Fangsuo Bookstore

Fangsuo Bookstore

On November 25, 2011, Fangsuo, which was built by Mao Jihong, the founder of the exception, opened next to Hermes in Guangzhou Swire mall. Fangsuo covers an area of 1800 square meters, integrating bookstores, aesthetic life, coffee, exhibition space and fashion. On the glass door of Fangsuo, there is a message from the poet Yess: "I hope to go back to the era of more poetry reading:" the obscure Lyric in the wind chorus needs another listening. " This sentence is a good summary of the business scope of the bookstore, which is mainly engaged in humanities, art, design and architecture books, including 40000 kinds of Hong Kong and Taiwan books and nearly 10000 kinds of foreign books, as well as some mainland publications. There are special bookshelves such as "recommended by Fang Suo", "recommended by media" and "recommended by Internet opinion leaders".

Chengdu Fangsuo was officially opened on January 29, 2015. It is located on the first floor of Yuanyang taiguli in Chengdu. It is the second chain store of Fangsuo. During the previous two months of trial operation, the average daily flow of people reached 7000.

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Fangsuo is an elegant and comfortable paradise. Here, you can hold a novel, order a cup of coffee, sit in a chair and enjoy a good afternoon.

"After this store opened, the market reaction was beyond my imagination." At 3pm, under the soft yellow light of Fangsuo coffee area, Mao Jihong, one of the founders of Fangsuo, looked a little excited and tired. His other identity is the chairman of Guangzhou clothing company, a well-known clothing design brand in China.

A month ago, on the last weekend of November 2011, Fangsuo, which made its debut in Guangzhou, seemed to be difficult to classify and define: in 1800 square meters of space, there were 500 square meters of bookstores, 400 square meters of aesthetics hall for displaying and selling design products, 260 square meters of exhibition space, 250 square meters of clothing hall and 90 square meters of coffee shop. Its products include books, clothing, aesthetic daily necessities, plants and coffee, and all of them are self operated.

If Fang Suo is only regarded as a "bookstore", then it is really out of time. At the end of October, China's largest private Bookstore chain suddenly announced its closure. This is just another domino for the physical bookstore industry. In the past four years, tens of thousands of private bookstores have closed down nationwide.

"What we are doing is not a bookstore, but a cultural platform, a future life style." Liao Meili, general consultant of Fangsuo and one of the founders of Chengpin bookstore in Taiwan, has repeatedly stressed. Perhaps because of this, Fangsuo, with a total area of 1800 square meters, is luxurious and located in taikoohui, the most high-end shopping center in Guangzhou, adjacent to Armani, LV and Prada.

For all the domestic private bookstores, including photosynthesis, which are in a difficult situation, does Fangsuo provide a possible reference?

On December 18, 2011, photosynthesis, which is planning to "save itself", said that it will improve its profitability and get rid of difficulties "through diversified operation". Specifically, in physical stores, traditional books will be abandoned, stationery and boutique department stores will be abandoned, and only profitable categories will be retained, and reading extension consumption (such as art, coffee, refreshments, etc.) will be set. In addition, it also provides brand promotion services for enterprises; through the Internet, photosynthesis will directly become a "digital reading content provider".

But is it really a bookstore?

Perhaps, both Fangsuo and photosynthesis can achieve better profits in the future. But we have to admit that as an "independent business model", physical bookstores are inevitably going to decline.

Bookstores are dying

In 2011, the "end" of physical bookstores has really come.

In July 2011, bodes group, the second largest bookstore chain in the United States, formally filed for bankruptcy protection and closed about 30% of its more than 600 bookstores when China's private entity bookstores were in trouble. Barnes & noble, the largest bookstore chain in the United States, with more than 700 stores, has already declared "intention to transfer" as early as August 2010.

The rise of e-commerce is regarded as the beginning of the nightmare of physical bookstores. Taking Chinese mainland as an example, books sold through e-commerce channels increased by an average of 100% annually after 2008. The proportion of e-commerce channels in the overall publishing market has increased from less than 5% to more than 35%.

Compared with seizing market share, the "low price strategy" of e-commerce channels has a greater impact on physical bookstores. In May 2011, Jingdong Mall once advertised that "all children's books are capped at 40% discount", while the purchase price of books in physical bookstores is often about 50% discount, while the sales price is at least more than 20%.

Of course, Xinhua Bookstore is an exception in the physical bookstore in Chinese mainland. "Xinhua bookstore has government support, multi industry, no rent burden, and textbook business support. There is no big problem in its survival, but private entity bookstores do have a worrying survival." A person from the private book industry development research center of China Press and Publication Research Institute said.

Yang Hanjing, a former director of photosynthesis brand department, commented on the decline of physical bookstores: "the most fundamental reason is that the market is constantly changing, but the business model of physical bookstores has always stagnated."

But in fact, before the closure, photosynthesis was trying to change, and it was once regarded as a model of "adopting the mode of multi format integration to run Bookstores" in mainland China. In addition to selling books, there were also special coffee areas and creative product areas. Its sale of Wal Mart's warehousing goods plate, but also as a separate advantage of resources stripping.

However, since 2008, the operating costs, especially the rental and labor costs, have increased by 50%, which has finally crushed photosynthesis. Of course, after 2004, photosynthesis's stores expanded rapidly from more than 10 to a maximum of 31, which also brought huge financial pressure on itself.

According to Yang Hanjing, the key reason for the failure of the "multi format integration mode" before photosynthesis is the lack of talents and professional operation system with real cross-border ability.

The sample used for comparison with photosynthesis is Chengpin bookstore in Taiwan. Since 2000, Chengpin has taken the lead in building a composite business model of "bookstore + department store" -- attracting shops to settle in through cultural brand effect, and operating high profit rate cultural performances, creative commodity sales, clothing and catering industries. In Chengpin, the profit contribution rate of books has gradually decreased from 100% to 30% today.

Ren Zhihong, director of the non-public book industry working committee of China Book Publishing Association, also said that referring to the model of Chengpin bookstore, in the future, the physical Bookstore must be only a "carrier" and "book sales account for less than 20% of the total turnover" is reasonable.

Cross border operation of Fangsuo

As one of the founders of Fangsuo, Mao Jihong is not the first time to explore channel innovation in a "cross-border way".

As early as 2007, he opened a store called "double-sided exception" in Kunming, Yunnan Province. In the store, Mao Jihong integrated into a large area of book space, displaying and selling books focusing on art and aesthetics. After that, the "double-sided exception" was successively implemented in Wuhan, Xiamen and other cities.

In 2008, the first "exceptional ecological store" was launched in Beijing Chongguang department store. In addition to books, the store also introduced G.O.D and other household brands, as well as aesthetic daily necessities with the theme of environmental protection and naturalism. It is reported that Wuhan New World department store, Kunming new southwest department store and Xiamen SM commercial city where the "double-sided exception" is located are all "exception" A-level distribution points. Wuhan and Kunming take the lead in the inland market.

This time, Liao Meili, the founder of taiwan pedestrian culture laboratory, joined hands with Mao Jihong to build Fangsuo. She once participated in the creation of Chengpin bookstore, and is generally considered to have a strong "lineage of Chengpin bookstore". Tan baijuan, director of Fangsuo's operations, and Luo Meiling, a Book consultant, both have more than 10 years of store operation experience in Chengpin.

Mao Jihong believes that the Fangsuo model seems to be sincere, but in fact there is a significant difference: "Liao Meili said that in sincere products, we dare not put more artistry." Taking chengpinxinyi flagship store as an example, its total number of books is more than 390000, which is divided into 58 different areas. Compared with it, Fangsuo's book categories and store style are more focused on art and aesthetics. Xu Zhiqiang, general manager of Beijing fashion Gallery bookstore, commented on the two: "Chengpin lost its delicacy because of its large size, while Fangsuo abandoned it because of its small size."

Mao Jihong said that the first time he went to Chengpin, he carried back 21 boxes of books. He was a book lover. In his opinion, "having a book is the experience of the moment", and Fang Suo's function is to create a better atmosphere for books to meet people.

However, the pursuit of poetry does not mean that Fang Suo is divorced from the rational framework. "We have at least two pieces, books and costumes, based on very rational rules. There are also solid ideas behind coffee, aesthetic life and even exhibitions. Only the track based on solid experience can better integrate rationality and sensibility. "

For example, Fangsuo's "aesthetic life" commodity, based on this concept, has gone through many stages

Chinese PinYin : Fang Suo Shu Dian