Month: February 2013

newsXpress facilitates amazing gift fair experiences

newsXpress has hosted an excellent range of gift fair experiences for newsXpress members in Sydney this week.

From the massive gift fair at Darling Harbour to the excellent Home & Giving fair at Homebush and in between, newsXpress has had buying experts available for members – to help them make the most of the opportunity.

newsXpress merchandise experts have also been working with suppliers to negotiate new deals for newsXpress members and to bring new suppliers on board.

Over five days we have been singular in our focus – to strengthen commercial relationships that help newsXpress members make their businesses more financially successful and therefore more valuable.

Member feedback through the events has been excellent. We are all looking forward to banking the result.

newsXpress adds more preferred suppliers

newsXpress last week announced details of several new preferred suppliers in the art and gift related spaces.

The continued enhancement of our preferred supplier portfolio is an excellent point of difference for newsXpress members and well valued by the participating suppliers.

newsXpress preferred suppliers offer excellent pricing off genuine wholesale and not an inflated wholesale. They also bring insights to our members, enabling newsXpress stores to expand ranges and expand their business offerings.

While the preferred supplier relationship is about margin maximisation, it is even more importantly about money in the bank. We prefer to work with suppliers who help us sell more product sooner. cash is king and you only have cash when you see product.

We’re not announcing details of preferred suppliers here as it’s a competitive advantage for newsXpress.

newsXpress cares for the environment

nxinstoreThe latest issue of newsXpress INSTORE, our in-store customer newsletter, shows the commitment from newsXpress and newsXpress members for the environment.

In communicating with shoppers about our business and social engagement, newsXpress is showing care and practical engagement that is unique among newsagents.

In a range of business areas newsXpress stores are practically and consciously caring for the environment. The INSTORE news is communicating this not only to record the good works but to, subtly, encourage shoppers to engage too.

Our view is that we share the world not only for ourselves but for those who come next. Our newsletter offers this broader picture and demonstrates an engagement beyond mere commercial.

newsXpress wins on ink price comparison against majors

newsXpress has undertaken a comparison of the latest ink prices being promoted by the group and several major retailers and, you guessed it! … newsXpress wins on all but two or three products.

Beating major retailers like Officeworks and Big W who claim to offer the lowest prices is a major win for newsXpress and newsXpress members.

The challenge is we don’t have the budget to match the majors to tell the truth – that  right now for ink, newsXpress has very competitive prices on brand name ink.

newsXpress members are engaging with price comparisons locally and showing, in store and in store windows how they are beating the majors on price. This is a great local story – showing these businesses as places to save on an important and needed consumable item like ink.

This is the newsXpress difference.

Great customer feedback for Hallmark / newsXpress promotion

Here is an email just received at Hallmark from a shopper from newsXpress the Gap – expressing their delight at winning a coffee machine valued at $399 at the store as part of the newsXpress / Hallmark Valentine’s Day promotion:

This is just a small note of appreciation that will never show enough how grateful I am for winning the Hallmark Valentine’s Day Promotion Competition at The Gap Newsagency in Queensland.  I am not someone who enters a lot of competitions but when it was offered to me, I decided to participate.  I was, and am still, in complete shock at winning (and very excited as you can probably tell).

The prize, the Lavazza A Modo Mio, is amazing.  I did not have a coffee machine and have never owned a coffee machine.  I won the competition on Friday and have been making coffees all weekend.  I am still not very good at the milk but am determined to get it right!!  My husband says its great coffee.  His work has a Nespresso machine and he says this coffee is better.

My husband’s comment is that it is a gift that keeps on giving.  I bought him a wonderful Valentine’s Day card and now I get to make him wonderful coffee every day.

Again, thank you for everything!  You have one very excited and appreciative customer.

What a great response. newsXpress provides free access to newsXpress Hallmark outlets.

Helping newsagents drive greater success with greeting cards – another newsXpress exclusive

newsXpress continues to lead  the newsagency channel with best practice advice published to newsXpress members covering the management of greeting cards.

This latest advice empowers newsXpress members and their employees to manage cards for greater profit … helping them make even more money from this most important category in our businesses.

Developed entirely in-house and for the success of newsXpress members, this latest advice reflects today’s best practice and delivers to newsXpress members easy to follow and embrace tools to drive greeting card sales and account management.

This is another example of newsXpress actions matching our words … money in the bank for members.

newsXpress delivers bonus margin on ink for newsagents

hotink1newsXpress members have been given access to bonus margin by newsXpress thanks to valuable work by our national merchandise team.

This unexpected move of even better margin on ink is another example of value delivered by newsXpress to newsXpress members, value that is banked in the form of better margin dollars.

HOT ink! is another newsXpress success story – driving traffic and margin dollars.

Connecting with the Easter opportunity

EasterWebsiteBannernewsXpress is helping members and others in the newsXpress community to connect early with the Easter 2013 opportunity through a digital version of our seasonal collateral. Sent to newsXpress members in advance of our physical posters, this collateral is helping newsXpress members to promote easter through emails as well as on social media – in a consistent way in each business and across the whole newsXpress group.

Our Easter collateral is exclusive to newsXpress.

newsXpress hosting a retail tour of Melbourne

newsXpress last week announced details of a retail tour to follow our national conference next month. taking in some key retail locations, newsagencies and non newsagencies, the tour is a free add on to the national conference – giving newsXpress members another opportunity to network, soak up ideas from others and to consider these in the context of the newsXpress experience.

Hosted by newsXpress head office staff, the retail tours will present many opportunities to participating newsXpress members.

This is another way newsXpress helps members build more valuable businesses – by sharing ideas and helping members see opportunities that could work in their businesses. The mix of businesses to be visited has been carefully selected to ensure that each provides takeaways for newsXpress members is city, rural and regional … high street and shopping centre … situations.

newsXpress is a very open group. We research many formats and ideas and share the best with members, leaving members to decide what works best for them. We do not force formats or products on members as each business is different and each owner needs to be able to make local choices.

Brilliant Valentine’s Day display works a treat at newsXpress Wetherill Park

valwetherillThe team at newsXpress wetherill Park has made excellent use of the newsXpress collateral, the Hallmark Lavazza coffee machine gift and their own creative skills to make their shop the Valentine’s Day display in the shopping centre.

The display is even more stunning live than this photo shows. From outside the shop it has acted as a beacon for shoppers and delivered excellent traffic and sales for the business.

Collecting all the key elements together: products, the unique prize, collateral and packaging it in a visually stunning way makes for a winning season.

Well done to everyone at newsXpress Wetherill Park.

Great use of cut-through newsXpress Valentine’s Day collateral

valelinewsXpress Eli Waters in Queensland has been making excellent use of the newsXpress Valentine’s Day collateral and products from preferred suppliers with this and other promotional displays in-store.

By providing landscape and portrait versions of collateral for all major seasons, newsXpress provides members with the opportunity to create displays with more impact – as has been done here at newsXpress Eli Waters.

It is seasons like this that are vital to driving overall GP performance of the business. newsXpress helps beyond collateral – by ensuring easy access to suppliers with deals to drive margin and therefore the overall return for the business. It’s a newsXpress difference … money in the bank.

 

newsXpress says no to major shopping centre opportunity

newsXpress is regularly offered opportunities by shopping centre landlords. Each opportunity is assessed and negotiations undertaken. If the opportunity does not meet our minimum requirements, we do not proceed.

This happened recently with an opportunity in a major centre in Queensland where the store, trading under a different newsagency banner group, is in hard times. We engaged with the landlord, talked terms and eventually said thanks but no thanks this time.

We will not take on a tenancy just for the sake of it. It must work on its own, the numbers must be right.

Sometimes, a smaller newsagency outside a major centre will deliver a far more valuable return than the higher profile business. Our focus is on the size of the return on investment.

newsXpress announces confidential business performance workshop

newsXpress has announced details to members of a confidential half-day business performance workshop, to be held the day following our national conference.

This closed-door session will see a group of newsXpress members share with each other business performance and other data for open discussion on performance and exploration of opportunities.

The purpose of the confidential session is to have members challenge each other, to uncover new opportunities and to take newsXpress member networking to a deeper and more engaged level.

Participation is free and only available to newsXpress members. The event is being held in the boardroom of our office.  Here is the invitation shares with newsXpress members:

On Wednesday 6th of March, the day after the conference, newsXpress is hosting a three hour workshop to discuss business performance. We have room for up to eight people to meet in the boardroom of our Hawthorn office to share their business performance and discuss these with other newsXpress members. Moderated by Mark Fletcher, this will be a confidential under the hood look at the performance of the participating businesses, to learn what we can from each other, and to challenge ourselves. This session will start at 10am and end by 1pm. Participation is free Confidentiality and openness are important for this session to work.

newsXpress members benefit from Nexus platform opportunities

With all newsXpress members included in the Nexus program from Pacific Magazines, we make sure that newsXpress members understand and embrace the marketing opportunities provided. These include the ability to send emails to customers through a professional email service and with appropriate privacy checks and balances.

newsXpress has recently been helping members in the preparation and sending of emails, offering content and advice through the head office and thereby helping newsXpress members to more fully leverage the nexus platform for commercial success.

With newsXpress members having sometimes more than 1,000 email addresses on their database, free professional emails can be an effective way of inviting shoppers back into the business. the newsXpress advice and assistance is aimed at making the most of this opportunity that is freely available to all newsXpress members regardless of size.

HOT ink! rocks … newsXpress members love it

hotink2Here’s the second page of the latest newsXpress HOT ink! flyer, the flyer sent to hundreds of thousands of businesses and homes as part of our latest HOT ink! campaign.

newsXpress members have been sharing stories this week of the success of this campaign … new customers coming in and purchasing for the first time, older customers coming in and buying ink for the first time.

newsXpress has in HOT ink! a consistent and proven ink strategy backed by professional marketing, competitive consumer pricing, good margins and excellent business support and expertise to enable newsXpress members make the most from the opportunity.

newsXpress members running HOT ink! can bank on excellent results for their business through strong support from their customers.

Love is in the air at newsXpress and in emails

ValentinesEmailBannerNewsagency marketing group newsXpress is promoting the season of love, Valentine’s Day, with a professional email banner reflecting the collateral provided by newsXpress to newsXpress members across Australia.

Connecting the in-store collateral with email banners and other customer and supplier touch points in a visually consistent way speaks to the professionalism of newsXpress and the belief in the group about visual consistency.

The Valentine’s Day collateral for the 2013 season has received wonderful feedback from newsXpress members as they proudly place it in store to help drive excellent sales for Valentine’s Day 2013.

All newsXpress members and team members are using the Valentine’s Day 2013 email banner to spread our message of love far and wide.

newsXpress exclusive HOT ink! promotion off to a flying start

hotink1newsXpress members are reporting excellent results from the HOT ink! campaign that has been under way for just a few days.

This latest campaign includes flyers being sent to homes and businesses, email campaigns driven by local newsXpress members and social media campaigns undertaken by newsXpress centrally.

Supported with professional marketing collateral, HOT ink! is loved by engaged newsXpress members for driving traffic and extending the basket in-store.

newsXpress members have advised early excellent sales as a result of this latest campaign, a campaign that has hit at the right time for back to school, back to work and back to uni. The result is excellent traffic and sales growth for newsXpress members.

newsXpress leads on calendars for 2014

newsXpress last week provided newsXpress members with an excellent range of 2014 calendar opportunities, giving newsXpress members a competitive timing advantage in what looks set to be a big year for calendars.

In addition to range, pricing, discount and other information on calendars from several suppliers, newsXpress has also made available expertise to help newsXpress members make more money from calendars, expertise hones over the years, delivering bountiful gross profit results for newsXpress members. this personal, store-by-store advice, helps newsXpress members make the most of the opportunity and go beyond average in calendar performance.

In leveraging first mover advantage, newsXpress is helping newsXpress members not only lock in product but also lock in bonus margin and business planning. Calendars 2014 through newsXpress partners is money you can bank on.

newsXpress cluster meetings next week

newsXpress is hosting cluster meetings in Newcastle and Townsville next week, providing regionally located newsXpress members easy access to networking and business development discussion opportunities.

These cluster meetings are another way newsXpress helps members connect with each other and with newsXpress corporately.

These are not buying meetings,there are no supplier presentations.  The meetings are hosted solely to provide newsXpress members an opportunity to explore and discuss business.

Participation is free.

This is another valuable newsXpress point of difference. The cluster meeting value can be seen by each session being booked out by all members in the region well in advance.