Peter Ulrich on The Record Store
How to run a successful music retail outlet in today's digital age
Jun 23, 2008
Peter Ulrich likes to do things in sevens, hence his strategies for the new music retail store.
Suite 101: What’s your idea of the perfect local record store? I know you have seven scathingly brilliant ideas.
Peter Ulrich: “First off, why not take a large sector of the store and split it up into sections devoted to popular music magazines / radio shows / websites which review new releases. So, for example, in the UK a store could have an NME section, a Q section, a Mojo section, a Wire section, a Folk Roots section, a Songlines section, a Gramaphone section, and so on. Each section would display a selection of reviews from the latest issue of that magazine in a poster format on the wall / display stand and the stock of the corresponding CDs in the racks beneath."
"Displays change each time a new issue comes out. Unsold stock initially goes into storage on the premises for a few weeks in case customers come in asking for something they saw recently but didn't buy at the time, and then either gets returned to the distributor, or goes on to an internet order fulfilment company - either the retailer's own web sales, or a co-operating web retailer.” he adds.
“Similarly, there can be sections featuring CDs of the artists creating the biggest buzz on websites such as myspace and lastfm in the past week/month."
Suite 101: That’s a good idea because people are always asking music retail clerks about songs they have heard on the radio or the web. That also promotes the music zines as well.
Peter Ulrich: "I also think each retail store should create its own in-house chart - its own top-selling 10 or 20 titles in the previous month are displayed together with customer reviews so that the customers of that particular store are actively engaged in making recommendations to other customers. Let's face it, everyone loves to recommend music they love to others - so use the fact and give people an outlet for their views."
Suite 101: Exactly. People do love telling each other about their latest fave song and these days isn’t everyone a critic?
Peter Ulrich: "It also follows that the in-store chart idea be extended, as I indicated in my second reason, to incorporate the online sales technique "customers who bought X also bought Y and Z" so that, alongside that store's best-sellers are recommendations to customers of similar titles they might like.”
Suite 101: That idea also works well in independent video rental stores as well.
Peter Ulrich : "In addition to that, add a staff recommendation section. A lot of stores use this already - but it tends to be a bit clandestine and apologetic. Staff recommendations are a great way of building staff/customer relations so make it an up-front, permanent feature. Regular customers will get to know the taste of particular staff members and come to rely on their recommendations.”
Suite 101: Yes, I’m always dropping into my local store to chat and they have great taste.
Peter Ulrich: “Stores could introduce a local artists section. The hinterland of every music store is a hive of musical activity. Retailers can work in conjunction with local recording studios to encourage local artists/bands to make recordings and have a small run of CDs pressed. Local papers can be asked to review them, and then the reviews can be displayed together with the albums in-store. The artists/bands will then be telling all their family and friends to go down to the store and buy their album, but at the same time, it gives all the store's customers the opportunity to discover these new releases.
Retailers with a national base could then have all their branches submit local artist releases to a national monthly competition, and the winners get national distribution through all branches.
Suite 101: Yes, I’ve seen these media relationships work very well.
Peter Ulrich: “Why not have in-store listening stations using digital technology to give customers the largest possible choice? Every track on every CD in the store should be available on a digital database linked to every listening station so a customer can select any CD from the racks, take it to a listening post, type in the album code number and track number and hear that track or a sample segment of it. This is what they can do online, so make it possible for them to do it in-store too.
Suite 101: And the seventh?
Peter Ulrich: "I strongly feel there needs to be a section of the store linked to major current events. A prime example of this is the summer festival season. Here in the UK, we have several big annual festivals including Reading and Glastonbury attended by hundreds of thousands of people. In the few weeks immediately after such festivals, retail stores could display albums by all the artists who appeared so festival goers would know where to find the CDs of any new bands they've just discovered while the festival experience is still fresh in their minds."
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