A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Newsagents frustrated to receive Stationery News

I have been contacted by newsagents who received Stationery News magazine today and were billed for a full year subscription – when they did not subscribe.

This has been going on for at lest two years – newsagents being sent the title, unsolicited, with a charge to their magazine account with the distributor.

It takes time to fix and causes considerable frustration. Yet, no seems to be able to fix it permanently.

The experience is another magazine supply frustration that takes newsagent attention away from being better retailers.

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magazine distribution

Better planning needed to leverage new titles

While I like Yours Retro, it is a pity there was not better advance communication well in advance so we could factor this new title into a broader retro display is we wished.

Whereas in the past a magazine launch would work in isolation, today it needs support from outside the category and engaged retailers can do that thanks to access to a broader range of products.

To support Yours Retro we have access to a wonderful range of retro products, including products for the era featured on the cover. However, leveraging such an opportunity takes time. Also, it has to be part of the marketing calendar. Not engaging us in advance loses the opportunity.

All magazine publishers need to understand where they fit in our world today. Whereas in the past the magazine was the destination purchase most of the time, that is no longer the case. Retailers get that. Plenty of us look for opportunities to support magazines in broader marketing initiatives in our businesses.

I get that publishers want to keep launched under wraps until the last minute. However, doing this denies and engaged retailer the opportunity to engage beyond doing only basic stuff.

Magazines are different for n newsagents and supermarkets. Where supermarkets see the magazine as a basket extension, newsagents have the potential to be more engaged. Achieving that requires publishers to be more engaged, beyond posters and a display competition as those things are so yesterday.

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magazines

Vale Ken Murphy

Ken Murphy, former CEO of the Queensland Newsagents’ Federation, has passed away while overseas on holiday.

For many years at the QNF Ken was a fighter on behalf of Queensland newsagents. He was outspoken on matters of industry unification, poor national leadership and the Bill Express disaster that cost newsagents tens of millions of dollars.

After Ken left the QNF the weakened organisation failed to serve newsagents and it ultimately merged with the ANF. Those years after his departure reflect the loss of Ken’s service on behalf of newsagents.

Regardless of the side you took on any matter with Ken, you knew he was fighting for what he felt was right and fair for his members. Ken was missed when he left the QNF and will be missed more so on the hearing of this news.

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Leadership

Magazines work on the back wall of the business

Last week, just before Easter, we moved the magazine department from the body of the business to the back wall. Not as punishment, not out of frustration. No, we moved them as a result of careful thought and analysis and consideration of other uses of the magazine fixture we had on the shop floor.

At the back of the shop we have room for a more enjoyable shopper experience, more space to browse, more titles with full cover display, deep pockets to hold more copies of a title and a bette tier age solution for seeing the whole range we have in store.

The biggest challenge of the move is the need to draw people to the back of the shop. We are making that easier with good sight lines, good lanes to the back of the shop and clear signage.

We already had half our titles on the back wall, now we have all of them there in a more consistent display.

This move is the first of a series of shop floor moves that will enable us to expand in a couple of net new traffic driving product categories. It is like playing with the kids puzzle where you move plastic squares around to make a picture. The picture we have in mind is fresh and fun.

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Uncategorized

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

Having fun in retail is a key marketing activity for any retail business

Show don’t tell is true in retail. Go to a Lush soap shop and you are given a wonderful sensory experience. Go to a good toy shop and you’re encouraged to play. Go to a good book shop and there are couches where you can sit and read.

Engaging with products is the best way to promote them. This is why I say have fun. The fun comes from you and your team enjoying what you sell, having with the products yourselves in the business.

There are many items in good Newsagency businesses today where we can have fun, even in the traditional products we sell.

  1. Put a newspaper on a small table with chairs for people to sit and do the crossword.
  2. Do the same with a crossword magazine.
  3. Start a Better Homes cooking club and invite customers to bring in a treat they made from a recipe in the magazine. This could be a fun monthly feature.
  4. Always have a sample of candy you sell.
  5. Have toys kids can play with.
  6. If you sell jigsaws have one out people can do.
  7. If you sell toys, have a particularly fun toy out and encourage kids to play.

My point here is engage with your products, move from being a shopkeeper to being an engaged retailer who embraces products in the shop for your fun and for the fun of your customers.

You will make more money by engaging with what you sell.

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Management tip

Old issue of Tiger Beat sent to newsagents

The December 206 issue has just ben sent to newsagents with a recall date of Week 5, 2017. Hmm, that has passed. The newsagent who sent me a photo tells me it is a reissue. The dates alone make this problematic for Gotch. Their system should have stopped this from happening – unless there is something we are missing here.

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magazine distribution

Sunday Newsagency management tip: don’t take cards down for seasons

I don’t see the sense in removing cards from the card department so you can put up a seasonal range.

You can’t sell cards from a draw or a box in the back room. In those locations it is dead stock.

My experience is the best location for seasons is on impulse purchase stands, at the front of the shop … pitching the seasonal opportunity to shoppers visiting for some other purpose. Oh, and a carefully selected small range at the counter.

Taking everyday or lifestyle cards off a permanent fixture to make way for a seasonal range is harmful and should be resisted.

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Greeting Cards

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

Wonderful response from a publisher of support from a retailer

Check out the terrific public post on Facebook by the folks at Mekong Review where hey talk about wonderful support from a retailer in Sydney.

The compliments are well deserved by the folks at Journals as they have create a genuinely innovative business. Oh, and FYI, Journals is not a newsagency.

The rest of the post by the publisher offers opinion on the distribution model newsagents will find interesting.

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magazine distribution

Enjoy Good Friday folks

Today is a rare day off for newsagents and other small business retailers. Enjoy.

If, however, you are thinking about work, take the time look at your year on year data as this provides the best insights you can leverage for your next steps.

I am looking at benchmark data for many newsagencies and can see this in these detailed data sets.

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Newsagency management

Home Beautiful is the perfect magazine to promote over Easter

Home Beautiful continues to perform well, against the trend of many magazine titles. Easter is an ideal opportunity to shine a light on this title as it responds well to this. My advice is to place it at the counter, with newspapers and next to your top selling weekly – do all these things or one of these things. Doing nothing extra will see you not achieve the sales you could achieve.

Home Beautiful responds to extra effort without a doubt.

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magazines

Why is News Corp. using Blueshyft for a newspaper promotion?

News Corp. sent out a notice to selected newsagents Monday about a promotion designed to sell more newspapers. They appear to be working this promotion through Blueshyft, a company that, in my opinion, is useless when it comes to efficient use and management of newsagent technology. Blueshyft launched Ladbroks into the newsagency channel.

I contacted News Corp.. As you might expect, no answer from them about this.

There is no point contacting Blueshyft as past experience achieved nothing. In the meantime, newsagents are left to consider a campaign that could be been run so much better.

Footnote: if you think this is about my software company, it is not. It is about a publisher engaging people who understand little about smart ways to use technology from various companies in newsagencies to drive outcomes beneficial to newsagents and newspaper publishers.

UPDATE: I found out today that the genius approach from Blueshyft requires newsagents to perform two transactions for this News Corp promotion – on the Blueshyft terminal and on their newsagency software. Yes, truly nuts!!!

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Newspapers

Fairfax Easter bundles

Click here to see the announcement to newsagents about Fairfax Easter bundles. It is a pity that Fairfax does not take software companies up on the offer to create advice in advance of Fairfax advising newsagents. The Fairfax approach creates more work for everyone. Clearly, they care less about getting the right advice to newsagents so they can save time and get it right the first time.

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Newspapers

Tatts refit costs claimed to be a reason for small business closure

Of the five newsagents / lottery agents who told me last week they were closing, three claimed the cost of the Tatts refit requirement was a key factor.

While I think the retailers should have long ago made their businesses sustainable without lotteries, tatts does play a role by demanding small business retailers over capitalise to maintain Tatts products in the b business in a market where punters are clearly migrating online and where other retailers, such as supermarkets and On The Run in SA are not required to make the same investment.

As I have written here many times before, creating a business that does not rely on lotteries is hard work but it is also wonderfully rewarding … and you evolve into a better retailer.

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Lotteries

AFR covers Lottoland challenge

The Australian Financial Review covered Lottoland and moves my Pauline Hanson to act against the business.

The newest kid on the online wagering block, who recently nabbed the naming rights to Manly Warringah’s Brookvale Oval, was back in the spotlight last week – not that anyone noticed. As the Senate plodded its way through laws to rein in foreign-owned betting companies, the First Lady of Ipswich, Pauline Hanson, moved a barely noticed package of legislative amendments designed to outlaw the Gibraltar-based Lottoland and throw a lifeline to the struggling newsagent industry.

I was interviewed for the piece. I wish they had room to write more of what I said as I went into detail of the harm the Lottoland ads are doing in their mocking of small business newsagents and how Tatts as a business is running dead on the challenge.

“Newsagents are furious, but are all too cowed by Tatts to do or say anything about it,” says newsagency blogger and industry spokesman Mark Fletcher. “They’re a tough business to deal with.”

The Lottoland campaign to discredit newsagents is working based on the claimed Lottoland numbers and sales data I have seen for plenty of newsagency businesses.,

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Ethics

Lottoland ad in high rotation on TV

The Lottoland mocking small business newsagents has been in high rotation on TV last last week and over the weekend. So much for their claim they want to work with newsagents. There is no evidence of that. The prize size pitch – $450M in this ad – will lure punters.

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Lotteries
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