VANA MEMBER PROFILE – Kerrie Lotto News
Store Owners: Lan (Joanna) Gao and Tianwen Huang
Address: 4 Kerrie Rd, Glen Waverley
Kerrie Lotto News has been operating as a local Tatts business and Newsagency in Glen Waverly for over 30 years. Located in a small shopping strip they mainly sell Tatts Lottery tickets, papers, magazines, greeting cards, phone recharge cards and giftware.
Even though they are just one kilometre from The Glen Shopping Centre, local customers recognise the benefits of shopping with them. First, the store is easily accessible, hence they can be in and out and get what they want in minutes. Second, they have an extensive range of giftware – they have extended their gift-wrapping range with more varieties and replaced the old greeting card supplier with Henderson Greetings to better meet customer’s requirements.
Kerrie Lotto News provide exemplary customer services by calling their regular customers by name, knowing what the regular customers want and preparing items for them in advance. If customers need any products currently out of stock, they reorder them as soon as possible. Known as a “little pearl in the desert”, customers really enjoy the service they provide and appreciated all their effort.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 was a really challenging year for everyone. However, with the help of VANA/NLNA, newsagencies were classified as an essential service, and Kerrie Lotto News were able to keep the doors open and serve their customers.
With customer’s shopping habits changing, more and more customers are enjoying online shopping instead of going to the shops. As a VANA/NLNA member, the store entered the Amazon Hub national program and they also provide Parcel Collect services for FedEx and TNT, along with Parcel Connect and Parcel Points. By doing parcel receipting or returning for local residents they have improved the store’s visibility in the community and attracted more foot-traffic into the shop. Customers may be able to do online shopping, but they still need to enter their shop to pick it up, resulting in spontaneous purchase of Tatts Lottery tickets or other items in their store.
One final tip from the team at Kerrie Lotto News for those in the Newsagent game, it’s so worthwhile to become a newsagency association member. It will keep you alert with market changes, you’ll get to know a lot of interesting people, learn a lot of successfully experiences from other shops, and also the tricks to lower your running cost or increasing your sales and income.
“Thank you to VANA/NLNA for giving us the wonderful opportunity to introduce ourselves to the big family. Hope you are all successful in the future'”- Joanna Gao and Tianwen Huang
