Barnes & Noble is making a comeback. Can Indigo do the same? The vibrators are still for sale online, but Indigo seems to be following Barnes & Noble, Inc.’s strategy. A year ago, I published a piece in Campaign Canada titled “Indigo’s Heather Reisman needs to pick a lane”. I pointed out that the positioning as a “cultural department store” and a “total lifestyle emporium” had diluted its focus on books and negatively impacted its performance. I added that Heather Reisman seemed to be taking a page from Barnes & Noble CEO @James Daunt’s playbook. “Daunt sets himself apart from his predecessors by describing himself as a bookseller instead of a retailer — a seemingly minor yet important distinction for the company’s “books first” approach.” (CNN) Reisman told publishing contacts that “each store should feel like an independent (bookstore) in its market,” according to The Globe and Mail. “That’s the organizing principle that we used to have some time ago… We want to reignite that notion.” Adding: “I can confirm that we are always at our core, books. The majority of what we sell is about books.” CNN now reports that Barnes & Noble’s strategy is working: “the adoption of the indie bookstore model has paid off. Foot traffic data for Barnes & Noble show that visits are up by 7% since 2019, according to location analytics company Placer.ai.” Indigo is now privately owned. We might not know how the renewed focus on books is paying off. But if B&N can pull this off, so should Indigo. https://lnkd.in/efWMUijb https://lnkd.in/e9MiQQhc https://lnkd.in/gMm2YaiY https://lnkd.in/e9Xg5Qki
Alex Simonelis
1mo
Booklovers love books. And my guess is that the percentage of book lovers in the general population has not changed significantly.
Time to relaunch the Quebecois nation's government's Panier Bleu.