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Greeting Cards

Is JB HiFi getting out of greeting cards?

IMG_2612 (1)Checking several JB HiFi outlets over the weekend, it looks like the retailer may be getting out of greeting cards of Three cards for $10. The price is currently 3 cards for $5, or $1.75 for each card. In one store stock was so depleted it was off the stand and in a small location.

While I have no knowledge of the JB move other than what I have seen in several stores, it appears as if the company is either quitting this line of cards from Hallmark or quitting cards altogether.

I suspect they are quitting greeting cards altogether.  The JB retail fleet is run to a tight set of KPIs. I suspect cards did not deliver the return they needed from the space and vestry investment allocated. If true, it would surprise me as I thought the offer looked good, took little floor space and offered a range appealing to the JB shopper.

In the meantime, newsagents located near JB may find a brief impact from the deep discount of quality greeting cards.

13419171_10154897301344112_2725436392304298848_nWe play in the discount card space in a JB like way. This photo is from my shop. The pitch works with thousands of dollars of these cards sold from a small footprint stand on the lease line that attracts a younger shopper.

Multi-item price offers are proving to be successful in the newsagency in 2016 – across multiple categories.

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Greeting Cards

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: Father’s Day card promotion ideas

Too many newsagents cost themselves card revenue by not engaging with the card category. They think the success with cards it a matter for their card supplier. Such a view is wrong. Retailers have more influence over the success of cards in their businesses than the cards themselves.

Here are my suggestions for engaging with cards this Father’s Day:

  1. Talk about Father’s Day cards on your business Facebook page. Daily. But in a fun way – show off favourite images, play to your audience.
  2. Place cards at the counter. Have a pitch ready: have you got your Father’s Day card yet?
  3. Place a small selection of Father’s Day cards with magazines – weeklies or motoring or both.
  4. If the season has been slow so far this year, pitch an offer: three for 2 … do this Tuesday / Wednesday this week – where the other two cards could be any card up to a value you set.
  5. Include a Father’s Day card pitch on all receipts. Your software should serve this easily with little effort to setup.
  6. Have a prize for one Father’s Day shopper. We have a drone as part of an in-store Hallmark promotion.
  7. Offer a free stamp with every Father’s Day card purchased this week.
  8. Place Father’s Day cards in with your Father’s Day gifts.
  9. Keep the display fresh.
  10. Run several small boosted Facebook posts over the next week promoting Father’s Day cards and your business.

Plenty of retailers have Father’s Day cards, it is a competitive marketplace. The best way to compete is to be out in front. Are you out in front with your marketing of Father’s Day cards in your newsagency?

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Competition

Marie Claire helps launch Megan Hess card range

13957016_10153835776137947_914114215_nThe latest issue of Marie Claire ought to be featured by newsagents selling Hallmark cards as it features the card designs of Megan Hess, a respected Australian designer, who has designed a range of premium cards for Hallmark. The Megan Hess range is a fresh product though which we can reach card shoppers beyond what we often reach with the everyday card range.

The Megan Hess range with the latest Marie Claire is a terrific cross-category opportunity for us.

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Greeting Cards

Cards with gifts in the newsagency

IMG_0765 (1)Here is another smart move I saw in a newsagency this week showing placement of a greeting card with gifts in a display in a newsagency.

It is vital we pitch cards outside the card department in our newsagencies as this gets cards in front of people who have not entered the newsagency with cards as a destination.

Placements like this are simple to do and keep fresh. All it takes is a couple of minutes to change several. I’d love to see more newsagents do do this – place cards in with gift and other displays as appropriate.

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Gifts

Seven ideas for increasing card sales in the newsagency

2016 is proving to be a tough year for card sales in newsagencies regardless of the card company you are with. While I think there are some factors outside our businesses impacting this, there is more we can do to make our own situation better than average.

Performing above average starts with us being serious about cards. It is one thing to love the product and another entirely to be engaged. For too long we have relied on our suppliers to do work we ought to do.

The more we engage with our card department the better result for us as our customers.

Here are some tips that will lead to sales growth. The list is by no means complete. Consider it a starting point.

  1. Have your staff put out new card stock when it arrives. Knowledge drives sales.
  2. Have a card promotion at the entrance to the business, disrupting traffic. Change the range every few weeks.
  3. Have a loyalty offer than is different to what other card retailers nearby pitch.
  4. Feature a card of the week at the counter.
  5. Feature cards you love in your business Facebook page.
  6. Send cards to customers.
  7. Know your card sales by caption, comparing this year to last. Knowledge is power.
  8. Offer a deal to local community groups and businesses based on a volume purchase offer. For example, a local business sending cards to their customers is sure to want to save money. You seeing 100 cards in one go has to be worth a discount for them.

I think it is vital that your marketing of cards in-store and on social media reflects your business, that what you do is decided in your business and not corporately for corporate or national promotions serve one purpose, the points in this post are 100% about your business and its card pitch.

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Greeting Cards

Changing the way we display cards in the newsagency

IMG_0441While the card department in the newsagency serves destination card shoppers, it does little to drive impulse purchases. We regularly pursue impulse purchases of cards by placing cards outside the card department, way outside, usually in a way to disrupt the shopping experience.

Every week or two we make a move with cards, to change-up the approach and have cards seen by people who might otherwise never purchase cards from us.

This photo shows one such move with cards. We have pegged a range of naughty cards to a black wire-frame mannequin. We felt this stand was an appropriate host for these cards as it plays against the naughtiness of the text.

The beauty of our approach of playing with cards outside the card department is that we can do this for ourselves, we have more control.

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Greeting Cards

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: promote your value proposition

IMG_0219Newsagencies are regarded by shoppers as being expensive. One ay to challenge perception is with a compelling offer promoted on the lease line, to passers-by. For this to work, the compelling offer needs to be communicated in a simple and effective way and in a style that speaks to the target shopper.

Here is what we are doing on the lease line with the Hallmark BUY 3 FOR $10 card offer. It is the type of stand you might expect to see in a Typo or kikki.K yet here it is in front of a newsagency, promoting cards on the lease line, attracting card shoppers who might otherwise have walked on by.

This stand also speaks to the importance of reaching outside our businesses to attract new traffic. In a shopping centre we do this on the lease line, facing into a mall. In a high street situation is done in the front window or on social media.

Products like the 3 FOR $10 cards help us do that, they help us combat perception on price.

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Greeting Cards

Checking out Dollar Tree in the US

In Las Vegas last week I got to a Dollar Tree store. Dollar Tree is a chain of more than 13,000 stores across the US where everything is $1. It is like the Reject Shop in Australia but more focussed on a price point and much bigger.

I have seen Dollar Tree evolve over the years. I visited again last week to see their current greeting card offer.

The images below show a broad range, satisfying any card giving occasion. While some cards are $1.00 each others are two for $1.00.

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The cards are from American Greetings.

Will we see anything like this here in Australia? I expect so. You only have to look at the success of Aldi to understand the support for a value offer in Australia.

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Greeting Cards

Leveraging Finding Dory in the newsagency

IMG_9935We have Finding Dory licenced products ranging across several departments in-store and are using these online and on the lease line in-store to attract traffic.

My experience with licences is that range is essential to success. A display unit of cards works okay but place it with activity books and other products and you gain more attention. It also helps you promote a range that is different to what other retailers may do.

The other move I have found helps drive success with licences is having more than one location in-store. There is good research supporting the importance of several touchpoints to guide sales success.

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Gifts

Money gift card holders

The range of money/ gift card holders in the US for all major seasons is far superior to what we have in Australia. It’s a missed opportunity for us. My experience is money holders usually sell out first at Christmas.  Here are three designs from an extensive range for graduation in the US this year.

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Greeting Cards

Wonderful new Hallmark card range

IMG_0003I like this new (small) range from Hallmark, promoting hand drawn art. We are not placing the small range in regular fixtures as the cover needs to be seen to be appreciated. We have it in a feature section in the card department. One customer purchased several from the range on the weekend, commenting about how different they looked.

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Greeting Cards

Relaying the card department in the newsagency

Two weeks ago we completed a relay for cards in the newsagency. While the business is only two years old, the time was right. We had good data to guide decisions, space options and a plan for a fresh approach, for a newsagency, to displaying cards.

Here is the main card wall. Note we have another bay of cards on the right, down the aisle and ut of shot.

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We had trailed these fixtures in the card department with success. Customers love them as they make shopping easy. We call our cards by showing more of the full front of each card.

The big difference of the re-plan is we have removed the gift bays we had in the middle of sections of cards as they were not woking as well as we needed. We felt a more complete and free flowing card display would be better for us.

One important aspect about this move is – the fixtures are easy moved, easily changed. They clip in and clip out. That’s right, there is nothing purpose built. I will never install purpose built fixtures in a newsagency again. If a shoplifter proposes this, look elsewhere.

Another important aspect is we own the fixtures. I think it is essential newsagents own their own fixtures as this provides maximum in-store flexibility.

Here is what the customer sees at eye level.

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And as they look down standing in the same spot, here is what people see.

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And this is another section of the card department, off the wall and to the right. On the back of this is wrap. We are not sure about the location of wrap., That may require work.

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This shows the placement and how we are using cards as part of our traffic flow plans, feeding card traffic into the magazine department at the back of the shop.

Our overall thinking about cards in this shop is that we want to promote range such that every shopper feels they will be satisfied for whatever card giving need they have.

In addition to what we see in the photos, we also have cards displayed off location, in non traditional card fixtures (this is important) as well as five card spinners offering diversified ranges that speak to different needs. These spinners are moved around to combat store blindness of customers and our team members.

I urge newsagents to look at the card offer, to ensure it is fresh, easily shopped and obviously satisfying for any card giving occasion.

Our channel sells close to 35% of all cards sold in Australia. We need to grow this. We can do this by being professional in our approach and by helping people buy more cards than they intend.

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Greeting Cards

New greeting card outlet in Sydney CBD

A new card outlet has opened in Sydney’s CBD, in the prestigious Strand Arcade. The Bespoke Letterpress cards are beautiful in design and of excellent production quality. The outpost is inspiring and attracting plenty of interest. I urge newsagents near Sydney to check it out.

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Greeting Cards

Pitching Mother’s Day in the newsagency

I love the way Mother’s Day is being pitched in my newsagency by the team. I saw the new display it last weekend for the first time. It is personal, heart-felt and warm, an absolute delight. I love that it speaks to a diverse group.

Here is a photo of the front of the Mother’s Day gift display. Note there are separate displays on the back and side.

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It is not until you get closer that you notice the mix of products promoted and the broad age range being served.

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And then, to the left side you see the personal messages, heartfelt messages from team members about their mums. Customers tear-up reading this.

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And here is the view from the back looking out into the shopping mall.

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And out the front of the business, on the lease line, we have Mother’s Day cards.

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While there are things one could pick apart from this display, as with every VM display, the pitch the team has created here is different to what you will see in many newsagencies. I am thrilled with it and proud that the team came up with the idea and executed it as they have done.

This is the type of display we need to see more of in newsagencies. Something different, personal and unexpected.

After I saw the display on the weekend I went and had a look at the display in the other newsagency in the centre, also the Wild store and several other card and gift shops. Ours is the most different. All the others are traditional – and I get that as there is comfort in tradition. But there is opportunity in change and that is what I love about what the team has created in my business.

Mother’s Day is a vitally important season for our channel. When most customers shopping for a card for a season such as this, newsagencies are top of mind. We maximise that opportunity with good displays, well stated and backing this with strong social media engagement. Plus, we have to do this in a way that is relevant to people engaging in this season from several generations.

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Greeting Cards

What have you done about the price rise of postage stamps?

A newsagent expressed concern to me yesterday about the impact of the price increase for postage stamps on their greeting card sales. I asked whether they had taken steps to mitigate the situation, to soften the impact. They said no. I asked if their marketing group had offered advice, they said no. This surprised me.

Back in January newsagency marketing group newsXpress published advice to its members on steps available to mitigate against the impact of the stamp price rise. I wrote the advice. I saw it as common sense. I expected other newsagency marketing groups would od similar as providing such advice is a key benefit marketing groups should deliver.

To assist all newsagents, here is the newsXpress advice:

SOFTENING THE IMPACT OF THE STAMP PRICE RISE.
NEWSXPRESS BUSINESS MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING ADVICE
– JANUARY 25, 2016 –

The 42% increase in the cost of posting a standard letter (or card) could hit greeting card sales – unless to act now to mitigate the situation. Yes, there are things you can do, opportunities you can embrace to make soften the impact.

To our knowledge, no industry association, no card company, no marketing group and no greeting card association has offered any advice or support for newsagents in the wake of the extraordinary price rise.

Not everyone has to pay the new price of $1.00 per item. For example, people with a MyPost Concession Account can post letters and cards for 60 cents.

The following Australian Federal Government concession cards are accepted as proof of eligibility for a MyPost Concession Account:

  • Pensioner Concession Card
  • Health Care Card (all types)
  • Commonwealth Seniors Health Card
  • Department of Veterans’ Affairs Card
  • Veterans’ Repatriation Health Card

If you have customers with any one of these cards, they can apply for the postal concession. Applying is free. Here is a link to the concession account form online from Australia Post:

http://auspost.com.au/media/documents/MyPost-Concession-Account-application-form.pdf

Print the form out and hand it to customers. This demonstrates you offering an appreciated customer service. If you have a retirement village or nursing home in your area, give them plenty of copies of the form – show you care about helping them save money.

Offer to help complete the form for customers.

Australia Post does not actively promote the MyPost Concession account. You should and in doing so you are likely to be appreciated by the customers that benefit. Australia Post reports that 5.7 million Australians are eligible for this concession but that considerably less than half have applied.

The MyPost Concession Account allows them 50 concession stamps a year.

Here are other ways you can make greeting cards more appealing in the wake of higher postage costs:

  1. Have a loyalty offer.
    1. One approach is Discount Vouchers as they provide a cash amount the customer saves off their next purchase. The amount printed on the receipt is perceived as being of immediate value to the shopper.
    2. Another offer could be Buy X get Y – like the Hot Press range from Hallmark. Three cards for $10 would be seen as a saving by customers.
    3. Another offer could be like the Hallmark buy 8 cards and get your 9th card for free. The key in our view with this is you need to date limit the offer.
  2. Run a free stamp day promotion. This is a challenging promotion in that it could be expensive. Therefore, our suggestion is you set the bar and target committed card shoppers. People spending more than $25.00 in cards get a $1.00 stamp for each $10.00 they spend. An alternative could be – people buying 8 or more cards in one purchase get 8 cards. The goal with either approach is to get people purchasing more cards than is usual in a single purchase.
  3. Improve your card offer. The postage price hike will get some people thinking twice before purchasing a card. It is vital you confront this with a more compelling card offer, a better card department and placement of cards in better impulse purchase locations in-store. Placing cards with gifts, for example, can see more cards purchased with gifts – to be handed to recipients with the gifts.

The alternative is to do nothing. If you do nothing you may or may not be impacted by the postage price hike. The newsXpress view: it is better to lean into a challenge, to be on the front foot.

Footnote: I have shared this advice today so you can access the advice itself and so you can see one example of the type of resources available to newsagents who want options beyond being average. Whether through newsXpress or elsewhere, there are people who will help you grow your business.

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Greeting Cards

Batman vs. Superman products popular for the newsagency

IMG_7674We have the Hallmark Batman vs. Superman stand on the lease line to leverage interest in the franchise following the release of the movie and the extraordinary publicity surrounding it. The stand is working along with products from other suppliers. The best way to leverage licenced product is to go deep across several suppliers. Range matters in the licenced space.

If you have the stand, place it at the door, in the window or on the lease line.

This is another good news story for engaged newsagents: leveraging a popular current licence through a range of suppliers to drive new traffic for our businesses.

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Greeting Cards

Cat cards are cute – in the newsagency

I am often asked how to promote everyday greeting cards on Facebook. Here is one example of something I did recently as part of a series of themed posts about cards to like. The post was simple, engaging and speaking to a popular interest. Here is exactly how it looked. It took me less than a minute:

Screen Shot 2016-03-23 at 9.15.29 pm

This type of marketing of cards and the business on social media, not only Facebook, is easy. I urge all newsagents to try it.

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Greeting Cards

Offended customers damage Spirit humour cards

12834499_961543323953043_180694993_nI have two or three customers who come into the newsagency and damage selected cards on the Spirit humour stand that offend them. Damage ranges from ripping to cutting. While I have others who turn the card around so the rear is showing, it is the deliberate damaging of stock that offends me the most.

This is a crime. I’d love to catch the offender and ask how they reconcile their wilful damaging of stock against their ‘offence’ at the image or words on the cards they have cut or ripped.

While I have encountered this plenty of times over the years, my business has recently been subjected to intensive complaints to the landlord about the cards and the landlord has forcefully relayed the shopper concerns. This coupled with more wilful damage is draining.

These zealots frustrate me. While we live in a country where we have freedom of expression, they are using physical damage and relentless complaints about my business to force me to live by their rules.

If I capture a video or image of them acting I will not hesitate to report it to the police.

While a small number of customers are offended by these cards, the vast majority are not offended. Indeed, sales are excellent. This is the site that matters. Better still, laughter from people shopping the stand tell us the range provides good entertainment for shoppers.

While I am expressing frustration here, we do not plan to reduce our commitment to the Spirit humour range. It is to valuable to us.

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Ethics

Being responsible for the card department in your newsagency

Picking up on my post yesterday about what Coles is doing with Hallmark in its supermarkets, I write today to call on newsagents to exert more control themselves over the card departments in their own businesses.

It is unfortunate card companies for decades have taught newsagents to rely on them for management of many aspects of the card department from fixtures to layout to visual merchandising to even secondary card locations in-store. I think this strategy was all about grabbing and retaining real-estate in retail newsagencies. Newsagents, short on capital, often agreed.

What we require today is different because retail has changed, online and offline. You can see card companies changing to suit, but not enough in our channel.

Our shops are our shops. Responsibility ultimately lies with us. Too often newsagents point to a card company if sales are down and while they share the responsibility, they alone are not responsible.

We choose our suppliers, the location of cards, the total space allocated, how they are managed in-store, how employees interact with cards an more.

We are responsible.

It is up to us to manage card company relationships to best serve the needs of our businesses. We are better served to do this if we don’t owe them any money for capital works or investment.

At the heart of our decisions needs to be facts … as in business data, our business data, sell through data. This data should come from our systems and not from the card companies.

Dealing with facts can be difficult as the facts may contradict the personal relationships built up over many years in our businesses. This is where it can get tough. But you must not allow personal relationships to get in the way of facts.

For their part, card companies need to engage more actively with the newsagency channel as we offer them the best opportunity for commercially valuable growth in this marketplace.

If only there were enough people in the card companies with small business retail experience to see this.

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Greeting Cards

The changing Coles supermarket greeting card model

IMG_7447I noticed this new Hallmark branded greeting card offer last night in an inner suburban Coles supermarket I check out every week or so. What is new is the two spinners at either end and the twenty-four pockets of $2 cards in the middle top tier of the unit.

The investment by Coles and Hallmark in this new approach demonstrates a focus by Coles in the greeting card category.

While some in various card companies will say we should not concern ourselves with Coles as a competitor, my view is this latest move in Coles shows we have to lift our own game in-store.

It is wrong in my mind to say Coles sells to a different card shopper. People may buy cards at Coles at different times but these people will also buy from newsagencies, at different times. This is why I am concerned about the Coles move, especially what appeared to be a stronger focus on the $2 cards.

We have to look at refreshing our own card offer.

Fixtures on the walls of most newsagencies are tired. They are the usual rake of pockets on the wall with cards laid out in the common way of birth to death and, often lifestyle in its own space. While some of us have experimented with full-face and integrated, not many newsagents have.

I think the newsagency greeting card approach today is pretty much the same as it was twenty years ago because card companies have not invested sufficiently in considering display alternatives for our channel and because too many newsagents have not taken initiative for themselves.

This has to change if we are to pursue and achieve card sales growth. We need to be more aware not only of Coles but of others in this space, especially kikki.K, Typo and the speciality businesses in the space.

I am tracking double-digit card sales growth  year on year. I know others tracking excellent growth too. So there is good news out there in newsagencies. I suspect this growth could be intensified if we are even smarter in our card offers, if we play way outside what has been traditional for us.

I urge newsagents hearing about the Coles move to not get angry as that would be futile. Get even by pursuing a more current model card offer. Do this by managing the category for your success. Be demanding of yourselves and your card suppliers. That Coles is innovating with Hallmark is business. We need to respond in a business appropriate way.

Footnote: What I saw at Coles this week reminded me in part of a display a saw when I visited the Papyrus showroom at the Atlanta Gift Fair in January this year:

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Greeting Cards

Smart Valentine’s Day impulse offer

Here is the smartest Valentine’s Day pitch I have seen, an impulse pitch at the sales counter of a very funky gift shop in New York. The card selection is the key – non-traditional. This is the way to get people buying Valentine’s Cards who would not usually do so – with funky product placed ideally for impulse purchase.

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Greeting Cards
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