Namastechnology: Holidays
If the regional shows are over, that means it's time for the holidays. Already? Yep.
There
are, of course, a million things that we and our stores do to get ready
for the holidays, but in addition to bulk-ordering gift wrap and trying
to figure where in hell to put all the 2010 calendars, here are two
technology-oriented suggestions that will, with any luck, increase
sales for the holidays and beyond.
The first is to make better
use of IndieBound wish lists. For people who can't get enough
books--namely us, and our customers--there are few pleasures like
imagining the perfect library. Unfortunately, many book people don't
receive books as holiday gifts because it's impossible to know what to
buy them. I solved this problem last year by making an IndieBound wish
list; I was rewarded with neat little stacks in that beautiful trade
paperback shape under the tree.
Start with your own. You
undoubtedly see plenty of books every day that you wish you owned and
have to force yourself not to buy. I'm here to tell you that putting
them back on the shelf is a lot easier if you add them to your
Indiebound wish list at the same time. If you don't already have a
list, this is one of the easiest things you can do with a computer; go here to start.
The
other part of the wish list, though, is making sure people know about
it. So e-mail it to friends and family when they ask what you want this
year, put a link in your e-mail signature, your e-newsletter and on the website (check out our holiday wishlists!) and mention it whenever you
can.
Most important: make it easy for people to buy the books.
The wish list lets you indicate your favorite stores. Resist the urge
to put your own up top (after all, it's not much of a surprise if you
process your own Christmas present). Instead, add the stores that are
closest to the folks doing the buying. For example, my family lives in
central New York State, Doylestown, Pa., and North Carolina. So I
listed the river's end, Doylestown Books and Quail Ridge, and told my
family that they could make any present they give me even better by
buying it at an independent bookstore. You can see how this looks by
checking out my wish list. There are 1,350
bookstore members of the ABA. Can you imagine the impact if just one
person from each store across the country convinced their families to
do the same?
The second suggestion relates to this somewhat
alarming statistic: one in five people recently surveyed will be
requesting an e-reader for a gift this holiday season. That is much
higher than I would have guessed. How many of those people are your
regular customers? And how many of those customers know they can buy
e-books from your website, but only if they DON'T buy a Kindle?
At
the store I work for, we'll be preparing for this by hanging in-store
signs, posting information on our website, and writing an article for
our newsletter about WORD and e-books. For a great example of how an
independent bookstore addressed e-readers and e-books with their
customers, check out this article from a recent Politics & Prose newsletter.
Barbara Meade and Carla Cohen, in their customary note to customers at
the top of the newsletter, wrote a fantastic piece on how Politics
& Prose is now selling e-books, and what they're planning. "We
find ourselves on this e-book voyage (whether by train or rocket ship)
and we are observing with you both how the platforms develop and how
the publishers respond," they write. (The responses from customers are
not to be missed, either, and can be read here.)
As
you can see from that newsletter, it is possible to talk about e-books
with a sense of humor, while being honest with your customers about
your reservations and your desire to serve them in whichever way is
best for them. Here, for example, is the poster we'll be hanging in
WORD:
This reads: "Thinking about an e-reader this holiday season but worried that means you'll never visit your favorite indie bookstore again?
"Don't
be silly! Having an e-reader doesn't mean you can't still love WORD!
And WORD will still love you, too, because though you only see physical
books on our shelves, you can buy e-books on our website.
"Confused
by all the choices? Just like you'd ask our staff for a book
recommendation, please ask us for more information on e-readers and
e-books. We'd love to help!"
As you can see from the responses
to Politics & Prose, this is a conversation that customers are
happy to have with you, and there's no better time than now, before
people customarily make their big technological purchases for the year.
What other things are you doing to get your store ready for the
holidays technologically? Noting your extended store hours on the
website? Mentioning your free gift wrap prominently on the home page?
Working on a holiday gift suggestion newsletter to use up the rest of
that newsletter co-op? E-mail your suggestions to
stephanie@wordbrooklyn.com.--Stephanie Anderson, manager of WORD bookstore, Brooklyn, N.Y.
