“Whether it is a franchisee or a branch, personal attention of a salesman determines the success of a bookstore”

Started almost forty years back, Teksons Bookshop with its first book store at South Extension I Market, a posh south Delhi locality in New Delhi ( India ), has come a long way. Teksons at South Extension is still home to an endless number of booklovers, who visit the store not just plainly to buy books but to experience books shopping and one of the most customer-focused books retailers in the country.

As per Subhash Arora, the man behind the Teksons Bookshop, the reading habits have changed tremendously over time. “Initially, when we stated Teksons, lot of fiction used to sell. We were the number 1 in Delhi to sell fiction books and used to stock atleast 3,000 copies of a single title. But now, the scenario has changed, people are no longer interested in fiction. I stock just combined number of 500 copies of a title at all my bookshops. The trend started shifting in 1985, when a book titled ‘In search of excellence’ came. It was a book related to management and how people excel and what they do. It sold very well and then people shifted to non-fiction, management, business, etc. And then, the trend for self-help book came into being,” he told as a matter of fact.
“Earlier, the trend for coffee table books had come up and I used to sell atleast one coffee table book everyday and a few on weekends but now the sales have dropped to ten percent of what they were before. Similarly, though Teksons do not stock books on sex but sales of such books has almost diminished as people find such information on the internet,” informed Subhash.

So what are the topics that sell most? “Today, people want to know more about successful people like the CEOs of top multinationals, etc. So, they are hungry for such kind of titles. Today, people want to buy books to gain knowledge, they want to preserve them for future reference and to get ideas from them. Besides, books on English language learning, cookery (reasonably priced ones), self-help, reference and off track books are in big demand. Actually, price is a big criterion and people do not want to spend much on books,” told Subhash.

As per Subhash, the customers at his bookshops are mostly above the age of 25 years. “We also have ‘Happy Hours’ wherein customers can buy books at 25% discount, which is much appreciated. Teksons, today, is present at eight prime locations in Delhi and NCR and another one is all set to open at Greater Kailash. We have around 600 titles which are distributed all over India. Earlier, all my bookshops worked on the branch model but when it became difficult to manage and operate, I shifted to the franchisee model. Today, I have five own stores (South Ex, Malviya Nagar, Vasant Kunj and two in Noida) and three franchisees (two in Gurgaon and one in Connaught Place). I am now planning to convert my business into franchisee model only as running a bookshop needs a lot of personal attention to customers. The salesman should be helpful, courteous and ready to go an extra mile to after the books people need. So, whether it is a branch or a franchisee, it entirely depends on the person who is running it,” told Subhash.

Talking about the trends in the Indian book industry, Subhah told that people in India do not give much importance to the authors. “We invited a few renowned authors like Sunil Gavaskar, Bejan Daruwalla and Chetan Bhagat at different times but the response was not at all satisfactory. People are not crazy about meeting the authors, though they enjoy their books. This concept is more appreciated in other countries but not in India,” he told.

“However, we do sell tickets for literary events, musical events, plays, etc (free of charge) at our stores for which the response is good if the publicity is planned effectively by the event organisors,” he added.

Teksons is not just concentrated into retail, they also have a marked presence as distributors, wholesalers, stationery, children’s books and imports. “Infact, we import and supply a lot of foreign textbooks to schools all over India including states like Kerala, UP, etc. These are high content and good quality textbooks,” told Subhash. “Then we also retail stationery items for children based on their favourite toon characters or daily soaps. The favourite one these days is Hannah Montana.”

Talking about the future of book reading, Subhash feels that it is not very bright. “ebooks will takeover once the price of kindle comes down. But, yes, books will continue to sell as some people would still like to hold a physical book while going to bed or traveling and then in areas, where people are not tech-savvy, printed books will rule the roost. Also, textbook section is bound to stay for very long time. Nevertheles, the bookshops would definitely shrink in size. But, it will still take 6-7 years to come to that level,” concluded Subhash.