We are grateful to share that new Beanie Boos are out now, in time for Christmas.

They are adorable!

We are thrilled to announce the immediate release of these latest additions to the Ty Beanie Boos collection!

Thesenew characters, featuring the signature bright eyes and super-soft plush everyone loves, are available now and ready to join your collection. Ty continues to surprise and delight collectors with fresh designs, including a delightful menagerie of new animals and fantastical creatures that are sure to be instant favourites. Whether you’re a long-time collector looking to complete your set or searching for the perfect gift for a loved one, these new Beanie Boos offer a charming and diverse selection.

To secure your favourites and view the complete range, please visit our official Australian website:

www.beanieboosaustralia.com

We encourage you to visit the site promptly, as stock for these highly anticipated new releases is expected to be in high demand across the country. Don’t miss out on the chance to add these adorable newcomers to your growing collection before they disappear!

The enduring popularity of the Ty plush toy began with the original Beanie Babies in the early 1990s. These toys swiftly became a global cultural phenomenon and a major collectible. Ty Warner’s innovative marketing strategy of deliberate scarcity, which involved producing items in limited quantities and ‘retiring’ popular designs, created a massive frenzy and a highly engaged secondary market that defined the collectible landscape of the decade.

Building on this immense success and nostalgia, Ty introduced the distinct Beanie Boos line in 2009. These new characters retained the soft, ‘beany’ feel of their predecessors but were instantly recognisable by their signature feature: their oversized, sparkling, and captivating eyes. This distinctive design choice ensured the Beanie Boos quickly established their own unique identity, appealing to a new generation of enthusiasts while still retaining the high-quality and collectability that made the original line so iconic.

Today, Beanie Boos maintain their status as a global phenomenon, with collectors eagerly awaiting each new release. Each Beanie Boo comes with its own name, birthday, and poem on the signature heart-shaped tag, further cementing the personal connection collectors feel with each plush friend. This rich history and attention to detail are why these toys transcend simple plush, becoming cherished collectibles. The latest releases continue this proud tradition, bringing fresh energy and flair to the Australian collection.

We are excited for you to discover the latest characters!

The reserve bank announces this week that it has delayed its decision on payments surcharges.

The Reserve Bank has received 174 written submissions from consumers, small businesses, corporations, government entities, banks and the payments industry.

newsXpress members were represented in a comprehensive and professionally prepared submission.

A week ago, RBA governor Michele Bullock also noted the bank was “going to take the time to get these changes right”.

The bank also noted “To give due consideration to this substantial body of information and the policy implications, the RBA has decided to extend the time for concluding the Review of Merchant Card Payment Costs and Surcharging until March 2026,” .

Our view here at newsXpress is that a surcharging ban would be acceptable only if significant reforms were made to the whole system, eliminating the huge gap in costs between small and large businesses. We need to see the splitting of debit & credit card fees, removal of blended rates, and the implementation of dynamic least-cost routing from all payment providers.

This issue is a test for politicians of all sides. During election campaigns they say how important small businesses are to Australia. On this issue they can demonstrate actions to support their  claimed position, they can lobby and call for arrangements to be put in place that support small businesses.

The current arrangements for card processing fees is unfair, placing a considerable burden on small businesses retailers and unfairly advantaging big businesses.

It is time for all politicians to be clear and loud about this, it is time for them to actively support small business retailers.

The surcharges themselves are a distraction from the core issue: small businesses being charged more per transaction than big business competitors even though the costs are the same to those providing payment services in small and big businesses.

The current arrangements are a tax against small businesses.

This delay to March 2026, while presented by the RBA as necessary for “getting it right,” unfortunately provides no immediate relief for the very small businesses being hurt by these inequities. It effectively locks in this unfair “tax” for a longer period, forcing independent retailers to continue subsidising the operations of their largest competitors and the profits of payment providers. This extension only heightens the urgency for political action.

Small businesses cannot afford to wait over a year for fairness, in fairness comes at all; they need politicians to intervene now and demand the structural reforms, like transparency and the removal of blended rates—that will level the playing field immediately.

newsXpress is a financial supporter of the Independent Payments Forum, a body made up of retail business representatives, a body working for equity and fairness for small businesses, local independent businesses. The work of the IPF is professional and backed by excellent quality research.

newsXpress is proud to support them.

If you want to reduce the rent you pay for your retail shop, you need to make a compelling business case to the landlord.

Wanting a reduction is not enough. You need to make a fact-based case.

This is general advice only. We are not lawyers. nor are we registered lease consultants. The advice here is based on personal experiences of dealing with landlords for decades in high street and major shopping centre situations.

We have negotiated for ourselves many times and have used a professional lease negotiator on three occasions. We found that we were more satisfied when we did it ourselves. While the negotiators were nice enough, we were never certain that they put our needs ahead of their relationship with the landlord. In one instance, we felt like we paid them to soften us to agree to terms we’d later be unhappy with.

Here is what we suggest retailers put together when negotiating for themselves:

1. Current profit and loss (most recent year or to the end of the most recent quarter) compared to the same period a year earlier.
2. Sales comparison for a recent period (more than three months) to the same period a year ago. This will ideally include a transaction count comparison.
3. Details of every step you have taken to improve traffic and sales, including external marketing and costs associated with each activity. Assemble this in a spreadsheet. This is important, as it shows you’re doing all you can to attract shoppers and maximise opportunities. This makes your case
4. Itemised
5. Numbered
6. Provable.
7. Details of steps you have taken to manage costs. Again, show that you’re professional and thorough in your approach to your business.
8. Changes made to the business over the last year. Assume your landlord has not been to the shop and seen the work you have undertaken.
9. If possible, comparisons with other retail businesses—this demonstrates an understanding of how you compare, especially if it shows you as doing better than most in key parts of the business.

Take your time. Be thorough. The more complete and more professional your documents are, the more notice will be given to your request for assistance.

Once you have this information together, look for a narrative, a story, which supports the proposal you make to the landlord.

By narrative, we mean a case, a story, the reason, to justify your request. The data you have gathered will/should support this.

The clearer a narrative is supported by the data, the better the chance of a positive hearing.

It’s not enough to say you want a better deal, a discount on rent or some other relief. Landlords get that all the time. Your request needs to come with something for them. Be specific and ensure you have the data necessary to justify your claim.

If your financials show your profit’s stable or improving, your case will be hard to make.

If profit’s falling, your case is easier. Don’t manufacture figures to suit your case, though. Look at the accurate data and listen to what it tells you.

If your financials show profit declining or you making a loss, consider what you actually want as a result of this.

Too often, retailers go to a landlord with a problem and not a solution. Work on your solution and use the information you have gathered to justify the solution to your landlord.

The best person to pitch a landlord for assistance is the business owner. While I understand the appeal of hiring someone to do this for you, my recommendation is that you do it yourself.

Put your proposal in writing. Keep it brief and to the point. Focus on facts. Attach the evidence to which you refer. Outline what you want and why, without emotion or accusation. Consider explaining what it would mean if you did not achieve what you wanted. Keep emotions out of this.

Usually, a landlord will want a meeting. Ensure there is an agenda. Go with prepared notes and your evidence. Don’t get side-tracked. Don’t engage in emotive arguments.

Your sole focus ought to be on the outcome you want and the evidence you have that supports this outcome.

Keep your emotions to yourself through the whole process of seeing a better rental outcome. While the situation may feel stressful, exposing your emotions to the landlord is unlikely to help advance your case.

The best position to be in when negotiating with your landlord is to be running a shop they like, a shop they want to keep in the tenancy.

Local means different things in different situations. It could be products made in your town, your state or territory, or in your country. What is local will vary depending on what you sell.

If you’re certain locals are buying elsewhere instead of from you, find out why, as this is key to what you do to turn the situation around.

Before we get into the why and what you could consider doing about it, think about how local your business is and why you think locals should support you. Gaining local support starts with you supporting locals.

If you buy products from makers who live locally and shop in town, talk about that and how grateful you’re to have their products. Create a small sign to place next to their products. Include their photo. This personal touch helps shoppers to understand who else benefits from their purchase.

If you source products from within your state or country that nearby competitors and online businesses source from overseas, talk about how pleased you’re to find local suppliers, how that makes you feel, and what it means in terms of the products.

Look at every product or service you use in your business. Talk about each one that is locally sourced; show that it’s locally sourced. Consider local alternatives for those sourced from overseas.

Look at your engagement with local community groups and clubs and with the local community as a whole. Is it as good as it could be? Is it consistent? Is there a place in the shop where your local community group support is shown?

Does your business attract people to the area? If there are things you could do to attract people, do them and get known for doing them. Get locals pleased that you’re bringing more people into the area.

The more you walk the local walk, the more you can talk the local talk.

Stop telling people to shop locally. Show them. Think about what you source locally for your business and discuss it on social media and in your shop. This is an excellent way to demonstrate being local.

Getting local shoppers shopping locally really does start with you and how locally focused your own decisions are.

Educate shoppers to be inquisitive about identifying local products. Show them how to read a label to see if a product is locally made. Sometimes, people need to be shown how to shop locally.

Now, let’s consider why locals may not be supporting you.

If shoppers prefer online shopping, it could be price or convenience. If shoppers prefer a big competitor, it could be range or price. If shoppers prefer shopping in the next town, it could be price, range and/or convenience.

Addressing price, convenience and range can feel challenging in local small business retail. Let’s have a crack at it.

Price comes down to value. If you sell products that benefit from knowledge you can share that nearby or online competitors cannot or don’t share, that’s your competing price. Demonstrate your value at every opportunity and hope that your shoppers will talk to others about it.

Convenience could be parking out the front, your opening hours, nearby shops and/or whether your business is online. If you’re not online, get online; that is an easy step to address. Other convenience factors rely on local amenities and fellow local retailers.

If range is the reason that locals tend to shop elsewhere, your pitch comes back to the value proposition. It may be that you have the best, most useful, longest-lasting products, and that’s why your smaller range is beneficial to locals.

Our point here is that if you’re unhappy about support from local shoppers, your decisions and the narrative you pitch in and around your business are key factors.

You need to help locals understand why shopping locally with you is good for them.

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newsXpress is a marketing group that supports small local independent retailers to thrive. Find out more at help@newsxpress.com.au.

A retailer colleague said they missed a significant deal opportunity because it came in by email, and they don’t have time to read emails.

Every day, we choose how we spend our time in our businesses. It’s on us if we miss an opportunity that has been pitched through a regular business communication channel like email.

Often in retail, being time poor is a choice.

While having enough hours in the day can be challenging, there are steps we can take to save time:

1. Before you spend time on something, ask yourself if it has value. Being busy doesn’t always equal value.
2. Prefer suppliers who save you time, like those who provide electronic invoices for stock and those who use digital forms rather than paper. Let your suppliers know that you will give preference to those who save you time.
3. Eliminate manual paperwork. Use your software to track all sales, manage end-of-shift balancing and feed data to your accounting software.
4. Make better use of technology. Review everyday processes like stock ordering. See whether your existing technology could save time doing this work.
5. Stop doing stuff. First, for a few days, write down everything you do. Then, review the list and stop doing things that are not genuinely valuable for the business.
6. Eliminate manual processes at the sales counter. Scan all items sold. Have your point-of-sale software integrated with your EFTPOS terminal. Eliminate double data entry.
7. Manage time spent with sales reps based on the financial return for the business.
8. Make it easier for shoppers to shop in your store. Better signs with products can answer questions that people might otherwise want you to answer for them. If you save time for shoppers, you save time for yourself.
9. Create task lists to systemise regular tasks such as shop open, shop close, daily cleaning, stock pricing and more. Having written processes can make them more efficient.
10. Give someone the authority to complete a task and let go.
11. Ask everyone working in the business for ideas on time-saving. They may see opportunities you’re missing.
12. Finish each day by writing a to-do list for the next day.
13. Start each day by completing tasks on your to-do list.
14. Maintain a list of if I have time tasks you can do if you have spare time. Without such a list, you could lose time thinking about what you could do.

Time is an asset that needs to be managed as such. Each packet of time you spend on something in the business needs to serve the goal of the business and add value to it.

Some business owners like to feel time-poor because it gives them a feeling of being busy and having value. Being busy doesn’t always equal value for the business.

Let’s circle back to the colleague who missed the opportunity sitting in their inbox. By implementing even a few of the steps we suggest, they wouldn’t just be “finding time” to read emails; they would be making time. Effective time management is about creating robust processes that allow the business to function efficiently without constant, frantic intervention. It’s about building the necessary bandwidth to see the opportunities that are already there and, crucially, having the capacity to act on them.

Our advice: don’t work to be time poor.

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newsXpress is a marketing group that supports small local independent retailers to thrive. Find out more at help@newsxpress.com.au.