European bookstores fight back against web rivals
Print Edition
European bookshops are taking a stand against Internet competition, boosted by a renaissance in independent stores and their enhanced know-how, despite still facing a difficult climate, industry players say.
“The findings are the same everywhere: it’s difficult,” Matthieu de Montchalin, president of the national trade union of French bookshops, said.
“France is one of the only countries in Europe, with Germany, succeeding in stemming the fall in the book market,” he added after participating in an event on Europe’s book sector at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
He said independent book stores were doing better than chain stores. “The independent shops are succeeding in keeping their customers and their sales are stable even if they are not going up,” he added.
The book market continues to drop off but Internet sales are increasing at a slower pace than in the past, allowing traditional book shops to limit damage.
France has 20,000 points of sale for books — and 2,500 bookshops — and the figure is not waning, according to the bookshops’ union.
Meanwhile in Germany, book store sales alone rose by 0.9 percent in January to September, compared to a year earlier.
That was slightly more than the 0.8-percent increase for all book distribution methods, according to the German Publishers and Booksellers Association.
Its president Gottfried Honnefelder said the figures showed a “trend,” with book stores projecting a “new self-confidence.”
He said a fixed price agreement on new books, used by Germany and 10 other European countries, must continue.
“If this is sacrificed during planned free trade negotiations between the EU Commission and the US ... it would be the death knell for the high street bookshop.” Honnefelder told the fair’s inauguration this week.
Meanwhile, French lawmakers last week unanimously approved a bill to restrict the likes of Amazon from combining free delivery with discounts of up to five percent on books - the maximum allowed under existing French legislation.
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