July, 2008 | newsXpress Blog

Creating an ‘ART’ destination at newsXpress Beechworth

The photos below illustrate perfectly the window display at newsXpress Beechworth for the first Canson Create ART promotion. This window merchandising has been fantastic as it has highlighted the new range to their customers who are overall an artistic community.

Customers have expressed to Tracy in the store that they cannot get the beginner pads (watercolour, Canvas etc) cheaper anywhere else. Word of mouth and the letterbox drop of the catalogues around town should get this information around very quickly.

Adapting to suit changing needs of consumers

Brett and Alexandra Carey of newsXpress Deception Bay have done a magnificent job combining two very different promotions and also introducing a new ‘kid’s corner’ initiative.

The Care & Friendship Promotion exclusive to newsXpress through the Hallmark Alliance relationship builds sales by encouraging customers to purchase multiple products in the Forever Friends and Welloington Bear range – the prize a giant 36″ cuddly Forever Friends Bear!

The ABW Mid-Year Book promotion as seen in the photos has proved a great success throughout our network of stores.

And finally the introduction of a ‘kiddies corner’ which encourages greater duration of time shopping the store, while also providing a conscientious and creative local community service.

The Dynamic Duo visit newsXpress Drewvale

The ever popular Diddl and Forever Friends Bear made a special guest appearance at the newsXpress Drewvale store much to the elation of the many young customers.

As you can see from the photos not all the fun was confined to the kids with proprietor Terry Augustine getting in on the act!

A new (stationery) baby for Wagga Wagga

With the entire team of newsXpress Wagga Wagga eagerly awaiting the arrival of Troy’s (Troy Sutherland, proprietor of newsXpress Wagga Wagga) new baby, the newsXpress store support team of Karen and Jeff got stuck into re-planning the stationery department.

It was a very big job but sales are going to increase from the resultant refit and consumer friendly layout.

Meanwhile Troy thought all of his Christmas’ had come at once!

newsXpress Orange lead the way

These are some pictures taken at newsXpress Orange last Monday, Karen is seen pictured with Paul & Maureen Blunden’s cute little grandson son Sam in his very special newsXpress T-shirt!

Great innovation all round in Paul & Maureen’s store, they are great ambassadors for newsXpress!

Success with concurrent promotions

Manni Ribeiro is an enthusiastic newsXpress proprietor. Eumundi is a small market and to excel in a retail business you need to show energy, a point of difference and an ability to adapt to changing needs and tastes.

The following photos show Manni’s store with three concurrent promotions. While some might say this can detract from each event, others will point out that he is trying to maximise exposure and interest in three very different categories. This can not only generate new sales but also encourage multiple purchases across his entire range.

Photos depict the following promotions:

ABW Mid-Year Book Promotion
Create ART Mid-Year Promotion
Care & Friendship Month

Buy in a key to the ‘upsell’

newsXpress Kin Kora are always one of the first to share their great merchandising standards and ideas with the rest of the network and the current care & Friendship Promotion is no exception.

Proprietors Sarah and Ian have been able to convey the promotion excitement to their key team members who have enthusiastically outlined the event to all customers especially trying to upsell product when one qualifying purchase has been made.

Creating some noise with ‘Create ART’

newsXpress Chancellor Park took advantage of the first newsXpress and Canson Create ART flyer promotion by dedicating a specific area of the store for the range.

With the event designed to coincide with school holidays and a high quality marketing flyer distributed to homes in their local market, this newsXpress store was certain to see some very positive results for this ‘new money’ category.

Care & Friendship inspires newsXpress Chancellor Park

newsXpress Chancellor Park witnessed all the great store displays for the Care & Friendship promotion and didn’t want to miss out on the fun! Manager Emma took the camera out today and sent through these fantastic shots of the in-store merchandising.

Understanding the Sales opportunity of Promotions

newsXpress Goulburn have enthusiastically merchandised their store with the supplied marketing materials for the Care & Friendship Promotion encompassing posters; wobblers; decals and the prize itself – a Giant 36″ Forever Friends Bear!

However they understand that in retail substance goes hand in hand with style. In close proximity and surrounding the impressive marketing they have located the vast range of Forever Friends and Wellington Bear product.

The mechanics of the competition require the purchase of any two of the afore-mentioned ranges and making the connection easier for the consumer is simply increasing your chances of achieving the sales to make the hard work worthwhile.

Forever Friends and Wellington land in Wagga

newsXpress Wagga Wagga have supported the newsXpress exclusive Care & Friendship event with this spectacular display at the front of their store. Using the engaging Hallmark Alliance marketing materials they have carefully arranged the range of products in an attention grabbing manner.

Retailers are presented with many seasonal and promotional opportunities, how successful they they are often depends on the store’s willingness to embrace the event and live the promotion in the way the team at Wagga Wagga undoubtedly have.

Refresh your store and add value to your business

newsXpress Goulburn has just finished installing their new Canson Creative Centre and completed a full stationery re-alignment with thanks to newsXpress Category Manager, Jeff Walsh.

The relay not only created enough space to accommodate the entire Creative Centre but also provided the room to introduce a new promotional area near the front entrance for seasonal gifts.

John & Sally Stein are getting new glass shelving and slat-wall fitted immediately and hope to sell much more high margin items as a result of this refit.

Much to celebrate at newsXpress Woden

newsXpress Woden had double reason to celebrate this week with the Hallmark Alliance exclusive Care & Friendship Promotion and the 40th Birthday of proprietor Anthony McCormack.

The team went to great lengths to put the display together and customers enjoyed the event as well as the personal touch.

newsXpress Castle Towers supports Care & Friendship

newsXpress Castle Towers have transformed their iconic front window into a stunning Care & Friendship Display ulilising marketing materials and actual product.

The front of store display uses the giant 36″ Forever Friends bear as the centrepiece of their merchandising. This is complimented by more Forever Friends and Wellington product to encourage add on purchases.

newsXpress Bathurst share their plush secret

newsXpress Bathurst (Chip’n’Dales) does Plush very well, who could resist buying from these displays.

As a new member it is fantastic to see that they are bringing skills to the groups mix thus perpetuating the amazing network tool we have at our disposal.

INNOVATION AT THE NEW newsXpress CROWS NEST

The new newsXpress store at Crows Nest in Sydney is full of new innovation.
It’s worth traveling to, so you can check it out with plenty of new money revenue products on hand. In its first week of trading sales are very strong with new products introduced doing particularly.

Features include: HOT ink!, gifts built into magazine tierage, full face card area, large gift assortments, and an excellent use of space.

With some more refinement, everything should be completed by the end of the month.

newsXpress UNVEILS THE 3M INNOVATION CENTER

In an exclusive partnership with 3M, the internationally renowned world-wide brand, newsXpress will be rolling out nationally the 3M Innovation Center. In working with 3M, the newsXpress merchandise team has negotiated an exclusive package for the newsXpress national network of stores. Having trialled the planogram at seven stores it was given a huge tick of approval by the participating proprietors, because of the awesome sales.

The partnership involves:

newsXpress-3M planogram
Exclusive marketing and promotions
Exclusive supply chain access
much much more…

Another stellar example of newsXpress providing its network with the very best, and working with national brands.

STAGE ONE OF THE REBRAND – HALLMARK CARDS INSTALLED & MAKING A MASSIVE DIFFERENCE

The team at newsXpress Seymour led by Vaughan Lawrence who also own newsXpress Beechworth have just finished stage one of their rebrand to newsXpress. They have completely rearranged the shop putting in Hallmark cards and bringing the cards to the front of the store and bringing huge growth in greeting card sales, Hot Ink! has taken off nicley, installed the Canson Creative center and the cardboard range and culled old money ranges area to fit in a whole lot of new money products. In the next 12-18 months the store will undergo a complete re-fit.

TURNING OLD MONEY INTO NEW MONEY

Its amazing what you can learn from your proprietors. Mike Caffery from newsXpress Albany Creek talks about new money versus old money, a phrase that newsXpress has adopted and which is now it has now turned into a strategy which we are relentlessly pursuing. Have a look at what a difference some clever merchandising has made at newsXpress Wagga Wagga. Yes they still sell newspapers but have been located in a part area of the store.

Books, books and books

Our newsXpress Forest Hill store has grown books into an $80,000+ a year category thanks to the supplier arrangements and supporting marketing materials developed exclusively by newsXpress with ABW (Australian Book Wholesalers). This is an extraordinary success in the first year of a new department. While the shop has sold discount novels previously, they have accounted for around $12,000 a year in sales. To add $80,000 to this with a good margin demonstrates the value of being part of a proactive marketing group which is driving balance across the business. The best part about books is the marketing – this is bringing new customers to the store as well as other newsXpress outlets participating in the promotions.