Stationery

If you’re ever in the UK, be sure to check out a Ryman the stationers store.  This stationery chain has an excellent local small-store format.  As I have blogged here before, the stores feel local, independent right down to the handmade (using a rubber stamp) business cards they have at the counter (very clever).  It is only when you visit several in a day that you can see the corporate foundation of the business.

I understand the difference in retail in the UK to Australia, especially in comparing London to Melbourne or Sydney.  Back home we have space and tend to drive more to shop hence the proliferation of larger format stores in the stationery space – Officeworks, Ofis. 

The Ryman offer is fascinating, partly because of the stock they fit into a small space.  On first glance the stores feel cramped and therefore difficult to shop.  Soon, you feel so surrounded that there must be something here to buy.  I like the cramped feel.  It oozes range.  I’ve certainly some away from today with some ideas. 

Dogs and cats can sell anything. Take these tiny pads we have at the counter. At $1.00 each they are more valuable than any candy and they sell like candy – great stock turn, great GP. While bigger ticket items can be more interesting, these loose-change items can provide a better return.  While it may seem odd to take time to write about small cheap pads in a newsagency, the reality is that the return achieved makes them valuable and the success worth sharing.

As I blogged Tuesday I visited the new Harvey Norman Ofis stationery business in Auburn (NSW) on Tuesday.While it’s not fair to assess a new business which is barely a few days old, this is a Harvey Norman enterprise. These people know retail. They have time to get this right. Given their size and the bucket of cash available to support the new enterprise I think an early days assessment is fair. Their marketing suggests they are ready for such scrutiny.

I went to Harvey Norman Ofis expecting to see a next generation model of stationery and office retailing., something which would make put them ahead of OfficeWorks, the main national brand player in this space today.  I didn’t see that. far from it. This was a clone of Officeworks. No generational change.  Nothing special.

The customer service was exceptional and the feature displays attractive but the core of the business was nothing special. Laptops were laid our like Officeworks and Harvey Norman. Ink and toner the same. I wanted to see innovation driving sales. Instead, the focus in on creating a sense that this is the place for a good price deal. There is nothing new in that. Especilly when the prices are not amazing.

As I said, the customer service was excellent. If this is maintained then that is a huge point of difference with Officeworks.

The store itself felt, well, bland. The pink logo is the strong visual but even then it’s only in the uniforms, plastic bags and at the front. In-store signage, which may be temporary, was not the bold message I expected.

To support the opening they give you a brown paper bag and anything you can fit inside during your shop you get 15% off. While it’s not a new idea, the execution at Ofis is good – I was offered the bag three times and told to fill it up. I know the idea has been used in at least one stationery outlet in the US with good success.

So, what does Ofis mean for newsagents? If Harvey Norman is committed for the long haul, and I am yet to be convinced of this given what I saw, newsagents need to be prepared for more competition in the stationery space. We need to get back to basics – the best range, keen prices, exceptional service and marketing our offer outside our four walls.

The Roller Boy pen, pen holder, clip, clock thing is back for the third or fourth time. We’re having success by placing the display bin in the photo in high traffic areas and moving it each day or two. We find Roller Boy works best when standing alone, without anything distracting nearby.

As with any impulse offer like this, the key is to get in, sell and not repeat too soon.

Basildon Bond is one of those brands which can be taken for granted by newsagents. I certainly have. While we have some of the range on our shelves – not enough – it is not treated with the respect it deserves. We don’t feature it in any way and I suspect that if we did we could achieve some sales growth. I suspect this is a brand newsagents could embrace without much competition.

While researching the brand I came across some interesting history at the Basildon Bond website:

The Basildon Bond brand was developed in 1911 by Millington and Sons, a London-based stationery manufacturer. The brand became the property of John Dickinson Stationery when Millingtons was acquired in 1918.

In reality, the brand name was arrived at purely by chance. In the summer of 1911, Millington‘s was considering the introduction of a new rag writing paper, and some of the directors of the company were staying at a country house in a little village in the Thames Valley in Berkshire. One of the matters arising was a name for this new paper brand. The directors decided to take the name from the house in which they were staying, Basildon Park. Therefore, it has no link with the more famous Basildon in Essex.

The website is a wealth of information and resources including an excellent link on the art of letter writing. It’s this information which adds value to the brand. We’re certainly looking at how we can use these resources to better promote the brand and increase our sales.

The US National Stationery Show in the US, the big trade show of the year for stationery retailers, in May this year will feature a paper crafting (scrapbooking etc) seminar track, Gifts and Tablewares magazine reports.

“The paper crafting seminar track is designed to educate and inspire a broad cross-section of attendees, from veteran scrapbook retailers to social stationery shops looking to expand into this key segment,” said Patti Stracher, show manager. “Both groups will learn how to attract paper crafting enthusiasts, and generate additional revenue from this growing product category.”

The opportunity in in the paper craft / social stationery area in Australia would be similar to the US yet it is a category in which most newsagents barely dabble. We tend to look for suppliers to take care of the category for us. The successful operators I see manage the category themselves, dealing with several suppliers and providing in-store activities which draw in consumer.

Newsagents looking for a category around which they can build a healthier business ought to research paper craft.

Footnote: there is a paper craft / scrapbook event on at Caulfield racecourse this weekend.