Customer Success Story: Royal Botanical Gardens

October 24, 2018

Royal Botanical Gardens’ Background

Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) is the largest botanical garden in Canada, a national historic site, and registered charitable organization with a mandate to bring together people, plants, and nature. RBG protects and restores over 2,000 acres of nature sanctuaries and creates gardens that beautify the landscape. They also serve tourists and locals by hosting events and educating about the work they do through tours and their gift shop. RBG’s gift shop sells educational games, garden decor, figurines, books for kids and adults alike, and much more.

RBG’s began selling bargain books in 2008 and became a Book Depot customer in 2009. Since then, their sales have continued to grow year after year. What started out as an endcap of bargain books to give them a try soon grew to two endcaps – one for adults and one for kids. With the demand for more, RBG continued to expand their bargain book selection by branching out to tables in front of the gift shop and even added two additional rolling racks. Even with the extra display space focused on books, they still receive interest for more; however, due to a lack of space, the gift shop physically can’t add any more.

Solution

With RBG’s demand for bargain books continually increasing, they had to get creative with their space to maximize sales. By purchasing more books than they are able to display at one time, RBG can rotate their available stock to keep their displays updated. Book Depot’s variety gives RBG the freedom to cater their selection to their customer base during the interests of the season as well as their special exhibits.

Results

Increase in Sales: RBG’s bargain book sales have increased tenfold over the last ten years.

Not only does Royal Botanical Gardens have tourists visiting the gift shop, but since carrying bargain books, they also have regulars who come with the intent to buy books. By offering a wider variety of items that appeal to the interests of their customer base, RBG has done what many gift shops do not do and that is appeal to a regular stream of locals. By doing so, they have been able to increase their store’s traffic on a day-to-day basis while ultimately increasing store sales.

Quote

“Book Depot offers us a great selection of books at great prices, which we pass on to our customers. This has made us a destination for many people in our area. Books have become one of the top-selling categories in our gift shop.”

Linda Palichuk, Gift Shop Manager – Royal Botanical Gardens