Things I have learned from running an independent bookstore

2023 is almost coming to an end. Here are some of the things I have learned from running an independent bookstore for almost a year (in no particular order):

1. Every genre has a reader. Every book has a potential reader.

2. Readers have different preferences. They often look for very specific titles. So it is good for a bookstore to have a huge selection of books from across multiple genres. But realistically, it is not possible for a single bookstore to have every book that every reader or every potential buyer is looking for and/or interested in. The more bookstores, the better!

3. Some readers prefer not to say anything publicly about books they have bought and/or read. And that's okay. While ideally we would want them spreading the word about the books they liked or are currently reading, we can't and we don't intend to force them to do so.

4. Filipinos are interested in Filipino books and they do buy them. We have actually sold more Filipino books than foreign titles. The key is visibility - making Filipino books visible and accessible. When more Filipino books are available at a bookstore, more people will know about them.

5. The most challenging part when it comes to selling books (although this may apply to any product or service) is how to reach your target market. How do you tell potential customers about what you're selling? Using social media platforms is one way, but it is not the only way. Diversifying your methods of reaching your target market and understanding how people do things where you are introducing your product are very important. A year before opening the bookstore, I designed and conducted a market research survey to understand people's preferences and reading habits. And when we officially opened, we paid for an ad on Facebook. We also handed out flyers and asked a store owner whose store is just outside a university if we could leave some flyers there. The Facebook ad worked in terms of our goal of letting people know that our bookstore exists. The flyers also worked because we received messages from people who found out about us through the flyers we left at that store. Our decision to rent shelves and display books at a concept store was (still is) also our way of reaching more people. That decision also stemmed from us not wanting to deal with trolls online. Lol

The learning continues! See you in 2024!

Cheers,

Sahara

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