PC Retail

When it comes to products that retailers think of when they hear the words 'margin maker', it wouldn't be at all surprising to find that magazines are either near the bottom or non existent.

However, the potential for magazines to add to retailers' bottom line is underrated by the majority of PC retailers, despite other specialist retailers such as video games taking advantage a long time ago.

"If you take the big picture, there are a whole chain of events that leads to a person walking into a shop and buying a product," says publishing director at Future, Stuart Anderton, arguing that magazines are integral to many purchasing decisions. "What magazines do better than any other medium is the initial prompting of someone thinking, 'Hmmm, I really could do with a new graphics card'."

However, the power of magazines to sell products isn't limited to the products that people may be looking for, but their ability to open people up to a vast array of potential purchases that could benefit your bottom line. "By reading magazines, their reviews and other information, readers may also see other products that they're not really thinking about buying at the moment, but that lead to a point where they get their chequebooks out."

But with the likes of WH Smiths and the supermarkets dominating sales of magazines, is it really a good idea for independent retailers to turn over valuable space to them? Yes, argues Anderton.

"There is not much point in trying to compete with the likes of WH Smith, but by using magazines to boost sales, retailers can be on to a winner. On the whole, you can guarantee that people who are going into a computer store are going to be interested in computers and therefore you can take that bit for granted and spend more time thinking about providing titles that you might not see in your local Smiths or at the supermarket."

"There is no doubt that Tesco is affecting sales of magazines in the likes of WH Smiths, but we're still seeing incredibly strong sales from independent newsagents, so we know that independent stores still have the potential to provide strong sales despite competition from the big boys," suggests the editor of Dennis Publishing's PC Pro magazine, Tim Danting. "The key thing is that magazines are still a great impulse buy."

It's a point IDG's Nikki Causer echoes: "Retailers should look for the highest ranked titles that suit their core business, such as PCs, Apple, computer gaming, software and so on."

"PC retailers looking to enter the sector should ask their customer which magazines they read," Danting adds. "You should be looking to match up the technical level of the type of people that come into your shop with the kinds of magazines that you might sell.

"We have Custom PC for the real hardcore enthusiast, such as those who want to upgrade their graphics cards all the time, and then you've got PC Pro, which is more focused on the higher end of the market and the more aspirational kind of person.

"There is also Computer Shopper, which is aimed at the real mainstream; in every copy of Computer Shopper there are over 200 products reviewed, which is by far the most in any PC magazine available."

Anderton, however, has concerns about what the future holds for more general titles: "The magazines that are doing well at the minute are those that people are still interested in – and therefore sell better in a retail environment – such as the specialist ones: the more specialist, the better.

"There is a real trend away from the Computer Shoppers of this world and other general buying magazines towards much more niche titles about Apple Mac and Linux, or about performance computing and graphics cards. I think retailers are going to get better value out of stocking a range of tightly focused magazines and a couple of the wider ranging one that you can find in every WH Smiths."

Causer agrees: "Due to the growth of Apple products, including the iPhone and the iPod, and the fact that it is opening increasing numbers of stores in the UK, more and more consumers are exposed to their products and want to find out more about about them, and as a result, the Mac market is one of the few magazine genres that is growing and seeing higher sales and better profits year on year as a result."

And just in case there was any lingering doubts about stocking magazine titles, Tim Danting of PC Pro has one last piece of advice for retailers. "There is no risk in stocking magazines, because you can still send them back at the end of the month if they don't sell. It's a win – win situation every time!"