newsXpress will be introducing three new stationery seasons for newsXpress newsagents next year. These details of these secret campaigns will be announced confidentially to members closer to action time. Our research has identified three lucrative opportunities which will give our members exclusive and valuable revenue opportunities.
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
The 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.
Success with face to face visits
Two of our team last Saturday completed a grueling seven day trip from cairns down, visiting with newsXpress members in scheduled sessions on strategies for building the business and presenting a better retail story. This face to face contact, even for remote newsagents, is a key point of difference delivered by newsXpress to its members.
Newsagents can almost bank the results of these practical visits through increased sales, better processes and more a more motivated team. from Visual merchandising advice to better buying to handling staff issues, our members have access to professional advice in-store to help build a healthier business.
In addition to the benefits delivered through training and practical in-store work, there is a tremendous benefit from sharing stories from other newsagencies along the way. The sharing of these stories is an important function of our on the road team – connecting newsagents who, usually for distance, are not able to get out of their businesses.
We think this contact and the sharing of business success stories is another reason newsXpress newsagents are more up-beat and proactive.
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.
Gift Ideas in the front window
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…
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.
GO WEST – art is available there!
The recent round of national newsXpress Market Fairs inspired many newsXpress stores to introduce new product lines and ranges into their business.
The Canson Art offer was particualrly popular and newsXpress Margaret River were suitably enticed to introduce the newsXpress exclusive Canson Creative Centre, thecardboard wall and to also particapte in the Canson Creative Christmas promotion.
The photos below show the product in store and early indications are that they are creating considerable interest with customers.
Great Christmas counter offer
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.
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.
Pelican Waters embrace HOT ink!
newsXpress Pelican Waters have warmly embraced the newsXpress brand and its many and varied business modules.
Chief amongst these are the HOT ink! category which was allocated a large section of prime retail space and has subsequently flourished. The banner size HOT ink! logos around this display are fantastic, delineating the category and drawing the attention of all customers directly to the product as soon as they enter the store.
Great Christmas gift from Pentel
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.
Newsagents and long term franchise agreements
newsXpress does not lock members into long term franchise agreements. We prefer member newsagents to stay with us because they want to stay and not because of a legal threat. This is a hot issue among newsagents today. We find it being raised more and more by newsagents who enquire about joining newsXpress. Two other newsagent franchise groups lock newsagents into long agreements, usually five years.
We have had newsagents recently tell us they have heard of legal action against other newsagents to force them to stay with a group. Legal action is expensive, intimidating and takes you away from running your newsagency. If a relationship is not working, why litigate or threaten litigation to force the union to remain?
Our view here at newsXpress is that we prefer to be kept focused by the knowledge that our members stay because they like what we do. We also think it is fair to NOT lock the current newsagents and future prospective purchasers of the business into a long agreement.
Early back to school pitch
newsXpress has provided members wanting to make an early Back To School pitch with marketing collateral featuring excellent deals. The catalogues, delivered by Salmat, also feature our Nintendo Wii competition. While many newsagents prefer to focus on Christmas this time of the year, we recognise that Back To School specialists are busy promoting their offers to schools which like to get orders completed prior to the end of the current year.
newsXpress, through its Back To School campaign and support, has been able to get some members into the opportunity for the first time.
newsXpress website enhancements
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.
Nuts for Christmas
Following up the tremendous success with the newsXpress Morish Nuts offer for Father’s Day, last month we launched an exclusive Christmas pack for our members. We are supporting this initiative with free marketing collateral in store including double sided A2 posters. Poster packs were sent to all stores regardless of size. The posters follow the same visual theme of our other Christmas posters – creating a professional and consistent in-store story.
One of our goals is to deliver gift opportunities to our members around which they can promote easy gift giving to their customers. Easy decision making is crucial for gifts in a newsagency as they are often an add-on purchase. Hence the focus not only on excellent product but also professional collateral to position the gift.
Developing newsXpress in Darwin
Roger and Lesley Bortfield are in
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.
Christmas sale at newsXpress
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.