Retail Customer Experience: What Will Bookstores Look Like in Five Years?
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from Retail Customer Experience, a daily news portal devoted to helping retailers differentiate the shopping experience.
The book store segment has already changed much in the past two decades, morphing from stacks of books on shelves to entertainment destinations that are as much about the coffee as anything else. But with the burgeoning e-reader market, it looks like the coming years might bring the biggest changes it has ever seen.
"I think that the megastore as we know it today will disappear from many towns and those that remain will be only in large urban centers," said Richard Day, publisher of Self-Councel press, which has published DIY legal books since 1971. "My expectation is that bookstores will revert to what they once were: smaller, neighborhood stores concentrating on selling print and digital to an audience with common genre interests. The stores may be book/coffee/tea shop hybrids, with a while-you-wait book printing facility, digital connections to facilitate e-book browsing and purchase, and staff who know and love the books they sell."
San Diego bookstore, Mysterious Galaxy, focuses its efforts on mystery, suspense, sci-fi, fantasy and horror. Owner Mary Elizabeth Hart believes that, as instant electronic delivery of content becomes more pervasive, bookstores will become more about local focus and topical passion.
She said, "I think there will be an emphasis on the community each store offers, and their community area will be a focus, whatever their inventory combination of traditional books, Espresso machines (a print-on-demand device that can create a book in a few minutes) and electronic books. I think the other area of emphasis will be our booksellers and their information. Regardless of format, readers look to booksellers as guides among the vast quantity of available reading material out there."
Melanie Tighe, owner of Dog-Eared Pages in Phoenix, AZ, said the many emerging electronic options can't replace the bookstore experience.
"The hours that can be wasted browsing shelves," said Ms. Tighe. "The feel of the book in your hand as you flip it over to peruse the back cover. The spontaneous meeting of like minds reaching for the same shelf. I think bookstores will survive, but as an endangered species, a species that needs to be cared for by the community."
Discussion Questions: What will the brick & mortar bookstore model look like in five years? Are you as optimistic as the respondents in the article about the prospects for the local book store?