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W H Smith reveals plans to transform post office shops with bigger focus on books
W H Smith has revealed plans to refit its post office stores with a bigger emphasis on books.
High Street Business m.d. Carl Cowling told The Bookseller the retailer is planning the first of its 40 new look post office stores in Bath in July and in smaller stores will roll out a more children’s and lighter reading offer by reducing its backlist.
As W H Smith posts its interim results for the six months to 28th February 2019, Cowling said: “In terms of books we’ve got a long history of books and we are really very proud of it. We want to build our books business, not reduce our books business.
“In larger stores we are looking at how to refit our books department to be more customer facing. In particular we are doing that with shops with post offices. We will reduce the backlist in some of our very small stores. In those stores our plan is to take the backlist and make the kids range bigger and focus on bestsellers. We are investing money and having more great new bookshops.
“With the post office, we are going to make it a lot better to shop, with a much more interesting kids area with titles that are face-on and browsable. We are going to turn it into more of a bookshop really.”
Away from the post office plans, Cowling added the retailer will have a new standalone bookshop at Gatwick Airport as its travel business drives growth.
“The UK travel business is going from strength to strength. We are in the process of refitting a number of airport stores, the really exciting things for books is Gatwick Airport North. We are having a pharmacy and a big separate piece of space for a standalone bookshop that will be opening at the end of the summer.”
Reflecting on the interim results which saw High Street total revenue down 1%, the second best sales performance in the past decade, Cowling said: “We think we’ve got a really good and clear strategy with books. We know we are good with kids and there’s mileage there to make the books department not just nicer looking but bigger.”
