A new Bowker report on book sales from 2010-2012 documents a big shift in book buying away from chain stores towards online vendors, while other players hold their own.
Quote:
According to a new report from Bowker Market Research, U.S. chain bookstores lost 13 percent of their share of book purchases in 2012.
Overall, chain booksellers saw their share decrease from 32 percent to 19 percent of volume. At the same time, Bowker recorded some dramatic gains in U.S. eReatailers and digital book growth.
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The Bowker sample pdf lists 2010, 2011, and 2012 book sales for:
Chains 31.5 28.7 18.7
Indies 2.4 3.7 3.7
Warehouse clubs 3.9 3.2 3.3
Mass merchandisers 8.8 7.7 7.7
Supermarkets 2.0 1.6 1.5
Other outlets 14.7 14.6 15.2
Book clubs 11.5 5.5 6.1
Online 25.1 35.1 43.8
From:
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat...st-year_b67064
and:
http://www.bookconsumer.com/store/product.php?id
Bowker pdf download:
http://www.bookconsumer.com/store/in...e%20sample.pdf
Lots to chew on there, no?
A caveat: I understand Bowker tracks sales using ISBN numbers so they miss a lot of indie ebooks that don't bother to pay for them. Online share will thus be somewhat bigger, everything else smaller.
Of note:
- Borders had about a 17% share before the implosion. Some of it shifted to other chains but now it's effectively all migrated elsewhere.
- B&N had a 26-32% share (depending on source). They are down to 15% at most, possibly as low as 12%, depending on how much Borders traffic migrated to BAM and Half-price books.
- 2011 was murder on the book clubs. Which makes sense: avid readers were their core and ebooks draw heavily from that sector.
- The "other" channel has seen growth. Being a channel that traffics heavily in mass market paperbacks, the biggest loser in sales, they have held their own nicely.
- The Borders implosion really helped the indies. And they're holding on to their gains.
- Obviously, some--maybe most--of B&N's lost share has gone online to BN.COM and Nook, but a loss of 40-50% of store book sales is a big issue. Explains why BN.COM isn't part of Nook Media, too.
Food for thought...