Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Suiren2022
James Daunt made Waterstones the largest bookstore chain in the UK and has brought about a turnaround at Barnes & Noble that many never thought would happen.
How did Mr. Daunt do it? Apparently, by getting rid of many of the “sensible retailing principles” that helped tank the business in the first place, said the Barnes & Noble CEO on a recent episode of the “Business Studies podcast.
Those principles, which almost every retailer uses, create consistent experiences from one store to the next.
“If you walk into Booths, you want to be able to find the shampoo in the same sort of place in the same sort of ranges, and when it is really consistent, that’s an easy way to shop. And that's true of pretty much every retailer,” said Mr. Daunt.
Following that approach in bookstores, however, leads to an “inherently boring” experience for customers whose tastes vary based on the local community, according to Mr. Daunt. Uniform bookstores also leave curation, or the lack thereof, to publishers who pay for their titles to be placed on display tables.
Mr. Daunt said that when he joined Barnes & Noble and walked into a store, he would find the best-seller ranking with books from the same five or six authors displayed on tables. He said these were the same authors who had been on the tables for some 20 years. “Good authors, but literally the same ones” who are churning out books every six months or so, he said.
“If you apply those same principles of homogeneity across all of your sections, you really end up with something terrible. And because it's terrible, you don't sell very much and your sales drop,” he said.
As a result of lower book sales, Barnes & Noble moved into other categories to compensate for its shortfall, which it did not.
The Daunt model calls for turning over bookstore decisions to the managers and associates who engage daily with customers and share their love of reading. This approach means that experiences are tailored by the community, making Barnes & Noble the local bookstore.
Barnes & Noble hasn’t shelved all sensible retailing principles. The retailer recently joined Amazon.com, Walmart and others in launching an annual $39.99 subscription plan. Members receive 10 percent discounts on purchases, free shipping of online orders, rebates based on purchases, bigger lattes and a free tote, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The chain also offers a free option whereby members earn a virtual stamp for every $10 spent in stores or online. Members receive a $5 credit for a future purchase once they have ten stamps.