newsXpress has launched several excellent margin Back to School book deals for members.  Books are a good basket building category for Back to School traffic and the newsXpress offer provides our menbers with a strategy for making Back to School business more profitable.  Several products in the offer will be advertised on radio and newsXpress will be tagged on the commercials.

newsXpress makes it easy for its members to professionally signpost hero offers in-store.  As the photo shows, a professional A4 sign looks much better than hand written signs or no signs at all which one often sees in independent retailers.  Our goal at newsXpress is to help our members compete not only on range and price with the majors but also on visual merchandising and in-store communication.  The price indicator in the photo is the newsXpress standard and another example of the newsXpress difference at work.  newsXpress members are able to produce these locally.

Congratulations to Rob Henderson, our National Merchandise manager, and his wife Raelene on the arrival of William Ian Henderson late on Tuesday evening.  Mum and baby are doing well.  dad is over the moon.

The books in our Merry Giftmas catalogue are driving new traffic to participating newsXpress locations across the country. The book titles have been well selected. They include ideal Christmas gifts for family and friends as well as low-cost stocking fillers and even good Kris Kringle gifts.

Customers love the book selection. They often visit holding the newsXpress catalogue they received in the mail and the books they want circled.

Basket data indicates that these book-loving customers are buying other items while in-store. This is another newsXpress win win for our members: more traffic thanks to a great catalogue, good sales and deeper baskets thanks to a compelling product offer. Better margin overall thanks to the newsXpress negotiated book deal.

More traffic, more sales per customer, better margin – this is what newsXpress is delivering to its members this Christmas.

newsXpress members are reporting excellent sales from the Digital Photo Keyring which is one of the hero products in our Merry Giftmas catalogue.  We have stores reporting customers coming in looking for the keyring after receiving the catalogue.  Others are driving good impulse purchases with the professional collateral provided by newsXpress.  Major retailers like Harvey Norman have this Keyring.  We beat them on price and service.  This is another terrific new traffic and margin per sale success story from the newsXpress merchandise team.

newsXpress Albany in Western Australia is giving away a $9,500 diamond to one lucky customer in a promotion which includes the hiPP range of Sorted home office products sourced through newsXpress.  Every sale over $20 receives an entry in the draw.

Interest in the promotion has been strong thanks to a stunning window display.

newsXpress works with its members on local promotions in addition to our national group-wide campaigns.  Our marketing team is a well of ideas and help to drive strong local businesses.

newsXpress is thrilled to welcome five new locations to the group: newsXpress Redcliffe, QLD; newsXpress Ocean Grove, VIC; newsXpress Umina Beach, NSW; newsXpress Bunbury Forum, WA; newsXpress Knox, VIC.  We anticipate announcing mroe new members next month.

The team at newsXpress Nambour in Queensland is embracing Christmas and our newsXpress Merry Giftmas promotion with good in-store displays.  The photo shoes their stocking fillers display – this is a great idea, guiding customers what to buy.  This type of visual merchandising is how we like to see the newsXpress marketing collateral and product opportunities used.

What makes the display work especially well is that it is in a good location and is easy to see.  Successful retailers execute good visual merchandising which is visually compelling, offers value and is easy to shop off.  The team at newsXpress Nambour has achieved this.

newsXpress Glendale is having good success with new moon merchandise sourced through newsXpress preferred suppliers.  The new moon branded calendars, board game, jewellery, posters and trinkets are all selling from the great in-store display.  Even a week after the new Twilight movie opened, new moon merchandise is popular.

The newsXpress merchandise team started work on new moon products many months ago and the latest sales data suggests that their efforts are paying off for newsXpress members.

newsXpress has put together marketing collateral and details of a marketing pack for use in supporting Australia Day 2010.  While not a major commercial season, the day provides us with an opportunity to connect with our local community.

The Merry Giftmas campaign launched by newsXpress several weeks ago is driving incremental traffic to participating locations.

We are receiving reports from newsXpress members telling us of new customers coming in with the items they want circled in our catalogue – making for easy sales.

The books in the catalogue are very popular as are the digital photo frames, Twilight merchandise and a range of Kris Kringle gifts.

The catalogue has been sent to thousands of homes around each participating store.

This type of external marketing based around compelling branded offers is key to building traffic, driving brand recognition and extending the efficiency of the shopping basket.  It is another way newsXpress is differentiating its retail channel.

newsXpress has established a syndicate made up of system 13, 14 and 15 tickets for sale exclusively through newsXpress Queensland stores.  Online and available store activation today, this syndicate continues a successful run of newsXpress exclsuive lottery syndicates around major draws.

newsXpress Village Mackay, part of the Pacific Magazines Top 500 club, achieved the biggest sales uplift for the June, July and August 09 issues of Better Homes and Gardens.  Their prize was a dinner for themselves and ten friends prepared by ‘Fast’ Ed Halmagi from the Better Homes and Gardens TV show.

Troy and Gillian Ross ought to be very proud of their achievements.  The Daily Mercury in Mackay published a story and photo about their win yesterday – giving their business even more exposure.  It is great celebrating success such as this!

Their sales uplift achieved by newsXpress Village Mackay, off the back of already excellent sales, was achieved through proactive in-store engagement with the title as well as newsXpress marketing initiatives.

newsXpress has made available another professional newsletter for its members to customise and print locally.  The December INSTORE OFFERS newsletter promotes Hallmark Christmas sound cards, the new moon board game, Scotch gift paper cutters, our digital photo key ring special offer, Christmas magazine gift packs and our excellent 2010 calendar range.

The newslatter is truly innovative in the newsagency channel in that it represents the professionalism and buying power of a national group with the local connection of personalised store details.

Placed out the front of newsXpress locations, this newsletter is helping newsXpress members drive traffic and sales.  We have received excellent feedback of how the newsletter is working well on these fronts.

This INSTORE OFFERS newsletter is another example of newsXpress innovation.  It is provided to our members free each month.