It’s not often that we blog about book displays, but as we kick off 2016 it seems like a fitting topic. On the final day of 2015, The Wall Street Journal ran a column entitled, “Predictions: What to Expect in 2016.” In the piece, they featured 17 prominent thinkers who presented their view on the most significant developments they anticipate for 2016. The ideas presented were big: how technology will transform the financial services industry, advances in behavioral genetics, the fall of the Islamic State, and so on. I was surprised to see on the list of 17 major predictions the following: The Return of Bookstores.
The author of the prediction was Ann Patchett who argued that, despite the popularity of Amazon and e-readers, in 2016 customers would return to supporting their community book stores. The fact that this prediction was even mentioned on the same level as The Fall of the Islamic State says something about the importance and credibility of this major cultural shift. To support her prediction, Patchett argues that people are growing tired of pointing and clicking and dealing with computer screens in general. What’s been missing, she asserts, are stores that sell good books, have a staff of smart readers, a thriving children’s section, and maybe a couple of shop dogs.
If Patchett’s prediction is correct, it would suggest that publishers need to give renewed focus to book displays that will help make books appealing to readers. Displays can also help to create the right kind of environment to complement the vibe that the shop dogs help to establish.
RICH LTD. has designed many book displays over the past several years, but today we’ll highlight just a few merchandising ideas that can help to sell more books and support the resurgence of bookstores. The first bookstore display fixture is one we designed with James Patterson Marketing for Books-A-Million stores.
This spinning circular floor display was constructed of sheet metal and wire. The display included castors, 4 levels of book pockets, and vinyl base and header graphics.
Our second example is a bookstore display fixture we designed and manufactured for Klutz, a division of Scholastic Books. This was just one display in a family of similar spinning floor displays. These displays featured an MDF base, metal tube frame, frosted PVC back panel, adjustable Injection molded plastic shelves and a digitally printed PVC header.
The third example is a high capacity end cap display we designed for Bendon Publishing. This included 2-tiered sheet metal bookstore display shelves for larger books and 3 upper rows of pegged accessory items.
Our fourth example is a spinning counter display we designed for Lonely Planet. This 3-tiered display had a total of 12 pockets and included a stained wood base, center metal tube, wire pockets, and a circular PVC header.
Finally, among the book display racks for retail stores that we created is the 4-shelf wood bookshelf display fixture for Delicious Living Magazine. It is a simple display and includes basic PVC shelf branding.
2016 could very well be the year of the return of the community book store. To make that happen, customer will have to purchase their books locally and support their local book stores.
Jim Hollen is the owner and President of RICH LTD. (www.richltd.com), a 35+ year-old California-based point-of-purchase display, retail store fixture, and merchandising solutions firm which has been named among the Top 50 U.S. POP display companies for 9 consecutive years. A former management consultant with McKinsey & Co. and graduate of Stanford Business School, Jim Hollen has served more than 3000 brands and retailers over more than 20 years and has authored nearly 500 blogs and e-Books on a wide range of topics related to POP displays, store fixtures, and retail merchandising.
Jim has been to China more than 50 times and has worked directly with more than 30 factories in Asia across a broad range of material categories, including metal, wood, acrylic, injection molded and vacuum formed plastic, corrugated, glass, LED lighting, digital media player, and more. Jim Hollen also oversees RICH LTD.’s domestic manufacturing operation and has experience manufacturing, sourcing, and importing from numerous Asian countries as well as Vietnam and Mexico.
His experience working with brands and retailers spans more than 25 industries such as food and beverage, apparel, consumer electronics, cosmetics/beauty, sporting goods, automotive, pet, gifts and souvenirs, toys, wine and spirits, home improvement, jewelry, eyewear, footwear, consumer products, mass market retail, specialty retail, convenience stores, and numerous other product/retailer categories.