Author: Warwick Schaffer

Ultimately, all businesses are systems. The quality and the reproducibility of those systems separates the good from the bad. A good group or franchise is, at its core, a good system.

Running a group or franchise is difficult as not only do the stores themselves need to run well, but there needs to be synchronisation and commonality between stores. Centralised information/systems are required; making cloud applications ideal.

A cloud application has the ‘have your cake and eat it’ advantage of being centralised and accessible from anywhere. If you are a multi store operation you should be looking at this kind of architecture.

Opening a bookstore is a great thing to do and you will be joining a supportive and inclusive community. Before you do, have a clear idea on what sort of store you want to be and if there is a local customer community for you. Use suppliers and associations to get advice and support and make sure you have enough capital to properly stock your store. Finally, get organised well in advance of opening, which of course includes getting a bookstore management system.

Loyalty programmes for bookshops that focus on ‘creating’ good customers. Learn about the CirclePOS no-strings attached loyalty programme.

Introduction Originally designed for new bookstores, CirclePOS has evolved over the years to support a growing number of second hand stores. Second hand bookselling is a specialised business with unique requirements and stock. Not least of which is the challenge of not being able to simply ‘reorder’ stock.  Although there are parts of the system … Read More

These extraordinary times require bookshops to operate in a remarkably different way.
Life in a time of Covid is forcing shops to reinvent the way they sell books and many are having surprising success at doing this.