Barnes & Noble Making Radical Strategy Change To Keep Traditional Bookselling Viable in Age of Amazon
Running a business is a tricky practice, as current events and technological advancements can drive consumers away and force companies to shut their doors.
Not even the larger bookstore chains are immune to this pressure.
Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt is altering the company’s strategy to keep the business of traditional bookselling alive in today’s current world, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
Even before the pandemic caused Barnes & Noble to experience a 50 percent decline in revenue at its major metropolitan stores, per the report, the bookstore chain was struggling to compete with online retail stores such as Amazon.
In 2018, Barnes & Noble entertained the idea of selling the company because of the soaring popularity of ordering books online instead of shopping in-person.
Now, COVID-19 restrictions and fears about the rising number of cases in some areas are discouraging many people from leaving home to shop.
This is why Daunt believes certain things need to change for bookstores to survive.
“I don’t think we have any God-given right to exist,” he told a group of publishing-industry professionals in September.
“How is it that bookstores do justify themselves in the age of Amazon? They do so by being places in which you discover books with an enjoyment, with a pleasure, with a serendipity that is simply impossible to replicate online,” the CEO continued in his interview with the Book Industry Study Group.
Daunt has been taking advantage of the coronavirus restrictions that have kept many businesses shuttered, opting to use the time awarded to him to restructure the company’s approach to selling books.
During the industry group discussion, he talked about his vision for Barnes & Noble, which has a central idea that is rather revolutionary.
Instead of displaying books based on agreements a store has with publishers to promote their releases, Daunt has decided to take a merit-based approach to bookselling.
He said this will empower local store managers to make informed choices regarding their inventory by showcasing products that resonate with the community.
Daunt’s theory that ensuring consumers can clearly see a variety of enticing book titles as they browse appears to have merit.
Julie Bosman of The New York Times shared a survey in 2012 that found a third of bookstore shoppers walked out of the store with a book they didn’t intend to purchase when they walked in.
Allowing experienced booksellers to connect consumers with books they might not have known existed prior to browsing the aisles earns their support and has the positive side effect of boosting online sales, Daunt said.
“It’s in the stores where you win the loyalty from your customers,” he said, according to The Wall Street Journal. “If you get your stores right, your online sales will follow. If your stores are crap, your online will be as well.”
While the report noted Daunt has been forced to cut costs these past few months by laying off employees and trimming the number of open Barnes & Noble stores, he expressed confidence in the careful strategy the company was undertaking to invite customers to shop in-person during the ongoing pandemic.
“Oddly enough, the pleasures of being in a bookstore is that they aren’t crowded places,” he said. “Once we were open, we’ve been doing pretty well.”
In regards to the impact the virus will have on his business, Daunt said, “As long as the pandemic doesn’t do something completely horrendous to us, we will be profitable.”
While it’s encouraging to see a company that has been around for years revitalize its strategy to keep itself afloat, many smaller businesses throughout the country have not been so fortunate.
Data from the University of California, Santa Cruz showed more than 316,000 businesses closed between February and September, putting the number of daily closures at 1,500 a day.
Even if business owners want to reopen again, many have been prevented from doing so.
According to the Harvard-run database TrackTheRecovery.org, the number of small businesses that remain open in the U.S. decreased by 28.8 percent from January to late November.
To stay afloat in the era of this “new normal,” Barnes & Noble has had to reinvent itself, a decision other businesses of all sizes will likely need to consider if they’re to survive as well.
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