newsXpress Deception Bay have transformed their fromt shop window into a billboard, equally advertising the upcoming Christmas season and also great gift ideas.
The image to the left highlights the terrific Christmas marketing posters provided free of charge by newsXpress to all stores, while the photo below features the great gift ideas the store is selling including Morish Nuts gift packs; Plush and novelty gifts; scratchie tickets; printer ink; puzzle magazines and much more…
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.
newsXpress has provided members with marketing collateral to support the discount ABC Christmas CDs on offer. Providing this reflects the commitment of newsXpress to not only source excellent value (70% margin) product for members but to also provide the retail tools with which to leverage the opportunity to maximum value. This is what we are doing by providing professional newsXpress exclusive art to support the ABC CDs.
The A4 artwork works very well at the counter as some members are finding – customers often buy two or three CDs at once.
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.
newsXpress has partnered with Pentel to create a great value Christmas gift package for our members. For $14.95 newsXpress customers can purcahse a pack of Pentel Fabric Pastel Dye Sticks and a T-Shirt. We selected this for our 2008 range of Christmas gifts because it supports a good brand in Pentel, is the kind of practical gift which we feel will appeal to traditional newsagency customers and it is priced as a good value stocking stuffer.
newsXpress has supported the offer by providing double sided colour A2 posters for in-store promotion at no cost to members. The posters tie in visually with our other Christmas gift posters.
newsXpress has released a series of enhancements to its new website over the last two weeks. These include additional store search facilities, an interface to Google maps and a job listing service allowing members to easily list vacancies at their businesses.
members are able to load photos, list services and control other details showing about their business. Searchable by search engines such as Google, the new newsXpress website is another service provided by the group to its member newsagents.
We are still in phase 1 of our roll-out. Keep an eye on the newsXpress website to see real online innovation for newsagents at work.
The team at our newsXpress corporate store at Watergardens has created a bold Christmas sale display right at the front of the shop. The display featured items from several of the newsXpress Christmas offers including art, puzzle, gift and other categories. It includes several newsXpress exclusive lines. The display has been placed on the lease line facing directly into the mall and is drawing new visitors to our shop.
Our Watergardens store was opened mid 2007 and is used by newsXpress as a place where we experiment with new retail concepts and product categories. We work closely with suppliers in pursuit of new opportunities exclusively for newsXpress newsagents.
From time to time we arrange tours of the business. If you would like to go behind the scenes on newsXpress Watergardens please let us know.
newsXpress Bairnsdale demonstrated active community involvement at the weekend through their participation in the Annual Christmas Parade through the town. Taz and Gina (in the photo) and their team did the newsXpress brand proud. They also represented newsagents ore widely and newsagency suppliers both in the street parade and back in their shop.
newsXpress is thrilled to have Taz and Gina as part of our group. Their entrepreneurial drive, business acumen and community involvement embody what we look for in newsXpress members. It is no wonder they have been nominated for Newsagent of the Year.
newsXpress has launched an online only entry for its Back To School competition at its new website. In a move unique in newsagency marketing, newsXpress customers purchasing eligible product go to the newsXpress website to register as opposed to the old approach of filling in a paper entry form which is then sent to a central office for drawing. This smart approach by newsXpress is good for the customer, good for the environment and good for newsXpress members.
This is another way newsXpress is embracing technology for its members.
newsXpress has provided its members with another opportunity to drive special interest traffic with the launch of the Creative Christmas brochure last week. Featuring art supplies from Canson, this brochure is designed to drive excellent Christmas gift sales. I includes some excellent stocking stuffers for young and old.
We know from our shopping basket research that art supply customers are loyal once they find a brand of product they trust. Canson is a brand respected around the world. By building customer loyalty around art supplies over time through professional marketing and promotions, newsXpress members are well positioned to leverage that loyalty for the long term.
We also know that art customers are happy shopping in newsagencies and like to give art related product as gifts.
The Creative Christmas marketing is a nice fit with all the other marketing in newsXpress newsagencies around Christmas.
newsXpress is supporting a range of Christmas Gift ideas with excellent marketing collateral including this poster for a range of popular DVDs. With popular single, double and triple pack DVDs catering to all demographics, these are easy gifts to sell this time of the year. In building the Christmas gift selection, the newsXpress merchandise team has carefully sought out items which are excellent basket builders, serving the traditional newsagency demographic. We have been able to source good value DVD selections because of the size and consistent performance of our group.
Already stores are reporting excellent sales of these and other newsXpress Christmas Gift items.
Paul and Maureen Blunden at newsXpress Orange won a radio advertising package from Pacific Magazines at our recent National Conference. The radio ad will run during the Better Homes and Gardens radio program on local radio over several weeks. The ad is a terrific example of practical supplier support. It represents the Pacific Magazines product and promotes Paul and Maureen’s business and the many other products they sell at newsXpress Orange. Click here to download and hear the ad.
newsXpress has supplied all members with Back To School marketing collateral for in-store use including a full pack of professionally printed and pre-perforated shelf talkers for each of the Back To School hero products. These professional materials help our stores present a compelling offer professionally in the Back To School season. This attention to detail is noticed by suppliers, landlords and consumer – key reasons newsXpress is happy to invest in our member’s businesses in this way.
We held our final members meeting for the year yesterday in
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.
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.
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.
Our team of Business Development Managers are travelling the country these next few weeks, completing our last round on in-store visits for 2008 with newsXpress members, working on group strategies and delivering training and other support to help our member businesses experience a great Christmas.
Over the next two weeks members of our team will visit with newsXpress newsagents in many cities including Cairns, Townsville, Rockhampton, Mackay, Darwin, Devonport, Burnie, Bairnsdale, Yarram, Lismore, Armidale, Tamworth, Singleton – and these are just some of the regional centres we will cover.
These visits are a considerable point of difference for newsXpress and for our members. Newsagency suppliers like that we have a team which conducts these in-store visits. Suppliers tell us they are tired of negotiating deals for newsagents which are not backed by an association or marketing group to help the deal achieve the maximum potential for newsagents and for the supplier. Our BDM team and bring supplier offers and newsagent needs to a commercially rewarding union thanks to our store visitation program.
As one of our members said recently, it is like having your own personal business coach.
2008 has seen the difference between newsagencies grow considerably. From traditional departments such as magazines and greeting cards to new departments such as gifts and art, newsagents are breaking with the past in pursuit of new opportunities.
newsXpress is leading treasure hunt for proactive entrepreneurial newsagents. We are able to do this thanks to a community of energetic and future focused newsagents, a back office team of experts who relentlessly search for new opportunities, landlords who like what we do and su0ppliers keen to be part of our growing group.
While we have support the broader newsagency channel in a variety of ways this year including national and state conference sponsorships, we reserve our prime focus for the growing newsXpress community. These are the newsagents who pay us to serve them. These are the newsagents actively investing in the growth of their businesses.
We expect to see considerable change in the newsagency channel in 2009. The gap between growing newsagents and others will widen. Here at newsXpress,new members are always welcome. It uis the individuals behind a business we treasure the most for we have seen the smallest of newsagencies grow dramatically outside their four walls once newsXpress opportunities are fully leveraged.
newsXpress has secured another high-margin Christmas product offer for its members. This latest offer, in the fast moving social stationery / gift area, provides newsXpress newsagents with access to excellent quality branded product at extraordinary prices. Our members can expect to achieve margins of 70% and higher.
Representing more than 150 locations, newsXpress is able to deliver access to a network of proactive newsagents, making our group truly valuable to suppliers seeking to quit stock. Members taking up this latest offer can bank on thousands of dollars more than might have otherwise been available.
In today’s marketplace we anticipate seeing more opportunistic offers such as that just secured by newsXpress for its members. Our work in this area is another way we provide value of membership.
Ron Thorpe, one of