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| James Daunt | |
For the afternoon keynote at the U.S. Book Show in New York City, Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt discussed the "process of change" that is going on with the company, which he said began with the explicit recognition that "B&N had become a not very good bookseller."
Though there had been a time when it was a good bookseller, he continued, the company had strayed from that, and it was "fast heading" in the direction of the other chain stores that had already disappeared. The stores "weren't good enough," but not because Amazon had taken all of B&N's market share, or because too many people were buying books at places like Target and Costco, or "certainly not" because readers weren't buying books. The book market, in fact, was "incredibly vibrant and resilient," and Daunt emphasized that what was failing was B&N as a chain bookseller.
Much of the problem came from B&N behaving like a "normal chain retailer," like Zara, REI, or H&M, where what works is that each individual store is largely the same. They strive to give customers an experience that is assured, predictable and "frankly as identical an experience as possible" no matter what specific location they enter. But employing that strategy with a book retailer, Daunt remarked, is how you "end up with boring bookstores."
That strategy "inherently undermines" the things that good bookstores do well. The question became how B&N could introduce to its stores the things that "come so naturally" to independent bookstores, such as curation and individuality, and ally that to bookselling teams that are enjoying their jobs and engaging with their communities. The answer, Daunt said, is "not all together simple," and it "doesn't happen quickly."
Going into further detail, Daunt discussed the experience that used to greet customers when they entered a B&N. In the past, hardcovers and new releases were "very predictably arranged" at the front of the store in a process that was based entirely on co-op and promo. Publishers "paid the money" and the books were placed there; the displays were "essentially identical" irrespective of where that store was located and what community it served. There was a planogram detailing how books should be displayed and there was a "dollar fee" attached to the prominence of that positioning.
Now, while B&N still buys books centrally, it is up to individual stores to handle placement and manage replenishment, with no instruction as to where specific books should go. This has forced a learning process at many stores, and though some of that learning is being "done through mistakes," it is "a journey we have to go through."
B&N is emphasizing discovery, and "beginning to become much better at it" through things like book of the month picks and discovery picks for different ages and genres. Key books are now being chosen not because of "dollar remuneration" but because someone at B&N has read them and believes they will sell well. Noting that B&N's bestseller list had become somewhat stagnant, with the same authors appearing for nearly a decade, Daunt said the company is also working on ways to identify and promote new talent.
Touching on other challenges, Daunt mentioned that as individual stores have received more freedom to curate and display their sections, hardcover nonfiction has proved more difficult than fiction. Things change "very quickly and rapidly," and navigating and adapting to it is difficult.
B&N has worked on "improving our backlist," and Daunt reported that paperbacks are "doing much better" than in the past. Before these recent changes, B&N had "slipped hugely" with curating backlist. Daunt pointed to history as the most obvious example, saying that "unbelievably," B&N used to arrange its history books alphabetically and not chronologically. It was "terrible" for discovery and there was "no reason" for it, Daunt added, except that it made shelving easier.
Daunt called the kids section the "beating heart of our stores," and said the "energy" of most stores comes from the YA section. It's where some of B&N's best customers "have always been," and many B&N booksellers tend to be young and familiar with the genre. As stores have been given more curatorial freedom, the YA sections have generally been "done most successfully."
On the subject of sidelines, Daunt said B&N has cut down on some of its nonbook offerings, making sure to carry things that "complement" books. In contrast to the freedom that individual stores have received for curating books, B&N is telling stores "very precisely" what to do with their vinyl records, Lego sets, scented candles, and more.
Daunt also discussed the investments B&N has made in its employees and career development, calling it a "fundamental part of what we're trying to do." He described B&N's previous structure as "crude," with the average store having a small group of full-time employees who were paid well and, beyond that, a large group of part-timers, often temporary employees paid little more than minimum wage.
The company is trying to change that through the creation of career structures and roles for which booksellers can be developed and into which they can be promoted. Acknowledging the recent unionization efforts at some B&N stores, Daunt called it "necessary and correct discontent" with how slowly the old structures are changing.
When asked during the q&a portion how B&N determines whether a store is succeeding, Daunt called himself "an opponent of all standard KPIs." Footfall counters and other metrics used by many chain retailers have been "thrown out of the business" and he prefers to use lots of "qualitative rather than quantitative" measures. It's "not what you sell but how you sell," and in taking the long view with these changes, stores will often go backward before they go forward.
When an attendee asked about the much-discussed changes to B&N's strategy for buying middle-grade hardcovers, Daunt expressed frustration with those changes being characterized as B&N moving away from or even boycotting middle-grade hardcover. He called the notion "simply nonsense," and said the company previously had return rates on hardcovers at "about 80%." Returning "eight out of ten" hardcovers was "not serving anyone," including authors, and Daunt described what B&N is trying to do now as putting the "right books, in the right quantity, in the right store." --Alex Mutter