There’s a very special type of customer who thinks “I’m bored, I wonder what’s going on at my local bookstore” and will make a special trip to visit your store. (That’s Jessica.) But many of your readers might visit just when they want that new release or need a gift. So how do we encourage folks to stop in your shop outside of those occasions, redirect the Shmamazon impulse purchases, and offer a better, more ethical shopping experience?

There are lots of things you can do both in your store and online to increase foot traffic, sales, and customer retention. So let’s get started.

Increase Your Bookstore Foot Traffic with Physical Ideas

First things first, consider your location and curb appeal. Are you in a great location where folks who walk or drive by can easily see your signs and park? While this might not be easy to change, it could make a big difference in your exposure to new customers, and their experience once they arrive.

Along those lines, if your shop is in a neighborhood that hosts local events and festivals, it’s imperative to participate as much as possible. This more-than-normal foot traffic is critical for expanded awareness.

Additionally, you could offer creative and seasonal window displays that entice folks cruising by to stop in. It doesn’t have to be elaborate 5th Avenue in NYC vibes, but a little effort here goes a long way. 

If your store doesn’t have opportunities for window displays, you can put out a banner or sandwich board on the sidewalk to call attention to your bookstore and encourage folks to take a peek inside.

Inside your store, you could offer a cool place to rest, like lounge chairs, while guests read the blurbs on the back of the books they are deciding on, or even a beanbag in the children’s section for the kiddos to land on while their adults pick out a selection from the higher shelves. Non-readers will also appreciate the seat while their partners spend hours perusing the stacks. If they don’t have a place to rest, they may rush your reader shopper which could decrease sales.

You should also offer guest wifi and make that signage easy to find so folks can check their StoryGraph app to ensure they don’t already own the books they are considering or check what else is on their TBR.

Make sure your store is neat, organized, and laid out in a logical way. Unfortunately, we’ve left bookstores because we couldn’t find what we needed on our own and the staff was nowhere to be found. 

Speaking of your staff, there are always ways to improve your customer service. It stands to reason that many book lovers are introverts, including your booksellers. But a warm and friendly hello upon entering the store, asking if you can help them find anything or make a recommendation, or even asking who they are shopping for can go a long way. Your staff can also find ways to invite them back into the store for events like a book club or author readings.

Did someone say events? There are endless possibilities for cool events you can host that will get folks to visit your bookstore. You can host monthly book clubs featuring niche genres or local authors, author readings, signings, and release events. You can encourage browsing the bookstore as a date night activity, platonic or romantic.

Book pairing events are also super fun. This could be book and beer pairings, book and snack pairings, or book and local reading spot pairings. Adult or child book fairs are always a crowd pleaser as well as summer reading programs mirroring Book-It with a local pizza joint, or even book-turned-movie screenings in partnership with a local theater. If you follow pop culture there are likely lots of opportunities to create a timely and immersive pop-up event with awesome photo opportunities. And all of this can be done with other local small businesses so you don’t have to do all of the heavy lifting of event planning and promotion yourself.

You could also have a long-standing photo opportunity for cool photo ops. Think the Books Are Magic wall in Brooklyn, NY. These little moments encourage folks to share their experiences on social media, expanding your brand reach.

Offering in-store services like book recommendations, in-store pick up for online orders, or even classes like “how to read for comprehension” or “how to lead a book club” are a great way to engage your customers. Another example is bringing in a teacher to share tips for supporting early readers.

You may also want to tweak your hours to reflect when you’re most busy. We know of some bookstores that are only open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. which can make it difficult for customers to get there before close if they work traditional first-shift hours. You may adjust your hours to noon and 7 p.m. and consequently see major increases in store visits. 

Weather can also impact foot traffic. Watch the forecast and remind folks to come get a cozy read before a potential snow day, or a beach romance before a sunny afternoon.

While merch is always fun, you can offer something small for free with purchases like a bookmark with your logo on it so they remember to shop with you again soon.

Digital Marketing Ideas to Increase Foot Traffic to Your Bookstore

Of course, in addition to your physical store, you need to have a modern website that tells customers about who you are, what you offer and what makes you different. A major opportunity for bookstore websites is local SEO. Do you ever Google search “bookstores near me”? Those are called location-based searches and you want to make sure your website appears near the top of those search results. There are simple ways to do this like having a local authors page and using local city and state keywords on it, but there are also more technical things you can do as well like schema markup for rich results in Google. 

You should also have an up-to-date Google Business Profile that you post to regularly. We make a habit of regularly posting our best Instagram content from that week to our Google Business Profile so it stays fresh. And when we do that, we check in on any reviews we need to respond to, and confirm all our links work and hours are correct for the next couple weeks.

And of course, don’t forget to engage your customers on social media and through a regular email marketing program with fun templates to remind them to visit your store. The more you grow your following and engagement on social media and through email, the more folks will visit your bookstore.

Other Ideas To Grow Your Business Both Online And In-Store

Some ideas fall under both the online and in-person categories so we wanted to include them here. 

You know we’re going to recommend a loyalty or referral program. It can be as simple as encouraging them to bring a friend to an event, or as complex as a points accrual system with rewards. 

Regarding what you offer, digital and physical gift cards are great options as well as always having the best new releases on or before the day they come out. Make your bookstore a destination every Tuesday to connect with folks who crave something new.

Community partnerships and collaborations are an awesome way to get folks in the doors who might not normally stop in. Consider how you can partner with local museums, restaurants, or schools on a program to excite new readers.

And lastly, we’re always going to recommend some really thoughtful media and influencer engagement as well. These important community pillars can offer massive exposure and encourage folks to make a special trip to your bookstore. Plus, these efforts can be free or low-cost with a little authentic effort.

How to Measure Your Success

Before you dive into the many ideas above, we wanted to take a minute to talk about how you’ll measure if your efforts are successful. First, establish your baseline, so you can see that number increase as you implement these fun ideas.

You can, of course, invest in expensive tracking software, a pressure mat, infrared sensors and the like, but you may find that it’s a little easier to roughly extrapolate your foot traffic from sales data, or even manual counting of folks as they walk in. 

Whatever you do to get customers into your bookshop, consistency is key. If readers can build you into their routine with events, know when you’ll be open and can rely on you to have their favorite books in stock or available for order, they’ll be more likely to shop with you in the future. In addition, they’ll tell their friends about you, which will only increase your foot traffic further and, in turn, your revenue.

We know all of this takes time and creativity so if you’d like support marketing your bookstore, we’d love to help!