Offering the Shopping Experience In-Store and Online

Shelf Awareness

"When we first opened Brilliant Books [in 2007], it was the start of the real surge of the Internet, and there was a school of thought that said that one could either be online or retail, but to me it really just going to be a case of retail was changing. You no longer needed to go shopping so when you went shopping, you did it deliberately. And therefore you were going for the experience that you were having. That's really the key, and successful retailers nowadays present you with that experience because you aren't simply going to buy stuff because you can buy stuff at home in your underwear.
But if you actually want to go shopping, it's got to be a different experience. And if you can give them the rest of that experience through their online life, then you're talking to them all the time whether they're in the store or they're online."

--Peter Makin, co-owner of Brilliant Books, Traverse City, Mich., which does 30% of its sales online, speaking with Michigan Public Radio's Stateside about the importance of the Internet in independent bookselling.