Why shopping local matters to the local community and how newsXpress helps local retail newsagents serve locally

Shopping local has a big impact on the local community. Here are four reasons why shopping local matters:

1. It supports the local economy.

When you shop at a locally owned business, more of your money stays in the local economy. This is especially important in small towns and rural areas, where every dollar counts.

2. It creates jobs.

Local businesses are often the biggest employers in their community. By shopping local, you’re supporting the businesses that provide jobs for your friends and neighbors.

3. It helps the environment.

Local businesses tend to use less energy and resources than big box stores. They also generate less waste. And since they’re often located in downtown areas, shopping local can also reduce your carbon footprint by cutting down on transportation emissions.

4. It builds community.

Local businesses are usually owned by people who live in the community. They’re more likely to give back to local causes and sponsor community events. When you shop local, you’re investing in the community that you call home.

Where you shop is a choice you can make, and 100% it is your to make. But if you are in a community group that needs support, the more local businesses you support the more they are able to support local community groups.

Additionally, many local business donate a certain amount of their proceeds to local charities or they fundraising for local groups and often sponsor local community events. So, not only are you supporting the local economy, but also causes that may be important to you.

When people shop at large corporations, very little of that money actually stays in the community. In fact, most of it goes to shareholders who live in other parts of the country or even in other parts of the world. Corporations have a primary responsibility of driving shareholder value.

But when you shop local, the vast majority of the money you spend stays right here in town, benefiting everyone who lives and works here.

Plus, local businesses are more likely to hire people from the community, so you’re also supporting your friends and neighbors.

So the next time you need to buy something, think about shopping local first. It’s good for the community, and it’s good for you, too.

So, the next time you need a birthday card, some stationery, pens, pencils, magazines or even wonderful gifts, shop your local retail newsagency and see the difference in and value from supporting local retail businesses.

newsXpress helps local retailers, local retail newsagency businesses to transform into more valuably current retail experiences, offering more products people want today and doing this in a way that respects the local community.

In your local newsXpress retail; business you are bound to find plenty of Aussie made products, which help support local Aussie jobs.

newsXpress helps local newsagents create more value in and from their local retail businesses

The value a retailer derives from their business depends on decisions they make daily.

In a newsagency it can be challenging with some of the requirements relating to some of the products sold.

newsXpress helps local retail newsagents pours value in a range of ways from the big picture to the small and local – like at the individual product level.

The value of a product depends on the gross profit for that product, what you sell it for less what you paid for it. The real value of a product is the gross profit less the labour, and retail space costs for the product. The value of a product over a year is these things times the quantity of the product sold.

If you sell a gift for $250 with a GP% of 50%, you make $125.00. That’s the same as the GP you would make from around 380 newspapers, 85 magazines or 100 or so lottery tickets.

The challenge is to have the right higher price point items that sell at good volume to deliver more bankable margin dollars than you will make from lower margin legacy products.

This is where newsXpress helps its retail newsagent members grow profit, and through this cultivate greater value for their businesses, and from that flows enjoyment.

Can anyone sell items worth $250 or more? In our experience, yes!

But, value is about more than the ticket price of an item. Other factors:

– Buy price.

– Stock turn.

– Shrinkage.

– Differentiation.

newsXpress offers advice and support to local retail newsagents on these, helping you to maximise every value opportunity.

We know that if we help you maximise value at the transaction level, it plays our wonderfully when the time comes for you to sell your business.

Helping local retail newsagents cultivate value.

We guide local retail newsagents to harvest greater value, profit, and thereby make your business worth more.

Our community of supporting and engaged preferred suppliers offer members better margin opportunities.

We shine a light on products that turn faster.

We have preferred suppliers who: provide exclusive product and who offer first to market opportunities.

Exclusive. Plenty of our preferred suppliers do not sell to other newsagents.

Our central billing program unlocks for you delayed billing terms, and more.

Our shop floor tactical training and guidance can help you achieve higher inventory turn rates, delivering a better return on investment, better return on floor space, and better return on labour.

This is key – buying a product at a deal price is good, but not the answer if that product does not sell in an efficient way. newsXpress helps you drive product turn efficiency.

Enjoying your local retail newsagency business.

Okay, this is important for any retailer and especially for local retail newsagents.

Enjoying your business helps you make better decisions. It also helps those with you in the business make better business decisions.

Through our newsXpress community you have friends you can have a laugh with, and folks you can trust to decompress with.

In our Zoom meetings and other contact points we, together, have a laugh.

The business itself becomes enjoyable when speed bumps are overcome and stormy weather guided away. Having access to your own business mentor can help achieve these things.

Success is enjoyable. We encourage and help to find success so you can feel the happiness it brings.

We understand, too, that enjoyment can be different for each of us. We are keen to know what enjoyment feels like for you, to make sure that we tap into enjoyment in a way that is meaningful to you.

Now, let’s turn to the how …

Nurturing your success – a message for local retail newsagents.

newsXpress helps local retail newsagents nurture success through opportunities you can leverage, often needing little or no capital investment. We share these in one of our regular (at least twice a week) member emails, or our regular member Zoom meetings.

Opportunities can be new suppliers, new products, in-store tactical changes, out of store marketing ideas. Often, they are early adopter opportunities that can help our members win before other retailers know about the opportunity.

We lay out for your consideration a pathway to a success. These are curated by business, considering local needs and owner situations.

Opportunities can be sales to people who will never visit your shop through any of several national #1 ranked consumer facing websites, and / or your own exclusive website, under a brand you choose.

newsXpress is a local retail newsagency marketing group. Our goal is to help our newsXpress member retail shops to be the best locally, the happiest, and the move valuable. What we offer and do is different business by business, depending on their needs, and focussed on their situation.

This is not a one size fits all approach, because local retail is not one size fits all. It’s what makes local retail so loved by folks in the local community.

How does newsXpress compare to Newspower, and are they the same?

newsXpress is not Newspower and Newspower is not newsXpress. While they may at first glance appear to be similar in their work for and support of newsagents, they are very different.

Newsagents looking for support for their business need to know for sure what they are looking for before they start to compare newsXpress and Newspower, they need to be sure of what matters to them.

Since we are newsXpress, we can speak to what we do, and this is what we will do here, rather than speculate as to what Newspower may not do. That research of the comparison between Newspower and newsXpress is something that only a newsagent can do for no one at Newspower understands what newsXpress offers and jo one at newsXpress understands what newspower offers.

newsXpress helps local newsagents run more enjoyable and valuable businesses. That’s our goal. It’s our focus every day, through every action.

With almost all of our newsXpress member newsagency businesses on the high street in the suburbs and in regional and rural Australia, our work is truly small business focussed.

We are a practical bunch, people with this local retail experience, which we bring to life when working with newsagents to help them grow more valuable and enjoyable businesses.

At newsXpress, we think every newsagent has the opportunity to make their own future.

It’s true, we all make our own future.

And, in the newsagency channel, in 2022, the opportunities for making a brighter future are terrific.

From what you sell to how you sell to when you sell to those you sell to … it’s all changing, which is terrific news because in change there is opportunity.

We can help. In fact, we’d love to help you.

How newsXpress helps is 100% up to you.

We help businesses that have limited or no capital grow in value. Our team of twelve retail professionals has a deep well of skills and experience.

For $175.00 a month, we offer value on which you can rely.

2022 is going well for many of newsXpress members.

Our free Thank You card promotion drove above-average card sales in our newsXpress newsagency businesses.

Our new EFTPOS deal is delivering excellent savings on EFTPOS fees.

Our support of Fight MND in our local newsagency shops has raised our community engagement profile.

Our Royal Australian Mint relationship has delivered exclusive opportunities for newsXpress newsagents, with more opportunities on the way.

Our card relay strategy is driving double-digit growth in card sales for newsXpress newsagents.

Our financially subsidised hosted 3-day supplier showroom visits in May were a massive hit!

Our US retail study tour is full with active retailers keen for experiencing local small business retail innovation.

Plus, we have added more preferred suppliers, delivered bonus margin and welcomed more new members to our community.

We’re loving 2022.

newsXpress believes that for each newsXpress newsagent, each retailer in our group, their future is theirs to make, to embrace, to celebrate.

Our pitch is backed by actionable items you can take. You can bank on it.

To us, the future is about value, the value of your business – what you make today and what you will make when you decide to sell.

Profit is the measurement of success, and key to value today and in the future.

The newsagency channel was created in the 1880s to distribute a magazine through the goldfields of Victoria. Some of the agency arrangements put in place then can be seen in business arrangements today.

While we understand and respect the history of the channel, the future for our shops is the future. It’s nothing like those goldfield days.

Making the most of the opportunities of the future is about what we talk about in this document.

What you sell. How you sell. When you sell. The customers you sell to. It’s all up for grabs, there for the taking. It starts with the narrative of your business, how you pitch yourself.

Our advice can include encouraging you to let go of some things that don’t make money and don’t, as Marie Kondo says, spark joy.

How far you go is 100% up to you. Our job is to pitch ideas and opportunities. What you do with them is up to you. Once you decide, we can help with practical steps.

While we understand that for plenty of newsagents, old-school products and services are valuable, their value is declining. Acting now can protect your business against those declines.

You’re not alone. We help you, work with you, hold your hand and encourage you – as much or as little as you want.

For each of us in business, what we achieve is up to us. Our future is about what we do today.

But back to the hypothetical question of how newsXpress compares to Newspower? Take your time. Do your own research. Look at the evidence, and decide which group is right for your needs.

Find a newsagent near me – helping Aussies find their local newsagent

If you are looking for your local retail newsagent, a newsagent near you, you are probably looking for somewhere to buy awesome cards, or everyday stationery or magazines you love or newspapers.

Today, many Australians shop at their local newsagency, the newsagency near them, for awesome gifts, and homewares, and toys, and games, and jigsaws.

The local Australian newsagency business has changed so much, has evolved into a wonderful retail business.

Years ago, the local newsagency business was your smokes, lotteries, magazines and newspaper shop. What many would call an agency business. Today, the local newsagency shop is more likely to be an engaged retail business, somewhere fun and enjoyable and innovating.

Retail has changed so much and so has the local Aussie newsagent.

newsXpress is part of that change. we help local Aussie newsagents transform their businesses into appealing, growing and more valuable shops.

We achieve this by working with local newsagents, providing them access to better products at great margins, improving their shop fit and appearance and driving traffic into their shops through our national marketing programs.

At every step of the way the newsagent is in control, owning their own future. newsXpress provides advise, ideas and access to resources. The actual decisions are for the local business owner to make.

This is the way local retail business should be – with the owner in control, determining their own future.

When you look for a local newsagent near me you are likely to be offered a range of quite different businesses because, today, no two newsagents are the same. The consistency of decades ago has gone, which is a good thing because a local business needs to reflect the local community, it needs to serve the local community – and local communities themselves have changed.

Your local newsXpress newsagency business will be a place of innovation and change, a place where you can find wonderful gifts, a range of truly beautiful cards your family and friends will love, a place where your home office needs can be met and a place where you can find items of happiness and joy.

Your local newsXpress newsagency is a local shop serving the local community, which is terrific for the community and all who live there.

When you are looking for a newsagent near me, we hope you will find your local newsXpress newsagency and shop there.

We achieved this by working with local newsagents, providing them access to better products at great margins, improving their shop fit and appearance and driving traffic into their shops through our national marketing programs.

Squish-A-Boos hugs!

Grateful to offer more Aussie designed and made cards

We are so grateful to support the Commonwealth Games

Thank you Australia for supporting our thankfulness campaign

Why a newsagency business is a good business to buy

Thank you to the 109 newsagents trading under a variety of shingles who provided sales data for this benchmark study. Your transparency will help many in our channel.

STRONG FIRST HALF OF 2022 FOR LOCAL RETAIL NEWSAGENCIES.

Newsagents, overall, had a good first half of 2022 when comparing trading figures with 2021. While the increases reported are modest, this is on the back of a better than good 2021 because of Covid.

Of particular interest are strong performances for gifts, magazines, books and toys.

The results show the local newsagency as a business with a strong traffic and revenue core. They also show opportunity considering the growth in some categories for some and not others.

While this latest newsagency sales benchmark study does not include shopping centre businesses as the sample group was too small, I note that they appear to have had a rough first half – begging a question about the status of the shopping centre setting.

After comparing data from the businesses in the benchmark dataset here are the averages for business performance measurement points and categories, comparing January through June 2022 with the same months in 2021:

Revenue: Up 2%.
Sales count: Down 1%.
Basket value: Up 8%.
Items per basket: Up 6%.
Average item value: Up 7%.
Greeting card revenue: Down 2%.
Magazines unit sales: Down 4%.
Toy revenue: Up 6%.
Gift revenue: Up 8%.
Book revenue: Up 7%.
Stationery revenue: Up 5%.

The percentages are small, especially when you look at 2021 over 2019, however, that earlier comparison was comparing pre-Covid with Covid, which for high street newsagencies was massive.

Since the above results are averages, there are some considerably below and some considerably above.

In terms of type of business, the best performing newsagencies I see in the data are high street suburban followed by high street regional / rural.

It’s what is not in the above benchmark results that is interesting. There are some newsagents experimenting with success. Homewares, whitegoods, hardware and spectacles are all categories delivering growth in reports for a small number of participating businesses. I can see several going from $0 to a reasonable number in on introducing the category.

Some newsagents are quitting categories, too, like ink and toner, toys for some and some agency lines.

There is also interesting data within departments, like stationery and magazines:

In stationery, sales are strong for everyday items like pens and paper and less so for less frequently purchased items. Pens, for example, continue to command around 30% of all stationery revenue in newsagencies with strong pen sales. Given their percentage of space allocation and capital requirements, this makes pens a prized segment. I wonder whether there is an opportunity for newsagents to price some stationery with a convenience premium.
In magazines, weeklies experienced the biggest decline, an average of 9%, followed by women’s interests while special interest, crosswords and craft & hobbies experienced above average growth to sustain overall magazine performance.

In this benchmark dataset there are 2 newsagencies that introduced gifts, toys and plush to their businesses. In each case the three new categories accounted for more than 6% of total revenue for the six months. One business introduced trading cards part way through the six months and did more than $12,000 in revenue.

The shopper traffic challenge.

A big challenge I see in the benchmark data is shopper traffic.

Our channel was built on being a destination for papers, magazines, cards, lotteries, stationery and, back in the day, tobacco. We’d open the front door and people would come in. Newsagencies were businesses that benefited from the habit based shopper.

Those days are gone, more so in the city than the country, but they are gone.

We need to work harder at attracting shoppers, by stocking a broader range of habit based products and by showing guiding people to purchase, by educating them, enticing them. We do this by being smarter and more engaged retailers, and by doing these things inside and outside of our shops.

Every newsagency, every retail business, needs a new shopper traffic strategy, because if were are not growing the shopper pool, the future of our businesses is at risk.

Stock what could attract new shoppers, display it so passers-by can see it, pitch on social media.

If all we do with something new is put it on the shelf, we fail that new traffic opportunity.

The run home to Christmas

July through December are critical for any retailer. Maximise the opportunity:

Go out as early as possible with Christmas.
Pursue attracting new shoppers.
Stop doing what’s not making you money, which may include adjusting opening hours.
Quit dead stock.
Follow any green shoots in your business data, every business has these.
Be frugal with your roster.
Make your shop look the best it has been.

I say all this because even though our channel is producing good results, we have plenty of competitor retailers who are energised to win business, and you don’t want them winning it from you.

The next six months matter because they set you up is you may want to sell next year, they put more money in your pocket and they help you enjoy your business more.