James Daunt on how to run successful shops

"I've never wavered in my belief that bookshops are wonderful spaces. They're places where people like to be.”

So says James Daunt at the start of our latest podcast episode. The episode is a masterclass from Daunt on how to run successful shops. At a time when high street shops continue to close (6,945 were lost in the first half of 2024 in the UK), Daunt has turned around two bookshop chains - Waterstones in the UK and Barnes & Noble in the US. When he took over these businesses they were on the brink of collapse, now they are growing again and opening shops.

Here are some of his key points in the episode:

Empower the local management team running each shop

A key plank of Daunt’s approach is letting the management team of each bookshop run the shop they think is best for the local area. That means they pick the books they want to sell, rather than head office making these decisions.

“The booksellers in every place try to be the best for that place,” Daunt says. “We've become better and better at it and we are now confident that we can be ourselves in our individual locations rather than trying to pay homage to a central direction.”

Work with Amazon, not against it

Amazon started as a book retailer and has taken a big chunk of the market. But Daunt has learned to work with Amazon, not against it. For example, Amazon offers such a wide range of books that it means high street shops no longer need to stock everything – instead, they can pick the best of what they want to sell.

“Amazon has done us a huge favour in forcing us to focus on being really interesting,” Daunt says. “That's our raison d'etre. All these other books have disappeared from our shelves and our shops are very much better for it."

Looking at costs

More than 5,000 jobs were cut at Barnes & Noble after Daunt took over. “If you're loss-making and either effectively bankrupt or heading that way fast, then obviously you can't just carry on doing the same,” Daunt says. “A huge amount of the labour that we had was spent ordering in massive quantities of books that we failed to sell and then returning them to the publishers.

"As soon as you stop doing that, you need less people to do it. You can also professionalise your workforce. So we've got less people, but they're much better paid. Retention and tenure have gone up dramatically. We have a smaller workforce, but a much more committed and skilled one.”

On his own role within Waterstones and Barnes & Noble

“I’m just pushing down the accountability and the responsibilities to the shops and to others,” Daunt says. “I say it as a joke, but it's actually true - the more successful I am, the less I do. That's a very happy direction in which to be going.”