Re-invent it onto a gaming community center if sorts. Host events , sell coffee/beer etc. Let people rent or try out games. Basically do anything that you can't do online, because they will die slowly if they don't have something unique to offer :p
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You’re now president/CEO of GameStop. What do you do??
- Thread starter pixelpatron
- Start date
Seriously, I have a hard time believing people thinking that their sales strategies are doing anything but helping boost revenue, or that the small percentage of hardcore gamers who get angry over the policies is worth catering to compared to the mass market.
This is actually genius.
Start some type of Used Game Rental service, probably would be a strain on their infrastructure though. But I think they kind of have this already in a way? Can't you return any used game within a week if you don't enjoy it?
Sears died because their libertarian CEO ran it into the ground with his idiotic business decisions.
1. Offer brand new Day One games at a $5 discount off retail price to compete with Amazon and give people a reason to buy new games from you
2. Stop putting stickers on Used boxes that are not easily removable.
3. Stop gutting the boxes of Used copies and putting your gamestop brand cover on it
4. Stop asking for insurance on Used games at check out
5. Stop asking for pre orders
6. More demo stations
7. More games for older systems at retail locations
8. Give a reasonable discount on brand new Used games instead of 5 bucks off.
9. Insist that new hires are friendly and unbiased to customers.
In other words, give us a reason to shop at gamestop besides its just local and convenient. Give us a reason to not shop online.
2. Stop putting stickers on Used boxes that are not easily removable.
3. Stop gutting the boxes of Used copies and putting your gamestop brand cover on it
4. Stop asking for insurance on Used games at check out
5. Stop asking for pre orders
6. More demo stations
7. More games for older systems at retail locations
8. Give a reasonable discount on brand new Used games instead of 5 bucks off.
9. Insist that new hires are friendly and unbiased to customers.
In other words, give us a reason to shop at gamestop besides its just local and convenient. Give us a reason to not shop online.
Id apologize to gamers everywhere for the way they were treated and make it known that employees were treated like crap and completely own up to our faults and even broadcast examples on twitch etc. Major layoffs would have to happen as the company is saturated everywhere, but id make it known that the stores and employees that remain will be paid more and staffed accordingly with a complete attitude change towards getting people what they want instead of trying to get them to buy what they dont need. I would have to show that we actually care about the state of gaming and not just how to make money in the current state of gaming...... Also show no mercy to everyone involved with Gamestop.com lol
This is probably the best answer in the thread.
Expand "Gamestop" to include card based games (magic, etc), print comics and graphic novels, and other similar gaming/comic based merchandise alongside of console games.
that solves the problem both industries are having. Gamestop needs more to sell that isn't just videogames, and comics need an outlet to be sold in that has more reach than the local comic shop.
The consolidation, I think, would just hasten the end. You see these smaller stores in cities due to foot traffic and high rents. If you consolidate a bunch of stores into larger spaces, rents would increase so you may end up having to move the stores into locations that depend on cars to get around. In that case, I might as well just go to a big box store like walmart or bestbuy.
-cut prices of used games, making them more attractive.
-offer digital codes in store for digital only games, including PC games.
-expand more into other markets like peripherals.
-revamp business practices so they aren't so predatory while making the company more appealing for employees. Taking a pay cut while increasing minimum salary of store employees would be a good first step.
I would also incorporate abellwillring's idea below as I think it's great and would allow them to diversify their sources of revenue.
-offer digital codes in store for digital only games, including PC games.
-expand more into other markets like peripherals.
-revamp business practices so they aren't so predatory while making the company more appealing for employees. Taking a pay cut while increasing minimum salary of store employees would be a good first step.
I would also incorporate abellwillring's idea below as I think it's great and would allow them to diversify their sources of revenue.
First, let's start with a bunch of really dumb ideas that won't move the needle at all:
Approximately 0 percent of those ideas would boost revenue for Gamestop. None are nearly compelling enough to "give us a reason to not shop online," so please, just stop.
The number one thing Gamestop needs to do in order to continue to be a going concern is something they've already been slowly starting to do over the last 3-4 years, which is get out of the business of actually selling games and move towards selling licensed merchandise.
Fortunately the management of Gamestop was prescient enough to hedge the death of physical copy games by buying ThinkGeek back in 2013. I would lean even further into that; as you can see by a lot of the bitter barbs being thrown at Gamestop in this thread, the Gamestop brand is a bit tarnished, both by consumers personal experiences in the stores and because of the fact that the brand itself is a kind of figurehead for the increasingly-antiquated concept of "going to a store to buy a video game."
Thus, I would rebrand the entire line of retail stores to "ThinkGeek" stores, your one stop shop for video game, comic, and film licensed goods and apparel, many items of which you can only find there thanks to ThinkGeek's extensive line of OEM goods that they've been building up since their inception. You could also throw in some other wrinkles in there; perhaps there's a rack of comic books, and also a (small) selection of the latest and greatest video games.
This would probably need to include a lot of store closures still, unfortunately. Would it be enough to keep Gamestop solvent for 10+ years? No idea, but it would be a start.
I've seen some people float the idea of making Gamestop stores more "community focused" where people can come to play arcade games, participate in tournaments, play board games, eat food at a cafe, etc. While this is a compelling idea it really doesn't work when you look at Gamestop's real estate portfolio: the average Gamestop is around 1500 square feet, which while you could use as a gathering space, is far smaller than your average board gaming place (4000 sq feet) or barcade (2500 sq ft - 5000 sq feet). Not to mention the barcade and board gaming scenes are already being served by dedicated businesses in most major metros.
Grow up.
Approximately 0 percent of those ideas would boost revenue for Gamestop. None are nearly compelling enough to "give us a reason to not shop online," so please, just stop.
The number one thing Gamestop needs to do in order to continue to be a going concern is something they've already been slowly starting to do over the last 3-4 years, which is get out of the business of actually selling games and move towards selling licensed merchandise.
Fortunately the management of Gamestop was prescient enough to hedge the death of physical copy games by buying ThinkGeek back in 2013. I would lean even further into that; as you can see by a lot of the bitter barbs being thrown at Gamestop in this thread, the Gamestop brand is a bit tarnished, both by consumers personal experiences in the stores and because of the fact that the brand itself is a kind of figurehead for the increasingly-antiquated concept of "going to a store to buy a video game."
Thus, I would rebrand the entire line of retail stores to "ThinkGeek" stores, your one stop shop for video game, comic, and film licensed goods and apparel, many items of which you can only find there thanks to ThinkGeek's extensive line of OEM goods that they've been building up since their inception. You could also throw in some other wrinkles in there; perhaps there's a rack of comic books, and also a (small) selection of the latest and greatest video games.
This would probably need to include a lot of store closures still, unfortunately. Would it be enough to keep Gamestop solvent for 10+ years? No idea, but it would be a start.
I've seen some people float the idea of making Gamestop stores more "community focused" where people can come to play arcade games, participate in tournaments, play board games, eat food at a cafe, etc. While this is a compelling idea it really doesn't work when you look at Gamestop's real estate portfolio: the average Gamestop is around 1500 square feet, which while you could use as a gathering space, is far smaller than your average board gaming place (4000 sq feet) or barcade (2500 sq ft - 5000 sq feet). Not to mention the barcade and board gaming scenes are already being served by dedicated businesses in most major metros.
Grow up.
Begin placing a small selection of games into Thinkgeek brick & mortar stores for the sake of synergy
Leverage Kongregate into a solid launcher/distro platform. Try to spotlight and emphasize games not doing promo on other stores; offer better revenue terms to titles which comarket with the service instead of trying to sign titles as exclusives a la epic
At least two employees in every store all the time. Nobody should be closing alone.
Pay competitive wages.
Stay closed on Thanksgiving.
Push preowned hardware harder again. They have a pretty solid refurbishing center and price points on hardware are not going down like they used to. This should be a key point for them especially as new Sony & MS hardware approaches, as trades allow them to grab a greater share of initial purchases of new hardware.
Work with MS (& anyone who does something similar) to offer promotions to bring Game Pass (or similar future services) subscribers into the store. Maybe deals on merchandise from titles recently added to the lineup, or on titles leaving the selection?
Remember that they are healthier than their stock price seems to indicate - iirc they don't carry a debt and the b&m business makes money.
EDIT: one more: work closer with smaller publishers. No way should GS be losing any physical titles as exclusives, especially stuff like Fangamer and Limited Run titles.
Leverage Kongregate into a solid launcher/distro platform. Try to spotlight and emphasize games not doing promo on other stores; offer better revenue terms to titles which comarket with the service instead of trying to sign titles as exclusives a la epic
At least two employees in every store all the time. Nobody should be closing alone.
Pay competitive wages.
Stay closed on Thanksgiving.
Push preowned hardware harder again. They have a pretty solid refurbishing center and price points on hardware are not going down like they used to. This should be a key point for them especially as new Sony & MS hardware approaches, as trades allow them to grab a greater share of initial purchases of new hardware.
Work with MS (& anyone who does something similar) to offer promotions to bring Game Pass (or similar future services) subscribers into the store. Maybe deals on merchandise from titles recently added to the lineup, or on titles leaving the selection?
Remember that they are healthier than their stock price seems to indicate - iirc they don't carry a debt and the b&m business makes money.
EDIT: one more: work closer with smaller publishers. No way should GS be losing any physical titles as exclusives, especially stuff like Fangamer and Limited Run titles.
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Sit down with a trusted team of executives and try a comprehensive top to bottom company culture change. No more toxic work place policies at any level that makes talent leave. I would then try and cut a few of the programs GameStop runs. It has a lot of fluff that employees have to deal with. So getting rid of that and making it so that employees can focus on selling a few core items might help the ground game. Then I would look at their customer programs and consider adding a rental service. Maybe 120+ a year for game rentals. After that I hope the toxic culture cleanse worked and hope some talent rises up to help improve the company further.
Once all that fails I start sending out my resume to other huge companies. Cause I'm a CEO and no matter how bad I do. Companies would much rather a bad CEO take over then an unknown one.
Once all that fails I start sending out my resume to other huge companies. Cause I'm a CEO and no matter how bad I do. Companies would much rather a bad CEO take over then an unknown one.
Aside from all the obvious stuff like fix the shitty website and awful sales tactics:
Launch a subscription direct to consumer box that mixes toys, accessories and used games. Land exclusive contracts and take some massive losses to get people to buy in early and spread solid word of mouth.
Launch a subscription direct to consumer box that mixes toys, accessories and used games. Land exclusive contracts and take some massive losses to get people to buy in early and spread solid word of mouth.
Take on a bunch of bad debt to buy back stock to artificially boost my EPS and maximize my bonus compensation. Then bail out and leave someone else to clean up the mess.
Its the modern CEO way
Its the modern CEO way
Very few of those places work, especially not in the high-cost spaces Gamestops usually have.
Many of these ideas being tried, I've seen them tried by indie stores, all but one failed. The one that succeeded did so by forming a community, having very positive word of mouth, and lucking out in becoming a national shrine to a very old arcade game. This model won't last forever, but the owners are smart enough at business and good enough people that I think they'll do well. (3rd Strike players should know the place I'm talking about)
Gamestop execs clearly know they have a long term problem, they've tried to solve it (Thinkgeek, Impulse, trying to sell mobile phones) , they just haven't gotten that spark the way Best Buy did.
Assuming run/quit etc. aren't options, lol ...
I'd redesign the look of the stores and focus more on physical merchandise. I'd have local game tournaments at retail locations (though this might be tricky since most Gamestop locations are physically small).
There's probably not much they can do, that physical game market is really going down the toilet.
I'd redesign the look of the stores and focus more on physical merchandise. I'd have local game tournaments at retail locations (though this might be tricky since most Gamestop locations are physically small).
There's probably not much they can do, that physical game market is really going down the toilet.
- Consolidate and expand store space. The new space can be used for more products, and to host gaming nights
- Look at the esports market to sponsor small local groups for games with both buy in and free tourneys with prizes. This can bring in customers and create a niche base
- this can be expanded to host family nights and events for kids, while working with the game companies to make these happen.
- guarantee that a game will be available at your stores, on launch day, without a preorder. Do more midnight launches. Both of these things slowing down over the years has turned customers to other companies.
- Create a gamers club like pay subscription targeting online orders. Day 1 launch delivery guaranteed, exclusive discounts across the store, free shipping.
- work more with the big companies to produce more exclusive products for fans. Essentially take away business from Hot Topic and other stores by offering things that are actually decent and quality at a good price
- Expand to tabletop games slowly with a focus of online sales
- Rebrand to a less edgy style and more friendly and fun look. Games are fun, so should be going to the store. I should want to go there to get a legendary Pokemon, not feel forced to.
- With this in mind, proper training of employees to foster a more community and knowledge based business can help
- If this is successful look into the adult barcade business to expand into
- Look at the esports market to sponsor small local groups for games with both buy in and free tourneys with prizes. This can bring in customers and create a niche base
- this can be expanded to host family nights and events for kids, while working with the game companies to make these happen.
- guarantee that a game will be available at your stores, on launch day, without a preorder. Do more midnight launches. Both of these things slowing down over the years has turned customers to other companies.
- Create a gamers club like pay subscription targeting online orders. Day 1 launch delivery guaranteed, exclusive discounts across the store, free shipping.
- work more with the big companies to produce more exclusive products for fans. Essentially take away business from Hot Topic and other stores by offering things that are actually decent and quality at a good price
- Expand to tabletop games slowly with a focus of online sales
- Rebrand to a less edgy style and more friendly and fun look. Games are fun, so should be going to the store. I should want to go there to get a legendary Pokemon, not feel forced to.
- With this in mind, proper training of employees to foster a more community and knowledge based business can help
- If this is successful look into the adult barcade business to expand into
Propose the biggest dividend and ceo compensation package in the history of gamestop, tell the shareholders we are winning bigly, digital distributors wont laughing at us for long and run.
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Rebrand.
-Cut out the pre-order push and other bullshit that employees have to deal with.
-Offer better trades.
-Don't throw away game cases/boxes/manuals
and
STOP FUCKING OPENING GAMES AND SELLING THEM AS NEW.
-Cut out the pre-order push and other bullshit that employees have to deal with.
-Offer better trades.
-Don't throw away game cases/boxes/manuals
and
STOP FUCKING OPENING GAMES AND SELLING THEM AS NEW.
Meet with shareholders, cut our losses and develop a plan to remain in business given the current market.
Re-align staff to match the aforementioned plan and focus on market research. Use results from market research to really cement the company's relevance in the market.
Have a bigger presence online and make the experience of transacting with us very simple and clear.
Attend gaming events and participate in community activities.
Revamp the entire used games/systems policy and implement stricter controls
Review all other major policies but instead of an overhaul, streamline them to meet the demands of the current market.
Rebrand. Give the company a fresh new look.
Edit: I know nothing about running a company. This is all very high level wishful thinking on my part. I guess the point is, I would make it work :) At least, I would attempt to make it work.
Re-align staff to match the aforementioned plan and focus on market research. Use results from market research to really cement the company's relevance in the market.
Have a bigger presence online and make the experience of transacting with us very simple and clear.
Attend gaming events and participate in community activities.
Revamp the entire used games/systems policy and implement stricter controls
Review all other major policies but instead of an overhaul, streamline them to meet the demands of the current market.
Rebrand. Give the company a fresh new look.
Edit: I know nothing about running a company. This is all very high level wishful thinking on my part. I guess the point is, I would make it work :) At least, I would attempt to make it work.
BBY corporate respects their store-level talent in a way that GS has not in a very long time. The field is profitable; the answers have to come at least in part from the people driving that but for that to happen they have to start asking questions and actually take action based on that feedback. I am not sure they have people in place who can do that, but cleaning up the field management level in that regard (VPs of stores through DMs) needs to be a priority for whoever is their next permanent CEO.
They bought and owned a streaming tech company in the late 2000s, Spawn Labs. They never shipped a product under GS ownership and were quietly scuttled. I don't know that they have anything to offer the giants trying to build this tech out now (MS, Google, etc)
They experimented with this too, actually even doing a line of really cool steelbook releases for a bunch of indies on PC via their GameTrust label.
Honestly, atleast as someone living in Sweden who frankly feels like they do fairly OK in terms of customer care / policies (atleast my local gamestop) a webshop or, you know, a website that works in any way, shape or form possible. Wouldn't mind ordering stuff from them over sites like Amazon, Cdon or Webhallen.
If you consider improving customer experience and how they treat in store product as "dumb ideas that won't move the needle" then it is that type of corporate-think, revenue only mindset that is driving Gamestop into the ground. All of your ideas are moving away from the one thing Gamestop should be doing. Selling games and doing that well.
That is not what is driving GS into the ground. The rise of digital and more competition is. That is not to say that GS should not improve consumer experience, see my original post, but that alone won't stave off the bleeding short term. GS as we know it today, or more specifically over the last two decades, has no chance of existing 10 years from now. They will continue losing revenue and market share which will hurt their standing in business negotiations. They will become more of a boutique business catering to different niche groups. At that point most of the suggestions in this thread will be spot on.
You need to find a way to get people in the door by offering a service they can't find elsewhere. I would try to accomplish this three ways:
- Beef up the publishing arm (seen previously with that one submarine Metroidvania they published) by partnering with indies to offer physical copies of their games. The demand is clearly there for physical copies of games like Hollow Knight.
- Offer importing services for international or hard to find games. Not everybody cares about this but some people would like a brick and mortar store that could get them a copy of something obscure and deal with the import hassle.
- Start a rental service that would allow people to take a game home for a week. This is a gap in the market that is somewhat addressed by Redbox, but GameStop has a much bigger selection.
Compete head-on with Steam.
Compete head-on with Amazon.
Compete head-on with Best Buy.
Compete.
They are not competing with anyone but time.
Compete head-on with Amazon.
Compete head-on with Best Buy.
Compete.
They are not competing with anyone but time.
Try to find ways to get stores into bigger spots and increase the focus on tabletop games and card games. Then start turning the store into a place that people come to play tabletop and video games, like host Friday Night Magic and Smash Bros tourneys. Maybe let people rent table space for open play of games and bring in light food and drink options since board game cafes are getting more and more popular. I'd probably run the company into the ground by doing that but I'd enjoy going into those stores while they were around.
That's a pretty good idea. Daily rental fee, and you own and keep the game if you keep it long enough to be charged the full price of the used game at the time of rental (last day is just remaining balance). Pretty much how Redbox does it (I think) for people who don't return games/movies.
If you want to cling to your antiquated retail models that's fine. It's reckless to suggest others should and likely why you don't own a business. No amount of "wow they've really improved how cool the employees at the stores are" sentiment is going to stem the tide of consumers moving to digital purchases of games. Wake up.
You already got dunked on by Kill3r7 for this but I'll reply as well: If you want to cling to your antiquated retail models that's fine. It's reckless to suggest others should and likely why you don't own a business. No amount of customer experience improvement or sentiment drivers are going to stem the macro trend tide of consumers moving to digital purchases of games. Please realize this.
