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We are excited to be launching a newsletter dedicated to sharing news from the EIBF world and the wider bookselling industry. Welcome to EIBF Insights.
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How to improve the sustainability of the book sector
Sustainability initiatives are crucial for long term development of the book sector. Many actors across the book chain are implementing various activities to improve their environmental impact, but often, these activities don’t get the attention they deserve.
We are starting this year by spotlighting the sustainable agenda and various initiatives businesses across the book industry, and elsewhere, are doing to further the green agenda. Get involved and share your tips with us!
Want to know more? Don’t miss our full sustainability guide.
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Discover our policy priorities for 2021
To ensure the continuous and sustainable development of the bookselling sector, we take a proactive approach by engaging with political developments within the cultural and creative sector that affect businesses and retailers, whether they operate offline or online. Curious to know where we expect big developments this year?
We highlight some of our policy priorities for 2021, from the Digital Markets Act proposal and the approval of the Creative Europe Programme, to the submission of national recovery and resilience plans and the implementation of a Europe-wide digital tax. Take a look.
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Spotlighting the book market trends of 2020
In a year dominated by unexpected closures, the unprecedented rise of online shopping, and cautious customer behaviour, the book market sales were equally unpredictable. We take a look at statistics reported from various countries:
- More than 200 million print books were sold in the United Kingdom last year, with sales up by 5% compared with 2019. In addition, the number of independent bookshops rose for the fourth consecutive year, with 52 new indie bookshops opening.
- French booksellers managed to almost match the sale numbers from 2019, despite months of lockdown. The final numbers show sales declining by 3% compared with the previous year. The relatively good numbers are contributed to a substantial spike in book sales in June (+32%) and in December (+35%).
- On 14 December 2020, days before a second lockdown, German bookshops experienced the highest turnover. However, the book market was still down by over 2% in sales last year.
- In the United States, online customers grew exponentially, and increased their buying by 261%, while online traffic increased by 101%, compared with the previous year. Unit sales of print books also rose by over 8%.
- In Ireland, the pandemic contributed to a record year for booksellers, despite shops being closed for months. The market saw sales increase by €14 million in revenues compared to 2019.
- Sales of books also increased in Australia, with 7.8% growth in 2020, totalling $1.25 billion for the year and up from $1.14 in the year before.
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Support your local bookstore: digital campaigns to follow
Many national booksellers associations, and individual booksellers themselves, are introducing various digital campaigns to bring customers' attention to local bookshops – be it to support local businesses during tough lockdown restrictions, get them involved in digital events, or reacquaint them with books before new gift-giving opportunities.
We’re spotlighting two that caught our attention:
Noticed another bookshop-supporting campaign? Tag our twitter account @Booksellers_Fed to let us know!
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Register for upcoming EIBF webinars
We’re excited to announce a new series of webinars, bringing together the bookselling community to discuss opportunities and challenges of our industry.
- We’re kicking off the series on 18 March, when we will look more closely at the rise of audiobook market,
- followed by an event on 28 April, focusing on bookselling trends during pandemic times.
- Our third event in May will explore social media planning for booksellers.
More information will follow closer to the time, but you can already register for the events here.
Please note that the webinars are open to EIBF members and their members (through Booksellers Associations in respective countries).
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