Newsagency of the future: Navigating the local Aussie newsagency from traditional to relevant starts on the shop floor

Suppliers love telling small business newsagents what to do, they always have. The advice is selfish, and usually ignorant to the needs of local retail businesses.

There are currently round 2,800 local small business newsagencies in Australia. My software company is grateful to serve 1,800+ of them. I own a few of these shops myself, and have done since February 1996.

My advice to newsagents, and in this article is based on years owning, running and serving newsagents. Now more than every, change is key to a future.

This very rough sketch from me depicts a typical local small business newsagency layout, a design often encouraged by The Lottery Corporation, newspaper publishers, and magazine, card, and stationery companies. The focus always was on providing ample space for each supplier, with little consideration for the needs of the business paying for the shopfit.

The result was a zoned business that was inflexible and primarily served the suppliers’ interests. Too many newsagents today continue to operate with similar layouts, despite their inherent inefficiencies.

The bold colours represent high-traffic product categories, such as lottery, magazines, and newspapers. However, analysis shows that customers in these categories rarely purchase other products. For example, around 80% of newspaper purchases do not include any other product based on the mst recent newsagency sales basket analysis.

The current traditional local small business newsagency shop layout actually discourages efficiency, particularly for lottery products, which often demand a prominent front-of-store location. This can hinder the sale of other products.

The red, blue, and yellow lines represent the typical customer journey through a traditional newsagency. These lines illustrate the inefficiencies and lost opportunities in such a layout.

The failure to adapt to changing times is a significant reason for the closure of many local small business newsagencies in Australia. It’s time for the industry to embrace change and move away from outdated business models.

In 2009, I proposed a flexible newsagency design that could be easily adapted to evolving needs. Unfortunately, many businesses have continued to cling to traditional layouts, leading to financial losses.

It’s crucial for newsagents to push back against suppliers who demand excessive space or prime locations. These demands should be based on sound commercial reasons, not simply the supplier’s desires.

By analysing foot traffic patterns and customer behaviour, newsagents can identify opportunities to improve their layouts and increase sales. It’s time to modernise and adapt to the changing needs of customers.

Here are five steps I recommend for creating a more commercially viable use of your space:

1. Remove newspaper and magazine specific fixtures?from the floor of the shop.
2. Use everyday (low cost) and non product specific fixtures?for newspapers and magazines on the back wall of the shop.
3. In the freed up floor space introduce tables, desks or similar everyday found objects onto which you?place gifts in a storytelling mode. Displays should have few of each item and they should be arranged to represent a story around a theme. Open up the space in such a way that people are drawn further into the shop.
4. Remove all convenience lines from your counter and replace them with?products people will purchase on impulse, products people don’t think of you as carrying and products for which you’d like to me known.
5. Look at your stock. Urgently get rid of any product you gave not sold at all in the last six months.?Dead stock kills businesses. It really does. If you have had a products on the shelves for not sold any of it for six months that is dead cash, dead space and a measurable opportunity cost for the business.

These 5 recommended steps are to get you started. The list for transforming your newsagency from traditional to relevant is long, much longer than 5 steps. Most of the steps will be unique to your business: the place from which you start, your desired destination, your location and your resources. Changes are needed daily.

I have one more piece of advice for traditional newsagents embarking on change: don't use a shopfitter. They are expensive and, usually, inexperienced in running a shop with rapidly evolving needs.

Transforming a traditional newsagency can be done. There are plenty in the channel who will help. My details are:?[email protected]?and 0418 321 338.

It doesn’t matter how traditional your local small business newsagency is, how big or small your shop is, whether you’re in the city or country or how little you have in resources. There are always steps to a brighter future you can take.

This article has enough advice anyone can act on without having to pay for anything. That’s a reason I started the blog and continue to write here – to provide a free resource for local small business newsagents in Australia they can consider and act on if they consider it appropriate for their business.

The advice I have provided is advice I have followed myself in businesses I have purchased that were traditional at the time of purchase. The 5 steps are basic, and they work.