Author: mark

I am a Director of newsXpress, a marketing group for newsagents keen for a bright future. You can reach me on +61 418 321 338 or mark[at]towersystems.com.au

Newsagency marketing group newsXpress helps newsagents promote local shopping

NXPLocalCommunityA1The newsXpress newsagency marketing group is proud to have included professionally designed and printed posters promoting local shopping and the connecting of each newsXpress business to the local community in a collateral pack just sent to newsXpress stores.

The supplying of these A1 posters connects with other promotion of local community connection work undertaken by newsXpress earlier this year and in 2012 … continuing a tradition of our newsagency marketing group in helping newsXpress members to remind local shoppers of their community connection.

This wonderful collateral and the overall local community support campaign is one more way newsXpress sets itself apart from other newsagency marketing groups. It demonstrates our understanding of the importance of local communities and their support for local businesses and vice versa.

This is a valued newsXpress point of difference.

 

newsXpress plush initiative reaping excellent rewards for newsXpress members

At the newsXpress conference last month we shared insights and advice from studies overseas on how, when and where to sell plush. Proactive newsXpress members took this advice back to their stores and we have started to hear of the results.

newsXpress members are reporting extraordinary leaps in sales of plush.  Some are seeing sales up 500% in one month.  Others are reporting sales of more than $5,000 in plush in a month where the business was not in plush a year ago.

this is money in the bank for newsXpress members. extraordinary results from proactive newsXpress members on the back of excellent advice from newsXpress.

from marketing to management to excellent buying, newsXpress is delivering results that are making members proud to be part of newsXpress.

Newsagency marketing group helps newsagents promote ink value proposition

Newsagency marketing group newsXpress has sent members additional collateral with which to promote the newsXpress exclusive HOT ink! range of products. Through this collateral, newsXpress members are able to connect visually in-store with HOT ink! catalogues and other promotions.

Unexpected by members and provided by newsXpress for free, this latest ink promotion collateral helps newsXpress members connect with national marketing and to work together, in unity, with newsXpress members.

NXPHotInkA1

These A1 posters are professionally produced to the highest quality for the benefit of newsXpress members and promoting the quality brand name ink we sell.

New newsagency marketing group training video loaded to newsXpress website

nxhownxhelpsnewsXpress continues to load more video training content to the private area of its website to help members get more value from their membership of the group.

This latest video brings to thirteen produced professionally by newsXpress for newsXpress members. Each has been created to help members and their employees to leverage newsXpress insights and knowledge for the benefit of their own businesses. They bring newsXpress national expertise into the local stores.

Accessed via the member area of the website, newsXpress members can watch the videos as often as they like. They can access them from anywhere – providing an excellent resource and positive encouragement for members.

Think Fun products working well for newsXpress newsagency marketing group members

nxthinkfunCheck out the range of Think Fun educational and fun products selling well in newsXpress stores.

Bridging across the toy, gift and educational spaces, these new items make for a nice display on the shop floor.

Grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles are the shoppers for these items. They are an ideal purchase with a greeting card – adding significant value to the card purchase.

newsXpress sources products like this at excellent margin. It then shares advice and information to help our retail partners to turn the product opportunity into cash. No margin is good until you sell the product. there is where newsXpress helps – with advice, insights and support to turn stock so that newsXpress members can bank the results.

More gifts for older giving occasions from newsagency marketing group

nxolderThanks to careful sourcing of preferred suppliers and working with them on various ranges, newsXpress members are enjoying access to more gifts for older giving occasions.

For birthdays, anniversaries, new home, farewell and other occasions for older folks, newsXpress members have access to easy to sell good margin products – products shoppers want but may not come in looking for. They are a wonderful and valuable basket extension.

The newsXpress preferred supplier suite provides access to a broad range of gifting opportunities. These opportunities are lved by members as they are able to serve situations unique to their business.

Here at newsXpress we are not a one size fits all newsagency marketing group.

Newsagency marketing group newsXpress shows brands matter

peppaNewsagency marketing group newsXpress continues to lead in the newsagency channel in the engagement with and leverage of world known brands to drive traffic and shopper efficiency. The latest brand success for newsXpress members is the highly popular Peppa Pig.

Peppa Pig is huge overseas and here in Australia with kids and families. newsXpress saw this early on and engaged with members as product opportunities expanded.

newsXpress has sourced Peppa Pig product and provided members with context information to help them make the most of the opportunity. Great buying, market intelligence and merchandising advice combine to make an excellent financial windfall opportunity for newsXpress members.

This is what newsXpress does … adding value of proven brands to maximise success opportunities for newsXpress members.

More training videos from newsXpress newsagency marketing group

nxhelpNewsagency marketing group newsXpress continues to innovate in training it provides to newsagents and their employees with another video added to our training library. In How newsXpress can help you, we share details of the resources made available by newsXpress for newsXpress members to help them make the most from engagement with the group. The video is further demonstration of how newsXpress focuses on accessibility of knowledge and services for newsXpress members.

Professionally produced, the video is another wonderful resource to help members make the most of the opportunity.

Easter Beanie Ball a hit for newsXpress newsagency marketing group

easterbeanibnewsXpress corporate store newsXpress Knox City is enjoying extraordinary success with this cute little Beanie Ball from preferred supplier Big Balloon. It is the top selling Easter item, selling from the shop floor display in excellent numbers.

Indeed, the success of the Easter themed Beanie Ball demonstrates the value of playing against predictability for a major season. While others at Knox City have big range of eggs, newsXpress Knox City has made Easter about plush and is enjoying excellent sales as a result. It is especially pleasing seeing shoppers walk across the mall to see the display and then purchase.

newsXpress concept store attracts newsagents looking for the newsagency of the future

nxsthlOur latest concept store reflecting a creative, exciting and flexible shop fit is attracting plenty of interest in the newsagency channel. Plenty of newsagents and newsagent suppliers have been to the store to see the innovation for themselves.

This new business, which continues to evolve in response to data tracking and shopper feedback, reflects considerable investment by newsXpress in developing intellectual property.

Some come and visit and try and photograph our ideas while others introduce themselves and talk about what we are doing. We’re happy to share to a point, keeping the golden information for newsXpress members and strategic partners only.

This new location and all corporate stores are where newsXpress experiments, to harness learnings for newsXpress members.

Optimism helps drive retail sales for newsXpress

optimismMany newsXpress members have embraced optimism as a theme in their product purchasing at recent gift fairs and the toy fair in Melbourne. By bringing in products that reflect optimism in words and images the newsXpress members are creating happy shops … happy shops make for happy customers.

Optimism is infectious. It plays out well for the shoppers and the business. We encourage all newsXpress members to make the conscious choice to play in this space of optimism – it’s better than playing the price game as history has shown chasing a price point difference to be a mugs game with little shopper loyalty and no long-term upside for the business.

newsXpress thinks about moves like this carefully and shares insights designed to help members to make the most of moods like optimism. The result is good for our member businesses, suppliers and, most important, shoppers.

Messages of optimism sell.

newsXpress members enjoy AFL & NRL Beanie Kid success

beanieanThanks to smart buying and front of store placement, newsXpress members are enjoying success with the AFL and NRL Beanie Kids stands. Placed next to each other creates a noticeable display often appealing to the same shopper.

Even in markets where one or the other of the high-profile codes is not the main code the beanie Kids are selling well. They are being purchased by collectors as well as others buying for family and friends who are fans.

The success of the AFL and NRL ranges speak to the power of the Beanie Kids brand at special interest times as well as their value at introducing people to Beanie Kid collection … they are wonderful opportunity for newsXpress members to educate shoppers to this collector opportunity.

The importance of magazines to today’s newsagency

nxmagsnewsXpress is proving the importance of magazines as a net traffic generator yet managing the floorspace allocation to drive the best possible financial efficiency for the business. In our latest corporate store, following the principles we have been espousing for some time, we have been able to deliver a consumer-satisfying experience while ensuring maximum floorspace for higher margin product to be offered to magazine shoppers.

Getting the floorspace balance right is key to driving the GP$ outcome.

newsXpress respects magazines with a considered and layered strategy to drive traffic, facilitate basket depth and ensure a cost-effective range. The newsXpress magazine strategy is available to members as part of our membership deliverables – demonstrating our understanding of the value of magazines in today’s newsagency, in way that provides flexibility for tomorrow.

Hong Kong Gift Fair buying trip opportunity for newsagency marketing group members

newsXpress is participating in the Hong Kong Gift Fair again this year and has opened participating to newsXpress members to join the buying delegation.

Tapping into relationships developed over recent years and considering emerging trends, this trade show is a mixture of business negotiation and opportunity sourcing.

newsXpress members benefited significantly from last year’s trip.

An invitation was extended to newsXpress members last week to join this year’s mission. In Hong Kong participants will see more than 4,000 trade show booths as well as enjoy an opportunity of meeting key Australian and overseas suppliers.

This trip also helps us help existing suppliers to understand what we like from their supplier portfolios.

Trip details will be finalised in the next two weeks.

newsXpress launches training videos

As announced at the newsXpress national conference last week, we have completed production on ten new training videos. These are the next step of an expanded training suite of services from newsXpress for newsXpress members, delivering access to  a growing resource you will be able to use to share with your team members and to use yourself. Our feeling is that video based training will be appreciated because of the flexibility you will have in tapping into the resources as and when it suits you.

Produced by us in house, these latest videos reflect a new skill set within the newsXpress team. They also demonstrate a platform we will use to deliver some training previously delivered by RDMs. Some of these videos reflect content from the conference. The two on outposting cover content we had to eliminate on the day because of time over-runs. Here are the new videos available to you:

  1. Planning for 2020
  2. Who is newsXpress?
  3. Getting Started With Outposting
  4. Practical Tips For Outposting
  5. Getting Started With Candy Lanes
  6. NXP Benchmarks
  7. Business Assessment
  8. Getting Started With Visual Merchandising
  9. Post Xmas NXP Comm
  10. newsXpress communication December 2012

Please share with newsXpress your feedback at help@newsxpress. Also,let us know other topics you would like to see covered.

Business roundtable focuses on newsXpress member business growth

On the day after our national conference in Melbourne last week, one of the optional activities was a half-day business round table discussion in the boardroom of our head office.

Here, twelve newsXpress members got to talk about business, their businesses and retail in general.

This was a practical and confidential business discussion designed to get more newsXpress members sharing with and helping each other. It worked a treat with heartfelt sharing in a confidential environment, providing opportunities for taking on new ideas and opportunities.

That we were able to bring together a diverse group of newsXpress members was appreciated as everyone has a different perspective to contribute to the overall discussion.

This is another newsXpress initiative – helping members more effectively and valuable network with each other without it costing anything and without suppliers pressuring members to spend money. This was pure business … and opportunity warmly embraced and appreciated.

newsXpress members love Melbourne retail tour

nxknxThe day after the newsXpress national conference in Melbourne last week, a group of newsXpress members and a team from our head office visited a range of retail stores in Melbourne including newsXpress stores – checking out new retail trends and seeing how some are growing their business performance through non-traditional shop floor engagement. In all we had three groups touring.

This newsXpress hosted post-conference tour was another benefit flowing from the national conference … letting newsXpress members from outside Melbourne see businesses we think are making good moves and learning from the work they are doing.

The tour was all about chasing above average business performance – making your newsagency business more valuable as a result. By providing in-store context for some of what was covered at the conference we were able to help participating newsXpress members see new opportunities for their businesses without having to spend big on structural change.

Toy Fair suppliers love newsXpress members!

toyfThe newsXpress buying tour of the Toy Fair in Melbourne last week resulted in preferred suppliers writing excellent business. Moving sometimes as a large group and other times in smaller groups, newsXpress members looked at new product and tapped into exclusive deals – providing access to sought after product at excellent prices. Tapping into a price point competitive edge made the buying day valuable for all.

It is this type of trade show co-ordinated buying pioneered by newsXpress at successive toy and gift fairs that has enabled our group to become the group preferred by many suppliers to the newsagency channel. they love our support of their trade show events rather than hauling them around the country to buying days only for our members.

By helping suppliers leverage their existing trade show commitments we get to see a broader range of stock as well as tapping to newsXpress member exclusive opportunities.

This is the newsXpress difference in action – supporting suppliers and newsXpress members into making more money through smarter buying. This is the new way to do business.

newsXpress conference provides relaxation opportunities

conf2013bThe newsXpress conference in Melbourne last week was capped with a very different evening of celebration. rather than the formality of a dinner, we decided to party by the Yarra in a five-star venue offering gourmet food, top self drinks and a stunning view of the Yarra River, a place where we could relax without the need for speeches and the like.

It was great to see team members on the dance floor, belting out a tune on the mic and mingling to newsXpress members. Many kicked on after the formal evening ended at midnight.

We greatly appreciate the support of our strategic partners hallmark cards and Pacific magazines and our preferred supplier community for helping to make this evening a wonderful reality.

What a wonderful few days, full of optimism and 100% in pursuit of helping newsXpress members derive greater value and enjoyment form their businesses.