You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Bookshops are embracing the close ties between romance and books to entice customers into shops for Valentine’s Day.
Retailers are keen to maximise the potential sales opportunity of the calendar event today (14th February) following a quiet trading period in January.
In the spirit of the romantic occasion, Foyles is running a “first lines” promotion, presenting books to customers completely wrapped up, with just the opening line of a book showing to entice them to by it.
Lisa Bywater, marketing manager at Foyles, said: “Valentine’s Day is always an important moment for us, being the first seasonal event post-Christmas, and we like to use the opportunity to play with the many ideas and perceptions of love in all its forms. Just as every story starts with an opening line, so do many human relationships, and our campaign looks at the parallels between the two.”
Smaller branches of the chain are also exploring the idea of literary couples, with promotions of books by high-profile authors who are, or were, romantically linked. “We have a range of gift books on offer for adults and children alike, from Macmillan’s Love Letters of Great Men and Women to the perennially heartwarming Guess How Much I Love You [Walker],” Bywater said.
Ewan Wilkinson, head of the literature and art department in Blackwell’s Edinburgh [poster pictured], has put traditional and more quirky titles on a display table to draw customers in, which he said had been “catching attention” and had spawned “good sales”. He said: “Sophie Hannah’s The Poetry of Sex [Penguin] is new out and has been shifting in large numbers. Knit Your Own Boyfriend by Carol Meldrum [Collins & Brown] is our choice for an alternative title, and a more traditional book we are highlighting is Love Letters of the Great War [Macmillan].”
Anne Angel, owner of Gullivers Bookshop in Wimborne, Dorset, said that a Valentine’s Day display has taken over its shop window, including a heart made out of pages from a book. “We don’t find romantic fiction sells very well for Valentine’s Day presents, but poetry does. We have put together The Rosie Project [Penguin] with Of Love and Other Wars [Simon & Schuster],” she said, adding “Gardners offered 50% off Valentine’s Day titles, which was useful. I’m not sure the event significantly increases sales, but the window displays draw more customers into the shops, which is nice.”
David Ford, owner of Saltaire Bookshop in West Yorkshire, said he was offering a three-for-two deal on poetry to “entice the flow of romantic language and sell some romantic poetry”. However, he added: “Nothing has yet sold. I have never found Valentine’s Day a great sales time.”
Waterstones is also using striking red and pink Valentine’s Day point-of-sale posters in shop windows to entice more customers.