Wedding display at newsXpress Gatton

gatton-wedding.jpgRenae from newsXpress Gatton put together this terrific display of wedding related products, combining gifts, wrap, magazines and wedding accessories.  The display is an excellent example of good visual merchandising in a high traffic location and promoting products from a range of categories.

In addition to driving sales, the display brings a warmth to the store which is not obvious in many more traditional newsagencies.

Congratulations Renae on such a terrific display.

Graduation gifts at Wetherill Park

wetherillpark-graduation.JPGThe display of graduation gifts at newsXpress Wetherill Park is an excellent example of attractive, engaged and shopper friendly visual merchandising. Situated in a high traffic location on the dance floor, the display will drive graduation gift and greeting card sales.  The sign congratulating Year 12 students is a nice touch and will attract students buying gifts for each other.

The team at newsXpress Wetherill Park does the newsXpress brand proud.

Tom Hopkins coaches at newsXpress Noosa Heads

World renowned business guru Tom Hopkins has delivered a two hour business coaching session to the team at newsXpress Noosa Heads.  Tom had worked previously with Ross and Graeme Marlow and it was through a friendship forged decades ago that the opportunity for the coaching session emerged.  The team at newsXpress Noosa Heads embraced the opportunity and has some excellent fresh skills as a result.

The Sunshine Coast Daily has more on this story.

Promoting Halloween at Riverlink QLD

riverlink-halloween.JPGnewsXpress Riverlink started promoting Halloween last week with this promotional window display in advance of stock going sale over the next week.

A centrepiece in the window is a large spider which was provided by one of the newsXpress preferred suppliers for just this type of high profile display.

NewsXpress Riverlink customers are excited, and scared (in a good way), for this year’s Halloween season.

Gift cards a hit at newsXpress Beechworth

beechworth-giftcards.jpgnewsXpress Beechworth is reporting tremendous success with the Blackhawk gift card range.  At Father’s Day and other seasons the gift cards are a popular add-on to a greeting card purchase.  Gift card customers are also adding greeting cards to their purchase.  This is a nice win win for newsXpress Beechworth and other stores carrying the popular line.

Tracey from newsXpress Beechworth explained said they are very happy to have these gift cards as they know the post office next door have been selling helps of them.

newsXpress is focussed on a range of basket building strategies for newsXpress members to drive shopper efficiency.  This is working at newsXpress Beechworth.

AFL Grand Final Syndicate at newsXpress Eli Waters

grand-final-syndicate.jpgCollingwood tragic Allan Wickham has kicked off AFL Grand Final Week with two house lottery syndicates at newsXpress Eli Waters promoting the AFL Grand Finalists – Collingwood and St Kilda.

This is an excellent initiative which is certain to drive lottery sales as well as customer engagement around the topic of the Grand Final.

newsXpress members understand the value of theatre in retail and sporting Grand Finals present an excellent opportunity to leverage this.

newsXpress officially prefers St Kilda because their team colours are the newsXpress colours.  We are considering making supporting St Kilda a mandatory requirement of newsXpress members.

Newsagent conference attracts 118 newsagents

The travelling one-day national newsagent conference hosted by newsXpress earlier this month attracted in excess over 100 newsagents across several locations.

The feedback from attendees on content, supplier deals and networking with others has been excellent.

The overwhelming feedback from those attending was that they prefer this type of one-day event closer to their home location than a longer national event which requires considerably more time out of the business.

We hope to have an announcement later this week for those unable to attend the one-day conference.

Great calendar range at newsXpress Sunbury

sunburysq-calendars.jpgnewsXpress Sunbury Square is already enjoying terrific success with their 2011 calendar range.  As one of the owners, Brendan Mason, commented last week: This is about 2/3 of our brown trout range. They were selling as we put them out and are attracting a lot of attention. A comprehensive range of dog and cat breeds works for us each year.  Kudos to everyone at newsXpress Sunbury Square in creating such a strong statement around the 2011 calendar offer.

newsXpress identified calendars as a key category right when the newsagency marketing group started. Smart members actively engage with the category from around now until well into the New Year.  We help members make the most of the category with buying guidance, exclusive terms and in-store marketing support.

Slow cooking at newsXpress Streaky Bay

streakybay-slowcooker.jpgThe two dishes cooking in-store at newsXpress Streaky Bay (SA) gave the shop a warm and comforting smell and helped sell more copies of the Slow Cooker and other cookbooks from the ACP range.  The display led to good impulse purchases as well as providing Sue and the famile with dinner that night!

One additional book on the display was The Aussie dumb a&$e cook book, a cookbook aimed at blokes. newsXpress Streaky Bay has sold  75 of these at $24.95.

Gifts integrated with cards at Port Lincoln

portlincoln-gifts.jpgTwo weeks ago, newsXpress Beers Port Lincoln (SA) integrated gifts with cards as part of a strategy pursuing increased basket penetration.  They have placed a selection of appropriate gifts near each key card category.  Shoppers in Port Lincoln now have another reason to shop at newsXpress Beers Port Lincoln for cards and gifts.

Joy and David Whennen have been terrific innovators in their business, constantly evolving their offer to build a more enjoyable shopping experience and a more valuable retail business.

Newsagent conference attendees see the newsXpress difference

gotalk-newsxpress.JPGNewsagents flying in for the newsXpress newsagent conferences held in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane over the last week have seen an excellent example of a proactive newsagency marketing group at work.   On Virgin Blue flights an ad is playing for the gotalk  Prepaid Mobile product and there, branded next to four other respected national brands is newsXpress.

newsXpress is the only newsagency marketing group recognised in this high profile advertising – as is othen the case with national brand media campaigns in the newsagency channel.  Yes, we are very proud!

newsXpress has been promoted this year in a range of national TV and other campaigns from Hallmark cards, gotalk and several national brand stationery companies.  In each case, we are the only newsagency marketing group to receive such traffic building attention.

newsXpress newsagent conferences a hit

vicmembmeet.JPGnewsXpress mini conferences a hit.  In Melbourne yesterday we hosted our third one day mini conference with an excellent turn out of newsXpress and non newsXpress members.

The conferences have been a good blend of practical business training, business development workshops and networking.  They have also been an excellent example of the newsXpress difference in action.

The decision we took some months ago to not run a national conference this year and instead host state based one-day sessions has proved to be a good decision.

newsXpress supports RSPCA Happy Tails Day

newsXpress is proud to be supporting the RSPCA Happy Tails Day again.  This year, we are sponsoring with Big W, Bendigo Bank, Peter Alexander and Hill’s.

rspca-happy-tails.jpg

All newsXpress stores are raising funds for this worthy cause. Each year, the RSPCA in Australia cares for around 154,000 stray, injured and abandoned animals and investigates more than 47,000 complaints of cruelty and neglect.

The RSPCA receives less than 3% government funding and as a charity, the funds raised through Happy Tails Day helps us continue our vital work.

We are thrilled that newsXpress members and their customers are supporting this important initiative.

Lucky Charm pays for newsXpress keyword

The Lucky Charm newsagency franchise group is paying Google to promote the TLC business when people type newsXpress into the Google search engine.  This may confuse some people who are searching for information about newsXpress.

If you click on the sponsored link, usually on the right of the search results, a fee is charged to The Lucky Charm.

newsXpress does not pay to come up in any search results – our results are based on our achievements.

What TLC pays Google stays with Google – this is how the Google AdWords program operates.

Wedding offers at newsXpress Top Ryde

topryde-wedding.JPGThe wedding display at newsXpress Top Ryde is in prime position, facing into the mall, promoting a broad range of wedding related product.  This excellent display is sure to attract shoppers in the Top Ryde City mall to the store.

newsXpress members can see plenty of visual merchandising examples in the photos and ideas available through our Business Development Managers.  Our newsXpress BDMs carry an album of great displays and keep adding to this based on what they see in stores.