With its Q1 sales up 25%, indie retailer Rough Trade is on something of a roll at the moment. Now it’s planning a new initiative to add a digital element to music sales in its stores. “Very soon, we’ll also be rolling-out our Rough Trade Card, which allows customers of our London stores to automatically enjoy download copies of the physical items they purchase in-store,” Rough Trade’s co-owner and co-president Stephen Godfroy tells Billboard. “Our tills marry the offline purchases with the customers online account, creating a seamless multi-format, multi-channel offer. It’s a world-first, developed by us, something we expect to prove very popular when we introduce into the US later in the year.” Digital remains a “minimal” proportion of Rough Trade’s revenues compared to vinyl and CD. “There is no ‘all conquering’ format, behaviour, offer – it’s complementing and co-existing that matters,” says Godfroy.
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