Becoming a Leader of the Pack

Donna Fenn

At last month's BookExpo America, the panel "Independent Retailing in the U.S. Today," examined the challenges and opportunities common to all Main Street businesses. Independent retailers from several different industries -- toy, record, hardware, and appliance stores -- shared their successes and mistakes, as well as ideas about ways Main Street businesses can work together. Panelist Donna Fenn, a contributing editor to Inc. magazine and author of Alpha Dogs: How Your Small Business Can Become a Leader of the Pack, discussed trends in the retail environment. Recently, BTW caught up with Fenn to talk further about those retail trends, her tips for independent retailers, and her book, Alpha Dogs, to be published by CollinsBusiness in November.

Alpha Dogs profiles eight entrepreneurs in various businesses -- including a bike shop, a sock manufacturer, a commercial bakery, and an auction company -- and chronicles their extraordinary success. Each chapter focuses on a specific strategy, such as customer service, innovation, brand marketing, employees, and technology, and is followed by a set of 10 practical tips that business owners can apply to their own companies. The issues facing other independent businesses are so similar to those of booksellers that many of the marketing tips, with minimal tweaking, can be immediately applied to a bookstore.

The bicycle store, for example, allows parents to trade in their kids' outgrown bicycles purchased at the store for full credit on a new, bigger bike. The used bicycles go to charity, and the storeowner gets a tax write-off and great media publicity and community goodwill. Fenn suggested that booksellers can create a similar campaign in which they offer a 20 percent credit on returned books and then donate the books to a school or library. "It makes a huge difference to your customers," she said.

When choosing a beneficiary, Fenn noted, a retailer should "always donate to an organization that's in line with [his or her] own business."

She also pointed to a retail transformation that is good news for Main Street. "Americans are increasingly willing to pay premium prices for something that they feel an emotional attachment to," said Fenn. Independent retailers, especially bookstores, are already positioned to foster that emotional attachment by emphasizing that they're locally owned and highlighting all the community events and programs sponsored by their store.

"People are tired of the homogeneity of superstores, they love to see local businesses involved in charity events, book fairs," she said. "Bookstores in particular have an incredible opportunity to be a real community-based business. That's what they can offer that the chains can't -- their local business flavor."

Another way to emphasize local ownership is to support complementary local businesses and artists. Fenn noted a few examples: "At Politics & Prose in D.C., they carry CDs from local bands. That's something you won't find in Barnes & Noble -- a section spotlighting local bands or authors. In Austin, at BookPeople -- and they're heavily involved in their community -- they partnered with the local Amy's Ice Creams for events."

Working directly with other local businesses is, of course, another important way to stay competitive, said Fenn, who highly recommended founding or becoming actively involved in an Independent Business Alliance (IBA). Aside from finding power in numbers, IBA members can hold combined local events, which reminds customers of the importance of shopping locally. "People don't always know when a business is locally owned and that the money they're spending there stays in the community. Local events and co-marketing help get that message across," she explained.

"The trend in retail is not as transaction-based, but more based on the experience of shopping. All local retailers can be an oasis. This has always been true with local bookstores. People want to escape the noise, homogeneity, crowds, and, frankly, schlock of the big box stores. And people feel good about buying locally because when they do, their revenue stays in the community rather than going to the Wal-Mart headquarters somewhere in Arkansas." --Karen Schechner