Member Article

Could pop-ups aid the survival of independent bookshops?

Not so long ago, the main threat to independent bookshops were mass book retailers like Waterstones, Borders and Barnes & Noble.

Remember You’ve Got Mail? That movie reflected a real fear that independents had of being squashed by bigger corporate bookshops in the late nineties. Katherine Kelly (played by Meg Ryan), owner of independent bookstore The Shop Around the Corner, starts an email relationship with a mystery man. With classic dramatic irony, Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) turns out to be behind the major book retailer that will inevitably ruin her business.

The medium by which their relationship unfolds, in another ironic twist, was to become yet another thorn in the independent bookseller’s side. With the growth of the internet came the Amazon tidal wave, which later made way for the flood of eBooks, and the industry didn’t know (and still isn’t quite sure) how to combat it.

Even the mean old corporate book-sellers have struggled to stay afloat. Borders, formerly the second biggest book retailer in the US, filed for bankruptcy in 2011 and in the same year Waterstones reported the closure of 20 of its stores, a year later reporting a £37 million loss.

500 independent bookshops are reported to have closed between 2005 and 2014 in the UK. A change in buying habits has been blamed for the declining number, with many choosing to buy paperbacks or cheaper eBooks through Amazon.

The ‘Amazon effect’ can’t be entirely to blame – business rates have also been criticised for being too high for independent businesses to compete in the UK. But it’s not all bleak: the British love a comeback, and it could take the shape of the ever-popular pop-up shop.

How pop-ups could save independent book-selling

Selling products via a pop-up is becoming more and more popular. Since its introduction over the last few years many have chosen it as an additional way to sell products. London’s cycling café Look Mum no Hands, for example, have added a pop-up to their other two established shops while the now cult Secret Cinema’s main selling point is derived from ‘popping up’ in various locations. Black Box Coffee also regularly uses pop-up shops to sell their beverages.

Pop-ups needn’t be limited to food, drink and cinema. Nick Patrick and Kate Treloar ran a fixed-premises bookshop for five years in Adelaide Hills, Australia. For over two years, however, they’ve run their bookshop in the form of a pop-up.

They told The Guardian: ‘While many bricks-and-mortar retailers have been hit by online retail, traditional bookselling has been hit harder still with ebooks and the internet radically changing the public’s reading habits.’

Having sought advice from experts as to what they should do, they realised that no one really had an answer. So they started up a pop-up bookshop: ‘We began out with two chairs and a long crate full of cracking reads, set up on King William Street in the dead of winter and talked books for 12 hours straight. And it was fun! Over the next couple of months we did this repeatedly – putting books right in the public’s face.’

Getting out there and directly engaging the public is the beauty of the pop-up model. While a pop-up needn’t replace your bricks and mortar bookstore, it could act as a form of marketing to potential customers.

Book publishers Faber & Faber have also waded in on the act, using the pop-up as ‘an opportunity to express [themselves] in the high street’ Lee Brackstone, Faber’s director, told the Independent.

’We want people to walk into a shop in the heart of traditional bookselling London, and go, ‘Wow, these 80 music books, stretching from The Beastie Boys to Beck, are all published by one company.’ It’s a way to say we don’t just make books, we also create experiences.’

Business rates have come under fire frequently, with many small businesses decrying the fact that they are based on the value of the location, rather than the turnover of the business. This is no less true with independent bookshops, who have declared that inflating business rates are more to blame than Amazon and Kindle for taking them off the map.

‘It’s the business rates that are the biggest challenge,’ David Clarke, owner of City Bookshop in Norwich, told the Norwich Evening News. ‘Because of where we are in the city, we’re bracketed with Boots and WH Smith, not as a small independent trader.

So how would starting a pop-up help a bookshop with that issue? Unfortunately the business rates for a pop-up are the same as a rented commercial property. However, if the financial burden for the owner is less because if the product doesn’t sell, they can close up and move elsewhere.

Roger Wade, entrepreneur behind ‘the world’s first pop-up mall’ BOXPARK, is promoting a campaign to get the government ‘to help small independent shops by giving them small business rates relief for up to three months’. This means that in the future, this could be less of an issue for those using pop-up shops.

While the term ‘pop-up’ is fairly new, the concept is not. Despite being modernised, it dates back to when people would travel to different villages to sell their produce, ‘popping up’ in different locations. This has continued as a successful tradition for farmers markets, however has branched out to various types of retail. Combining the more modern ‘pop-up’ structure with a bookshop could revitalise independent businesses in the industry.

How to pop-up in style

It’s all well and good starting a pop-up shop, but how do you make the most of it? First, think about your target demographic so that you can tailor your books and location to fit them. What would they like to read and is your pop-up situated where they are likely to be? How should you present your pop-up? Branding? Props? People don’t just rush into a bookshop, grab something, and then head straight back out. Instead they’ll browse, ponder and wander – so utilise the space you have by adding seating and maybe serve coffee to evolve it into an experience, rather than simply a shop.

Take note of seasons, events and holidays – you can use certain days on the calendar as a way of selling your books. Think of the opportunities: Valentine’s Day, Shakespeare Day, World Environment Day…the list goes on.

You could also encourage customers to leave feedback and add themselves to the newsletter. And, despite the fact that other independent bookstores in the area may be your competition, collaborate with them and hold pop-ups together. There’s power in numbers and it could create a lot more foot-fall than selling by yourself.

Remember that the pop-up shop has a limited life – so make sure your brand is strong.

Owning a bookshop is a passion and, as James Daunt, owner of the independent chain Daunt Books says, ‘Nobody gets rich selling books, you do it because you love it.’

But in the current climate, love might not be quite enough. You will need to adapt to survive – and a pop-up could be just the thing.

By Rose Hill, online journalist for BusinessesForSale.com, the market-leading directory of business opportunities from Dynamis. Rose writes for all titles in the Dynamis stable including PropertySales.com and FranchiseSales.com.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by BusinessesForSale .