Bookselling in the digital age

The media described the rise of ebooks as a death knell for independent and chain bookstores no less than five years ago. Overseas the Borders superstore was faltering, Amazon was gaining market share and independent booksellers were on the front line. In South Africa, booksellers looked nervously abroad to see what would come.

While the rise of technology seemed like it would change the bookselling business dramatically and perhaps for the worse, it actually provided opportunities for independent bookstores that didn’t exist previously and evened the playing ground.

“Whereas five years ago people were concerned that the electronic book market would destroy the trade for physical books, sentiment now seems to be that the scare is over and interest in books has increased. Technological advancement in terms of marketing and online sales can only have a positive outcome, as they allow you to reach a larger customer base,” says André Sales from Clarkes bookshop in Cape Town.

“We have a website where we upload all our books as they come in. We don’t have any social media accounts, but we do send out invites and notifications of sales, etc., via a mailing service website. Sales through the website are small but steady. I’m not sure if the mailing service has grown our customer base at all, but it is easy to keep track of who responds to the emails,” adds André.

Mervin Sloman of the Book Lounge also in Cape Town, says that “Advances in technology provide a variety of tools for any business to use to the best of their advantage. It’s up to any business to work out how to best use the various tools that are available – this can range from software that can help internal process (inventory, sales, ordering, HR etc.) through to tools that have the potential to help you reach customers and hopefully increase sales. I don’t believe digital tools provide easy answers to increasing sales
in and of themselves, but if you use some of the available tools intelligently, it can certainly help. How we communicate with the world outside of our physical space is something that we’re specifically looking at the moment – we’re not using digital tools as effectively as we could – working out what is the best way to use these tools is the challenge… There’s much within this realm that we need to be doing a lot better and we’re working towards that right now.”

When it comes to enhancing booksellers’ place in the community, social media only expands on that relationship. In order for bookstores to be authentic, they must participate in discussions on chosen platforms on a fairly regular basis. Starting conversations, posting
reviews, event notices, and commenting on industry initiatives. These can be automated, planned to a large degree and with ad hoc interactions can make for a comprehensive social media strategy.

“Wordsworth use technology to reach people—we use sms and WhatsApp to contact customers about promotions and book ordering. We find people respond positively to this sort of personal contact. We use emails to advertise events and book promotions and this we find is an effective and reasonably inexpensive method of advertising. We have a website which is used more as a blog with staff reviews and pictures of past and invitations to current events. We do take orders from the site but we are not linked to online shopping. Our database is small and we promote certain titles only. We are linked to Facebook and find this an effective advertising medium,” says Andrew Majoribanks, Managing Director of Wordsworth Books in South Africa.

“Every interaction you have with a customer or potential customer has the potential to grow your customer base whether it’s providing an existing customer with a positive experience that they might mention to someone else who is not a current customer, to reaching potential customers through social media, website content etc. We don’t transact online, but we engage with people online and take a lot of orders via email,” says Mervin.

As booksellers, authors and publishers find one another on these platforms, they will be better able to cross promote upcoming author tours, book launches and industry events and so develop and grow with the online hub of literary conversations.

While not all stores have weathered the digital storm, the ones that have are finding creative and interesting ways to be a part of their customers’ lives and share that information with their colleagues around the country.

“Trade is better than it has been for several years. The dramatic rise in the price of books makes it difficult to establish whether rising turnover is simply a matter of rising prices or whether we are selling more books. I think people do see bookshops as a friend and respond to them in that way – Independent Bookshops tend to have a more personal service and advice and I think that is what our customers want to have. Social media simply add another layer onto that contact and in that way it is very important,” adds Andrew.

“One comment I would make is that too many people in this industry speak about the “market” as this static thing out there that impacts on our ability to sell books. Everybody in the book trade (publishers, booksellers, etc.) need to take a less passive approach to notions of the “market” and accept responsibility for our various abilities to change/grow “the market”. Things that feed into this include decisions about which books to publish, pricing of books, decisions about which books to stock (booksellers) and how to communicate with people who are not regular visitors to your bookshop or regular buyers of the books you publish in different ways. Many people are inundated with information on a daily basis, most of which is of little relevance to them – the challenge is to get your message through the clutter to the people who are potentially interested in the message you wish to send. Social media and other forms of digital communication provide tools through which to achieve this, but they’re the same tools that are available to loads and loads of other people/entities trying to reach the same person you’re trying to reach.

I don’t really know what market sentiment is. Anyone operating in this space in order to make a fortune will always be beleaguered. That’s not why we’re here. It is certainly possible to survive and grow (in small percentage points) as an independent bookseller but you’ve got to be prepared to work hard and really enjoy what you do, otherwise there’s no point in doing it. Beleaguered – definitely not. I’m positive about the present and the future, but with a healthy dose of realism,” adds Mervin.

So we asked him how his sales figures were looking. And, like others we spoke to, including John o’Sullivan from BargainBooks, who has “had uninterrupted growth over the last five years,” he said: Better.