Advice on Running a Successful Videogame Store?

xlilacx asks: "The video game industry is worth $25 billion, and predicted to rival the global music industry in the next 10 years. Even Grandma is joining in on the fun. My husband and I bought three video game retail stores two months ago, and so far sales are dismal (down 25% from last year's sales), which seems to be an industry trend. I've noticed a few things that are contibuting to our lack of profits: the people who weren't able to get an XBox 360 have decided they will wait to get one (which most likely will be after Christmas), and they will not buy any games for their old systems in the meantime; people are automatically conditioned to go to the EB-Games and GameStop stores at the malls, even if they give less in trade-ins and have horrible customer servicr; lastly, kids come in with piles of junk games (Madden 2001, etc..), and get enough store credit to buy the latest greatest game that we only mark up like 5%-10%. I'd like to ask Slashdot readers if these observations are a good reflection of the mentality of video-game buyers everywhere, and what suggestions they have for a small ma-and-pa video game store. With all the huge retailers in the video-game market and the EB/GameStop merger, is there a place left for the local game store?"

Comments

Time

[retinaburn]

What you need is time to get game buyers to use your store, and start telling their friends.

If you can have better customer service, and provide better monetary value (be it trade-ins, slightly lower price than the local chain store, etc) the numbers should increase over time.

Have a local staff that is knowledgable about games. They should be able to tell a prospective buyer the good and the bad about a particular game, and how it compares to other games in the genre.

Perhaps post ratings from various game sites, so buyers can see the ratings and the reviews about various games in your store.

One thing a local mom-pop shop does is have a little event when a huge game is released. They will have pop and some snacks leading up to when they are allowed to sell the game, may even have it playable on a few systems so people can get their fix before they can take it home. They did this for Halo2, and I am sure other games. They also let you return a game within the first week or so if you don't like it, or you finish it for a full store credit. You get a brand-new hot title back, and can put it back on the shelf at a slightly lower price (providing the condition is good), and make two customers happy in the process.

You can also run contests, etc to get people into the store. Buy X new games, get a free used title. My advice, don't pressure then to buy. Provide an environment that provides the service, but do perks, make it a good place to hang out.

Acts of Gord

[Bishop]

First read the Acts of Gord. Then really consider if you want to run a game store.

In-Store Games?

[MBCook]

Have you considered running little in-store tournaments or something like that for various games. You can even use it to show off the latest games (PGR3, DOA4, Soul Caliber 3, Madden '06, whatever). You might even charge a nominal (VERY nominal, $1, $2, or $5) to enter and give a prize (copy of the game? Picture in the store as "Champion of the Month"). If you can get some people coming, you may build a loyal base and they will have to spend some time in the store and might decide to buy something.

You could do other contest type things too. Pac-Man high-score board on the wall (bring in a picture of your score to get placed) or something. You could do it with any game that has something you can easily rank like that. Speed records for various games. Whatever.

Offering expertise (like a sign in the window: "We'll help you pick out what your kids will want") could help you a lot during this season too. While people at Best Buy or GameStop may be able to do that (usually depends on the employee), if you make it obvious that you can do that that may help.

Best advice besides the above? You need word of mouth. Tell your friends and get them to buy there (probably not a problem). Ask them to tell their friends, etc. Offer a discount card (someone already suggested one on used games like Funcoland used to have) and offer to give them $5 credit if they get someone to come in and buy something and say they were recommended to come by the person with the card.