buying a newsagency

Reading the comments at my recent post on flat retail sales got me thinking about practical ways newsagents could turnaround their retail businesses. I have put together a few ideas below which are a mix of basic business advice and out there crazy ideas. They are offered as thought starters.

If your newsagency sales are flat and you are doing the same things today that you have been doing for the last year it is not good enough.

Business will not come to you. You have to go out and find it – often through a series of small steps as opposed to a big bold move. You have to obsess about presenting a compelling offer to everyone walking through your door.

Different businesses are approaching the tough retail conditions differently. Take Myer. I heard CEO Bernie Brooks speaking the other day and he made it clear that they remain committed to their discount policy for now. Price appears to be working for them as a point of difference and while they don’t see it as ideal, that it is working in a tough market sees them sticking to is.

Price is not a point of difference option to newsagents – not across the board at least. Australian consumers expect us to be expensive. That has been shown in plenty of consumer surveys. Railing against this is a challenge. We can do this for some categories and at seasons but not across the board. Ink is a terrific example where we can promote on price – it is a key driver of the success we are having with that.

Other retailers focus on a unique range as their point of difference. The mix requirements of our shingle make that a challenge.

Here are some tips for newsagents on responding to flat sales:

• Refresh the counter. Most newsagency counters look the same today as they did a year ago and beyond. Create something different and fresh. Take everything off and rebuild the counter with the purpose of selling product on impulse. Make strategic choices. Develop a plan for moving products through the counter – it may be a magazine next to a register this week, a candy bay next week and some cheap pads the week after. Have an impulse offer at every high traffic touchpoint. Once you have created what you think is a better and more business focused counter, look at it critically as a customer would. Is it the best you can offer? Monitor your results. If the changes have not drives a sales lift, do it all again.
• Refresh the window. Look at your shop from across the street or the mall. What do passers-by see? What are you selling? What is compelling about your business form the window? If the answer is not obvious then take everything out and off the window and create a compelling story which draws people to the business. Let people see why they should browse your shop. A full and busy window is all to often a barrier to the business.
• Refresh the shop. Change change and change. Move departments and categories. Make the shop feel fresh to regular customers and to your team. Make strategic choices about what products go where. Use dump bins for specials. Place impulse products next to high traffic products. Once you have undertaken the big moves, create a plan for continual change each week. Change shows that the business is a, living and breathing thing. It can make the shop appealing to new visitors. Newsagents who don’ change their business reinforce that the model is a retail dinosaur.
• Refresh the team. Let your team know than business is tough. Ask for their ideas. Take some time out of the business to relax over a meal or drink or some other social activity (mini golf, go kart racing, fishing, bushwalking) and share an adventure outside the business. Sometimes getting away like this can get creative juices flowing about changes which can be made back at the business.
• Ask suppliers for help. If your business is slow it is likely that your suppliers are finding it slow too. Ask them for some good value deals – not the stock they can’t sell but the stock they have plenty of and which sells well. If you can get some of that for a good discount you can pass this on and offer good value impulse opportunities. Talk to suppliers about visual merchandising opportunities too. I know one newsagents who did a brilliant window display for shredders – thanks to supplier support. The store ways around security. He sold plenty. The supplier was thrilled. New traffic was generated. Ask suppliers for suggestions – they are a source of excellent ideas.
• Lure customers back. Look at the top selling items in your newsagency. Create a strategy for getting these customers back. Create a small flyer offering a discount on something if they come back in, say, a couple of days. Do this for newspapers and or lottery tickets. Have a small flyer saying – As a valued customer come back within two days and you get 25% off a greeting card purchase. Make it look life a gift card or a coupon. It has to look like it has some value. Put the works THANK YOU across the top. Date stamp each one. Track how many you give out and how many come back. Newsagency point of sale software can automate this process of handing coupons with sales.
• Create an event. Look at your magazine sales and in particular the segments which sell the best. Let’s say you sell plenty of craft magazines. Consider running a craft day when you get an expert on a craft topic and promote that you will have a free in-store demonstration. Local clubs are happy to provide an expert for free as they can recruit new members. I know of a newsagent who once gave over part of the shop to a model train club – they had over 100 people in. The flow on buzz was fantastic. Don’t run an event like this once. It could be quarterly with a different subject each time.
• Get in the newspaper. Seek out ways to help local clubs and groups. It does not need to cost a lot. Support could be more practical than financial. Maybe the shop could become a hub on a local issue – a place where people can go to sign a petition on an important local issue. Get in the local paper and get known for your community connection.
• Run an event. Have fun. Get the community involved. Create an event based on what you sell: a paper plane competition, a papier mache local attraction model competition, host a bake off from a cookbook you sell, run your own Project Runway event to find a local fashion designer or run a cute baby contest. Any idea which connects in some way to products you sell is fair game here.
• Connect with the community. Go to community clubs and offer a discount to members and a rebate back to the club for business their marketing efforts on your behalf deliver. This is easy to setup and manage. The more people you have in the community saying to their friends that they should shop with you the better.
• Ode to you. Run a competiton to find the best poem which reflects why your newsagency is important to the local community. Get the finalists in to read them live and get your customers to vote. Maybe the local newspaper will run the winner?
• Crazy ideas. Think outside the norm. Nude day has been done so has the underpants idea where customers get a discount for shopping only wearing underwear.

Stop talking about it. Yes, retail is tough. Talking about will not improve your situation. Doing something is better than talk.

The ideas in this blog post are offered to get newsagents thinking of ideas which are appropriate to their businesses.  It would be easy to dismiss them and say there is nothing new there.  Maybe not.  But what are you doing about tough times in your newsagency?

Change is oxygen to any retail business regardless of its current sales health. Doing nothing in tough times will make the tough times tougher for you.

Personally, I am optimistic about the future for newsagents.  There are enough good operators who enjoy embracing change for the channel to have good prospects.