Annette Sym is touring the country supporting the launch of Symply Too Good To be True 6 and is dropping in on newsXpress stores in her travels.  At our Knox City store in Victoria recently, Annette visited and signed some books along with marketing collateral which we had at the counter.  This personal note to our customers is indicative of what makes Annette loved by newsagents and her fans.  newsXpress has been able to help members ensure that they have on-going supply of this popular title.

newsXpress Leongatha is promoting Symply Too Good To Be True 6 on the dance floor of the store with this excellent display. Team member Dianne decorated the display to bring it to life and generate more shopper attention. Great sales are bound to follow.

It was Dianne’s birthday when we visited and the staff had bought her flowers, a small gift and said happy birthday to her over the intercom.

newsXpress Leongatha is a happy and rpoductive place to work.

newsXpress Yarram is driving good business with this excellent and bold display for Annette Sym’s Symply Too Good To Be True 6 book.  Positioned on a power end and faacing customers as they enter the store, they are making the most of the newsagent exclusive opportunity.

Like all good newsXpressers, they are also promoting Annette’s five other bestselling books with Symply Too Good To Be True 6 at newsXpress Yarram.

If you live in Yarram, visit newsXpress Yarram.

Annette Sym’s Symply Too Good To be True 6 has been selling very well at newsXpress Forest Hill thanks to this power end display as well as tactical engagement designed to drive impulse purchases in the store. Extending the basket with a $28.00 purchase is a very nice outcome … made all the more easier thanks to newsXpress tactics.

Getting stock has not been an issue thanks to the newsXpress supplier relationship which keeps stock flowing of high selling titles.

Like many other newsagents, sales in the magazine department at newsXpress Bairnsdale magazine department were down on last year. As proactive newsXpress members, they made a series of strategic hanges to address the decline.  These changes included:

Relaying magazines and introduced beacon branding at the same time

Implementing and actively promoting the newsXpress magazine club card. The newsXpress exclusive training video made implementing this easier for training staff.

Embracing in-location magazine displays with great success.

Pushing slow cooker and master chef titles aggressively. The growth in the food category has been spectacular.

Because of these changes, magazine sales at newsXpress Bairnsdale have turned around and they are now trading well above the industry average and showing good year on year growth.

Well done to David, Gina and the team!

You can’t miss the Hallmark Father’s Day card promotion at newsXpress Eli Waters.

The terrific display makes the Hallmark card range the hero and the opportunity to win an MP3 player and speakers the carrot to make the purchase.  By showing off the actual prize it makes the competition real for shoppers in-store.

newsXpress has organised the free MP3 players for members as part of the newsXpress / Hallmark Alliance Program.  newsXpress funds access to this for members carrying the Hallmark everyday range.

The team at newsXpress Bairnsdale is promoting the newsXpress exclusive free bag which comes with the latest issue of Donna Hay magazine with this excellent in-store display.

Displaying the magazine and the bag in the one display along with the promotional poster make the pitch simple and compelling - as the photo shows.  The display is designed and placed within the store to drive good impulse business.

The team at newsXpress Bairnsdale understand the value magazine promotions to drive not only impulse business but to give the store a visual lift.

newsXpress Watergardens is promoting Annette Sym’s new Symply Too Good To Be True 6 book out the front of the store and generating excellent sales as a result.  Capitalising on the excellent media coverage of the launch, the display is drawing shoppers to the store to brose and buy the popular title.

The eye-catching display by Renee deserves special appreciation since it was created without any marketing collateral from the publisher.

The columns at the front of the newsXpress Watergardens store are used well to promote fresh offers from the business - like other retailers do with fresh window displays.

The counter promotion of Annette Sym’s Symply Too Good To Be True 6 has been a tremendous hit at newsXpress Knox.  Not only has Symply Too Good To Be True 6 sold extremely well but sales of editions 1 through 5 of the series have been excellent.  Extra stock has been ordered, again, to keep up with demand.

The team at newsXpress Knox is following the newsXpress recommended approach and it is working a treat - driving excellent impulse business at the counter.

This is further evidence of the newsXpress difference working. Adding $7.00 in margin to a sale containing a single newspaper, a magazine or a greeting card makes that sale far more valuable.  It also reinforces the value of shopping at newsXpress to the customer and is more likely to birng them back.

Extending the shopping basket through practical tactics is an important part of the what newsXpress delivers to its members.

newsXpress is proud to be offering a free eco bag with the latest issue of Donna Hay magazine.  All newsXpress stores received this free gift as selected specially for us.  The light blue bag looks stunning against the cover of the magazine - also featuring tones of blue.

News Magazines, the publisher of Donna Hay, provided our stores with posters co branded with newsXpress.

This promotion is another example of newsXpress negotiating with suppliers to add value to the products we sell.

here is another terrific window display from newsXpress Riverlink.  This time promoting the fifteenth anniversary issue of marie claire magazine.

The Riverlink team has made great use of the marketing collateral from Pacific Magazines - to create a display visually appealing and which attracts traffic.

newsXpress respects the opportunity magazines present in our businesses.  This is why we acknowledge and appreciate good marketing initiatives around key titles in the category.

The team at newsXpress Riverlink promoted the latest issue of the MasterChef magazine, the collectors edition featuring the winner of the TV show, in their shop window.  This brilliant display was a beacon, drawing customers in and driving excellent sales for the store.

What an inspiration this display is!  It is bright, appealing and trading off a brand Australians love - and supporting this with the newsXpress brand.

newsXpress is proud to publish this photo as an excellent example for the many who read this blog looking for visual merchandising and other ideas.

The team at newsXpress Umina (NSW) takes pride in their tactical magazine promotions. Eschewing the traditional billboard type display, they focus on carefully placed displays designed to drive basket size. All displays include product which can be purchased without requiring customers to hunt for stock to purchase elsewhere.

newsXpress is thrilled to have proactive members like team at Umina who take price in leveraging greater sales efficiency from a core product department such as magazines.

Through our team of Business development Managers around the counter and at member meetings, newsXpress is able to share innovation between members. The photos from Umina are part of our portfolio of successful in-store displays.

The team at newsXpress Knox setup a terrific, and successful, display promoting Tour de France titles.

Capping the entrance to the main magazine aisle, the display has drawn great attention and driven excellent sales.  The success of the display demonstrates the value of focusing on events like the Tour de France.

The display will run for just a few days more  as we are close to selling out of stock.

newsXpress stores across the country have each been given a Jabulani soccer ball, the one being used in the World Cup, to give away in a competition promoting the latest issue of Alpha magazine.

This competition is the latest initiative from the News Magazines / newsXpress relationship designed to drive sales for the benefit of newsXpress members and News.

In addition to the soccer ball, News Magazines provided collateral to help drive sales - including the branded backing card in the photo (larger photo available here).

newsXpress has created a training video for newsXpress members and their employees on how to leverage maximum sales from ACP Magazines’ Women’s Weekly Slow Cooker cookbook.  This training video is accessible now at the newsXpress website, in the members area.  members can watch this online or download the video for sharing among all employees.  Access is free to all members.

Our initiatives on the Slow Cooker title have seen our members achieve record sales.  This has been done by driving shopping basket efficiency, doubling and sometimes tripling the value of a sale.

The newsXpress difference is that we use a range of business driving levers to help our members make more from the traffic in their stores.  We do this using newsXpress exclusive initiatives and materials.  Our newsXpress exclusive training video published this week is further evidence of this.

Some of what we have been able to do with this title is further evidence of our valuable magazine publisher relationships.

newsXpress Ascot Vale have taken advantage of the great newsXpress POS as well as utilising The Sunday Age ‘car flag’ giveaway and the vast range of Soccer World Cup publications themselves to promote the world’s largest sporting event commencing tonight in South Africa.

With the eyes of the world glued to the telecast, newsXpress newsagents have profitted by strongly merchandising soccer themed magazines and related product, some have even reported sales exceeding $1,500.00 for magazines, a monumental result!

Diane and Kylie have done a great job promoting this historic event, and have transformed their front window with a magnificent World Cup theme. They also expect a strong boost tomorrow on the eve of Australia’s opening game against Germany and the release of a $2.00 Socceroo supporter scarf with the Herald Sun.

newsXpress has been successful in sourcing additional FIFA World Cup magazine stock for its members running promotions using newsXpress marketing collateral.  This additional stock is helping our members extend the value of the World Cup promotion well into the Cup itself.

Thanks to strategic publisher relationships, newsXpress is often able to help members source stock when magazine distributors advise they are out of stock.

newsXpress stores across Australia are actively promoting the latest issue of Master Chef magazine.  We were able to arrange through News magazines for extra stock in advance of the allocation for the latest issue which went on sale two days ago.  The result of additional stock is showing in many newsXpress locations with stellar sales in just two days.  Some stores have reached a 60% sell through for Master Chef already.  This is extraordinary given that they received considerably more stock than the total quantity they sold for issue one of the magazine.

One of the reasons for the success of the title in newsXpress stores is our suite of tactical magazine tools.

The photo is from a counter display at newsXpress Knox in Victoria, one of our corporate stores.

Sally Murphy at newsXpress Emerald was so inspired after viewing the great dispalys made by newsXpress members, especially the Master Chef one featured in this blog here, that she went out and created a spectacular exhibit of her own!

To promote this month’s issue of Better Homes & Gardens wiht the bonus Chook Book, Sally and team have set a dining table and decorated it wiht chicken statues, and comically some rubber chickens on the plates. In-Store theatre is an important part of the retail business, and being able to creatively and imaginatively express yourself within your merchandise displays is a great step towards success. The gauntlet has now been thrown down to other newsXpress members to outdo each other’s displays.