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retail

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

Everyone can do VM!

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

Anyone can do visual merchandising.

Here is our advice.

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

Take your time, have fun.

Remember, the alternative is no display at all.

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

Now, here are some more notes about displays:

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

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

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

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

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

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Management tip

More challenges for vape retailers

I don’t know why any retailer sells vape products. They are a questionable product surrounded by controversy and, from a health perspective, leading to harm. I certainly have no interest in sticking vape products enemy shops.

But, since plenty of newsagents do …

A letter from the NSW Chief health Officer recently has raised alarm among vape retailers.

These statements are what really concern the retailers:

“You cannot rely on the labelling of e-cigarette products to know whether products contain nicotine.”

“It is your responsibility to ensure that any e-cigarette or e-liquid products your business sells do not contain nicotine (for example, by having them independently tested by an authorised facility)”.

Retailers and some who represent them say it is unfair that they, the retailers, have the obligation to determine if what they sell is legal. They say that governments, federal, state, should stop inadequately labelled and mislabelled products from getting into Australia.

The Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association has written about this issue.

“Directing retailers to verify and certify the contents of products that they did not manufacture is far from reasonable and appears legally invalid. By default, it is an admission that Australian Governments are failing to properly enforcing labelling standards for vape products”, said ACAPMA CEO Mark McKenzie.

“Like their customers, retailers must be able to rely on the information provided on product labels and therefore all Australian governments have an absolute responsibility to ensure that manufacturers’ meet their legislative obligations in respect of product labelling – regardless of whether that relates to tobacco content, alcohol content, sugar content, fat content and so on”, added Mark.

While I get that product labelling is important and that retailers should be able to rely on labels. We know that right now with some vape products that is not possible. All of us in retail have an obligation to know what we are selling. If we cannot be sure, don’t sell it.

Let me finish by noting again that I have no interest in selling vape products in my newsagencies. I got out of tobacco in 1996. At that time my view was that the category had no place in a family friendly business.

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retail

The best bookshop I’ve ever visited

I appreciate it’s a big call but I do think The Ripped Bodice in Brooklyn New York is the best bookshop I’ve ever visited and here’s why: when you enter the shop you enter a unique world, their are clear in their focus, the shopping experience is wonderful. Here’s a video where I explain:

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retail

Selling VHS tapes

I was in Perth yesterday and walked past this big shop on Hay street selling VHS tapes of movies.

With growth in vinyl sales of music, I wonder if some are anticipating a return to VHS. I can’t see it myself because the playing tech is old and the playing method is out of touch with how we consume content now.

Still, the shop looked interesting, and it presented well.

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retail

WH Smith pitches coffee in the newsagency

While I know of newsagents who have been successfully doing coffee and related food and beverages in Australia for years, this WH Smith outlet is the first time I have seen a corporate ‘newsagency’ player in Australia offer it, and, they are doing it exceptionally well.

It fits well with their fresh new store design and is sufficiently visually different to be seen as a stand alone business. The Long Shot branding helps with that.

The WH Smith offer in Australia right now is the freshest and most on-point I have seen from them since they arrived in the country. Their new shop layout is excellent, supporting a broad range of products, making the shopper journey good, and I suspect, successful.

The changes are so significant that I would not be surprised to see them engage more in shopping centres and even at major high street locations.

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retail

The Pharmacy Guild protests too much about prescription changes

It was galling to watch the president of the Pharmacy Guild weep and moan on TV last week about the planned changes to more efficient prescription access to 300 drugs on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

The planned changes mean people accessing these medications will be able to get 60 days worth of their medicine instead of the current 30 days worth, meaning one dispensing visit for 60 days instead of two.

I get that pharmacists will lose some revenue. Those needing the medication will save time and costs involved in getting out to collect them. The government will save costs.

I think the gains for consumers and government (taxpayers) outweigh the modest cost to pharmacies.

If you believe the weepy president of the Pharmacy Guild, this move will end some local pharmacies. If that the case, the businesses must not have been strong enough to start, they must have been relying on their government protected monopoly.

In my opinion, pharmacists have been protected for too long, and at too much of a cost to Australians.

24 years ago Aussie newsagents were stripped of the monopoly they had over local newspaper and magazine distribution. This was taken from us under the guidance of the Howard Coalition (Liberal / national) Government. It was taken from us without any compensation. The cost to the value of local newsagency businesses was tens of millions of dollars in business valuation and tens of missions of dollars of revenue.

Good retailers in the newsagency channel thrived. The deregulation made them evolve from agents into retailers.

While kicking the protection crutch of protection hurt and demonstrated a lack of care for local small business retail by the Howard government plenty of us got through it. For sure, compensation would have been good. But, maybe those leading the channel at that time did not have the skillset to achieve anything for newsagents. We’ll never know. It’s 24 years in the past now.

So, back to the pharmacists, while they can moan and complain, and cry, the reality is that the current approach to dispensing prescriptions is inefficient and expensive, to the benefit off protected pharmacists. Making them more efficient and saving money have to be a benefit to the health system and to Australians more broadly.

Local retailers I have spoken with since the tears were shed on TV a few days ago offered no support for pharmacists. It seems to me like they over-egged their response to what feels like a reasonable move.

In the 23 years since deregulation, as I have often covered here, newsagents have benefited from relying less on protection and more on being entrepreneurial. Most in our channel today have stable businesses, plenty are growing, with the growth com ing from decisions we make, rather than some legacy suppliers.

Footnote: I do understand that in some settings, particularly in regional and rural Australia, and in genuine community pharmacies, the move may present some challenges. I suspect that if you look at actual financial details in those businesses you will see the impact will not match the emotional outpouring of some in the last week.

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newsagency of the future

Smart buying: Having products that sell for more than one reason, to more than one type of shopper

The more we stock our shops that appeal to multiple buying situations the better for our retail businesses, the more efficient our inventory investment, the more opportunities for out of store promotions.

This candle is a good example of what I am talking about.

Candles are candles, right?! They are everywhere. Many different types of shops have them. The marketplace is covered well for people shopping by scent and different types of ingredients. And, new local makers are popping up almost daily.

This candle, by virtue of the fun text on the label, offers a different reason for purchase. It’s fun, self-deprecating, a good conversation opportunity when given.

Having items that could be purchased for more than on reason helps improve inventory efficiency in the business. In local small business retail this is especially important. If an additional reason is humorous related, it’s a bonus.

A candle like this in a town with plenty of candy outlets gives you differentiation.

This candle is an example. There are plenty of products you can buy to serve this purpose. My suggestion is to look for multiple purchase opportunity products, to expand the appeal of what you sell, and to provide you with opportunities to reach more possible shoppers through out of store marketing.

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Newsagency management

Check out the news agency at Amazon’s Whole Foods at Bryant Park in New York

It’s a store within a store, with the shingle: news agency, which I found kinda odd. It’s convenience focussed, with a few magazines.

The compressed newspaper wall at the entrance is cool but unnecessary.

I don’t get why they have done this. I mean, it reads as if they see value in the shingle, but then the shop inside has very little connection to it.

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retail

A massive retailer shows how to embrace change

Even big businesses. In this short video I talk about Reddy, a pet shop unlike any I have seen, and share my surprise about the business behind it – showing how important innovation is.

How does this connect to newsagents? Retail is retail. Reddy focusses on millennial pet parents. Not pet owners. Not pet lovers. But pet parents. It treats them like that. And this makes a big difference in the engagement, and sits at the core of their success.

What Reddy is doing is, to me, and example of the need to play further outside the usual, and to do this in a local scale.

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retail

Whalebone is a magazine, a shop and an experience I enjoyed visiting

Whalebone on Bleeker Street in New York is a fascinating shop (?) to visit.

Once you step into the shop you are in their world, and what a wonderful, happy and warm world it is.

You just want to wander through, and explore.

This is fun retail, different retail, community engaged retail.

I am glad to have seen Whalebone while looking at innovative retail in New York in January 2023.

For some who pass by this place, this short video about Whalebone will hold no interest. I have shared it because it is magazine related and because it shows different retail, retail that plays outside the usual, and that’s very on trend now in local – playing outside the usual.

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retail

Retail inspiration #1 Cold Spring, NY

The series of posts that precede this one represent some of the wonderful retail businesses that are part of the newsagency channel.

Many started their transformative journey 10, 15 and more years ago.

Inspiration comes in many forms.

The thing about retail is … it keeps evolving. Especially local indie retail, like our businesses. This is why I like to look at what others are doing.

I was fortunate earlier this year to make my second trip to Cold Spring in upstate New York. It is a town offering plenty of inspiration to local independent retailers.

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retail

HEY AUSSIES, THE LOCAL NEWSAGENCY MAY NOT BE WHAT YOU THINK IT IS (PART 11)

The former owners of Paperplay Inverloch were early adopters of change their then, years ago, newsagency business. While the business did have lotteries, it relied on newspapers, magazines and other newsagency lines seeing the folks of Inverloch, Victoria.

The shift in the business was gradual, driven through product purchasing. As the range of products diversified, some traditional lines remained, but took a back seat. Midway through the journey of change, the business changed names, to reflect the non traditional offering. Bu this time, books had become an important part of the business.

Locals embraced the change. Covid propelled that further as Paperplay Inverloch offered locked down locals easy access to products you usually find in the city hours away.

While these photos are from a year and more ago, they reflect part of the diversity of offering of Paperplay Inverloch.

This series came about because journalists and news outlets prefer a narrative that the local Aussie newsagency is rooted in the past. They are wrong for many ‘newsagency’ businesses. Paperplay Inverloch is a good example of that. It plays against the ignorant narrative media outlets run.

We need better journalism when it comes to reporting about our channel.

It’s not too late for any newsagent tom embrace change and tradition. There are plenty of people in our channel ready to help. It starts with you asking the question.

Every newsagent, every retailer, needs to find their own way. In my experience. the best pathway to this is product choices. Playing outside the usual walls for a newsagency is a start. but, remember, in retail we need to find a need and fill it, and, we are not our customers.

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Newsagency management

HEY AUSSIES, THE LOCAL NEWSAGENCY MAY NOT BE WHAT YOU THINK IT IS (PART 8)

newsXpress Bairnsdale was your local traditional newsagency, and then things changed. Now, it’s a vibrant gift shop attracting not only local shoppers, but people from outside of town, as well as online – from interstate. David (Tas as he likes to be called) and the team are constantly innovating. During Covid, they pivoted to creating personalised gifts and doing so very well.

Here are some photos of the business that speak to it as a business outside of what many in Australia would consider a Newsagency. Remember, I am sharing these photos to combat the assumptions too many Aussies, including journalists, tend to make about the local newsagency.

Thriving local Aussie Newsagency are not what they used to be, as these photos show. newsXpress Bairnsdale is in a regional Victorian town, far from Melbourne, and on the road to New South Wales. back in the day it would be traditional, but now it has to be innovative retail, and it is. It’s a testament to the vision and work of David and the entire team in the business.

What makes this business even more interesting is that it does not have lotteries – a further break from the traditional.

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Newsagency management

HEY AUSSIES, THE LOCAL NEWSAGENCY MAY NOT BE WHAT YOU THINK IT IS (PART 7)

Randalls newsagency in Bourke New South Wales is a perfect example of innovative retail in our channel, offering products outside what has been traditional for the local newsagency business, and taking that diversity online to reach shoppers far away from Bourke. In a town of less than 2,000 that is 800km from Sydney, here you have inspiring retail.

Nancy and the team at Randalls newsagency and their website, Back O Bourke Collective run an awesome business, a business that challenges what we think of as a newsagency.

This series is about showing journalists and others that the local Aussie newsagency has changed and while, for sure, there are some running old-school newsagencies rooted in the 60s and 70s, many have transformed their newsagency businesses to be fresh, inviting and vibrant. many are running local newsagency businesses that are changing, evolving, meeting new opportunities.

This is retail in 2022 and beyond, especially local retail, and even more especially local newsagency retail.

The Aussie newsagency channel was created in the 1880s to deliver news publications to the goldfields of Victoria. For decades ours were agency businesses, doing the bidding of the companies for which we were agents. It is only in the last 20 years that some in our channel decided to be retailers rather than agents.

Today, the newsagents who are growing their businesses are retailers first with either no agency business or modest agency business that does not dominate what they do in their businesses.

The local Aussie newsagency has come a long way from what Aussie journalists and others think of us as. The more show how far we have come, the better. This series is about shining a light on some good examples of this, some good examples of retail newsagency businesses that are quite different to what people expect when they think of the classic Aussie newsagency.

Shops like Randalls newsagency in Bourke NSW are a beacon not only for retail newsagents but for local retail more broadly. They are showing that location and size do not matter. They are showing that you can grow by thinking outside of the physical boundaries of your local town.

Whether it is in-store online, there are no borders to what a local newsagency can be, and this is exciting.

What is the future of the local Aussie newsagency? Well, that is up to each newsagent, each retailer in the channel. There is no channel-wide problem. rather, there are thousands of local retailers making decisions every day that will determine the future, and from where I sit, with what I get to see from many colleagues, the future is bright.

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Newsagency management

HEY AUSSIES, THE LOCAL NEWSAGENCY MAY NOT BE WHAT YOU THINK IT IS (PART 6)

Too many journalists and too many Australians think of the local Aussie newsagency as a paper shop selling magazines, lottery tickets, cigarettes, lollies and stationery. That may have been case twenty or more years ago. Today, it’s different, the local Aussie newsagency is different. A good example of how different is newsXpress Numurkah in Victoria. In this small town of under 5,000 people you can find newsXpress Numurkah, a wonderful and vibrant shop, which is also home to a terrific online baby shop.

These photos tell the story of a vibrant and attractive retail created by Andrea and the team:

The mix of products and price-points plays against out of date assumptions too many make about what a local Aussie newsagency stock and offers.

newsXpress Numurkah is also an excellent example of excellent retail in our channel in regional and rural Australia. The whole team in the business should be proud for their representation of the local newsagency in Numurkah.

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Newsagency management
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