German online retailers gain market share in 2015; marginal drop in overall sales

In Germany, book trade association Börsenverein has released figures on the German book market’s 2015 performance, reporting a marginal drop in overall sales by 1.4% to €9.2bn (A$14.0bn), reports the Bookseller. Physical bookstores remained the biggest sales channel with 48.2% of market share, down from 49.2% in 2014, and online retailing rose to 17.4% from its share of 16.2% in 2014. Online sales grew 6% to €1.6bn (A$24.4bn), which was not enough to offset the 3.4% decline in bricks-and-mortar bookstore sales of €4.43bn (A$6.76bn). Ebook sales showed growth in both value (4.7%) and volume (9%), and took 4.5% of the market. On the publishing side, German publishers released more titles in 2015 (76,547) than in the preceding year (73,863) although the number of translated titles dropped 5% to 9,454, led by literary fiction titles, which were down 7.6% to 5,400 titles. A 16.7% rise in the number of German titles sold internationally (7,521) was partially due to increased business with China (up 54% on 2014), with 574 titles sold into English-speaking markets, an increase of 28% from 450 titles in 2014. Börsenverein managing director Alexander Skipis said the industry was taking a ‘huge step forward’ in its embrace of ‘multi-channel strategies’ and ‘culture of innovations’. ‘Publishers and booksellers have proven their ability to make the best of structural changes, find new ways and invest wisely,’ said Skipis.

Category: International news