Woods Grove is one of the best gift shops I have seen. I am grateful to visit there a few weeks ago, and speak with one of the owners. Here’s a short video in which I share some highlights.
The visit was part of a newsXpress retail study tour where we visited a bunch of innovative and successful local indie retail businesses relevant to the Aussie newsagency channel.
The Golden Girls is a successful pop culture brand in Australia based on online searches, but not based on products sold. Monthly Google searches are sitting at 30,000+ yet there is little here in the way of products available from suppliers.
What fascinates me is the broad age and gender appeal of this brand. Like some other TV show brands from the 60s, 70s and 80s, it’s a brand with a ton of latent demand here.
Thanks to good data resources we can gauge consumer interest in a brand. It surprised me that the wholesalers with access to overseas businesses manufacturing products with these licences appear to not have done the search data research.
While The Golden Girls is on my mind at the moment, there are other brands even more successful, more often searched, than it for which there are no products in Australia. It’s frustrating and disappointing, and leading some retailers to explore unconventional routes.
I am interested in this because I think that in these niche spaces lay opportunities. Sure, it’s easy selling what everyone has access to. But, it is likely to be more valuable playing in these other spaces.
Now, I do get that the mug in the photo is =not Licenced product. It has been created in a way so as to not represent itself as genuinely Licenced. Rather, it is inspired by if you like.
Of course I am going to say local Aussie newsagents offer the best range of Father’s Day cards, I own newsagency businesses and have been part of this ever-evolving local retail channel for many years.
I am biased.
But I’ll try and look at it objectively.
Here’s the Father’s Day card range in one of my shops.
It’s broad in terms of designs and in terms of captions covered, and there is the biggest difference compared to supermarkets – the captions covered.
I get that card companies like to have supermarkets in their channel mix – but not all card companies do. Supermarkets play a role in supporting engagement by Aussies with greeting cards. But card lovers, those folks who want range and who love good cards, they’ll shop at their local newsagency because there they will see range, get personal service, have choice and, most likely, have access to a loyalty offer that is actually valuable for them.
I have been to 8 local Coles and Woolworths supermarkets over the last few days and each had two stands from the one company – one major had one brand and the other major had another brand. Their caption range was limited. The stand looked messy. I suspect it is only tidied when the paid merchandise diner visits weekly or, maybe, twice a week.
In local newsagencies the cards are tidied daily, with the stands kept shopper friendly. So, as well as range, there is the shopper experience. This is where local newsagencies tend to excel. Here’s the display in one of my other newsagencies:
Yes, supermarkets offer volume, but they do not offer the personal engagement that is key to sustained success with greeting cards.
It’s our job as newsagents to get it right with cards because sales continue to e good, growing for plenty of us, and the margin is excellent. It is our job to keen the displays tidy, organised, to work with suppliers on range, to ensure we have a broad range of captions, to ensure that we are pitching cards in multiple locations in the shop – to engage with the impulse as well as destination shopper.
The Father’s Day season brings in more traffic ,which is good. Our job is to provide an experience that encourages them back before the next major season. We can do this, supermarkets tend to not.
I am approaching the rest of 2022 as a card growth opportunity. We have a number of changes afoot in one of my shops, including leveraging an opportunity I’ve not seen done in a newsagency before. If it works, I’ll be thrilled. If it does not work, hopefully I will learn something from it. At the core of what we are doing is a desire to expand the range of card shoppers we attract, and that starts with building the ball park, like in Field of Dreams. yes, I really do believe in if you build it, they will come.
Okay, it’s cliche and twee, but embedded in the phrase is a goal and hope and they are motivators for and local small business retailer. Having a goal is key.
More soon …
The Tower Systems newsagency software has benefited from a major update this week. While the company releases 3 or 4 updates a year, this update is special because of the new business insights platform it delivers.
There is nothing like it in any other newsagency software.
This dashboard pushed business insights, it collects, curates and presents the insights data without being asked to do so.
Whereas plenty of software programs offer reporting facilities for discovering insights, it’s a pull approach. This dashboard is a push, and it focusses on key measurement points that are vitally valuable to local small business retailers, especially retail newsagents.
This new dashboard focuses on 6 critical areas of retail to assist you on making key decisions by representing data in a graphical & easy to understand format.
These 6 metrics are among the most important metrics that Retailer should be focusing on to impact the profitability of their businesses.
The idea of the dashboard was mine. While the Tower newsagency software offers the insights, newsagents needed to know they wanted them, they had to look. Too many did not – for a range of reasons. Hence, the decision to create a push approach. I brought the idea to the tech team and, at the same time, tested the idea with some customers. Soon enough, we were invested.
Built from scratch by the Tower software development team, this is a significant investment of a genuine value-add for small business retailers, like retail newsagents.
Once the new dashboard was created, we showed customers in a Zoom meeting, and then we live-tested it in my own newsagency shops. Wow! The value was immediate. I saw things that I did not realise, opportunities there for the embracing. The visual ways the insights are presented are terrific, accessible.
We then offered it to the close-knit Tower Systems beta community – a community of retailers from different channels who get top test an early release of the software. Their feedback was wow, this is amazing!
Now, this week, it is available for all Tower Systems customers.
The enhancement is available to all Tower Systems customers as part of the regular update enhancement service from the company. The company is also providing complete documentation as well as training.
The what am I missing out on tab has shocked some retailers. They did not realise that they were missing so much revenue by not being consistent with re-ordering. Some retailers choose to not reorder some lines as they want to see change in their shop. That’s a reasonable decision, unless it cost the business out of certain revenue.
The goal here is to underscore business decisions with accurate data. the easier we make that data available to local small business retailers line retail newsagents the greater the value they can derive from the POS software they use, and value today is critical in every area of our retail businesses.
If you’d like to hear more about some of the insights offered in the new insights dashboard, here’s a video from me speaking about it:
Yes, I get that there will be some grinding their gears at what may read as an ad. The thing is, there has not been much genuine innovation for retail newsagents in newsagency software in recent years. There has been some enhancements connecting with The Lott, integrations with BNPL, integrations with more EFTPOS platforms, but not much innovation around newsagency retail management.
This insights dashboard is something I am proud of because it is genuinely innovative, serves the retail newsagent and is available to newsagents for no additional cost. It’s a true value-add, and we don’t see enough of that these days.
Disclosure: I own Tower Systems and am proud that my company serves more than 1,700 newsagents with newsagency software. The company also serves another 1,500 or so retailers in other specialty retail channels. If you think you might be interested in the Tower software, please email sales@towersystems.com.au.
We decided to kick off access to charity boxed Christmas cards early this year at our online store, and sales have been good.
Some customers purchase only cards while others buy ornaments and other items and add a box or two of cards into their purchase. The basket data is fascinating as we try and figure out the initial shopping intent.
Looking back over the charity boxed Christmas cards sales this year already and for Christmas season last year, not one of the purchases was from a customer local to us. There were several businesses that bought big, which was terrific. In fact, I think this business opportunity is something newsagents could leverage.
We have had this range of charity boxed Christmas cards in the shop through the year and while they have sold okay, it’s online where there is more interest. I guess that is because online makes it easier for us to reach those early seasonal planners.
The other point that is interesting is that shoppers love that most of our charity boxed Christmas cards are Australian designed and made.
What we are doing with this website any newsagent or other retailer could do. For us, our approach is to grow the percentage of revenue the business earns from online versus in-store. Currently, for this shop, it sits at around 40% of revenue, which is at the high end for similar local Aussie retailers. It’s tough and relentless work keeping the data on the site up to date, answering customer queries and fulfilling – but the right processes can help streamline all of this. It pays off when you get good sales and repeat business.
In fact, repeat business is key for this type of seasonally-focussed business.
We are five years in and still growing, which we appreciate.
Anyway, back to my point – people are shopping early for charity boxed Christmas cards so if you have stock in the back room, consider getting it out and pitching it on social media and elsewhere. Being in front of an opportunity and winning business is better for you than someone else getting that revenue.
Footnote: the shop managing fulfilment of these purchases is not the same shop I mentioned in my previous post.
If you are not getting to everything you want to in your business, missing opportunities, being late to respond to time sensitive queries and never getting done in a day what you want to get done, I’m sure you feel time poor.
We all talk about in small business retail. Suppliers to small business retail talk about it too.
But, is anything being done?
It doesn’t feel like it.
There are more emails than ever, more unscheduled supplier visits, more offers, more calls. To plenty of newsagents I speak with it feels worse, it feels like there are more demands on time than ever.
If you feel time poor, I urge you to ask yourself, seriously, what am I doing about it?
I think there is plenty we can do to ease feeling time poor.
There is nothing groundbreaking here.
Next time you go to say to someone that you are time poor, stop and think for a moment what you have done or are doing to win time back. Thinking about demands on your time from a perspective that only others control it is the wrong way to look at it I think.
Thank you to the 109 newsagents trading under a variety of shingles who provided sales data for this benchmark study. Your transparency will help many in our channel.
Newsagents, overall, had a good first half of 2022 when comparing trading figures with 2021. While the increases reported are modest, this is on the back of a better than good 2021 because of Covid.
Of particular interest are strong performances for gifts, magazines, books and toys.
The results show the local newsagency as a business with a strong traffic and revenue core. They also show opportunity considering the growth in some categories for some and not others.
While this latest newsagency sales benchmark study does not include shopping centre businesses as the sample group was too small, I note that they appear to have had a rough first half – begging a question about the status of the shopping centre setting.
After comparing data from the businesses in the benchmark dataset here are the averages for business performance measurement points and categories, comparing January through June 2022 with the same months in 2021:
The percentages are small, especially when you look at 2021 over 2019, however, that earlier comparison was comparing pre-Covid with Covid, which for high street newsagencies was massive.
Since the above results are averages, there are some considerably below and some considerably above.
In terms of type of business, the best performing newsagencies I see in the data are high street suburban followed by high street regional / rural.
It’s what is not in the above benchmark results that is interesting. There are some newsagents experimenting with success. Homewares, whitegoods, hardware and spectacles are all categories delivering growth in reports for a small number of participating businesses. I can see several going from $0 to a reasonable number in on introducing the category.
Some newsagents are quitting categories, too, like ink and toner, toys for some and some agency lines.
There is also interesting data within departments, like stationery and magazines:
In this benchmark dataset there are 2 newsagencies that introduced gifts, toys and plush to their businesses. In each case the three new categories accounted for more than 6% of total revenue for the six months. One business introduced trading cards part way through the six months and did more than $12,000 in revenue.
The shopper traffic challenge.
A big challenge I see in the benchmark data is shopper traffic.
Our channel was built on being a destination for papers, magazines, cards, lotteries, stationery and, back in the day, tobacco. We’d open the front door and people would come in. Newsagencies were businesses that benefited from the habit based shopper.
Those days are gone, more so in the city than the country, but they are gone.
We need to work harder at attracting shoppers, by stocking a broader range of habit based products and by showing guiding people to purchase, by educating them, enticing them. We do this by being smarter and more engaged retailers, and by doing these things inside and outside of our shops.
Every newsagency, every retail business, needs a new shopper traffic strategy, because if were are not growing the shopper pool, the future of our businesses is at risk.
Stock what could attract new shoppers, display it so passers-by can see it, pitch on social media.
If all we do with something new is put it on the shelf, we fail that new traffic opportunity.
The run home to Christmas
July through December are critical for any retailer. Maximise the opportunity:
I say all this because even though our channel is producing good results, we have plenty of competitor retailers who are energised to win business, and you don’t want them winning it from you.
The next six months matter because they set you up is you may want to sell next year, they put more money in your pocket and they help you enjoy your business more.
…
I own and run four newsagencies. Over the years I have had three others. I own newsXpress, a newsagency marketing group focussed on helping newsagents attract new shoppers.
Mark Fletcher
M | 0418 321 338
A newsagent contacted me earlier this week asking why it didn’t help with leases and why it restricted the card company members could buy from. I explained that newsXpress does help with lease negotiation and that there is no restriction on the card company newsXpress members buy from. It turned out they had been misinformed by someone. Hmm…
Anyway, that call prompted me to make this new video in which I talk about what is included for the $175 a month membership fee to be part of this vibrant and proactive community of newsagents.
Newsagents selling toys should try and get to the mid year Toy preview on this week in Sydney and next week in Melbourne. There will be plenty of new products on show. Here is the note the Toy Association sent out 2 weeks ago about the events.
The Previews are the first industry trade fairs in over 2 years so now is the time to get back to face-to-face; meet with new suppliers and catch up with existing business contacts.
Both the Sydney and Melbourne Previews have completely sold out of exhibitor space which means they are events not to be missed!
If you haven’t already, we encourage you to register online to save time later. Registration is FREE and takes just one minute to complete.
Full details of the Previews are below:
Sydney Mid-Year Preview
Wednesday 6 July: 9AM – 5PM
Thursday 7 July: 9AM – 3PM
Rydges Parramatta – 116-118 James Ruse Drive, Rosehill NSW 2142Click HERE to register for the Sydney Preview.
To view a list of Sydney Preview exhibitors, click HERE.
Melbourne Mid-Year Preview
Tuesday 12 July: 9AM – 5PM
Wednesday 13 July: 9AM – 3PM
Amora Hotel Riverwalk – 649 Bridge Rd, Richmond VIC 3121Click HERE to register for the Melbourne Preview.
To view a list of Melbourne Preview exhibitors, click HERE.
Nursery related sales are strong in newsagencies strong in this segment. It stands to reason since our shops are the go-to shops for baby cards.
Too often, though, newsagents with strong baby card sales fail to leverage the gifting opportunity. This is true across the card captions – we have excellent data indicating purchase intent that we miss to leverage for gifting sales.
In my own shops, nursery product sales are terrific. This is driven in part by out of store marketing, but very effectively through in-store product placement and display. Like this feature display.
And this one.
These displays are not what shoppers expect to see in a newsagency, in terms of the displays themselves and the range of products on offer. These displays have been done by a team member with a gift for creating visually appealing and engaging displays, ensuring they are shapable, and enticing.
The displays in the photos are next to each other, with related products the same shopper may find appealing on the wall behind – to maximise the visit value for us.
Currently in Australia, there are 200,000 searches online each month for baby and nursery related gifts, placing the segment among top performers of retail related product searches. This search engine dataset is useful in that it reinforces the value of the segment, proves interest among shoppers. But, we can see that ourselves in our greeting card data, as I noted above.
For me, greeting card data is key to exploring other product segments we could expand in. We have used it for years, and benefited commercially from its use.
Any newsagent can do what I have described here. It’s easy:
It’s all basic retail management really. It’s essential, especially in 2022 when we have the pandemic led opportunity to play outside what has been usual for our channel and when so many more people are living and working locally than prior to the pandemic.
If you’re not offering nursery related products check card sales in your newsagency … if they show opportunity, dive in.
I am grateful for the opportunity to visit the Avant Cycle Cafe in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, a few weeks ago. How this bike shop has curated shopper traffic appeal beyond what is traditional for that channel is an opportunity for any local retailer to consider.
Lake Geneva is a small town with a. population of abound 8,000, which swells in the summer. What they have done at Avant to broaden appeal is smart. I’ve seen newsagency businesses in Australia do similar. Join me on a closer look at this business.
What I particularly like is that each business, the cafe and cycle shop, is separate, but they link, cohesively. I also like that each part of the business is rooted in passion, and that stands out, it also is key to driving traffic.
There was a time when every royal celebration or anniversary was a big deal in Australia, and shops would have a range of products with which people could engage.
It’s 2022, and times have changed. That said, there is good interest in the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. As an authorised partner of the Royal Australian Mint, I am grateful he have access to mint coin products marking the occasion.
The coins have the dual appeal – to those who support and / or loyalty the Royal Family, and, too coin collectors.
We have found them useful in attracting shoppers who might otherwise not have considered us. Having an online store to easily connect with them has been key – not only for sales but for those who use the online store to find products they then come into the shop to purchase.
We have made the most of the opportunity through in-store product placement, email marketing and social media engagement, with collateral we created ourselves.
While we do have all the magazines with the Queen on the cover, plenty of other retailers have them too. The coins are a little less accessible elsewhere, which I like. They have given us an opportunity to differentiate.
I’d note the price point range of $12.50 to $100.00 makes these collector coins accessible to a wide group.
While I am no booster for the Royal Family, I am glad to haver had these products and plenty of our customers are appreciating them.
This is not a complete list. Also, it’s my list. Others will have their list.
Before you get to the list, consider consider the type of newsagency do you want to run: retail or agency. In my opinion, retail has growth opportunities and relies on you whereas agency is flat or declining with others in control of much of your business. I am more interested in retail.
You drive business value by playing at the boundaries of the business, broadening what you sell, the price points you can achieve and the new faces you can attract. Attracting new shoppers has to be a key focus as this feeds into other metrics.
Plenty of people offering newsagents advice on how to run their businesses and what to stock are not newsagents, not even retailers. Often, they are not business owners with a vested interest in your success. Be cautious about advice offered, especially from supplier reps. Their needs are likely not your needs.
I own the newsagency software company supplying more newsagents with software than all others, I also own the newsXpress marketing group and I own 4 newsagencies. Best of all, every day I get to work with retail experts, retail practitioners. They have the best advice, from lived experience, successes and failures. In offering advice here I’m not trying to make money off of you. The advice is offered free to anyone to read and use or not.
Here’s my updated list for new newsagents:
As I said at the start, this list is evolving with time. I hope it is useful to new newsagents and would be newsagents, to understand some of the day to day tasks you cannot afford to get wrong.
Footnote: I first published a version of this advice 7 years ago.
After purchasing the business late last year we replaced the gift packaging supplier, moved the category from the rear of the shop to next to the counter, to be the introduction category to cards, and, we replaced the fixtures with a more modern and easily shopped approach.
Here’s what it looks like.
Sales are up more than 250%. The inventory investment is up 10% and the space investment is the same.
While most of our customers are individuals, we do have some corporate customers. Wednesday last week, one corporate customer came in and bought 15 bags … because they noticed the range when shopping for something else.
The balance in the range is key we are finding. By balance, I mean the offering of bags, roll wrap, sheeted wrap, flat wrap and premium tissue. Enough people do invest in how the gift looks enough for us to offer what we offer.
Being literally next to the counter is good in that we can easily help shoppers see what they may be missing. Previously, this location had a segment of cards that was not doing so well.
The glass shelving enables us to keep the display looking tidy. It also makes the product stoppable.
There is nothing unique here, nothing that can’t be easily copied.
This is a Field of Dreams move. By that, I mean it’s something that will attract shoppers. You know, build it and they will come. The fresh range of gift packaging is attracting net new shoppers thanks to the ease with which it can be seen, word of mouth and our social media posts. It’s one the threads of our new customer strategy, which I wrote about here earlier.
What makes the focus on gift packaging more important is the margin. It’s more than 60%. The turn rate is such that this category is one of our top performers, which makes it cash flow beneficial. These factors all matter.
We are thrilled with the result of the bags and are grateful to be working with a supplier who has so willingly and engagingly partnered with us on this project.
You’d think it’s the end of the world as we know it if there is a $1.00 an hour increase to the minimum wage based on the ‘news’ coverage of this debate. Across a range of media outlets business lobbyists, conservative politicians, retailer representatives and some retailers themselves have been saying how awful such an increase would be.
Yesterday, on ABC radio Melbourne and 3AW there were retailers saying products had gone up 200% and 300% and other costs had gone up and a $1.00 an hour wage increase would eat into margin.
Gee, I wish there was fact checking of these claims.
And, I wish there was more comprehensive questioning.
And, if there is a case, it would be good for transparency around the details.
Pretty much every retailer I know has has signed a lease agreeing to an annual 5% increase in rent, sometimes more. That’s right, they contracted this 5% rent increase to be annual.
Like, why agree to an annual locked-in 5% increase in rent costs but not labour?
A business on a knife edge that goes under for a $38.00 increase in the cost of an employee for 38 hours in a week is a business with a problem anyway.
People on the minimum wage are likely to spend what they earn. That helps the economy. That $1 an hour is beneficial for the economy.
We need smarter journalists who ask more thoughtful questions and who challenge selfishness. I want to hear the retailers asked about paying more rent every year and how they justify this while not wanting to pay their valued employees more every year.
It would be good to sit with a retailer who says they cannot afford the extra $1 an hour and unpack their business numbers from P&L back through inventory data, roster decisions … all decisions that gets the business to the point where $1 an hour is not affordable.
Sure, I want my business costs to fall. And, sure, I want to make more money. The reality is that we are all participants in this one economy. Constant squeezing that the bottom end is bad for those being squeezed, the economy and society. We should care about that.
As for the claims about products costing more. Some do cost more. But they cost more for everyone. There are smart ways to deal with product cost increases. It is lazy to complain. It is appalling to suggest that because of those cost increases you should not pay your employees more.
I appreciate my take will upset some. That’s not my intention. I want an intelligent discussion about wages and business costs, so that all participants understand the facts and, hopefully, through this better understand more sides of the debate on wages.
But, let’s think for a moment, how could small business retailers respond to a $1 an hour increase in labour cost?
I could go on. If a $1 an hour increase in labour cost bothers you, confront it as a business opportunity rather than a pure negative. It’s a door opening opportunity I think.
It frustrates me that the wages debate is a debate, with sides. All of us in business benefit if more people in the economy, our economy, have more money to spend, especially if they are in the cohort likely to spend money. If we could all talk about this without taking firm sides we’d have a better opportunity of navigating a path forward we are all happy with.
Yes, we can, and we do, and we did within 3 hours of having the item.
Coins attract loyal, valuable, shoppers.
We sell mint coins from $15.00 through to this magnificent piece. But this post is not about coins, not really. It’s a bout what is possible in any local newsagency business.
What you sell in your shop is up to you. All it takes is one unexpected success to brighten a path forward.
Too often, I see newsagents limiting their view of what they could achieve in their business, because of advice from an accountant (who is not a retailer) or advice from a bank manager (who, also, is not a retailer) or from their own view of what their business is.
Today’s in 2022, there are no boundaries, no rules, no limitations.
The challenge for our channel is that since forever we have had suppliers telling us what we can and should do, suppliers defining our borders and being paternalistic about decisions we make and about how were run our businesses. For too long too many in our channel have been happy to be agents rather than retailers, happy to be told what to do rather than to lean into free will and consider what we could do.
While many in our channel have found their way out of the agent world, too many are still in there, still chasing a few bucks they could win from a supplier for a good display of low margin product, rather than chasing many more bucks from, you know, actually selling higher priced and better margin from that same supplier requested display space.
My point is, if you are still reading this (thank you for that!), this $3,750.00 coin sale is no longer unusual for us. The first one did open my eyes. Like so many things we have tried in the past, we learnt from it, leaned into it and found more gold on the pathway. Any newsagent can do this. With the right relationships, capital is not a barrier.
And, my experience is not alone. I know of plenty of newsagents with sales outside of what has been traditionally, sales that caught their attention and propelled them to more change in their businesses.
Day 2 of the Sydney Gift Fair has wrapped. It’s going well. I say that as a retailer attendee and as a supplier with a stand there (my POS software company).
While the Reed organisers are disorganised in my opinion, and this is a cause for frustration as an exhibitor, the fair itself if proving to be good.
The lower attendee numbers make it a better experience. People are spending more time on the stands that interest them.
There are some new suppliers, and enough suppliers with new products to make it worth attending. Sure, there is plenty of the same old same old, but, overall, there is good product to purchase.
I’m not going to list the new suppliers that I found interesting as that’s information I’ll share privately with others, sorry. But I will not there is a strong representation of baby and kids products, which is good as they are storing categories. Oh, and a good presentation of Australian made products. And, sustainability is a big pitch, which makes sense as it is of top of mind interest to the Gen Z shopper.
There are too many candle suppliers in my opinion and too much in the way of mediocre China made gifts. Plenty in the gift space have moved on from this.
The best part of the fair has been the opportunity to speak face to face with people, to hear their stories and talk retail. Covid was a topic, but not much. Oh, and in terms of discussion around wanting things to go back the way they were, no only said they wanted that, all were focussed on the future and what they can make of it.
What you get walking the aisles of a fair like this you cannot get from a rep or agent visit. It’s not the same.
My POS software company was the only retail POS software company there, which is odd to me. I am surprised others in this space did not embrace the opportunity to be face to face with customers and to use the opportunity to attract new customers. It’s an opportunity lost for them.
Through my newsagency software company Tower Systems we have a web development team that creates websites for local small business retailers, including newsagents. We have been doing this for years, and have hundreds of websites under our belt.
It surprises me that here we are in 2022 and I am seeing newsagents make the same mistakes from years ago when setting up a website. Not everyone makes these mistakes, but enough do.
So, here is the top 7 mistakes I see newsagents make when setting top a website for their business.
I see so many mistakes made by small business retailers, including newsagents, expensive mistakes, mistakes that dishearten and, eventually, see businesses go offline. That’s not the future. Online is key to every retail business.
Invest time to get it right. Move only when you are sure, and ready. And, remember, buyer beware.
Footnote: I know about this not only because I own Tower Systems but because I have created plenty of websites for my businesses. The most useful ones have been those that failed. The successes are terrific. But it’s the failures that are educational.
I think it is important for retailers to promote new cards on social media. It is rare that newsagents do this, which feeds into the narrative of no, I won’t buy cards there because they are old.
We regularly pitch new cards to remind people of the regularity of change. I think it is a key reason for above average year on year sales growth in the category.
We use photos and quick to make videos, like this on from a few days ago.
This video was made for no cost, using an easily accessible tool. If that feels too hard, at least take a photo of a new card that you like and mention it on social media. That type of post is more valuable than one pitching any lottery product or mass market magazine.
In data just released, plush sales in Australian toy retailers in January were up 19% on last year, making the category a stand out among toy categories.
This is a terrific result for retailers in this space.
Now, for those wondering, plush is a broad category. It includes squishy, traditional bears, licences products as well as the everyday plush characters.
In a typical newsagency, less than a square metre of space can generate $15,000 or more year in revenue.
It’s an easy complaint to make – my merchant fees are going up, it’s not fair, time for me to consider another supplier.
Okay, yeah, that’s an easy take. It’s a cheap shot by me to call it out. But, let me explain and explore it with you.
My advice is to look at your data first.
I’ve looked at hundreds of thousands of baskets from many retail businesses.
The most common reason merchant fees are increasing is because of more sales transacted using EFTPOS.
While sometimes the actual fee basis, flat fee per Tx or percentage, increases, this is rare.
Yes, the most common reason a retailer paid more in merchant fees last month than the month before is because more transactions were paid for on a card.
So, the EFTPOS provider is not the cause of the issue.
Newsagents in some marketing groups have access to preferential rates that see them paying the lowest fees in the country.
But, that addresses only the base cost.
To address the growing cost to the business, of people using a card to pay, you need to be an engaged retailer. Here are some ideas:
It’s easy to kick a bank over EFTPOS fees. But … before you do that, look at your own behaviour. Here are common points in retail businesses that retailers overlook when they kick a supplier:
The 6 items on the above list are all on the retailer to address.
I get that it’s easy to complain about high EFTPOS fees. If you are contemplating that, please take a moment to look back inside your business, look at the reason why and see if there are decisions you could make that are more valuable than complaining about EFTPOS fees or changing supplier. I’d be happy to help.
For habit based shoppers, what you put in your front window will not be noticed by them, as they are more often than not destination shopping when them come to your shop.
This is why I suggest to retailers that they not pitch destination products in the front window or on the lease line. It doesn’t;t make sense to me to show off what you are known for.
I like to use a front window or a lease line display to pitch what I am not known for, to get people to notice or turn their head at least, and, maybe come in to check us out.
The more we can play against shopper expectations the better I think for the expectations attached to newsagency shops are rooted in history.
This display is from one of my shops from yesterday. It speaks to this desire to pitch what we are not known by most for. It speaks to a freshness and a warmth if you will outside of what may be associated with shopper assumptions re a newsagency.
The mix of colours, textures, product categories and gifting occasions pitches a diversity that we think will help us attract people who might otherwise have passed the shop by. We are really happy with the mix. Quite proud actually.
This approach to outside traditional newsagency category pitching at the front of the business is easier for us given that we don’t have lottery products. While we are asked daily (ugh!) by people who tend to not look around themselves, we are getting more people asking about gifts they’d like to give.
This display at the front of the shop will remain in this form for no more than two weeks. Then, it will start to evolve. depending on new sales and new inventory availability it may be completely replaced at that time.
Let me leave you with some sales benchmark guidance. Plenty of newsagents are doing gift revenue of two and three times their card revenue, some even more. Those doing less than their card revenue have excellent opportunity for growth and that is the key point I’d make as there are many Newsagency businesses with that opportunity on the table.
Oh, and one final point. To show what I mean by being on the lease line, look at this image as through it you can see the Coles supermarket that is opposite us.
