Stocking Books Sells Books
Last month I asked my local game store to order me a copy of Savage Worlds Explorer’s Edition. I had read Savage Worlds years ago and wasn’t too interested in it, but with the relative popularity it still enjoys and the low price I figured I should give it a second chance.
On the 6th of March, I ordered it. On the 14th, I had a note from my FLGS saying that it was in. I finally got the chance to pick it up on the 29th.
My FLGS has a shelf behind the counter where they display the books and games that have been set aside from them. In the 15 days from the time he put that book on the shelf, he has taken 3 other orders for the exact same book, all from people who had no idea the book existed. The simple act of stocking one copy — and it didn’t even sit on the New Releases shelf — exposed it to enough people that they sold 3 more copies.
A few thoughts about this:
- If the book had been on the new releases shelf and I had walked in and picked it up, those sales might not have happened — the customers that saw my pre-order copy may have never seen this fictional non pre-ordered copy.
- The low price of Savage World Explorer’s Edition probably factored into the good conversation rate: Who thinks twice about dropping $11 on a book?
- Providing “display/reader” copies to game stores would be interesting … but aside from Wizards of the Coast and perhaps White Wolf, I don’t think any hobby publisher could afford to do so on a regular basis for a large amount of stores. I think there’s probably a way to do it on a limited opt-in basis for the small [50-100] number of stores that would take advantage of such a promotion, but would that help grow sales in any appreciable way?
9 Comments
Jump to comment form | comments rss [?] | trackback uri [?]