With books currently seeing record sales, and the opening of new book stores on the rise, Lewis Dawson, managing director of Bookspeed, highlights the important role books can play in a retail environment.
“Despite technology’s ability to find new ways for us to consume seemingly unlimited quantities of content, the data says that people still love to turn the page on a physical book.
While, in recent times, the digital revolution has arguably produced the book’s biggest threat to survival, it has turned out to be its greatest ally. Movements created by social media platforms, such as TikTok, notably BookTok, have boosted sales, inspiring a new generation of young adults to buy books.
Figures from Nielson BookScan revealed 2020 and 2021 to be bumper years for physical book sales. While these sales may have been buoyed by pandemic-driven behaviour change, Neilson BookScan’s data shows that the first half of 2022 maintained strong levels of book sales, despite the challenging economic climate. The Booksellers’ Association recorded the most new bookshops opening in the UK and Ireland for 10 years.
This reflects our experience at Bookspeed. Our trading data from the latter half of last year, suggests that the demand for books remains healthy. We curate and supply book ranges to many retailers who don’t exclusively sell books, operating in sectors that include gift, heritage, garden and lifestyle.
For those retailers, books offer a low-risk way to respond to the trends that can grow rapidly from social media. Publishers have become fast at responding to digital culture bringing out the right books at the right time to a high standard. At the point a trend hits critical mass, you can usually find a good selection of books on the market, offering consumers (and the retailers who sell them) a tangible and low-cost way to tap into the zeitgeist.
You might want to try wild swimming but committing to purchase the wet suit and the changing robe might seem like a step too far. Instead, a beautifully designed book on wild swimming can be just enough commitment to set off those dopamine receptors and feel part of something, without giving yourself up to the freezing temperatures of Loch Lomond on a frosty Sunday morning.
Curated book ranges around popular themes regularly draw a diverse set of retailers to our stand at the trade shows. Buyers get to see how books can be used both in-store and online to make an impactful shopping experience, sell a lifestyle, and ultimately boost sales.
In our experience, the most successful retailers are those who understand how to connect with their customers and make shopping an engaging and curated experience. Independent retailers excel at this. We work with many small independents, and for them, books are products that can work hard, bringing in customers, increasing in-store dwell time if they have physical stores, and contributing to visual merchandising.
Independent retailers rely on beautifully produced books that can inspire an impromptu purchase. Customers go to these shops because they want to be inspired. By picking up a book, they can take a part of that experience home with them.
We all find ourselves in straitened times, and retailers are having to work harder than ever to encourage consumers to spend. Books not only represent excellent value for money but are an enduring and sustainable product that can be enjoyed many times over.”
Bookspeed curates and supplies book ranges for retailers of all types and sizes. Visit www.bookspeed.com.
Top: A selection of wellness books offered by Bookspeed.
