Category: newsXpress difference

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.

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.

2022 Tooth Fairy Kit from the Royal Aust. Mint is out now

We are grateful to offer the 2022 Tooth Fairy Kit from the Royal Australian Mint now.

What a perfect gift to give this 2022 Tooth Fairy Kit coin set is. we ship online, well packaged and safely to you or to the family you are buying the gift for.

This 2022 Tooth Fairy Kit is another of the wonderful gifts available at there Mint Coin Shop as well as at many local newsXpress businesses. The 2022 Tooth Fairy Kit coin set has only just been released by the Royal Australian Mint and already it is a hit with our customers.

This 2022 Tooth Fairy Kit includes some wonderful delights to commemorate the occasion of losing a tooth, including:

  • A special uncirculated coin.
  • A bamboo toothbrush.
  • A floating glitter fairy pen.
  • A tooth chart.
  • And, a very special message from the Tooth Fairy.

newsXpress  is proud to offer these wonderful products to bring joy to the experience of losing a tooth and being visited by the tooth fairy. This is a lot of fantasy and fun for families across Australia.

The 2022 Tooth Fairy Kit from the Royal Australian Mint is part of the newsXpress special gifting experience through which we help families and their friends and loved-one have access to gift opportunities that bring excitement and joy, happiness and love. These are very special occasions and gifts like the 2022 mint coin Tooth Fairy Kit help to bring the experience to life, and create wonderful m memories for the whole family.

By ordering online from the Mint Coin Shop your order will be fulfilled bay the newsXpress business. Your Tooth Fairy Kit will be carefully packaged and posted to your designated address, quickly bringing to life the fun and jy of being visited by the Tooth Fairy. What a treat! What a joy!

We have other wonderful gifts too, like CoComelon, Jellycat and Beanie Boos – all wonderful products bringing happiness and joy to families as they experience the growth of their young ones.

newsXpress stores are around Australia. Locally owned and run. Serving local communities. Helping people to express themselves for life’s special occasions. helping people make the most wonderful of memories.

newsXpress newsagency marketing group helps local Aussie newsagents cultivate joy in their businesses

This cultivating joy pitch from newsXpress is real, heartfelt and backed by actionable items you can take, any newsagent can take, in any size newsagency business, in any situation – city or country try.

You can bank on it.

To us here at newsXpress, joy comes from a business making good money, where people love to work and shop, a business that is worth more when you choose to sell.

Profit is the measurement of success, and a core for joy.

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.

newsXpress is a marketing group for local small business newsagents. We are not a franchise group.

We offer evidence-based advice to back our suggestions. What you do in your business 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 think that newsXpress offers the most valuable marketing group membership available.

We’d love to help you run a more valuable business and more enjoyable business. If you’d like that, let’s talk.

What does being in an engaged newsagency marketing group look like?

There are more newsagents not in a marketing group than there are in one. This is why we thought it could be useful to explore what being in a marketing group looks like.

For newsXpress members, the cost of being in the group is around $10.00 a day. This provides each newsXpress member tangible value in the form of:

  • Higher profit. Thanks to an exclusive data based approach to driving high margin lines, helping you take control of buying – leading to significant sales growth.
  • Supplier discounts. Often worth $10,000 or more a year.
  • Buying rebates. Often worth $10,000 or more a year.
  • Lower lease costs. Thanks to practical advice and help on lease negotiation.
  • Lower labour costs. Thanks to a data based approach to rostering.
  • From community engagement with the newsXpress family.

Being part of newsXpress delivers more than this short list though. To explore what members receive, in specific and practical terms, this list details everything included in the membership fee:

  1. Regular member meetings. Via Zoom. Weekly and often at weekends for those who prefer that. Supporting each other. Sharing ideas. Learning. having fun.
  2. Supplier launches / presentations. Filmed by us, for newsXpress members exclusively. Includes insights that help drive sales.
  3. Seasonal marketing collateral. Exclusive. A1. Double-sided posters.
  4. Digital collateral. 100s of exclusive assets for your personal use each year. Images and videos that are Instagram and Facebook ready.
  5. Digital collateral for in-store use. Ready for you to print, and use.
  6. Buying rebates. Money put into your account, adding appreciated margin dollars.
  7. Free access to a cloud based commercial graphic design tool. Make what you posters and art need, easily.
  8. Customer loyalty cards. Free stock for 3 different product categories.
  9. Exclusive to newsXpress seasons. To help you attract new shoppers.
  10. 100+ preferred suppliers. Better margin. Faster selling. Good terms.
  11. National consumer facing websites. Connection for your shop is easy.
  12. Half price website. Based on Shopify. Connected to your business, made for you.
  13. Supplier problem resolution. We actively represent you.
  14. Landlord negotiation. We help you negotiate.
  15. Low EFTPOS rates. We launched least cost routing in Jan. 2018.
  16. Product buying. To your budget, we create orders for you to consider if you would like.
  17. Business management advice. Evidence-based advice.
  18. Team member training.
  19. Visual merchandising advice, training, and inspiration.
  20. Shop fit, and layout advice. We have helped save thousands of dollars.
  21. Timely access to award rates.
  22. Private Facebook group. Talk about anything, any time.
  23. Online knowledge base. 150+ exclusive business management articles.
  24. Deals envelope. Exclusive member deals from suppliers.
  25. Financial guidance. Helping you budget for profit.
  26. We can be your sounding board on anything.
  27. Mental health support. We will help any way we can.
  28. newsXpress does more than this every day.

In a practical sense, this is what members of the newsXpress marketing group have access to. It’s part about more profit, part about more enjoyment and part about strategic planning for the future.

Like any group one belongs to, what you get out of being part of newsXpress or any newsagency marketing group is up to you. Choosing to engage and seek out more value for your business is a good move.

newsXpress can be reached at help@newsxpress.com.au