Status report on the testing of the new Network XChangeIT system. Currently there are two major problems with it.

1) The delivery DD2 files are being delivered too late. Most people need to the invoices by midday.

2) You still can't tell, which bundle the DD2 file belongs to.

It still needs some fine tuning.

Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 03:00PM

New tools for handling Publication requirements

It's a never ending battle to keep up with publication companies and the way they choose to distribute their wares. This weeks webinar we will catchup on the new tools posbrowser has for making sure the process is as streamlined as possible.

Closing date: Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 05:00PM

A paywall is a term used by newspapers where someone online is offered a newspaper, but they have to pay for it.

The Australian is offering now a digital version free for three months. The idea being in three months they are trying to move people online and get them to pay with a paywall.

nd it interesting to see comments here from the Australian public what they think about these paywalls here. The consensus was as the Australian public are used to free news online, they are now upset that the Australian intends to make them pay for it.

I still think that these paywalls are going to have only very limited success. That there is going to be little money for the publishers online and they are better off sticking to brick and mortar companies like newsagents.

We are involved now in a pilot program with Network Services using XChangeIT. Among other things, it will allow you to import in XChangeIT invoices and produce labels in the order of the packing.

This should save our clients a lot of time looking for magazines.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/man-dropped-from-lottery-syndicate-wi…

There is a legal problem what to do if you the organiser of a lottery syndicate, and someone does not pay that week, and the ticket wins big. Because there is so much money involved, often that someone is willing to go to court.

Here is one such case that went to court recently. I suspect this costed the lottery seller much.

These are available here.

Overall it is 6.43% down. The big losers tend to be the Men's category.

The current newspaper circulation figures are here.

Newspapers went down 3.8% in this quarter compared to last year. This is worse than I expected. Part of the reason is unlike last quarter. Fairfax went down more than others.

Like the last quarter, there was no difference between weekdays, Saturday or Sunday all went down the same. Victoria and South Australia did not do as badly as the rest of Australia.

Based on these figure, I estimate the drop in newspapers' sales in December will be 2.4% down compared to this quarter, and about 5% down on last year.

There seems to be some confusion with the latest ARTWRAP catalogue file over whether the current catalogue file includes the Christmas stock.

We have just confirmed with ARTWRAP and have been assured by them that it does include the Christmas stock.

The latest Artwrap catalogue file was placed here for you to put into your system.

(Outdated file - decommissioned)

The Lucky Charm Group had a presentation dinner which several people from POS Solutions were invited as special guests. Since it discusses our work with them on the Rewards Card Program, something that I feel is probably the most import innovation in newsagencies in the past few years, I decided to blog it.

Hi guys

Thanks for attending our dinner last Friday. Helen and I hope you had a great time.

Introducing Joe and Phil from POS Solutions as the reasons why we could launch TLC Rewards was an honour and a thrill for me.

To hear the rapturous applause from our retailers and suppliers was one of the biggest moments in 26 yrs of retail.

Thank you very much for your attendance.

Phil you asked me to explain why would someone want to be part of TLC?

I thought it would be best if I summarised it as follows;

TLC is focussed on ensuring we do everything in our power to ensure the customer understands they get a little bit extra in a TLC store. We are the only group that offers a franchise model that delivers the following;

1. Regular meeting with our members so that we never lose focus of what our members want. Whilst we listen to all members we will proceed with the best endeavours for the group and not individuals. We like to feel that we are a team and family group.
a. Our platform is built on the following values
i. Strength
ii. Structure
iii. Family
iv. Support

2. All stores work on 1 point of sales platform - POS Browser. All our operations manuals on how to run your store is written with browser in format.
a. If stores want support with POS we are on call and understand the system.

3. Branding a consistent planogram in all stores are similar i.e. allowing the customer to identify with the brand i.e. Hallmark, magazine planogram ink and stationery etc. Stores are still allowed to carry local product however items such as support for key suppliers is paramount.

4. Catalogues and marketing - unlike any other group our marketing is done in house and approx 5-8 catalogues are distributed and /or advertised in the local Sunday TV guide at no extra cost.
a. Eg. 4 x Ink plus BTS plus Xmas,

5. TLC Rewards - since official launch in Sept we now have over 44,500 members. NO EXTRA COST
a. Monthly promotions - ACP, Ink, Stationery and Cards
b. $10,000.00 will be given away to entice people to join
After only 1 month of promotions we have seen the following results
• Average basket size of non rewards customers = $9.89
• Average basket size of rewards customers = $12.68

Hallmark Greeting card promotion
• (Ipad giveaway) sales up 45% on pre promotion period
• No. of transactions +26%
• No. of cards purchased +37%
• Average card basket size increase 20%

ACP (Woman's Day and Ok Weekly) magazine promotion (Delonghi coffee machine giveaway)
• Woman's Day sales increase in week one = 10%
• Ok Weekly sales increase in week one = 106%
• Combo sales increase in week one = 346%
Ink and Toner promotion Ipad giveaway - week 1 results
• No. of cartridges sold +209%
• Basket size increase +17%
• No. of customers +155%
• Total $$ spent increase +199%

We expect the loyalty program should add between $6,000 and $15,000 in profit per annum (depending on how committed they are and the size of the store. Effectively it should cover their annual fees.

6. Stationery online business. Partnering with Corp Express
a. Stationery booklets supplied to stores
b. Online website for customers to buy
c. Stores must be compliant
i. Each store will have their own log in
ii. Each customer will have their own log in
1. Customers order online (they can pay via Pay Pal or the store owner can give them an account)
2. Pay online at anytime
3. Access to approx 50,000 lines (see book provided last Friday)
4. Customer places order - store approves and CE deliver direct to customer in plain packaging with delivery docket)
d. Profits to retailers = approx 20% GP

The general expectations is that by gaining a minimum of 1 new account per month at a retail value of $600 per month should equate to an annual online sales of approx $47,000 @20% = $9400 in year one. Compounding this should at least double in yr 2 with a Gross Profit of at least $20,000.00. Very good considering you do not need to carry any stock. Our members can the use this facility to drive office and corporate customers back into our stores

Greg from Hervey Bay believes the online business will add $100,000 per annum to his stationery business in yr 1 @20% = $20,000. He already has 4 national accounts lined up and we will not launch until Jan 2012

We are the best group working on new areas to innovate their business.

We are the best group working on growing their business not trying to simply screw suppliers

Cheers - hope this helps. If you're not sure about any information provided don't hesitate to give me a call.

Kind regards

Mike Kentros
Lucky Charm
Managing Director
Tel 1300 582 592

We are starting a pilot program very soon with Network Services, that among other, things will when you import in XChangeIT invoices, produce labels in the order of the packing. This should save people a lot of time looking for magazines. It will commence next week.

If you are interested in joining this pilot program, please let me know by Thursday.

Update: Thanks for your interest, we have a full house as we now have enough people for the tests.

Benchmarking on the October promotions at the Lucky Charm Group rewards cards have just been done. The following is the report of the October promotions just finalised. It was done in three parts. What we did not expect is that we would be so successful with ink cartridges.

Ink – buy any 2 cartridges and go into the draw to win an ipad

-Average number of ink purchased (quantity) increased 111%
-Number of customers buying ink +78%
-Basket size increase by 12%
-Total ink sales increase by 100% over the promotional period.

Promotion was supported by emailing all customers who bought stationery plus catalogue, Sunday full page TV guide advert and in-store point of sale.

Magazine promotion – Buy Woman’s Day and Ok Weekly – win a Delonghi coffee machine

-Average weekly combo sales increased 215%

Promoted via email to all customers who bought magazines plus point of sale.

Hallmark Cards – Buy any two Hallmark products to win a Ipad

-No of transactions increased 20.7%
-Total average weekly increase (overall) on cards 44.5%
-Average card basket size increase 19.8%

Promoted via email to all customers who bought cards plus point of sale.

This is an amazing result considering it was just the first month of promotion.

Lucky Charm now has about 32 shops on the reward's cards.

On the 23/September, they had 25,000 VIP members.
On the 29/September they had 30,000 members.
Now it is about 43,000 members.

That 43% growth rate this month, is much higher than we expected. The only way we can explain it, is that people who were not customers of these newsagencies are joining the Lucky Charm VIP club.

And they are using it. These VIP accounts are currently purchasing at these Lucky Charm newsagents about 5,000 items a day.

To answer a question, I am getting asked frequently. These are clearly NOT just regular customers doing their regular purchases at these newsagencies. Many of them are new customers plus they are buying much more.

We are going to release some benchmark figures soon once we finish our analysing.

We have been working with several newsagents' suppliers, mainly card companies to set up a low-cost industry data exchange. We envisage that it will send invoices down and receive sales data back.

It is currently in alpha test mode. I have already approached some people to be beta test sites, so we expect to start immediately.

It should save people a lot of time in processing.

Gary Angus, the newsagent from Pall Mall newsagency went to work at 10:00pm last night. Sometime before 11:30pm in his shop, Gary was brutally stabbed many times. All of us who knew him, in the industry are shocked and in mourning over his tragic murder. He was 49.

I knew him well. He was one of our oldest clients. Gary was a good man, very hard-working, a kind-hearted man, a happy man and I remembered he liked very much a good joke.

Among others the latest Artwrap catalog file was placed here for you to put into your system. (Outdated file - decommissioned)

It is available free of charge.

POS Solutions got a perfect score in the recent audit of our sales data by Gordan and Gotch.

As readers here know we are benchmarking closely this rewards program which we wrote, which is on a scale that no-one has ever attempted in the newsagency marketplace.

The Lucky Charm Rewards program
On the 23/September, had 25,000 members
On the 29/September it had 30,000 members
Although it is not yet officially announced, I can tell you it now has over 35,000 members.

Much of the problem is that many people can sell newsagents products, as such the reasons for selecting newsagents as the point of purchase can often be trivial. That is why a rewards program is so necessary.

Here is what the newsagent at "The Lucky Charm Southern River" had to say about the program.

Dear all;

Thought we would share our good news story regarding the rewards card.

I asked one particular lady if she wanted to sign up a while ago and she said, “No thanks I live in the country and only travel past here once a month to see my parents” Of course I replied, “One entry into the draw every month is better than none” and she joined up.

She came in again late last night – she bought a Mon Marte Easel from us. It turns out she belongs to a large art community in Boddington. She said she loves the service she gets here and she is quite impressed with our art supplies. We sent her away with a Mon Marte Catalogue and our contact details, she is going to talk to the President of the Art club and see if we can’t become their supplier.

“Can I use my rewards card for this transaction?”, she asked? “You most certainly can we said! “

If we did not sign her up she could of stopped at any newsagent to get her parents magazines – the Rewards card bought her back to us and look what business we are potentially going to receive from this!!!

We love the rewards program…

Cheers

Jo

Benchmarked figures

One area of improvement we did not expect to see was the number on customers who continued to purchase this combo the next week. As reported the first week of W/day and Ok Weekly promotion combo proved to be an outstanding success.

Here are the Woman' Day and Ok Weekly Sold as a combo Monday 26 Sept to Thursday Sat 1 October which as I previously noted in a past article we are using as a benchmark. As you can see they are good.

Now see what happens as the accelerator rewards program bites in from the transaction log of the same combo of Woman' Day & Ok Weekly, benchmarked group sales sold from Monday 3 Oct to Saturday 8 October. 414% more.

Overall from the previous week to this benchmark to this week the improvement was 314%.

Here are some more figures, Hallmark cards sales with reward customers, posty and pre promo the number of customers went up 66.3%, the basket size went up only slightly from $7.43 to $7.66 but total sales went up 69.1%.

Magazines sales to reward customers had a 300% increase which is tremendous although the initial amounts were not high.

News Limited proposed many changes to their subscriptions systems. This required many program changes from us as it was one of the biggest changes in the modelling of subscriptions.

However, despite that, our clients had absolutely nothing to do. All the changes went through automatically into their system. No messy updates after hours. They did not have to come early or late, shut down operations of their system. It is quite amazing. I am sure they had other things to do besides computer maintenance.

It is now up and running and received a nice thanks from News Ltd for our leading commitment in the modernization of the newsagency industry.

We are delighted to announce that our new circulation and subscription solution (DTI Circulation) has successfully launched in NSW.

Thank you for making your system updates available to newsagents so they can implement the change.

We are excited by the opportunities DTI Circulation brings and the greater efficiency we will all see as a result.

Thank you for your support and your ongoing commitment.

Ida AthertonGroup Technology Manager - Circulation and SubscriptionsNews Limited

What the Lucky Charm Group have been doing is running a special magazine combo of a Woman's Day and a Oz Weekly. Please look what the benchmarking shows.

Before the rewards program was introduced from Monday the 26/September to the Tuesday 27/September, they sold 12 combos which was reasonable. Here is the benchmarked data across the group.

Because now they have a rewards card program, the same combo run from Monday 3 Oct to Tuesday 4 October a week later, they sold 34 combos - a 183% increase

Transaction log of the benchmarked group sales are

Suppliers are now actively behind it, see the prizes some have offered. The Lucky Charm Rewards Scheme now has hit 30,000. That is 5,000 more than last week. Newsagents on the program are reporting how pleased they are with the program.

For example, the newsagent at the "The Lucky Charm Hervey Bay" who set himself a target of 650, now has almost tripled that. On the 28/September they had 1,559 member in their reward program. This is what he had to say about the program.

Hi Bernard,

We strongly feel that the Rewards Card will benefit our business. We can see it happening already with new customers coming into our shop.

The $10000 reward is a big draw card and as we promote the monthly specials customers are really interested. I think we will see growth in our Magazines sales as well as Cards and Lotto.

Regards Greg