Book retailing

The administrator for REDgroup Retail has announced today that the remaining Borders stores in Australia will close by the end of July.  This will bring to an end the Borders presence in Australia, leave a hole in another nine shopping centres and present more opportunities for newsagents in the book space.

The closure of Borders will cause ripples across book retailing.  It will make publishers and other suppliers more wary.  It will also reinforce a subtle message about books in print.

As part of our post Mother’s Day plans, we have been running a book sale facing out into the shopping mall.  This week our focus is cook books – the theme changes weekly.  While stock is thinning, we cover a reasonable range in the display.  Food titles perform well at attracting browsers to the store.

All titles on display are for sale at less than retail yet our margin integrity is maintained for all but the magazine cookbooks which we have in a couple of spots in the display.

Next week, we plan to flip the book display and replace it with a range of brand name toys facing into the mall.

Each of these displays is as much about attracting browsers as they are about driving sales of the products on display.  Getting someone passing in the mall to stop and approach the shop is vital.  Enough look beyond the display itself and enter our retail space to make the time commitment valuable for the business.

We have been enjoying good sales from our Mother’s Day Book Sale with shoppers usually buying at least two books in each sale.  Since we are not a book shop, many book sales are in addition to the destination purchase of cards, magazines or newspapers.  Given the good margin, book sales are performing a welcome role enhancing our overall margin story.  We have been promoting the Book Sale with a terrific catalogue featuring Mother’s Day focused titles as well as with tactical placement – to drive the impulse business.

We are enjoying a traffic spike thanks to our Easter Book Sale.  The four page A5 flyer is an excellent promotion tool for facilitating this traffic spike.  This, along with an appealing display and other activity is helping us make the most of the opportunity.

We try and run four book sales a year rather than a year round book department presence.  The four seasons which we find work for us are:Easter, Father’s Day, Christmas and one other – either mid year or Mother’s Day.

The book mix is vital – kids, food, self help, reasonably current fiction and weight loss.

Sales of Christmas themed books have been terrific over the last week to ten days.  Excellent numbers in my stores, most of it impulse business which makes it even more valuable.  We started with our books on display between the entrance to the store and our newspaper display.  Now, they have been moved to another, equally high traffic,  dance floor location.  Regular moves helps us maintain excellent sales while we have the stock.

The number of newsagencies offering the ABC Shop range within their stores is growing.  Those I speak with tell me that sales are excellent.  The most successful I have seen recently are in newsagencies in rural and regional situations.

The ABC Shop franchise appears to be well managed and the appointment of ourlets well controlled.  This is a significant benefit to the newsagents who take it on – both in day to day trading and when it comes time to sell the business and determine a goodwill value.

I mention the ABC Shop opportunity today since plenty of newsagents are looking at diversification alternatives.

We are seeing book sales continue to grow with food and children’s titles doing exceptionally well.  We all but sold out of children’s books which we brought in for our Father’s Day Book Sale and are close to selling out of food.  We are adding stock as there appears to be no let up in demand and school holidays will provide an opportunity for growth.

With a margin above 50% and sale or return terms, books are also popular from a management and risk perspective.  The margin allows us to compete with outposts in the shopping centre.  We do this by running 25% off sales occasionally for a short period.

Books are key to us achieving an above average overall gross profit for the business.  They are also a central part of our basket building strategy.

For what it’s worth, our approach to books in-store is as follows:

1. Four to five book sales a year.
2. Display on trestle tables.  No frills.
3. Place close to the greeting card department – in a high traffic location.  The basket penetration of books with cards is high.
4. Simple signage: BOOK SALE.
5. Refresh the table regularly during each day.
6. Move categories within the sale each week.
7. Change the high traffic sides of the tables at least weekly.
8. Segment books by interest.
9. Promote the launch of each sale with a catalogue in around 5,000 letterboxes around the store.
10. Understand that stock – to guide customers looking for a gift.

I am sure that others have their success stories with books.  Make a comment and share…

Our Father’s Day book sale is working a treat with new traffic generated as well as excellent impulse business from existing customers.

The sale has been promoted with catalogues delivered to several thousand homes around the centre – to drive traffic.  In store, we have the sale spread across two tables in prime position on the dance floor – to drive impulse business. This front of store placement of the stock also attracts people walking past in the shopping mall.

While it is pitched as a Father’s Day sale, more than half the books are for other occasions.  The children’s books especially – we will sell out.

Check out this video of the espresso print on demand book machine.  According to the New York Observer, there are 37 in operation around the world and another 14 planned.

While the economics mean the machine is currently only of interest to large stores, technology evolves.  Think of how this could work for special interest magazines.  We could pull digital stock direct from publishers.