Bookstore Presentation method & motivation

Bookstore Presentation
method & motivation
An overview of the practices of bookstore presentation
and the factors that influence how a bookstore is organised.
Some Pertinent Statistics of the environment in which I work
•214,000 titles on the database
•22 staff with average tenure of 9 years
•average of 740,000 visitors per annum
•average of 500 new releases each month
•approximately 120 suppliers

Presentation Format
I will cover the factors that lead to the way our bookstore is
presented and give some practical examples of both the unique
and standard characteristics of merchandising and
presentation.
•Store Culture
•Store Patrons
•Store Buying
•Store Merchandising

Store Culture
We have as our guiding philosophy that a
bookstore should be a place peopled by
enthusiastic and knowledgeable personnel, with
an ambience that is comfortable and pleasant,
and a range that is comprehensive and easily
accessed.

Enthusiastic and knowledgeable personnel
Deliberately recruiting to achieve an eclectic mix, I am most
interested in having people with us who have a passion for
books and who see their work environment as a statement of
who they are, and as an integral part of their life.
By so doing, I am forming the culture of the store that will
attract and reflect the clientele.

Comfortable and pleasant ambience
To reflect the management philosophy of the business, to cater for the
highest productivity levels possible, and for practical reasons pertaining to
Occupational Health & Safety, our store is:
•Uncluttered and open at the front of the store to allow a visitor to sense that
the world of books is opening before them
•Spacious within - wide aisles, several open spaces with chairs scattered
throughout the store, small tables on which to rest books
•Unadorned - very few posters, clear signage throughout, no publisher
advertising material
•Personalised - ‘staff recommendations’ are prominent, ‘top shelf’ reflects
the ‘gems’ in our range, flat tables are used to highlight buyers’ choices.

Comprehensive and easily accessed range
We are one of the very few bookstores, if not the only one of
our size, left in Australia, America, or Britain, where the
buyers are also booksellers - that is, they work in the business
every day and buy from the shop floor. This is vital because it
illustrates how we build our range, and it is the range that is the
other pillar of our business success, along with personnel and
ambience.

Comprehensive and easily accessed range
Three buyers see representatives from all the major and midrange
suppliers each month with their list of new releases
As well, they peruse catalogues from local and international
publishers
The internet is used to search for specific titles or areas of
interest raised by our customers
Media interest in subjects is monitored and of course book
reviews are scanned and filed for all staff to access

Comprehensive and easily accessed range
Our database is specific to the book trade and is particularly robust in the
areas of accuracy and reporting. ISBN is the key field on which the
information is built. At time of purchasing, the buyers designate the
category and department into which a book title will be entered. It is then
accessed either by ISBN, title, or author. This basic information is stored
in a public access version of the database that is available for use from
three terminals in the store. Our personnel can search also by purchasing
history, receiving history, special order status, imprint, and
publisher/supplier. Store design and signage is inextricably linked to the
order of categories and departments on the system.
We also run online database searching systems at two points in the store
for staff to access all books currently in print in Britain, USA, Australia,
South Africa, and New Zealand.

STORE PATRONS
Anyone and everyone who reads should be considered our
clientele. We should, as a quality general bookseller, be able to
cater for all needs whether directly through our range or by our
special order service.
Our demographic includes:
•city workers
•city residents
•interstate and overseas visitors
•Melburnians and Victorians

Bookstore Patrons
Book lovers typically also love bookstores and feel connected to ‘their’ store.
As a result, their expectation of our service and knowledge is extremely high.
We know, through our experience and through the responses to a survey we
ran some time back with our Privileged Reader Programme members, our
patrons:
•Absolutely value the fact that our booksellers remain with us and are
therefore familiar to them
•Want us to keep to a minimum the introduction of other merchandise rather
than sacrifice book space
•Value new book information ahead of discount or special offers
•Want us to maintain the spaciousness of the store and the sense that whilst
they can be given help if required, they are also welcome to stay in the store
and browse.

STORE BUYING
Establishing the tenets of our business and translating these into
reality should mean that the experience of being in our store is
comfortable and inviting. Indeed, as mentioned earlier, our
store should reflect our clientele and vice versa.
The choices in our purchasing and the ways in which we
merchandise our store are the key elements that exemplify the
store culture and the clientele interests.

Store Purchasing Decisions
Utilising both the computer information at our disposal and our own buying
prowess, we choose stock based on a number of variables:
•Previous history: how the author/subject has sold
•Trends in clients’ interests - e.g. we note that our Australian biographies are
selling well and see the need to add to the range
•We take note of the publicity campaigns organised and the media
engagements confirmed for the author
•We recognise gaps in our range and look for stock that will add to a subject
area.
•We expand our areas of interest to reflect an outlook that is interesting,
unusual, ground-breaking.

Examples of buying decisions based on
adding interest and uniqueness to our range
IN TRANSLATION
We set aside a small area in the store devoted to fiction titles that, in English,
have been translated from the original source. This range invariably sells
through every week - that is, we have to top up the section every week.
Why?
•It highlights titles that would possibly be lost on the shelves
•It sends a message that we are interested in more than the bestsellers
•It reflects a broad range and a depth of range not usually displayed in most
stores

Examples of buying decisions based on
adding interest and uniqueness to our range
LIMITED EDITION OF 15 USHER’S ISLAND
A collaboration between ourselves and the owner and restorer of James Joyce
House, 15 Usher’s Island, Dublin, Ireland. We are the exclusive, worldwide
stockist of this CD recording, packaged with a recording of “Dubliners”.
Why is a Melbourne bookstore initiating and undertaking this?
•Linked to to a dedicated website for Usher’s Island editions,this gives us a
global clientele and the associated awareness of our business
•It reinforces for our clientele and local publishers that we are innovative and
enthusiastic which in turn will lead to other projects.
•It provides us with a unique item that we can market and as such gives us a
clear point of difference both in the item itself and the perception of how we
conduct business

STORE MERCHANDISING
Typical retail practice will include ideas and actions such as:
•Add on
•Sell up
•No spare space on a display stand
•Promotional bins and posters to push the latest release
You will find none of these concepts per se in practice at
Reader’s Feast

Merchandising to suit the client
If, as I have demonstrated, my clientele is interested in
information, is open to new and interesting ranges, and wants to
feel comfortable and spend time in our store, then
Our merchandising has to suit this set of criteria and above all
be
SUBTLE

Subtle but effective merchandising
Our displays will be accessible and will reflect our range through the new
releases from all categories, not just the obvious or expected bestsellers
Our displays will reflect the buying decisions we have made and the titles
we have felt worthy of inclusion in our book guide
Our store will be uncrowded and will feature our recommendations rather
than publisher promotional material that is obviously linked to purchasing
deals
We will include things such as the best sellers lists from the UK, Aust, and
the USA to let the customer feel part of the global community of readers
We will want to reflect our own reading tastes in our displays, featuring titles
that have captivated us and which we want to promote to others as worthy of
consideration

Good old fashioned retail merchandising
Subtlety and a personal approach to merchandising doesn’t mean dispensing
with correct procedures:
•Always think about the view from each side of a display and try to ensure
that book spines are on show
•Never let a display run down but rather keep them topped up or change them
if the item is moving fast
•Change displays regularly, remembering that many of the clients are
frequent visitors to the store
•Theme displays so that the mix of titles makes sense
•Think symmetrically - never let an end display be lopsided or looking slight

Reader’s Feast Bookstore
Hopefully I have given you a sense of the way everything
in a bookstore is connected be it
•The business ethos and culture
•The anticipated clientele
•The buying decisions
•The merchandising
I often talk with my colleagues about being ambassadors for
our bookstore.
This is how we should think about every aspect of our business.
If we do, our whole store will tell our story.
Mary Dalmau, June 2005.