What The High Street Can Learn From Independent Bookshops
Added on 11/06/2019
With so many of our customers based on the high street, we keep a watchful eye on consumer shopping habits. Unfortunately the news from the high street wasn’t good in May: the British Retail Consortium’s monthly footfall tracker showed store visits were down to a six-year low in May with the cooler weather and the ongoing political uncertainty around Brexit deterring shoppers.
Here at Face Media Group, we have a ‘half glass full’ approach to life and business. As a result, we wondered whether the success of independent book shops might point to a way forward for the high street?
A few years ago, with the introduction of e-books, the last rites were being read for the book. While the book trade itself was hit hard by the rise of ecommerce, particularly the Amazon onslaught.
Independent bookshops have used a variety of strategies to succeed, the most popular of which is to bed themselves into their local community by putting on a mixture of events like book clubs, children’s story time and author events. designed to appeal to their key customer groups.
They’ve also:
- Opened a tearoom to support the bookshop.
- Developed really close personal relationships with their customers.
- Started ‘frequent buyer’ schemes.
- Provided edible offerings aka a book club fuelled by wine or beer and a children’s story time where the kids and adults snack on homemade cake.
What they also have in common is a rigorous approach to marketing – both online and offline. Now is the time to ramp up your marketing, not least because of the economic uncertainty caused by the B-word but also because the summer can be a tricky time for many businesses.
For advice on how printed materials can give a boost to your business, call the team at Face Media Group on 0333 8000 888.
Photo by Jacek Dylag on Unsplash
