Branding a Bookshop: Is Retail Under Attack?
Our favourite high street bookshop brands might have the secret to success.
Bookshops: the comforting scent of new novels and the friendly atmosphere of a bookish coffee bar. The retail industry is fighting back against the attack from online competition with clever branding to offer what the internet can’t. It’s not just about getting a book straight to your door that matters to many readers, but the process of choosing, reading the blurb and being surrounded by variety at your fingertips. From the atmosphere of the store to the community element of book clubs and friendly, knowledgeable staff, book buying is an experience unlike any other. This creates a space for brands to create a consistent instore experience to draw readers in, like Waterstones’ well stocked shelves and WHSmith’s magazines and stationary extras. As online giants threaten to take customers away from the shop floor, it’s the unique quirks an in-store experience has to offer which draws us back in.
Bookshops are in need of finding clever ways to outwit competition, and careful branding is the way they achieve this. In a bid to tackle the efficiency and abundance of online sellers, during the current distribution disruption with lorry drivers, “Waterstones, the UK’s biggest high street bookseller, said it had upped stocks of books by a quarter and ordered early to try to offset distribution problems” (Butler) so it is able to keep up with demand. Waterstones creates a brand through offering variety and consistent new fiction and non-fiction on its shelves. By having the stock ready and instore, customers don’t need to wait for delivery. Waterstones’ reliable instore experience with stocked up sections on many subjects offers something a digital shop can’t: instant ownership. A book can become part of your day, reading it in a coffee shop instore from the second you buy it. You can’t get coffee and an instant hardback online, so instore service has something irreplaceable here. The book is off the shelf and in your hands straight away, giving you a better idea of what the book is like, and not delaying you from reading it until the next day.
Retail is changing. Not only is online selling a new market, but over recent decades retail and branding has shifted significantly instore too. Whilst “traditionally, UK bookselling had meant the major chain WHSmiths” as well as “small independently owned chains, and a large number of independent or small bookshops” (Inside Book Publishing, 33), this is now no longer the case on our highstreets. “In the 1980s and 1990s, large bookselling chains, principally Waterstones and Dillons” rose in the market and “brought a new kind of bookselling- large, well-stocked bookshops” (Inside Book Publishing, 33) which brought a new angle to the market. Huge new stores saw a shift in the way people brought books. From Waterstones investing in cafés instore to hosting hugely popular book signings and author events, there was a unique new approach to bookselling on a wider scale by creating an immersive experience that drew readers in. By branding their business in a recognisable way with author events, readers knew a consistent standard would be met in their experience shopping and attending events instore across the country.
Publishers impact the brands they sell to. Although publishers are focusing on online resources, websites, and social media branding, getting their books front and centre in a bookshop is still vital, suggesting retail is winning in the fierce competition from online sellers. “Giving away high discounts to the bookshop chains has the aim of ensuring that a publisher’s stock is widely available” (Inside Book Publishing, 107) which suggests that retail and the shop floor still reigns as an influential place to reach readers despite the online market available. Instead of searching up a book you want or seeing an advert based on what you like, bookshops have book clubs, recommendations and popular sections that allow for easy browsing. Waterstones’ branding of wooden bookshelves, a bookish theme in its décor, gifts, notebooks and more on sale help to create an experience unique to being instore, where you can explore sections with friends to find the perfect thing you are looking for, which you might not have had in mind when you went to the search bar on the internet. Bookshops offer inspiration and a place to explore identity, finding your favourite section and seeing what’s on offer.
Bookshops may appear to be under attack from the online competition they face, but through branding high street shopping as an experience to enjoy and become immersed in, they provide a unique selling point that cannot be replicated in the digital world. With so many of us preferring the instant hardback read from the new fiction section, its no wonder the clever branding of a large bookstore holds significance over our choice to shop instore.
Works Cited:
Butler, Sarah. “Booksellers warn over Christmas supplies amid UK lorry driver shortage.” The Guardian. 7th September, 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/07/booksellers-warn-over-christmas-supplies-amid-uk-lorry-driver-shortage Accessed 04/10/2021.
Clark, Giles. Phillips, Angus. Inside Book Publishing. Fifth Edition, Routledge, 2014.
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