By Jessica Yun
While Booktopia has been making headlines for its collapse and white-knight rescue, Dymocks has, for the most part, been keeping a lower profile.
That’s not to say that there aren’t changes afoot at the 145-year-old bookstore chain: while less dramatic, a series of tweaks and improvements to the business – including the “theatre” of visual merchandising at the shopfront – is meant to turn heads.
Dymocks Retail managing director Mark Newman at the Adelaide store launch in April 2022.Credit: Roy VanDerVegt
“The luxury world knows this very, very well: if you present things in a premium way, you care about the products, it looks like you care about what you’re selling, then people are drawn to buying from you,” said Dymocks Retail managing director Mark Newman, who has spent most of his career heading luxury fashion retailers such as Ralph Lauren and Oroton.
“If you create a retail space that people feel comfortable in, they will spend more time – and they’ll spend more money.”
John Forsyth of the Dymocks Group, October 2014.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
Newman began as chief executive in May 2020, a few months after the COVID pandemic struck. It was a crash course in learning about the industry, which benefited from book sales as people stuck at home searched for things to do, while navigating the supply-chain disruptions that came along with store closures and stay-at-home instructions.
“We weren’t necessarily at that … time set up for scale, so we had to move pretty quickly to make sure that we had a scalable model online,” said Newman. “But it also highlighted how important omnichannel was going to be for the future.”
Founded in 1879 by William Dymock, whose great-great-nephew John Forsyth now owns the business, Dymocks had 80-odd stores in the mid-2010s but has shut dozens in a period of consolidation that also claimed Borders and Angus & Robertson as victims.
The business is in the midst of upgrading its physical and digital to strengthen the retailer’s foundations for the future and, crucially, bring in more revenue.
A multimillion-dollar new website project, which has been years in the works, will be rolled out next week, delivering stronger search capabilities, a more streamlined check-out process, more delivery options and personalised recommendations, according to the customer’s preferences and location.
The lower ground floor of Sydney’s flagship George Street store – which has already been refurbished in the past 12 months – will be closed for renovations to create a “children’s wonderland” of toys and a reading space for children and parents, an area of respite in a bustling central business district. Further renovations are in the pipeline.
Dymocks’ George Street site is its flagship Sydney store.Credit: Rhett Wyman
Premium service, products, prices
The changes are more than just cosmetic: there’s a clear commercial focus on opening up new revenue streams, such as through an expanded loyalty program that creates a paid tier at $39 a year. Dymocks also owns the popular stationery chain, Milligram, which is on its own growth trajectory. Sales from Dymocks’ private-label brands such as The Reader’s Range are also tracking strongly, part of a broader retail trend, while a tighter focus on inventory management has also improved margins.
The emphasis on revenue and margin is timely: book prices have not increased much over the years, and operating costs for just about every business in every sector have risen.
‘Our strategy is not to compete on price. We’re a premium bookseller and book and gift retailer, and we focus on our service.’
Mark Newman, Dymocks Retail managing director
“From a consumer’s perspective, that large-format bookshop is very attractive … There’s so much choice to have a look at. But it’s very, very hard to make money in large-format bookshops because the cost of doing business is very hard,” said Newman.
“Retail rents are very high, staff costs very high. They’re obviously the two biggest costs of running bricks-and-mortar, and margins on books are not great. It’s a commodity product.”
Despite a sluggish economic environment where retailers are watching cost-conscious consumers trading down and shopping around for value, Dymocks has determined it is not playing in the same lane as the likes of Amazon.
“Our strategy is not to compete on price. We’re a premium bookseller and book and gift retailer, and we focus on our service. We focus on having staff who work in our stores, franchise owners who own their stores, who know about books, who read books, who are able to make recommendations to people when they come in.”
The “theatre” of visual merchandising at the shopfront is one of the weapons in Dymocks’ marketing arsenal. Credit: Steven Siewert
Dymocks has a 6.8 per cent share of the bookstore market, behind QBD Books with 9.8 per cent, according to an IBISWorld industry report. Newman, who said Dymocks’ market share is 9.7 per cent, declined to provide revenue figures for Dymocks Retail, but IBISWorld puts it at $107 million. Dymocks’ 2023 financial year report shows retail sales grew 12.8 per cent.
The book chain plans to increase the number of its stores, hovering at 50 to 60.
Newman says the Dymocks brand is well recognised and carries weight and insists each store has a local feel, due to the franchise model that lets each operator retain control of book selections while benefiting from purchasing power as a group and a national loyalty program.
“The Dymocks name is synonymous with heritage, but also we’re a very trusted brand,” he said.
“So if you’re thinking about starting your own bookshop, having that name above the store already gives you an advantage over just starting it yourself and seeing how you go.”
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