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

Newsagency management

Is it a policy to greet customers in your newsagency?

The most common complaint newsagents make about anything, and I do mean anything, is that they (we) are too busy.

It is an excuse trotted out if we miss a notice or an email from a supplier, are late in paying a bill or have been discovered not running our business as well as it deserves.

Too often, I fear, we trot out this excuse to excuse us of good retail manners.

Take greeting customers.  Do you do this in your newsagency in a structured way?

While we can get into a discussion about whether we have the time,  I’d rather think about the kind of ‘newsagency’ we would need to have in order to make offering such a personal greeting to customers as they enter worthwhile – to us and to them.  What does that business look and feel like?

With an average sale value in newsagencies of between $6.00 and $10.00, an average margin of around 30% and with hundreds of transactions a day, it is no wonder we don’t place too much attention on the customer greeting. We see little value in this.

What if you had an average sale value of between $15.00 and $25.00 and a margin of 35% or more?  The importance of personally greeting customers increases dramatically. The margin opportunity is triple.  You could afford the additional labour resources to deliver the personal greeting and related shop floor service.

Newsagents say that their personal service is a key point of difference.  Do we really show this in our businesses?

Why is it that we do not demonstrate this by ensuring that customers are greeted as they enter the store – rather than waiting until they get to the counter?

The challenge for us in 2011 and beyond is to reconfigure our businesses to make offering a personal greeting commercially valuable to our businesses.  Think of it as a goal, to have that kind of newsagency.  How much we change our businesses is up to us.

0 likes
Newsagency management

Very different sales mix during post Christmas sales

salesgraph.JPGWe have been running very different newsagencies these past two days.  As the sales graph shows, most of our business have been greeting cards.  To give some perspective, we still did close to $500 in calendars in this store from which I extracted the graph.  95% of the card sales are boxed Christmas cards which were brought in especially for the post Christmas sales – so margin remains excellent.

Based on experience from previous years, we expect this sales balance to continue until Friday, after which we will transition into a more regular school holiday mode.  By then, most of our sale stock will have been exhausted.

A hallmark of the post Christmas sales so far has been customer attitude.  There has been little grumpiness or complaint – even though the line for service got quite long sometimes.  Customers tend to come in massive waves in shopping centres around sale time.  One minute you may have a couple of people in the store and the next minute you have a line of fifteen at the counter.   It is a great time to be behind the counter.

Of the Christmas boxed cards we had on sale, the charity cards are by far the most popular and among those, the religious themed cards and the most popular.

0 likes
Newsagency management

November newsagent sales benchmark study results

Sales were flat in newsagencies in November.

40% of stores reported slight growth, 60% reported a decline in revenue. Magazines continued to be the product category of most concern.

The latest newsagent performance data is from the Tower Systems Sales Benchmark Study. My newsagency software company Tower Systems undertakes these studies on behalf of newsagents. This one month study is based on sales data from 103 newsagencies, trading under four different banners plus independents, businesses in capital city regional and rural situations.

Here are the headline numbers:

  • Magazines. 80% of newsagents reported a decline in magazine sales (numbers of magazines sold) with an average decline of 8%. While the decline is reported across the board, the women’s weeklies category has again suffered.
  • Greeting cards. 55% of newsagents reported a decline in greeting card revenue with the average decline 4.5% year on year. Of those reporting an increase, the average increase was just under 2%.
  • Stationery. 40% of newsagents reported a decline in stationery sales with the average decline 1%. Of the newsagencies reporting an increase in stationery sales, the average increase was 3%.
  • Gifts. 75% of the stores in the study have a gift department. 85% of these reported sales increase in gifts.
  • Calendars.  70% of stores reported growth in calendar revenue – the average was 2%.
  • Newspapers. 80% of participants reported newspaper sales of within .5% of last year’s numbers.
  • Overall sales. 60% of newsagencies reported a decline in sales for November 2010 over November 2009. Of those reporting an increase, the average increase was 2%.
  • Basket size. 37% of newsagents reported a decline in the number of items in the basket. This suggests that people are seeking out lower priced items.

Newsagents need to consider their space allocation for magazines. Giving the same space today to the department as, say, two years ago would be disadvantaging the business.

Suppliers and industry leaders who care about a healthy newsagency channel will engage on the issues reflected in these benchmark numbers.

The performance of the channel and the tough trading conditions many are experiencing ought to be the top priority topic at any conference, meeting or other newsagent channel gathering. The issues reflected in the numbers I have been looking at for the past week go to the heart of the future of the channel.

As previous studies have shown, newsagencies in rural and regional situations fared better than their city counterparts.

0 likes
Newsagency benchmark

Christmas theft advice for newsagents

I first published this advice to the 1,700+ newsagents using the newsagency software from Tower Systems a few weeks ago.  I publish it here because of  the concerning number of recent thefts in newsagencies.

With sales up and cash in the business up, Christmas time is the time for newsagents to be more vigilant than ever in managing cash. From taking care at the counter in customer interaction to ensuring honesty of employees, now is the time to revisit processes to ensure that the business is protected.

  1. Use employee initials or codes for each sale. Yes, this adds time to each sale. The benefits far outweigh the time cost.
  2. Require that the amount tendered be entered for each sale.
  3. Run refresher training on handling giving change to customers.
  4. Remind your team about counterfeit notes.  (See my blog post yesterday on this.)
  5. Give out receipts for all sales over, say, $5.00.  This helps you avoid disputes down the track if someone asks for a refund.
  6. Be on the lookout for over the counter scams by customers – scams around change given or getting free mobile phone credit.
  7. Take a zero tolerance approach to end of shift balancing.  All too often I see newsagents turn a blind eye to cash being out by $50 or even $100.  Good Point of Sale technology when used properly can help you drive zero tolerance.
  8. Do spot cash balancing during the day, at random times.
  9. Use stock control for high at-risk items such as cigarettes. This will quickly identify a theft problem. Indeed, you should use full stock control for all stock items.  Ideally, you will use stock control for everything.  Not managing stock on had in an invitation to be ripped off.  No excuses.
  10. Talk to Tower Systems about theft check options within our Point of Sale software and the FREE Theft Check Service for newsagents.

Yes, some of these measures take time. The financial saving from greater vigilance to the business could be considerable. Christmas in retail is a time of higher than usual risk.

Take care. If I can help in any way, please contact me.

0 likes
Newsagency management

November sales benchmark study

I am undertaking a sales benchmark study comparing sales in newsagencies for November 2010 against November 2009.  This was announced to newsagency software customers of Tower Systems yesrerday. Newsagents participate by sending a Monthly Sales Comparison Report: tick the box to exclude home deliveries, and tick the box for a category breakdown. Set your first date range (on the left) to November 1, 2010 to November 30, 2010 and the date range of the right to one year earlier. Once the report is on the screen, click the PDF button to save this as a PDF, go into your email software and send a copy of the PDF to me at mark@towersystems.com.au. I will publish the benchmark results here and elsewhere so all newsagents can benefit.

Tower Systems is committed to helping newsagents make better business decisions through access to accurate business data in a timely fashion.

0 likes
Newsagency management

Swamped by resumes

School is almost out for another year and we are almost drowning in resumes from high school students looking for Christmas work.  Twenty five resumes in the last week.

Since we are hiring we look at each carefully.  If it’s a no we email, call or write with this news.  I figure that we owe them a response even though their application was unsolicited.

We have a standard email we send to people who get to the next step, asking a few questions.  Their response determines if they get an interview.  We’re hard core.  Having an email address and a mobile phone is essential. Being able to answer questions in an email is an indication of communication skills – the questions are designed to weed out candidates we would not want to hire.

While the hiring process is about us finding a good candidate, it is also our opportunity to provide helpful feedback to candidates along the way – it’s business after all.

0 likes
Newsagency management

Get Convenience World magazine free

convenienceworldmagazine.jpgRegulars here would know that I like Convenience World magazine.  It publishes excellent insights into products which are of interest to many newsagents.  It is also a useful news and information souurce on the convenience retail channel which newsagents would find fascinating and useful.  I highly recomment Convenience World to newsagents who are looking for opportunities.  Subscriptions are free.  Just email sacha.delfosse@retailmedia.com.au.  Sacha Delfosse is the Editor.

0 likes
Newsagency management

The risk with early magazine returns

I have been talking with a couple of smaller publishers this week about the damage which early returns can do to newsagency businesses and to publishers.  Here are two concerning stories:

  1. A newsagent early returned 19 copies of the 20 they received of a title with a close to 100% sell through for this store.
  2. A newsagent early returned 8 copies of the 12 they received of a title which consistently achieved a 60% sell through in the store.

I understand why this happens. Newsagents early return for three broad reasons – at the time the stock comes in because their software indicates they have received significantly more stock than they will sell, during the month when they see a title is not moving and they need the space and/or in response to the need to manage magazine cash-flow.

It is the third type of early return, in a scramble to manage cash, where less rational decisions are made. Indeed, I have seen situations where early returns are selected almost randomly.  While this will frustrate publishers, they need to understand the extraordinary pressure on newsagents to settle their magazine accounts on time.

The best approach to early returning is to select titles based on sales data. There is no commercial sense in returning stock you are likely to sell in a reasonable timeframe.

0 likes
magazine distribution

Not so Grand Final Day

Melbourne this week has not felt the same as the previous week.  While we all know the AFL Grand Final is being replayed, there is not quite the same buzz.  I will be interested to see how today pans out, whether the shopping precincts become ghost towns from lunchtime.  Maybe that is it, the focus this week will be on the game and not the hype.

0 likes
Newsagency management

Newsagents need to reduce stock to build better businesses

An objective analysis of stock performance in many newsagencies will reveal serious problems.

Outside of magazines and cards which are effectively managed for us – yes with mixed degrees of success but outside out direct control nevertheless – newsagents have stock which is grossly underperforming.

In stationery, for example, an average newsagency will have around 33% of stock losing money for the business. Similar numbers can be found in other departments over which the business has direct control.

Newsagents can easily identify this under-performing stock and make the tough decisions which the performance data demands.

So why is this not done?

That is the million dollar question. Literally.

Imagine a newsagency with $30,000 invested in stationery. It is likely that $10,000 of the investment is non-performing. If you had $10,000 in a bank which was not paying interest you would move it, chasing income. Why is it that newsagents do not take the same approach when managing stock in their businesses?

Identifying and cutting dead stock is easy. In any good newsagency software package there are reports which identify underperforming stock, stock turn, Return on Investment, an analysis of supplier performance and detailed sales analysis.

Any and all of these reporting options can identify dead stock, the thousands of dollars in underperforming capital waiting to be freed and put to better use.

Newsagents don’t need help to do this, they just need to start using their software and making business decisions based on the information in the reports produced by the software.

Newsagents can avoid repeating bad buying decisions by ordering only what sells, unless it is an entirely new line. Just switching to this responsive approach to ordering will reduce dead stock and put more money in the bank account of the business.

But again, why is this not done?

I suspect it has to do with many newsagents getting used to suppliers like magazine companies, card companies and many stationery companies doing this work for us.

If you can stop a rep from a supplier creating an order for you, do so. Take control, buy what is selling and get rid of dead stock from your business.

Sure you will have more shelf space in your business, that is a good thing as it presents opportunities. Not taking action because you are concerned about empty shelves suggest you are probably not a profit motivated newsagent.

If you are a newsagent and have got this far in reading this post, find out how to report in dead stock using your computer system. Run the report(s) and take a cold hard look at the performance of your stock investment.  Make the tough decisions. Chase a better return on your stock investment.

Remember, it is your money.

0 likes
Newsagency management

Newsagency move update

newsxpress-forest-hill.JPGAfter an intensive 48 hours, our temporary new store at Forest Hill Chase is looking pretty good.  Thanks to help from a cheerful and energetic team, we compressed stock from our 330 sq m store on level 2 into the 97 sq m temporary location on level 1.  While we still have a couple of days work to finesse the new location, we are open for business.  Indeed, we did not miss any trading hours.

It is interesting how one views stock when space is limited.  Every stock item has to pay its way, there is no room any underperforming items to be propped up by others and no room for us to carry something because of a belief that newsagents should carry such an item.

So far, we have cut 400 magazine titles – none was cashflow positive.  We have also cut around 65% of our stationery range.  Half was cash flow negative and half was out of space necessity.  We have retained almost the entire range of everyday cards and a trimmed lifestyle offer.  We have also retained our paperback books and book sale space allocation and set aside space for diaries and calendars.

It helped tremendously that we had our own qualified and centre approved technician on the ground for two days to take care of all of the technical complexities including moving the Tattersalls, fax, phone, internet and other lines.   It also helped that we engaged a centre approved shopfitter to manage moving card fixtures and repurposing our Tattersalls bench.  The team from Hallmark was a tremendous help yesterday morning as was the team from our own businesses.

I am sure we will discover that we have made some mistakes.  We will work on those when we discover them.  In the meantime, we are looking forward to a few months in the trim location and the experience it provides.

0 likes
Newsagency management

Retail display advice for newsagents

Newsagents rarely have retail display experience.  They don’t usually consider retail display experience when hiring new staff.  This leaves the focus on retail displays a low priority for the business.

That said, creating retail displays is something I am often asked about when I speak at newsagent meetings.  Newsagents want to know more about creating displays.  They ask as if there is a prescription for success.

Retail displays exist for one purpose only, to sell product. This is the most important piece of information to keep in your mind when preparing for and creating retail displays.

Too often, newsagents and their employees get caught up in the excitement of a new display and forget the single business imperative of making money.

Newsagency suppliers, too, get caught up in the excitement of making something attractive rather than valuable. Many suppliers prefer to reward retailers on an attractive display more so than the sales it achieves since for the supplier a billboard promoting their brand is what they want and not so much the sale of their brand in your store.

Everyone involved in creating visual merchandising ought to remember these four key retail display principles:

  1. The sole purpose of any retail display is to drive sales. This means that the most attractive presentation may not be the best. It also means that a billboard display which promotes a brand without drawing shoppers in may not be the best.
  2. You are not your customer. You are not creating a something for your own pleasure. It must appeal to your customers, so much so that it drives them to spend money with you.
  3. Customers get bored easily. Change your retail displays regularly. Such change could be moving the location through to complete replacement.
  4. Measure everything. The value of the space, the time it took to create the display. The financial return earned by the business from effort.

If you feel like you are in a bit of a rut with your visual merchandising, consider these suggestions. They are designed to shake things up and help you find new energy and focus for creative and commercially valuable retail displays.

  1. Work out the return on investment from your last ten displays. The average becomes your benchmark.
  2. From now on judge the value of displays by the return they achieve.
  3. Learn what your customers respond to and do more of this.
  4. Break out display opportunities in your store by the strategic, big picture, display spaces and the tactical, smaller spaces designed for impact sale opportunities.
  5. Try out everyone in the retail business for creating displays, even your back room people.
  6. Be ruthless, if a display is not delivering a return in a reasonable period, say the first day, take it down.
  7. Build displays which suit your business needs, not necessarily the needs of your suppliers.

It all comes down to one key point – making more money from retail displays is easy once you understand that displays in your store are solely about making money.

Newsagents often tell me that they understand that retail displays are about making money but they rarely demonstrate this in their business decisions.

From the top of the business down, focus on displays which make money and, yes, the business will make more money.

0 likes
Newsagency management

Afternoon sales better than morning

Data I am currently reviewing for capital city shopping centre based newsagencies indicates that afternoon customers are more likely to spend more in a sale than morning customers.  Indeed, the later in the day the more they are likely to spend.

In several instances, I have seen late afternoon sales worth, on average, 50% more than early morning sales.

This data will vary newsagency by newsagency.  Get it for your store and it could be gold.  Most point of sale systems can produce it in seconds.  They can cut time based sales in a range of useful ways.

Thinking about this further and recalling customer behaviour in that last hour or so, it is clear that at this time of the day we are the convenience store for our customers.  They tend to take less time choosing their purchase and that works in our favour.

Digging deeper into the dataset from a small sample group, I can see that afternoon shoppers are twice as likely to, for example, purchase multiple greeting cards in a sale.  If you knew that for your newsagency would it change how you manage the business.  I bet it would!

I started looking at this data again recently to help a newsagent out in balancing the roster.  It turned out that they had their people working at the wrong times for maximum benefit – based on the customer behaviour shown in their sales by time data.

0 likes
Newsagency benchmark

GNS Perth Market Fair busy

gns-perth-2010.JPGI was in Perth yesterday for the GNS Market Fair.  It was a good trade show for the newsagency channel. While not as big as those already this year in Melbourne and Sydney, the Perth fair was busy with business … plenty of business in fact. I was surprised at the range of good quality sales leads – there were plenty of newsagents making plans for a strong finish to 2010.

The difference in trading conditions and business management factors across the country is as strong as ever based on what I have see that the three GNS Market Fairs so far.

GNS put on a good event in Perth, plenty of space, well laid out plus free food and drink!

0 likes
Newsagency management

Excellent day two at GNS Market Fair in Victoria

tower_gns_melbourne.JPGThe second day of the GNS Market Fair in Melbourne today was excellent.  Busy.  Plenty of newsagents through.  My feeling is that it was busier than last year.

Congratulations to GNS for such a good fair.

I split time between the Tower Systems stand and the newsXpress stand.  Both did well, coming away with new business and leads from newsagents keen to do business.  You know you are doing well when competitors spend time watching your stand.

I enjoyed the business discussions I had with many newsagents and many newsagent suppliers today and yesterday.  There is a developing conversation among many around the question of basket size and how newsagents can improve this.  This started off at the recent Newsagency of the Future sessions and is now developing more widely as more in the channel realise that this is a key issue and opportunity for us.

0 likes
Newsagency management

Beware the Yellow Pages Scam

A couple of newsagents contacted me last week about a “Yellow Pages” scam.  They con you into thinking they are from the real Yellow Pages and that you owe money.  It soon escalates and some business people feel enough pressure to send payment to make it go away.  The scan is usually operated by people working overseas.  Spam Laws has a bit to say about the Yellow Pages Scam.  The BBC also published a report earlier this year.

Good basic advice: don’t sign anything without being sure of its authenticity, if something sounds too good to be true it probably is, the Yellow Pages operates in Australia and would never ask you to send money overseas, tell employees to be wary of scams – even from people offering to help the business for free.

0 likes
Newsagency management

Credit card scam: warning to newsagents

Newsagents need to be on their guard in Melbourne at the moment.  There is someone using credit card numbers to buy mobile phone recharge and to load prepaid debit cards.

They are very smooth and can have employees believing that what they are doing is legitimate.  Here are some tips to protect your business.

  1. Only allow credit and debit card transactions where the customer has the physical card.
  2. If you are unsure of a cardholder, ask for photo ID, say it is store policy.  This is common in the US now.
  3. Never allow a customer to enter any numbers or touch any buttons on your eftpos terminal except for entering their pin number.
  4. Do not permit the loading of credit to a prepaid debit card from a credit card.
  5. Get all your employees together and warn them, run them through the proper handling of eftpos transactions.

You could also:

  1. Place a height guide by the door so you get this right when you call the police.
  2. Use a security system and have a monitor in store, behind the counter so that all customers can see that they are being recorded.
  3. Bring in an expert to provide security training for your employees.

The most recent incident involved a male.  Another a couple of months ago involved a female.

0 likes
Newsagency management

Q2 2010 Newsagent Sales Benchmark Study Announced

I am preparing to undertake a newsagent retail sales benchmark study comparing sales for April – June 2010 against April – June 2009.

Tower Newsagents can participate by sending a Monthly Sales Comparison report: tick the box to exclude home deliveries, and tick the box for a category breakdown. Set your first date range (on the left) to April 1, 2010 to June 30, 2010 and the date range of the right to one year earlier.

Once the report is on the screen, click the PDF button to save this as a PDF, go into your email software and send a copy of the PDF to me at mark@towersystems.com.au. I’ll publish the benchmark results here and elsewhere so all newsagents can benefit.

NOTE: If you are running our latest software, you can click on the BENCHMARK icon on your desktop, enter the April through June date range and have the software do the rest.  If you have not used our direct email facilities – to email customer accounts or to email Gordon and Gotch supply changes, the software will ask for some email details from you.  This takes a few seconds to setup.

Non Tower newsagents can participate by emailing me for a copy of a spreadsheet template I have prepared.

As with past benchmarks, I expect to get data from between 100 and 120 newsagencies in the next week.  The results will provide an indication of sales performance year on year and give newsagents something with which to compare their businesses.

0 likes
Newsagency management

Promoting a magazine based on its cover

time-magazine-june2010.JPGWe are promoting the latest issue of Time magazine, with the World Cup cover story, with newspapers for a few days.  While only simple, I am hoping that the tactical placement with newspapers will be effective since Time sales are not all that good for us.  Our World Cup magazine sales are going off so we know the interest is there in the cover story.

We often place magazines in high traffic locations based solely on the cover story.  We have senior people putting magazines out in the mornings and this is when these decisions are made.  I made the decision years ago to treat magazine placement in-store as a senior role.  Sales performance suggests this was a good decision.

I try and plan my travel schedule so that I am in town Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings so I can do this work.   If surprises me the number of newsagents who see this work of putting out magazines as menial.  To me, it is driving one of the only points of difference we have in our newsagencies.

0 likes
magazines

Why would you buy a newsagency today?

I am often asked by people looking at buying a newsagency why they should given the issues and challenges discussed here and elsewhere.

In my view, a newsagency represents a good investment and offers good opportunities, plenty of upside – despite some challenges presented by out of date practices.  The value in theupside is why I have expanded my own involvement.

There is plenty about a newsagency business you can control.

There are excellent new traffic opportunities: ink, books, gifts, services and some other new products areas I am not prepared to name here just yet.  These are brining new customers in.

There are excellent sales efficiency opportunities – selling more to existing customers. This is achieved by cleverly leveraging high traffic products such as newspapers, lotteries and major magazine titles to drive impulse purchases.

There are good margin opportunities. For example, ditching magazine company calendars in favour of dealing with calendar specialists – newsagents more than double their margin.

Proactive newsagents can transform the business. This is where the biggest opportunity lies. By respecting existing key traffic generators and evolving the business offer in other categories, smart retailers can significantly increase sales and profit. Yes the traditional newsagency is old and tired. The new newsagency is vibrant and profitable.

Change. Yes technologies like the iPad will impact our businesses. This will be more in a good way than a bad way. Entrepreneurial newsagents are seizing the opportunity of change and using this to motivate internal change.  There are newsagents making good money from cafe services, online businesses and expanded distribution businesses.

So, why would I buy a newsagency today? The opportunity!

The only caveat I would apply is that you need to buy at the right price.

I will be covering the themes in this blog post in detail at the Newsagency of the Future workshop next month.

0 likes
buying a newsagency

Retail turnaround tips for newsagents experiencing flat sales

Reading the comments at my recent post on flat retail sales got me thinking about practical ways newsagents could turnaround their retail businesses. I have put together a few ideas below which are a mix of basic business advice and out there crazy ideas. They are offered as thought starters.

If your newsagency sales are flat and you are doing the same things today that you have been doing for the last year it is not good enough.

Business will not come to you. You have to go out and find it – often through a series of small steps as opposed to a big bold move. You have to obsess about presenting a compelling offer to everyone walking through your door.

Different businesses are approaching the tough retail conditions differently. Take Myer. I heard CEO Bernie Brooks speaking the other day and he made it clear that they remain committed to their discount policy for now. Price appears to be working for them as a point of difference and while they don’t see it as ideal, that it is working in a tough market sees them sticking to is.

Price is not a point of difference option to newsagents – not across the board at least. Australian consumers expect us to be expensive. That has been shown in plenty of consumer surveys. Railing against this is a challenge. We can do this for some categories and at seasons but not across the board. Ink is a terrific example where we can promote on price – it is a key driver of the success we are having with that.

Other retailers focus on a unique range as their point of difference. The mix requirements of our shingle make that a challenge.

Here are some tips for newsagents on responding to flat sales:

  • Refresh the counter. Most newsagency counters look the same today as they did a year ago and beyond. Create something different and fresh. Take everything off and rebuild the counter with the purpose of selling product on impulse. Make strategic choices. Develop a plan for moving products through the counter – it may be a magazine next to a register this week, a candy bay next week and some cheap pads the week after. Have an impulse offer at every high traffic touchpoint. Once you have created what you think is a better and more business focused counter, look at it critically as a customer would. Is it the best you can offer? Monitor your results. If the changes have not drives a sales lift, do it all again.
  • Refresh the window. Look at your shop from across the street or the mall. What do passers-by see? What are you selling? What is compelling about your business form the window? If the answer is not obvious then take everything out and off the window and create a compelling story which draws people to the business. Let people see why they should browse your shop. A full and busy window is all to often a barrier to the business.
  • Refresh the shop. Change change and change. Move departments and categories. Make the shop feel fresh to regular customers and to your team. Make strategic choices about what products go where. Use dump bins for specials. Place impulse products next to high traffic products. Once you have undertaken the big moves, create a plan for continual change each week. Change shows that the business is a, living and breathing thing. It can make the shop appealing to new visitors. Newsagents who don’ change their business reinforce that the model is a retail dinosaur.
  • Refresh the team. Let your team know than business is tough. Ask for their ideas. Take some time out of the business to relax over a meal or drink or some other social activity (mini golf, go kart racing, fishing, bushwalking) and share an adventure outside the business. Sometimes getting away like this can get creative juices flowing about changes which can be made back at the business.
  • Ask suppliers for help. If your business is slow it is likely that your suppliers are finding it slow too. Ask them for some good value deals – not the stock they can’t sell but the stock they have plenty of and which sells well. If you can get some of that for a good discount you can pass this on and offer good value impulse opportunities. Talk to suppliers about visual merchandising opportunities too. I know one newsagents who did a brilliant window display for shredders – thanks to supplier support. The store ways around security. He sold plenty. The supplier was thrilled. New traffic was generated. Ask suppliers for suggestions – they are a source of excellent ideas.
  • Lure customers back. Look at the top selling items in your newsagency. Create a strategy for getting these customers back. Create a small flyer offering a discount on something if they come back in, say, a couple of days. Do this for newspapers and or lottery tickets. Have a small flyer saying – As a valued customer come back within two days and you get 25% off a greeting card purchase. Make it look life a gift card or a coupon. It has to look like it has some value. Put the works THANK YOU across the top. Date stamp each one. Track how many you give out and how many come back. Newsagency point of sale software can automate this process of handing coupons with sales.
  • Create an event. Look at your magazine sales and in particular the segments which sell the best. Let’s say you sell plenty of craft magazines. Consider running a craft day when you get an expert on a craft topic and promote that you will have a free in-store demonstration. Local clubs are happy to provide an expert for free as they can recruit new members. I know of a newsagent who once gave over part of the shop to a model train club – they had over 100 people in. The flow on buzz was fantastic. Don’t run an event like this once. It could be quarterly with a different subject each time.
  • Get in the newspaper. Seek out ways to help local clubs and groups. It does not need to cost a lot. Support could be more practical than financial. Maybe the shop could become a hub on a local issue – a place where people can go to sign a petition on an important local issue. Get in the local paper and get known for your community connection.
  • Run an event. Have fun. Get the community involved. Create an event based on what you sell: a paper plane competition, a papier mache local attraction model competition, host a bake off from a cookbook you sell, run your own Project Runway event to find a local fashion designer or run a cute baby contest. Any idea which connects in some way to products you sell is fair game here.
  • Connect with the community. Go to community clubs and offer a discount to members and a rebate back to the club for business their marketing efforts on your behalf deliver. This is easy to setup and manage. The more people you have in the community saying to their friends that they should shop with you the better.
  • Ode to you. Run a competiton to find the best poem which reflects why your newsagency is important to the local community. Get the finalists in to read them live and get your customers to vote. Maybe the local newspaper will run the winner?
  • Crazy ideas. Think outside the norm. Nude day has been done so has the underpants idea where customers get a discount for shopping only wearing underwear.

Stop talking about it. Yes, retail is tough. Talking about will not improve your situation. Doing something is better than talk.

The ideas in this blog post are offered to get newsagents thinking of ideas which are appropriate to their businesses.  It would be easy to dismiss them and say there is nothing new there.  Maybe not.  But what are you doing about tough times in your newsagency?

Change is oxygen to any retail business regardless of its current sales health. Doing nothing in tough times will make the tough times tougher for you.

Personally, I am optimistic about the future for newsagents.  There are enough good operators who enjoy embracing change for the channel to have good prospects.

0 likes
Newsagency challenges

Finding new employees for your newsagency

A question I am often asked by newsagents is how to find new prospective employees.  Here are some tips which I have found helpful over the years.  Some are obvious and others, I hope, are new to you:

  • Put a sign in the window.  Explain the position, the hours and what you are looking for.  Be sure to state how they are to apply.  Have a position description behind the counter ready to hand out.  This should also list availability requirements.
  • Put a notice up at any local community group which has a noticeboard.  This should promote your business (with subtlety) as much as the job.
  • If it’s an after school position, let local schools know.
  • Depending on the nature of the role, talk to your local community job centre.
  • Email your customers.  They may know someone.
  • Publish an email on the newsagents@yahoogroups site – other newsagents often know people.
  • Advertise in your own monthly newsletter.  Don’t have a monthly customer newsletter? Start one!
  • Let businesses nearby know, especially hairdressers – they know stuff and they talk a lot.
  • If you want a big pool of candidates, use SEEK.com.au.  While it costs a bit, the response is usually immediate.  It’s worked for us.

I could have added – let your employees know – but didn’t because it’s often better to employ people who don’t know each other.

The wider the net you cast for your search for a new employee the more you are likely to catch.

Crucial to success are: a good ad promoting the role, a good job description which makes it clear what you are looking for and agreement among all involved in making the hiring decision.

I am sure there are more ideas than those noted here.  Add any you can think of…

2 likes
Hiring employees

How we interact with magazines

Sitting on a plane yesterday morning flying from Melbourne to Newcastle I enjoyed watching how people nearby interacted with magazines. It was like I was in the magazine fan zone of the plane, magazines were the entertainment medium of choice.

To my left was a lady devouring Madison. I say devouring because she was reading it from front to back, taking her time. At one point, I saw her brush a photo gently with her hand as if she wanted to feel the dress in the shoot.

Across the aisle and to the right, a lady was reading Prevention, making notes on what looked like a TO DO list, underlining points of interest and folding back page corners for future reference. It was like the magazine was guiding changes in her life.

Across the aisle and in the row in front, a guy was drooling over Street Machine – he didn’t turn the page that often, he’d look at a photo and then look away as if carried by a dream.

Next to my Prevention lady was an older couple sharing Take 5 and That’s Life, taking turns to make moves on puzzles.

I had been watching for some time before I realised that I don’t often notice magazines beyond the newsagent perspective.

The level of interaction and obvious enjoyment was heart warming.

Newsagents and those who work in newsagencies work hard putting out new issues of magazines, removing from the shelves old issues, keeping the displays tidy, and managing the department in many other ways. It’s hard work. I suspect that many of us don’t get time to interact with magazines as I noticed my fellow travellers did yesterday morning.

Magazines we sell in our shops help people change their lives, dream wonderful dreams, keep brain active and feel good.

0 likes
magazines

Newsagents should research the total cost of giving up the newspaper run

Despite the recent increases in newspaper home delivery fees, I have heard from newsagents contemplating giving up their newspaper distribution runs. In a couple of cases I have looked at this week, the new fees still do not get the run to a break-even point.

I have advised several newsagents recently consider not giving up their runs since in their particular circumstances they would most likely miss the customer traffic and revenue from their lucrative sub agent business.

While the home delivery side of a newspaper run may be loss-making, in-store traffic to pay accounts and otherwise engage in run related activity and or sub agent business can make the overall distribution business profitable or least break even.

The home delivery database can be used to drive traffic through email and print newsletters as some newsagents already do with tremendous success.

Five or six reasonable size sub agents, nurtured and cultivated, can provide an excellent return for the time invested.

It is important to carefully do the numbers before giving up the distribution business. Have them checked over to ensure that you have covered all bases in your analysis. It may be that keeping the run is better for the business. You’d want to find this out before you make the move.

I know I have written here before about the downside of newspaper home delivery. My point with this post is to reinforce that each newsagency is different and that care needs to be taken to assess all factors before you make the decision for your business.  As one newsagent has found out recently, a year after giving up the run, poor research can lead to a decision which hurts the business.

0 likes
Newsagency management
Trending Articles

Fairfax changes approach to TV Guide, disrespects newsagents

Published on April 20, 2011

What do you think of the Powerball changes?

Published on February 16, 2018

IPS releases new magazine contracts

Published on June 21, 2011