A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Newsagency

Why don’t all newsagents sell lotto?

It’s expected by many that all newsagents sell lotto, or lottery products. The thing is, not all of us do. Indeed, not all newsagents do what many expect all newsagents do do.

Each newsagency in Australia is locally owned and run.

Sometimes, these local retailers make choices outside of what you may expect for a newsagency. There at also situations where a supplier, like a lottery business, may decide a local newsagent is not the right fit for them because they already have another business near by, or for some other reason.

What Australians expect from their local newsagency has changed, and continues to change, to evolve, as the world evolved.

In terms of lotteries being in every local newsagency, while many newsagents do sell lottery products, there are many who do not. It would be wrong to judge them for this situation.

There is no shortage of lottery outlets in Australia. Plus, there is online, where, for example, it is easy to buy syndicate shares for syndicates put together and managed by local lottery retailers, including newsagents. Just because you can’t find a local shop right now does not mean you can’t support a local shop right now.

I’ve posed the question Why don’t all newsagents sell lotto? because I can see people asking this online. I suspect there has been a surge in the question because of the $150M Powerball jackpot.

The answer to Why don’t all newsagents sell lotto? is because either they choose not to or the lottery licence holder chooses to not allow them to.

I’ve chose to not sell lottery products in my own newsagencies for the last 11 years. I used to sell lottery products, from 1996 to 2013. It was good money. But there were many rules, restrictive rules, rules that got in the way offing the best retailer we could be, rules that got in the way of customer service.

Lotteries was not a good fit for me and I was not a good fit for them. But, there are many retailers who are a good fit and kudos to them.

My point is that each newsagency in Australia is different and should be considered that way. There is no common set of products and services we sell, no expectation you should have regarding any newsagency business in Australia, no expectation that products, prices and / or service would be the same in each. The difference between newsagency businesses is something to celebrate, just as every locally owned and run retail business is something to celebrate in the local community.

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Newsagency

Newsagents sell memories

I made this marketing pitch yesterday for my newsagency software company.

While it is a pitch for my newsagency software company, the video reflects how I see local newsagents ties connecting. We really do sell memories through many of the products we offer.

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marketing

‘Being a newsagent is addictive’ what a wonderful story

This article from the Irish Times is a good read, heartwarming, encouraging and inspiring for many.

End of an era as the Last Corner Shop closes: ‘I’m going to cry’
John Hyland’s devotion to his customers has made him a much-loved shopkeeper

“Everything changes,” says John Hyland. At 69, the newsagent is retiring after 35 years in his well-known shop on the corner of George’s Street Upper and Clarinda Park West in Dún Laoghaire, in south Co Dublin.

The crowded shelves and stacks and racks of newspapers and magazines have been gradually depleting, and over the weekend and into Monday a steady stream of regulars, of all ages, have been coming in for their papers and to wish Hyland well.

As he courteously thanks people for their custom, he seems quietly surprised at the reaction to his departure. “Some I wouldn’t even know by sight. I have lovely customers. When I do a little thing, get something they’re looking for, they’re so grateful.”

John Hyland may have been both the worst shopkeeper in Ireland and one of the best. Whether some customers had the money to buy what they wanted didn’t seem to bother Hyland too much: he always put them first

The sign over the shop reads Dun Leary’s Last Corner Shop: A Service Newsagent. His wares have been spread on to the footpath, on makeshift tables and racks, since well before Covid made it a popular approach. He has stocked an astonishing range of publications: regional papers from every county in Ireland, Le Monde, the New York Review of Books. If you couldn’t find it at Eason you could probably find it at John’s (as locals call the shop), from 5am until 2.30am every day of the year. As well as sweets and cigarettes, there’s a small range of other goods, from cornflakes to condoms to cat food.

It’s worth reading the whole article and watching this video from Ronan Kelly:

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Customer loyalty

11,500+ daily visitors to the newsagency blog

Thinking about some of the comments recently published at this blog I thought I’d check the current traffic landing here. I’ve not looked for a couple of years since I don’t write most of what I write seeing to drive traffic.

Currently, this blog is landing in excess of 11,500 visitors a day, as measured by professional web traffic tools.

One traffic analysis tool that I use in my POS software company tracks ‘competitor’ sites as it sees competitors – based on common keywords. While Newspaper attracts more daily visits, this blog offers more keywords and achieves greater dwell time, which indicates more reading.

Looking at the 14,000+ keywords Google indexes from this blog, the mix is interesting and diverse. Even this list of the first few keywords shops not only the traffic generators but the number of daily searches in Australia for each.

Now, let’s scroll down to the 45th page of this keyword report and look at the tip of the tail of keywords.

I share all of this information with you today for several reasons:

  1. To demonstrate that everything here is public, including comments, speaking to the place of newsagencies in Australian business and society more broadly.
  2. To show that nothing here is lost. The 12,000 posts form an extensive body of work.
  3. To encourage more business focussed discourse. Disagreement is healthy, and to be encouraged. However, it’s important we all accept that disagreement does not determine right from wrong.
  4. To show that the newsagency channel and associated keywords are popular and driving plenty of Google clicks.
  5. To reinforce that what we talk about here is interesting to plenty.
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Blogging

Newsagency businesses selling

Newsagency businesses are selling through the covid challenges. While retail businesses in some other channels are not selling, newsagency businesses are selling and some have sold quickly, in a week or two of going on the market.

This is good for the channel. The number of buyers looking speaks to how the channel is viewed as an investment opportunity.

I have heard of a couple of instances where the purchasers were able to obtain bank finance, too, which is a nice shift from recent times.

Being essential through the pandemic is helping to reset how the channel is viewed.

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Newsagency

Unfortunate news coverage for the newsagency shingle

The news coverage this week of the arrest of a newsagent in Sydney in relation to a crime syndicate is unfortunate for the channel. While I don’t have media monitor data, I suspect we have seen more mainstream media stories published with the newsagency keyword already this week than in all of 2018.

While people are smart enough to not connect the whole channel with the actions of one, I have heard from a couple of newsagents about comments being make across the counter already.

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Ethics

Where do your customers think they are when they are in your shop?

What we sell in our retail businesses defines us more than the shingle above our door. Likewise, product ranging decisions are how we can recast out businesses and how shoppers see us.

Take lotteries. No matter what else you put in your shop or how amazingly diverse your product mix is how locally connected your business is, the Tatts or Lotterywest corporate image is the first thing passers-by will see and this will define your business in their minds. It is what will define how they engage with and consider your business while inside and after they leave.

No, I am not saying get rid of lotteries from your even though that is what I choose for my businesses.  That decision is yours you to make alone.

My point is, be aware of what it is that really brands your business, and be aware that the name you trade under is not as important as you might think it is.

It is your products and / or services that people see a the front of the shop in prime position. This is why I often write about what you need to display at the front of the shop. What you can pitch to change the conversation is key to attracting new shoppers.

Even with lotteries there are things you can do in-store to divert eyeballs to what else you have.

The one place where you are in control and define your business on your terms unencumbered by the branding and other demands of the lottery businesses is online, on Facebook and elsewhere.

Sadly, many newsagents blindly promote lotteries online, ignoring the freedom they have to be smarter.

Tatts and Lotterywest don’t force you to give space there so go for it.  Recast your business online.  Make a pitch that speaks to how you see your business outside of agency lines for it is in these places where you will find new shoppers.

Every time you make a lottery pitch online your remind people you run a newsagency. If that is not what you want to do, stop pitching lotteries and traditional newsagency lines online.

So, what type of shop do your customers think they buy from? Try and change their impression through what you stock and what you pitch online in the fresh clean space that you control.

Now more than ever you have to play against the history of the shingle and the expectation of agency lines that will not play as big a role in the years ahead.

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Newsagency

Merry Christmas

Have a great Christmas everyone. Enjoy the day off tomorrow after what will be, for many, a crazy day today. Eat good food. Drink what you enjoy. Have some laughs. create some memories.  And in a quiet moment think about everyone receiving a card or a gift sold by your business. You did that – you helped spread plenty of Christmas cheer.

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Newsagency

Misplaced Habits: The Newsagent

Misplaced Habits: The Newsagent is a heartfelt and moving blog post by Cath Feely, a social and cultural historian of modern Britain. I encourage you to read it as it takes you on a journey of memories to the quintessential British newsagency business. At the end is this paragraph:

Proper newsagents now seem to me to be an endangered species, a misplaced habit. Some are still there, clinging on, diversifying as they always have done, in the face of competition from supermarkets opening ‘local’ shops. My local newsagent in Withington, Manchester, closed last year as it sat opposite a new Sainsbury’s Local. The place where I got my pic ‘n’ mix has been converted into a house. For me, the newsagent has become a place of nostalgia. But I imagine there are still many communities in Britain where the newsagent remains a gateway to the wider world.

These challenges faced by UK newsagents are challenges we face here. The benefit for us is that we have such a solid based in greeting cards and this for many newsagents is proving to be the foundation of a bright future.

The majority of UK newsagents years ago appear to have decided to compete in the convenience space and in doing so took on the most powerful retail business competitors. I don’t see any cost effective upside for newsagents in the convenience space as I explained in a post here recently.

Each of us in business is responsible for our situation. It is too easy to blame supermarkets or the landlord or declining print media sales. None of these is a new challenge. Smart newsagents have managed through changes necessary. It is tough and the future we pursue is very different to our past. So while the newsagency of the past is disappearing, in many cases a new business emerges that is as locally connected as the newsagency.

Please read this history piece by Cath Feely. It’s a good read.

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Newsagency

Warm up your newsagency this winter with optimism

Winter is here. It’s months before the next major traffic generating season. Now more than ever we need to make our businesses appealing. This week I’ll share some tips.

Practical ideas to warm up your newsagency this winter with optimism.

  1. Create a display of the warm feeling products you sell: affirmations, angels, positive message cards, positive message mugs and signs.
  2. Talk optimistically about the business.
  3. Share stories of Optimism on your Facebook page.
  4. Create a wall of Optimism and ask people to share their stories publicly.
  5. Create a feature of happy magazines around the theme of optimism.
  6. Setup a pin-board for people to show photos of optimism.

This idea is hard as it is more about mindset and storytelling than anything else.

The optimism in our businesses starts with us.

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marketing

Shaun The Sheep opportunity for newsagents

shaunthesheepI received a unit of Shaun The Sheep flockstars from Network – timed to connect with the release of the movie. On their own these may do okay. Add to them the Shaun The Sheep merchandise from Jasnor and I can tell a story.

This is an example of opportunities newsagents can leverage, ways we can connect products from multiple suppliers to drive a 1+1+1=4 result.

Promoting products around a movie release can be terrific for driving new traffic as well as driving impulse purchases. Your marketing is easier thanks to hype and marketing for the movie. I saw this with the first Despicable Me movie and more recently with the Paddington Bear movie.

Of course, Frozen is the best example but everyone was in on that. What I like about Shaun The Sheep is that it is not as big and as widely available as Frozen product. This presents us with an opportunity.

I first saw the Shaun The Sheep opportunity last year. This new product from Network arrived at a good time.

if you are not convinced about the appeal of Shaun The Sheep – the brand has 2 million fans of facebook.

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Newsagency

Unhelpful commentary from Michael Pascoe on newsagents

Fairfax published a comment piece today by Michael Pascoe, BusinessDay Contributing Editor, about the decision being faced by the NSW government on where Tatts lottery products can be sold and the lobbying by NSW newsagents for continued protection.

While I agree with some of what Pascoe writes on this topic, his commentary is ignorant in some areas. For example:

Newsagencies are blighted businesses, hundreds joining the thousands of newspaper company employees who have lost their jobs. That’s capitalism for you – things changes, markets are disrupted, opportunities arise and fall. Like the local Blockbuster store, they are collateral damage of our technological evolution. They are no more special than every other business that is special in its way.

I’d prefer Pascoe to have commented that there are newsagents with growing businesses, newsagents who saw the changes coming and fundamentally changed their businesses. In the hands of a good retailer, a newsagency is not a blighted business.

For a long time, the newsagencies were a protected species – as pharmacies still are. They enjoyed a monopoly on newspaper distribution that was eventually broken down by the newspaper publishers. That the business of publishing physical newspapers also is rapidly breaking down is immaterial.

I’d prefer Pascoe to note:  deregulation of print media left newsagents disadvantaged, with less control over supply than those they now compete with. We have gone from being protected to being deliberately disadvantaged.

Newsagents used to be a powerful little lobby group, as pharmacy owners still are. They’re not any more, but might be worth a few votes for a policy as vague as an “extended moratorium”.

Pascoe could have noted: attention newsagents have attracted on this issue is more than achieved in recent years.

On the central issue in Pascoe’s piece, I agree – lottery sales need to be considered in the context of a tax, revenue raising for the government. Governments will ultimately choose revenue.

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Lotteries

Another example of an opportunity lost from our channel

wwpartworksThe Taronga Zoo Super Animals promotion running at Woolworths supermarkets appears to be a tremendous success. Super Animals looks at feels like a part series promotion with elements of building a collection.

Super Animals looks like something that would have traditionally been sold through newsagencies. But it’s being sold exclusively through Woolworths, driving impulse purchases and driving traffic for them.

While I have no inside knowledge, I do expect that the success of Super Animals will result is more kid-focussed collectibles like this from Woolworths and something similar from Coles.

Exclusive product is vital to driving traffic, especially in the collectible space. I know as I’ve had success over the last couple of years with a few exclusive lines in the collectible plush space.

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Competition

Newsagents and Tasmanian forestry

I was trawling Twitter last night and found a recording of a recent speech by respected economist Richard Dennis speaking at a forum on Tasmanian forestry. I was surprised when he said that there are more people working in Tasmanian newsagencies than in forestry. He then notes that he likes newsagents and that they are a strong poddy in Tasmania.

It’s a fascinating short speech that provides useful background on the debate on forestry in Tasmania and a couple of n=good asides about newsagents.

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Newsagency

Newsagency business sales analysis – better data helps feed better business decisions

I took a look at Jan. – Mar. 2014 vs. 2013 data for a newsagency from a major suburban shopping centre this week and here are comments I shares with the owner:

Being in such a major shopping centre with so many competitors for what you sell can be a challenge.

I don’t know how you manage the business with so many categories of products in departments. Take cards, they account for 17.05% of your revenue and you have more than 120 categories of products listed in your card department – many delivering sales of 1% or less.

Once I break this out I can see the various major suppliers and do wonder whether spreading your card offer across so many suppliers offers the best shopper experience. I understand the desire for variety. However, this needs to be balanced against management time cost and the overall shopper experience. Focussing on a major supplier allows you to leverage them more in telling / selling your card story.

Your card revenue is down 3% year on year.  This is in a quarter when the majority of newsagents are reporting growth. In fact, there is a gap of nine percentage points between your business and the average newsagency.

Your gift sales are considerably below average. Based on your card sales, your gift revenue this quarter ought to be in excess of $20,000. With 16.38% of your gifts uncategorised it is challenging to be detailed on the opportunities.

Magazine unit sales are up 10% year on year in a terrific result. Your growth in weeklies of 5% is excellent.  Not so good is that 22.8% of your magazine sales are uncategorised. Your data management is not up to standard.

Your stationery revenue is down 7% which wile not ideal, is not dreadful. What is dreadful is your data management.  You have categories that may mean something to you but are non standard – making it hard for you to eventually sell the business with good data management.I have never seen categories like you use and while they may help you, they make like for like comparison challenging.

Your book results are excellent and against trend. That this department generates 1.58% of your revenue is terrific. The year on year growth of 4% is great.  It see an opportunity for you in gifts and calendars based on your book sales. For example, food titles account for 11% of your book sales and these can play out in calendar and gift sales.

You have a large and successful business but I am left wondering if it could be more successful with better data management.

I hope this helps.

In response to a question I had yesterday, I don’t disclose the identity of the newsagency as it serves no purpose. All of us have challenges in our businesses and things we miss in the day to day running of our businesses.

I post this information here so newsagents can read it and see things that relate to how they run their business as well as to see opportunities based on good things newsagents are doing.

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Newsagency

Statement from Matt Handbury in relation to Hubbed

Matt Handbury contacted me over the weekend and provided this statement in relation to Hubbed:

Hubbed: Setting the record straight

In response to speculation about the operational performance and governance arrangements at Hubbed, I feel it is in the best interests of the newsagent community
to provide some much needed clarity around these issues.

First, I can confirm that I have resigned as a director of Hubbed, and that my substantial investment as a shareholder is yet be repaid.

Given that legal proceedings are pending, I do not wish to comment further on this issue, other than to say I no longer have confidence in the management of the company. My involvement with the board and management of Hubbed has come to an end.

My experience with Hubbed has deepened my conviction that harnessing the power of e-commerce will provide significant and sustainable new revenue streams for newsagents. It can also greatly enhance newsagents’ services to customers and the publishers and e-retailers they serve. I am determined to bring this to reality and you will be hearing from me in the coming weeks.

All newsagents, both those already dealing with Hubbed and those considering how to embrace e-commerce in their business, can rest assured that their interests will be served and their expectations and ambitions more than met.

Matt Handbury
Executive Chairman
Murdoch Media Pty Ltd

I am publishing this statement with Matt’s permission.

The ANF and other newsagent associations have been provided this statement.

I originally published this post yesterday, March 16. I reset it this morning as the content is important and blog traffic on a Monday is 1,300+ visitors whereas on a Sunday it is usually between 650 and 800.

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Hubbed

Supanews website claims 47,000 transactions

The Supanews website I wrote about in December claims to have completed more than 47,000 transaction since its launch.

The website itself is effectively a front for other sites – passing transactions to other providers for magazine subscriptions, lottery products and stationery. The site does not, as the promoters claim, replicate a traditional newsagency.

Supanews has claimed to its franchisees that it does not own or operate the site. I investigated this and am not sure. I traced control of the site to an accounting practice in Hong Kong that offers a service registering and running shelf companies for others.

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Newsagency

Newsagency business analysis: turnaround needed

Here’s an analysis I did yesterday for a newsagency in need of reinvention. Before that can be done they need to fix data issues so that they have meaningful data measurement. This is why the analysis is incomplete compared to what I would usually do.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to look at your sales data for July through September this year compared to last year. The numbers make for sobering reading but I know you understand that from the changes you are already making in the business

Over the thirteen weeks in this period your non agency sales were just below $20,000, or $1,461 a week. Based on the product mix I estimate your current gross profit to be around 28%. This gives you $409 a week out of which to pay wages, rent and operating costs.

A traditional newsagent would try and build off of traditional newsagency lines and while this could work over time, I think the better approach for your business would be to look at the shop as a blank canvass, using this to build a fresh retail offering to serve the needs of your specific area. For example, with the developments going on nearby consider the people purchasing there – if they are families then their interests and needs will be different to if they are retirees.

In your data I can see that magazines currently account for 32.40% of your sales. But at under $500 a week it is very low. Look carefully at the titles selling as this can provide an insight to your customers. While I’d chase magazine growth if I were you, my core focus would be on higher margin lines, lines that can generate their own traffic and for which you can promote your sales.

Newspapers account for 12.84% of your sales. Add newspapers and magazines and you have 45.24% of sales delivering below average gross profit. While newspapers and magazines generate traffic, these products are also available in other retailers near you so they do not offer a major point of difference.

That gifts account for 7.59% of sales is good news. This is an opportunity in your data. Also, considering what is and isn’t nearby, you have an opportunity to be a destination store in the gift / plush / toy space. But developed over time and within a conservative capital expenditure budget.

Today your business would most likely be known as a corner store or a small local old-school newsagency. I think the future for you is to be known for something completely different. A fun shop, somewhere I can find a gift for any occasion. Somewhere I can shop locally for what I might otherwise drive ten of fifteen minutes to find. Convenient gifts, stationery, toys and items likely to sell to these shoppers.

Achieving this requires careful thought on the type of business you want to create. research you can do on this is to look carefully at your card sales – to see what people are buying and why. For example, if kids birthday card sales are strong what can you do to leverage this? Likewise confirmation / christening / baptism cards. While your card sales are low, $207 a week, the data should at least give you an indication for guiding expanding your gift range.

The other department to assess is stationery. What can you see in this? For example, is your stationery business everyday or office related? What’s popular for you? In one newsagency recently a third of their stationery sales were art and craft related products being sold for kids projects. This opened their eyes to opportunities in the kids space that they had not considered as they were looking at stationery sales as adult focused sales. So my question is – what gold can be mined from your stationery sales data. I’d be happy to get someone to help with this if you would like.

The challenge is for you to remove what’s not working and rebuild within budget constraints. I’d do this section by section, from the front of the shop back. Make the front of your business look full and vibrant, reflecting your aspiration to grow into a respected and talked-about local retailer. Nail just one area of the business and then move to the next.

Using your software right is critical. Scan every single thing you sell. If you don’t do this you do not have good data and without good data you cannot make good business decisions.

You can’t turnaround a business in which you are not measuring the performance of what you sell. This business currently is not properly measuring what they sell – to their detriment.

There is no excuse for not measuring, not scanning, everything you sell. You’re in business to get a return on your investment and the only way you will achieve that is if you are efficient and growth focussed. Neither can be achieved without proper measurement.

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Newsagency
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