Why Barnes and Noble should listen to me.

I’ve written in the past about Barnes and Noble, when I had hoped they were figuring out how to turn things around.  However, it doesn’t look like they have.  They couldn’t turn Nook into their savior, their CEO stepped down, and they are planning a “strategic review“.  But what they should really do is listen to me.

Now I don’t mean read my blog, though that would be awesome!  No, I mean listen to me as a customer.

I own nearly 800 books, I’d say about 50% of them were purchased from Barnes & Noble.  I have one of those Barnes & Noble member cards that saves you 10% every day.  I buy books every two weeks when I get paid.  If they send out a 20% off coupon, I see if any of the current best sellers  (which are already discounted) are worth buying.

They need me, and the others like me, to shop even more.

Here’s what they could be making more money off of me.

You have my data, use it

This is one of those sins that many businesses commit.  They have data on their customers, but don’t put it to good use.

As I mentioned I have a Barnes & Noble member card.  Every time I make a purchase I swipe my card.  Are they NOT tracking what I purchase?  If they’re not, and I don’t think they are, they really, really should.  I purchase certain authors within a month (if not days) of their books coming out.

Why doesn’t Barnes & Noble let me know when a new book comes out from one of my favorite authors?  Amazon does.  So does Goodreads, which is now owned by Amazon.

It’s an easy way to get me to come in and buy the book from you.  I found out one of my favorite authors had a new book out from going to Half Price Books and seeing a copy that someone had sold back, guess who got that sale?  I go to you to buy books, so…sell them to me.

There’s no app for that

While I’m at Barnes & Noble browsing their shelves I will occasionally find books that I want to read, but am not going to buy just right now.  Why doesn’t Barnes & Noble have an app for that?  I use Goodreads which has a great barcode scanner function that lets me add books to my “To Read” shelf.  Amazon now owns that app and I expect they’ll eventually integrate it into their Amazon wishlist (and if they don’t they really should).

Barnes & Noble could have had this same app, or developed one like it.  I could have scanned books into my wishlist and Barnes & Noble could have offered me coupons or discounts on those items.  Heck, while I’m in store (and on their wifi) they could offer me an immediate discount if I purchase an item off my wishlist today.  Don’t think that would drive sales?

Why can’t you be more like an independent?

I live in Austin and while my local Barnes & Noble does do some author signings, most take place at the independent bookstore, Bookpeople (which does a lot of things right).  Bookpeople gets large groups out to it’s signings and you have to purchase the book from them, at full price.  Which I’ve done many, many times.  I’ve never attended a book signing at Barnes & Noble in my almost 20 years of living in Austin.  Again, they’ve lost me to another store.

While we’re at it.  What about teens?  YA (teen lit) is really popular; have book signings by those authors!  Plan events to coincide with the release of the latest YA hit. You will most likely gets parents and teens to the store, which means you’ve got 2x the customers.

What about book clubs? Reduce your movie and music sections (which honestly I’d have just gutted) and convert that space to book clubs.  These people will shop at your coffee shop and possibly buy more books.  Offer book club discounts for those held in your store.  Independent bookstores do it.

When I wrote about Barnes & Noble doing some things right it had to do with the expansion of games.  Table top gaming has really taken off, thanks in part to Wil Wheaton and his youtube show TableTop.  Barnes and Noble could have hosted game nights where people could try out games in store and buy them at a discount after.  My local comic shop does this.

Good news for the little guy

Barnes & Noble is a giant and old company and unfortunately giant and old companies have a hard time innovating.  It’s the strength that the little guy has.  I expect Barnes & Noble will go out of business and Bookpeople and my comic shops will still be around.  Why? They’re smaller and listen to their customers more.

The little guy has this advantage: you can be more mobile.  Use it.  You have a more personal relationship with your customers, so talk to them.  Find out how they interact with your products.  What websites are they visiting, blogs do they read, apps do they use, and most importantly what are they buying from you.  Your goal shouldn’t be to sell people products, but to offer products that people want to buy.  If you truly listen to your customers, you’ll be around a lot longer than Barnes & Noble.