More website sales for newsXpress stores

More newsXpress stores are benefiting from the online sales generated by the group for member stores. With each sale comes a new customer contact, a new relationship to leverage for further success of the local newsXpress store and other newsXpress members.

Here is some feedback from one recent happy online customer:

Happy New Year!!

I would like to thank you for the trouble taken to send me the bears I ordered. They arrived safely before Christmas and I am super happy with the little darlings – Razzle Dazzle was so much larger than I was expecting so happy with the purchase and the care you all took to get them to me.

newsXpress negotiates better supplier deals

newsXpress has announced to members this week yet another better deal from one of our preferred suppliers. This latest deal enhances the discount and trading terms available for newsXpress members. The new terms have come about as a result of our work in negotiating the best possible terms and offers for newsXpress members. The latest offer is an exclusive for newsXpress members. We’re not sharing details here since there is no point in telling our competitors what to do.

Local communities love shopping local at newsXpress

newsXpress businesses are locally owned and operated, bringing professional newsagency-like and other products and services to local communities across Australia.

Shoppers visiting our stores can expect good local knowledge and support, direct community engagement and assistance. Important hallmarks of local businesses.

newsXpress businesses also bring new products, exciting products, to local communities … often saving the need to travel long distances to find these same cool products in a larger shopping situation.

In leveraging our group size and delivering access to the benefits at local and regional shopping situations, newsXpress is helping local communities in many ways as well as helping local business owners.

While we can never be a one size fits all business and operate on a full national scale, we work hard at delivering products and services with broad appeal and through which our members and their local communities can prosper.

Vanessa James – QLD Newsagent Employee of the Year

nx_fernvale_winners.JPGVanessa James from newsXpress Lowood showed in her acceptance speech why she deserved the honour of being Newsagent Employee of the year. She thanked her co-workers, her employers, her husband and, most importantly, her customers in a heartfelt which brought great applause from those attending the dinner. Our customer service is our key point of difference and our employees drive this at the front line. newsXpress is proud to have team members like Vanessa representing our brand.

newsXpress Melton lucky for customers

newsxpress_melton2.jpgnewsXpress Melton at the Woodgrove Shopping Centre in Melton was a lucky place to shop last week.

The That’s Life! fairy visited newsXpress Melton and surprised one lucky customer with a chequer as part  of the Random Acts of Kindness campaign being run by the magazine.

newsXpress Melton is in a temporary location in the shopping centre at Melton pending the opening of a new, larger, shop in the centre.  If you live in Melton be sure to drop in to say g’day to Ian and the team.  They have great deals on ink, a fantastic range of cards and a magazine deal which will bring you back for more magazines.

In addition to being a lucky place to shop, newsXpress Melton is known for great customer service and great value.

New Business Development Manager appointed in Victoria

michael_elvey.jpgnewsXpress has appointed Michael Elvey to the role of Business Development Manager of Victoria and Tasmania.

Michael brings more than twelve years experience working in newsagencies in an operational capacity and helping newsagencies in a senior management role with Tower Systems.

“I have had the privilege of working with Michael in newsXpress newsagencies over the last two weeks in NSW and Victoria and have seen his expertise first-hand. His knowledge and approach to helping our members will help newsXpress grow in Victoria and Tasmania.” said Roger Bortfield, NSW/ACT Business Development Manager.

In the business development role, Michael will help newsXpress members develop more successful businesses around the exclusive strategies offered by newsXpress nationally through regular in-store meetings with newsXpress members.

“Michael has the knowledge and discipline necessary to helping newsXpress members and newsXpress as a company maintain its position as the strongest newsagency retail group in Australia. He is a welcome addition to our team.” said Graham Randall, Managing Director of newsXpress Pty Ltd.

Michael Elvey commenced his new role with newsXpress today.

Giving away Nintendo Wii

newsXpress has shipped out twenty Nintendo Wii to newsXpress stores where customers won a Wii as part of our Back To School competition.  Entry was only through a specially developed facility on our corporate website.  We then randomly selected the winners and notified each along with details on how to collect the prize.  The full winner list was published in The Australian over a week ago.

The Nintendo Wii competition has made twenty customers very happy, participating members happy with a successful promotion and our web developer happy to bring so much extra traffic to our new website.

newsXpress is embracing the Internet in a range of ways to help our member newsagents more effectively connect with their communities and to find new customers.  Our back To School competition was part of a much larger strategy.

Structured advice for newsXpress members

dsc06392.JPGnewsXpress supports its in-store training of newsagents with documentation in the form of advice sheets.  These are useful for newsagents to share with staff engaged in executing newsXpress strategies.  They act as a library of support materials for our members, documenting the newsXpress point of difference in many areas.

We review our advice sheets regularly and release new versions to reflect changes accordingly.  This commitment to constant review and improvement is important in any best-practice operation.

From the perspective of our members, they can rely on having access to up-to-date written advice for implementing key newsXpress offers and points of difference.

We rely on advice from our members as to topics they would like to see covered in future advice sheets.

Customers like feedback option

nx_feedback.jpgThe feedback facilities at our new newsXpress website are being enjoyed by customers and visitors.  Plenty are clicking on Contact Us and completing a simple to form to provide feedback on our offers and store-level experiences.  We respond to enery contact and involve specific newsXpress store members if appropriate. 

The contact us facilities on our new website are another way newsXpress is leading the newsagency channel on customer service and pursuing its for customers to experience the difference

Our website will continue to evolve with new facilities currently under development.

Easier booking of member meetings

Booking to attend member meetings will be easier this year for newsXpress members.  Next week, we release an update to our new website and which delivers the ability for members to book online to attend a member’s meeting.  This saves newsXpress members having to fax or call. 

Booking though our website will be faster, cheaper and easier – benefits which demonstrate what newsXpress is about in its dealings with its members.  we are helping our members experience the difference.

Watch for more innovation from our new website over the coming months.

Christmas Eve

Our team is heading off early today to a well earned break with family and friends over Christmas.  Our offices will be closed from this afternoon until Monday December 29.  Our usual after-hours numbers are all available if any member or supplier needs to make urgent contact.

From our family to yours … have a wonderful Christmas!

Branding is everything

nxp-a2.jpgBranding is important to the newsXpress family.  We seek to provide opportunities to brand beyond the traditional newsagency style branding, to promote our unique selling proposition.

We have completed art for posters for use in-store for locations yet to complete a newsXpress shopfit or to supplement existing in-store signage.  These A2 double sided colour posters are also useful when our members need to promote newsXpress outside their business.

We understand that change is important in retail and have committed to providing our members with fresh supplementary branding materials regularly. 

These new posters will be released early in 2009 and are further evidence of our commitment to help our members position their businesses for range, service and smiles.

Merchandise team meets with members

The newsXpress national merchandise team has been on the road for almost two weeks meeting with members in three states who specialise in product categories we see as growth opportunities in 2009.  Meeting with newsXpress members in their stores has provided our back office team with store level insights which will be reflected in merchandise plans for 2009.

newsXpress appreciates the time given and valuable insights shared by our members in the meetings.  It is through co-operation such as this that we are able to better serve our members and help other members new to growth categories.

Something extra for customers

nx_pads.JPGThe newsXpress Things To Do Today pads developed by newsXpress for members to giveaway tto customers are proving to be a hit.  These pads are personalised to each newsXpress business including full contact details.  Members are reporting wonderful customer feedback when they provide the pad as a gift.  We have some members posting these with their end of year accounts and others handing them to customers over the counter. 

The pads are a low cost high reward mechanism for showing appreciation for custom through the year.  They are exclusive to newsXpress – we designed and executed this project in-house.  The pad project is another way newsXpress helps member newsagents show apprecaition of customers and thereby take another step to building a stronger business.

newsXpress is a big picture newsagency marketing group with plenty of micro focus in execution.  While the pads in themselves are not big picture marketing, they represent a small and vital step in a big picture approach to exceptional customer service and apprecaition.

Developing newsXpress in Darwin

Roger and Lesley Bortfield are in Darwin this week working with local newsXpress members – providing training and in-store support around newsXpress strategies. 

The visits are provided as part of the newsXpress commitment to provide stock in-store support for our members and their employees.  This in-store face to face contact is vital in reinforcing the newsXpress difference, a difference which we know results in good financial benefits for members.

Thanks to their years of experience owning and operating newsagencies, Roger and Lesley provide excellent practical assistance which enhances the newsXpress offer.

Final member meeting for 2008

20081127_0094.jpgWe held our final members meeting for the year yesterday in Brisbane. Even though our stores are well into Christmas it was a good opportunity to talk about the first quarter of 2009 and have an open forum with our Brisbane based members. We also outlined our activity around compliance behind the newsXpress brand and the importance of this for member businesses and our group as a whole.

Having a group which can commit nationally to suppliers and to deliver consistent marketing, in-store presence and ranging is a poi t of difference newsXpress cultivates.

Meeting members in Western Australia

dsc04840.JPGWe had an excellent members meeting in Perth yesterday where we reviewed 2008 and discussed plans for 2009.  We shared details of several exclusive and valuable offers and discussed the details of forthcoming marketing initiatives.  Western Australia is a strong market for newsXpress.  Newsagents are welcoming our newsagency marketing group offer given the point of difference it provides.

Representing newsXpress yesterday was our National Sales Manager, Karen Sutton, our National Merchandise Manager, Ben Kay, our Card specialist Ron Thorpe and our Directors Graham Randall and Mark Fletcher.  The depth of this team demonstrates our commitment to the West Australian marketplace.

Making Money from Greeting Cards

making-money-from-greeting-cards-003.jpgIn another first for the newsagency channel, newsXpress hosted the first of a series of Greeting Card training workshops yesterday in Melbourne. The Making Money from Greeting Cards workshop was run by Ron Thorpe, one of the most experienced greeting card professionals in Australia. This workshop now moves to Brisbane later this week.

Packed with practical advice, this session provided attendees with a clear action-plan for greeting cards in their newsagencies. Part of this action-plan was developed through two interactive sessions with newsagents sharing ideas with others.

Too often, newsagents leave greeting cards to be managed by their card company. Over the course of half a day, Ron shared practical strategies which newsXpress members can use to work this category to greater commercial advantage. His advice was drawn from decades of experience with Hallmark and a thorough knowledge of worldwide best practice in greeting card retail.

newsXpress has developed this workshop as another way the group helps members achieve a better return from their businesses and thereby improve the sale value when it comes time to exit from the business.

newsXpress newsagents can expect to achieve more from the Greeting Card category than an average newsagency. This is, in part, thanks to having Ron Thorpe on our team and delivering training like the workshop yesterday.