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*
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?
Is internet Wi-Fi surcharges in Australian hotels just a rip off, or is it also an opportunity for local retailers?
Personally I see it as an annoyance for myself, but an opportunity also in the same breath.
I tend to spend at least 70 nights a year in motels and hotels, mostly within Australia, but also overseas during holidays with my wife. The Australian stays are made up of regional trips to visit all our great retailers and also to attend industry conferences, trade shows and awards nights. Some areas are metro visits, but some are also very remote locations.
What 80% of these Australian motel and hotels have in common is NO free access to Wi-Fi internet. Whereas 80% of their counter parts around the world, actually give you free Wi-Fi internet access, where you can skype your loved ones, post photos of your trip to the likes of facebook or myspace, research where you are going to go the next day and even download a movie on your tablet for the upcoming flight, train or bus trip.
I have been to hotels where they have charged as much as $24 a day for internet access in Australia.
With this in mind, it makes sense to be stocking products like our Optus Mobile Broadband that starts at $39 RRP with up to 1GB of data and 30days to use this within. Or even our Optus Wi-Fi mini modem for $89 RRP, that includes up to 6GB of data and can connect up to 5 devices at once. This is plenty of data for doing all those things I spoke of before and with 30 days expiry, is the idea product to sell to tourists.
If you are in a really touristy area, it makes sense to really highlight this type of product for the impulse sale and what better way than with a Optus Mobile Broadband dump bin.
If you look at major retailers and stand alone phone stores you will find one thing in common that they all do well too capture additional sales in Pre-Paid Telco. They all use handset and/or $2 SIM dump bins.
Within the trade we call these the Silent Salesman, due to their ability to highlight products that are already on display.
The latest dump bin in our range is the Optus and Boost Mobile branded handset dump bin. This comes pre-printed with generic images for easy assembly and display longevity.
Along with the dump bin, we supply dummy boxes of your current range which we price, then put at the front of your store to highlight the handsets you have in range.
Most Pre-Paid Telco sales are impulse purchases. Spare of the moment purchases that are influenced by seeing a great deal or filling the need to replace a lost or damaged product. With handsets now starting at $29 RRP, these impulse purchases are becoming more and more frequent.
We supply all this at no cost to you, as we both benefit from the increase in sales. CLICK HEREto get your hands on one.
Congratulations to all the Nokia handset pack winners!
The above photos are of newsXpress Sandgate’s display which won them $250 for the best merchandised Nokia display, for their Xmas themed display of Nokia handsets.
The other picture is of Jenlist Distributors “employee of the year 2009” Laurie Smith, presenting Geoff from Fame Video with a $1000 cheque for winning the Nokia handset pack draw.
All the winners were:
Handset Pack Winners
$1000 – Fame Video Niagra Park
$500 – Moores Newsagency
$250 – South West Rocks Newsagency
Best Merchandised Store
$250 – newsXpress Sandgate
Remember there is another $100 up for grabs this month, for the best Xmas tree photo post to our Jenlist facebook page.
Half price Optus Mobile Broadband, 60% margin on earphones and an Olympus Camera for $99 RRP, These Christmas catalogues include products to suit every ones Christmas wish list.
For every $500 wholesale spent on stock within the Jenlist Christmas Catalogue, you will receive 200 x Consumer Christmas Catalogues.
Interesting read in today's copy of the "Business Day" in the SMH. Where Carolyn Cummins reports that retail landlords are experiencing sales growth above the rate of inflation. She attributes this growth to "higher-margin mobile phone stores and food courts".
Carolyn reports a 20.5 per cent growth in mobile phone sales, while department store sales dropped 8.2 per cent in the past nine months.
This growth in mobile phone sales is not confind to stand alone Mobile Phone retailers. Our valued retailers in "General Route" have also allowed Jenlist Distributors to experience close to 30% growth in handset sales in the past year.
With all this talk of "Smart phones" in the market it is interesting to note that Australia has the second highest global smartphone usage. Yet probably only 1/3rd of all phone users have a smart phone.
The major carriers are also only just starting to talk bout the 4G networks, which will bring a new wave of must have handsets to our shores. So if you aren't already selling handsets, "what are you waiting for?"
Prizes up for grabs are 1st Prize $1000, 2nd Prize $500 and 3rd Prize $250. There will also be a $250 Prize for best merchandised Nokia display, where you can email photos to me @ simon@jenlist.com.au
The Nokia brand is still our leading handset seller with 57.29% of all our handset sales in the last three months being a Nokia handset.
The last draw we did like this had 64 entries, so by buying one of these packs you get great odds at winning some of the $2000 worth of prizes up for grabs.
Congratulations to Anton from Redhead Newsagency of NSW, for winning the 43" Samsung Plasma TV in the draw. There was 64 entries in this draw, which is bloody good odds.
The other 43" Samsung Plasma TV was awarded to Jim & Joan Swan from Jetty Village Newsagency from Coffs Harbour, who sent in a great presentation of their two Optus cabinets and $2 SIM dump bin, that had prime location in the middle of their store with a great selection of Samsung handsets on display.
Jim informed me that his last TV had just blown, so this came at a perfect time.
Well done to both winners and thank you to everyone who go involved.
Having just passed thru Dubai on a full flight (first full flight in a long time) and speaking to locals in Dubai, I became aware that July/August is the time of the year most tourists from Gulf countries travel to destinations like Australia to escape the heat.
This is backed up by the Tourism Australia website quoting April to September as Gulf countries key arrival period with peaks in July and August. Also according to the Tourism Australia website, tourists from Gulf countries spent $525 million on trips to Australia in 2010 and they expect this to jump to 2.2 billion and 2.7 billion in overnight expenditure by 2020.
It was 38 degrees by day last week, with a min of 32 degrees at night in Dubai and that was only just heating up.
What Telco products are these tourists looking for? And what opportunities are there for you as a retailer?
Well in Egypt alone 70% of internet users use a mobile device for their internet communication and the most commonly used phone in Arabic speaking countries are BlackBerry’s. This is mostly because of their messaging security features and the fact that sending txt by Blackberry messenger is free.
The problem or should I rephrase this, the opportunity is that Blackberry SIM cards are different to a normal SIM card.
To avoid large global roaming charges these tourists will be looking to buy Australian SIM cards while they are here, so if you run a store that is in the key destinations for these tourists like the Gold Coast and Sydney then you need to be stocking these $49.95 Boost Mobile Blackberry SIM packs.
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