IMC 2009: Organised retailing – the new paradigm

The role of retailing in furthering the growth of magazines was discussed at length in the session on ‘Organised Retailing – The New Paradigm’ on Day two of the Indian Magazine Congress (IMC) 2009. Vivek Gaur, Executive Director (Sales and Distribution) India Today Group moderated the session, while the panellists included Alex Joseph, National Head – Retail, Outlook, Ashwin TS, Managing Director, Odyssey and , CEO, MEPE.

The two-day IMC 2009 was held in Delhi on November 5-6. Worldwide Media was the presenting sponsor, while Chitralekha and Cannon were the associate sponsors. exchange4media Group (exchange4media.com, impact and Pitch) was the media partner.

Commencing the discussions, Gaur noted, “Magazines are growing at a fast pace. However, there are some obstacles in their way. Several people are supplying magazines to retailers, which sometimes creates problem. There should be a particular method to supplying magazines. World over, grocery chains sell most of the magazines, hence we need to better exploit the retail medium for magazine distribution. We need to create new trends of excellence.”

Speaking about Outlook’s retail activities, Alex Joseph said, “We started through a supply chain model. We sell three lakh copies of magazines every month and deal with 150 publishers. Publishers have been supportive to us. Internationally, 36 per cent of the revenue of retail stores comes from magazine sales, however, in India this percentage is a mere 3-4 per cent.”

He further noted, “It is also true that the retail sector is at a nascent stage here and the future looks bright here. We should try and educate retailers on the high sales they can get from magazines because a magazine is something that engages customers better than liquor or wine. Today, publishers should come together and try to provide magazines directly to the retail stores, without any midway complications.”

He stressed on the importance of creating a value proposition for retailers and help them become brand neutral aggregators.

Ashwin TS admitted, “We have not been able to tap the full potential of magazines in India. We are trying our best, but still it is a very low percentage business. A direct delivery model is needed to get maximum magazines to the retail stores. Publishers can tie up with us for doing special promotion for their magazines.”

He added, “Co-ordination with local vendors sometimes creates the problem. We have to sometimes co-ordinate with so many vendors, which creates billing problems too. Had there been one operator for the whole process, most of the problems would have been solved. Retailers are trying to be close to the customers and magazines are a perfect tool to engage customers. In stores magazines are given importance like the other products.”

Lorenzo Mauri spoke about the scenario in Europe, especially Italy. “In France and Spain, there are very few distributors available. Overall, magazine sales are declining in Europe. Profitability from the sale of magazines and newspapers is less in Europe. In Italy, newsstands are closing down and the number of distributors is also going down. For survival they are merging and setting up new independent companies.”

Summing up the discussions, Gaur noted, “Today, there is need to create more islands of excellence. And for this proper logistics and backend need to be put in place.”