Month: January 2010

new moon merchandise a hit for newsXpress members

twilight_poster.jpgnewsXpress members have reported excellent sales from the new moon merchandise we sourced last year.

Between October and December, newsXpress was responsible for excellent sales across our network of the new moon board game, posters, calendars, jewellery and other items.

In many newsXpress locations, the presence of new moon product in-store drove new traffic.  This additional traffic purchased other items and thereby drove better basket efficiency.

The newsXpress new moon strategy has been a terrific success in that it has shown participating stores that we can expand into new product categories in a safe and profitable way and bring in new customers at the same time.

The success is a credit to the newsXpress merchandise team and especially those who identified this opportunity exclusively for newsXpress.

Visiting the chocolate factory

The next newsXpress Victorian members meeting (February 18 at 10am) will be held at the factory of Ernest Hillier in Coburg.  The meeting will be followed by a factory tour and a chocolate tasting or two.

newsXpress is hosting mnor member meetings at preferred supplier locations to provide opportunities for product training (and chocolate tastings).

newsXpress member survey

newsXpress announced a member survey earlier this week and already responses are flowing in.  The survey is designed to provide our back office team with helpful feedback with which to assess the various components of the newsXpress offering including product mix and marketing collateral.

The results of the survey will feature at the first round of member meetings this year.

Responses for the survey are required by the close of business next Tuesday.  We are keen for every newsXpress member to participate.

First round of 2010 member meetings announced

newsXpress yesterday announced dates for the first round of member meetings for 2010.

  • NSW Members Meeting : Tuesday February 16th 10am
  • VIC Members Meeting : Thursday February 18th 10am
  • QLD Members Meeting : Tuesday February 23rd 10am
  • WA Members Meeting : Thursday February 25th 10am

Bookings can be made electronically via our website: go to Contact Us and select Member Meetings. In addition to booking electronically, you can also add a reminder to your Microsoft Outlook calendar.

Non newsXpress members are welcome to seek an invitation.  Please make contact with Ben Kay, our General Manager.

Success with newsXpress calendar strategy

The success achieved by newsXpress members participating in our exclusive caledar strategy this season is excellent.  We are seeing good growth in locations well established with calendars and excellent sales in locations trading in our calendar space for the first time.

The newsXpress strategy delivers calendars with considerably better margin and backed by a marketing campaign which drives traffic and sales.

Core to our calendar strategy is the use of sales data from other departments in store to guide range selection.  Our in-house calendar specialist has used this data to help new locations create a whole new, and highly profitable, department for their business.  We know from experience that each year improves – you can bank on the results.

Exclusive product offer from newsXpress

newsXpress is starting 2010 with an exclusive product offer from a key supplier.  This offer provides newsXpress members with high-quality good-margin product backed by a respected brand name.  The new products fit into a new niche for our channel and thus leverage an excellent opportunity to improve shopper efficiency.

newsXpress has been working with the supplier for most of 2009 on new traffic generating opportunities.  The product announcement on New Year’s Eve is the first initiative from this work.

This is the newsXpress commitment in action: new traffic, new money, brand focused and margin growing.

Back to School at newsXpress

Now that Christmas and New Year are over, many newsXpress locations are busy today creating excellent displays in support of their Back to School campaign.  We support the GNS Back to School campaign and supplement this with our own (GNS supported) newsXpress exclusive Back to School campaign.

Across both campaigns, newsXpress locations are set to enjoy tremendous success from Back to School 2010.  The brochures delivered to hundreds of thousands of homes and the excellent product deals will drive excellent traffic.