Saturday 19th of May saw Brett Muggeridge (Jenlist QLD Representative) and myself attend the 21st Annual Queensland Newsagent Awards night, held at The Sebel Citigate King George Square in Brisbane.
It was a great night for newsagents to network and be honoured for their success in the industry, as well as recognising longstanding newsagents who have been involved in the QLD Newsagent Industry for the past 21 years to be honoured for their commitment and service.
I was fortunate to present the Jenlist Distributors sponsored award for Best "New Technologies" Newsagent of the year. Where newsXpress Darra took out the award, ahead of fellow finalist Agnes Waters Newsagency.
Congratulations to Luke and his team for winning this prestigious award, I wish you all the best for the ANF National Awards being held in Brisbane in July. I'm sure with results like your facebook page reaching 17,000 facebook users, you will tough to beat.
Congratulations to all the nominees on the night, especially the winners who were:
News Queensland Distribution Newsagent of the Year - Chris and Dee Pieper - Chirn Park
John Sands Retail Newsagent of the Year – The Hickey Family – Nextra Chermside
Jenlist New Technologies Newsagent of the Year – Luke La – newsXpress Darra
APN Newsagent Delivery Employee of the Year – Erika James - Beachmere News
Hallmark Newsagent Retail Employee of the Year – Rachel Kirk – newsXpress Kin Kora
The Willis Group Inaugural Best Lottery Outlet of the Year – Fairfield Gardens News – Michelle Aitken
IPS Inaugural Sustainable Newsagent of the Year – Karen and Matthew Keeffe – Gympie Mary St Newsand Gympie Market Place News
However trending suggests there is still a lot of growth in this category. (See graph below)
Personally I love tablets, they don’t replace a laptop but I do use my iPad a lot. My local blockbuster closed down a few months back so I now download movies on iTunes and even TV shows that I may have missed due to travel or programming clashes.
I watch these programmes and read the SMH on my iPad during flights, which makes travel time much more enjoyable now. I also use it for social media, doing my online banking, playing games, making my footy tips and I have even used it to create my family tree with the ancestry.com app.
But the thing that I hate most is using my tablet to type on. When you start to type the keyboard takes up half the screen which makes long emails frustrating when you need to spell check as much as I do.
However we have a few new solution to this problem in stock. Firstly we have the Laser Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard @ $59.95 RRP, it is compatible with computers, tablets, smartphones and even PS3. It also has an integrated touchpad, multimedia shortcut keys and is portable and lightweight.
We also have the Blue Tooth Qwerty Keyboard @ $49.95 which is a waterproof, dustproof and washable Mini Bluetooth Flexible Silicone Keyboard, that is the perfect portable companion for your Smartphone, iPad or Android Tablet! Made from flexible and lightweight silicone, you can simply roll it up the mini keyboard and take it with you wherever you go!
It’s Footy season time again and the “Man Chair” is primed and ready to go. Be it AFL, NRL, A League or my favourite Super 15, most warm blooded males have a favourite team they support.
Growing up in rural New Zealand, sports was an integral part of my upbringing and coming from a family that was littered with both provincial and national representatives there was always a desire to excel. My time has passed on those sporting dreams and aspirations, but my love of the game hasn’t. Over the last few years I have now joined the ranks of the “arm chair critics”.
We are the people who yell at the T.V, swear black and blue that we could have scored that try, kicked that goal or coached that team to a premiership.
Monday morning finds many of you small businesses owners, listening to your customers “arm chair critics” rattle on about the footy as they pick up their daily paper, fill up their car or grab a bite to eat. This is the perfect time to upsell a couple of true man gifts.
For many a man sport is our religion and with most religions there is always a little bit of alcohol involved. This traditionally isn’t red wine like you would find in a church, but a cold bottle of beer.
Our newest product theOpena iPhone 4/S case is in my words “Pure Genius”. It's an iPhone 4/S case with a slide out bottle opener, I have tested this out over a few cold ones myself and it is an awesome invention, @ $39.95 RRP with 50% margin there is also some great profit in such a small item.
Yesterday saw the launch of the new Boost Mobile $10 UNLTD offer on Pre-Paid. This offer is targeted towards the youth market, that traditionally use low-denomination recharge as a short term fix until they earn or receive pocket money for their next recharge.
But I also see this as a great product for tourists, who are only in Australia for a week or two at a time. The unlimited calls and txt allow them access to make bookings and call other people they are traveling with and the unlimited access to facebook, twitter and 500MB of data is enough to communicate with family and friends back home, thru status updates and photos on facebook, tweets on twitter and skype video calls, which are all things I like to do when travelling (apart from the tweets).
Boost $10 UNLTD
-UNLIMITED TALK (to any standard national number excluding Pivotel)
-UNLIMITED VOICEMAIL (both deposits and retrievals)
-UNLIMITED TEXT (to any standard national number excluding Pivotel)
-UNLIMITED mobile access to Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, eBay and foursquare
-PLUS 500MB WEB (Data)
...for 5 days when in Australia
*Value expiry in 5 days and is reset on next recharge, no roll over*
Why do Optus and Boost Mobile Pre-Paid handsets, Broadband and SIM Packs expire?
The expiry dates on these products indicate the date that the SIM card itself expires. Handset or broadband devices don’t actually expire, so bundling a $2 SIM pack with Handsets will give the consumer access to a phone number. Unfortunately there is no current $2 broadband SIM for Optus or Boost Mobile broadband products.
SIM card's have this expiry date, so that the phone numbers on unused SIM packs can be reused.
Virgin Mobile Pre-Paid products don't currently expire.
How does Jenlist Distributors assist with stock that is due to expire soon or has expired?
Close to expiry stock ?
Jenlist Distributors offer a unique “Sale or Return” policy on Pre-Paid Telco. If there is at least 2 months left of expiry on any Optus or Boost Pre-Paid product, Jenlist Distributors are happy to assist and will take this product back, once this is processed a credit will be applied to your account.
Expired stock?
Once stock is expired the SIM card is not able to be activated. Jenlist Distributors provide $2 SIM cards, that can then be bundled with the handset, to give it a fresh phone number.
Jenlist Distributors also have a one exception policy on expired stock, where we will credit stores expired stock as a one off exception to help stores out. As you can imagine this can be a large write off for a company the size of Jenlist Distributors, so this policy is viewed on a case by case basis and depends on the amount of stock to be credited for each store.
How do I best manage my expiry dates?
Pre-Paid Telco products should be checked monthly by one of your staff members. This way you can highlight which products are nearing their expiry date and return them.
Jenlist Distributors representatives will check expiry dates when they are in store, but the responsibility is with the store owner to manage their returns.
There will be some prizes again for 1st, 2nd and 3rd.
More people that enter, the better the prizes and entry is free, so if you think you have what it takes, join our comp and invite your staff.
Cassie is the reigning champ after taking out the 2011 comp, but I will be hot on her heels after tasting success in the RWC. Or will there be a new champion?
What opportunities does the impending demise of Dick Smith stores, offer shopping centre based Newsagencies?
With headlines like the ones today on news.com.au “Woolies tipped to put Dick Smith chain in the firing line” and in the Australian “Woolworths to slash Dick Smith by up to 189 stores” what opportunities are there to be had?
Plenty!
Firstly newsagents have a great track record with competing successfully against Dick Smith stores. For many years now newsagents have been known as the place to go for the best priced ink cartridges in the country. This success opens up the opportunity to expand on printer and computer accessories, especially mouses, keyboards and printer cables.
Looking at the Dick Smith online store their cheapest Mouse is $12.95 RRP (after a 35% discount) and standard Keyboard @ $19.95 RRP. Currently Jenlist Distributors give Newsagents the ability to sell mouses (mice) from $9.95 RRP andKeyboards from $14.95 RRP.
The second avenue newsagents compete favourability in is the technology category with Telco. Current results show Jenlist Distributor stores make up approximately 1/5th of all pre-paid activations to the Optus network. This proves that when it comes to Pre-Paid Telco, impulse purchases are the driving force in sales.
With this in mind we introduced the new Optus and Boost Mobile handset dump bin. It now makes sense to display this at the front of the store, to grow those impulse sales.
Once you have a market for Telco products, the next transition is to find the right accessories to offer for the upsell opportunities. With Jenlist Distributors “Sale or Exchange” policy on Telco accessories it’s a no brainer to try out a few items and find the right fit for your customers.CLICK HEREto see our range.
Our Technology offerings are ever changing and expanding to meet the opportunities that show themselves in a changing retail environment.
Are you identifying and taking advantage of these opportunities also?
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