Imagine you're GameStop. You've been slowly losing your market in a rough and changing world when, all of a sudden, you get an unimaginable windfall of good will and stock value. You have the spotlight and the resources to do something amazing. Here are some ideas for you to take advantage of it all.
Solve the Gen9 Console availability crisis.
That's right. How can you sell games when no one has the hardware to play them? Scalpers have stolen as much as 15% of the console supply according to some reports, and literally none of your competitors give a shit because they're still making money in the process.
You you as GameStop have massive and reputable shipping lines already established. You have direct contacts with Sony and Microsoft and their manufacturers. You have an already existing massive database of card-carrying members that you can leverage to ensure these consoles actually get into the hands of gamers instead of opportunists. This immediately makes you more desirable than even WALMART because, after all, Sony and Microsoft aren't making much money on the hardware itself, and you can guarantee the stock will be distributed to customers who will go on to pay for games and subscriptions.
When the stock is still low, you limit sales to just your PowerUp members, x-amount per payment method. Because your stores are distributed around the nation, you can manage waiting lists more efficiently than Sony's Direct program. Because you know where the actual demand is, you can distribute the stock quickly to areas that actually stand to buy and use the consoles.
It's a win-win for you and the gaming companies, and as an added bonus the scalpers get stuck holding the bag. The scalpers then sell their consoles back to you at a discount, which you can sell as legitimately brand new and unsealed.
Get into the PC market.
Good news, you're already doing this. You can even use your powers detailed in the last section to help get RTX cards to gamers instead of bitcoin miners. However, the real draw here is to partner with places like PCPartPicker to keep stock of parts for DIY PC builds. Considering Best Buy got out of this market years ago, and many places still have no access to a Fry's Electronics, you'd be tapping into the most excitable gaming sector with the deepest pockets, and it would shore up the times between major console releases as PC inevitably and always outpaces the market mid-cycle.
Community: Partner with local game developers.
Take it from me, we NEVER have enough play testers. We've actually gone and asked our local GameStop if they'd let us demo upcoming games there, but the local managers always have their hands tied. Here's the thing, though, game dev studios are everywhere now. If you interface with us, you will always have something new and exciting, and REGIONAL, to share with your customers. Meeting game developers, even small-timers like us, is a really cool thing for a lot of gamers. Then, if you manage to be near one of the AAAs, you'd have customers lining up out the door to try their latest tests, and each one of those customers is a potential sales vector.
This also opens opportunities for education in our industry. I would personally hold weekly programming and art workshops at your stores to teach future devs how the sausage is made. Better yet, you have literally all of the required reading sitting right there on your shelves. Hey kid, now that you know about how to build progression systems, you should really buy that used copy of whateverthehell on the shelf there and study it. BOOM. More sales.
Community: Event days.
There's some new Pokemon you have to trade for. There's a new Call of Duty multiplayer map. Even the smallest GameStops tend to have room for 3-4 demo stations where people can gather to get their hands on the cool new thing you want them to buy. This would be a million times more effective than those cringe-inducing "new release" videos you torment your employees with on loop. Besides, there is no greater marketing than watching someone else trying a game right in front of you.
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