A focus on customers and on experience was part of the recipe how James Daunt has saved the UK’s biggest book chain in the face of global online competition.
His major changes included offering books that customers actually want to buy (vs. those publishers wanted to push) and giving store managers freedom to transform their stores “into places that feel personally curated and decidedly uncorporate”.
As James Daunt is quoted “the only point of a bookstore is to provide a rich experience in contrast to a quick online transaction.” And it seems to work. After turning around Waterstones, Daunt is now off to the US to help rescue Barnes & Noble.
Read more in the New York Times article .
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