With it being Independent Book Store Day we thought we’d share some ideas for how stores can revitalize themselves and adapt to the new world in which Amazon has run over much of the market, leaving many independent stores struggling.
Gary Vaynerchuk covered this in one of his early episodes of the Ask Gary Vee show. The main suggestion he makes is for stores to look beyond marketing in a smart way, which will drive their specific audience and target market into the store, like India who researches for the show, and towards turning the store into higher margin events spaces to reactivate the location. You can watch Gary’s full answer here:
In a way this message is similar to the challenges every high street faces across the world. People can buy most basic things quickly online. Some people like to shop and feel products before purchasing still, but year on year high street sales of easily commoditized products is falling.
The ‘gentrification’ of high streets is as much about finding ways to turn cities into events spaces where people have things to do other than just shop. In many times this leads to higher margin, and more expensive goods being sold which feels ‘different’ to many but to survive in the long term, independent book stores can’t rely on driving people in to buy a cheap copy of a bestseller with no margin for the store, any more than Blockbuster video could survive just renting out videos. Finding new ways to drive revenue beyond the core product, but complimentary to it, is essential for more than just bookstores as we move into the future.
Image By Tony Corsini – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7195069
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