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

Newsagency opportunities

Learning from Officeworks product placement

That space as you head toward the counter is premium in any retail business. So, too, is the counter itself … but today I want to focus on the space close to the counter, as the customer approaches it.

Officeworks have been getting this space right for a while now, placing impulse lines there that are easy to pick up. It is their product adjacencies that are particularly smart.

Take this example of art supplies. They have a bunch of items together that could see a parent or other relative pick up several items to make for a nice gift for a kid.

This photo shows items three or four steps from the counter. No need to shop the shop, move between different locations, all you need is there.

There were more items than I caught in this photo.

I like this mix of products as it shows what’s possible at or near the counter. For too long in our channel we focused on low price, convenience lines. While some in our channel are having success with more expensive items at the counter, most continue to play in a more traditional way in this space.

Taking a look in-store at an Officeworks store and their counter related pitch could be useful.

2 likes
Newsagency opportunities

Like Christmas

Trading in my own shops in Victoria yesterday had a Christmas-like feel to it, because of the lockdown coming into effect from late yesterday here in Victoria.

Shoppers brought forward purchases of cards a gifts. Jigsaws, candles, crosswords and other nesting items sold well, too.

It was busy, right up to the later close.

Even though we will remain open through the lockdown, most of the other shops around us will be closed and, as happened previously in indoor shopping centres, traffic is way down.

So, yes, yesterday was a good day, a really good day, and for that I am grateful.

3 likes
Newsagency opportunities

What is the new normal?

It seems we have been asking this since Covid really kicked off early last year.

The thing is, the question what’s the new normal (or similar words) keeps evolving.

In early 2020 it was about a world dealing with Covid. Then, as 2020 progressed, it was about Australia doing pretty well. Then it was about a vaccinated world. Now it is about a vaccine challenged world and the realisation that it will be years for the world’s population to be vaccinated.

It’s on my mind today as this week I have had a number of meetings with business people who have been asking the question. In big businesses, it is the question being asked and explored.

Thinking about the discussions with people this week from banking, national product suppliers, national retail landlords, insurance and business strategy consultants, the collective view is that big employers of office workers have reset their view of work – where it needs to be undertaken, when it needs to be undertaken and even by whom.

I know I have written about this topic before. Today it’s a bit different in that today I am reflecting on what people from major businesses have told me. Whereas six months ago most were expecting a return to what was, not all of the ones I have spoken with expect that now.

A senior person in a national retail tenancy business they are recalibrating their tenancy mix because of what they see as a long-term shift.

The insurance person said that in their case hundreds if city based employees they expected to return to the office will now permanently work from home. Less than six months ago this was not their expectation.

This is good for regional, rural and high street businesses as it keeps more people closer to those situations.

Yes, there is a huge challenge for CBDs and office tower reliant businesses. But, that’s for the. to consider.

Smart small business owners and local councils are embracing opportunities for the shift. I am seeing employees, too, embrace the shift. One of my businesses has run a couple of ads recently for new roles and the mix of people applying has changed since the roles are offered for remote engagement with more flexible hours because of this. We have a deeper and more interesting pool from which to choose and many who applied have themselves transitioned from office based work to home based, often more regional, work.

It’s this core sustained economic shift that is interesting to me and it is in this space that I think businesses, like local newsagencies, can better play.

The slow vaccine uptake in Australia coupled with the realisation that vaccinating the world’s population has big challenges and what this means for the level of international tourism we are used to and the impacts, too, on immigration all play into economic growth on which businesses big and small rely.

I know many in our channel are seeing and leveraging the shift now. My suggestion is do even more, really lean into the opportunity and be a retail leader into the opportunity … because the opportunity, I think, is bigger and more sustained than you currently think. That’s my take away from. discussions this week.

9 likes
Newsagency management

The throw rug sale that’s worth 60 magazine sales in the newsagency

The story of the sale of this woollen throw is one magazine publishers could benefit reading as it speaks to the common margin opportunity for gift and homewares items that so many of us are selling in our businesses now. It also speaks to stock turn and the broader business narrative opportunity for us … as opposed to the challenged narrative for print magazines.

We received the throw rug in-store Tuesday afternoon. We sold it Thursday lunch time. The price was $180.00 with a cost price of $90.00. The $90 in gross profit translates to what we would make from 60 magazines based on overage cover price.

Selling items of this value and more is easy from the high street newsagency. The key is to buy well. For the rug, the keys were product quality, colour and the cold weather in Melbourne.

The throw rug was space efficient. It didn’t have any time-consuming data management requirements. We chose it. It expanded the reach of the business. These are all factors that don’t play when it comes to magazines.

I could just as easily write about a lamp shade, an ottoman, a work of art or a beautiful hand made vase. Many newsagents are diversifying into mid to higher price point items and having success with quite short stock-turn cycles. With GP sitting at 50% and more and with many of these items helping to attract new shoppers, it’s natural we compare their performance to newspapers, imagines and other legacy agency lines.

I mention magazines in this post as our channel continues to be a vital channel for magazine publishers. However, as more newsagents do well from a more diverse and GP valuable mix of products, the more we will look across at magazines and wonder.

7 likes
magazines

Non traditional Mother’s Day gifts

There is a sameness to Mother’s Day gifts pitched by traditional newsagency suppliers. We have been pitched their products for years and, over that time, they have not evolved much.

We are grateful to have non traditional newsagency suppliers who offer different product through which we can pitch a freshness.

This photo is one of the displays of non traditional Mother’s Day gifts. None of this product has been bought for the season, but it works for the season. Shopper reaction has been terrific.

These core seasons in our channel are changing, offering us opportunities for change in-store.

1 likes
Newsagency management

What Ovato could learn from greeting card companies

For many years I have urged management at Ovato, formerly Gordon and Gotch, to provide newsagents with the ability to control their own magazine supply. My argument was that giving newsagents control over range of titles and quantities received would see newsagents stock and sell more magazines.

The historic master / servant relationship with newsagents got in the way.

The leadership of Ovato did not like the idea and did not deliver this. They have maintained a system through which it is difficult for newsagents to manage their magazine title range and the quantity of inventory received. And, despite having access to accurate sales data, this appears to play only a moderate role in supply decisions within Ovato.

Magazine publishers should be frustrated buy this and here’s why …

For decades, newsagents could not easily choose the greeting cards they stock. The card companies had an antiquated and opaque process, that newsagents, for the most part, were happy to go along with.

Over the last two years, several major card companies have provided newsagents with complete control over ordering, including the ability to replace one design with another.

Looking at comprehensive pocket level before and after sales data, I am confident in saying that providing newsagents control over what card designs they stock is a key factor in above average growth in card sales. I am talking here about 20% and more year on year card revenue growth – even with the Covid period sliced out of the data.

The data study I have undertaken included businesses that did not change card suppliers – those that controlled what they stock grew revenue several times more than those that did not.

The message for magazine publishers is simple – if you want to grow magazine sales in the newsagency channel, give newsagents full control over what they stock. In my opinion, the failure of Ovato to enable this has held back magazine sales opportunities.

Are magazine publishers frustrated? probably not since they do not actively engage with newsagents. It’s one-way and sales of their titles suffer as a result.

Thankfully, some card companies have realised the commercial value to them from giving retail newsagents more control over what they stock. Kudos to them.

21 likes
magazine distribution

Push-pop fad reaches a diverse mix of shoppers

Push-pops sell well thanks to the evolving range available from a diverse mix of suppliers and thanks to our ability too pitch these products to a broad mix of shoppers. From kids to people in their eighties, push-pops are fun and they also serve a health opportunity. It is this latter use that has them more widely used than traditional fad products.

While pitching them at the counter works a treat, we have also seen them work well with newspapers, weekly magazines and, especially, next to crosswords and it is the crossword shopper who gets them most easily from what we have seen.

This fad has a way to run, but be careful on the inventory you hold as like any fad, it will wane.

Tip: pitch the fun and the health value on social media as the right pitch will bring shoppers in to purchase.

3 likes
Gifts

Small but worthwhile Sydney Gift Fair

The Sydney Gift and Life Instyle Fairs held over the last few days were small, tiny compares to past years (except for 2020 of course) but they were valuable to attend.

Suppliers were happy to see retailers. Plenty reported excellent sales.

I picked up several new suppliers, who have never traded with newsagency related businesses. I also got to re-connect face to face with some existing suppliers.

I liked the smaller format but it did highlight a sameness among lower-end suppliers and in some categories like candles and fashion jewellery. Do we really need more candle makers? No, we don’t.

 

3 likes
Newsagency opportunities

Another grant opportunity for VIC newsagents

Closing April 19 is a grant opportunity that may interest VIC newsagents:

The $5 million Technology Adoption and Innovation Program aims to provide support to eligible Victorian small to medium size enterprises (SMEs) to on-board innovative technologies or develop innovative, new and commercial technology by co-contributing  funding support for projects.

I know of several newsagents who have applied already. While the deadline is Monday, it could be worth exploring.

3 likes
Newsagency opportunities

Pitching The Saturday Paper and why someone doesn’t shop our channel

If you are on Twitter and stock The Saturday Paper, this thread is worth commenting on. Newsagents responding to threads like this can help guide people as to where to purchase. The thread I link to below bones on quite a bit with people saying where they access the title.

Further in this Twitter thread is this:

I responded:

7 likes
newsagency marketing

Excellent toy growth in 2020 … opportunities in 2021 for newsagents

I am grateful to have been provided a copy of a comprehensive report (from March 31, 2021) into global and Australian toy sales in 2020 comparing to 2019. The data assessed in the repot is pulled from a large pool of toy and toy related retailers in Australia and globally. The assessment itself is undertaken by the NPD Group, a research and analysis company.

The results are extraordinary. While I won’t share the report here, I can share this high level page that speaks to the terrific growth in toy revenue in Australia compared to the rest of the world in 2020 over 2019.

Deeper in the report is a list of top performing brands, some of which plenty of newsagents stock. This information and other information nearby is what we can leverage to further grow the toy category in our businesses.

Of particular interest are the Christmas results and the move, in 2020, to toys and games of >$50 in value. This is the fastest growing sub-category for the Christmas season. It interests me because too many newsagents focus on low price point toys while shoppers are happy to spend up on higher price point toys.

Looking at the results more broadly …

  1. Global Trends 
    1. 8/13 Countries grew sales revenue.
    2. Australia achieved strongest growth: 22% as shown above.
    3. Q4 growth was excellent.
  2. Australian Market 
    1. +22% Growth.
    2. 12out of 13 super categories grew revenue.
    3. Unlicensed Toys Grew +21% .
    4. Licensed Toys Grew +26%.
    5. 10 months of consecutive growth (adding $256m to Toy Industry).
    6. Consumers move to bigger box items > $50 items
  3. Christmas performance 
    1. +16 grow revenue/
    2. Unlicensed Toys grew 19%.
    3. Licensed Toys grew 11%.
    4. 12 out of 13 super categories grew.
      – 5 categories grew faster than the total category.
  4. Looking ahead into 2021 and considering early indications.
    1. Toys / games remain strong.
    2. Online in toys and games is growing faster.
    3. Movie licences are back.
    4. Puzzles and Games need to be watched / managed / promoted.
    5. Collectibles are showing a strong start to the year.
    6. Shoppers are looking for newness.

The toys / games / puzzle and related categories are good for newsagency businesses. They can make a terrific contribution. I know of newsagents doing more than $150,000 a year in these categories and achieving a 50% or more gross profit – making the GP value of the categories considerably greater than the contribution from newspapers and magazines combined.

Am I saying newsagencies should become toy shops? No, not at all. But … considering the cards we sell, doing well with toys / games / puzzles makes sense in our businesses.

3 likes
Newsagency opportunities

How we achieved $388 in sales to one customer this morning in our suburban newsagency

This true story happened this morning at my Mount Waverley newsagency.

A new customer visited and made a modest gift purchase. On the receipt was a discount voucher for $4.00, which was pointed out to them.

They left the store and returned a few minutes later and made another purchase.

Then, twice more, they left the store and returned a few minutes later and made another purchase.

Over the course of four transactions they spent $388.00 for which we gave away around $30.00 in discounts, which is small when you consider the margin we achieve with gifts

The voucher guided them to look beyond their destination purchase.

here is a video I shot late last year in which I explain the vouchers some more. What happened today at Mount Waverley is not unusual. It’s another way we can grow our newsagency businesses.

This is a good example how a systematic approach to managing loyalty can. drive sales. There was nothing extra special about the approach in-syore. In reality, the software did the heavy lifting, calculating the discount opportunity and including this on the receipt.

It’s a thill seeing it work so well, work in different tilting the business.

In our Mount Waverley retail setting we compete with several gift shops. Plus, we have Chadstone less than 10 minutes away. Every win we can make is worth it to this small suburban retail newsagency.

While it was key we had products they wanted or were likely to want to purchase in the next few weeks, it was the practical opportunity of saving that mattered in making the $388.00 in sales a reality.

Any newsagent can do this.

While the Tower newsagency software was first newsagency software to offer discount vouchers back in 2013, others do now so newsagents with other software could have the type of success I have described here.

My point is – we all need to structure our businesses for these wins based on differentiation of our offers through smart loyalty marketing in businesses with broadly appealing gifts.

It’s good news and another example of small steps combining to create a good commercial outcome.

Whereas in the past we’d letterbox flyers and advertise in local papers. Today, using tech, we can guide greater efficiency from shoppers, maximising the opportunity.

9 likes
Newsagency management

A very different Toy Fair this year

The folks organising the Toy Fair have, in my view, done a better job of dealing with Covid trade show challenges than reed and AGHA. They called it early and decided on a digital trade show, rather than leaving the decision to the last minute. back in November they made the decision and advised the marketplace.

Being digital, more newsagents can attend and engage with this vital category.

Here is a terrific video from them pitching the fair and explaining how it will work:

Great leadership on show from the board of the ATA.

3 likes
Newsagency opportunities

Workshop: taking your retail business online

Tomorrow, Jan 25., at 2pm Melbourne time I am hosting a free Zoom meeting that’s all about taking your business online. It will cover how to, what to, when to and why to. It will be interactive … designed to answer all questions.

I am hosting it through my POS software company for retailers from a range of channels. newsagents are most welcome. Here’s the link:

https://zoom.us/j/91352559972?pwd=Z2Vwa2wrVVQwekJCbDYrVENEb3A3UT09
Meeting ID: 913 5255 9972 Passcode: 308883 Anyone is welcome to join in.

2 likes
Newsagency management

Making Valentine’s shopping easy

Offering ready to give gifts is a terrific way to increase gift sales in the newsagency or any retail business.

Placing the wrapped ready to give item next to a clear description or a showing of what is in the gift makes the purchase easy.

Offering a diversity of gift choices is key, too … where diversity can be in the wrapping itself. This is especially true for Valentine’s gifts given the evolving diversity of this season.

What I particularly love about the gift pictured, which I did not wrap by the way, is that it looks non traditional and it appeals more broadly than is common for val gifts.

To me, this gift and others from the pre-wrapped range represent a good example of us differentiating our business and making our own success.

It is also a way of repositioning existing inventory. In this photographed package, for example, is a candle, which, alone on the shelf, may not feel like a val gift. Packaged this way it does.

Valentine’s Day 2021 will be different to other years because of what we all went through in 2020. Engaging early and outside traditional is key to maximising this difference I think.

4 likes
marketing tip

Join me in a look at the Q4 2020 performance of 5 regional newsagency businesses – demonstrating core health of our channel

Here is a video of a discussion I had yesterday exploring the impact newsXpress has on member businesses. we look at the performance over the last quarter of last year compared to the same period in 2019.

There is much more that could be shared, including even greater successes as well as a more gradual detail. Think of this video as the start of a conversation abut the difference an engaged marketing group can make with engaged newsagents keen for change.

I am sharing this video to show the great success regional newsagents have made for themselves, to celebrate it and to reflect how far each of these businesses has transformed from what we used to think of as newsagencies.

11 likes
Newsagency management

11,500+ daily visitors to the newsagency blog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The easy $145.00 Christmas gift for guys

While it is cliché, plenty of guys love car racing, they love Supercars. This $145.00 set from the Royal Australian Mint has been a terrific hit for Christmas in the newsagency. Better still, people buying this are buying other coin sets, too, driving excellent basked value. Plus, they usually buy a gift bag and a card or two.

The coins are an easy social media pitch and that’s key to helping to bring shoppers in who might otherwise not have shopped with us. People don’t know what they don’t know. Hence the importance of social media posts like this.

4 likes
newsagency marketing

Journalists need to do better when writing about newsagency closures

The story by the ABC about the closure of Vizes City News in Rockhampton reports on the closure of a long-established newsagency. While the story offers balance in reporting on success at newsXpress Mount Morgan it fails in needed detail in some areas.

  1. The story says the business has adapted. I have been to the shops several times, as recently as late last year. yet, they adapted primarily into one new category. It was not enough. It was sort of a separate business, too. The newsagency core needed adaptation.
  2. The story says that newspaper closures are the reason for the closure of the business. I can’t see this as they were anticipated. I’ve certainly been writing about the need for newsagents to manage for the decline of newspaper and magazine traffic for 15+ years.
  3. The story talks down the value of newsagencies. Recent sales and the spike in interest in buying a newsagency suggest otherwise.

I get that people leaving or who have left the channel prefer a narrative that suites them, the evidence does not support them.

Newsagency closures reasons are complex. Newsagents often have had opportunities to avoid them, if they wanted to.

I have seen data today for a newsagency an hour or so away from this business in Rockhampton that is closing. Revenue is up 64% off a good base. New product categories are helping to drive revenue growth of some traditional newsagency categories like magazines and card. In this business, newspapers are down 24%, with no bottom line impact. The BIG news is that GP% is way up, based on the new product mix introduced over the last year.

We all make our own success.

18 likes
Newsagency challenges

Toy-focussed newsagents benefit from extraordinary toy sales growth

The latest toy sales basket data analysis by the NPD group based on sales data from independent toy retailers, not newsagents, for The Australian Toy Association reveals terrific results in the toy space. Newsagents active in toys with a defined department offer would be doing as well. The headlines from the October sales analysis are excellent

  1. October is the 8th consecutive month of double digit dollar growth.
  2. All major categories posted growth:
    Youth Electronics +86 %
    Arts & Crafts +68%
    Games & Puzzles 48%
  3. Average price grew 3%
  4. 19 of 20 Key Manufacturers grew for month
  5. YTD Games & Puzzles largest growing category
    – With building Sets the largest $$$ gain
  6. Top 5 gaining properties Oct 2019 v Oct 2020
    BLUEY
    NINTENDO
    OUR GENERATION
    LEGO SUPER MARIO BROTHERS
    POKEMON

These are excellent results revealed in this comprehensive report. Here is a snapshot from one page of the NPD report FYI:

Now, bringing the analysis closer to home and looking at data for toys in newsagencies, and specifically newsagencies where toys are 10% or more of revenue, the results are excellent. In October, those businesses meeting this criteria reported year on year revenue growth in toys of 65% or more.

These stores typically have a permeant toy department offer in-store with established brands and regular enhancement of range. Typically, they cover all ages from baby to 80+ because, as the sales this year have shown, everyone can be a toy customer.

Diving even deeper, newsagencies with a webstore more than 3 months old saw 25% of toy revenue come from online.

While it might be reasonable to say these results are Covid related, the reality is that some ope the growth will stick as some shoppers have discovered new retailers and new ways of in home and out of home entertainment.

Suppliers and analysis I speak with in Australia and overseas are predicting a good year for toys in 2021 on the back of what has been achieved in 2020.

Now, to a footnote – there are a couple of categories within toys that some old and tired retailers wrote off as done and over. These categories have lead the growth and delivered extradorinaiy sales. My point is saying this is that customers tell you what’s hot and not more so than tired old retailer eyes.

6 likes
Newsagency benchmark

Why do newsagents rely on legacy suppliers for future direction?

It surprises me how much newsagents and others associated with newsagency businesses rely on legacy suppliers such as magazine publishers, magazine distribution businesses, lottery businesses, stationery suppliers, newspaper publishers and card companies for the future direction of the channel.

These supplier representatives are clueless about the future possibilities for the newsagency channel. I appreciate that sounds offensive,. That is not my intent.

They have no choice but to serve their needs and the needs of those who pay them, ahead of all others, ahead of the needs of newsagents.

When they are asked for ideas, advice or suggestions about the future for and of newsagents, they can only answer in the context of their needs, the needs of the businesses they work for, and what they know.

While they are nice people in these businesses, they do not usually have skin in the game, their own money, or the skill set to suggest a pathway to a brighter future for retail newsagents.

Most supplier representatives are not business owners, their investment is not the same as the investment of the owner of a newsagency. For them, what is at stake is likely not the same as what is at stake for newsagents.

Most supplier representatives are not retailers.

Most supplier representatives are not consumer facing.

Most supplier representatives are not innovative – you only have to look at their campaigns and their engagement with newsagents to see how old-school it often is.

Their hearts are in the right place. As I noted, they are nice people. However, they are not the people to engage with if you want a conversation about the future direction of your business or your channel.

Look, I own newsXpress, and in that newsagency marketing group there is an on-going discussion about the future. It’s been going on for years, as has change. It is an every day thing. But it is more than discussion. There is regular action for the group and stores in the group. The discussions and actions are evidence based, based on data from retail and based on sound research outside the channel, from other legacy business situations confronting change.

Dinosaurs will not save dinosaurs.

Much of the core traffic generators for our businesses are dinosaur businesses, facing extinction. Again, run by nice people with their hearts in the right place. But … their focus is on a soft landing for their business whereas your focus is on growth for your business.

Newspapers and magazines are in decline. despite the spin, sales data does not lie.

Stationery for most is in decline.

Lotteries will move online. I get Tabcorp publicly disagrees. Their actions, though, say something else.

None of this matters because there is much good news, much growth.

As I noted recently, there are plenty of newsagency businesses experiencing double digit growth in 2020 over 2019. 25% and more growth. better still, in most of those businesses there is a GP% growth, making the revenue growth more valuable.

To anyone wanting to talk about the future options for the newsagency channel, I’d say talk to those having success as they are already well ahead in the jungle, hacking a pathway forward, and having a good and successful time doing this.

11 likes
newsagency of the future

Australian shoppers preference high street retail over shopping malls

Looking at retail newsagency sales data for October and the first 2 weeks of November of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, there is evidence that Australian shoppers are preferencing high street retail over shopping mall retail.

Newsagencies in high street situations, city and country, are doing much better, often reporting strong double-digit growth, compared to shopping mall businesses.

In the dataset I can see plenty of good news flowing from the easing of Covid related restrictions across retail in the newsagency channel. The news for high street situated retail newsagencies is considerably better than for those in shopping mall situations.

Looking at the core category of magazines. While the overall channel average is a year on year decline, even in locations where Covid restrictions have been relaxed for months, it is in high street situations that I am more likely see growth in the sales data.

Digging deeper into the women’s weeklies segment of magazines, decline in shopping mall businesses yet growth in some high street city and regional businesses.

So, what sort of growth am I talking about? There are high street newsagencies reporting 45% year on year growth, off a good base. The majority of this growth is coming from high margin lines such as gifts, homewares, games and toys. This is driving up overall business GP%.

One factor at play here is the diversity in high street businesses. They tend to offer more product categories, thereby appealing to a broader range of shoppers. I do wonder if this is a consequence of narrow permitted use clauses required by shopping mall landlords.

While it is early days in the recovery, there are indications of a stickiness to high street retail. That is, shoppers who found high street newsagencies are tending to stay, liking what they saw when those were the only general retail businesses open during lockdown.

While I don’t want to read too much into the year on year sales results I have seen so far, I like what I am seeing and am encouraged that the growth plenty saw during the Covid lockdown is continuing.

Based on the sales data, newsagency type businesses are, in my opinion, worth more today than they were this time last year and that has to be good news for the newsagency channel and those who supply the newsagency channel.

4 likes
Newsagency management

$500 a day in revenue before opening the shop each day last week

We have booked more than $500 in revenue every day for the last seven days between when we closed the night before and opening the next morning. These are online sales. On three days, it was more than $1,000 in revenue.

Gross profit percentage for the products is, 50%.

There is no retain penance space cost as online uses existing retail space that is required anyway.

The labour cost is minimal with it being accounted through everyday roster management at the store.

While some purchases are click and collect, the majority ship to people who live hours, sometimes days, away.

I know that my shop is not alone in our channel achieving these numbers and more.

We are not yet where we know we can be. We think that, with little investment, we can easily double the results of this online business.

It is essential that every newsagency business has an online outlet and that this is not represented as an online newsagency. Those having the most success online play outside the confines, assumptions and history related to the channel.

Online revenue is there for the harvesting. Sure, it is hard work, but it can be done on a minimal budget. The most important investments are creativity and strategy.

There is what I’d describe as a dopamine hit when I open emails in the morning and see the online sales from overnight.

9 likes
Newsagency management

It is great to see a magazine publisher support newsagents

The publisher of the AFL Record has consistently promoted newsagents on social media through Covid. They have directly promoted our channel as the place to purchase their popular title.

I wish more magazine publishers would promote our channel direct directly and consistently.

Kudos SEN for your support of our small business channel with posts like this on twitter:

And posts like this on Facebook:

3 likes
magazines

How will UK newsagents fare in the second lockdown?

UK newsagents are classed as essential in the second lockdown announced by the UK Prime Minister.

Newsagents here in Victoria (Australia) where we have just come out of a second, 100+ day, lockdown, fared well. While traditional products like newspapers, magazines and lotteries did okay, it was in the gifts, toys, homewares and personal nourishment categories where the best growth was achieved – all higher margin categories than traditional newsagency product lines.

The newsagencies that had already transitioned and relied less on traditional did the best. They met the criteria for being essential but were able to serve customers in-store and, importantly, online, maximising the profitability of this time.

The average growth I have seen in sales data to the end of lockdown is year on year growth of 20% and more. What’s interesting is that in most cases there was no noticeable increase in shopper traffic. Visit efficiency spiked.

With the second UK lockdown impacting an important time for retailers, UK newsagents that trade outside of the traditional convenience approach will, in my view, do better. The success they experience will be enhanced in they are established online.

Again, in Victoria, I have seen some newsagencies grow online revenue from a 2% contribution of total revenue to 20%. Most online sales have been of higher margin items like jigsaws, games, toys, personal nourishment and gift hampers. I am grateful that many of us were well established in these categories prior to lockdown, enabling is to serve customers who could not get to other closed shops with these items.

If I was advising UK newsagents I would be saying that Covid is the opportunity to pivot, to re-cast the focus of the business. UK high streets are full of businesses competing in the convenience space. The majors will win that battle. There are better opportunities elsewhere. Right now is the best time to consider that.

5 likes
Newsagency challenges
Trending Articles

Fairfax changes approach to TV Guide, disrespects newsagents

Published on April 20, 2011

What do you think of the Powerball changes?

Published on February 16, 2018

IPS releases new magazine contracts

Published on June 21, 2011