Dymocks to add 25 stores as part of three-year plan
Dymocks will launch its own range of non-book items in August this year, and aims to increase the size of the chain by adding 25 stores as part of a three-year plan.
Dymocks CEO Mark Newman told Inside Franchise Business Executive the company is focused on increasing the number of Dymocks stores to 75. He highlighted the chain’s absence from Northern Territory, adding that Dymocks is ‘under-represented’ in Queensland.
The new range of book-related gifts developed by Dymocks will include book lights and bookmarks, and is part of a plan—which will also include a focus on improving mark-ups on books—to boost stores’ profitability.
‘It’s about marketing so we have enough products to lift overall margins to ultimately deal with the fact that rent and staff costs go up each year,’ said Newman of the non-book range. ‘How we merchandise is vital.’
Another area of focus for the company is better integrating customers’ bricks and mortar and online experiences, a priority pushed by the pandemic, which favoured suburban and regional stores, negatively affected CBD locations and increased online retail.
‘Like all retailers, we also saw a huge increase in our online business,’ Newman told Shopping Centre News. ‘This trend continued throughout 2020 and into this year. What this has meant is that we have had to re-think what the optimum size of a CBD store is, while also recognising that work from home for some people, some of the time, may be here to stay and therefore traffic levels may not get back to pre-pandemic levels. It has also meant that we have accelerated our omni-channel plans significantly.’
Planned omni-channel enhancements include an improved search function and store map, as well as assisted self-checkout and online ordering in-store.
Newman told Inside Franchise Business Executive that Dymocks planned to position itself around the tagline ‘Locally owned, nationally known’.
Category: Local news
