Dymocks
Morris Short, franchise recruitment manager
What makes a successful retailer in your category in today’s retail climate?
We find that franchisees who actively engage their customers by constantly refining their product range, utilising our monthly promotions, promoting the strong offers to their loyal customers through our Booklover program and their own specialised retail offerings fare the best. They take the time to know their customers and leverage every bit of our franchise system to grow their businesses each and every day.
How does your franchise system fare in meeting these demands?
Our system outperforms all of our competitors according to Book Scan, in fact we’re well ahead of the pack. The strength of our iconic retail brand and the depth and breadth of our retail experience and offerings ensure that we cater to all sections of the book buying community. There is enough flexibility to ensure that our franchisees can stamp their own personalities on their store.
What are your plans for the franchise system for 2011-12?
Whilst the last 18 months have been a challenge for all retailers, Dymocks see opportunities in this tough market. We see the opportunity to grow our brand by offering our successful systems to all segments of the retail book industry so we are interested in talking to independent retailers as well as sourcing opportunities for new sites for our business.
Our buying team is performing even better in this tough market, sourcing niche and profit rich opportunities for franchisees. The marketing team is producing world class materials that set our stores apart from the rest of the industry. Our loyalty program, with over 600,000 members, has upped the ante with specific offers, great prizes and up-to-the-minute deals for our loyal customers. Our regional business managers are even more proactive in assisting franchisees to improve their offering to consumers and our franchise advisory centre is offering more service to our Dymocks retailers.
What role do marketing the brand and advertising the offer play in growing market share for you?
Now more than ever our consumer offering has to be sharper, cleaner and clearer to reach our consumers. Our advertising and brand marketing reflects this with every monthly offer to our clients. More specifically our Booklover loyalty program delivers targeted, exclusive offers and prizes to our clients by monthly magazine and e-mail.
We make it a simple ask for our stores to participate in our monthly promotions. Franchisees receive one simple package each month, complete with display suggestions and directions to make our stores look similar yet maintain their own local flavour.
What are the benefits of being a franchisee in a retail outlet right now?
A franchise system allows franchisees to tap into resources that an independent retailer can only ever dream of.
At Dymocks an in-house IT team ensures monthly and Booklover promotions are in the till at the start of each promotion and that previous offers have been returned to their normal price structure. Our POS systems deliver powerful management tools and reports for managing a business. Our book data is an unsurpassed resource for our customers. Dymocks has a “know before you go” facility on our website allowing customers to source a book and see if it is physically in stock in a store before they go to shop or alternatively allow them to order that item via their local store through our website. We ensure that our customer can shop where they want when they want 24 hours a day.
Dymocks has a strategy with e-readers and e-books that an individual retailer could simply not hope to match.
How long has your business operated as a franchise system?
The Dymocks franchise system started in 1986 and we’ve been part of the Australian retail landscape since 1879.
How many franchisees do you have in Australia/NZ?
Eighty six stores in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong with a loyalty program of over 600,000 members.
Can franchisees become multi-unit operators?
Dymocks prefers that each franchisee has only one store, however there are cases in our system where there are multiple ownerships, and these work well.
How much control does the franchisee have over their own stock?
A franchisee has complete control over their merchandise. The most important factor here is that whilst we have the core range and promotions, our buying team ensure that deals across all categories are of sufficient quality to allow our franchisees to personalise their stock holdings for their customers.
What is the upfront cost of a franchise?
It varies: purchasing an existing store is a formulated process based on the size of the store and the profitability of the operation; setting up a new outlet depends on the size of the store but fixtures and displays can be built to specifications by a shop fitter of the franchisees’ choice, with layout and fittings approved by Dymocks. Providing this flexibility means we see a large variation in the cost of fit-outs around the globe.
What are the ongoing fees for a franchisee?
Fees vary according to the cost of media in each location. Dymocks also provides a discount on monthly fees if franchisees are compliant with a range of key performance indicators.