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newsagency marketing

Entertainment is vital in all retail experiences

What we know about social media today is that people engage more with content that is entertaining. This is also true for websites in plenty of retail segments. An entertaining site attracts people, holds them and drives engagement.

I say we know this because of data presented at just about every online retail conference I have attended in the last two years, most recently in Chicago this week.

There is no border between what people want and engage with online or in store. Entertainment is as important in store as it is online. The questions are: what is entertainment and how much is needed. These are vital questions because in our businesses, said raditional and transitioning, space, time and resources are limited. So, I suggest a simple approach, within our means.

Here are some examples of what I am talking about here.

  1. Buying. Buy products that lend themselves to in store demonstrations. Demonstrate them. Not all at once, but on rotation.
  2. Jigsaws. If you sell them, setup a table and encourage people to engage.
  3. Cards. Have a small table where people can sit and write cards. Scatter this with text suggestions.
  4. Craft. Let people do the craft works they want to do in your shop rather than at home.
  5. Show off. Have a place where people can show off how they use and interact with what you sell. This could be a place for photos or shelves on which people display art works or similar.

There are plenty more ideas. This list here is designed to get to you thinking of ideas appropriate to your specific business. If you are in a marketing group they should be a font of knowledge in this space for you.

Next time you see someone on social media on their phone, given that 80% and more of social media use in Australia is on phone and tables, watch the swipes. See how much time people give for what they see. Usually it is seconds. Yes, that is all yo have to grab the attention of people on their phone. It is similar in store.

Entertainment is key to making your store appealing for new traffic and appealing for existing traffic in store already. Do nothing and you will achieve barely average results.

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Newsagency management

Click and collect helps engaged retailers find new shoppers

newsXpress has been offering click and collect for its various member store-connected online websites for months. It is a ripper of a success, both in terms of sales and attracting new shopper traffic.

Click and collect is where people shop online and visit a physical store to pick up the goods purchased. It is a major focus of big business retailers like David Jones, Myer, Officeworks, Coles and others. Offering it shows online shoppers how current you are in your online approach. It builds trust.

Customers like that they can shop online at any time, pay online, and be certain that what they purchased is set aside for them to collect at any time.

It is shop online at any time that matters in that the majority of transactions are done outside usual shopping hours. This gives click and collect businesses an advantage – they can win the sale and bank the revenue while their nearby competitors are closed.

Another benefit of click and collect is that it introduces new shoppers to a business. Two thirds of click and collect shoppers surveyed visit the shop from where they collected the goods for the first time. Half purchased other items while in the store. Close to half came back for more purchases, having discovered what the store sells.

Around a quarter of click and collect shoppers use interest-free online LayBy … meaning they buy now, pay later and get the goods right away. The retailer is paid right away less a tiny processing fee that is not much more than the usual credit card fee.

Click and collect is not a massive game changer. Rather, it is a small step in a series of steps that make up a successful comprehensive online strategy.

A comprehensive online strategy is key to competing with other online businesses as well as with other high street businesses.

The way newsXpress leverages click and collect is through offering access to absolutely current stock on hand data for sought after brands. Having this, updated every 5 minutes 24/7 is what shoppers want when shopping online. It is hard to achieve – this is a reason many small and independent retailers and retail groups have not done it.

Online is big and growing. You only have to look at data from any of the online giants to understand this.

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Newsagency management

Great story: the $130.00 impulse purchase in the newsagency

Regulars here will know I am a big fan of discount vouchers, the smart loyalty facility that gives shoppers to spend in-store immediately. Every day I hear stories of success retailers, including newsagents, have with discount vouchers. Most stories are shared because what happened was unexpected for the retailer.

Here is a story I received yesterday:

Just had a lady spend $75.00 on a gift. She then used her $4.69 voucher to purchase another gift item for $130.00. Kaching!!

The $130.00 purchase was unplanned. The customer found the item because they had $4.69 to spend.

That moment when a customer sees the amount on a voucher, lifts their head and looks back into the body of the shop is gold. It is hard to achieve, getting a shopper completing a purchase to go back in for another purchase. This is why I say it is gold.

I have owned retail shops for more than twenty years. The discount vouchers are the most successful marketing tool I have ever seen or used.

Retailers realise this and that is why they share their stories.

I love hearing them.

Discount vouchers are terrific because they can be better managed and tracked than the old-school loyalty points programs, they have a lower admin overhead and they can be run to have no cost to the business and extraordinary upside.

I am grateful to newsagents for sharing their success stories.

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Newsagency management

How a $3 ad led to a $210 purchase and an annual value many times more

We spent $3.00 on a boosted Facebook post for a range on the newsagency last week. I boosted it for one day only. That night someone new to the business messaged about the promoted products.

A $210 purchase within 24 hours was  tangible result of the $3.00 boost.

Better still, this customer is a collector and will be back. We estimate that the full year value will be somewhere between $500.00 and $1,000.00.

This is a customer who has n to shopped with us before.

My points is that a small boosted post on social media can attract new shoppers. The success of such post depends on the products being promoted, the cut through of the promotion and your accessibility when the customer asks questions.

This goes to my point recently about being available online when the shop is closed. In today’s marketplace that is vital.

It is practical small steps like this – a $3.00 boosted post on Facebook – that are far more important than bigger, bolder and more complex marketing and management strategies.

Boosted Facebook posts are low-cost, fast to respond and easy to track. bang for buck they represent the best out of store marketing opportunities for our businesses today.

The starting point, however, is products … having sought after brands collectors love and pitching these using a voice the collectors understand.

$210.00 out of a $3.00 ad spend is terrific news, and it is accessible to every retailer, including those who say facebook is too hard to master.

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Newsagency management

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: greet customers with unexpected displays

Displays that can be seen from outside your business are the most important for they are the ones that set elections. It you have lotteries this will be a challenge because of their location demands.

If you don’t have lotteries, go for it I say, recast your business through your displays for it is the most important in-store marketing pitch you can make.

This photo is a recent display from one of my businesses.

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marketing

A personal invitation to look under the hood at the newsXpress online strategy

newsXpress now operates six customer-facing websites and is about to launch two more and has commenced planning for two more after that.

The newsXpress web strategy is the most comprehensive web strategy of any newsagency group in Australia. It attracts new in-store shoppers for newsXpress business as well as healthy online sales.

newsXpress has resolved the questions others wrestle with – accurate store stock on hand data, account reconciliation, shipping, aggregating an order across multiple retailers, geolocating to deliver online orders to the best and closest local stockist, click & collect and online LayBy.

newsXpress knows how to be #1 in the Google searches that matter.

I write today to personally invite you to a two-hour behind the scenes look at the newsXpress web strategy. Here are the details of each session. Click on the respective link to book online.

  • ADELAIDE. May 23. 10am. Rydges South Park, South Terrace.
  • SYDNEY. May 24. 10am. Mercure Sydney Airport, Wolli Creek.
  • MELBOURNE. May 25. 10am. The Kew Golf Club, 120 Bedford Road, Kew.
  • BRISBANE. May 30. 10am. Hotel River View. Kingsford Smith Drive.

I am hosting each session and will outline the strategy behind the sites, show you the results, dive deep into sales and other data with you and share next steps.

I will also share where the web strategy fits into the broader newsXpress model and outline the benefits newsXpress offers its members through which they can redefine their businesses in a rapidly changing marketplace.

Plus, I will share insights from three recent international e-commerce conferences I attended, where I gained some valuable insights.

What newsXpress is doing online is ground breaking and it connects independently owned retail businesses under unifying online platforms, driving traffic and revenue.

This session is for those interested in joining newsXpress. If joining newsXpress does not interest you, please do not book to attend.

Sorry but I don’t have time in my schedule to add more cities at this time. Nor will we film the sessions for confidentiality reasons.

If you have any questions I’d be happy to answer them. You can also contact the newsXpress National Sales Manager Peter Francis on 0423 298 020 to find out more about newsXpress. Click here for an overview document: newsXpress: What we do.

Mark Fletcher.
Email: mark@newsxpress.com.au  M | 0418 321 338

PS.  Outside of online work, newsXpress has a well thought through strategy of recasting the consumer connection with the brand, redefining the news in newsXpress.

PPS. Yes, I am a Director of newsXpress. BTW, the vast majority of what I write on this blog has nothing to do with newsXpress nor my other business Tower Systems.

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Newsagency management

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: be smart with photos

Next time you the a product photo that you plan to use in marketing, make sure it is the best photo it can be.

My advice is to put more than one product in a photo.

Pose the items so they tell a story beyond the products themselves.

Have fun.

Don’t overthink the photo as any social media content is scrolled past in a second or two, unless you are lucky.

In the example here I have a unicorn gift items in front of  frame. I felt the two worked well together, playing off each other.

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marketing

Promoting the WIN A CAR! competition to drive magazine sales

I urge newsagents to serve this coupon on POS software receipts during the WIN A CAR! promotion from Pacific Magazines. Every touch point you can offer for a promotion like this is valuable. Shopper receipts are an ideal way to reach existing shoppers.

Out of store, use the collateral from Pacific. I have used the art below on Facebook from Thursday morning this week to reach people:

The more touchpoints the better for this newsagent-only campaign.

In my own situation these touchpoints include social media, at the entrance to the business, at the weekly magazine display, on receipts and at the counter.

Experience with past campaigns like this one is that the greater the engagement the greater the sales uplift. That greater engagement is on each of us in retail. pacific has provided the collateral. All we need do is use it.

To those preparing to comment here and complain about poor magazine margin and that you have better things to promote – don’t comment. Instead, engage with this proven promotion and leverage incremental business. The alternative is you chase magazines out of your shop. There is no win from that.

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marketing

Newsagency benchmark results: Q1 2017

The March quarter was patchy for retail newsagency performance. While the overall channel performance was flat, plenty peaked and plenty troughed.

It is dangerous to look at the overall and take that as the performance metric for the channel. It is not, as many individual newsagents know.

Here are the headlines from the latest benchmark study:

  1. Gifts are the fastest growing product category. However, there is disagreement about what to call gifts with some putting toys in gifts while others run a separate toy department. Most newsagents with gifts reported double digit growth. The businesses with weaker gift sales are those with the more traditional, old-school newsagency, gift offering.
  2. Of the third of businesses with a separate toy department, year on year toy revenue is up close to double digits.
  3. Cards performed reasonably well with 2.8% growth in the quarter with everyday accounting for a strong proportion of the growth.
  4. Stationery was soft with a 1% increase in revenue.
  5. Books are making a resurgence with a third of participating stores showing a separate book department and this achieving close to double digit growth.
  6. Newspaper unit sales fell 10%.
  7. Magazine unit sales declined 9.5%.
  8. 45% of businesses have overall GP in the old-school band of 28% to 32%, 35% sit in the 30% to 35% band while only 20% run with GP above 35%. Those businesses, with GP at 35% or above, are the ones with a bright future as it is only them with the capacity to hope to weather annual labour and rent increases.

For this latest study, I have looked at data from 167 newsagencies – large and small, city and country, shopping centre and high street: Newspower, the various versions of Nextra and newsXpress as well as independent.

Overall, Q1 2017 delivered better results than Q3. Here are the overall results:

  • Customer traffic. 70% of newsagents report average decline of 1.8%.
  • Overall sales. 55% reported an average revenue decline of 3.0%.
  • Basket depth. 60% report a 1.5% decrease in basket size.
  • Basket dollar value. 65% report a decrease in basket value of 2%.

Some look at these and other data points to see how they compare and are relieved if they are not in the worst group. This is a mistake in my view.

The best way to use the benchmark results is to understand industry trends. For example, if your gifts are not growing by double digits and gift revenue is not more than card revenue then you have a problem. If you are not in toys enough to have a separate department and are not achieving growth in toys then you have a problem.

What does success look like? This is an important question as there are newsagents contemplating there is no upside, nothing worth fighting on for. I disagree. There is plenty of upside, for those prepared to create it for themselves.

I think any newsagency business can be successful, regardless of location and situation. This is more true today than at any time in the past thanks to what we can see being achieved online – not only in newsagency businesses but through other retail channels.

For a glimpse of success, take a look at these data points for one newsagency for which I have seen performance data:

  • Number of sales: up 5%
  • Average sale value: up 16%
  • Average item value: up 16%
  • Average items per transaction: up 3%
  • Overall revenue: up 21%.
  • Overall business GP: 40% (no lotteries or agency business).
  • Cards: revenue up 19% and accounts for 23.8% of overall revenue.
  • Magazines: unit sales down 2% but weeklies up 3% and overall revenue contribution is only 18%.
  • Gifts: revenue up 100% and account for 35% of all revenue.

Now, before you dismiss this as being an exception. This business is long established, in a highly competitive situation. It is debt free. What sets it apart is that every decision is made based on data, not gut, not emotion, but data. The business regularly promotes outside the business and in a way that is not common for a newsagency. In-store, this does not look like an average newsagency.

Every year on year comparison report I have looked at has its own story. It reflects not only the challenges of small business retail but also the challenges of product categories, local challenges, owner challenges and more. The comparison data is a narrative for the business.

I urge you to ask yourself daily, what have I done today to reach a new shopper, someone who does not know we exist? This is what successful businesses in the benchmark study are doing and doing well.

DOES THE NEWSAGENCY CHANNEL HAVE A FUTURE?

Yes! Absolutely. If you are prepared to shrug off what has been traditional for a newsagency business, stop hoarding, embrace change and embrace social media – you can have a bright future. The transformation from traditional to the new world has to be urgent and dramatic.

AGENCY IS OVER.

My opinion remains – there is no upside in any agency parts of the business.

OPTIMISTIC.

I am optimistic for my own newsagency businesses and for the businesses of many newsagents. Indeed I have opened a new outlet in the last couple of weeks.

HOW TO USE THESE RESULTS

Look at your own situation. Compare your year on year results with those detailed here. If you are doing worse, act. If you are doing better, celebrate briefly and then get back to it.

There is no time to lose. We are in a period of extraordinary change and challenge on many fronts and the best way to confront change and challenge is to lean in and bring it on.

WHY I DO THIS STUDY

My interest in the study is as a newsagent and as a supplier to the channel through Tower Systems and through newsXpress. I want the channel to grow for selfish reasons and because it has been my life since 1981. I am invested.

BENCHMARK GOALS

I am often asked for benchmark goals newsagents ought to aim for. Here are some benchmarks I have developed in my work with newsXpress and through Tower Systems:

  1. Gross profit: this is the goal gross profit for all product sales not taking into account any revenue or costs related to any agency business. The traditional newsagency average sits at 28% to 32%. For a newsagency focused on the future, the goal has to be at least 45%.
  2. Ratio of Gift revenue to Card revenue: 50% minimum. The goal ought to be 100% or more. If you do $100K a year in cards, target to do $100K in gifts, or more.
  3. Revenue per employee – $250 an hour minimum not including agency revenue. This is a contentious KPI. If you think it is not for you, work the numbers back and see what your number needs to be based on each labour hour in the business.
  4. Revenue PSQM $4,500 – $8,500 depending on country vs. city / high street to shopping centre and depending of product mix. Higher GP lower revenue required.
  5. Overall revenue mix percentage targets: Cards: 25%; Gifts/toys/plush: 25%; Stat: 10%; magazines/newspapers: 20%; other: 15%.
  6. FLOORSPACE ALLOCATION: Cards: 25%; Gifts/toys/plush: 25%; Stat: 8%; magazines/newspapers: 15%; other products: 15%; office/back room / counter: 12%. It’s rare you make money from an office or store room.
  7. Mark-up goals: Stationery: 125%; Gifts 110%; plush: 110%.
  8. Occupancy cost: between 9% and 11% of revenue where revenue is product revenue plus commission from agency lines. Location and situation are a big factor in this benchmark. For example, a large shopping centre business will have a higher cost than a high street situation.
  9. Labour cost: between 9% and 11% of revenue where revenue is product revenue plus commission from agency lines. Labour cost should include fair market costs for all who work in the business. (See above).

Mark Fletcher.

Email: mark@towersystems.com.au  Website: www.towersystems.com.au  Blog: www.newsagencyblog.com.au

M | 0418 321 338

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Newsagency benchmark

Local prizes help drive seasonal sales in the newsagency

I have written here before abut the value of local prizes for driving shopper traffic. This is especially true at seasonal times, such as Mother’s Day. The right local prize can generate net new traffic when it is actively promoted outside the business.

We are promoting this beautiful T2 gift pack knowing that one of our customers will win a pack, as each participating store has their own T2 prize pack to give away to one lucky shopper of Hallmark Mother’s Day cards.

While a more valuable national prize may have a headline appeal, I have found it is easier to sell this prize will be done by one of our customers. That pitch is made even easier when the prize pack is perfectly targeted for a season  like this T2 prize pack.

The T2 pack also works as it fits well with our everyday female gift line. It compliments what we offer, making the message of the prize pack valuable beyond the season.

The newsXpress exclusive T2 Mother’s Day prize pack is part of the Hallmark / newsXpress relationship.

The total campaign has a value of in excess of $50,000. I suspect this is the most valuable Mother’s Day campaign in the newsagency channel inn 2017.

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marketing

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: be an outlet for local artists

Find a wall in your shop and turn it into a mini gallery space for local artists. Make it available at no cost. Choose artists based on what you think works best.

You will help local artists and better connect you with the community.

The photo is from a shop I was in two weeks ago. On the wall they had a small showing of photos taken by a local young photographer. There was nothing commercial about it.

To me, this idea is a not brainer for any regional, rural or high street independent retail business. The more we support our local community the more likely the local community will support us.

The added benefit is the beauty you can bring to the shop.

Be a force for good: support local artists and give locals another reason to visit your business.

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marketing

Recasting the image and appeal of the newsagency

We are preparing to open a business a new location in a high street situation in suburban Melbourne.

As part of the process of preparing the business we have been looking at our messaging inside and outside the shop. We wanted messaging that reflected the style and emotion of the business.

Here is art we are using for the first three months. I say three months as we will be chasing the art regularly.

This poster will run across the lower part of the front window, facing the street, as well as inside the store. It is not the only positioning collateral we are using. I will save those photos for another time.

While trading under a brand, major international product brands feature on the shingle and elsewhere in the business. These, coupled with the emotion-focussed posters above, pitch the business in a fresh way and in my view a better way than a newsagency shingle would.

The shop itself was a card shop until the owner put it into administration just before easter. We had a day to make a decision and move, which we did, acquiring the business from the administrator. The shop will open sometime next week and evolve over the next few months as we play with fresh ideas before we settle on what the model actually looks like.

This will be a hybrid business. It has no lotteries or tobacco products and will only have limited papers and magazines. The shop will primarily offer cards, gifts and collectibles.

What I am doing here, investing in a new retail location, reflects my optimism for the channel, regardless of the shingle under which businesses trade.

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Newsagency management

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: events are terrific traffic drivers

In our retail businesses, with such a diverse mix of products and specialisations, we have wonderful opportunities for hosting closed-door events.

Each event can target a special interest or a demographic niche that is of value to you. Each is an opportunity bring new people to your business.

This type of marketing activity is 100% on the retailer and not suppliers.

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marketing

What does Q2 of 2017 look like for you

I like to look at my business performance in quarters. Besides the convenience there is the dataset itself. Three months of business data is far more valuable for spotting trends than any period less. This is especially true if you are comparing one quarter with an earlier one or the same quarter a year back.

So, I look forward to the end of a quarter to look at business performance.

Data does not lie, not does it have emotion. Data are facts and these facts matter when you are looking at your business.

I look at revenue, GP, unit sales, supplier performance, revenue by space and ROI. These and some other data points provide a good understanding of how things have gone and insights into where you might head in the near intermediary.

The first quarter of 2017 was interesting in that we tried plenty of new things in the shop, confronted an overall traffic decline in the centre and faced several new competitors.

I am grateful for the opportunity to compare performance with what I see in the benchmark dataset for this is a valuable layer of insight over the performance of my  my own business I can see that the pace of change has picked up in terms of what we sell, what we can sell and the reasons shoppers visit the business.

I think we will look back in 2017 as the year of greatest change in our channel in decades. I’ll write more about this soon….

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Newsagency management

Sunday Newsagency marketing tip: be responsible for card sales

Your card company is not responsible for marketing the cards you sell. That is your job. It is essential you promote your range of cards outside your business.

Promoting cards outside your business is easy and rewarding. You can attract new customers and get existing customers buying more cards.

Very few newsagents promote greeting cards outside their business. While, selfishly, this suits me, it hurts the disengaged businesses.

Use social media to talk about cards. Do this every couple of days. But be smart, focus on a card you like, include a photo, use the card to shine a light on your point of difference.

Your major competitors will not do this. This is why I say it is an excellent opportunity.

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Greeting Cards

Sunday newsagency marketing advice: 5 last minute Easter marketing tips

Easter is less than a week away, here are some simple marketing tips you could engage to try and find new shoppers for this season. Some are new, some are from by 2015 tips

  1. On Facebook give people reasons why Easter is a perfect time to send a card to a distant friend or loved-one. Sometimes people need to be told when to send a card.
  2. Last minute pitch. Have a small selection of Easter cards at the counter.
  3. Give rabbits a discount. Get people to dress up as a rabbit to get a good discount.
  4. Have an egg eating competition – who can eat the most in 30 seconds.
  5. Offer free fried eggs one or two mornings for a gold coin donation to a local charity.
  6. Make a giant papier-mâché egg with things you sell (old newspapers, coloured paper, paint). Go big, I mean really big. Taller than a person. Let the kids paint it. Make it a local thing for people to come see.
  7. Have an easter Egg hunt for over 70s. Egg hunts are usually for kids but those over 70 will have a different recollection of the season from when they were kids. Cater to them with a hunt in your shop for tasty eggs.
  8. Do good. Collect for something during the season. Given the animal themes, maybe a local animal shelter.
  9. Invite a wall of stories. If you have a wall available, cover it with paper and invite your customers to write or draw what Easter means to them. this makes the season more interactive.
  10. Give away eggs. Freely and with a smile! Contact Chocolate Gems, they have excellent counter packs of eggs you can buy in bulk. They taste delicious and make for ideal counter giveaways.

If you act in an average way for Easter expect average results.

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marketing

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: marketing is not about you

Small business retailers tend to like marketing they can see. Like the ad in the local paper or the catalogue in letterboxes.

You seeing your own marketing is irrelevant. In fact, it is as irrelevant as many catalogues stuffed in letterboxes.

The best marketing today is about accurate engagement measurement, faster delivery and more immediate in-store engagement.

Take the old-school catalogue . Artwork, printing and delivery will take three to six weeks and cost you or your marketing group around $1,500, maybe more.

In many locations, that $1,500 could have funded 30 Facebook campaigns reaching 5,000+ people, carefully targeted with accurate data on engagement.

While catalogues play a role, that role today is far less than two years ago.

A newsagent told me they liked the catalogue because they could see it whereas they could not see a Facebook post. Their loss, as I told them.

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marketing

Another front of store Easter pitch

Here at another of my stores is the lease line Easter gift pitch. This also flows to cards, plush and more items that connect with Easter opportunities.

This is the third wave of Easter in this business. The gifts in the first two waves sold out.

We have some of the same items you can see in the photo at the counter as some people need to see things two or three times to get them to register.

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marketing

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: promote cards in the front window

This photo is a terrific example of how to promote cards in the front window. This is a wonderful display – attractive, engaging and emotional. Look at the detail in the display. Whoever did this took care to tell a story. This is a perfect pitch for cards to people on the street out the front of this business. Inspiring!

Click on the image for a full size version you can zoom in on.

We can sell more cards in our businesses.

10 likes
marketing
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