Unmanned late-night bookstore operations fail ◆ In retail, the attitude of 'testing failures quickly and learning from them' itself becomes a competitive advantage. It was a meaningful step as an experiment to explore 'what kind of bookstore would make people want to go out of their way to visit.'

Rather than saying 'unmanned operations failed,' it seems the issue was that 'who you are selling to and what value you are providing' was ambiguous.

Why didn't it sell? 📚

1. The reason to buy books late at night is weak

In the past, 'midnight releases' were special, but nowadays, e-books are often released at midnight, so the 'crowd that wants to read as fast as possible' has shifted to digital.

The reasons to go out and buy a physical book late at night are quite limited.

2. The psychological hurdle of LINE registration

"Just to buy one book"

• smartphone required

• LINE registration required

• entry authentication

When it comes to that, it's easy to think, 'It's too much trouble, I'll just do it tomorrow.'

3. The target audience is narrow

People who want to go to a bookstore in the middle of the night are limited to a few, such as

• those finishing a night shift

• those with insomnia

• students studying for exams

• writers

• researchers

• those on a late-night drive

.

It is not easy to recover fixed costs with that segment alone.

On the other hand, this challenge is valuable.

While it is self-deprecatingly referred to on social media as 'sales that are too painful to look at,' the data obtained from such experiments is actually valuable.

For example,

• What time at night do the most customers visit?

• Which genres sell well?

• The ratio of women to men

• How things change on rainy days

These can be utilized for future management improvements.

Rather, promising ideas💡

Creating value that is 'unique to the night' might be more effective than unmanned operations themselves.

For example...

• 🌙 Late-night exclusive 10% OFF

• 📖 Midnight-exclusive bookmark gift

• ☕ Free coffee service

• 🎁 Lucky bag gacha

• 📚 Special shelf for 'books to read on sleepless nights'

• ✍️ Midnight sales of author-signed books

Business perspective

In this day and age, it is difficult for bookstores to differentiate themselves solely as 'places to sell books.'

Successful bookstores provide 'value in staying' through things like

• cafes

• stationery

• miscellaneous goods

• events

• community

• social media appeal

.

Unmanned operation is the same; just being 'open 24 hours' is weak, and it is necessary to design a 'reason to want to go at night'.

Future checkpoints ✔️

• Number of nighttime visitors

• Average spend per customer

• Shoplifting/loss rate

• LINE registration rate

• Repeat customer rate

• Buzz effect on social media

• Ripple effect on staffed operating hours

What this initiative shows

What is interesting isnot the low sales themselves, but the fact that the failure was openly shared.

The post that described the sales as 'too painful to look at' gathered a lot of empathy and support. By sharing the failure rather than hiding it, it gained awareness, which could lead to future visits and support.

In retail, the attitude of 'trying fast and learning from failure' can become a competitive advantage. Even though this late-night unmanned operation struggled in terms of short-term sales, it can be said that it was a meaningful first step in experimenting to find out 'what kind of bookstore would make people want to go out of their way to visit.' 📖

Late-night unmanned bookstore operation struggles! The psychology of consumers that 'just being open' cannot reach

The results of an experiment in which a certain bookstore attempted 'unmanned night operation from 21:00 to 10:00 the next day' have caused a great reaction on the internet. By the store self-deprecatingly disclosing the 'sales that were too painful to look at,' the difficulty of DX (digital transformation) in the retail industry and the essential challenges have been brought to light.

• [The wall of e-books] In the past, 'midnight release' was a strength of paper books, but today, e-books are delivered at the same time, so the motivation to go out of one's way to visit in the middle of the night has weakened.

• [The hassle of authentication] The reality that 'smartphone required' and 'entry authentication via LINE registration' for crime prevention became a high psychological hurdle (inconvenience) against the desire to purchase.

• [Redefining value] Without a clear design of 'who to sell to and what kind of value to sell,' it is difficult to recover fixed costs with just the convenience of 24-hour operation.

• [The value of the challenge] However, by frankly disclosing this failure data, voices of support flooded social media. It became an extremely valuable step in modern marketing, which is to 'learn quickly from failure.'