Independent Grocers Can Learn from Bookstores to Combat Amazon
Much has been made of Amazon and the looming retail apocalypse. I recently read a transcript of an NPR interview about how the ecommerce behemoth was affecting independent bookstores. Like grocery stores, bookstores also operate on razor-thin margins, and they also are often viewed by consumers as having an air of authenticity.
However, the narrative of the indie bookstore didn’t have the expected ending. The gist was that Amazon, which at that time was just a book-selling behemoth (remember those days, when Amazon simply sold books?), did change the market, but had the most effect on big-box bookstores because they were largely the same, with a business model based mostly on price. Conversely, independent bookstores, with their focus on service and experience, were actually helped by Amazon, because the customers simply looking to shop by price alone had one place to go — Amazon — but those consumers who wanted to have an experience really also only had one place to go — an independent bookstore. Is this starting to sound familiar?
Not that independent bookstores didn’t struggle: In the five years after 1995 when Amazon started selling books online, the number of indie bookstores declined 40 percent. But the NPR interview noted that between 2009 and 2015, the number of independent bookstores actually increased by 35 percent. The moral of the story? You can’t compete on price alone, you have to draw consumers into your business through the experience they can have in it. This is where independents always shine, especially compared with big-box operations.
And independent grocers can learn from their indie bookstore brethren, especially now that Amazon and other online retailers are taking on the grocery industry. This isn’t to say that independent grocers shouldn’t be in the ecommerce business — they definitely should. You bet those indie bookstores have online shops; after all, where else are consumers going to turn for those hard-to-find titles?
What I took away from the NPR interview was the idea that independents have to play up their strengths, of which they have plenty. One is the burgeoning desire of consumers to shop local businesses. A recent Small Business Week survey from Netsertive found that 60 percent had shopped at a small or local store within the past six months, and another 10 percent had shopped in one at some point. The most telling data point was that 43 percent visit a local store when they need something within two to three days, while only 29.1 percent use Amazon.
While the survey obviously covers all of retail — food decisions are generally more immediate than two to three days — it still provides valuable information on how consumers view small local businesses. They are visiting your stores, and you are a trusted source.
Also, as happened in the book segment, with some of the big-box chains going out of business altogether — we’re seeing some of this occurring as well in grocery — indies were uniquely positioned to fill in the gap.
