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Newsagency opportunities

Christmas at Mount Waverley

Yesterday, I shot this quick video on my iPhone at my Mount Waverley shop. There was no setup or prep work to make the shop camera ready.

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Newsagency opportunities

The collectibles marketplace is stronger than ever and newsagents are well located to leverage this

Sales of collectible products are stronger than ever. from the $10 trading card products to $10,000 mint coins to limited edition plush items priced at $150 or so, collectors are collecting at greater numbers than ever.

The strong marketplace is boosted by people now collecting as a side hustle. There are several groups across a range of collector niches that are driving the growth here.

The $650.00 per set Major League Baseball product released yesterday sold out in a few minutes, exceeding expectations. The new Pokémon card set released earlier in the week sold out in no time.

Collectors and flippers (those buying and flipping as a side hustle) will travel a distance to make their purchase, some will travel several hours if they can be sure of getting what they want.

I know of newsagents doing over $150,000 a year in this space, some even more. My point is this is a growth opportunity. You can turn the stock a month before you have to pay for it and you can attract shoppers who are basket efficient – plenty buy other items when they are in the shop. You achieve basket efficiency by smart buying, leaning into opportunities related to a licence or appropriate aligned with the collector’s interests to drive a deeper basket.

Consider Pokémon for a moment. There are currently 9,100,000 searches a month online in Australia for Pokémon. That’s 50% more searches in Australia than Disney achieves.

Having products that are so sought after positions us well. It helps us make more money. It makes our businesses more valuable.

Collectibles are a valuable opportunity for newsagents.

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Newsagency opportunities

Check Christmas trading performance in your newsagency

Run a comparison report comparing performance in your business from November 1, 2024 to December 9 2024 compared to the same dates in 2024. If your business is like I have seen from plenty of other businesses today you should be seeing:

  • Card sales up 9%.
  • Gift sales up 21%.
  • Plush sales up 16%.
  • Toy sales up 15%.
  • Book sales up 12%.
  • Stationery sales up 4%
  • Magazine sales down 11%.
  • Newspaper sales down 12%.

These are the average results from 20+ different businesses. All high street though, no shopping centre businesses. Mor regional and rural than in the city. The best news is in the top five numbers.

In each of the businesses from which I have drawn data, they have made a conscious decision to pursue growth in one or more parts of the business while, at the same time, at least maintaining decaying product categories (i.e. not actively harming them).

What is most interesting in the data is that in more than half the businesses the growth was achieved off a flat transaction count. These businesses are getting existing customers spending more.

My point is that there are newsagents growing their businesses, achieving results of which they can be proud, results that deliver a healthier P&L.

Data like this is easy to access. if you have the industry standard Tower newsagency software, use the Monthly Sales Comparison Report. It’s the benchmark report for this type of analysis. I love this report. In seconds you can have your results and compare where your business is at. It’s the report I use.

I know of newsagents who wait for their accountant to produce a report on business performance. I think that takes too long and is too expensive. You can run this report today and have in no time at all valuable information to guide more moves you can make in your shop. Waiting for a non-retailer to tell you how you’re doing is old-school and, usually, unhelpful.

Take a look at your numbers. If they differ considerably from what I have noted here, reach out. I’d be happy to take a look for you. I am keen to help newsagents run healthy and profitable retail businesses. 

Our channel has come i9n for some negative reporting in the media this year. The best response we can have is to grow our businesses and, with this, flip the bird at ignorant reporters and media outlets.

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Newsagency management

How a no-frills POS software connected Shopify website has added $4,000 a week to my newsagency in the last 4 weeks

A few months ago, I embarked on a small experiment: building a website for a local suburban Melbourne shop, my newsXpress Mount Waverley shop,  on a tight budget and following the advice I give to other retailers.

The goal was to test the waters: to see what could be achieved with minimal investment, to see if the advice provided, when followed, is financially valuable.

Starting with a modest product range, the website quickly began generating sales. As I discuss in this video, which was shot late last week, in the seven weeks to filming, this simple online store has raked in over $18,000 without any additional marketing spend or inventory investment.

In the last week sales have surged further, the website has delivered over $5,000 in revenue in seven days. Not one sale has been to an existing customer. On top of this, the website has driven excellent growth in in-store shopper visitors: they find the product on line, find out where we are, and they shop in-store.

This video takes you behind the scenes on what we have been able to do through the Hugs and Love website integration with our Tower Systems newsagency POS software into the Shopify website.

The Hugs and Love website (www.hugsandlove.com.au) is a prime example of how seamlessly integrating Tower Systems POS software with Shopify can streamline online sales and fulfilment processes for local businesses. This powerful combination allows businesses to efficiently manage their inventory, process orders, and fulfil purchases both in-store and online. By leveraging the strength of these two platforms, local shops can:

  • Expand their reach: Attract new customers and increase sales beyond their physical storefront.
  • Simplify operations: Streamline inventory management and order processing, saving time and reducing errors.
  • Enhance customer experience: Offer a convenient and efficient online shopping experience.

The experience with this website has been valuable in helping us see what is possible in the shop.

I am always telling retailers who are creating their first website to launch early and launch often. Where we started with Hugs and Love in terms of products is different to where we are at today. We quickly discovered opportunities, and we leaned (hard) into them. This has been a key factor in making money. It has also provided a runway into 2025.

I see newsagents, and other retailers, make mistakes with their websites, big mistakes, expensive mistakes. Keeping it simple and developing on a frugal budget is best. Having as much control yourself as possible is key too. 

The most important advice that the Hugs and Love experience has reinforced is that a good website is a good plan B. It provides you opportunities outside of the shop you know, in case you want an option away from the shop.

Now, here’s the pitch: what I’ve done with www.hugsandlove.com.au is bring together the newsXpress retail experience and the Tower Systems newsagency software experience to create a solution that could work in any newsagency regardless of location or size. As I said, it’s a pitch. It’s also an explanation of how you can make money: take the Tower tech, the newsXpress expertise, a frugal budget and some of your time and you can achieve a return on investment that is likely to be better than the return you are getting from your shop today.

When we consider the newsagency of the future, one option is that it is this, it is playing away from the boundaries of your four walls and the expectations and restrictions of the newsagency shingle. It is about harvesting shoppers far away from your business, learning form the data they share and turbocharging your business growth with almost no additional capex, labour investment or space investment – delivering bonus net profit to your bottom line.

I’d be happy to talk one on one with any newsagent on this 0418 321 338 or mark@towersystems.com.au) , to take you further behind the scenes or to verify any of the information I have provided here.

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Newsagency management

Unfair treatment of small business retailers by shopping centre landlords in Australia and how you could help

I have been assisting a newsagent over the last two weeks in their lease negotiations. Their landlord, a well-known national business, is insisting on an annual rental increase of CPI + 2% and a similar increase on their mandatory marketing fund contribution. For this particular landlord the increase being sought in new lease agreements is more than in recent years – a consequence of the Covid years I suspect.

The landlord refuses to consider that a significant portion of what is sold in a newsagency, even a newsagency that has transformed from the traditional, comes from products over which the retailer has little or no control on the sale price. Indeed, plenty of products in any Australian newsagency have experiences price suppression over the last five years, making newsagents worse off in real terms.

While the person representing the landlord locally appears to have no wriggle room on the annual increase, they have some capacity on the base rent. It’s not enough though to make this tenancy viable from my perspective, especially when you take on board the restrictions in the lease permitted use clause.

Through the retailer, I have provided the landlord with comprehensive data on product price history to support the request for a fairer approach to the annual rental increase as well as evidence of a typical ‘newsagency’ today to expand what is covered in the permitted use clause. They appear to be unswayed by the evidence presented.

Talking about the situation with a leasing consultant last last week, they commented that they, too, had noticed a toughening of position by several major national landlords in their negotiations with small business retailers.

I mention this today to people who stop by here, newsagents, suppliers and landlords, to encourage them to understand the pressure newsagents, especially those in major shopping centres, are under.

I ask that suppliers consider this when setting your product prices and determining the gross profit your wholesale model permits for retailers. Your decisions impact the capacity of newsagents to pay the lease cost hikes set by landlords.

I ask that landlords treat newsagents differently to other retailers who do have more control over their priced. Plenty of suppliers will back up what I have shared here.

I ask that newsagents actively consider the value of being in a major shopping centre. The value has diminished over the years. Better opportunities outside exist in many situations. If you are not happy with a lease, don’t sign it. If you have any concerns whatsoever about your capacity to fulfil the obligations of the lease, don’t sign it. If your lawyer on reviewing the lease recommends against it, don’t sign it. There are many other options.

With overheads (insurance, power etc.) up by 10% and more and the retail award expected to increase close to 5% again this year, newsagents are having to increase their sales by more than 5% and increase their overall business gross profit by one or two points to not fall behind let alone move ahead.

In my work with the newsXpress group of 200 newsagents, the key focus right now is about:

  1. Maximising the gross profit on every item over which they have price control.
  2. Maximising shopper visit efficiency (from a deeper basket each visit).
  3. Maximising shopper value: bringing the shopper back sooner.
  4. Maximising stock turn and thereby maximising return on inventory investment.
  5. Maximising return on labour spend: by working on operational efficiency.

Back in the day, when our channel was a government protected monopoly, these things did not matter. Opening the shop door in the morning was all we needed to do to thrive. There was plenty of business to cover parts of the business that were not performing well.

Today in newsagency businesses, every supplier, every product, every staff member must perform. There is no slack to cover failure. (Suppliers take note.)

Also today, newsagents must play further afield, further away from what has been traditional for newsagents. Fashion, coffee, greenlife, licenced product and online are all areas of tight focus for our community. We especially like exploring products people might never consider offering in a newsagency.

It’s hard work every day. It’s what we signed up for, all of us in retail and in this channel.

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Magazine subscriptions

Excellent charity boxed Christmas cards kick off 2025 Christmas card season sales

I am seeing excellent newsagency charity boxed Christmas card sales already this year with sales significantly up on 2023.

For one of my newsagency businesses they are up 20%, off a strong number from 2023.

This growth has been driven, I think, by a few factors:

  1. An expansion of range. We have 50% more designs than last year. We source our cards from five different suppliers.
  2. The ability to capture sales online – 90% of online sales are to people nowhere near the business.
  3. A focus on charities first. Customers can buy by charity and many are. Boxed Christmas cards used to be arranged by design theme: religious, Australian, humour etc. Our charities first approach is paying off. Smart card publishers provide details on card packaging and the cards about the charity being supported,  offering another engagement point for customers.
  4. A secondary focus on Australian designs. Smart card publishers promote the Australian artist connection on their external product packaging.
  5. Going out early. The money we have stock it is out and being pitched.
  6. Marketing to previous customers. We know who they are and reach out to them to let them know what’s new and in.
  7. Tactical in-store placement so that every shopper passes the cards as they enter and leave the shop.

Charity boxed Christmas cards are a good fit for any newsagency business as the charities are local and this fits with the localness of the typical newsagency business.

On the topic of online sales, on Melbourne Cup day one of my shops that was closed for the whole day did over $500 in sales of charity boxed Christmas cards. That’s a good result given nothing was spent on marketing to achieve this. The key to the online success is the SEO work I have done to drive ranking for this website.

Charity boxed Christmas cards are an excellent opportunity for our channel. I think anyone not embracing them should consider doing so. They are an easy win, and they are a terrific opportunity to do good, I especially like this connection.

For a financial reference, for many years in my various newsagencies, sales of charity boxed Christmas cards have been 3 and, often, more times the dollar value of sales of single Christmas cards.

My newsXpress newsagency marketing group has, for many years, provided guidance and help to its members to maximise the charity boxed Christmas cards opportunity. Some of what I have covered above is based on that advice.

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newsagency marketing

Advice for newsagents selling online – dealing with the challenge of shipping pricing

Retailers, small business retailers especially, can get stuck on what to do about a free shipping trigger point for their website and the actual shipping charges they apply.

We have see it slow the process of getting their new website live.

After looking at many websites across a range of product categories I have some advice that I hope is helpful. I made this video yesterday:

For the free shipping trigger, if you are not sure where to start, start with $100. Experience with the website will soon guide you as to where you might adjust this. Adjusting the free shipping trigger is easy. Where you land really depends on your own business.

What you charge for shipping, when you do charge, needs to be simple and understandable. Too often we see retailers over complicate this. If you are not sure where to start, choose a number: $10, $12, $15, any number, and start there. Once the website is live, shopper engagement will guide you on where to land.

Every online business has shipping costs. Be careful to not be sidetracked by big competitors that pitch free shipping. Sure, there are shoppers who chase free shipping. There are more shoppers who appreciate reliability, personal service, care with packaging and, most important, of all, immediate availability of stock.

The advice in this video is part of a series of short videos Tower Systems is creating for retailers having websites built by the company and connected to its POS software. The advice in this video is not Tower specific.

The goal of the video is to share information that helps you make an informed decision faster, to overcome a common hurdle on the path to getting live with your website.

Deciding on the right free shipping trigger for your website involves several factors:

  1. Shipping Costs: Calculate your average shipping costs to determine a sustainable threshold for your business. The trigger should cover these costs and ideally contribute to your profit margin.
  2. Customer Behaviour: Analyse your customer data to understand their average order value. Set a trigger that incentivises customers to exceed this value.
  3. Competitor Analysis: Research your competitors’ shipping policies. You could choose to offer a competitive or more attractive free shipping offer.
  4. Profit Margin: Ensure the free shipping trigger doesn’t significantly impact your overall profitability. Consider the potential increase in sales versus the cost of free shipping.

If shipping costs are slowing you going live with your website, make a decision, any decision, and monitor shopper behaviour, adjust as you learn.

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Newsagency management

News outlets talk newsagency businesses down, how can we change the narrative?

Newsagencies in decline as demand for online content outstrips print media.

It’s a headline from an ABC news story a few months ago, a story published online, on radio and on TV. I wrote about it here at the time.

The story, reporting on the closure of Mansfield Newsagency in Victoria, failed to adequately report on the state of Australian newsagencies. So called experts failed to present accurate current information about the health of local newsagency businesses.

While there have been newsagency closures, the numbers are not huge, not as big as we see in retail channels.

The ABC News story is another in a series of reports by the ABC and other mainstream media outlets in Australia to properly report on the state of Australian newsagencies. While there are businesses struggling, there are more thriving, growing.

Let’s all work at pushing back on the cliché narrative about our channel.

Rather than complain about the failures of news media and some others to adequately represent our channel, here are steps I think we can all take in our newsagency businesses.

On social media, engage with content that is different to what people expect from a newsagency. That means posting less about magazines and lottery products and more about unique gifts, clothing, books and toys you may sell.

In your social media posts, talk about what you love, and why. Write your gratefulness for local Aussie products you have been able to find for your business. Appreciate local community groups you can support thanks to the support of your customers.

In your front window pitch products people do not expect to see in their local newsagency. Your front window display has one job: to get people to notice it. Hopefully, they stop and look, and then step inside. Your window display must crash assumptions. It must be bold.

At your counter pitch products people do not associate with a newsagency counter. This means no chewing gum, everyday candy or similar. Have products people don’t associate with you. However, the need to be products easily purchased on impulse.

From the front door and for the first 3 metres inside the shop pitch products people do not expect to see in a newsagency. And, change how it is displayed weekly. You want people saying things like this is nothing like a newsagency or every time I come here it’s changed. These types of comments tell you that you are getting things right.

The key to each of these steps is you offering in your newsagency business products people do not usually associate with a newsagency. That means buying from suppliers who do not traditionally supply newsagencies or go to the trade shows you might typically attend.

Playing outside what is expected for your type of business is key to you pushing back against the narrative of mainstream media that: Newsagencies in decline as demand for online content outstrips print media.

The decline in print media, which is between 10% and 12% a year currently, has nothing to do with newsagency closures in my opinion.

Some newsagency shops close because the lease is at an end and the owner has plans for elsewhere. Most close, however, because the newsagency is not relevant to today, which brings us back to product. The products you offer in your shop are the best way you can state your purpose, show your difference, ensure your relevance locally, and online.

It’s hard work, every day. As retailers who own and run our own businesses, we choose this. Our future is ours to make, and in doing so we need to take every opportunity to push back against the ill-informed narrative about our channel put about by mainstream media.

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Newsagency management

Overthinking a website for your retail business can be a mistake, and here’s why

Here’s a quick video I did yesterday morning showing why it’s wrong to overthink your website when planning for it. I see too many retailers, including newsagents, overthink their website, wanting everything to be perfect, thinking they know exactly what people will buy.

We created www.hugsandlove.com.au for one of my own shops in suburban Melbourne. It took less than two weeks to go from idea to being live. We’ve spent nothing on marketing and we have quadrupled the product range since launch. We have been deliberately frugal in our investment in the website and lazy in terms of chasing sales – to show others what they could achieve even being time poor.

Also, we did not add any tech skills to the business to make the website happen.

In this video I step you through some of the transactions and explain how seeing these helped us evolve the website. I hope some find it useful.

How you approach creating and running a website for your shop is 100% up to you. This video is my experience for this website and this shop. It’s one of ten websites we have created over the years for my shops. Again, the goal was to mirror something any newsagent could do.

We are at a point in retail where having a website for your business is as essential as having a fax machine was decades ago – every business had one.

As I note in the video, this quick and dirty website of ours for this suburban shop will add $50,000 in retail sales in the first year. I can see that doubling the next year with small effort. $50,000 in sales is close to $25,000 in GP, for no additional labour or retail space overhead. That’s good for business. Double it and you’re at $50,000 hitting the bottom line profit of the business.

These results are coming from shoppers the business cannot easily reach by opening the front door of the shop. Every retailer would be happy for this type of growth on top of what the physical shop is achieving.

I know of newsagents doing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year online. This is the financial opportunity anyone can chase. It starts with your first website and leaning into what it shows you.

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Newsagency management

Year of the Snake opportunity for newsagents

Even though it is plenty of months away, products have already started flowing for the celebration of the Year of the Snake.

We have offered Chinese zodiac related products for years. This year, the Year of the Dragon, it has been worth thousands of dollars in revenue.

Several state governments are in on the opportunity, offering birth certificates tailored to the various zodiac characters. I mention this to show that interest is broad from the practical through to high end gifting, like coins valued at $5,000 and more.

Current search engine searches for Year of the Snake in Australia are at 12,000, making it an easy keyword to leverage. That will spike as the year draws closer. The Year of the Dragon searches, for example, peaked at 350,000 a month. Each search is an opportunity for retailers.

I’ve talked about this opportunity with several newsagents who said they did not have customers who would be interested. What I know for sure from online sales is that we don’t know what we don’t know. Chinese zodiac shoppers come in many forms across a broad age range and many social settings. And, people buy for different reasons: for their home, for friends and as an investment – this is certainly the case with high end coins.

I think local newsagencies offer and excellent opportunity for leveraging Chinese zodiac related products and gifts and while the Year of the Snake will not reach the peak interest we have seen in the Year of the Dragon, it is valuable. I think of the opportunity as a season. In my own case, that season passes easter and Father’s Day in commercial value to the business.

There are plenty of fringe seasonal opportunities like this with which we can engage to attract new shoppers to our businesses. It’s vital as new traffic is truly the lifeblood of our future in retail. If you are not attracting new shoppers you are not nurturing the value of your business given declines in core product categories.

If you are not sure about Chinese zodiac products, do some research. There is plenty of evidence of excellent product availability and ways you can promote these in the context of your newsagency business today.

 

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Newsagency opportunities

Advice on how to get your business website to rank higher in search engine results

Here are 6 things to do to rank higher with Google and other search engines:

  1. Include brand in product names as that’s what people tend to search for.
  2. Arrange products by brand, with the brand name in the collection URL.
  3. Use blog posts to promote brands and branded products. Write these yourself. Try and not use AI generated content – search engines preference human created content.
  4. Use keywords relevant to your business in the content on your website, keywords people are searching for.
  5. Ask your suppliers to link to your website.
  6. Optimise meta title and meta descriptions to accurately describe content.

Here’s how you can optimise meta titles and descriptions in Shopify:

  1. Go to the product you want to edit in your Shopify admin.
  2. Click “Edit” to open the product editor.
  3. Scroll down to the “SEO” section.
  4. Replace the default title with a concise and informative title that includes your target keyword.
  5. Write a compelling description that accurately summarises your product.
  6. Click the “Save” button to apply your updates.

Additional tips:

  1. Incorporate target keywords naturally into your meta title and description.
  2. Aim for a meta title around 50-60 characters and a meta description of 150-160 characters.
  3. Use strong action verbs and a clear call to action.

Each week add new blog posts. Each post should be about a single product or a single brand. Talk about what you love about it. Be personal. Use a friendly and engaging tone. Write more than 350 words, ideally above 500 words. Refer back to your physical shop in the post. Use the product name or keyword or phrase you are targeting at least five times in the post – use it naturally though.

If you are not sure what keywords to target, ask someone. I provide this advice, based on data evidence, free to Tower and newsXpress customers. The data I source is through a platform I pay US$300 a month to access. It’s up to date for Australian keyword searches.

Keyword targeting in your content is key to the content driving your website higher in search engine results.

Yes, this is all hard work. Do it if you want to rank higher. A website is a forever hungry beast.

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Management tip

Early Christmas sales thanks to coin releases

Two significant coin releases yesterday from the Royal Australian Mint provided a terrific traffic boost for newsagents with stock. Both the silver proof and decorative Festive Florals coins sold quickly, and well.

What’s beneficial about coin shoppers is that they typically purchase other items during the visit – around 70% of the time they do from our data. This makes coins an efficient product for us to stock.

This second coin, the silver proof, is another example of price not being a barrier. It sold out first with little concern opver the 4135.00 price tag.

Key to leveraging the customer visit is related products that will appeal to this shopper, that the shopper can include a coin collector, a Christmas seasonal buyer, a general collector or anyone buying for any of these. Irt takes a it to understand the various shopper personas. Once you do understand, you can make good coin. (Sorry about that!).

Five years ago newsagents (except for Post Offices) would not have had access to mint coins. Now, four mints supply products to the channel, delivering millions of dollars in revenue and more than this in terms of value of new shopper traffic.

Coins are a valuable opportunity and that value will grow into 2025 and beyond.

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newsagency marketing

Advice for retailers and their suppliers about the challenging economy

You’d have to be living under a rock to not be aware of challenging economic conditions being reported on daily. We are seeing the daily reporting play out in retail with people being more careful on what they spend. The number of people emailing and dropping in resumes to retailers has spiked over the last month. We receive resumes here at the office daily, way more than in years.

It’s a challenging economy. FYI, here is some of our advice I have shared with retailers:

  • The current economic conditions are not normal. You cannot trade as if they are normal. 
  • Where possible, pitch Australian made. This lands well everyday, and especially in times of higher unemployment.
  • Show value through a loyalty offer with cash off the next purchase. Cash is better understood than points, and big business competitors can’t compete.
  • Stock what you know sells for you. Typically, your top 25 sellers are out of stock 20% of the time.
  • Make the in-store experience happy and welcoming.
  • Quit dead stock. If it’s not sold in 6 months, why is it on your shelves?
  • Expand the appeal of your business with products you’ve never stocked before and pitch them outside your business.
  • Reset the front 3 metres of your shop weekly. Give the shop a fresh feel.
  • Ensure every hour of labour cost on your roster delivers value.
  • Ask a supplier pitching a new product these questions:
    • Who is the customer?
    • How can I reach them?
    • How valuable are they to me over a year?
    • How many Google searches are there in Australia every month for this product?
    • When they search, what is the search text?

I mention this because suppliers, too, need to adjust their businesses to reflect the economic conditions.

On top of what you read and feel about the economy, retailers have just had to absorb a 3.75% wage increase and a .5% superannuation contribution increase. Add to this a minimum 5% annual increase in rent and a 33% increase in insurance and you can get a sense of the stress some will be under.

Suppliers can help by:

  • Ensuring stockists are listed on your website.
  • Linking to stockist websites from your website. Backlinks this are valuable.
  • Promoting your stockists regularly on social media.
  • Ensuring every contact has commercial value to the retailer.

Anything suppliers can do to help newsagents and other retailers make their businesses more valuable is appreciated.

The alternative to the action for retailers and suppliers noted here is to do nothing, to treat things as business as usual. That’s not a smart move in my opinion. Whether our businesses are experiencing challenges or not, there is enough noise out there to indicate action is needed.

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Newsagency management

Transforming your Newsagency

The latest issue of Channel magazIne published by ALNA includes a four-page spread on Transforming Your Newsagency. I am grateful to ALNA for publishing my article. Click here for a copy of the article. I urge newsagents to read it as the article contains advice anyone can act on today without spending any money.

 

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Newsagency management

National conference for newsagents next month

newsXpress is hosting a national conference next month and has set aside spaces for non newsXpress members to participate at no cost.

Here is the announcement I shared with newsXpress members:

newsXpress National Conference. Melbourne, September 8, 9 & 10.

In the newsXpress member community, I see a powerful force: a community of passionate small business owners. We may run different shops, cater to different customers, but we share a common ground – the drive to succeed, to build, and to serve our communities.

The world throws challenges our way, from economic shifts to ever-changing consumer trends. But here’s the secret weapon of small businesses: we are not alone. This conference is about the power of “Together We Can.”

We can share best practices, learn from each other’s triumphs (and maybe even a few stumbles!), and build a network of support that strengthens us all.

So, let’s use this conference to connect, collaborate, and unlock the incredible potential we have together. Together, we can navigate any challenge, seize every opportunity, and create a thriving future for our businesses and our communities.

Monday is a full business day, focussed on sharing insights on newsagency retail transformation and how to execute this on a limited budget.

We will look to 2025 and beyond and consider ways we can make our businesses more resilient and valuable.

We’ll talk through how we can better support each other.

And, we will consider how to navigate challenges faced baby legacy products.

This is a conference for retail newsagents, designed to offer support and encouragement, to help us all find an enjoyable path to the future.

Thants to supplier support and support from newsXpress itself, participation is free.

If you are interested, please email help@newsxpress.com.au.

At the we conference, we anticipate we will launch an exclusive for newsXpress members range of limited-edition products with a significant partner already delivering terrific traffic and sales for newsXpress members.

Here what to expect at the conference:

  • Networking. You’ll get to meet fellow newsXpress members. This is thebiggest value members tell us about conferences. Catching up with others in a relaxed environment. Sharing, learning, nurturing.
  • It’s a no pressure event.
  • You can provide feedback we use to shape what the group does and offers.
  • You will be presented actionable opportunities.
  • Have a laugh.
  • Challenged. Not openly, not in public. Listening to the sessions though some of what you currently do may be challenges, and that’s good because change is vital.
  • Energised. We’re sure you will come away with an action plan.

If you’re an introvert and are concerned that you’ll find it uncomfortable. Hang out with me, we can talk one on one, privately. There will be plenty of us introverts at theconference.

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Newsagency management

Thank you mediaweek for covering newsagent concerns about ABC news report on newsagents

mediaweek this morning has this morning reported on our concerns about ABC reporting earlier this week on newsagency closures.

ABC report that newsagency sector in decline fails to investigate closures, claims retailer by mediaweek Editor-In-Chief James Manning accurately reports our concerns. I am especially grateful for this coverage:

How the newsagency business model could look

“A typical country town newsagency today should be making less than 10% of their turnover from print media products, 30% of revenue from lottery commission and 60% from gifts, homewares, books, toys and more. That is, 60% of revenue from items delivering 50% and more gross profit.”

Fletcher has long been a critic of the support newsagencies received from publishers over the years. But he notes it should not be the reason for a failing business.

“You can’t blame the decline in print for newsagencies closing. Newsagents make a paltry margin from print products. It’s disrespectful, and embarrassing how little we make. A business closing because of this is a business rooted in the past.

“Smart newsagents started transforming their businesses 20 years ago.”

Fletcher finished with a final blast for ABC News:

“If the folks at ABC News did even basic research about the future of Australian newsagencies they could have provided more accurate reporting on the state of newsagency businesses in Australia.

“Do better ABC News.”

I am thankful to get this support for the channel out there compared to the reported comments by Brendan Tohill from VANA. Sheesh.

Let’s take a moment to look at the performance of print media products in our shops and for our channel.

Newspapers.

Newsagents make between 10% and 12.5% of the cover price. For the Herald Sun Monday to Friday, that’s .375 cents a copy. @ 50 copies a day, that’s $18.75. Considering the weekend cover price and sales, a medium size newsagency, selling 50 copies of the title each day will make under $7,000 a year in gross profit. Labour cost for managing the title over the year in that size business will be at least $4,500 while retail space will cost at least $2,000 without considering a premium for better positioning in-store.

Newspapers remain inefficient products. Around 75% of newspaper purchases are a single newspaper. I know this because of basket analysis for hundreds of newsagencies over many years. No amount of in-store effort has been successful in changing the basket efficiency of newsagencies.

Magazines.

Newsagents make 25% of the cover price. Thanks to cover price suppression of major titles, in real terms we make less today than five years ago.

In an average size newsagency selling $80,000 worth of magazines a year, gross profit is $20,000.00. Labour cost for the year managing magazines is $12,000.00. That can balloon out if there in an increase in missed deliveries. Theft of magazines costs around $2,000 a year, which lands at net $1,500.00. (My understanding is that supermarkets do not cover the cost of magazine theft.) magazine space in this average newsagency costs around $15,000.00. This average newsagency is losing money on magazines.

Magazines are more efficient than newspapers with single product baskets accounting for only 40% of all baskets.

Traffic generators.

For more than five years, print media products have not been valuable traffic generators for newsagents. While for sure that are people buying the daily paper or their weekly magazines, those shoppers are not the valuable shoppers that make money for newsagents. Indeed, thanks to basket analysis and tracking loyalty offer engagement, magazines especially are the impulse purchase if a shopper has bonus loyalty dollars to spend.

Print media suppliers don’t understand.

Our print media suppliers have management practices that are out of date, rooted in the days when our channel was tightly regulated. These poor practices cost us money. They think their products drive valuable traffic for us. They don’t. They think they make good money for us. They don’t.

Print media does matter tho.

What we don’t know is the value of print media customers who, on other visits, purchase other items from our shops. There is anecdotal evidence, but nothing you could rely on in court. The may to make the category work is to tightly manage space and hope that suppliers lift their game and drag their data management processes into 2024.

Why plenty of newsagents are thriving.

Many newsagents have transitioned their businesses to sell high end gifts, sought after collectibles and other products people will drive and hour or two to source. We have newsagents doing well with books and others doing well with coffee. Many newsagents have websites that reach people way beyond their local area. Some, too, with websites that have nothing to do with their newsagency businesses.

The shingle.

While news outlets and suppliers consider us a channel, we’re not a channel and have not been for many years. You can’t go into a newsagency expecting they will have what you want if your expectation is rooted in decades ago.

I don’t think the shingle matters. What matters is what shoppers feel when they enter your businesses. If they step into a shop that nurtures a feeling of comfort and happiness and offers them a treasure hunt retail experience they will tell others, and they will come back. The shingle above the door is irrelevant.

This is what’s interesting abut plenty of newsagents today. They are retailers, not agents, not shopkeepers. This is what the poor reporting of the ABC neglected.

Here, again, are videos I have done with the owners of three newsagencies that are anything but traditional newsagency businesses. Each business is inspiring:

The Aussie newsagency has as bright a future as each newsagency business owner allows.

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Newsagency management

How far can we push what we can sell in a newsagency?

We have put up The Perth Mint’s 125th Anniversary Australia Sovereign 2024 Gold Proof Five-Coin Set for sale at $10,999.00 We were lucky to get one of the 125 of the sets made. I decided to take on the product as it helps us see what the boundary is of the highest ticket price item we can sell.

We had good success with coins prices at $3,995.00 and moved on to coins priced just over $5,000.00, and they sold. The move to try this new coin makes sense.

I appreciate that this will feel out of reach to plenty here. If you’d told me about this coin set five years ago I’d have said no way could I contemplate this, yet here we are.

Good retailers don’t stand still. They try new things and if they work they lean further into them, to learn and see how far they can go. That’s what’s happening here. It’s what I have seen newsagents do in the gift space taking their business fro $20,000 a year in gifts to over $200,000 a year in gifts in a short period of time.

What we can sell in our newsagency businesses is not restricted as it was decades ago.

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Newsagency management

What’s the point of a Coke fridge in your newsagency?

The only reason to have a Coke (or similar) fridge in your newsagency is if it is delivering a good return on space, labour and inventory investment. if you have a Coke fridge and don’t know its performance numbers, work them out.

I see too many newsagents hang onto their Coke fridge because customers like the convenience of it. That’s no reason to keep it.

Your Coke fridge must make you more money than you could otherwise make from the space.

Your Coke fridge must make more than not having it and the associated assumptions that come with it.

People seeing a Coke fridge do make assumptions in my view. I think they will see it and register the business as a convenience business. If you sell higher end gifts, the assumptions flowing from seeing the Coke fridge may not fit what you want for the business.  Coke is a banner brand like that. See it in the front of a local independent shop and you do think convenience.

I was in a newsagency a couple of days ago that had a Coke fridge right near their entrance, in prime position. From the front door of their shop I could see four other shops with a Coke fridge. The newsagency having a Coke fridge did not make sense. The owner said they keep it because it works. They could not explain that in terms of financial performance or their profit and loss statement tho.

I bought a newsagency two and a half years ago that had a Coke fridge. The staff said customers would complain if we got rid of it. No one complained. We are surrounded by cafes and take away food outlets with Coke and other drinks. The fridge had no commercial value in our newsagency.

None of this matters. If you’re making a good profit, more than you would otherwise make from the space, stick with it.

If you don’t know your numbers, go work them out, now.

I worked them out for the shop I was in a couple of days ago and the Coke fridge was losing money. It was not paying for the square metre of space it was taking let alone the labour and capital tied up in inventory. This is a beautiful newsagency by the way, one offering excellent gifts. I think by removing the Come fridge they can  remove some shopper assumptions and expect more shopper traffic as a result.

Sometimes we find ourselves doing the same thing over an over because no one has stopped in front of us and asked why we do that.

I have nothing against Coke by the way. Some newsagencies, though, do not need to offer the product, they can make better use of the space.

If you have a Coke fridge, please go work out your numbers and let them guide what you do.

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Newsagency management

NADOC Week 2024 50c Coloured Frosted Uncirculated Coin release drives in-store traffic for newsagents

yesterday was a terrific day with people keen to get their hands on this new coin released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the NAIDOC Committee.

The Royal Australian Mint helps by listing is as a stockist and while this can lead to many phone calls, each contact is an opportunity to pitch other coin related product.

I love the coin releases for their new shopper traffic. New shoppers are gold in retail.

We never get enough coins, but we are always happy to get what we get, and we make the most of it.

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Newsagency opportunities

Right now could be a good time to promote Despicable Me ands Minions

The Are Media / Coles Despicable Me and Minions promotion prompted me to loom at the licence for opportunities for newsagents. In case you’ve missed it, here’s the Coles in-store pitch:

I checked Google search data using the SEMRush platform to which I subscribe and found that in Australia there are more than 180,000 searches with despicable Me in the search text. For Minions, the number is 472,000. That’s a ton of searches.

While plenty of the searches are for the entertainment products, plenty are for toys, games and books, a categories easy for our channel.

If you have Despicable Me and / or Minions product, my advice is to talk about it on social media and pitch it at the front of the shop or at the counter. You have nothing to lose and plenty to gain. It’s worth thin king about the various shoppers for these licences. While we at first think of them as kids products, there are plenty of adults who like the licences and collect products related to them.

I am aware of at least six suppliers with Despicable Me and Minions licences products I’d carry in the collectibles / gifting spaces.

While some newsagents may wish they had this Coles promotion, we can trade off the raised profile for these licences by being tactical.

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Newsagency opportunities

Visual merchandising advice for newsagents who think they know northing about visual merchandising, and for blokes who always try and get out of creating a display

Everyone can do VM!

Visual merchandising is about display products in a way that attracts people to them, top look, touch and feel. Ultimately, it is about displaying products so you sell more.

Anyone can do visual merchandising.

Here is our advice.

  1. Start with a clean space, a flat surface, in a good location.
  2. The best display looks like a pyramid.
  3. Your hero product is at the top of the pyramid.
  4. If the display is for a season or some other sign-post event, the poster should be placed with the display so shoppers can see it without having to look for it.
  5. Flowing from the hero product down to the base of the display are other products. But not so many that you can’t see what you want people to see.
  6. The display is balanced, even.
  7. A display of gifts always includes cards.
  8. If the display is promoting homewares the pyramid approach is not needed. Instead, go for something that looks more natural, like in the home.
  9. Use coloured paper to highlight certain products. But don’t go for a rainbow.
  10. From a colour perspective, a good display has no more than two core colours as the focus.
  11. A display can look untidy and that is okay in some circumstances. For example, a box of Beanie Boos exploding from a box .
  12. Mistakes are okay.
  13. Oh, and don’t treat this as an engineering challenge. Keep it simple and fun! :

Take your time, have fun.

Remember, the alternative is no display at all.

A note to others who may be around when someone is doing their first display – we all did our first display once … be gentle.

Now, here are some more notes about displays:

In my opinion, the best displays have a narrative relevant to the business, a story or purpose. This is code for saying I am not a fan of single product or single supplier displays. suppliers love these, of course, as they are a billboard for them. What suits them will likely not suit you.

A good display is a collection of items from multiple suppliers, categories and segments that make sense together, from which a shopper could choose several for a gift, or for themselves. Choosing the items for the display us you curating the display, making editorial choices to tell the story you want to sell.

Don’t leave the display up for long. My advice is one week, two at the absolute maximum. Having a length of time for which a display will be live helps you allocate appropriate time for the creation of the display. if you are not sure how long to spend on it, set yourself and hour tops. Get it done within that time.

Once you’ve done a display, if you are new to this, ask for opinions. Learn. Each display will be an improvement on the last.

Whole the opinions of others can be nice, what matters from any display is the sales it achieves for you. be sure to track this as that data will inform your next choices.

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Management tip

Best practical advice on allocating space in your shop: analyse gross profit contribution by floorspace

The advice I share is something anyone can do. You don’t need a retail specialist. You don’t need advice from a supplier. You don’t have to rely on a mentor. You don’t need to use one of the overpriced business advisors governments often pitch to small business retailers.

Spend an hour on this and I am sure you will discover things you will wan t to change in your business. It’s advice I have been pitching to newsagents for 15+ years. It works.

ANALYSE GROSS PROFIT CONTRIBUTION BY FLOORSPACE ALLOCATION.

This advice outlines one of the first assessments I ask to be done when asked to review the performance of any retail business, including a retail newsagency as it provides an understanding of the return being achieved from floor space allocation.

With space usually costing between 11% and 15% of (non agency) revenue in a typical Australian newsagency, it is usually the next highest cost outside of the cost of stock itself. How you use space matters to the financial health of the business.

Spend an hour on what I suggest here and the result should be a different view of the performance of your floor space allocation. This is not advice you will get from your accountant or from reviewing your P&L or computer reports. It is designed to be practically helpful in managing your business, practically useful to those in the business.

here are the simple steps I recommend you follow:

  1. Take a blank sheet of paper, ideally A3, and roughly sketch out the layout of your shop, marking in display units, wall shelving, the counter – everywhere you have product. There is no need to be 100% accurate.
  2. The floor plan layout should also include your back room if you have stock there.
  3. Colour-shade the layout by department and major category. For example, shade all areas with magazines in yellow, all floor space for gifts in blue, stationery green but pens in a different colour etc.
  4. List the departments and categories shaded on the side of the floor plan.
  5. Calculate the percentage of total space taken by each department or category. This does not need to be accurate to two decimal places. List this next to each department you have listed.
  6. Use your computer system to report on gross profit earned by each department and category over the twelve months.
  7. Calculate the percentage of total gross profit contribution earned by each department and category and list this next to the floor space allocated to each department.
  8. Circle in green those performing the best and in red those performing the worst. A best performing department will typically be responsible for a significantly higher percentage of gross profit than percentage of space allocated whereas a worst performing department will be contributing a percentage of overall gross profit considerably lower than the percentage of floor space allocated.
  9. Right away note down action items while the data is fresh in your head.
  10. Have the shortest gap possible between writing down your action plan and taking action.

Once you have the marked-up floor plan with the space percentage and percentage of total gross profit, think about your current floor space allocation.

Are the results what you expected?

What would you change?

What do others in the business think?

The steps suggested do not take into account product size and the average gross profit percentage from each dollar of revenue for a department. For example, ink is a lower margin product than stationery, gifts are a higher margin magazines. Typically, the analysis will highlight challenges with lower margin product.

The objective of the analysis is to provide you with fresh insights you could use when considering floor space change.

You can take the analysis a step further by looking only at one department and analysing performance by all categories in that department.

For example, in one business I saw pens taking 7% of stationery space while they contributed more than 40% of gross profit earned from all stationery. This raised the question of what might happen if more space was allocated to pens?

Every business I have worded with that has done this analysis has made changes as a result. Everyone involved has discovered things they had not expected. That’s the goal, to introduce fresh insights.

My advice here is not overly sophisticated. This is deliberate, so that anyone can do it.

Our channel has many suppliers full of opinions as to what we should do in our businesses. Most of those offering the advice don’t own and run retail businesses themselves. The best advice you can rely on for your business is that which you discover for yourself from performance data for your own business. 

If you do the data analysis I have suggested here and have questions, please reach out to me. I’d be happy to look at your results and discuss these with you. You can reach me at mark@towersystems.com.au.

I’d add that the advice here works for any type of retail business, not only newsagencies.

Now for an important footnote: it’s common for local small business retailers to put off work like this. I have seen it happen many times. In some cases I think it is because they think they know best while in other cases there is a fear of what they may discover and then there are some who say they don’t have time. None of these excuses are valid in my book.

Spend an hour and either have your current floorspace allocation validated or come out with a list of changes that pursue better business results. Either is a win.

The advice I have shared here is pare of the newsXpress knowledge base of advice to while all newsXpress members have access.

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Management tip

Here’s a quick walk through one of my shops

I shot this video on my iPhone on Wednesday last week. What was once a newsagency has evolved.

I bought my first newsagency in February 1996, to provide practical experience for myself and others in my newsagency software company, Tower Systems. I’ve owned newsagencies ever since. It’s been wonderfully useful, and enjoyable.

Mount Waverley is a small formal high street store in a regular suburban shopping strip. It competes with Chadstone for shoppers, and does well.

This business used to identify as a newsagency. Not any more. Today, it’s a place where people can find hugs and celebrate those they love. What it offers is covered in the website we built for the shop: www.hugsandlove.com.au.

From Squishmallows to Jellycat to ravensberger jigsaws to awesome blind boxes to Nee Doh, this shop is packed with many categories of adorable and fun items people can buy for themselves and for others.

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Newsagency opportunities

Australian Cars The Collection set to drive traffic to Aussie newsagents

Newsagents are tagged in the TV commercial for Australian Cars The Collection, a new partwork series launching June 10. Newsagents are the exclusive retailers of this title.

I am grateful to have seen part 1 of Australian Cars The Collection. It’s a terrific product. It feels good. We already know how much car lovers like buying magazines. This new series is sure to appeal to to current car lovers, those who appreciate nostalgia, those who love collecting and people collecting for young kids.

Each issue in Australian Cars The Collection comes with an authentic 1:43 scale die-cast metal car model. The series will feature of some of the most iconic Australian cars from the 60’ to the ‘90’s.

My advice to newsagents is to display each issue of Australian Cars The Collection in prime position at the front of the shop, to leverage the considerable spend on the TV commercial, which tags newsagents. If there is room, put it at the counter. I am confident this will be a traffic driver for our channel.

And, yes, I hear the argument about the paltry margin. We have to suck it up while we do everything we can to leverage the traffic boost. If you are tempted to early return the title, my advice is don’t. Get behind it and sell out. The launch of Australian Cars The Collection is an opportunity for us to show what our channel can do. I suspect people will be watching us to see how we handle the opportunity. It’s up to all newsagents receiving the title to not let the channel down.

Use your newsagency software to offer a putaway service, to lock those early shoppers for this title into buying future issues from you. Good newsagency software makes putaways easy with the result being a personalised label for each cutaway customer. It’s the best approach to managing any partwork series as it provide you with control and the customer with a good experience.

This launch has been almost 2 years in the planning with a company in the UK and a company based in Asia that produces diecast cars for the world market. I know that the folks at Are Direct have used their own sales data to develop the allocation model for the title. This has taken considerable planning.

It’s been a long time since we have seen a partwork launch like this. Many newsagents in the channel today would not have experienced it before. That’s one reason I am writing this post – to share that this is a good opportunity. The TV commercial alone tagging newsagents is an opportunity for us to leverage. It should land people in your shop who are not regulars. This is the opportunity.

We should use our socials to talk about the launch, leverage the front of the store as I have already noted and ensured that everyone in the business is aware of the launch and the broader opportunity for the business.

If you are one of the 1,800+ newsagents using the Tower Systems newsagency software, please click here to access to knowledge base articles on managing cutaways.

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magazines

Retail transformation: newsXpress Mount Waverley

newsXpress Mount Waverley is a corporate store, it’s one of our own shops where we experiment with tech and retail. It’s a shop we run on a tight budget.

In this video, Anthony from our newsXpress head office and Mark Fletcher our CEO discuss the transformation of the Mount Waverley business from 2018 to today. We also cover how this business spawned a second business, and online business, that outgrew the shop, and how it’s just launched its second online business – www.hugsandlove.com.au.

While the business identifies as a newsagency, it’s far removed from what Aussies consider to be a newsagency. It’s a gift shop, a haven for collectors and a place to shop for young kids.

This video shows how to go about changing a local high street shop on a small budget and the importance of being flexible to pivot when the world presents opportunities.

I am grateful for the opportunity to take you behind the scenes of one of our corporate stores, to show the value we harvest from being a POS software company that owns and runs retail businesses.

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newsagency of the future