A mother of a three-year-old recently told me that she couldn’t get a copy of one of her daughter’s favourite magazines – Fun To Learn Favourites – in her local shop.

Despite asking the shop assistant whether they stock the magazine on several occasions, she was always told that the shop didn’t have the space to hold any more children’s titles than it currently does. As a result, she now stops off in a nearby Waitrose or Sainsbury’s to buy the magazine.

It’s understandable that space is tight for any independent shop, but I was amazed the retailer hadn’t jumped on the opportunity to shop save the magazine for her. Just by offering to order the magazine in for her, the retailer could have made £1.99 every fortnight – not to mention the additional purchases she may make on every trip to collect it.

With the PPA ploughing a lot of money into promoting its Just Ask shop save and home news delivery campaign over the past two years, ensuring your shop displays this point-of-sale material and making sure you and your staff always offer to order a title in, could really improve your sales and prevent customers from deserting you for a multiple.