Achi news desk-
You should look at your new agency sales from January to April 2024 versus 2023. Knowing your results is more important than news media noise about retail sales.
While not a complete benchmark, I’ve seen data for enough businesses to share the following as reasonable results to compare your business to when looking at sales in the first four months of the year compared to the same period in 2023 for traditionally core categories:
- Magazine unit sales: down 8%.
- Newspaper unit sales: down 5%.
- Stationery sales: 3% increase.
- Ticket sales: up 2%.
If your results are outside of these, consider what you are doing in business to change the situation. There could be a good reason your numbers are different. It may also be that the business is challenged in ways that you can positively influence.
There are many things we can do in our businesses to drive sales growth. The key is taking action to achieve this. Success will not look for us, we must look for it. Please forgive this cliché… but it’s true.
Stationery is having a good moment, it’s easy to increase sales. Cards also respond to handling and attention from you, especially if you are tactical in your pursuit of the impulse purchase.
The big winner is gifts. What we can sell in our stores has changed so much. The price range we can offer has also changed. Gone are the days of newsagents targeting gifts costing $25.00 or less. I love hearing from newsagents when they’ve sold their first item for $300+ – it opens their minds to expanding their gift offering.
I own a news agency in Glenferrie Road Malvern, Melbourne. For decades it was a traditional newspaper agency, owned and well managed by one family: a giant in magazine sales and a strong hold in newspapers, cards and stationery.
Since I bought the business, we have been developing the business without failing the existing core. It works. We attract new buyers and gain revenue from new categories while maintaining good core sales.
Changing card companies has provided a huge boost and continued evolution of the card mix in the 2+ years. Displaying gifts works well, as well as displaying sensory products, multi-generational plush as well as housewares.
What we stopped early on also helped: we got rid of the drinks fridge, the ice cream fridge, sweets on the counter and 20% of the magazine area. Now, in cutting magazine space, we haven’t cut any titles – we’ve maintained excellent magazine sales: $100,000 from January to April 2024. Special interest titles are the largest segment, accounting for $20,000 in sales in the first four months of this year.
All this was done with a minimal budget in a step-by-step approach, following opportunities discovered in the data.
Please take a moment to compare January through April 2024 to 2023. See what works and what doesn’t. If you see it as things that need attention, get into it. If you’re not sure what your comparison shows, don’t hesitate to reach out. I would be happy to take a look and respond to you on a confidential basis. I’m at [email protected] or 0418 321 338.
