We have just finished analysing sales data from 32 newsXpress member shops covering January to May 2026, compared with the same five months in 2025. The headline surprised some members: transactions fell 4.0% across the network, yet revenue grew 4.0%.
The number doing the work is average sale value. Across the network it rose from $20.29 to $21.97, up 8.3%. Customers are visiting less often and spending more when they do. Five shops in the study grew average sale value by more than 15%.
That did not happen by accident, and it did not happen through discounting. The shops achieving it made deliberate range decisions. They added depth in gifts, premium cards and collectibles, and they cut lines that filled shelves without filling tills.
This is the kind of analysis newsXpress provides members at no extra cost. We take point of sale data, benchmark each shop against its peers, and come back with specific advice. Not theory. Specific advice for that shop.
This is curated advice with actionable steps – created for each business, for free. heavy lifting done not only in data analysis but in considering the store location and local economic and social conditions.
Here is an example of what we told members off the back of this data:
- Pull your top 20 revenue lines. Check whether they are growing, whether you are ordering enough depth, and whether they are displayed where customers actually walk.
- Pull your bottom 20 lines by margin. Most shops find at least a handful of space wasters that could be replaced with higher value product tomorrow.
- Stop measuring success by door count. Foot traffic in our channel is structurally softer than it was. Basket value is where the growth is, and it is within your control.
The shops in this study range from large shopping centre businesses turning over more than $1.5 million for the period to small country shops under $65,000. The basket value lesson held at both ends.
If you run an independent newsagency, gift shop or similar retail business and nobody is benchmarking your data against shops like yours, you are flying blind. newsXpress members get this every quarter, with a phone call to talk it through. That is what a marketing group should do.
