04/11/06

Specialist Outlets

There have been a couple of articles this week about ‘non-traditional’ retail outlets driving sales of niche titles through recommendation. The first, in the New York Times, discusses how a Bronx deli sold half the number of copies than were ‘booktracked’ (through traditional outlets) across the USA,

Mike’s Deli in the Bronx, for instance, has sold more than 4,500 copies of Ann Volkwein’s “Arthur Avenue Cookbook” at $25 each. That book otherwise sold only 8,000 copies nationwide, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks sales at major book chains, independent bookstores and online retailers, but not at places like Mike’s.

Today’s Guardian picks up on the piece,

What is known as speciality marketing has from modest roots expanded into what is now the fastest growing sector for many publishers, outstripping growth in traditional bookshop outlets and even that on websites such as Amazon.

What is interesting about this, to me, is that this is one of the first steps in the pendulum swinging back from the peak of the single-source outlet. In the light of the megalithic chains selling fast-moving titles, the ability of retailers to specialise - and by specialise, I mean the ability to offer any different number of varying kinds of products around a theme such as food, or design, or music- in one area, and do specialise well.

These specialists ‘curate’ a set of products around this theme, and curate on the grounds of quality and taste alone. In so doing, if they do it well, they become trusted curators by their customers, and have the ability to move certain products through recommendation alone.

One point is that the pendulum swings back towards taste and quality-based retailers, and we see a reaction (mirrored by farmers markets and the like) where customers also want to experience value in their purchases that goes beyond price. But it also provides hope for the publishers who publish under these terms as well, championing production values, design and care rather than the deligthfully-dubbed ‘chavalanche’ of celebrity biogs.

The second point is that this curation can take place anywhere. it works in physical spaces - see Russell’s Analogue in Edinburgh or Valvona & Crolla for that matter - but also online. Of course you need the customers coming to you in the first place, but once you have that, and can recommend critically and effectively, the opportunity begins.

Posted by Peter Collingridge in Design, Edinburgh, Publishing, Web.