The babble of beach-side books, or, how to market a bookshop

Published in

The Coffeelicious

5 min readAug 2, 2015

As someone who frequents bookshops everywhere I go, and who spent 8 years working in one, it baffles me how much independent bookshop owners don’t inject personality into their bookshop. Too many independent bookshops have white-washed walls, harsh lighting and nothing other than the products for decoration.

It’s boring.

Why not mix it up?

Remember: you need your customer’s attention

A good book grabs the reader’s attention and holds it for the length of the story. And selling is like a story, there is a beginning, middle and end. The customer enters the shop, they find something they like, they buy it.

Selling books is actually pretty easy. All you have to do is ask the right questions and listen to what the customer wants: more often than not you’ll make a sale….but before you can do that you've got to get them into the shop.

Get the customer into your bookshop and in there long enough for them to want to buy a book.

If you’re like me sometimes you just want to buy a book. You don’t really care what, you just want to go into a bookshop and find something, anything, that grabs you.

The most obvious step to acquire customers is to let them know you exist; this is not difficult; update your Google maps listing, start interacting with people on places like Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. Put an ad in the paper if you want to go that route.

And your advertising, your interaction has to answer this question: why your bookshop? What is it about your shop that would attract booknerds. Because we are your target audience. We buy proper (read: physical) books regularly, not just one every 3 or 4 months.

Your bookshop needs to look inviting. Which doesn't necessarily mean you have to have floor-to-ceiling bookshelves full of fantastic books (although that would be nice...).

It’s about how you lay your shop out, it’s about the stock you chose to have. It’s about the range of stock. In that order.

If you've got quotes, and posters artfully placed on the walls and unobtrusive background music, you’re going a long way to inviting people into your shop. Even quotes from popular TV shows like Dr Who as well as witty remarks by comedians and writers is a good idea.

Then once people are in; give them reasons to stay. Good bookshops are places you get lost in. Mediocre ones are where you can survey the entire shop in less than 10 minutes and leave without feeling like you've missed out.

Helping customers find something they like

This does not just come down to your staff being good at customer service.

Having handwritten book reviews on the shelves are always popular. They provide value to shoppers and catch people’s eye. Provide lists of the series in order (because not every series has the sequence on the cover…or in fact anywhere useful). Also shelf-talkers such as “If you like ‘Game of Thrones’, you might like ‘Wheel of Time’ or ‘Kingkiller Chronicles’.” is a way to help customers looking for a new series.

Another way to help customers find what they like is having a range of stock beyond the bog-standard. If you have a business section, go beyond the Richard Branson, Wolf of Wall Street, Tony Robbins, Dale Carnegie selection. Branch out, find out what your customer base is interested in and invest in widening your selection.

Don’t settle for bog-standard

If you have regulars then you’ll know they’re always on the look out for the latest books in their chosen genres. These people are a great source of information, by listening to them and taking their suggestions on board not only are you catering to them, but you can also gain new customers by expanding your range.

Pick a genre or two that sells really well and try something new, order in a new author or series and post the information on social media as well as your email newsletter and tell customers in-store.

If your shop is seen to be constantly evolving, trying new things you’re more likely to attract new people.

The Sale, or, Why good customer service is not an option

Sales assistants are there to…well, assist in the sale. You’re there to sell books and make people feel happy about the purchase they've just made. You want customers to come back. You want them to enjoy the experience of buying a book in your shop.

And once you have grabbed people’s attention enough for them to come in and want to buy something you've got to seal the deal.

Which happens at the counter. It continues to happen until that customer is out of the shop with the book in a bag and on their merry way.

When I say make a customer “feel happy” about their experience of buying a book I don’t mean talking the book up or reassure them of anything. I mean smile, be amicable, do not ever give the customer the impression they’re an inconvenience.

They are your bread and butter…in a manner of speaking.

Selling books

I said the sale was the easiest part, I stand by that assertion.

Selling books requires three things. An ability to listen, ask the right questions and product knowledge.

Listening is the most important of the skills. It can be the difference between totally cocking the sale up and having that customer return wanting more.

Brand loyalty, or, incentivising the customer’s return

This can be as simple as making the customer happy, and helping them to associate your bookshop with the sort of place they should return to for more books. Or, it can be a little more detailed; like a loyalty card.

A fair few bookshops do this: sometimes it's buy 6 get the 7th book (up to the value of $29.95) for free; other times it’s make 10 sales get 10% of what you’ve spent over the ten purchases.

How you choose to reward your customers is up to you, but it is a great way of incentivising your customers to return.

It can also be as simple as recommending the right book or author to a customer. I recommend a fantasy series to a customer, and even now 10 years later she still goes back to that shop because the staff are so helpful (and the series hasn’t finished so we recommended other series).