Bookstores of the Future
If you think that all bookstores and libraries will follow in Border’s footsteps and be things of the past in a few decades, think again. According to Javier Celaya and Elisa Yuste of Dosdoce.com, the bookstores, libraries, and museums of the future have the potential to be competitive and interactive places that easily draw in customers. That is, if they embrace and utilize new technology and business models.
Celaya and Yuste are experts in this field of business adaptation; their company “analyzes the use of new technologies in the cultural sector and publishes annual studies related to trends in the creative industries.” In an interview with Roger Tagholm of Publishing Perspectives, Celaya and Yuste talk about what the future may hold for bookstores and libraries alike, specifically the potential for technological enhancements. “We are facing a complete transformation of physical spaces and experiences,” Celaya and Yuste explain, “Cultural entities such as bookstores, libraries, museum stores, etc., will be no exception.”
This physical transformation of bookstores and similar spaces involves the use of modern (or future) technology. Believe it or not, Celaya and Yuste predict that face recognition systems, smart sensors (beacons), advanced recommendation systems, and interactive applications can and will be utilized to make libraries and bookstores more engaging to our tech-savvy generation. The pair explains that these changes will allow the physical locations to mimic what many companies are already doing online: tracking the habits of their customers to provide a tailored experience. Think about the way that websites like Amazon customize their suggestions based on your most recent Google searches — a similar approach would allow the bookstores, libraries, and museums of the future to provide an equally personalized experience.
Celaya and Yuste assure that, “All these new technologies will transform the way these spaces offer their content, products and services to their users. They will change the way they help customers select physical and digital products, and they will enhance the way customers share their buying experience.” Beyond being personalized, visiting a bookstore would then also become a social (i.e. “shareable”) event for customers.
Moreover, according to an interview conducted by blogger Hunter Walk, real bookstores are ready to embrace this technology right now. Lilly Wyden, the Product Marketing Manager for Strand Bookstore in NYC (a well-known, eighty-six year old independent bookstore), says, “I wish there was a better way to source customer feedback. An unimposing, unintrusive way for customers to tell us what they liked or hated, wanted to see more of, wish they’d seen less of, about their shopping experience.” Clearly, there are bookstores and libraries out there that are ready to embrace the technology that Celaya and Yuste are suggesting.
There are also examples of real places that already utilize similar techniques. Celaya and Yuste cite eBay’s interactive touch showcases in their New York stores, ShopperTrak’s customer behavior monitoring services, and the bookseller Cervantes & Cia, which is located in Madrid and has large screens in the store that display news events and book trailers. Even more astounding, the Connecticut Library and the Chicago Public Library are apparently using robots to welcome users and to help teach coding and computer programming skills. These advancements can also be helpful in the education world; the program Arborea, which is a digital desk that patrons can use to interactively explore the catalogue of new publications, is currently in use at the Autonomous University of Mexico.
According to Celaya and Yuste, physical locations cannot persist in the digital age if they do not adapt their business models; companies need to apply new technology in their businesses with an “open-minded entrepreneurial mindset.” They frankly state that, “It’s no longer enough to have a social media presence or offer print books or ebooks for purchase. The new wave of technologies will transform bookstores — their services and their physical spaces.”
While it may not be possible to definitively predict what the bookstores, libraries, and museums of the future will look like, it is clear that they will have to continue to adapt in order to stay relevant. If Celaya and Yuste’s claims are correct, then the book places of the future will not only be technologically competitive, they will also be incredibly awesome.
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