Below is a summary of the key reports and tools in Retailer for Newsagents, along with a brief explanation of what each report offers. This information is designed to help you choose the right tools for the tasks you plan for your newsagency.
For these reports to work you need to diligently:
- Arrive magazines electronically using the magazine barcodes.
- Scan all sales.
- Scan returns both from the shop and from subagents.
- Send sales data daily to the magazine distributors.
Taking these actions makes you compliant, which will be necessary for accurate data in the reports. Also, should you need to dispute supply arrangements with a magazine distributor, the first thing they look at is compliance.
Some reports we recommend are:
Magazine Sell Through Rates
This is the best place to start a review of magazine performance in your newsagency.
It uses the same measure which distributors use to measure success of a title. Magazine sell through is the percentage of copies of an issue of a title supplied to you which sold. So, if you sold 35 copies of Australian Women’s Weekly and you were sent 100 copies, the sell through percentage would be 35%.
The sell through rates report lets you select the threshold percentage. Titles performing below this are listed by distributor, category and title.
If you are running this report for the first time, start with a low threshold, around 30%. This means titles selling only 30% of what you receive will be listed. These are titles for which supply needs to be cut. In the report, you may notice titles with 0% sell through. Verify that your data is correct, then cut these titles.
The report can be quite long, so it is often best to look at it on the screen before you print. You may need to adjust your settings to get the report to a more workable size – work on one supplier, for example.
Magazine Cash Flow Management
These are a suite of tools which guide you through reducing or increasing supply based on the cash flow performance of a title. Retailer measures the cash flow return title by title. It takes into account labour and real-estate costs, as well as the on-sale period, quantity supplied and the cost price.
Non Performing Titles
Found in Reports->Newsagency->Non Performing Titles
Discrepancy Analysis
This report generates automatically when submitting returns. It lets you know when your sales do not match the quantity returned. This can be the result of theft, but there can be other causes.
10x10 Report
Knowing what sells with what can help you make better retail decisions and drive magazine sales. The 10x10 report tells you this – what sells with what. You can look at the whole of the shop or just the magazine department. It looks like a complex report but it is not that complex. Run it a few times to find the settings which work for you.
Weekly Magazine Decay Report
This report will work out which days are your most important days of the week for your weekly titles and allow you to concentrate your in store marketing on those days.
Customer Putaway Management
Know what is contained in your putaway drawers at any time. This allows you to know exactly how many copies of each title each customer has on hand and how many are on backorder. Makes it easy to place orders with suppliers and track who the magazines belong to when they are arrived.
Alt+T - Stock Enquiry Screen
For a quick understanding of the performance of a specific title, use Alt+T. You can do this from any screen. Alt+T shows supply and return history. You can also easily see sales for any date range you select. It is good for answering those tricky customer questions eg. 'Do you know when this title will arrive next?'
Magazine Supply Changes
The key to requesting a change in magazine supply is to have the necessary evidence to back your case. If you have the evidence and your request is rejected, it is easier for you to escalate the matter further up inside the magazine distribution company (or outside, if it comes to that).