The atmosphere in a bookstore typically invites customers to relax and browse the shelves. Add a hot cup of coffee to the mix and those customers become loyal for life. Starting a bookstore coffee shop takes planning and organization. Inventory needs to remain fresh and customer preferences should be taken into account. Marketing your business to the local community, as well as developing an online sales presence, will help you turn your bookstore into a successful venture.
Location, Location, Location
Choose a good location and a name for the business. Make sure the location has well-lit areas, room for shelves and an area where a seating arrangement can be placed. Be on a well traveled street with lots of foot traffic and appropriate parking. For ultra urban areas parking should be paramount. Close proximity to a transit hub will guarantee a steady stream of foot traffic and people waiting for buses or trains. When you've picked your spot be aware of the regulations and local bylaws. Many cities have rules and regulations regarding required numbers of parking spots for each type of business, height and width building restrictions and other boundaries with regard to land use. Check with the planning department to be sure your plans comply with your city’s bi-laws.
Correct Product Mix
Establish relationships with book vendors. Decide whether you want to sell new books, used books or a combination of both. If you are going to offer magazines you will need to develop relationships with wholesale magazine vendors. Once you know the type of inventory you wish to carry, set up delivery. Most book vendors have lists they recommend and groups of books within specified genres that they can send to stock your shelves. Choose your preferences and specific book choices and the have the initial inventory delivered before you open. Stock the shelves. Purchase computer software designed to track inventory. As each book is sold, the computer will reduce your inventory by one and trigger a re-order flag when a particular book title gets low on stock.
Start with a wider selection of books and topics when you first open but keep track of the genre of books that move the most frequently. You’ll quickly discover the ideal mix of books and genres that meet your clientele’s needs.
Ambiance
Place comfortable chairs around several tables in the area where coffee and pastries will be sold. It should be well-lit so customers can browse through books and magazines while sipping coffee. Choose several flavors of coffees, as well as pastries, and contract with vendors to provide those items to your shop with regular deliveries.
Make sure that your barista staff are well read and keep current on the newest releases. Expert knowledge by your staff on the inventory will improve sales and make your shop a destination to stop and chat instead of a vendor of goods. As the world of on-line shopping becomes more invasive the human touch will separate you from the Amazon’s of the world.
Marketing and web presence.
Branding is key. It should be simple and memorable. If you’re going to be genre specific then make sure that it’s reflected in your name. Keep the name simple. Like fashion, names that are cool now can quickly look stale and outdated. Classic style and language will have a longer shelf life. (Slight pun intended) Your web and social media presence is key but keep in mind that you’re a book store coffee shop. If you build an elaborate website it will consume a lot of your time to keep current. My thoughts:
- Ensure that you’re address, phone number and hours of operation are always visible on every page,
- Have a prominent place for your events, new and promotions on the home page
- Update it daily, Like the chalk board sign in front of your store it should be the first thing you do today or the last thing you did last night.
- Your website should be responsive to all types of devices remembering that mobile phone account for more website traffic than computers do.
- Sign up for every directory that you can and give them access to as much information as you can. This is about getting people to your store not eyeballs to your website so tell everyone about your business.
Make a splash
Schedule a grand opening for your bookstore coffee shop. It should be several weeks after you initially open the doors, to give you time to work out any problems. Invite the public to the opening and be sure to have discounts that day to entice purchases.
If you’re a book seller invite the local publishing houses and even offer to host a book signing. Your goal is to become a focal point to the local community.
Serve Great Coffee
I’ve left this to the last to be memorable. Serve Great Coffee! Not good coffee but great coffee. Find a local roaster or two and have a unique high quality product line available for in store brewed and take home bags. I’ve been to a number of unique coffee shop experiences and some of them served horrible or plain coffee. The ones that served great coffee often didn’t have bags of fresh roasted beans to take home and that was a missed opportunity. Always keep in mind that you are a coffee shop and coffee will make or break your venture. And coffee shops cater to a wide variety of customers.
If you cater to one demographic too heavily you open yourself up to risk. be aware that your business won’t survive on the sit and sip crowd. It needs the to-go crowd who are willing to walk across the street for a good cup of coffee instead of stopping at the local chain. Many of them will grab a magazine or the latest best seller while passing through from Monday to Friday but then they will stop in on Saturday or Sunday to read it.
Posted on: 2016-06-30 10:58 AM 
