Tag: retail benchmark

The $9.77 shop and the $28.72 shop: what our gift data reveals

In our latest benchmark study of 32 newsXpress member shops, 14 reported meaningful gift department data for January to May 2026. The spread in performance was wide, and instructive.

The lowest average gift unit price in the network was $9.77. The highest was $28.72. Nine of the 14 shops grew gift revenue year on year, and the strongest grew it by 149%.

The shops at the bottom of that range are mostly selling novelty and impulse items. Cheap, cheerful, easily found at a discount department store. The shops at the top have built something different: a curated, considered gifting destination with brands like Koh Living, Splosh and Affirmations, plus quality local suppliers. Product a customer cannot price-check on their phone in three seconds.

Our consistent finding across the network is that shops with gift average unit prices above $20 outperform shops below $12. A gift department that feels different from Big W or the supermarket wins. One that feels like a smaller version of them loses.

The good news for any retailer reading this: building a real gift destination does not require a big floor. It requires discipline. The advice we gave members from this study:

  • Choose quality over quantity. A tight range of 30 good lines beats 100 average ones.
  • Refresh regularly. Gift customers return looking for what is new. Give them a reason.
  • Price with confidence. Considered gifts carry margin because the customer is buying meaning, not commodity.

This analysis, and the shop-specific advice that follows it, is part of what newsXpress provides members for free. We also connect members with preferred gift suppliers, share what is selling across the network before trends peak, and run seasonal marketing that drives gift purchases in-store and online.

Independent retailers often tell us they know gifts matter but do not know where to start. That is exactly the gap a good marketing group fills. The data from your peers shows what works. We bring that data, the supplier access and the playbook. You bring the shop.

Our goal is to help local retailers thrive and we do this by figuring out, based on their location, data and financial situation, steps they can take that are more likely to work. Our approach is evidence based, Coll;aborative and proven year on year.

What the Lincraft closure actually tells us about independent retail

Lincraft confirmed yesterday it’s closing every store in Australia and New Zealand. Eighty years of trading, done.

The commentary will follow a predictable path. Consultants will use it as a case study. Retail journalists will write about physical retail dying. Neither response is especially useful.

Lincraft was a chain. It ran at scale — national leases, centralised supply, fixed cost structures across dozens of locations. When that model stops working, it stops working everywhere at once. That’s not the situation an independent retailer faces. One shop, a local customer base, the ability to change something this week and see the result next week.

The data from newsXpress member stores tells a different story from the headlines. The most recent benchmark covered 33 stores, January to May 2026 against the same period last year. Transaction count was down 4.1%. Revenue was up 4.8%. Average sale value was up 8.5%. Gross profit was up 10%. That’s 750,000 transactions from locally owned shops. Not businesses in decline — businesses mid-transition, and the transition is working.

No consultant drove that. No conference session. Individual owners made their own calls — new categories, adjusted product ranges, shops that reflect what their local customers actually want to buy. Gifts, homewares, sensory toys, things no chain bothers stocking because chains can’t move fast enough or care enough about a single postcode.

That’s the advantage independent retail has always had. It just shows up more clearly when a chain hits a wall.

Costs are up for independents too. Some traditional categories are smaller than they were. Foot traffic has changed. The owners doing well aren’t pretending otherwise — they’ve moved, steadily, in the right direction.

The Lincraft closure is a real loss for the staff and the customers who relied on those stores. But scale and longevity don’t protect a business when the model underneath stops fitting the market.

Local ownership and a willingness to change — that’s harder to replicate than any supply agreement.

newsXpress helps local indie retailers thrive on a minimal budget and without overthinking. We like to have fun while we work on our businesses.

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newsXpress supports small local independent retailers to thrive. Find out more at help@newsxpress.com.au.

Greeting cards are quietly getting more valuable. Is your card department keeping up?

This is real – newsXpress helps its members grow card sales through proven evidence-based engagement at a store by store level.

This is an exclusive service and its free.

Greeting cards remain the anchor category for most shops in our network, so we watch the data closely. Our latest benchmark study of 32 newsXpress member shops, covering January to May 2026, shows average card prices rising across the board.

Every shop that reported card data saw a flat or rising average card price year on year. The network median average card price moved from $6.04 to $6.27. At the top end, one shop achieved an average card price of $8.97. At the bottom, $4.43.

That spread, from $4.43 to $8.97, is the story. Two shops selling the same category, and one banks more than double the revenue per card sold. Same counter space. Same customer occasion. Very different result.

Publishers are lifting prices and customers are paying them. The question for any card retailer is whether your range lets you participate in that shift. Our advice to members, based on this data, is practical:

  • If your average card price sits below $5.50, you have clear headroom. The fix is range curation, not price gouging. Reduce low value lines and bring in premium publishers alongside your standard range.
  • Review the range at least annually. A card department untouched for 12 months is almost certainly carrying dead stock, and dead stock costs you twice: the capital tied up and the better seller it is blocking.
  • Watch your captions. The occasions driving premium purchases deserve the best position in the department, not alphabetical order.

This is what newsXpress members receive as part of membership, at no extra charge. We analyse the data, we benchmark it against comparable shops, and we turn it into actions you can take this week. We also negotiate with card suppliers on behalf of close to 200 member shops, which gives members access and terms an independent rarely gets alone.

Cards built this channel. Managed well, they still fund it. The data says the opportunity is sitting in the average price, and most shops have not collected it yet. If you would like to see how your card department compares, talk to us.

Fewer customers, more revenue: what 32 newsagency-style shops just taught us about basket value

We have just finished analysing sales data from 32 newsXpress member shops covering January to May 2026, compared with the same five months in 2025. The headline surprised some members: transactions fell 4.0% across the network, yet revenue grew 4.0%.

The number doing the work is average sale value. Across the network it rose from $20.29 to $21.97, up 8.3%. Customers are visiting less often and spending more when they do. Five shops in the study grew average sale value by more than 15%.

That did not happen by accident, and it did not happen through discounting. The shops achieving it made deliberate range decisions. They added depth in gifts, premium cards and collectibles, and they cut lines that filled shelves without filling tills.

This is the kind of analysis newsXpress provides members at no extra cost. We take point of sale data, benchmark each shop against its peers, and come back with specific advice. Not theory. Specific advice for that shop.

This is curated advice with actionable steps – created for each business, for free. heavy lifting done not only in data analysis but in considering the store location and local economic and social conditions.

Here is an example of what we told members off the back of this data:

  • Pull your top 20 revenue lines. Check whether they are growing, whether you are ordering enough depth, and whether they are displayed where customers actually walk.
  • Pull your bottom 20 lines by margin. Most shops find at least a handful of space wasters that could be replaced with higher value product tomorrow.
  • Stop measuring success by door count. Foot traffic in our channel is structurally softer than it was. Basket value is where the growth is, and it is within your control.

The shops in this study range from large shopping centre businesses turning over more than $1.5 million for the period to small country shops under $65,000. The basket value lesson held at both ends.

If you run an independent newsagency, gift shop or similar retail business and nobody is benchmarking your data against shops like yours, you are flying blind. newsXpress members get this every quarter, with a phone call to talk it through. That is what a marketing group should do.