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

Magazine sales settling to 2019 levels

Looking at magazine sales in areas not in lockdown in Australia I am seeing sales volumes on track with the pre-Covid trajectory.

While there are some differences between product categories, the majority are on track for decline. Weeklies are especially vulnerable. I expect that now they are all under the one roof, there will soon be significant shake-up as the trajectory from newsagency sales, if reflected across all retail, would be unhealthy for ad prospects.

As has been the case for years, crosswords are strong as are special interest titles. Both of these categories are differentiators for the newsagents who actively engage with them.

While I hope to have the benchmark analysis completed early next week, the magazine situation is interesting because of the planned expansion into Australia Post and the ownership change of Pacific and then of Bauer.

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magazines

Reject Shop card supply challenges

A Reject Shop in a major shopping centre has tons of empty card pockets. It seems an apparent greeting card supply chain challenge for the Reject Shop is unresolved. This would usually be good news for the newsagency nearby but they, too, face supply challenges.

On the one hand, empty pockets show which cards are popular while on the other hand, retailers can’t bank anything from an empty pocket.

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Greeting Cards

Amazon currently has the lowest price for UHU glue sticks

Here is their consumer price, for a 4-pack.

Here is the Spotlight price for the same product.

I could not find any newsagency online with a 4-pack and only a couple with singles, prices at double the Amazon per stick price.

Online is where people price compare. Take UHU, in Australia yesterday, there were 7,600 UHU and UHU related searches online. Our channel is nowhere to be seen in the top 100 results.

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Stationery

Online sales workshop for small business retailers

For my POS software co. I’m hosting another workshop for retailers considering selling online. It’s today @ 12 noon Melbourne time.

This will be a free-flowing workshop, looking at what gets people to websites, what is good design, how to handle freight and the common challenges small business retailers  confront. Here are the connection details:

https://zoom.us/j/99874661583?pwd=RW5NdU9yUlhzaWZSUTdENXBBclJhQT09
Meeting ID: 998 7466 1583 Passcode: 894702

I’ve done 30 or so of these this year. Each one is different because they are driven by questions from people. If you think having a website created fort your business is on the cards, come along.

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Newsagency management

2020 is a good year to embrace the Halloween opportunity

The circumstances of 2020 offer an opportunity to embrace Halloween in a fresh and engaging way. I am seeing excellent early sales, good value sales for the season.

Now, before you say been there done that or it won’t work in my area, it is different this year and the best growth I am seeing is in areas where the season has not been strong in the past.

While you want to sell products, this is a season with which to have some fun. Here are some practical and low cost tips for leveraging this

  1. Get people to dress in costume and offer them a discount for that on the day, October 31.
  2. Wear make-up yourselves.
  3. Run a scary sale and offload things you are struggling to sell. Create bright red bloody signs. Make it fun.
  4. Run a midnight sale or at least a dark night sale – this is another way to get people seeing your shop differently.
  5. Have free bite-size candy at the counter.
  6. Select a spooky playlist on Spotify or your in-store music platform.
  7. Run a colouring competition for kids with a prize for the best and a charity donation to encourage engagement.
  8. Print a recipe sheet and give this away.

These ideas are to get you thinking. Go on, have fun. Boo!

FYI, here is a quick and dirty, unbranded, social media image I made to promote a Halloween sale. It’s designed to get attention and, like all good social media content, be disposable.

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marketing

This is not news

The front page of the Herald Sun today features 2 stories. One is the Brownlow win and the other is typical propaganda. Victorians have demonstrated extraordinary resilience over the last two and a half months of the second wave. We have crushed it and now we see restrictions eased. Rather than celebrate what Victorians have achieved and focus on that news, the News Corp take is negative, on brand for this paper these days. For a newspaper that claims We’re for you, the relentless campaign demonstrates they are not for us. It’s embarrassing to have this paper on the shelves.

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Social responsibility

the Lott (Tabcorp) fails their retail ‘partners’ on Twitter

I’ve taken a look at the posts on Twitter by the Lott (Tabcorp) this morning and it’s clear their focus is all about driving online sales. It starts with the banner for their Twitter space

While I get that as a business they need to promote their business, the pressure they put on small business retailers to promote the Tabcorp business, usually to the detriment of the retailer business, is considerable.

If I was a lottery retailer, I’d like to see Tabcorp more engaged with encouraging shopping in physical retail.

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Lotteries

Check the grants on offer through your local council

Plenty of local councils are offering Covid related small grants to help small businesses with a range of projects. from what I have seen they are easy to get and broad in their application.

  • One newsagent applied for a $5,000 grant to replace the carpet in their shop. It was approved and the carpet goes in next week.
  • Another newsagent applied for $10,000 to install air-conditioning. They were given $7,500 and it has been installed.
  • Another newsagent applied for $5,000 to pay for the development of a website. The website goes live next week.
  • Another newsagent applied for $10,000 for automatic doors. They were given $5,000.

Many councils around Australia are engaged with grants like these. My advice is to check with your council. If they have a Covid related grant, apply – the worst thing that can happen is that they say no.

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Social responsibility

A fraud alert issued by epay this afternoon

The following notice was issued with this advice: We’ve again become aware of heightened fraudulent activity across our retailer base, where fraudsters are contacting sites pretending to be epay representatives (or sometimes a product vendor, the ATO or other Government Department) and requesting that they print vouchers for predominantly cash products such as VPAY, FlexePIN, Paysafe or Neosurf and to read the PIN code over the phone to them or suggesting they need to provide payment for upgrading their terminal or service with epay – other MO’s include advising retailers they’re paying more for the transactions than they should or that there had been ‘issues’ with some products and they need to print some out to verify if it have been fixed. We’ve also had instances where a retailer was convinced that epay and/or Neosurf was closing down, so they’d been tasked with retrieving all unused vouchers (by getting them to print and read the details overs the phone) so they could be deactivated – these scammers change their story often, so past scenarios are not necessarily a good indicator of future ones.

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Social responsibility

Rent relief extended for retailers in Victoria

Newsagents in Victoria need to know that the Covid rent relief measures put in place through the national cabinet earlier this year have been extended.

Click here to access the details of this scheme.

As has been the case since March this year, independent landlords are more likely to be on top of this and providing relief, often beyond what is required, without many barriers. It is the big business landlords, the major shopping centre landlord businesses, that are problematic, late and providing considerable stress for small business retailers.

While the extension of arrangements by the Victorian government are welcome, it would have been helpful for there to be penalties for landlords who stalled the process.

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Retail tenancy

Saturday lotto changes a bit ho hum

I’ve seen sales data from the Tabcorp states for the modified Saturday lottery game and they are flat. While the the dividing 1 prize value has gone up and ticket purchase price has gone up, sales volume was flat.

A newsagent asked me today to mention this here in case others commented. They had expected a sales bump and did not achieve it. They are wondering if they are alone.

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Lotteries

Beware scammers

Several newsagents have told me this week of calls they have received from someone saying there is an issue with phone cards or some other product from their business. They ask to be logged into the computer in the business to fix the issue.

Do not agree to this. It is a scam.

Verify the identify of anyone asking to log into your computer. This is easy to do. Ask for their phone number and say you will call them back. Most will drop off at this point.

Please, tell everyone working in your business. The cost if the scammer getting through could be tens of thousands of dollars.

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theft

Discussing POS software for newsagents

I’m grateful for the opportunity last week to talk with Nathan from my newsagency software company, Tower Systems, about newsagency software and the role it is playing in the evolution of newsagency businesses.

Here is the 31 minute video of the discussion from last week, which looks at some of the software functions as well as newsagency software connected websites newsagents are using to sell online.

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Newsagency management

JobKeeper encourages businesses to keep poor performing employees

A retailer contacted me yesterday with this scenario: three of their casuals are poor performers, too often unwilling to work, making many mistakes at work and disinterested in engaging with shoppers despite encouragement to do so.

The retailer would like to replace them with new employees, three of the many who have dropped their resumes off, keen for a job.

The challenge for the business is JobKeeper. Getting rid of the three poor performers would see the business lose JobKeeper for them and not have access to JobKeeper for three new hires.

The owner has spoken with Fairwork and the answers there are not black and white.

I suggested they performance manage the three dud employees, putting them through a documented process to seek improvement or to at least provide a documented and lawful pathway for their exit from the business.

That employees are able to be paid JobKeeper regardless off whether they actually work is a flaw in the system that needs addressing.

The additional workload and stress on small business retailers because of JobKeeper is an unintendended consequence for sure, but disappointing.

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Social responsibility

Banks closing branches, removing ATMs, hurting small business retail in Australia

Under the cover of Covid, banks are closing branches in Australia and removing ATMs in a shrinking of banking access. There is no consultation with customers, just an announcement or a sign on a front door.

Local bank branch closures are adding considerable cost to small business retailers in Australia.

While many bank branches closed under the first Covid lockdown back in March, plenty of these have since subsequently closed permanently.

In one of my own retail situations, in suburban Melbourne, our local bank branch, which is in walking distance, is closing. We face a 10 minute car drive, which means a roster change to deal with takings banking and disruption if we encounter a change shortage.

The closure of local bank branches makes going cashless more appealing to retailers. Maybe this is what the banks want. The retail network is expensive to maintain in terms of real estate and labour I guess.

While the closure of bank branches in March made sense, the continued closure after that lockdown ended was the first indication that banks were reconsidering their retail engagement.

Adding to the considerable number of bank branches that have closed in Australia, the closure of ATMs is impacting the shopper experience as well as the business owner experience. In another part of suburban Melbourne, one busy shopping street has seen five ATMs ripped out by banks.

Again, in my own experience, a local ATM at which we banked cheques, which are still a thing, has been removed, necessitating a drive as opposed to what was a short walk.

I get that all businesses are reassessing the infrastructure that is appropriate in a Covid and post-Covid (if it ever happens) world and that it makes sense that banks do this too. However, banks provide key services to Australians and local small businesses. They have a social responsibility to maintain these services. The extent of local bank branch closures in Australia will impact small businesses.

Again, in our own situation, for one of our shops, we are opening an account with a bank we have previously not dealt with as they have a branch a few minutes walk away and that is appealing compared to having to drive. It’s not ideal, but it is better than adding to our labour cost.

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Social responsibility

Pop Vinyls continue to deliver terrific new traffic in-store and online

The Funko Pop! Vinyl 2020 Fall Convention Limited Edition range released from embargo Saturday morning has worked a treat, thanks in part of cool social media content, which we made ourselves.

Pop culture is not category that is not for everyone. It requires constant work and has big business competitors. However, it is worth it, especially for the new traffic.

Yes, this is a long-standing newsXpress opportunity – not mandatory though.

What I like about the pop culture category is the diversity of the shoppers, their preparedness to travel to purchase and their happiness to also purchase online. Oh, and their shop efficiency – baskets often contain more than just Pop! Vinyls.

I’ve spoken with newsagents who say they don’t have these shoppers in their area. They cannot know that until they try and find them. It’s impossible to tell who may be a pop culture customer by looking at them.

For this category, it all depends on whether you want new traffic.

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newsagency marketing

Kevin Rudd launches a petition for a Royal Commission into media diversity

Here is the official notice re this petition calling for a Royal Commission into media diversity, which could be called a Royal Commission into News Corp., which was launched by Kevin Rudd half an hour ago:

Petition EN1938 – Royal Commission to ensure a strong, diverse Australian news media

Petition Reason
Our democracy depends on diverse sources of reliable, accurate and independent news. But media ownership is becoming more concentrated alongside new business models that encourage deliberately polarising and politically manipulated news. We are especially concerned that Australia’s print media is overwhelmingly controlled by News Corporation, founded by Fox News billionaire Rupert Murdoch, with around two-thirds of daily newspaper readership. This power is routinely used to attack opponents in business and politics by blending editorial opinion with news reporting. Australians who hold contrary views have felt intimidated into silence. These facts chill free speech and undermine public debate. Powerful monopolies are also emerging online, including Facebook and Google. We are deeply concerned by: mass-sackings of news journalists; digital platforms impacting on media diversity and viability; Nine Entertainment’s takeover of the Melbourne Age and Sydney Morning Herald; News Corp’s acquisition (and then closure) of more than 200 smaller newspapers, undermining regional and local news; attempts to replace AAP Newswire with News Corp’s alternative; and relentless attacks on the ABC’s independence and funding. Professional journalists further have legitimate concerns around unjust searches, potential prosecution, whistle-blower protection, official secrecy and dispute resolution that should be comprehensively addressed. Only a Royal Commission would have the powers and independence to investigate threats to media diversity, and recommend policies to ensure optimal diversity across all platforms to help guarantee our nation’s democratic future.

Here is Rudd’s tweet, which includes a video explainer:

It’s a bold move to take on Murdoch as plenty have found. Personally, I’d like to see the proposed Royal Commission happen. I think it could be helpful for our democracy.

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Social responsibility

Newsagents promoted by publisher of Official Bathurst Program

The publisher of the official Bathurst program has been promoting newsagents on social media, which is terrific to see…

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magazines

2021 Toy Fair to be 100% digital

The Melbourne Toy Fair slated for March 2021, usually a huge event, will be 100% digital next year. It’s good to see this announcement made early, so folks can plan.

This trade show has historically been critical for setting up the year for suppliers, harvesting plenty of forward orders. It has been a perfect opportunity for retailers to learn from first-hand contact about many new products.

This news about the 2021 Toy Fair, coupled with news of redundancies in other areas of trade show world, 2021 looks like a lean year for in person trade show events.

The suppliers who have pivoted to digital trade events and interactive digital catalogues are best positioned to benefit from the uncertainty of face to face trade shows.

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Newsagent suppliers
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