Know your key traffic destinations and pitch at this destinations products those destination shoppers may not have otherwise considered. We do this in different ways at different times of the week. Here are two examples from yesterday in two different businesses:
Get the product pitch right for your specific situation and it works a treat.
I have heard from more retailers in the last two weeks about shopper than at any time in recent years. It leads me to ask the question:
Is shopper theft on then increase?
Please comment and provide information about what you are experiencing.
In my own situation, we spot stock take key parts of the business, those valued items near the front of the shop and items people are known to covet. Our magazine arrivals and electronic returns process shows if any theft of magazines has occurred, and has done for years.
The bigger challenge is with higher value specialty items for which we consider security to be good. A theft yesterday tells us security needs to be better. I is that experience and what others have told me over the last couple of weeks that got me asking the question.
One newsagent told me abut the customer who brought one card to the counter but “forgot: about the three cards in the baby pram. Another told me about the customer who put gift card in their broken arm sling and was disappointed to learn it would not work unless activated. Another told me about a customer who loaded four reams of paper under their supermarket shopping bags in a trolly.
While these stories are frustrating, it is the stories we do not hear about, the theft discovered long after it have been done, that frustrate the most. This is where how and when you check your stock matters.
With so much business now done online and accurate stock on hand data key to business success, theft can embarrass the business more than ever.
Have you found shopper theft to be on the increase?
I have emailed newsagent ts this morning with an invitation to participate in he Q2 newsagency sales benchmark study:
I am preparing a fresh benchmark study for the newsagency channel to look at the latest sales trends overall and in key product categories for the second quarter of 2017. This quarterly newsagency sales performance study will help newsagents see the future based on the data trends. Click here for my last report.
How to participate.
Suppliers to retailers of everyday lines – you know, the lines they are known for and that you purchase from them on a regular basis – have an obligation to ensure this items are always in stock.
Too often now I hear stories from newsagents of core suppliers not maintaining adequate stock levels of these everyday items.
The consequences of these out of stock situations can be serious for newsagents and the suppliers.
Newsagents with a gap on the shelves can look elsewhere – to another supplier or even to another product to fill the space. I know of one instance where a supplier out of stock caused the newsagent to look more carefully at return on inventory investment and return on space and found the product to be borderline successful based on the evidence. They quit the category and the supplier and introduced a new category … and that was the start o=f increased success for the business.
Newsagents are not shingle loyal today, nor should they be in today’s marketplace. This puts suppliers at greater risk of losing business if they are out of stock.
I am not naming suppliers as they know who they are. The time for their excuses are gone. They need to fix their inventory gaps or budget for more sales decline.
My message to suppliers who have more and more out of stock – get your situation sorted out or you will lose more business.
Tatts Group is in a powerful position when a newsagency business with a Tatts agency is for sale as they have to approve the purchaser.
From what I see and hear, the Tatts approval process is opaque. I hear of people approved who are dreadful retailers with few skills and no plan and I hear of people rejected with good retail skills and a good plan.
There does not seem to be a consistent approach by Tatts to people approving. Worse still is that there is no independent review process. Tatts is in the box seat. They can make or break the sale of you’re business. You better not upset them is what many tatts retailers think I suspect. tatts folk are a fragile group as we have seen.
The biggest challenge is for the vendor who is in the situation of completing the hard work to find a purchaser with the money and then being confronted by a rejection by Tatts, from what I hear a rejection often without clear advice as to the reasons for the rejection.
My advice for the best possible outcome is that the vendor and the purchaser work together on the application and the accompanying business plan, and that this is reviewed by a professional third party with experience – not an accountant and not a solicitor as in my experience they are clueless about these matters.
Put in the work on your submission prior to the first submission and you could save month, even a year, of delays.
The application quality demonstrates how much both parties want the transaction to proceed. A good application also provides the best basis for appeal should the inconsistent and fractured processes used by tatts result in a rejection.
A fake cover of Time magazine has been discovered on display at gold clubs owned by Trump’s business. Time has request the fake cover be removed. I find it hilarious that Trump of all people has a fake magazine cover featuring him displayed in his businesses. This is the person who bemoans fake news published by mainstream news outlets, like Time. This story is another example of the strange times in which we live. What a jerk.
A new malware attack on computers is sweeping the world. It has hit the UK government, big businesses (shutting down the Cadbury factory in Tasmania) and small businesses. Please protect your business. Here is our advice.
The easiest way to recover is if you use a professional cloud backup.
There are people who have left the newsagency channel yet remain interested and sometimes and criticise newsagents and their suppliers. Some of them come across with the attitude of I failed so you must fail too.
There are others i the channel who have adopted a path different to yours yet seek to talk down success you may report as it challenges their own narrative.
I think it is important to ignore these folks, for your own peace of mind and for the benefit of your business.
Those who have left the channel are done with the channel, they have walked away, closed their businesses, sold their businesses or quit their newsagency supplier jobs. We should wish them all the best and encourage them to turn their back for whatever is next for them.
The obsession of some about the channel they left is sad to see. It is dangerous too as there are some who do listen to them, and their businesses suffer as a consequence.
Those still in the channel but following a different path to yours should watch their path as that is more important to them than how you might be going along your path.
The newsagency channel and retail are changing at a rapid pace, faster than any time I can recall in my years of engagement with the channel and retail. That faster pace makes the opinions of those who have left and those not evolving sufficiently irrelevant. This is what I say ignore them.
Attention is best spent on what we each of us see in front of us, in the context of our businesses. There is plenty to see. Online and offline. And, I expect the pace of change to keep increasing, for the future.
Online is fascinating is that its horizon is far wider than the narrow path we see as the proprietor of a physical store.
What we sell and how we sell it has fundamentally changed, forever. In just the last six months there has been a seismic shift that engaged newsagents are seeing and embracing.
Be wary of those who talk you down and talk engaged newsagents down. Their negative talk will not serve you well. Rather it is likely aimed at you joining them in their pity party.
I saw this nice bit of history for sale in a store on Smith Street Collingwood on the weekend.
From back at a time when newspapers published news and were less engaged in pushing proprietor serving and other agendas. #thosewerethedays
Uncensored can be a challenging magazine to display. This issue could easily sit with the newspapers instead of fringe titles. It could also be promoted online – depending who you want to attract. That it continues to be published speaks to diversity.
Published on news.com.au today:
Vic woman arrested for dumping newspapers
A woman is expected to be charged with “aggravated littering” for allegedly dumping large quantities of newspapers across at least six Melbourne suburbs.
The 54-year-old Narre Warren woman was arrested on Monday after allegedly dumping bundles of newspapers over several weeks in Beaconsfield Upper, Narre Warren North, Pakenham Upper, Cockatoo, Yarra Glen and Yea.
She has been released and is expected to be charged on summons with obtaining financial advantage by deception and three counts of aggravated littering, police say.
I’d love to know more about this story, plenty more.
With the TVC on air right now, pitching this partwork launch at the front of the business is vital, right now as people will look for it. That is what we are doing – front of store display and placement with pop culture products.
I get the the partworks supply model inn Australia is as broken as ever and that there is no will by partworks publishers to solve this.
Sure there will be words of comfort if we complain to Gotch but the reality is nothing has changed for partworks.
So, the best approach is to promote the hell out of any launch so that the first issue is a success for the business, attracting new shoppers, encouraging them to taste other parts of the business. That is what we are doing.
I like this DeLorean partwork. It will work well. However, we can no longer be certain of supply right through. We will sign people up if they ask but we will not push hard for them to sign up, not like we used to.
I have reached this conclusion having seen the web address prominently promoted on the front of issue one and having gone to the website, to see what is pitched there. Here is their offer for subscribers:
EXCLUSIVE BENEFITS FOR SUBSCRIBERS…
Never miss an issue
Delivery direct to your door
Eaglemoss customer guarantee receive these 3 superb gifts absolutely free and never miss an issue!
You can cancel at any time
Free delivery (uk only)
Dedicated customer service email
It is the near miss an issue promise with which newsagents cannot compete – because of the poor supply model by the publishers and distributor,. Shame on them for using us as they do and then ensuring people stop using us. It is galling.
I know of plenty newsagents who would take on partworks and actively promote them if there was a guarantee they would never miss an issue.
We can’t compete with the publisher as their actions disadvantage us.
Amart Sports are dumping fidget spinners with a multi buy offer at the counter. The chap I spoke with said they were not moving, even with the additional 20% off on the weekend.
This product really has run its race in retail. Make sure you are not left with stock.
It is the end of the financial year in a few days, are you ready? At the very basic level, here is what you should do at the close of business on June 30:
If you have accurate stock on hand data, through well managed stock moment management, you will not need to do an EOFY stock take.
Without a doubt, pitching optimism in-store and online works a treat. It is easy to do this through the products we stock. Customers love it, they love the optimistic product at the counter, the happy Facebook post the range of optimistic products in their own section among gifts.
There are plenty of gift and other niche product suppliers of wonderful optimistic and happy products that work in this situation.
Take the journal in the photo, placed at the counter it picked up, browsed and, often, purchased. It is a perfect product through which we can make a pitch about the business that is outside what customers expect of us.
Stocking products like this is a good example of how our inventory decisions can play perfectly into a marketing plan designed to recast the appeal of the business.
I still don’t like seeing the front pages of newspapers covered, especially for cheap subscription deals.
We are experiencing terrific year on year growth in card sales. The May numbers on a same-store year-on-year comparison basis are terrific.
Looking across this you have May 2017 in the numbers to the left. next, you have May 2016. Then, you have the variance.
Unit sales and revenue are tracking very well.
Unit sales are up 24% and revenue is up 30%. These results are more than four times the industry average right now.
Looking at the business, which is in a highly competitive space, I see the results as being driven by:
Cards are an easy sell in newsagencies if they are done right and maintained daily to be best-practice. My view is the list above reflects what I see as being done right.
Too often newsagents rely on card company reps to manage cards. They are not retailers. They rarely have the skills necessary to drive the success you can have with cards.
The more you engage yourselves in-store the more success you can have.
There is growth here for the taking by engaged newsagents. This is an opportunity for a self made good new story for all of us, in every situation, regardless of location or population.
Check out this marketing email sent out by Lottoland:
I don’t pitch magazines often on social media but when I do I try and do it in a way that is interesting, different to the usual XXX out now type post. Indeed, being interesting, and entertaining, is essential on social media today, especially on Facebook.
That is what I have gone for here with this post yesterday about That’s Life Reader Recipes. I’m having a bit of fun referencing reality TV.
That’s Life Reader Recipes is a simple publication. I like it for that simplicity. It is local and sharing everyday recipes from everyday Aussies. It is a title ideal for us to promote as being available in our businesses.
It is authentic. The recipes are accessible. It has an everyday appeal. I like this title for all those reasons.
I mention it here today as an example of a practical use of social media for pitching the business. While not likely to have people beating down your doors, a post like this has a local feel to it and that is valuable in social media engagement.
I’d suggest pitching a magazine on Facebook once a week. However, choose the title carefully, stray away from mainstream, from what people would expect of you. Look for a local angle, or at least an angle that is relevant to your business and how you would like it pitched.
Check out two differentiating magazine deals from News Corp. and Bauer media, which I saw at Woolworths on George Street in Sydney yesterday:
Miranda Ward offers an in-depth analysis of the sudden departure of Nick Chan from the CEO role at Bauer Media. I encourage newsagents to read it.
Nick Chan brought with him hope for Bauer from a newsagent perspective, as the company had a leader with Australian magazine experience, a leader with a good track record from his time at the help of Pacific magazines. However, Chan was at the company too short a time for there to be any benefit from his leadership for our channel.
Bauer needs to get its leadership problem sorted out. It needs to reassert itself as an Australian magazine publisher.
While magazines do not contribute traffic and revenue as they used to in our businesses, they are an important product for us – even with rules around supply and display that have not changed in twenty years and that disadvantage us. One only has to look at the Bauer contract with newsagents to see an unfair and out of date model that hurts magazine sales.
We need to move from the old-school approach as it is not relevant today.
I worry that we will see more overseas content from the Bauer network repurposed in Australian Bauer titles and that we will see more overseas titles distributed here. Either of these moves is not good for us as a country, not good for publishing and, I suspect, not good for sales. I hope that my worry is unfounded.
Australians like magazines, they want to buy magazines. More and more today we see destination magazine shoppers leave the newsagency without making a purchase. The product on offer is not satisfying for them.
Publishers need to understand the medium is not in trouble. Okay, so it is to a certain extent in some segments thanks to what we can access on our phones and other mobile devices. However, people are buying print, when they can find the product that suits them.
We need publishers to genuinely innovate, like plenty of newsagents are by transforming their businesses way beyond what has been traditional for the shingle. It is like they are too conservative, too scared to be radical is chasing a new market.
Take older Australians. These folks are magazine fans. The only launch in recent years close to targeting them is Yours, from Bauer. However, Yours is not targeting the age group I’d target. You only have to look at People’s Friend to understand the opportunity I am mentioning.
There are other opportunities, too, that remain ignored.
I am not ignorant of the costs and risks associated with a magazine launch. However, there are terrific successes here in Australia. Frankie is one good example. Publishers need to approach this with a lean startup mentality. It can be done.
Bauer and all magazine publishers in Australia need to look carefully at the Australian marketplace. They should look particularly at what people purchase in newsagencies, as our channel presents more opportunities for a bright future for Australian magazine publishers than supermarkets.
Chasing online sales, using Twitter just now.
This from the company that says it promotes its retailers on social media.
Bauer Media announced this morning the appointment of a new CEO:
BAUER MEDIA GROUP APPOINTS PAUL DYKZEUL CEO OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
21 JUNE, 2017
Bauer Media Group have named experienced media executive Paul Dykzeul as chief executive officer of Bauer Media Australia and New Zealand.
Dykzeul is currently CEO of Bauer Media New Zealand and has significant media experience across Australasia, Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan, the UK and South Africa.
Andreas Schoo, executive board member of Bauer Media Group said: “I’m delighted Paul will be leading Bauer across Australia and New Zealand. Having worked extensively across both markets he understands the challenges and opportunities which exist for multi-platform magazine brands in this evolving environment. For the past nine years, he has built a strong and innovative media business and is ideally placed to bring that thinking to Bauer Media Australia.”
He replaces Nick Chan who has left the company. Schoo added: “I want to thank Nick for the work he has done in helping to position the business for future growth and wish him the best in his future endeavours.”
Dykzeul has been CEO of Bauer Media New Zealand (formerly ACP Magazines) since 2007, returning home after spending 11 years in Sydney. During his time in Australia he held roles as director of international business and publisher for ACP. Prior to that he was managing director of Murdoch Magazines before moving to Pacific Magazines in 2000 where he held the position of director of international licensing and operations, and publisher.
Leading a team of 300 people he has grown Bauer Media’s New Zealand operation which publishes many of the country’s most iconic magazine brands from popular culture through to special interest and premium current affairs. It is also one of the fastest growing digital publishers and is highly awarded across advertising, content and digital.
Speaking on his appointment, Dykzeul said: “Across print, digital and events, Bauer Media has the strongest portfolio of leading magazine brands that connects audiences with our commercial partners at scale. I look forward to returning to Australia and working with the dedicated team to build and expand on those strong foundations.”
He starts in the role immediately and will relocate to Sydney in due course.
Three weeks ago I got to see the latest toy category performance data for Australia. It makes for interesting reading. I was particularly pleased with the result achieved for games and puzzles as this is a segment we embrace.
More and more newsagents are realising they can compete with then old-school specialty retailers in a range of market segments, including toys where games and puzzles usually reside.
Games and puzzles are a natural fit for our businesses if you think about it. We are the largest retailer of crosswords in Australia. Our everyday customers like games too. So, as I note, games and puzzles are a natural fit for our businesses.
It surprises me that newsagents don’t active embrace the games and puzzles segment. Some do, but not the majority.
There are five or six key suppliers in this space. I know because of my work with newsXpress they are engaged and supportive. The opportunities for attracting new traffic through games and puzzles is terrific.
In one of my store we will do more in the games and puzzles than stationery this year. While the buying work is tougher and has more risk, the reward is far greater.
Through our buying and ranging we we can reset how shoppers see our businesses. The games and puzzles segment is one way we can do this, one way we can through products reach shoppers who might otherwise not visit our businesses. Of course, this only works if we promote the new range outside our businesses.
