Negotiation Case Study
Assignment 7
Blooming Book House
Considered India’s largest second-hand bookstore, Bengaluru’s Blooming Book House was started 20 years ago by Maya Kashyap, an engineering dropout from Mysore, in a small 200 square-foot space in Brigade Garden, with a humble collection. In two years, it had a large enough collection and a matching revenue to occupy a space double the area in Brigade Garden itself. In 2004, six months after moving to the new place, a first floor was added and in a similar span of time, another floor. During this period, Ms. Kashyap started to develop a strong network all over the country, with book dealers in Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai and Delhi. She was able to stock books that were not in print or not easily available, steadily building a collection that was unique and varied. Recently, Blooming also opened a shiny new 8,650sq ft branch on the same street.
“I started an e-commerce store in 2006,” she says. “But it needs a dedicated team of its own, tracking inventory, delivery, IT support; it’s a difficult job.” Instead, she employs other commendable ways to retain customers; they get credit vouchers every time they donate or exchange a book. “About 100–200 people visit on weekdays, and about 500–600 on weekends. Twenty two people help in managing the store and attending to customers.” With 4 lakh books on Blooming’s shelves, does Ms. Kashyap know each and every one of them? “Well. Yes. Most of them, at least,” she laughs. When asked if there’s any specific genre that’s selling fast, she says “Suddenly, teen fiction is selling so much”, sounding puzzled. “You know… ’13 reasons why’ kind of books. Crime fiction and classics always sell, too.”
The average number of book sales per month in comparatively bigger stores is 50,000 to 70,000, and in medium-sized stores, it is around 30,000. This usual flow was massively disrupted by the successive lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the case of Blooming as its main source of income is only the brick and mortar store on Church Street. “Since the website was still under construction at that time, people started requesting for books through WhatsApp”, says Ms. Kashyap. Blooming had to get into discussions with delivery apps, which were almost the only ones given permission to be on roads during the pandemic.
Since people did not know about Blooming Book House’s new method of functioning, the demand was low, and their income was cut short. On the other hand, the delivery apps that they got in touch with were demanding a pretty exorbitant price for their service. Renovation of the buildings to add library-like reading facilities within the store was on-going to aid in bringing back the crowd post-pandemic. This did help and an increase of 30–40% in sales has been seen in recent months. The usual dip in sales seen in the months of February and March was absent this year. Prominent customers in pandemic days were millennials and IT professionals, and post-pandemic, the Gen Z increased the demand for genres of books such as young adult, romance, and non-fiction, particularly finance and self-help.
Parties involved
- Blooming Book House: Ms. Kashyap and the workers
- Readers
- Competitors
- Delivery apps
Contentions
- Non-functioning website and e-commerce store
- Low awareness regarding sales during pandemic
- High expenditure on delivery apps
Necessities of negotiations
Low awareness among readers regarding the mode of sales during the pandemic caused low demand and thereby, low income for Blooming Book House. A non-functioning website and e-commerce store only added to the problems. The high price demanded by delivery apps necessitated negotiations.
Possible negotiations
Blooming could have used their popularity in the city to their use. People in Bengaluru still prefer independent bookstores to e-commerce platforms as can be seen in the case of Blooming’s competitors as well. They could have struck a deal with apps that have wide reach by offering publicity and promotions once the pandemic is over.
Further suggestions
- Increase diversity by adding regional literature
- Develop website and online store
- Have a social media presence
