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?
New Appointment to the Jenlist Distributors Sales Team
Dear Valued Retailers Re. Appointment of Brett Muggeridge to the Jenlist Distributors Sales Team It is with great pleasure that I inform you of the new appointment of Brett Muggeridge to our Jenlist Distributors sales team, in the capacity of Business Development. Brett will manage an area from the Brisbane River up to Bundaberg and brings a wealth of knowledge in the Telco, Technology, Newsagent and Service Station industries. We believe Brett will be of great assistance to you our valued retailer in growing and expanding your technology offering, while providing you with the support to make this growth sustainable. Brett’s first day with Jenlist Distributors will be 20th February 2012. Where I will be conducting training with Brett in the Sunshine Coast area. Brett will be assisted by our external merchandising team, who cover much of the metro and suburban areas within Brett’s designated territory. Jenlist Distributors greatly appreciates your patience during this transition period. If I can be of any assistance or if you have any further feedback I would be more than happy to discuss this with you. Thank you once again for your continued support and I look forward to a successful 2012 together.
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.
Having done a bit of travelling myself in the past few years, both interstate for work and international for leisure. I am now always on the lookout for a great unlocked handset that suits a traveller’s needs.
Some of the key features I look for are:
- Wifi capable
- Good Camera
- Good Video
- Front Camera for video calls
- Quad Band (works on all Australian and the majority of international networks)
- GPS
- Compact
- Touch Screen
- Email capable
Jenlist has managed to secure a handset that excels at all these features and at an exclusive low price for our valued retailers.
TheUnlocked Nokia C6-01 has a 3.2” touch screen display, with a great 8MP camera. It is a Quad band handset meaning it will work with all the major Australian and international networks. There is also a MP3/4 player and an in built radio to listen to the latest tunes or your own music library.
But the best two features for travellers are the front facing camera, making skype video calls to loved ones back home easy and free Nokia maps. This means you can download a countries map for free before heading overseas. The same feature would cost you $40-$70 per country map from the iTunes or Android market stores, visit a couple of countries on the one trip and you have already saved yourself the price of the handset.
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.
For many Australian families Thursday the 1st of December marks the date that Christmas trees are erected in lounge rooms across the country. With this date being only two days away, it is getting more important to find gifts to place under these illuminated trees.
If I had to choose a Top 5 of Jenlist Distributor products for Christmas it would look like this:
The number one product on my list is the NEW Optus Pre-Paid Dell Streak 7” Android Tablet for $279 RRP. This tablet is small enough to carry around, yet large enough to enjoy high-def videos on the road, in a plane or even on the couch. It is also great for Skype calls with cameras on both sides.
Its main features are:
- Full web experience with Adobe Flash
- 7” 800x 400 Gorilla Glass multi touch display
- 5MP rear camera and 1.3MP front camera, perfect for video conferencing on the go
- Thin & Light – perfect for the mobile professional (430 grams, 12.6mm thin)
- Sharing your images and videos is a snap with PhotoStage and VideoStage
- Create & run presentations, update reports and manage your expenses with web-based office productivity suites like Google Docs
- SD Memory card slot for expandability
- Access to over 100,000 apps available in the rapidly-growing Google Android Marketplace
- Android supports multi-tasking - so you won't have to shut down your GPS or stop browsing to check email
The tablet is also a 3G dual band device, which means you will receive superior coverage across the Optus network.
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.
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