Sales up 4% in 2016 for UK bricks-and-mortar bookstores

UK bricks-and-mortar booksellers saw a 4% increase in book sales volume in 2016 while online sales held steady, according to Nielsen’s Books and Consumer survey reported in the Bookseller.

Ebook sales were less buoyant, recording a 4% drop in volume, which accounted for online retailers’ flatlining sales. Overall, online retailers’ share of the print book market grew by 1% to 32%.

Both in-store and online purchases were up in value, with bricks-and-mortar book sales up 7% to £1.13bn (A$1.82bn) and online sales up 5% to £1.17bn (A$1.89bn).

The fastest growing categories were nonfiction (+5%), including self-help, humour, cookery and history; and children’s print books (+3%); while biographies, popular fiction and literary fiction saw a decline in sales.

Nielsen Book’s UK research director Steve Bohme said it was ‘refreshing to see how books generally, and print books in particular, are still appealing to younger consumers, both male and female, despite so many other forms of entertainment and information competing for their attention’. ‘This year we’ve seen a range of bestsellers from a diverse selection of genres come to the fore—from Harry Potter and the Cursed Child to Ladybird Books for Adults and Enid Blyton parodies and social media sensation Joe Wicks’ healthy cookbooks—and these key titles and series have contributed heavily towards this upward trajectory,’ said.

Category: International news