Skip to main content

London: greeting cards 1 magazines 0

On a return visit to Hatton News in central London this week, I was surprised to find that two metres of the magazine display had been replaced by cards.

Trade has been difficult for Manoj Harji but he took advantage of the closure of Clinton Cards further down his parade to change his product mix. The cards are generating more profit from the space than the magazines were, he says.

I did not have the opportunity to check his numbers and his range is similar to that in Funky Pigeon, which opened a concession in WHSmith, which is located on the far side of the closed card shop.

The first problem is lower footfall and the second is about filling your linear feet of shelf space with what is scarce, and scarcity is hard to find in the middle of London. (Mind you, across town at Exmouth market Space is selling tiny cards at £3.99, imported from the USA.)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The launch of the 2009 IAA

We are launching the 2009 Independent Achievers Academy tomorrow in London with a group of retailers and suppliers. The marketing team have come up with a great practical exercise to help us relive the Academy experience. At its heart, the IAA has a simple concept: set a goal, plan to hit it and celebrate the outcome. I hope to learn lots from participants and will pass this learning on to you.

What do shoppers see

I read a good post (http://www.newsagencyblog.com.au/2009/08/28/what-do-newsagents-charge-for-faxing.html) asking what price local shops charge for providing a fax service. The blogger had attached a photograph of his sign with his prices on it. What struck me was the message on the sign. "You drop, we fax," it said. "Pressed for time, drop your documents with us and we'll do it for you at no extra charge." That is a message that will persuade most shoppers that you want to give them good value, even if they stay to do the copying or faxing themselves.

The secrets of persuasion: No short cuts.

The best moment in my interview with Terri Sjodin, who teaches many of the world’s top corporations how to sell persuasively, is when she smiles at me and asks to hear my “elevator speech".   My mind literally goes blank. The author of Small Message, Big Impact , her new book on how to craft powerful messages that persuade people to listen to you, has thrown the gauntlet at me. There was nowhere to hide. I had just told her how I had used her book to write out my three minute speech to open the Local Shop Summit. She listened patiently to my pitch, thought for a moment, and said: “I bet you had an illustration in your mind of an independent who really capitalised on your ideas and has taken them to the bank.” I could swear she was reading my mind. I blushed and nodded. “So you should open with this story,” she said. “Start out by saying: ‘Let me open the conference by telling you a great story with a happy ending.’ So the audience will say to themselves: ‘He is goi...