It was with some trepidation (and audible sniggering in the background) that we spoke of opening a retail magazine shop in the heart of Canterbury, last November. A pop up shop to showcase the very best of the 4,000 magazines that we offer on our main business and website, newsstand.co.uk.
We were not expecting to add to the business' bottom line but were keen to not make a huge hole in it either, opening the very day the UK news was full of the joys of 98 retail outlets closing every week.
The citizens of Canterbury, a small but vibrant city, were about to find out about the independent magazine industry and we couldn't wait to see what they thought of it. Now we wouldn't want to bore you with sales figures and what not, but it started very well. In fact, it has continued to be very positive and we may well keep it open past its initial 3 month term and make it a part of the Canterbury landscape for as long as we can.
The purpose of this post, though, is to underline what an eye opening experience it has been to jump from distribution and online, to the face to face retail side of the industry. In our warehouse near Canterbury, we have the largest selection of magazines under one roof, possibly worldwide. We sell single copies and subscriptions all over the planet to wonderful folk we never meet and only very occasionally talk to. We don't see their facial expressions when they visit the website or browse the magazines on offer (not yet, anyway).
We serve publishers who are creating the most wonderful publications, earnestly despatching them across the globe - but we don't see the expressions of the readers opening the envelopes - and this has been a huge gap in our knowledge of late. Yes, we see the numbers and the growth and yes, we see the online appreciation of many publications, but it's very clearly only half of the story. Newsstand needed to keep in touch with its original vision of serving the customer; making sure it knows exactly what that customer likes and wants, and delivers it.
So, aside from the financial effects of the pop up shop, in a town that is far from cheap for retail space, we have seen the faces of folk entering the shop. We have heard the mutterings of "is it a book shop" turn into the "these magazines are amazing", the disbelief that so many are made to such a high standard. To use online retailers' jargon, the conversion rate in the shop is extremely impressive and customers who take the time to browse almost always find something they are willing and happy to buy.
Aside from the shop itself, this gives us huge hope for the future of the online business, we have seen the responses of the, to date, untapped market - those who just do not know these magazines exist. When we are feeling positive, we sense that the independent magazine market is at an increasingly exciting time. We've known for years about the quality of the products, it's just up to now they have been the preserve of a select, design conscious audience (honk generalisation klaxon at will...).
Having seen first hand what an uninitiated slice of the general public think of them, promotion to a wider audience is happening, and it works, and its very exciting for everyone involved. For Newsstand, the traditional shop has at least been the best market research that we have ever carried out - if you're in the area please pop in and tell us what you really think.
