I like the kids magazine section of a local WH Smith store I saw a few days ago. It is easy to shop, presents the titles well and handles the considerable gift with purchase challenge so as to maintain order for the display. I think this display approach is one we could learn from.
Click on the image for a larger version.
Check out the sign bagged with magazines that are considered unsuitable for open public display in retailers in Hong Kong. The person I asked said it was ore likely something to do with politics. I didn;t open to check.
The #AUSPOL Colouring Book by Zena Kells that has just been published looks like a lot of fun. I can see it doing well in selected suburbs where politics is a hot topic. I love the or dart board note on the cover.
For decades the focus of newspaper marketing has been home delivery as it sat at the heart of the economic model pursued by newspaper publishers. Long-term home delivery customers were gold when it came to setting advertising rates. Advertising revenue has been the most important revenue stream to publishers.
That was then.
This is now.
The ad stuck on the front of the Sunday Age newspaper at the weekend was all about promoting six months access on any device, anytime. This is a digital subscription. No sign of a home delivery offer in sight. No support for the print product being used to serve the ad.
I have written here previously that I expect Fairfax to be the first newspaper publisher to retreat from seven day production of a capital city newspaper. On pure circulation numbers it ought to be one or more of the News Corp. dailies in single paper cities. However, in smaller cities there are factors other than circulation that can keep a newspaper publishing. Also, I think News is more invested in not being first than Fairfax.
This ad reflects a change on focus by Fairfax. We need to take notice … today, not next month, not in six mounted, today.
These are other questions deserve consideration and answers. Thinking about this issue and the starter questions I have noted is a positive thing to do. The only negative in all this would be if you did nothing.
I have not written this post to alarm anyone. Rather, it records the fact of the shift on focus of Fairfax marketing – with the hope of engaging newsagents in thinking about retail businesses without daily newspaper traffic.
While the decline in over the counter newspaper sales is not new, too many newsagents are yet to factor this into their business planning.
Rupert Murdoch started talking about the shift in April 2005. Back then, he was considered to be slow to the digital discussion. sadly, he appears to have been an early adopter compared to too many newsagents.
The future of your newsagency with less reliance on newspapers is up to you. Just as Fairfax is clearly planning for less income from print, so must you.
I saw one of the stunning covers of the Star Wars series being released by Empire magazine. Using lenticular 3D technology, the cover I saw popped out of the magazine rack. It truly was stunning. I am not sure what the release plan in for Australia. Based on Star Wars licenced product sales so far, I expect all in the series would sell out if we got them. In fact, I am sure I could sell the whole set many times over – if I could be sure of getting stock. Star wars fans online are raving about the covers.
This is an excellent example of where a magazine can achieve sales beyond average by connecting with fans in a personal and collectible way. It is an example of when the distributor needs a way of identifying those of us with a commercial interest beyond regular magazine sales.
Newsagents is Tasmania have been advised News Corp. is closed for a week, requiring newsagents to store newspaper returns in their businesses. based on past experience that could result in a busy business storage thirty, even more, bundles of unsold newspapers.
Have other newsagents been told of Christmas closures by newspaper publishers?
We processed another phone order in the newsagency yesterday, a sale that we got thanks to a Facebook post. The customer lives interstate and was happy for us to post the item for a small handling fee.
Key to being able to handle this type of transaction is being able to take payment over the phone. Some newsagents cannot do this because they have not made arrangements with their EFTPOS provider. It is easy to do and once setup, you have another method of payment that makes over the phone, email and other out of store purchases easy.
My advice is make sure you can handle payments over the phone and then start to use it.
Customers are everywhere today, often not in your shop. The more able you are to serve them when they are ready to purchase the more purchases you will achieve.
The shop is just one location for your business. Think and act beyond this and compete for today’s shopper. It starts with being able to transact with them.
Australian magazine publishers need to understand that they are all judged by the actions of each other. All it takes is for one publisher to oversupply and there are consequences for others.
I lay the blame with the publisher as they set the print run. This is where what we receive begins. The print run determines what is sent to the distributor to distribute. The distributor may have a contract requiring all copies sent to be distributed.
As newsagents have embraced better IT infrastructure they are better informed. The screen shot below shows the supply and return history for Australian House and Garden. There is no reason the newsagent should have received more stock on the new use. But they did.
I know of newsagents who respond to blatant oversupply by striking back at other titles from the same distributor. I don’t blame them sometimes as they feel helpless to manage cash-flow in any other way.
Take a look at this evidence for Australian House and Garden below from one newsagent for yourself. I am left wondering about the IT infrastructure at Network that allowed this to occur.
What newsagents want is fair supply, to a level that helps them actually make money from magazines. The supply model in the MPA code of conduct does not have settings to enable this. Unless that is resolved, newsagents will have no alternative to early return and cut magazine space allocation.
If we cannot make money from any product it is not worth stocking and any model that forces us to do so would be unfair.
Publishers need to engage on this issue with thoughtful newsagents. Not the ANF as they have shown themselves to be out of touch, to not know what is appropriate for newsagents.
With Oprah in Australia, now is the time to make sure you have O The Oprah Magazine in prime position in the newsagency – if you stock it.
I was at the Oprah event at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne last Wednesday. The merchandise stalls were doing amazing business. People were buying bags, books, t-shirts and all sorts of products with Oprah emblazoned on them.
Now is the time to pitch the magazine.
Check out the backpack bagged with this magazine I saw today. Talk about a challenging gift with purchase to have to display.
I love this tactical placement by the manager of my newsagency this morning as it is bound to drive incremental purchases of Rolling Stone magazine thanks to the Adele cover.
Academic site The Conversation has published an analysis of the impact of plain packaging on tobacco sales.
This analysis is a must-read for anyone interested in the plain packaging debate as it challenges reports we see in mainstream media saying the plain packaging is failing to impact tobacco sales and use. It is also a must-read fort newsagents thinking about the future of tobacco products in their businesses.
National Accounts data just released show that for the 11 quarter-year periods since March 2013, consumption of tobacco products in aggregate fell an unprecedented 20.8%, while the previous 11 quarters it fell 15.7% and in the 11 before that, only 2.2%.
While I understand retailers, including newsagents, will be concerned about the loss of revenue as a result of falling tobacco sales, it can be replaced. It is not as if pressure to reduce tobacco use is new. For years, there has been no evident upside in tobacco for retailers.
Tobacco companies fight the plain packaging legislation, saying it is not slowing tobacco use, claiming illegal tobacco sales are in the increase. However, customs and other authorities say there is no evidence of this.
To any newsagent who asks my opinion I say: stop selling tobacco. Your business will be healthier and probably better off as a result of the healthier decisions you make. It is better to quit products on your own terms than getting out late in the play and with a cost to the business.
If your newsagency would not survive without tobacco sales – work on your business urgently, introduce new product categories that attract new shopper traffic. If you do not do this, tobacco could/will lead to your closure. Even if you are making good money from tobacco today, working now on a replacement is vital.
News Corp. in South Australia has a new promotion, giving away a adult colouring book. The giveaway is okay except that the free book promotes a range a colouring books saying they can be found where all good books are sold. This pitch neglects to note the range can be found at good newsagencies. Given that newsagents are running the promotion for News it would have been told to see the channel mentioned in the promotion. A lost opportunity.
The Sunday Age today has a house ad stuck over animate for their page one story in the newspaper – pulling focus from the story that should be selling papers. Again, news takes a back seat.
The Sunday Herald Sun today is more interested in making money from a stock on McDonalds ad than the top story of the day. Another sad day for news coverage by newspapers in Australia.
Plenty of newsagencies have drawers under card fixtures into which they, or their card merchandiser, place cards for storage. The only card stock that should be in drawers is stock you will take out to sell before the next delivery from your card company.
Do not allow your shop to be a warehouse for greeting cards.
Taking a range down for Christmas or some other season is not smart business as you are left carrying stock that you cannot sell – the last time I checked, customers do not look in drawers when looking for a card.
To card company folks reading this, selling product to newsagents only benefits newsagents when they sell the product. The best supply model is one where inventory is in the shop for the least possible period of time.
What do you sell that you love to engage with yourself? Is there a particular magazine you enjoy reading? A particular pen you like to write with? A calendar you like so much you take it home? A newspaper you start the day with? A range of cards you love to look at and read because they inspire you?
Think about the product you sell that you enjoy and write about it on your business Facebook page and elsewhere.
Personalise your business through connecting what you enjoy with products you sell.
The more connected people feel with you the more they will trust you and trust sits at the heart of every business transaction.
This wall of Eclipse gum in a Woolworths supermarket in downtown Sydney is not pretty, nor is it meant to be. It is impactful though. It stops you – well, it stopped me, and that has to be the first goal of any display: to get shoppers to notice, stop and look at the product. That is what I did – before I realised it. The placement worked on me.
The display has been placed in the Woolworths in Sydney to grab your attention. It works.
My retail newsagency management tip today is to display to interrupt. Displays do not have to be pretty to be effective, especially shop floor displays in locations that see plenty of traffic. High traffic locations are better for displays that disrupt – like this Eclipse mints display.
Customers don’t hesitate to let us know they love charity supporting Christmas cards. Many ask specifically for these, often mentioning charities by name. Having a good range of charity related cards is essential for good Christmas trade.
While newsagents have had access to charity cards for many years, most tend to not engage with the opportunity other than putting product out for purchase.
I have been using my newsagency Facebook page to promote the connection and shoppers have responded well.
Newsagency marketing group newsXpress released a short video promoting the Hallmark Christmas boxed card range and their support for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. The video has been provided to newsXpress stores for their use on business Facebook pages and sharing beyond these. It is another way of connecting the Hallmark brand, the NBCF and newsXpress stores.
We have decided to not play Christmas carols in-store this Christmas. Being in a large shopping mall where shoppers are assaulted with Christmas carols in most stores and in the mall itself, we decided to provide an oasis of relief for our customers. Some have noticed and appreciated the move.
While we have Christmas visually reflected in our visual merchandising and products on offer, not broadcasting back-to-back carols makes for a better environment I think.
I heard of a newsagent who takes out the ‘free’ magazines bagged with others and sells them in a value pack of their own. Products which ought to be trashed, based on the agreement with the supplier or returned if not sold, is being offered by the newsagent for 100% profit. This behaviour impacts on the reputation of all newsagents.
I shake my head sometimes…
I love the cover of the latest issue of Cosmos magazine. It is visually stunning and certain to result in browsing of Cosmos by people not familiar with it. This is the key role of a cover – to get someone engaged with a title. Browsing is essential to impulse purchases.
I think this cover of Cosmos is perfect.
We have placed it next to newspapers.
Right now, in the middle of Christmas, is the right time to make changes in a busy newsagency.
While this may sound crazy, it is good advice for one reason – you have very little spare time to allocate to changes. This will guide you to make faster decisions, it will focus you to act.
The types changes I am talking about include: product location in-store, re-allocation of floorspace to one or more departments, bringing in a new supplier, quitting a supplier, completely changing how you use your counter. These changes benefit more from action than planning as action leads to engagement and data from this can guide your finessing of the move.
Making changes through the busy Christmas period will see you be more efficient in your time management. Too often I see decisions and changes over-thought, to the point of losing value for the business. Acting now when you are even more time-poor will force you to decide sooner and act efficiently.
Making changes now can provide you with more options if you are relying on external service providers as most retailers don’t make changes now and the services providers are less busy.
Try it next time you think – I’ll think about that after Christmas or after Back to School. Think about it now. Act now.
In this marketplace where every sale is cherished and where we feel the impact of structural change daily, change is vital to our businesses. Change only occurs when we act. Putting off acting says your business does not need the benefits of change today.
I am repeating this video from a few months ago as this question is the most common question I get from people considering coming into our channel.
The latest issue of That’s Life magazine is ideal for promoting in the newsagency as a suggested add-on purchase thanks to the free Christmas gift tags that come with the magazine. Try it – make the up-sell offer at the counter, make this issue a sell out by offering it to customers who otherwise may have not considered the purchase. Do nothing and your sales will be average.