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Facebook advice for newsagents

I have been sharing advice here and in workshops for newsagents about Facebook for years. Smart newsagents have an engaging page, or pages, with fresh local content designed to reflect their business more so than brands they sell.

Facebook remains the most cost effective way to reach new traffic shopper opportunities for newsagents.

If you do a search of this blog you will find plenty from me about the Facebook opportunity, including this advice on how to use Facebook to market your business, which I have updated for this post:

Growth in the number of likes for your business Facebook page(s) is as important as growth in shopper traffic through your front door.

I see a direct correlation between the two, if you use Facebook well. Of course, if is the important word in that statement.

I have been actively using Facebook for business for many years. It is an excellent platform of reaching new customers and talking with existing customers. It is an important tool in business growth.

HOW DO YOU GET MORE LIKES ON FACEBOOK?

This is simple, provide good content, content that gives people what they come to Facebook for – entertainment, inspiration, a laugh. The more you do this the more your post will be liked and shared. The more likes and shoes the more people you reach.

Growth in likes for your page begins with your content. If your page likes are not growing, look at your content.

While you can ask people to like your Facebook page, resulting likes may not be as valuable as those who like your page of their own accord.

You can also buy likes. That, however, is a waste of money.

HOW DOES A BUSINESS USE FACEBOOK WELL?

Businesses that use Facebook well entertain. This can be by making people laugh, smile, feel emotional or be happy overall. They do it by being human, real and engaged. They do it by not trying to sell. They do it y not being commercial.

Photos are real, not studio shots, showing products in use more so than on the shelves. They show customers, happy customers.

They share something of themselves.

A newsagency uses Facebook well by not writing about products newsagents sell.

Remember, you have seconds to get their attention, to stop them from scrolling ahead. Seconds.

  1. Photos should be taken by you, of a single product. A photo of a wall of products is a waste of time.
  2. Videos work well, showing how a product works.
  3. Don’t primate lotteries as that limits your age reach.
  4. Only rarely promote product readily available elsewhere.
  5. Add value in your posts, local info and more.
  6. Make fun of yourself.
  7. Be personal.
  8. Do not engage a social media consultant – they are a waste of money and most likely will not understand your business and the customers you can attract.
  9. Post often.
  10. Do not obsess about your numbers.

HOW DO MORE LIKES OF YOUR BUSINESS TRANSLATE INTO MORE SALES?

Someone engaging with your business Facebook page is similar to someone browsing your shop. Both can lead to sales.

People being on your page and engaging with your page brings them close to you and proximity = sales.

The more people who like your business Facebook page the more people you can pitch and offer to or reach out with an event or product announcement, them more people who will hear what you have to say.

Take Facebook seriously as a key business tool. The benefits are real and valuable.

7 likes
Management tip

What not to do in your newsagency business website

I am seeing some newsagents make a basic mistake with their business website by making the site an online version of their shop.

I think this is a mistake.

My advice is to make your online presence different to your shop. Buy all means sell some of what you sell in store, but present it differently, probably best done without using a newsagency name.

Being online is an opportunity to find new shoppers, shoppers who might otherwise not shop in a newsagency.

Being online is vital in small business retail today. However, be smart, engage with shoppers in unexpected ways. through windows they would not usually apostate with your business.

Look at your website as a separate business, a place to play. a place where there contractions of being a newsagency don’t exist.

By all means disagree if you like. I share this advice based on years already in this space with several single retail store websites trading successfully out of my shops but using styles and presences that are not immediately identified with the shops.

10 likes
Newsagency management

Two questions for Victorian newsagents

  1. Has there been an increase in newspaper bulk delivery mistakes to your business?
  2. Are you happy with the process of resolving bulk newspaper delivery mistakes?

I am asking for a colleague who is frustrated by an increase in mistakes, lack of responsibility for them by publishers and a failure to make good.

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Newspapers

New York Toy Fair 2019

The New York Toy Fair is a terrific trade show to visit to gauge what will be hot or not in the next year as we can see the plans suppliers have for existing and new products. It is also a terrific place to catch up with Australian wholesalers, to talk about what you are interested in, to inform their own buying decisions.

Toy Fair in New York this year has been that and more. With the (broad) toy category playing a growing role in our businesses, tapping into market intelligence before it hits Australia and before it is filtered by suppliers is valuable. That is my experience at least, having been to the New York fair for a few years.

It i alas valuable for discovering products and suggesting them to existing Australian wholesalers and providing retailer context as to the local opportunity.

I’d say the outlook for the category is strong. There are some cool trends for 2019 and extensions for popular brands and segments this year.

We will see some of this at the Toy Fair in Melbourne in a few weeks and at events later in the year.

One broader trend that is appealing is the speed to Australia of launches we see in the US. Whereas in the past there could be a delay of a year. Now, thanks to better planning and jumping on the back of US production runs, we see trend opportunities much faster.

I am speaking at the newsXpress national conference in Sydney later this week. That is where I will share specific product and brand insights from the New York Toy Fair.

7 likes
Newsagency management

Advice on social media engagement with staff in small business retail

With social media accessible 24/7 it is important that your employees understand your expectations. My advice is you share this with them in-store as well as on social media:

While we may post information on social media and ask questions through messenger apps  outside your usual work hours, we do not mean to intrude on personal time. Nor do we expect or ask you to engage whatsoever on business issues outside the time we pay you for.

By doing this and repeating it every so often you could be establishing a  line of defence should a relationship turn sour and you find yourself on the other side of a Fair Work claim relating to pay for time worked outside usual hours.

The message also establishes your expectations, so both sides are fully aware. This is better than assumptions based on unwritten positions.

This issue has been on my mind over the weekend following hearing about a retailer who is being pursued by a former employee for a claim of overtime payment relating to regular Facebook Messenger questions outside of work hours. The owner of the business worked elsewhere and the only time they had questions was after the shop closed. They did not expect them to be answered outside of regular hours. However, they did not make that clear.

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Newsagency management

Easter marketing tips for newsagents

I have revised previous Easter marketing ideas that I have published and offer revised content here for early advice on marketing your newsagency for Easter:

  1. Have fun. No matter what you do, make sure it involved fun.
  2. Promote gratefulness. Easter is a good this for people to be grateful for what they have, family, friends. It is a good season to put a stand of Thank You cards next to Easter cards.
  3. Show appreciation. Without being overt, appreciate local people who matter to you and to your business. Your appreciation of them on your business Facebook page is a terrific way to connect with appreciation in the lead up to Easter.
  4. Do good. Collect for something during the season. Given the animal theme of so much Easter product, maybe a local animal shelter.
  5. Promote reconnect with a friend – send an easter card. Give people a reason beyond the season itself to send a card. Offer a discount: but a card and get 25% of your next. Alternatively, offer to post an Easter card free for any customer.
  6. Give rabbits a discount on a set day or days. Give a doubt to everyone who presents as a rabbit. Promote it widely – get the local paper in for a photo. Make the discount worth it for them dressing up.
  7. Have a festival of tastes in-store. Invite customers to bring a plate of Easter traditional food to share with others.
  8. Invite a wall of stories. If you have a wall available, cover it with paper and invite your customers to write or draw what Easter means to them. this makes the season more interactive.
  9. Have an egg eating competition – who can eat the most in 30 seconds.
  10. Offer free fried eggs one or two mornings for a gold coin donation to a local charity.
  11. Make a giant papier-mâché egg with things you sell (old newspapers, coloured paper, paint). Go big, I mean really big. Taller than a person. Let the kids paint it. Make it a local thing for people to come see.
  12. Have an Easter Egg hunt for over 70s. Egg hunts are usually for kids but those over 70 will have a different recollection of the season from when they were kids. Cater to them with a hunt in your shop for tasty eggs.
  13. Respect the season. Easter means different things to different people. Respect this outside of the fun you may have. Be sure about your greeting and that it is appropriate. Maybe include a nice message on your receipts.
  14. Give away eggs. Freely and with a smile! Contact a chocolate supplier and buy in bulk.

Easter is considered by many to be a small season. I see it as full of opportunity and primed for fun in the newsagency. Chase year on year growth.

9 likes
marketing

Management advice on making Saturdays relevant in retail newsagencies again

Saturdays used to be big in retail newsagencies. For many it was the busiest day of the week. Today, Saturdays are okay, but nowhere near what they used to be fort most.

If your Saturdays are not what they used to be you can wallow in that reality or try and change it. My advice is to try and change it. Here are some tips you could consider

  1. New stock. Hold some new stock for unboxing on Saturdays. Let people know this plan.
  2. Declutter / quit. Use Saturdays as the day of the week you quit lines. People who love deals will like your focus on this one day a week.
  3. Teach. Invite people with with special interests to teach / share them in-store on Saturdays. This could include: knitters, those who crochet, scrapbooking, etching, hammering. The objective here is for the shop to be known as a place people can learn basic craft skills.
  4. Host parties. Monthly. Based on brands you sell. A part for each fun related brand.
  5. Play. Make it a day of fun in the shop sampling product and playing with things.
  6. Free cake. Everyone loves cake. Maybe do a deal with a local cake shop to have a free cake to be sliced up at a set time every Saturday.
  7. Draw prizes. If you do a lottery second change draw, draw it ion a Saturday with a bonus for the winner if they are in-store.
  8. New displays. Make it a day of major change, noticeable change, in the shop.
  9. Promote deals, maybe based on a Saturday Savers branding.

What ever you do it has to be about your business as it is the commercial outcomes you are looking for. I mention this so you can focus on what you need rather than what a local group may need / want ahead of you.

Of course, you could do nothing about Saturdays and your numbers in the future would continue the trend you are on today.

8 likes
Management tip

Pitch local offer a book exchange

Book exchanges are popular, again – in all sorts of retail situations including non-book retail. They take little space, require no work and they attract a following.

This photo shows one in the window of a cafe on Swan Street, Richmond. It shows how small a book exchange can be, how it can use space that otherwise may have little value.

Even if you don’t sell books a book exchange can work as it attracts people who like to read and these people could be magazine customers. I suspect they are more likely to be card customers, as opposed to people who do not read or write that much.

My suggestion is to try it, out the front of your store ideally and if permitted. See how it goes.

Sometimes, the best road to a goal is not a straight line. This is how the book exchanges work for retailers I have spoken with. Offering the service pitches their businesses in a different light, it has people noticing them who in the past had not. One retailer told me the exchange attracted an avid letter writer, who had not thought of visiting their shop for stationery previously.

In retail today we need to leverage many ways of attracting shoppers to our businesses. The idea of a book exchange is one. I especially like it for rural, regional and high street newsagencies.

9 likes
newsagency marketing

Late papers anger home delivery customers

How all their efforts and desires to own the customer relationship, newspaper publishers leave it to local newsagents to communicate on late delivery of papers.

The most recent experience of this was a few days ago in Brisbane when the Courier Mail was four and more hours late to some newsagents, meaning that safe delivery during the morning rush was not possible.

In an ideal world, News Corp would be public about the situation online, by text message and elsewhere so that customers know. Instead, I’m told that the only comms to home delivery customers was that from newsagents.

I am placing this post here as the request of one of then impacted newsagents, inviting feedback from others.

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Newsagency challenges

The disconnect for retailers in the Tatts marketing

It feels like social media Marketing by Tatts has increased. I am seeing it regularly, through browsers and apps on devices that are scrubbed of cache history. Each ad pitches in-store. However, that is where it ends. While through each ad you can go to their online store, there is no easy link to local retailers, retailers near my then location.

I clicked buy now on the ad in the image above. Here is where it took me:

If I was a Tatts retailer, I’d want it to also pitch the closest shops open now where I can buy in-store now or soon, based on location and opening hours. It would be easy for Tatts to do.

What Tatts is doing now, by showing in-store as a purchase option on their marketing is ticking a box, paying lip service to their commitment to promote in-store purchase.

A company that genuinely supports its retail network would make finding nearby retailers easier. It would also be clever at using tech to enable the sale of lottery products to local shoppers through websites and Facebook pages run by local retailers. Thereby leveraging local retailers for online purchases, supporting local communities, appreciating the extraordinary investment by local retailers in promoting tatts brands consistently and nationally, often in places the Tatts outdoors marketing could not otherwise reach.

The current in-store text on Tatts marketing is of no commercial benefit whatsoever to Tatts product retailers in my view.

9 likes
Lotteries

New Facebook group for engaged retailers

I recently created a new private Facebook group for engaged small business retailers. There, I will post images from stores across various retail channels and types I visit that I find interesting and / or inspiring. Anyone who joins the group can post. Here is the description of the group:

This is a private group where engaged small business owners can gain inspiration and motivation for evolving their businesses. Our goal is to share retail inspiration we see and to provide context for small business retailers. Any member of the group can post. In doing so, please always provide context. Ideally, posts are not promoting your business but, rather, of awesome businesses you have seen.

Anyone in the group is welcome to post their own content.

7 likes
Newsagency management

The vape market is hotting up

This report, from CNN a day ago, is interesting in terms of getting behind the hype of vaping and into health matters. Vaping has been on my mind recently because of a couple of supplier pitches I have heard about how to tap into this market in Australia. For the record, I have no interest in doing that.

6 likes
Social responsibility

It’s hard for retailers to compete with this pitch

The front page pitch on the Herald Sun is compelling. $1 for 28 days of weekend delivery and digital access. It is a price that indicates how the publisher views the future of their product. One of my stores serves retirement village customers who like deals like this.

It is interesting seeing this front page pitch in the same week we are asked by a newspaper rep to provide a better location in-store for promoting their product. With their now constant promotion to our customers to ditch retail for home delivery, the requested move will not happen.

8 likes
Newspapers

Cashflow management advice for newsagents and other small business retailers

In my work with newsxpress I prepared and shared this cashflow management advice. I share it here to offer an example one type of business advice (of many) provided by newsXpress and for the advice itself.

CASHFLOW ADVICE FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION. 

In it’s simplest form, cashflow management is about ensuring a business has the cash necessary to meet its obligations and, hopefully, build reserves for the owners.

Good cashflow management starts with the understanding that this is your business. You sign the lease. You sign up for any loans. You hire, train, motivate, manage and, maybe, fire the staff. You choose what you sell. You set your prices for most of what you sell. You control how the shop looks. You manage the promotion of the business outside the business. Yes, this is your business.

The cashflow of the business is a product of your choices.

It is critical for every business owner to own their business cashflow performance. Blaming others or external factors is a cop out. harsh as it is, that’s the truth.

MANAGING CASHFLOW.

This list is ordered by priority.

  1. Budget. Have one. Until you do, do nothing. This is priority #1. The budget should include an inventory spend allowance, so you know what you can spend. Plan the budget for the business to be profitable / viable without the need for agency to support it. Business budgeting should involve provision to grow savings / emergency funds without having to borrow / lifestyle choices / exit strategy if you cannot sell the business.
  2. Funding. Before you borrow from any source, get advice as to the appropriateness of this funding. Too often we see expensive, unsecured, loans taken out at ridiculous interest, to the significant cost and harm to the business.
  3. Shop lease. Only sign a lease you are happy with. Be prepared to walk away at the end of the current lease if the new one offered is not good. Run your business through the life of the lease as if you will not take up a new lease in the same location.
  4. Labour costs. Run a lean roster. $25.00 a day saved in labour costs is like $50 to $75 in retail sales. That is, $15,600 to $23,400 in revenue for a six day week over a year.
    1. Ensure every team member has a role description.
    2. Set business performance targets:daily revenue / revenue per labour hour or similar. It is critical everyone working in the business understands the goals and that they support them.
  5. Price for margin. Understand retail price psychology. For example, $13.50 is seen to be the same as $14.99. So, price at $14.99. By pricing to a higher price point you can discount back or fund a loyalty program that discounts for loyalty. Also, choose .99 over .90 or .95.
  6. Loyalty. Run a loyalty program that focusses on people shopping more often with you. Be consistent in your pitch. Do not waver over the offer. It rewards loyalty, not laziness. The focus on loyalty needs to be whole of business, whole of team in pitch and management.
  7. LayBy. Stop it. Instead, offer Oxipay, ZipPay or AfterPay.
  8. Basket depth. Maximise every touchpoint.
    1. Counter. Always have multiple offers at your counter, offers that are easily purchased on impulse, offers that deepen the basket and make a shopper visit more efficient for you.
    2. Top selling items. Look at what is on either side. Make sure the products are relevant and easily purchased with the popular item.
    3. Exit pitch. Make sure you have a compelling and regularly changed pitch to shoppers as they leave the business.
  9. Inventory.
    1. You control your buying. Not a rep of a supplier ordering on your behalf.
    2. A full shop is not necessarily a good shop. A smart shop is better. This is, one that people love to browse, love to shop. Often in retail less is more.
    3. Consider establishing a buying approval process where more than one person participates in buying decision. The goal is to slow impulse purchases. This could be someone outside the business.
    4. If you doubt your ability ton pay, don’t buy.
    5. Move, move and move. Every day there should be movement of products in the sore to keep it feeling fresh.
    6. If products don’t work, quit them as they are worthless if you put them in storage for later.
    7. Work with suppliers, exploring delayed terms or consignment opportunities.

DEALING WITH A CASHFLOW CRISIS.

A cashflow crisis is when you can’t pay your bills on time or a sustained period of dissatisfaction with the cash reserves in the business.Too often, small business retailers ignore a cashflow crisis, leaving action until it is too late.

Here is our advice on how to deal with a cashflow crisis.

  1. Own the problem. Fixing this is on you.
  2. Bring in outside help. This could be a friend, a financial counsellor. The best person will be someone who understands your type of business who can help you see what you don’t see and support you in tough decisions to be made.
  3. Understand the problem. Know if it is short term or long term. Be certain about the role you have played.
  4. If you run customer accounts, collect with urgency.
  5. Ask the landlord for immediate rent relief. The more transparent you are with them the better. Document your case. Be prepared to show your P&L in support of your request.
  6. Cut your roster to bare bones.
  7. If you have stock on sale or return and it is not selling, return for credit.
  8. Immediately start a sale.
    1. Give it a cool, non scary, name.
    2. Price items to sell, especially items for which you have already paid. Even selling below cost frees cash to the business.
    3. Get everything on the shop floor.
    4. Display to clear. i.e. not pretty displays for sale items.
  9. For inventory that you cannot sell, consider eBay.
  10. Consider selling assets. If you have equipment in the business that you no longer use, sell it.
  11. Talk to all your creditors, apologise, outline your plan, ask for help.
  12. When making progress payments on creditors, respect all with payments. NOTE: small regular payments could be key to you not facing debt collection action.
  13. Act.Every decision, every action you take must work to addressing the cashflow challenge. If you have created a plan act on it immediately. This is not a time to overthink things.
  14. Invest.If your cashflow challenge is because of a decline in traffic, not spending money chasing traffic will only make the problem worse. Spend carefully.
  15. Plan for the end point. This will be either coming out on top or closing the business.

The cashflow achieved by a business is a product of your decisions. Be thoughtful in each decision and single-minded in your focus on a better cashflow outcome.

Thanks for reading. We hope 2019 is awesome for you.

Mark Fletcher
Managing Director
Tower Systems International (Aust.) Pty Ltd
E | mark@newsxpress.com.au.

21 likes
Newsagency management

The local community chips in

It’s the 10th anniversary of awful bushfires in Victoria. Tasmanian communities have been battling challenging bushfires and Townsville communities are dealing with awful floods.

It is in times like these that we see local Aussie communities pull together to support each other and people connected to communities through a shingle, suppliers and more also chip in to help.

We are seeing it this week in the newsagency channel just as we saw it ten years ago in Victoria.

Local matters in good and bad times.

My thoughts are with those challenged in recent days by flooding and bushfires as well as with those confronting awful memories from ten years ago.

6 likes
Social responsibility

We miss the Chinese New Year opportunity

Happy New Year especially to the piggies out there.

While interest in Chinese New Year has grown, opportunities for engagement by retailers have not changed. It is a struggle to find good-fit products. I though this year, the Year of the Pig, might be different. Suppliers with good pig products did not engage.

I like the season because of the community engagement, the optimism and the family celebration aspects. I think these are where we as small business retailers can shine.

Our engagement could start with in-store celebration, to connect the business with the occasion, and it could build from there. In some parts of Australia I suspect you could see more engagement for this than Valentine’s Day.

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Newsagency opportunities

Brilliant Washington Post ad

Here is an ad from The Washington Post, which ran during the Super Bowl. It is an excellent pitch for journalism and trusted news outlets. Democracy dies in darkness.

I note the ABC is the most trusted news outlet in Australia. It is unfortunate its budget has been cut so much in recent years. This matters because of the extraordinary concentration of media ownership in Australia.

10 likes
Media disruption

Newsagency sales benchmark study results beg the question: what is a newsagency?

Core newsagency categories continue to decline while most ‘new’ categories achieve growth. More new categories are emerging too, in more businesses. This is why I ask the question what is a newsagency?

In the data for the Oct-Dec 2018 quarter compared to the 2017 quarter for 149 newsagency businesses I can see more businesses with a sustained gift department than ever before. The same is true for toys. Books, coffee and services are emerging, too.

Whereas in the past I’d see evidence of small engagement in some of these, now I am more likely to see a separate strong department delivering between 5% and 10% of non-agency revenue to the business, seeing the percentage contribution from traditional fall further.

I don’t think it matters at this point that a business identifying as a newsagency strays far from what that type of business once was. More so than the shingle or the self-identified type is products sold. For example, a business with lotteries is, in my view, more identified for that than anything else they sell.

At some point, however, business owners willneed to make a decision about identity.
For the purposes of these studies, I’ll continue to look at this as a newsagency channel, even though there are fewer products unifying the businesses in the channel than ever before.

Here is what I see in the latest benchmark data. Note: Each data point is the average, mean, of all data for the data point.

OVERALL BUSINESS PERFORMANCE METRICS.

  • Customer traffic. Down 1%.
  • Overall sales. Down .5%.
  • Basket depth.Flat.
  • Basket dollar value.Flat.

CORE PRODUCTS.

  • Newspapers. Unit sales. Down 9.5%.
  • Magazines. Unit sales. Down 11%.
  • Greeting cards. Revenue. Up 2%.
  • Stationery. Revenue. Down 11%
  • Lotteries. Revenue. Flat.
  • Tobacco. Revenue. Down 14%.
  • Agency. Parcels, gift cards, betting account top-up. Down 7%.

SPECIALTY PRODUCTS.

  • Gifts. Revenue. Up 4%.
  • Toys. Revenue. Up 3%.
  • Plush. Revenue. Up 4%.
  • Collectibles. Revenue. Up 3%.
  • Craft. Revenue. Up 2%.
  • Coffee. Revenue. Up 13%.
  • Books. Revenue. Up 7%.
  • Calendars. Revenue. Up 9%.

Magazines.
A big hit this quarter is in partworks results with revenue declines of 50% and more. That is to be expected given business problems with partworks in Australia. Weekly magazines lead the core category decline with many reporting 10% and more year on year decline in unit sales. This sits are the heart of magazine challenges in newsagencies.

Christmas.
The channel had a good Christmas overall. Christmas card unit sales were up 2% year on year on average while revenue was up 4% for the same period. Christmas boxed card sales were up 5%. Those who track seasonal gifts separately recorded 10% or more growth.
The results I have seen indicate a better Christmas than data published in news outlets a few weeks ago.

What does this mean?
It was a tough quarter for core categories but a good quarter for non-core.

There are businesses in the study that achieved double digit growth and others with double digit declines across the board.

The decline in traffic the core of papers, magazines, stationery and tobacco is not being replaced with sufficient new traffic. This matter needs urgent attention. Otherwise, we will see hundreds of more closures in 2019.

From what I can see, the newsagents doing best are those in control of their businesses. That is, those who do not rely on reps to order for them and those who do not rely on legacy newsagency channel suppliers.

The occupancy cost challenge continues.
Even in the best run newsagencies, the annual 5% increased in occupancy cost is not sustainable. In today’s market, I think 2% annual increases is fairer as that at least provides retailers an opportunity to keep up.

Landlords need to be aware of the changes in product mix, the challenges of low-margin core products and restrictions they place on what businesses can sell. They need to be flexible on rent so newsagency businesses can be sustained and thereby provide the service they want in their centre.

Looking at data for one store.
To address the point some make, usually people who have failed as newsagency business owners, here are some results for one business. Traffic: down 1%. Revenue: up 5%. Magazines: down 20%. Papers: down 19%. Cards: up 25% (33% of total revenue). Calendars: up 19%. Gifts: up 34% (11% of total revenue). Toys: up 61% (6% of revenue). Average sale value: $14.61, up 9%. Overall business GP 46%. This store is not alone with good numbers.

Mark Fletcher.
Email: mark@towersystems.com.au  Website: www.towersystems.com.au  Blog: www.newsagencyblog.com.au
M | 0418 321 338

10 likes
Newsagency benchmark