Stationery

There is the stationery people buy because they need it and then there is stationery people buy because they want it, the obligation purchase versus the emotional purchase.

Traditional stationery suppliers to our channel serve us well with stationery that fills a need. Most do not serve us at all with stationery that serves a want.

It is in this want or emotional stationery purchase space that we can make the most money.

The failure of existing stationery suppliers to our channel to offer stationery for the want / emotional purchase has plenty of newsagents looking elsewhere.

Our channel was built in the 1800s to serve a need. Today, serving what people want is proving to be an appreciated value-add for retailers.

Gen Alpha and Gen Z are journaling more than Gen X and Gen Y according to some commentators in this space of journaling. And, among Gen Alpha and Gen Z, journaling is for guys and girls. Reading this a while back got me thinking since it challenges my assumptions about journaling, based on decades in retail.

I think it is time for a reset in our approach to journals in our shops. They and more than pretty notebooks.

Journals are creative outlets, productivity boosters, data recorders, lyric books, poetry books, brain dump spaces, therapy and treasured keepsakes. Journals mean something different to each person engaged. This is what we have to understand.

Fear not! Here are 6 tips to turn those passing glances into happy journal purchases:

1. Showcase the Spectrum

People journal for all sorts of reasons. Some crave a space for daily reflections, while others seek a bullet journal for ultimate organisation. Cater to this diversity by offering a range of journals. From classic hardcovers with lined pages to funky softcovers bursting with dotted grids and blank spaces, create a selection that caters to different styles and purposes.

Don’t forget niche interests: travel journals, gratitude journals, food journals, fitness journals, drawing journals, star sign journals.

2.  Be Seen, Be Desired

Place journals front cover facing at the counter. Yes, people will purchase on impulse.

3. Cross sell

Pair journals with pens, covers, book marks, posi-it notes and other items that make sense to purchase with them.

4. Storytelling Sells

Have a journal open on a table, preferably with a chair where someone can sit. Have a chair nearby. Encourage people to journal anonymously in the shop. Leet them experience it, and maybe get hooked as a result. Let your customers be their own storyteller.

5. Pitch on social media

Showcase journals on social media. Use this platform to speak to the range of journaling situations you cover: male, female, young, old, work, hobby. Be sure to show off your range.

6. Train Your Team

Make sure everyone working in the shop understand your products. Nurture in them a love of your pens and your journals and the feeling that comes from writing on the page.  If they journal themselves, give them a deal. This may help them talk about they own experiences journaling with shoppers.

By implementing these tips, you can transform your retail space into a haven for journal enthusiasts.

You are not selling stationery. Rather, you are selling keepers of memories and much more, things they will value for many years.

Ancol, the stationery wholesale business owned by SA newsagents, is chasing wholesale business outside of South Australia. My experience is they are pushy for a new account, unhappy if you say no thanks.

Their website home page looks like it’s from the 1990s. The mention of the 2021-22 catalogue is unfortunate.

Between, GNS, Razor, ACCO, Ancol and others the wholesale stationery marketplace is crowded. Most of them seem to have not retreated to an online-model only, which I think is key to get the cost of product as low as possible. Reps are an expensive way to sell these days.

I mention online because we are buying plenty of niche stationery, stationery people want rather than the stationery they need from online without ever seeing a rep. It’s good and easy business, helping us expand range and reach new shoppers.

Okay so you can buy stationery from a ton of places from the big blue stationery shop to online to supermarkets and other big businesses.

There is a difference, though, in much of the stationery bg businesses sell and what your local Aussie newsagency sells and we’re here to talk about that today.

Your neighbourhood newsagency is a great place to find high-quality stationery to help you get organised and stay on top of your tasks.

• Convenience: Time is money. You don’t have time to spend driving around town trying to find the perfect notebook or pen or waiting for an online order to arrive. By shopping at your local newsagency, you can quickly and easily find everything you need in one place.
• Selection: Newsagencies carry a wide range of stationery products, from basic ballpoint pens to high-end pens, and from simple spiral notebooks to luxurious leather-bound journals. With so many options to choose from, you’re sure to find the products to suit your needs and style. Seeing is believing.
• Quality: Newsagencies are known for carrying brand name products. If quality matters you’ll like this. Newsagents tend to use the stationery they sell. If it’;s on their shelves, they recommend it. You don’t get that in a big business where it’s all about volume.
• Supporting Local Business: When you shop at your local newsagency, you’re supporting a small business in your community and community matters to all of us locals for sure. The economy is circular and the more you spend locally the more help available locally.
• Fun and Stylish: Stationery can be fun as you can see in many local newsagencies where the shelves offer fun stationery for the kids, colour stationery for the home office and eco friendly stationery for the planet.

Next time you’re in the market for some new stationery, check out your local newsagency. With their convenient location, great selection, and high-quality products, you’re sure to find everything you need to stay organised and inspired.

Footnote: some may say that the local newsagency is expensive. Any time a price check has been done on a basket of home office stationery requirements, the local newsagency has performed well, they have not beed the most expensive. Often they are among the cheapest without even factoring in the amount you save on petrol.

Stationery retail has changed, especially for want versus need purchases. I loved visiting Present & Correct recently.

MichaelWestMedia published this AAP story outlining ALNAs involvement lobbying on the paper shortage situation.

Paper shortage pressures school stationery

by AAP | January 19, 2023 13:27 | News

Parents shopping for back-to-school stationery could face price hikes and empty shelves, as logistics and materials pressures cause suppliers to ration goods.

The Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association has called on the federal government to ease white paper import duties, after timber shortages blocked production at Australia’s last white paper mill in Victoria.

“There’s some rationing sort of going on around the amount that we can order but at the moment we’ve still got product on shelves,” association chief executive Ben Kearney told AAP.

“I’m concerned that down the line we might start to see that situation where there’s there’s a lack of availability.”

White paper production at Opal Australian Paper’s Maryvale mill was impacted in late December due to timber shortages after state-owned supplier VicForests was ordered to scale back harvesting in parts of Victoria.

The Victorian Supreme Court found VicForests failed to adequately survey logging coupes for two protected possum species.

VicForests is appealing against the decision, with a hearing in the Court of Appeal on March 23.

Office product companies have also called for an end to white paper import tariffs, as shortages push them towards foreign paper, Office Brands chief executive Adam Joy said.

“The tariffs were there to stop injury to the Australian manufacturing market, but there is no Australian manufacturing market at the moment but we’re all paying the tariffs,” Mr Joy told AAP.

The association and Office Brands said they were supportive of workers at Maryvale mill and hoped the supply disruption would be resolved as soon as possible.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Minister for Industry Ed Husic have been contacted for comment.

The CFMEU is calling for an audit on the amount of white paper available in the country.

The manufacturing union flagged a potential shortfall in paper products including doctor scripts, exercise books and government services documentation.

“We don’t have a sense of how much white paper is actually available in the country at this point in time,” secretary of the pulp and paper workers district Denise Campbell-Burns told AAP.

“People could be going to the doctor and the doctor can’t print their script.”

Ms Campbell-Burns said removing tariffs would do nothing for sovereign capability.

“To not make any white paper products in our country anymore, it’s a real risk,” she said.

The CFMEU wants the Victorian and federal governments to intervene to reinstate production at Maryvale.

The disruption at Opal has led to 49 production workers being stood down, but their pay will be guaranteed by the Victorian government until mid-February.

Opal, owned by Japan’s Nippon Paper Group, said no decision on further stand downs had been made, but it was considering “scaling down” white paper manufacturing.

The company says it continues to consider different operational scenarios for the longer term, in case possible alternative wood sources are not feasible.

On Wednesday, Victorian Environment Minister Ingrid Stitt said talks were continuing between the government and Opal.

For many years I have used a notebook for my daily ToDo list and for making notes through the day while on calls or in meetings.

A year ago, I moved to the paperless reMarkable, a tablet-size piece of tech that feels like paper when you write, bit is cloud-enabled providing more facilities than you get from writing in a notebook.

At the time of the move I figured it would be fun to play with new tech – who doesn’t like a cool gadget?! I figured I’d go back to pen and paper, because that’s what I have done when I have tried other tech solutions in this space. But, here I am, a year later, using my reMarkable every day without fail. I’ve not used a notebook or journal since.

I like that I can write in my own hand, and draw as appropriate, and that what I write on the reMarkable paper-like screen, is digitised, stored and searchable.

I mention this today because the move sees me spending less money on notebooks, and pen refills. I suspect this trend will gather pace as tech is used more to enable collaboration when people are not in front of each other. This all plays out into the type of stationery we sell in our newsagency shops.

For anyone interested, here is a video of the reMarkable device.

FYI I have no commercial connection with the reMarkable company or its products whatsoever. I’m an everyday customer in love with this product.

I am grateful for the opportunity over the last few days to have seen several Ryman the stationer businesses in London. They do it well. Usually in a small format. They make excellent use of the space. The shops are easy to navigate, and appealing. Prices are keen, too.

The photos illustrate the value of a consistent group-wide approach in their retail story.

They do stationery well, better than anything else I see here in the UK.

Plenty of inspiration here.

Thinking about each of the Ryman stores I have been to the takeaways are:

• Brands matter.
• Efficient space use – not overcommitting to a category or brand.
• Product adjacencies are key to drawing people in.
• Pitching a value offer, even if they offer is not the best going around.
• Employ staff who understand what you sell.
• Always be selling, even at the sales counter when ringing up a sale.

Officeworks has several ranges of stationery that pitch well in-store, like these pencils.

I love the pitch, DRAW IT YOUR WAY. It connects the product with the creativity of the user of the pencils, which I think is smart.

While one of our jobs as retailers is to educate people to be purchasers, one of the jobs of product packaging is to inspire the purchase. I think the packaging for these pencils does a better job at that than many other pencil packages.

OPIx 2022 was announced today:

OPIx 2022 BRINGS THE OFFICE PRODUCTS INDUSTRY TOGETHER ON THE GOLD COAST!!

Tuesday, 1 March 2022

After 2 years apart, the independent office products suppliers, resellers and retailers will join together for the OPIx 2022 Industry Expo at The Star Gold Coast on Saturday 13th August 2022.

The Supplier Expo attracted over 400 delegates in 2019 to provide newsagents and independent dealers across the country access to a wide range of suppliers, new products and exclusive offers.  Inaugural partners Office Choice and GNS Wholesale are excited to announce an expanded partnership with the Newspower and newsXpress groups who will be supporting the event in attendance with their members.

The weekend event will consist of a full day industry expo with suppliers and delegates from Office Choice, Newspower newsXpress and GNS with an invitation extended to the broader independent sector.  Following the Industry Expo, the OPIx Gala Dinner & Awards night will reward the high achievers across Office Choice and GNS with the Office Choice Conference ensuring members get the most value out of their weekend.

OPIx2022 is proudly supported by Platinum sponsors ACCO Brands Australia, Opal Australian Paper and Furnx.

All Covid safety protocols will be followed in conjunction with event management to ensure a safe event for all participants.

Office Choice and GNS Wholesale launched the event in 2019 with the support of the industry, to promote the interests of the broader independent office products channel. It’s aim,with the participation of other industry groups, is the event will become the highlight of the annual industry calendar.

Office Choice, GNS Wholesale, Newspower and newsXpress are committed to working with all of our valued supply partners to ensure maximum value and return on investment for the supplier community. We look forward to your support as we continue to build a strong future for the independent business supplies resellers of Australia. This event is sure to be a highlight of the annual industry calendar.

With the supply chain continuing to be unpredictable, retailers including newsagents are finding themselves holding more stock for some product categories than would usually be the case.

Stationery is one category where holding more stock pays off – if your business is strong in stationery. It’s the everyday items like pens, paper, notepads, stickers, staples – you get what I mean – where holding extra stock enables you to smooth out in0-store the kinks in the supply chain behind the scenes.

We operate to an inventory on hand budget. A few months ago we increased this for stationery by 50% to enable us to be the local store where people could get the stationery they wanted. While it benefits our customers, it benefits us too as we don’t lose time chasing stock when a supplier is out.

I understand that not every retailer can do this. For us, it was about priorities. The increase in stationery spend was possible in part due to a trim elsewhere.

A couple of Tower Systems POS software customers were referenced in a report by the ABC last week looking at supply chain challenges.

Ronald Voukolos, the manager of Fishing and Outdoor World in Darwin, says he has taken a risk and resorted to ordering much more stock than needed, in some cases a year in advance.

“We’ve always been used to being able to buy it as we need it,” he said.

But with the Omicron variant causing crippling staff shortages and transport issues in Australia and the unpredictability of a broken supply chain, Mr Voukolos says the future has become too uncertain.

“Some of the footwear we sell, we placed orders last year in July to get them in 2022.”

But still, he said he is letting people know they could be waiting three or four months on some in-demand items like drinkware, and plastic shoes from Vietnam.

…

In the bike world, Paul Clancy says customers at Bikes to Fit could be waiting up to two years to buy a particular brand amid a global shortage of parts.

“It’s not just bikes, it’s bike parts, even simple things like tubes and tyres where suppliers are starting to run very low,” he said.

He said that even though the popularity of bike riding skyrocketed during the pandemic, the scarcity of parts has even seen some shops close down.

It’s now “really hard for surviving bike stores”, which are now overloaded with repair jobs, he said.

“We’ve been flat out.”

While supply chain interruptions have been challenging, those stockpiling have ensured they maintained supply throughout.

Old Shops Australia shared this Back to School catalogue image from 1987 on Twitter a few days ago:

I’ve talked here plenty of times about how pens are displayed in retail shops I like overseas. I am grateful to the team for this execution now in place at one of my shops.

It’s been in place a couple of weeks and the shopper reaction has been terrific in terms of comments and purchases.

Best of all, it has changed (in a good way) how shoppers interact with the category, which was our goal for making the change. The move is part of the on-going narrative evolution away from traditional newsagency.

I made the video to pitch the change on social media. I filmed it using my iPhone and dropped that video into iMovie, where I stripped out the sound of the shop. From there I took it to an online edit quite where I added background music and text. The whole thing took less than 5 minutes to make. I mention all the steps to show that anyone could do this.

With Kikki k in administration for the second time in recent years, it could be a good time to look at your social stationery offering. There are many suppliers in this space that we can access. It is easy to curate ranges that evolve over time, that can be promoted on social media, following some of the excellent marketing cues used by Kikki k.

This space of inspiring stationery that nurtures optimism and feeds happiness is a space made for retailers in the newsagency channel if they want to embrace it.

Meanwhile, Kikki k is quitting stock and stores. This, from their website:

This premium stationery space is competitive. Marketing can’t be traditional and inventory or price driven. The biggest success I have seen in this space has been built on aspiration marketing that is backed by quality product. The moment you take it down a value (discount) path, you’re on unstable ground.

It will be interesting to see what emerges from the Kikki k administration. Maybe third time is a charm. Maybe the brand has value for another business. I suspect the retail stores are in for a rough time as that’s where there is significant cost.

Regardless of what happens next with Kikki k, there is an opportunity right now to consider whether their tough times present an opportunity for you.