newsXpress Blog

My Family stickers from The Sticker Family a hit at newsXpress Sanctuary Lakes

newsXpress Sanctuary Lakes is enjoying success with the My Family Stickers from The Sticker Family … as are so many newsXpress members around Australia.

With the pull-up banner located at the front of the newsagency drawing traffic and the order form located nearby, selecting the My Family stickers to purchase is easy. newsXpress has provided a range of shopper-friendly advice to help members achieve the best possible return from The Sticker Family opportunity.

We are grateful to our friends at The Sticker Family for their advice, support and assistance in helping our retail channel enjoy tremendous success with their products.

This product range is another example of newsXpress and the supplier working together to leverage knowledge and good buying into a wonderful and mutual success story.

newsXpress Launceston … Bold and Noticeable

newsXpress Launceston has making an impact in town with this bold newsXpress signage on the front of their newsagency.

The newsagency business underneath the signage is an equally strong promotion of all that newsXpress stands for: great service, excellent product knowledge, local engagement and good shopping deals.

newsXpress is thrilled to have the newsXpress Launceston team on the newsXpress team.

Magazine display of the week: Port Lincoln

Congratulations to newsXpress Port Lincoln in South Australia for this excellent magazine display promoting the Australian Women’s Weekly. It’s our Magazine Display of the Week. A well deserved title.

We like the display because it draws attention to AWW in the usual location for the title and leverages the traffic from this display with other titles displayed next to AWW. An efficient display and a display which gives off energy … important in driving customer engagement.

Congratulations to everyone involved in creating this display.

newsXpress believes that magazines are important in newsagency. This is why we developed and support our multi layered magazine strategy … a key reason that newsXpress locations perform well in the magazine category.

Extraordinary Growth in Gift Sales in newsXpress Stores

newsXpress members are reporting extraordinary growth in gift sales in the second quarter of 2011.

The average growth in the gift department is 20% and this is usually off an already high base for each newsXpress location.

This good news of sales growth is all the better when you see that much of the growth is coming from newsXpress marketing initiatives and newsXpress preferred suppliers. So, not only are newsXpress members enjoying sales growth in gifts, they are enjoying a better margin from many of these sales.

While many newsagencies are reporting challenging sales experiences, newsXpress members are reporting growth in gifts and other key departments thanks to newsXpress marketing and business growth strategies.

There is a tremendous difference between newsXpress and other newsagency marketing groups. The latest sales figures are revealing just how much of a difference there is.

newsXpress helps members develop their gift range, merchandise in store, determine pricing policies and measure and manage results. This whole of business approach helps the group help newsXpress members deliver the sort of results we are seeing.

Newsagents keen to grow their businesses should talk with newsXpress General Manager Ben Kay on 0418 678 754.

Hallmark Recordable Storybook for the New Cars Movie Franchise

newsXpress Knox at Knox City Shopping Centre in Victoria is promoting the latest recordable storybook from Hallmark. This Cars licenced product is timely given the latest movie.

The Knox team is also promoting other Cars licenced product on this easily accessed display.

The Hallmark recordable story book not only timely but also helping to pitch newsXpress stores as offering innovative product and proving that we are not just an average newsagency.

newsXpress is provided advance notice and access to innovative product from Hallmark. This is in addition to wonderful marketing collateral and other benefits with which we are able to leverage new traffic and better margin for newsXpress members.

Mid Year Stationery Sale at newsXpress

newsXpress stores embracing the GNS $uper Stationery Sale are enjoying access to newsXpress branded collateral for the seasonal stationery sale. Offering a range of branded stationery items at competitive prices, participating newsXpress members are using the sale to drive new customer traffic. Deals like Reflex paper for $4.75, and four Faber Castell highlighters for $2.49 are seen by shoppers as excellent deals.

The 16 page $uper Stationery Sale catalogue is all about combating the consumer view that newsagencies are expensive. It is proving to be an excellent opportunity for newsXpress members to promote their price offer and through this attract new shoppers.

newsXpress appreciates the opportunity of working with GNS on the promotion.

JM Eyewear Offers Valuable Basket Building Range

newsXpress members are reporting good sales from the various eye wear products on offer from newsXpress preferred supplier JM Eyewear. From prescription products through to sunglasses, the JM Eyewear range has products for a variety of situations.

Given that shoppers often visit newsXpress stores to read, the reading experience is top of mind. This is why selling eyewear products fits. The folks at JM Eyewear have a range of categories of products from which newsXpress stores can choose. They are presented professionally and priced keenly … with a good margin for our members.

We have just put a selection of JM Eyewear products into our Knox City corporate store.

Free Marketing Collateral Helps Drive Ink Sales

newsXpress sent double sided A1 posters to all newsXpress stores participating in our latest HOT ink! campaign – at no cost. The professional (and free) posters connect with the national brands which feature in the HOT ink! campaign and help the stores dress appropriately to reflect the value of the HOT in! offer. Using this newsXpress exclusive collateral along with the colour personalised brochures, our in-store offers newsletter and our How to save Money on Your Print Costs advice sheet combine to give newsXpress stores exclusive and valuable leverage in the valuable and growing ink space.

Did we say that newsXpress provided this additional marketing collateral for FREE? Yes. newsXpress often delivers bonus benefits to members and it does this without a marketing levy or additional charge. Like the national TV campaign – this too is being run without members funding the campaign.

As the article in the Australian Financial Review showed earlier this week, ink is a strong and growing category for newsXpress stores. It drives excellent traffic and delivers a valuable margin dollars bounce to sales. newsXpress helps members make the most of the opportunity by providing bonus collateral and tactics with which our members can engage.

newsXpress website hacked

The newsXpress website was hacked earlier this week and some damage attempted. While our security was good and stopped serious damage, that the attackers got in at all was a saultory lesson. We have responded by beefing up security and instigating a broader review of online protection.

No compromising or sensitive newsXpress member or supplier data was at risk as this is not stored on the website or the computer hosting thee website.

We are disappointed that someone has targeted newsXpress in this way and cost us a significant sum dealing with the ramifications of the break in.

My Family stickers by The Sticker Family selling well at Castle Towers Shopping Centre

newsXpress Castle Towers is having a terrific time with the My Family stickers from The Sticker Family.

A key driver for their success is the pull up banner at the front of the shop. Their clipping of paper on which customers can note their orders is proving to be especially useful, helping browsers easily and comfortably convert into shoppers. It is simple and smart moves like this one at newsXpress Castle Towers which helps drive sales of The Sticker family stickers.

The newsXpress Castle Towers team moves the promotional collateral for The Sticker family around, to combat store blindness and to make the most of the opportunity of this popular product range.

T3 magazine featured in newsXpress stores

newsXpress stores across Australia continue to promote T3 magazine with high profile placement in-store. Many newsXpress stores have T3 magazine located at the counter where it is performing well. T3 is one of those magazines which responds well to high traffic placement, thereby delivering good margin dollar business when purchased on impulse.

newsXpress to Host Local Area Marketing Workshops

newsXpress is running Local Area Marketing Workshops for members in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane starting later this month.

These face to face workshops will share practical information and training on how to use the exclusive collateral created by newsXpress for use by newsXpress members and how to run a range of different local area marketing campaigns. They will also provide excellent opportunities for newsXpress members to workshop their own local area marketing ideas.

The workshops will challenge participants to step out of their comfort zone and reach beyond traditional newsagency marketing. They workshops are not for the feint hearted.

This training is another way newsXpress is helping members get more value from their newsXpress membership and showing that we go way beyond the traditional newsagency marketing group offering.

Each session is expected to run for three hours. Numbers will be limited to ensure that the maximum opportunity is available for personal and business specific engagement.

Each workshop will cover topics such as:

How to choose the right local area marketing campaign for your business
How to modify the newsXpress provided marketing collateral
How to engage your entire team
How to work with outside parties such as schools and community groups
How to measure results
How newsXpress can help

A good local area marketing campaign delivers a deeper connection. The new toolkit from newsXpress helps members more easily make this connection.

The details of the workshops will be announced to newsXpress members later this week.

Landlords Appreciate newsXpress Shopping Centre Landlord Campaign

Shopping centre landlords are appreciating the latest communication and engagement campaign which newsXpress started a few weeks ago.

With many newsXpress locations in shopping centres, newsXpress leadership created a carefully considered and rounded communication campaign to help landlords understand the value of a newsXpress tenancy.

Landlords and Centre Managers are responding with appreciation for the deeper understanding and opportunities for enhanced engagement with newsXpress and newsXpress members.

Our exclusive national TV and print advertising campaigns demonstrate the investment newsXpress is making to drive traffic to shopping centres. This alone separates newsXpress from other newsagency marketing groups. By investing to bring in traffic we are being seen as different and more valuable to any other newsagency marketing group.

newsXpress is not stopping at TV and print to drive traffic. We have taken landlords into our confidence and shared details of other newsXpress exclusive activity which is driving traffic and building businesses of which landlords can be proud.

It is easy for a newsagency marketing group to say that they have a good relationship with landlords and another thing entirely to walk the walk and consistently deliver a valuable and mutually respectful relationship. This is the newsXpress difference. Our members see it every day. Actions do speak louder than words.

HOT ink! at newsXpress Inverloch

newsXpress Inverloch has fully embraced the ink opportunity with this in-store display as well as plenty of external promotion for the latest newsXpress HOT ink! campaign.

Their pitching of the HOT ink! price offer as well as the exclusive newsXpress collateral outlining ways printer users can save money on ink – on top of the ink display – is a good way of showing off the newsXpress point of difference.

newsXpress leads the field in its ink offers, through supplier flexibility, terrific marketing and other in-store promotional opportunities around the category.

newsXpress Gympie wins Hallmark Alliance Retailer of the Year Award

Congratulations to Warrick Hosking and the terrific team at newsXpress Gympie in Queensland for winning the inaugural Hallmark Alliance Retailer of the Year Award.

What a terrific win for this creative and energetic team!

newsXpress Gympie won from a field of ten finalists including seven newsagencies of which four were newsXpress stores. They won for their proactive, creative and commercial support of the Hallmark brand and products.

This is an excellent win for a newsagency in a town with seven newsagencies. talk about competition.

Well done to Warrick and the team. Well done to newsXpress Bairnsdale, newsXpress Glendale and newsXpress Sunbury Square for making the final ten in a tough commercial competition.

Hallmark is a newsXpress Strategic Partner. Through this relationship we leverage a range of benefits for newsXpress members including residual benefits from the inreased Hallmark national TV advertising and access to exclusive product opportunities.

This Christmas, newsXpress stores will carry an exclusive range of boxed Christmas cards sourced through Hallmark.

Giftwrap Mixed With Cards at Beechworth

newsXpress Beechworth has introduced a display of giftwrap in with cards to show off new Hallmark giftwrap treatments and their broader range of giftwrap options.

Besides breaking up the terrific card display, these new displays are designed to drive incremental business from the greeting card shopper. The simple displays present a welcome difference in the card department.

The Best Newsagency Marketing Kit Ever

Earlier this year, newsXpress launched the most comprehensive newsagency marketing kit ever. Covering a broad range of marketing options from community engagement to in-store offer promotion, the newsXpress Marketing Toolkit provides newsXpress members with professional posters and collateral which can be easily customised to local needs and situations.

Having had four months to engage with the newsXpress Newsagency Marketing Toolkit, newsXpress members are starting to offer feedback. The most common feedback from newsXpress members is brilliant! and thank you!

newsXpress wants the store level feedback to be in the form of money banked as a result of engaging in embracing opportunities in the Marketing Toolkit.

The Marketing Toolkit perfectly demonstrates the newsXpress difference. It is an excellent example of our commitment to helping newsXpress members drive traffic and increase the average spend of shoppers. It supports strategies and tactics for driving sales of excellent deals available from newsXpress preferred suppliers.

newsXpress has invested considerably in the creation of the collateral in the Marketing Toolkit for newsXpress members. We own all materials and this provides flexibility in how it can be used. It also gives us an excellent base off of which we can create more materials for other campaigns.

The newsXpress marketing team is not resting on its laurels. Since the Marketing toolkit was originally launched earlier this year, a further five marketing campaign opportunities have been released to newsXpress members.

In addition to providing professional and high quality marketing resources, newsXpress also provides advice and guidance on local execution and engagement.

History and Heraldry Range Drives Sales Success

newsXpress Maryborough in Victoria is one of many newsXpress stores enjoying terrific commercial success with products from newsXpress preferred supplier History & Heraldry.

This signature pen stand offers a beautiful and quality personalised gift, ideal in many gift giving situations.

By tactical placement of the Signature Pens spinner from History & Heraldry, newsXpress members are able to leverage extra value from greeting card purchases.

Customers love this product and we are thrilled to see it in newsXpress locations across Australia.

newsXpress does not require members to take products from preferred suppliers. We leave such decisions to members. Through our communications we share success stories to help guide the choices our members make. Buying from History & Heraldry is something our members encourage each other to do … based on good commercial success.

Ink Sale a hit at newsXpress Ocean Grove

newsXpress Ocean Grove is putting the newsXpress marketing collateral to good use in promoting the latest HOT ink! sale. Their poster arrangement and product display combine to drawn shopper attention to the ink offer. The pricing of the offer and the range available shows that shopping at newsXpress is more valuable and beneficial than driving out of town to one of the larger retailers. The newsXpress marketing collateral and pricing strategy helps newsXpress members, like Ocean Grove, to demonstrate that shopping at newsXpress delivers good value … often better value than bigger retailers.

Thanks to newsXpress preferred supplier support, newsXpress members are achieving a competitive margin from ink.

Gifts selling well at newsXpress Beechworth

newsXpress Beechworth is enjoying good sales with its expanded gift range including this broad range of frames which is on display in-store.

Frames are a good, staple, product in the gift department as they can be given for a variety of occasions and to a variety of ages. They work well next to cards.

Thanks to support from a broad range of newsXpress preferred suppliers, it is easy for newsXpress members to tailor their gift department to local needs from the quirky to the conventional … and at competitive buying.