The writing is on the wall (I mean screen)

I recently wrote a piece about the UK book chain, Waterstones and their tie up with Kindle, which some analysts called 'letting the fox in to the chicken coop'. I handled Waterstones advertising for many years and certainly agree with this sentiment; everyone also seems to have forgotten they had a disastrous relationship with Amazon once before.


The challenge faced by Waterstones was really brought home to me by a small article in last Thursday's FT, which reported that the publisher of Harry Potter, Bloomsbury had increased ebook sales by 70%, year on year in the first quarter and talked of a 'seismic shift' in the book industry. So it looks to me as though the writing really is on the 'screen' for Waterstones, unless they start to look at their business in a completely different way.


Last week I was in Cheltenham, which stages a large book festival every year, has a large Waterstones located in the smartest shopping street and is also where my nephew lives. He and I were meeting in Waterstones at the Costa Coffee concession on the first floor; it was heaving, people were even waiting for a table, which was in stark contrast to the rest of the store. Whilst waiting for him, these were a few of my thoughts:


- this is the highest area of traffic in the store, with a captive audience, yet I have no access to books. There are no physical books for me to browse or electronic way of me to access Waterstone's at my table. So those books I have just past on the floor below and I'm thinking I'd really like to be flicking through whilst waiting are not accessible to me - not a book in site!


- the coffee shop is run by Costa Coffee, who presumably pay a rental and percentage of turnover to Waterstones (Costa Coffee recorded fantastic figures this year by the way). Why? This is potentially the most dynamic and profitable part of the store and around which you can create a new type of book store experience.  My advice would be take back the coffee shops, make them bigger, make them the focal point of the store, focus them around books, allow me to browse the physical book whilst I sip my coffee and give me access to Waterstones online through tablets on the table so I can order online or get the electronic version.


- when I later walked around the store I noticed at least two people comparing prices on their smart phones, no doubt with Amazon. Don't hide from this, confront it. Putting tablets  in a new concept store will show the better price you can get from waterstones.com if you don't mind waiting for delivery - embrace this issue rather than complain about it.


- commission an outstanding designer to create this new retail concept. It certainly can look a hell of a lot better than Costa Coffee or a Starbucks. Recognise that people are shopping in different ways and start to become wonderful coffee shops with books, rather than a tired book store (the Cheltenham store looks very tatty) with a Costa Coffee concession, which has graphics on the walls about where all their beans come from! You're giving away the most exciting part of the store and one in which the environment is perfect for browsing and selling books, in all formats.


Act now before it's too late Mr Daunt, you have the deep pockets of Russian oligarch owner Alexander Mamut to call upon. We don't want to lose book stores but we do want them to change. And if you're already doing it, well done - you'll get my business.