Simon Says

The perfect gift for the 

Footy Fan!

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 the Opena 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.

Another great product for the “arm chair critics” is our range of Universal Harmony Remotes, the Logitech Harmony 300 Remote retailing @ $39.95 RRP and for the true professional barracker the Logitech Harmony 600 Remote @ $99.95 RRP, these both come with 25% margin.

Get a couple of these in for that Monday morning banter and see how you go.

How to escape expired 

Pre-Paid Telco stock 

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.

Click Here for full returns policy

Be on a winning Streak this Christmas

For many Australian families Thursday the 1^st 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:

1. Optus Pre-Paid Dell Streak 7” Android Tablet for $279 RRP
2. Optus Pre-Paid Samsung Galaxy Gio  for $149 RRP (Android 2.3 Touch Screen Smart Phone)
3. Xtime Stereo DJ Headset for $19.95 RRP (great stocking filler)
4. Laser 7” Colour Screen Ebook Reader for $149.95 RRP (comes with 200 books pre-loaded)
5. Olympus VG-140 14MP Camera for $99 (reduced from $149 RRP for Xmas Catalogue Only)

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.

Get in quick to get these catalogues and stock in store for the Christmas rush. Click Here to place your orders.

Phone Sales 

"keeping the retail dream alive!"

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?"

Panda-ring to the Market!

After Selling 1000's of the iPig docking stations we have decided to embrace the world-wide phenomenon that is the Panda. 

If you don't believe me that Panda products are flooding the market, just read this Panda  blog and remember, "never say no to Panda"

The iPanda differs a little from the iPig, in that it is also portable, taking both AA batteries and a standard DC power source.

An iPod/iPhone can be docked in the stomach of the iPanda, where it will also charge. For non Apple products there is a 3.5mm auxiliary jack input, that will suit other MP3/MP4 devices.

This product has great sound quality, which can be adjusted by twisting the iPandas ears. Great product leading into Christmas, at a great price of $99.95 and coming with 30% margin for our valued retailers.

eBOOK Value

Many of you, who buy your groceries from Woolies, or have visited one of their other chains of stores, may have noticed them now retailing the Amazon Kindle @ $159 RRP and 3G Kindle @ $219.

 There is one reason behind this. E-book readers sell and Australians as we all know, are tech junkies.

 Some researchers put the total number of e-book readers at almost 1.5 million users in Australia already and this number is growing quickly, as prices drop and media hype continues.

 Today I read an article in The Daily Telegraph, which compared four e-readers. The Kobo Touch @ $179 RRP, Amazon Kindle @ $159 to $219 RRP, Sony Reader WIFI Touch @ $179 RRP and our own Laser EB700 @$149.95 RRP

The Kobo Touch came out on top with five stars, but it was interesting to see the the next three including our Laser EB700 tie for 2nd place with four stars each.

 The Laser EB700 @ $149.95 RRP is easily the best value for money, with a 7-inch colour screen, 4GB of storage, which can be expanded to 16GB data (up selling opportunity).

 The other cool thing with the Laser EB700 is that it comes preloaded with 200 e-books. That's like buying a 200 book library for 75 cents a book and getting a free e-reader.

Don't let the major retailers get all these sales, get a few Laser EB700 e-readers in yourself and reap the rewards. Just another way Jenlist Distributors is helping our valued retailers compete in a changing market.