Monday, April 11, 2011

Borders - How to get people in & buying

The WWF needs to add a new endangered species to its list, the book store.
Borders and Angus & Robertson going into voluntary liquidation, closing so many of their stores & now selling off everything in their physical stores.
It's a shame, we're losing an icon.

I love going into Borders - heading over to Gloria Jeans with a stack of magazines to flip through while I sip my mocha chiller. Good for me however, clearly not helping Borders with their financial troubles.


In my view, this is where Borders has gone wrong & what they could do to improve.
  • Cheaper books & they need to be competitive. Dymocks, Co-Op book shops & the Independents are going relatively well and books are now available for much cheaper in Target, Big W & Kmart.
  • Engage more with the community. Have more authors dropping in, book signings, children's reading time, establish or facilitate book clubs.
  • Send out more tailored email communications. It's currently sent out as one size fits all. Inform us what is going on at our local stores, what are the big sellers of the week, let us tailor our mail to know what new Sci-Fi or Biographies are coming out.
  • Attach coupons to our membership/loyalty cards - don't make us waste paper and print out the coupon.
  • Don't diversify your range to include home wares & gifts. Stick to Books/Movies/Music/Magazines, cut the stationery lines.
Photo taken from:
http://resources1.news.com.au/images/2011/02/17/1226007/709341-borders-bookstore.jpg

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