How are you going to keep the online sales that begin in your store?
image credit: House of Sims, via Flickr
I read a post this morning that floored me. It was written by someone who is not in the book world, and only a small portion is about books. But it crystallizes one of the biggest problems facing independent bookstores right now.
Sally McKenzie, a retail and e-commerce consultant, was browsing for books at Powell’s bookstore in Portland. She found 8 books that she wanted — books that she had never heard of and had found as a result of physically being in a terrific bookstore. But she wanted to read them on her Kindle.
But wait. This isn’t just about the Kindle. It goes farther than that…
Sally wrote down the book information, and went home to download them from Amazon. Some of the books weren’t available in Kindle format. But since she was already on the Amazon website, and able to buy the books with one click, it was easier for her to get them right then, even though we all know that Powell’s has one of the best online bookstores out there.
Please do not ignore this.
You all need to read Sally’s article, and you should pass it on to every independent bookstore person that you know. If you are thinking about the future of your business, I think you need to think seriously about the ideas in that post. Consider this a long-term goal. It shouldn’t stop you from addressing your short-term objectives, but it’s something that needs discussion and input and cooperation and meetings and probably an industry working together to figure out.
Please go read it now (it will open in a new window), and then come back: King Midas in Reverse: How Cross-Channel Influence Helps Your E-Commerce Sales
This is not about competing with Amazon on price. It’s about keeping the sales that begin in your store.
I don’t think that there is a quick and easy answer. But there are some things to think about — things that might be radical, or difficult, or expensive.
E-books are real, and they are happening. I don’t think physical books will go away, but I think you need to start working on the e-book scenario today. It’s happening fast, and I don’t think any one store can figure it out alone. I know that there was some talk at the NEIBA trade show about the ABA talking with Sony. That’s one idea that I would fully endorse, and I hope that it is already in progress. If the Sony Reader becomes ubiquitous (it’s already being sold at Target, so it has a shot), it’s just possible that the market share will be taken from Amazon’s Kindle. Yes, the different formats and standards are a mess right now. I also like reading ebooks on my iPhone. But you need to be ready. If you have to make e-books available in 3 formats, you might need to bite the bullet for awhile: remember, you used to carry audiobooks on both cassette and CD. You need to read up on publishers’ terms of sale, and figure out how you can play in this market. You need to understand how it all works, before you can evaulate what you need to do. If brick and mortar stores don’t do it, we will see the rise of online stores that become category killers, much in the way that Audible.com has become the category killer for downloadable audibooks (and where are you in that business?). You need to be ready.
Secondly, I am becoming more and more convinced that an in-store computer for customers is a good idea — and one that doesn’t block Amazon. Your immediate reaction, I know, is that your customers will find out that the book is cheaper on Amazon and order it from your store, and you’ll lose the sale. And I do believe that will happen in some cases. BUT …
- If Sally McKenzie had looked online while she was standing in Powell’s, and discovered that 4 of her 8 books were not available in Kindle format, she probably would have bought those books at Powell’s.
- That $15.95 trade paperback is probably just $2 or $3 less at Amazon, but the customer is standing right there in your store. If her perception is that it is much cheaper, she may drive home to check. But if she knows that it’s just a few dollars, she very well may buy it, since she’s there anyway.
- Let’s flip it around: I have two books in my Amazon shopping cart online, but here I am standing in a bookstore and can’t remember what they are. If I can look them up I can just get them while I’m here.
- The ability to look up reviews online from trusted sources can be the difference between a sale and no sale. If I’m on the fence about a book and I trust reviews on Goodreads or Librarything or yes, Amazon, and I can look it up in the store, I am much more likely to purchase.
I’m not 100% sold on the idea of computers in stores yet, but I’m coming very close. It’s something to think about. It does scare me a little bit — but in fact, I walk around with 2 computers in my pocket every day (iPhone, Blackberry) and so do many of your customers. Think about it. I’d like to hear your thoughts on this one.
In fact, I’d love to hear your thoughts on everything. Feel free to disagree, by the way. I look forward to a healthy dialog.
John says:
January 10th, 2009 at 7:59 am
Ann,
Nice post and link – it is definately a scary world we are living in, recession aside… I think we are heading down dark roads for pure independent bookstores. But, other things give me hope. Our new manager in Andover, is running knitting classes in the bookstore. I was unsure what the response would be? One email and one post on Facebook and one day later 10 paying customers are signed up – and the book they need to buy is extra (and discounted). We are going to fast become cultural resource centers that charge for time, place, activity, the books will be an aside. I’ll try and expand on this idea after final eBook review post coming this weekend.
Ann Kingman says:
January 10th, 2009 at 10:30 am
@John — I think you are right about the need for stores to become a community/cultural resource center. I worry about stores cutting their hours of operation in the economy, when there is the potential to get people into the store for things such as knitting classes. Kudos to Andover’s manager for thinking beyond author events.
When you have time I would love it if you’d expand on the idea in a guest post here — let me know if you’d be interested. And I will definitely highlight your e-book review when you’ve wrapped it up.
Thanks so much for your participation here, and willingness to think about new ideas.
Ann
John says:
January 10th, 2009 at 10:58 am
Ann,
Happy to expand at some point soon – would you mind editing my post – just reread and realized I spelled bookstore and Facebook wrong – hate to do that…Have a great weekend.
John
Drew says:
January 10th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Ann,
I agree that as ebooks become more predominant, printed books are not going to disappear (as opposed to some who see them completely gone in 15 years or less). This is the reality that independent stores have to learn to adjust to and live with.
Independent stores must start looking at their ability to sell ebooks. We do it right now through an affiliate arrangement with Powell’s. That may need to change in the future, but works for us right now. Stores should look at trying to create affiliate relationships with the major e-reader companies. Perhaps we should pester Amazon to allow us to sell the Kindle and work out an affiliate program, or maybe Sony is the way to go.
Another thing that needs to be done is to level the playing field a bit. Amazon gives price breaks on many books, but as you said, if a customer can buy it in the store now, versus waiting for Amazon to ship, the few dollars difference may not break the in store sale. Having said that, many people see Amazon as giving them a double discount- the discount on the book AND no sales tax to pay. If Amazon is going to sell to my customers, or even to my competitors customers, in my state, they should be required to collect the sales tax.
Lastly, bookstores should also emphasize an added value that the customer gets for shopping in their stores. Amazon offers discounts and free shipping for purchases over $25. They offer reviews from other customers and suggestions of what to buy if you like certain books. Independent stores need to find that added value- and a cozy place to visit and read, and knowledgeable staff just doesnt’ cut it anymore. We need to get technology involved while the customer is visiting and make it a reason for them to come back. Computer kiosks are a start, and I think they would be helpful, but we need to consider what else could be done to employ technology to engage customers.
Patrick says:
January 12th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Ann,
Great post. I’ve been an advocate of getting creative with ebooks for the past few months, and this post only confirms that for me. We *must* get out in front of this, or we’ll see a replay of what happened at the start of the internet era when many stores resisted opening e-commerce stores, starting blogs, etc.
One issue I have with Amazon that doesn’t get a lot of play is that very few titles show as being unavailable. It’s really only the truly out of print that display that way, and even then, Amazon will usually claim they can get it in a couple of weeks. Customers often don’t know that the book is unavailable. As a store that only carries new books, pretty much every book we carry is available at Amazon (however, I’m sure a bunch aren’t available on Kindle yet).
Our customers are already telling us that they want to read ebooks and they want to get them from us, but they don’t realize that we can’t sell books for the Kindle. There’s always an education gap with customers and Amazon. Curious what people have done that’s worked to educate their customers.
Susan says:
January 13th, 2009 at 7:40 am
Ann, Goodness. So much to think about.
From the publisher’s perspective, I wonder if we could bundle e-book formats to stores, so they could offer all formats a customer might want? Not sure what this would entail–maybe some publishers are already doing this? Maybe we could also offer e & p bundles whereby if the reader buys the e edition from that bookseller it generates a coupon for the print edition that we could deal with via co-op? Would be a co-op nightmare for our sales folks, but it might offer the incentive for readers to buy both, if they were so inclined. Wonder if there are some stores (Powells??) who could test some ideas and see what would work.
I hope the ABA can offer some research and structure to how this could be done. What research are they doing now about how stores could implement this? Are any info sessions at BEA to discuss ideas already scheduled? Anyone want to gather and have a conversation?
FWIW, from this reader’s perspective: both BN and Borders have put customer accessible computers in stores and I can read info about a book. I use these computers when I’m in stores and I would use them in an Indie, too, if they were there.
Links for 2009-1-13 « Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog says:
January 13th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
[...] Booksellers Blog » How are you going to keep the online sales that begin in your store? “E-books are real, and they are happening. I don’t think physical books will go away, but I think you need to start working on the e-book scenario today. It’s happening fast, and I don’t think any one store can figure it out alone.” (via @Booksquare) (tags: books ebooks) [...]
stacy says:
January 13th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
I was actually thinking opposite of Susan, that perhaps publishers ought to offer a coupon for the e-version of the book with the print book. That gets into the problem of codes and such–Wizards of the Coast had that difficulty when releasing D&D v. 4.0, for which a code for a PDF version of the book was included with the print version. (But PDFs don’t really cut it anyway–it needs to be a format that actually works on a mobile device.)
At any rate, that side of it is akin to buying a hard copy of an album or movie and getting a digital version that’s portable. I’d love to be able to buy a print book, but then when I got on a long trip not have to carry four or five huge volumes (I never know what I’ll be in the mood to read on a flight). I like the flexibility of it–which is the same reason why I wish I had digital portable versions of all my DVDS (which are practically impossible to convert due to DRM, and that gets into the whole frustration that I’m not going to buy a full-priced movie from Itunes when I have the DVD–it’s the same thing with e-books that are priced the exact same as the print version).
The Daily Square - Hafssol Edition | Booksquare says:
January 14th, 2009 at 12:02 am
[...] How are you going to keep the online sales that begin in your store?Ann Kingman takes off the gloves and asks the most important question facing booksellers. This one is a keeper [...]
MoJo says:
January 14th, 2009 at 9:30 am
The Perfect Bookstore
Ann Kingman says:
January 14th, 2009 at 10:33 am
MoJo,
I followed your link, though I would have loved you to give it some context here in the comments so that others would realize that it was a valuable perspective and not someone spamming the blog.
On your blog post describing “The Perfect Bookstore,” you write;
You don’t know why this has to be difficult because you don’t know what happens behind the scenes. The Espresso Machine, while wonderful in what it can do, does not currently have the availability of current publisher’s books. For instance, you can’t walk into The Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT (which does indeed have an Espresso machine at the front of the store) and get a copy of, say, Stephenie Meyer’s TWILIGHT printed on demand. Mainstream publishers do not currently make those files available. It is not the fault of the bookstore.
There are other considerations, such as the expense and maintenance of said machines, etc. Your utopian vision is interesting, but please don’t act like nobody wants to fix whatever issues exist in the industry. Not all booksellers are alike, that’s why they are independent. People across the industry are trying to figure this all out; nobody is fiddling while Rome is burning.
To booksellers and others who are reading this: if you have comments about MoJo’s idea, please leave them over at her blog — there are other people reading her blog that would also find them of interest, I’m sure. I’d like to keep the comments here focused on the ideas in the post I’ve written above. Thanks.
MoJo says:
January 14th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Ann, I apologize both for not giving context and for apparently posting out of context.
But how do I, as a reader and consumer of books, know that? All I know is, I walk into an indie bookstore that’s been there for years and they’re phasing out books to become a coffee shop. To me, it *does* look like folks are shrugging their shoulders and shifting their revenue streams.
That I didn’t know, no.
Though I see that my post has an urgent tone to it, I do realize that my Utopian vision is some time off. However, I haven’t seen an idea like mine put forth anywhere (and I might not be looking in the right places, granted) and it takes an idea first. That’s what I’ve offered: An idea.
Ann Kingman says:
January 14th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Mojo,
You are very welcome to post here, and your ideas do relate to the post — that is not a problem. I am/was concerned about veering too far off course here with print on demand issues and discussions of rights, etc.
I responded to your post over on your blog so that there is a frame of reference. I hope you don’t mind. I do encourage readers of this blog to head on over there and read MoJo’s ideas: http://moriahjovan.com/mojo/the-perfect-bookstore
Pete LeBar says:
January 15th, 2009 at 11:34 am
As a bookseller and a Kindle user, I feel the elephant in the room that nobody’s talking about is publisher pricing on e-books. It seems so obious to me that e-books should be cheaper than physical books, yet as far as I know Amazon is the only big player that offers major discounting. As a Kindle user, I love it! As a bookseller, I have ZERO interest in trying to sell e-books that are the same price as new books. It would behoove all of us, I think, to work towards a) a standard format for e-books and devices that display them; and b) a complete overhaul of publisher pricing on e-books. How about setting retail on e-books at half the price of the book retail, give us similar discount structure to what we have now, and let us (booksellers) pick and choose how or if we want to discount that e-book retail price to our customers. If Big Publishing’s response continues along the ‘oh, we can’t make money with that model’ line then they’re even closer to extinction than their major label coounterparts in the music industry. One more note on Kindle: if I didn’t work in a bookstore, with all the attendant free reading opportunities, I would be buying at least 70 or 80% of my books on the Kindle. Some of this has to do with my own reading habits – lots of genre fiction that I only want to read once – but I have to say that I’m still kind of surprised at how much I like the Kindle experience. And I say this as a lifelong reader/book collector. My point? I think we may be still underestimating the effect e-books are going to have on the business once we get the standards/format/pricing thing figured out
Ann Kingman says:
January 15th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Hi Pete,
Thanks for sharing your perspective as both a bookseller and a Kindle user. I think it would be a good exercise for more booksellers to really test drive a Kindle, Sony Reader, or Stanza on the iPhone. (By testdrive, I mean read 1 or more entire books on the device).
If you are a bookseller who has spent some time with one of the devices, I’d love to hear your story, too.
John says:
January 15th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
Ann and Pete,
Great points – I second Ann on trying one of these devices out! If you hate it great if you love it, great. But, at least be informed. I run into too many booksellers that won’t even give it a test drive. It’s not going to knock out the book world, but it is going to change it and better to know the enemy than be totally surprised by it. My full review of the Sony is over at bookmansson.blogspot.com for those interested.
AmyCat (Book Universe) says:
January 15th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
I’d like to see more publishers do what BAEN has done with a few titles: included a CD-ROM with selections from their “Electronic Library” as a freebie in various hardcovers. (The “Electronic Library” has files of each book in multiple formats to work with various computers and handhelds.)
The books with these CDs are a guaranteed seller for me. I collect them myself; if you buy, for instance, the newest in David Weber’s “Honor Harrington” series, you’re also getting a CD-ROM with electronic copies of all the previous books, and the current one, in the series! Even though I already have copies of the whole series, I (and those of my customers who seek out the CD-ROM-enhanced editions) also want the “portable” format. Whenever I travel, I have one of these CD-ROMs in my laptop bag: I can carry dozens of books on one CD!
Given how cheap CDs are these days, publishers should be able to offer new hardcovers with the “electronic” version included…
Sally McKenzie says:
January 16th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Hi Ann, First I want to say thanks for pointing your readers to my blog post, and it’s great to see this dialogue going about such and important topic to booksellers. To add another element to the discussion regarding computer kiosks in stores, I think we all have to realize that in the very near future (if not already happening how), most customers will have access to the internet in their handbag or pocket by way of a mobile phone. Their ability to search for price comparisons, check availability, read reviews and, yes, buy a physical or digital version of the product they want will be in the palm of their hands. When I think back to my Powell’s experience a few months ago, it didn’t even occur to me to check my phone to see if the books were available on Kindle….but, just last weekend I was at the opera, liked the music and logged on to the iPhone version of Amazon and bought the CD during intermission. Had a Powell’s mobile website been promoted in the store, I might have bought from them to avoid having to carry my new books all over the city that afternoon. As the shopping experience becomes more and more portable, all retailers – independents and chains, across all categories will need to think through how to be available across media and orchestrate the experience. Not easy to execute by any means, but no question that consumer demand is leading us there. Thanks again for starting the conversation!
Ann Kingman says:
January 16th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Sally, thanks for coming over. I really appreciate your article, and you have a wealth of other information on your site that would be of interest to booksellers.
Powell’s mobile website promoted in store — very interesting idea. I’ve never been to Portland, but I wonder if your experience not wanting to carry books all over the city would also indicate an opportunity for Powell’s (and bookstores in other cities) to offer free delivery of your purchases to area hotels, similar to what they do at Disneyworld.
Bookstore People · Future of Books and Bookstores Discussion says:
January 24th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
[...] how should booksellers respond? A recent post on Booksellers Blog asked exactly that and the discussion it generated is interesting to follow. Several variations on [...]
Preston says:
February 5th, 2009 at 8:55 am
The following video is in French and slooooow to load, but it presents a model for future bookstores that I can totally buy into. I recommend opening the page in a tab and letting it load in the background for 10 minutes. Jump to around 1:40 to see a bookstore of the future.
Preston says:
February 5th, 2009 at 8:58 am
http://www.editis.com/pages_html/video_possible02.htm — Might help if I provided the link!!!
Booksellers Blog » Blogging FAQ, Day 8: If We Put Our Staff Recommends on the Blog, Won’t People Buy those Books Elsewhere? says:
February 13th, 2009 at 6:14 am
[...] we know it happens. People shop in your store, write down the information about a book they want, and then go home and [...]