Pocketshop

Books books books and more books

Swedish book retailers Pocketshop wanted to translate the authentic, human experience of browsing for books in a physical bookstore to the digital world. With this as our challenge we devised web, mobile and social media solutions.

Building upon their existing identity and physical form we literally built a digital bookstore inclusive of real shelves, recommendations and even review notes. Categories such as ‘Skulle bli en grym film’

and ‘Svårsålt’ placed customer browsing at its very heart. In addition we made the whole experience a little more social by adding ‘Pocketsnack’ to facilitate conversation around books. Our ‘Pocketsnack’ function also provided a gifting service for those lovely, generous users that want to gift books to friends.

In our minds the only thing missing from the physical world is that ‘authentic’ musty bookstore odour!

Books, books, books and more books

Whether it’s a Dickens classic, Tolstoy, the complete works of Shakespeare, adventure in a galaxy far, far away, one of Jamie’s pukka recipes, self-help, teach yourself, D.I.Y, Obama’s Story, quantum physics or perhaps something of an altogether more ‘discreet’ nature we wanted to ensure Pocketshop.se visitors find exactly what they want with ease. In addition we also wanted them to explore more books and enjoy doing so. With this in mind we took it upon ourselves to redefine traditional book categories. No more humble Fiction and Non-fiction, instead a more playful approach – Introducing ‘Hard To Sell’, ‘Should Have Been a Movie’, ‘Bricks’ and ‘Future Classics’ to name just a few.

Putting the browse into browser

From the offset our goal was to recreate that authentic bookshop experience at every opportunity. We wanted Pocketshop visitors to experience more than just a convenient purchase, we wanted them to loiter, we wanted them to casually stop by for inspiration or even just to take shelter from the rain.

With this in mind we asked ourselves, what makes a bookstore? Our answer: the smell of new books and shelves, lots of shelves. To succeed in our quest it was clear we should focus our attention on the details. Details that add to an authentic experience, details like real bookshelf shadow and 4 individual layers of reflection applied to each and every book!

Fancy a Pocket Snack?

Although a ‘Pocket Snack’ may sound suspiciously like a tasty little treat you keep in your pocket for that mid-afternoon sugar crash, it’s not. In fact it’s a unique Pocketshop social reviewing service, a sort of online book club. The function: to let visitors create and review comment on any book at any time. With added facebook integration open debate and conversation is just a click away – we like to think of it as social bookworking.