Gifts | newsXpress Blog

Excellent Mother’s Day at newsXpress Watergardens

Our corporate store, newsXpress Watergardens, had an excellent Mother’s Day season. The hero was our Hallmark Cards range. The feature was the free Sony camera one of our lucky customers will win. Sales have been exceptional. They are driving excellent results with gifts.

We created our corporate store as a place we can play as a business. This continues to work well for us as we try new products. It also works in providing the Directors with personal feedback on newsXpress strategies and supplier relationships.

newsXpress Watergardens is 100% Hallmark. Our range of cards is something our customers often comment about, especially around Mother’s Day when our display is so strong.

Renee and the newsXpress Watergardens team have done the newsXpress team proud this Mother’s Day.

Alexander Brands joins with newsXpress

Respected gift, premium pen and social stationery supplier Alexander Brands has signed on as a preferred supplier with newsXpress. The Alexander Brands relationship brings and excellent range of gift and related stationery lines to the newsXpress offer under terms which are good for newsXpress members and good for the group. newsXpress will support the Alexander Brands range with merchandise guidance and training in pursuit of a mutually beneficial relationship for all involved. Brands covered inclide: Artex, Eagle Creek, Inoxcrom, Filofax, Jack + Miss Honey, Lantern Studios, Letts, LFX Designs and Montegrappa.

Evolving the gift offer in the newsagency

newsXpress has been evolving its gift offer for some time. We are using store data to guide ranging advice and we are using our national footprint of 168 locations to negotiate competitive supplier terms. This month, we take another step in our evolution by hosting a group visit to a key gift wholesaler. Thirty members in one state will visit, preview product and organise a group buy. For half of the members involved this will be their first step into gifts outside of seasons such as Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day.

newsXpress is committed to helping its members evolve their gift offer. We do this by helping to analyse the business and understand local factors which need to be considered in assessing the gift range.

Michelle Caia is our gift specialist on our merchandise team. Her experience is proving invaluable to members stepping into this category for the first time. It provides newsXpress with an excellent point of difference and has delivered members with good success stories.

The lucky charms which enhance newsagency sales

newsXpress members are enjoying success with the lucky charms in the photo and others of similar style. These are an ideal add on for a card purchase, a good way to extend the shopping basket. They are especiaally popular with women. newsXpress regularly works with suppliers on a range of basket extension opportunities. Products like the lucky charms are easy to try and locate within a busy shop. What can make them work well is the retail expertise newsXpress offers from being able to draw on the success of 160 stores.

Mother’s Day offers for newsXpress members

newsXpress last week advised member newsagents of Mother’s Day offers from seven suppliers. Our merchandise team has negotiated a range of offers which will help our members have well-priced gifts and associated lines with which to celebrate Mother’s Day this year. This is another season through which we can expand the gift offer.

In developing our seasonal plans, our merchandise experts meet with many suppliers, attend Gift Fairs and talk with newsXpress members strong in the gift space. This information is considered and the final selection developed through the year.

By releasing Mother’s Day in mid-March, our members are able to plan and have stock available immediately after Easter.

Working the Sydney Gift Fair

newsXpress members and staff got together last night at the Watershed Hotel for drinks and a debrief about the first two days of the Reed Sydney Gift Fair. This was one of several events in Sydney this week scheduled to coincide with the fair. We recognise that time away from the shop is challenging to achieve so we have sought to make the most of this and help our members leverage more beneficial outcomes.

At the drinks last night members from four states got to trade stories. It is this type of networking which is a key value of newsXpress. Beyond talking about products seen at the Fair, there was good discussion about business.

newsXpress members are like family with each other – last night was like a good family catch up.

Guiding members into gifts

Our merchandise team has developed a plan for helping newsXpress members navigate the large Sydney Gift fair next week. We will have people on the ground scouting suppliers and leading teams on the floor of the show as well as providing advice on the best way to get through such a large event. We will get together to debrief and relax with a drink.

newsXpress continues to evolve its gift offer for members and this Fair next week is another way we are able to practically help members learn how to enter this most regarding product category.

Three new gift suppliers announced

newsXpress has announced three new gift supplier relationships to members. With gift department sales growing well in 2008, our merchandise team has been working hard to extent the ranges available on favourable terms to our members for 2009.

Exclusive product offers and pricing key elements of these exclusive supplier arrangements negotiated by newsXpress. The differences between newsagents will increase this year as the value of deals such as these is felt by more newsagents.

newsXpress is pleased to have national network of 160 locations on behalf of which to negotiate these arrangements.

Gifts at newsXpress Watergardens

Our corporate newsXpress store at Watergardens in Victoria is kicking huge goals this Christmas. Cards, calendars, magazines, diaries, art and puzzles are all doing well. It is the gift department which is leading the pack. Christmas 2008 is proving a huge success for us in the gift department. We have an excellent range of gifts for all ages. Our specially developed gift tables are helping make this department a real winner for us.

Keys to success with gifts are buying, display and customer service. Thanks to an excellent team on the ground we are winning in each area.

Customers shopping with us often comment that they did not realise they are in a newsagency. We are thrilled with this compliment as one of the reasons we created Watergardens was to play with the boundaries of what a newsagency is.

Lessons from Watergardens are reflected in offers newsXpress puts to members and advice it provides in many areas.

Selling clocks for Christmas

Some of us were not sure about these clocks for our gift range this Christmas as they seemed removed traditional newsagency lines. However, given our commitment to continue to evolve the newsagency offer we added them to the Christmas mix. Members who took up the clocks offer report that they have been a good success. Since they are so different to the usual newsagency product mix they stand out and this is, in part, a reason for their success. Kids like the clocks because they make the sound of the animal on the face.

newsXpress is supporting the clocks with free A2 double-sided colour posters for members.

Gift displays at Salamander Bay

The team at newsXpress Salamander Bay knows the importance of changing gift displays regularly. Every couple of days, gifts are moved and new displays created to provide a fresh and excisting shopping experience for customers. This is a key factor in the success of the team at Salamander Bay with gifts and a key element in the newsXpress message around this important category for newsagents.

newsXpress helps members source gift product and develop merchandising skills to maximize the gift opportunity.

Setting up for a great Christmas

newsXpress Crows Nest have set themselves up for a great Christmas season with these impressive displays.

Daniel and the team have given some great merchandise treatment to greeting cards and gifts while paying attention to traditional themes with the accompanying decorations.

The bookseat a Christmas star

The Bookseat is proving to be a Great Christmas Idea in newsXpress newsagencies. It is selling out! Some newsXpress members have ordered twice and three times the initial order. We are thrilled with this success, as are our members.

While not a natural gift to be found in a newsagency, we have found a way to leverage this for tremendous commercail advantage. An unusual gift to display, the Bookseat draws good attention from shoppers looking for a unique gift.

newsXpress is supporting the Bookseat with in-store marketing collateral in the form of double sided A2 posters.

Great Christmas gifts

newsXpress members are reporting good sales from offers the group has sourced. The Hannah Montana, Star Wars, High School Musical, Dora The Explorer and Disney puzzles are one of the early successes. Members tell us these are popular as stocking fillers. In most cases they appear to be purchased in addition to a newspaper, magazine or some other traditional newsagency sale. This is exactly what we hoped it offering this range to members – it is easily located in a space which will attract impulse purchase.

Building margin in a newsagency involves many small steps. This way, you are able to build something which is harder to break down. The more reliant a business is on single stream revenue the easier it is to break down. hence the newsXpress approach of sourcing many offers across a range of key categories from whcih our members can choose what is right for their circumstances.

newsXpress Glendale shines with gifts

Phil and Wendy Banks and the entire team at newsXpress Glendale have created an excellent business around gifts. At Christmas and all the year through they have grown from nothing in this department to a thriving business in two years. newsXpress is proud that they have achieved this as a newsXpress store. Their success is driving many of our newsXpress members to more completely embrace the gift offer. What Phil and Wendy have achieved in what used to be a traditional newsagency is nothing short of amazing.

newsXpress has a range of exclusive supplier relationships in the gift area. We back this with gift expertise in our National Merchandise team and through seasonal gift promotions. All of our gift offers are optional for newsXpress members.

Exclusive Christmas offers

newsXpress has sourced a range of exclusive gift related offers for Christmas as part of our strategy of growing sales which fit nicely with traditional newsagent shopping. In addition to excellent trading terms, newsXpress members are being provided high quality professional marketing collateral to enable promotion of the gift items in-store.

This strategy follows the tremendous success of our Father’s Day gift strategy, the first such season focused multi-product gift offer.

Gifts are considered too difficult by many newsagents. At newsXpress we have experts in our merchandise team who guide our buying to make it easier for our members to play in this space. These same in-house merchandise resources are being used by members who go beyond our offers and expand aggressively into gifts. Our specialist supplier relationships unlock some excellent products which would otherwise be difficult to source.

Core to our gift strategy is our focus on leveraging excellent existing newsagent traffic into these new product categories.

Extending Father’s Day

newsXpress helps its members broaden range around traditional shopping behaviour. Father’s Day is an excellent example of this strategy at work. the newsXpress merchandise team sourced a range of Father’s Day gift lines, many from suppliers new to newsagents.

This week, in the home stretch of the Father’s Day season, we have been hearing from newsXpress members about what has worked and what has not. While there have been some items which have not worked, they will easily fit in-store and sell between now and Christmas. These products are far outweighed by success stories. newsXpress members are reporting dramatic increases in gift line sales for Father’s Day around our offers.

Our merchandise team works hard to help our members push the boundaries. It is only by doing this that we are able to find what our businesses are capable of. We know the days of the traditional supplier driven newsagent are over. Our entrepreneurial members want to grow stronger, more margin-balanced businesses. Our buying and our supporting marketing collateral pursue this goal of margin balance relentlessly.

Our annual conference on the Gold Coast later this month will cover our merchandise strategies in more detail. If you are not a newsXpress members and want to get an insight into the newsXpress different, consider joining us at the conference on September 18 and 18.

Cars for dad

newsXpress members are reporting excellent results from the range of gifts sourced exclusively for members for this Father’s Day. Even newsagents who have been in gifts before have been surprised by the results. The Kombi van book ends have been very popular, selling out in several stores already.

newsXpress has several strategies for members which help them reach into new product categories. These strategies feed into a cohesive whole of business plan. Father’s Day 2008 is another step forward in our overall plan to help newsXpress newsagents build stronger, more viable and more valuable businesses.

The book ends have been helped along by the Father’s Day book sale running in some stores at the same time.

Bringing the community together with a smile.

newsXpress Sarina revealed an uncanny coincidence when communicating their Care & Friendship Grand Prize winner!

The local winner Walter shared his name with the Giant Forever Friends Bear as nicknamed by the team at Sarina. The Girls in the store were so excited about the fluke about the names that they ended up playfully fighting over who would call the original Walter with the good news.

Pictured in the below photo: Bec (who won out and got to call Walter!), Walter, Angela & Walter.