Tips and tricks from top indie retailers

As the economy slowly recovers, the number of independent bookstores are on the rise. The American Booksellers Association (ABA) membership grew from 1,664-member companies last spring to 1,712 this year, ABA recently reported to The Associated Press. This continues the slow-but-steady increase each year since 2009, as booksellers aim to grow sales by combining innovative store ideas with good, old-fashioned service.

Christian Retailing looked at three long-standing, successful ABA stores across the country: Left Bank Books in St. Louis, McLean & Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, Michigan, and Village Books in Bellingham, Washington, to see what Christian retail stores could learn from their ABA counterparts. We interviewed owners or managers in order to learn some of their tips and tricks not only for surviving but also thriving in today’s book business.

All three indie stores had some key factors in common, including great connection with their customers, a high priority on community involvement and visibility, clear understanding of their store’s strengths and identity, and the sheer determination to be a shopper destination.

“Change is the deal,” said Kris Kleinbienst, co-owner and 41-year veteran of the liberal-leaning Left Bank Books, a store selling new and used books for 46 years. “Being very elastic and flexible and paying attention to what our customers want—that has gone a long way to keeping us relevant and in business.”

Customer Connection

While the crucial element in retailing used to be touted as “location, location, location,” today’s store success takes “connection, connection, connection.” It’s not enough to throw open the doors on a prime piece of real estate and expect customers to walk right in and make a purchase. In the digital age, customers have to be motivated to put the smartphone or laptop down, get off the couch and get in their car to come to your store.

“It sounds cliche, but our No. 1 driving force is customer service,” said Jessilynn Norcross, co-owner with her husband, Matt, of McLean & Eakin Booksellers, which sells new books and gifts. “We know our customers, and we pay attention. I have the best staff. They are all readers, and they make personal connections with our customers.”

Norcross said the store’s staff has been known to call customers at home to let them know a new title is coming out by their favorite author or to send out an email with a picture of a new book to whet their appetite for reading something new. At McLean & Eakin, the customer is king. Even if someone occasionally tries to return a book the store never carried, the Norcrosses and their crew will try to make the customer happy.

“A few returns like that are not going to kill your bottom line, but making customers unhappy will,” Norcross said. “We like our customers. They stop in to talk about books they love and get recommendations. You can’t get that personal interaction and our staff’s expertise on Amazon. That’s why people choose to come back. We have seasonal visitors who stop here at the store to see what they should be reading and to buy books before they even get to their summer cottage.”

At Village Books in the historic Fairhaven District in Washington State, writers and readers connect to compare books and ideas, tell stories and share experiences, fulfilling the store’s mission statement since opening its doors in 1980, “Building community, one book at a time.”

“I think the fact that we are here creates this really great group of like-minded smart people,” said Sarah Hutton, store manager of Village Books. “And I think people crave that interaction with fellow customers and with staff, whether it’s through a book group or writing group. They can connect here.”

Community Visibility

All three stores work as hard to connect in their community as they do with the customers that walk through their doors. They continually remind their customers how important it is to buy local, and they demonstrate their own ability to give back by promoting literacy campaigns, partnering with local schools and donating to local causes.

“It was community-minded impetus that started the store 46 years ago,” Kleinbienst said. “We continuously educate people about why they’re getting more than a book when they buy locally. It’s not just commerce. They’re getting neighbors who do care about the community. We aim to be really friendly people who give back.”

Left Bank Books created The Left Bank Books Foundation in 2008 to promote literacy and the literary arts in St. Louis and founded the River City Readers Program to focus on struggling public schools. The store also gives donations of gift certificates, percentage of sales and free meeting space.

For the staff of McLean & Eakin, community connection means offering local school personalized book fairs and birthday clubs, even when programs may not produce big profits. Norcross and staff hand-pick selections for the fairs according to a school’s focus, whether it’s a faith-based private school or a school with an emphasis on the arts.

“Book fairs are a ton of work, and you don’t make money, but the residual effects are enormous,” Norcross said. “I can’t tell you how many customers have come in and thanked us for providing the books for their school’s book fair.”

At Village Books, the store partners with other local businesses in the Fairhaven Historic District each fall for the annual “Fairhaven Gives Back” day, where customers can designate 10 percent of their purchases to a local nonprofit of their choice. Owners Chuck and Dee Robinson have sponsored Village Books literacy runs, a capital campaign for an environmental learning center in the community and have led local organizations. They are known for helping revitalize the historic business district, where Village Books is housed on the corner of the public green.

“I think our strength is probably our community involvement and philanthropy,” Hutton said. “Community outreach is a big part of who we are and our customers know it.”

Brand Identity

Beyond caring for their customers and their community, each of the three stores are confident in their own identity, and each focuses on its strengths. Left Bank’s mission is to “spark public conversation by curating an intelligent, relevant, culturally diverse selection of books,” and the store offers a wide variety of themed book clubs and events. Left Bank is also known for its resident cat, Spike, who resides at the store and occasionally chews the furry children’s books.

At McLean & Eakin, Norcross and her staff focus on being warm, friendly and personal. The community has lots of seasonal visitors, so the store offers 99-cent shipping on all orders so out-of-state customers will continue to buy via the Web throughout the year. Staff members also look for local and national trends, adding last year vinyl records and record players to their inventory that “sold out right away,” Norcross said.

Village Books has made a name for itself as a writer and reader haven, recently becoming a full-service independent publisher as well as a bookstore. The store offers editing, design, formatting and more to help authors get their books on the shelves. The store then gives the author 75 percent of in-store sales.
“We have a really robust publishing program for writers in our community with print-on-demand options and editing services,” Hutton said. “We also have several writing groups here at the store. We are known for our reading/writing community.”

While all three stores stay true to their core mission, they’re not afraid to try something new. Left Bank recently redesigned the store’s layout, separating the Young Adult and Teen books into a separate section from the children’s department.

“A few years ago we took a long, hard look at our layout to see how we could improve its functionality,” Kleinbienst said. “We re-laid out the store last year, and as a result, we had our best year ever.”

Destination Station

Perhaps the biggest key to their stores’ success, all three agreed, was their events. Each of the three stores holds 300 events or more annually, from author readings and signings to children’s story hours to book clubs. Events transform the stores from places to shop to places to be. Each bookstore has become a “third space,” the space where people want to gather when they are not at home or at work.

At McLean & Eakin, sales reps from major publishing houses preview upcoming books, while customers nibble on free cheese and sip a glass of wine. Book club themes go beyond best-sellers and favorite authors to include the Ethics Book Club, where members recently discussed Financial Stability with its author, Frederick Feldkamp. The book’s price tag? $75.

“We host a ton of events in the store,” Norcross said. “It does have that ‘third place’ feel for sure. The Ethics Book Club wasn’t an interest of mine actually. It was a customer suggestion. We let him run with it, and now he has a huge following.

“That’s one example of listening to your customer. It wasn’t going to cost me any money, and even if it was a bomb, he was going to have fun. I heard Mitch Kaplan from Books & Books [in Coral Gables, Florida] say when someone comes to him with an idea, his first reaction is, ‘Why not?’ So I try to make that my attitude too.”

Left Bank Books is home to dozens of reading groups that range from the Nerdy Girl Society Graphic Novel Club to Shakespeare Festival Reads. Recent events included an all-day party and sale for Independent Bookstore Day 2015, a Writers Read Reading Group and Celebrity Story Time with Deborah Femke (reading The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake).

“We make decisions about author events based on financial principles but also on the trust factor. Do our readers care about this?” Kleinbienst said.

Village Books partners with Whatcom Community College to host the two-day Chuckanut Writers Conference each June, and also hosts a variety show called “The Chuckanut Radio Hour,” Open Mic nights and a number of book clubs and writers groups.

“Even around the country we get a fair amount of attention for some of the things that we do,” Hutton said.

At the end of the day, store owners and management agree that bookselling has to be a passion, a passion that is clear to your staff, your customers and your community.

“Matt and I bought the store six years ago, one of the worst times ever to buy a bookstore,” Norcross said. “But we love it. I think it helps that Matt and I are on the sales floor too. Our staff has seen our passion for books, and we model the behavior we want to see.”

“Bookselling is kind of a 24/7 business,” Kleinbienst said. “You can’t just open the doors and sit behind the counter. Your job is never done, and I know for a small store that can be extremely challenging. Just try to run a really good business and also remember it’s about living a good life.”

Natalie Gillespie (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) has followed the Christian products industry for the past 20 years as a journalist and is an award-winning author, editor and ghostwriter.

• Prev
• Next