable than the seasons themselves.

Don’t be put off by the range of cards or gifts in the photo. We have plenty more in-store for Father’s Day. This is a major season for us.

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Gifts

Melbourne gift fair participants show how blurred lines are between retail channels

The lines between retail channels continue to blur as retailers pursue traffic and revenue in a crowded and competitive marketplace.

Supermarkets are not alone in reaching into the product categories of other channels to make their businesses more successful. Pharmacies have been doing this for years as have proactive newsagents.

The gift fair on at the moment in this has demonstrated how much previously defined retail channels cross over into others. On gift and homewares stands I have seen owners of gift shops, jewellers, garden centres, newsagencies and general online businesses.

Gifts are the ultimate board offering, working well in a variety of retail channels. Newsagents need to consider this as they expand their gift offerings as they need to ensure they are in a highly competitive category with obvious and not so obvious competitors.

This presents a significant challenge to many newsagents who enter the gift space for a point of difference. It is why you need to be careful about suppliers you use, to ensure that your investment is not challenged by the same products being placed in a supply business nearby.

Several suppliers at the fair told me of independent retailers asking if they supplied this group or that group. In one particular instance the supplier mentioned that a no meant the retailer walked off the stand. Groups in several retail channels work hard to keep their supplier relationships secret for this reason.

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Gifts

A Disney pitch behind the counter

IMG_8853We have refreshed our behind the counter offer with a range of Disney art pieces by Pop Artist Romero Britto. Disney collectors love them. Britto fans love them. They are an adorable gift. Better still, they are a perfect behind the counter offer for pitching what the business stands for compared to others.

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Gifts

Local jigsaw puzzles – a must for newsagents

Screen Shot 2015-06-16 at 8.41.22 pmAustralian city themed jigsaw puzzles featured on the front of Toy and Hobby Retailer magazine from Ventura Games should sell well. Jigsaw sales are soaring. Newsagents can do better than toy shops in this space. Toys were strong in newsagencies decades ago. As many toy shops have closed responding to pressure from majors, local toy retail opportunities have opened for us.

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Gifts

WH Smith Mother’s Day magazine offer

IMG_6497At a WH Smith store on Sunday I noticed they had packaged the Australian Women’s Weekly magazine with a sweet gift as a Mother’s Day promotion. Some had a pack of Tim Tam biscuits while others has Cadbury Roses chocolates – cell wrapped with a ribbon. I like this approach to making a magazine appealing as a gift for a season such as Mother’s Day.

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Gifts

Justice League attracting male shoppers to the newsagency

IMG_6214The terrific floor display unit in the newsagency supporting Justice league licenced product is attracting new traffic. While predominantly male, younger kids do drag in parents including mums and sisters. This new traffic is valuable to be business – the shoppers attracted are purchasing other items from us and this is helping drive sales of magazines, gifts and cards.

Newsagents attract new traffic with the right products in the right location.

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Gifts

Terrific Mother’s Day sales at the newsagency

IMG_6145We have had a terrific weekend of Mother’s Day card and gift sales – giving me a lot of confidence about Mother’s Day this year. We have our cards located on the lease line facing into the mall to attract shoppers and to help them not interfere with everyday card shoppers.

We have deliberately not cluttered the Mother’s Day displays of gifts (on the left) and cards (on the right). the wide aisle between makes it easy for other shoppers to get into the shop and see past the Mother’s Day for the next layer of cards and gifts we have on offer. While seasonally driven traffic boosts are terrific, we work hard to ensure that our everyday sales are not hurt.

We are chasing double digit growth for Mother’s Day. It’s important to have a goal for seasons and year round.

To traditional newsagency suppliers who say this does not look like a newsagency, I say check our sales. Year on year we are ahead of the channel, particularly in magazines, so this from of store pitch to attract shoppers is benefiting traditional categories.

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Gifts

Terrific Dymocks window display

IMG_5799I like the Mother’s Day window display in the Dymocks flagship store on George Street in Sydney. The display incorporates gifts, cards and wrapped boxes. It promotes a diverse range of gifts too from the traditional to the non traditional. What is most appealing, however, is the inclusion of greeting cards in the display. Too often we neglect to include cards in our window and other displays in our newsagencies, forgetting a valuable piece of the gift purchase.

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Gifts

Promoting Star Wars magazines and Itty Bittys

starwPromoting the Star Wars Itty Bittys from Hallmark with the Star Wars part series is a no brainer move to us even though on first glance you could say they appeal to different shoppers. Our experience is they appeal to the same shopper. A guy who collects all things Star Wars will happily add the Hallmark Itty Bitty plush to his collection.

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Gifts

Using AFL Beanie Kids to drive traffic

aflplWe are using floor display unit of the new range of AFL Beanie Kids to drive traffic into the newsagency with this front of store placement of the display unit on the lease line.

With the AFL season set to kick off and school holidays under way, the timing of this placement is perfect.

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Gifts

Customers love cheeky cards and bags

bottlebagCustomers love cheeky product – they react well in-store and this gives a good vibe to the shop. We are hearing this a bit with the cheekier bags from Hallmark. I heard a customer say I could use a bit of that with a nod of her head to kids in tow. Interactions like this can open to conversations and conversations can lead to sales. It’s why I like having products people talk about. Chatter around and about products drives sales.

We are making the most of these bags and similar cheeky products with them on show so the full message is seen.

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Gifts

Australians love products that do good beyond the products themselves

wakaMany retail businesses and retail brands are doing good through their product and shoppers are making decisions based on this socially responsible activity.

An early adopter was Hallmark through their support for the National Breast cancer Foundation. Internationally, The Body Shop set a high benchmark. Now, we have many retailers and suppliers doing good thanks to support from shoppers who want to do good.

I recently talked with the folks behind the Waka Waka solar powered torch. This brilliant product recharges using sunlight, making it ideal for all sorts of situations. When you purchase one, they give one away where it can do good. Take a look at this map and see where they are doing good with free torches.

It is products like the Waka Waka torch which we can source to do good through our businesses, to give our shoppers opportunities to do good on several fronts by shopping with us.

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Ethics

The more valuable shopper for the newsagency

gifwindowWe decide who steps foot through the front door of our shops by the pitch in our front window. A windor promoting low margin product will attract low margin shoppers. A window promoting lottery products will attract lottery shoppers. The window promoting higher margin homewares will attract a shower for homewares.

We decide who shops with us and their likely spend based on our front window.

I can’t make that statement often enough to newsagents. Retailers get it as it’s retail 101.

The photo shows the front window from last week at one of my newsagencies. In this display we are pitching good margin funky product to the homewares and gift shopper. It’s part of a cycle of regularly refreshed window displays we are using to attract new shoppers to the business, shoppers who are looking for higher margin gift and homewares lines. It’s working.

This window display is an example of us making conscious choices as to who we want to attract. As I have noted previously, is easier to convert this higher margin shopper to purchase what else we carry than to use traditional newsagency lines to convert to purchasing these items.

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Gifts

Quality matters when choosing gifts to stock in the newsagency

IMG_3884When choosing gifts for the newsagency I always for for quality first. Price is a secondary consideration. Cheap is rarely the best choice.

Too often I see retailers including, sometimes, newsagents buy a cheap copy of a higher priced better quality product and try and sell it at the price of the higher quality product.

Shoppers are smart. Fool them once and you rarely get a chance to do it again.

My experience is that buying products for the newsagency based on quality works better in the long run.

Take a look at the cheap no name brand stationery from China compared to name brand products. We all have stories about customers buying cheap and complaining. Yet too often I see newsagents drawn to cheap knock-off products. I don;t get it.

At the Gift Fair in Sydney earlier this week I saw this issue play out. In a range of categories there were suppliers of quality product and suppliers of similar looking but considerably lower quality product. One retailer I spoke with said they bought the cheap stuff because that’s what customers want. I doubt that.

Often here I talk about the need for each of us to stand for something in our businesses. While we can stand for selling cheap products, I choose to stand for selling quality products of which I and those purchasing them can be proud.

Quality matters when choosing gifts to stock in the newsagency.

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Gifts

A soft entry to the newsagency magazine department

maggiftsWe are been experimenting with different products placed at the aisle end entrance to the magazine department. Whereas the traditional newsagency uses the aisle end for billboard type magazine promotions – often setup by magazine company merchandisers – regulars here would know we try different products here. Sometimes we blend them with magazines. The most recent range has been selected to go with the few magazines we have placed as an indicator that this is where we have magazines in-store. We know magazine have sold from here as we could how many we place.

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Gifts

Sydney Gift Fair well worth a visit

cgemsIt’s only been open for a day and already newsagents are other retailers are talking up the Sydney Gift Fair on right now. The Glebe Island event and the AGHA Home and Giving Fairs, both of which I had some time at yesterday, are well worth visiting. You’ll see many new ideas and extensions to existing ideas. I especially like the number of local manufacturers represented – helping us to tell a good local story.

While the size can be daunting for a first timer, you have to start somewhere. My advice if you are a first timer is have a budget and a plan as to the customers you are purchasing for. Those who have been coming for a while will commit three or four days to the events – it is well worth it.

If you’re in a newsagency marketing or franchise group check with they as they are likely to provide maps showing highlights and offers or offer to shop with you and guide you through the process.

The photo shows the Easter range of Chocolate gems – my favourite chocolate supplier. Their bulk packs are a must-have for Easter and other seasons.

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Gifts

WH Smith take over of Kennys Cardiology incomplete?

kcsmithsThe take over of Kennys Cardiology by the UK WH Smith group appears to not have been as complete as first thought. This photo is from the Kennys store at Westfield Southland in Victoria from the weekend. The card display has looked like this for several months. The gaps are not something WH Smith would have allowed to continue – especially in such a high-profile location. I suspect we will hear more about this at some point.

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Competition

A small but good gift fair – ideal for newsagents

melgiftThe Melbourne Gift Fair which ended Tuesday was a small event, a fraction of the size other Melbourne and Sydney fairs – but it was good value. It was easier to get around, less crowded – meaning one noticed more. I found it particularly useful for talking to suppliers of products you rarely see in a newsagency. As the fair was not as busy they were open to conversations about the type of business we are trying to create and why they need to consider us outside of what they think the shingle stands for.

I am a fan of smaller trade shows as they are easier to digest. If I had my way, events the size of the recent Melbourne fair would be done in Adelaide, Perth and Tasmania – as newsagencies, gift shops and homewares stores in those states would support them.

The massive Sydney and Melbourne fairs are challenging, particularly to small retailers looking for change for their businesses.

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Gifts

We ignore the Chinese New Year opportunity

cny15In China, Chinese New Year is a far bigger season in retail than Christmas. Every retailer engages with the season in one way or another. Clothing shops serve the tradition of people having all new clothes for the first day of the year. Food shops have wonderful hampers for the feasts that are traditional. Card and gift shops have a vast array of red packets for money gifts.

In one store I saw more than twenty designs of Hallmark branded red packets.

The photo shows one of six displays in a supermarket I visited in Guangzhou earlier this week. Note the gifts and plush lines. On the rear of this display is the red packets.

I think we would do better with this season in Australia.

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Gifts

The newsagency gift offer is changing: ignorant suppliers will lose out

Gifts in newsagencies can mean many different categories of products – from low price to high end, from simple predictable items like mugs to one-off decorative pieces, from under $20 price points to $500 and more.

The gift category is one which suppliers ought not make an assumption about.

This is on my mind today because of a debate I had yesterday with a circulation product supplier, what I’d call a legacy supplier. They derided newsagents for thinking their future lay in selling kitch gifts. If only they realised how good they have it with magazines the supplier said. We do all the work for them, yes they said that too. I suggested they get out more and into newsagencies where the gift offer is far superior than you would find in many specialist gift shops.

This supplier thought they had a good future in the channel because they thought newsagents were getting it wrong with gifts. It’s an odd way to look at it.

Our channel is changing and while there are some newsagents who think gifts are items priced at $20 and below and of a type you’d find in discount variety stores, the newsagents having the most profitable success with gifts are those who are specialising and making their gift offer a destination for their business.

It would be wrong to think that all newsagents with gifts sell the same items. Indeed, it is in the gift category where I see some of the most significant differences in newsagencies. Sure, this separates newsagency businesses – I say that is a good thing as the strength of an independent retail business will be its service os specialist needs.

The gift category is one through which we can leverage our Unique Selling Proposition through the products we offer.

Legacy suppliers need to spend more time in many newsagencies to see how our businesses are evolving and how diverse the channel has become. This evolution is another reason newsagents are becoming more demanding in terms of control and margin.

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Gifts

Here’s how we use a magazine aisle end

aisleendYears ago this aisle end would have hosted Connections or other magazine promotions. Now, it hosts prorudcts. Magazine sales are up. Not using it for magazine displays is not hurting. Products we place here sell – generating a better return on the space.

To newsagents still doing big aisle end displays promotion magazines I’d ask why? In my own case I’ve stopped the displays and continued to grow overall magazine sales.

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Gifts

Different Valentine’s Day gifts

aynilWhen selecting Valentine’s Day gifts we have given preference to gifts we can carry outside the season – like this officially licenced music themed cup and saucer. It will sell easily outside the Valentine’s Day season, appeals to magazine shoppers and fits well with our retro offer from other suppliers.

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Gifts
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