Samenvatting

In order for bookstores to compete with its online competitors it is important that brick-and-mortar bookstores can distinguish themselves. One way to distinguish themselves is to create an effective store environment. Therefore, this research investigates how bookstores can improve the store environment, and since the research focuses on Van der Velde Boekhandel Leeuwarden the central question for this research is: How can Van der Velde Boekhandel improve its store environment?

The answer for the central question is found by starting a theoretical framework on the store environment, which discussed different theories on the store environment. One theory is chosen as basis for this research, and explained the main characteristics of the store environment and therefore also answered the first sub-question: What are the characteristics of an effective bookstore environment? Subsequently, questions are made for the questionnaire that are derived from the theory. The questionnaire was only distributed within the researcher’s network and personally in Van der Velde Boekhandel, in total 109 respondents participated in the questionnaire. From the answers of the questionnaire, results are made that have answered the other three sub questions: What do Van der Velde Boekhandel’s customers think of the bookstore environment?, What characteristic is most important to Van der Velde Boekhandel’s customers? and How important is the bookstore environment for Van der Velde Boekhandel’s customers?

The answers of the sub-questions led to knowing that atmospherics is the most important store environment characteristic and that respondents that have visited the store a handful of times would be influenced by changes in the store environment. Moreover, the respondents that visit Van der Velde Boekhandel sometimes or regularly do not think the store environment influences their visit, however they do think that the atmospheric aspect of store environment is important. Therefore it can be concluded that Van der Velde Boekhandel can improve its store environment by changing the amtosphere, which includes the colours, music and smell in the store. By changing the atmospheric aspect Van der Velde Boekhandel can possibly gain extra customers, without scaring away the regular customers. Thus it is recommended to the bookstore, to make small changes in the atmospheric aspect in order to test whether the changes work and whether they gain extra customers with it. However it is also recommended to do extra research on the opinions of the actual customers of the bookstore, in order to gain a representative image of their opinion on the store environment.