Canadian Retailer - Summer 2013 - 31

WHERE DID THEY BUY THEM?

WHAT DID THEY PAY?
57%

Bookstores

HARDCOVER:

$19.49

37%
21%

Non-book
Retailers

Online

34%

26%

OF ALL PURC
HASE
WERE IMPULS S
E
BUYS

16%

PAPERBACK:

$12.59
E-BOOK:

$6.97

25%
2009*

2012

*2010 CPC Book Buyer Study

books is changing. The report indicates that
print sales are shifting to non-traditional book
retailers, like grocery stores and online stores,
and away from independent bookstores.
Online bookstores are picking up a lot of the
sales bleeding from independents. But even
though online stores are ascendant, the survey
shows that most book buyers discover books
in a physical store.
“Online is important but the in-store experience is still the key way to discover new
books,” says Genner.
Chris Szego is a retailer of science fiction
and fantasy literature in Toronto and sits as a
member of BookNet Canada’s Board of Directors. She says the fine-grain data about readers
of the genres she sells is “invaluable.”
“The consumer report is an accurate picture
of what is going on, not what we hope is going
on or what we want to go on,” she says “If I can
see an overall trend in non-fiction, I can change
the way I buy non-fiction. It can provide ideas
for long-term strategies and input in how to adjust our short-term efforts.”
Other “goings on” within the industry that
might be useful for booksellers to understand are
also highlighted in the Booknet report, including:
• Of all book purchases in 2012, 50 per cent
were paperback. Hardcover books comprised 24 per cent and ebooks accounted for
a total of 15 per cent of all book purchases.
• Non-book retailers were responsible for the
sale of 34 per cent of all book purchases in
2012. Traditional bookstores edged out the
non-book retailers by selling 37 per cent of
the total purchases. 25 per cent of all books
sold were done so online.

The average price paid on
all formats was $12.89.

• Of all the books sold online, 19 per cent are
print books.
• 55 per cent of all respondents who participated in the Booknet report said that they
rarely or never compare book prices between stores, suggesting that the trend of
showrooming may not be such a prevalent
occurrence within the bookselling sector.
• Readers of e-books indicated that they will
continue to consume book content on a number of different devices…but Kobo is still the
favourite. 25.2 per cent of e-readers plan to
read on their Kobo, 14 per cent on their iPad,
and 18.4 per cent on their Kindle.
The insights offered in Booknet’s The Canadian Book Consumer 2012: Annual Report offer booksellers of all sizes the opportunity to
understand their consumer on a much deeper
level than ever before. Booksellers can now
combine these insights with their already intimate customer relationships to refine and inform
their consumers' decision-making process.
In addition, Booknet also recently released
The Canadian Book Market 2012 report. In it are
equally insightful pieces of research and statistics specific, of course, to the market rather than
the consumer. The report is a comprehensive
guide to the Canadian print market, featuring
research and statistics that cover off sales by
subject (of which there are 50), sales by quarter,
quarterly sales by format, and more.
For more information about Booknet, or to
download a full version of The Canadian Book
Consumer 2012: Annual Report, visit
www.booknetcanada.ca.

www.retailcouncil.org/cdnretailer | summer 2013 | canadian retailer |

http://www.booknetcanada.ca http://www.retailcouncil.org/cdnretailer

Canadian Retailer - Summer 2013

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