Barnes & Noble: retail store or Nook?– the value of location
Book stores are changing, as are customers
The recent announcement of a possible separation of the Nook from its retail bookstore component has turned heads but it’s probably a very smart move. When Barnes & Noble created the Nook it was an attempt to compete for the rapidly expanding ebook business. The cost of creating a book, a newspaper, anything publishable and readable went to zero virtually overnight. The players in this digital space, such as Amazon and Apple, have always had an advantage creating digital content since they are digital experience companies. No matter what folks say about them Apple and Amazon have always been dedicated to online environments.
Barnes & Noble comes from the world of brick-and-mortar retail experience, an environment of physical connection to the customer, not digital. It does not matter that they sell books, what matters is the experience they promise to deliver in their stores. Book store chains like Barns & Noble, to survive, must revisit what they are as customers change how they receive content. The biggest asset Barnes & Noble has is their retail locations — but what are these locations connecting customers to?
It’s about location, location, location
Barnes & Noble has been around since the 1970’s and grown to be the largest book retailer in the United States. But that has changed dramatically, as we all know. With the potential divorce or shutting down of the color Nook, why not focus on bookstores as “content” experiences? Barnes & Noble needs to ask, what do our customers really want and why would they come to us to buy it? With over 5,000 retail environments they can and should reinvent themselves into more than a bookstore. What does Barnes & Noble really “own” that’s unique? Think of what consumers who love books and content can get in a physical retail environment, then provide that. Folks forget that retail environments are picked because of customer demographics, location and connection to other retail.
Loyal Customers are Everything
The key is figuring out how to enhance these stores with what customers desire in addition to books — capture them and get them in the store. Already they have cafes to keep people in the stores. Why not rethink all of it? Build and grow with your customers by identifying what they desire that you can uniquely offer. What if, once in Barnes & Noble, you log into their WiFi on your iPhone, tablet or laptop and then get access to a whole range of valuable branded content that builds the Barnes & Noble experience? With Starbucks providing an anchor for food and drink and toys now being part of the store mix, maybe branded WiFi can be part of the mix that works for customers. But the goal is to keep offering what will support more customer visits and is only available at Barnes & Noble.
When brands don’t keep up with shifts in technology or the market place, like Kodak they will end up completely losing their most valued asset – customers.