Shelf Awareness
"Independent bookstores can blossom and grow by taking a cue from the strategic merchandising of the more successful retail boutiques: a carefully curated selection of offerings. But bookstores have an advantage over their general wares counterparts: they are repositories of ideas and imagination in the form of books, things of deep emotional attachment to most people. While you'd expect to be impressed in a well-curated boutique of useful or fanciful goods, you should expect to be transported and moved to own (and be owned!) in a well-curated indie bookstore. You don't get that in a warehouse or online...."Your brand is you, your trade is books, your livelihood ideas. Express them in curating your product and programming your events. Make your place a wonder to enter, a privilege to shop. Your customer will want to own that experience; if just a small token purchase, the cash drawer pop is just as sweet. And you have a new advocate, if not a full-blown future customer."
--Daniel Power, CEO of powerHouse Books and co-owner of the powerHouse Arena and powerHouse on 8th in New York City. He was one of six experts who discussed the topic "How Can Bookstores Stay Alive?" in a New York Times "Room for Debate" feature.
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