Bookstore Inventory
Choosing bookstore inventory should feel exciting. Yet millions of available titles can quickly turn opening orders into a stressful and never-ending project.
Every book competes for shelf space and your cash investment. What books do you pick? Even small stores can fit thousands of books.
The best bookstore inventory gives shoppers variety and offers some delightful surprises. The selection must include worthy backlist titles, timely new releases, and books that reflect the people your store will serve.
The Bookstore Training Group helps new bookstores across the USA create informed opening inventories that are a curated list ready to submit to vendors. Our work connects your buying budget, store layout, community, and business goals.
Plan Bookstore Inventory Around Your Community
A strong bookstore inventory begins with understanding your community. Local age groups, schools, employers, interests, income levels, and nearby competitors can all influence demand. The U.S. Small Business Administration recommends using both market research and competitive analysis to understand customers and identify a business advantage.
Your concept matters too. A general bookstore needs broad category coverage. A children’s bookstore, romance or genre fiction shop, or bookstore with another specialty focus needs a deeper selection. In every case, the goal is to create a clear identity while investing in the most appealing books people will buy.
How Our Bookstore Inventory Service Works
We begin by learning about your vision, opening date, budget, sales floor, fixtures, community and target customers. We then connect those details to a practical bookstore inventory plan.
Fixtures and shelf capacity helps determine quantities. As a planning estimate, one spine out adult book often uses about one inch of shelf space. Children’s books may use less, depending on the format (picture books versus board books). However, book dimensions vary depending on the category (adult fiction versus cookbooks). A final fixture plan allows for a definitive count of the number of books needed per fixture and category..
Our buying specialist, Susan Savory, has owned a bookstore and worked as a lead book buyer for decades with stores across the United States. She uses that experience to help select current, relevant, and timely books for an opening inventory.
The service considers:
- The amount of selling space assigned to each category
- The community and any areas of specialization
- New books scheduled the month of opening as well as three months after
- Newly released paperback editions
- Essential backlist books that continue to attract readers
- Categories that need depth and those that need a smaller selection
Bookstore inventory fees currently begin at $4 per selling square foot. The final scope depends on the store and project. The first consultation is free.
Balance Selection, Space, and Budget
A curated opening bookstore inventory requires broad knowledge of books plus connection to new books publishers plan to release around and after the time a bookstore opens its doors. Never accept a vendor spreadsheet of recommendations without vetting the list, title by title.
A planogram shows where sections will be merchandised. It also helps buyers estimate capacity before placing orders. Our bookstore design service can connect the physical layout with the planned selection. Stores that need both services can explore the Bookstore Bundle where the planogram is provided as part of the service.
Connect With Publishers and Wholesalers
New bookstores can buy directly from publishers and through book wholesalers. Most stores use a combination of both.
The American Booksellers Association explains that stores can open publisher accounts and use wholesalers to order books from many publishers through one source. Account requirements and trade terms vary. New applicants may need an EIN, resale certificate, and store information. Look for special terms offered by publishers in the ABA’s Book Buyers Handbook.
Technology keeps providing us with helpful tools. Edelweiss offers Omnibus, a system for ordering and inventory management. Wholesaler tools can also support ordering and stock checks. For example, Ingram’s retailer ordering platform provides title searches, warehouse availability, invoices, shipment tracking, and catalog access. Always review the current payment, freight, discount, and return terms attached to each account and title.
Edelweiss and Ingram’s ipage are tools every bookstore uses. Learn about their important roles in bookstore buying.
Build a Store That Encourages Discovery
When a customer visits a new bookstore, it’s a golden opportunity to showcase an amazing store with a curated selection and friendly service. Your goal is to present a selection that is easy to navigate with pleasant surprises as the customer travels through the store.
Clear sections, face out books, staff recommendations, focal point table displays, and focused merchandising help shoppers explore and create opportunities for discovery.
Our bookstore merchandising service helps stores use focal areas, endcaps, signs, and checkout space more effectively. These decisions should support the buying plan instead of competing with it.
As a part of new staff training, include the FREE 30-minute training video – Bookstore Merchandising Made Easy to help build awareness and skills.
The Owning a Bookstore: The Essential Planning Guide is also available for purchase. It covers bookstore planning, financial dynamics, book buying, management systems, and other opening tasks. New owners who want broader training can purchase the Bookstore Start Up Package.
Bookstore Inventory Support Across the USA
The Bookstore Training Group is based in Fernandina Beach, Florida, and serves bookstore owners throughout the United States. Remote collaboration makes it possible to review the store’s concept, community and market details, fixture plans, category needs, budgets, and title selections from anywhere in the country.
For related operational questions, bookstore consulting is also available. To discuss a bookstore inventory project, contact The Bookstore Training Group or call 904 277 2664. The first consultation is free.
Bookstore Inventory Services FAQs
How do I buy book inventory for my new bookstore?
New bookstores can open direct accounts with individual publishers and an account with a book wholesaler.
A wholesaler lets a store purchase books from many publishers through one source, so most new stores use both approaches.
Some vendors require new accounts to prepay an initial order.
How many books should I buy?
As a planning estimate, each spine out adult book uses about one inch of shelf space, while many children’s books use less.
Count the available shelves on each fixture, then adjust for face out displays, larger formats, and the space assigned to each category.
Should I carry used books?
Consider this choice carefully.
Buying, evaluating, pricing, cleaning, processing, and storing used books can become a separate operation within the store.
Review the required space, labor, and buying process before adding them to the bookstore inventory.
What does a bookstore inventory service include?
The service reviews the store’s community and market, concept, selling space, fixture selection, categories, budget, and opening date.
A curated list of titles to fill your bookstore represent the best investment for titles that will sell.
How much does bookstore inventory planning cost?
Fees currently begin at $4 per selling square foot.
The final fee depends on the size and scope of the bookstore inventory project, and the first consultation is free.
Can you help plan bookstore inventory anywhere in the USA?
Yes. The Bookstore Training Group serves bookstore owners throughout the United States.
Remote planning uses market information, store layout, category space, and budget to develop a final curated title selection.