Online Book Sales & Prices Still Growing in 2022
Online book sales more than doubled in the beginning of 2022 compared to the same period last year, market participants say.
In addition to the traditionally popular fiction and children’s books, there is a growing interest in books on psychology and personal growth.
Internet sales are today the most dynamically developing channel of the printed retail book market in the USA. The majority of large and medium-sized publishers have online sales of printed books in the range of 10 to 30 percent of the sales volume. And they clarified that the Internet channel only in 2014 showed a negative value for the dynamics of copy sales, which was largely due to a serious increase (plus 21 percent) in the average price of a printed book. Since 2015, the situation has stabilized: book sales have been growing both in monetary and physical terms. It should be noted that in 2018 and 2019, the turnover of online stores increased mainly due to the growth of copy sales against the background of a decrease in the average price.
In the Better World Books online store, over the first half of 2021, shoppers purchased 2.1 million books, up 168 percent over the same period last year. The sales growth driver was children’s, fiction and educational literature. In the online store ThriftBooks, book turnover increased by 23 percent. Here the tendency is as follows: in each order, at least 3-4 books are often bought for the whole family at once. The information field significantly affects book sales: a surge in demand is always observed in connection with movie premieres and high-profile events. The Song of Ice and Fire series has grown 2.5 times compared to the 2019 average.
Book prices in the USA could rise sharply
This year, books in the USA may rise in price by 20%. The reason for the expected rise in prices in the shortage of offset paper, which the publishers faced in February.
The thing is that many readers in the USA already have to take payday loans to purchase books. According to statistics, 14 of consumers took out payday loans Grants Pass to afford the purchase of expensive school books. Payday loans are the most demanded product today since almost every person who is at least 18 is eligible for such loans. Loan amounts usually do not exceed $1,000 and in some cases reach $2,500. The entire process is purely online and involves no paperwork. Americans often apply for a payday loan via the Internet. Borrower eligibility requirements are easy-to-meet. To get accepted for a $100-$1,000, you should be a US citizen or permanent resident and have and a stable income. Money is transferred to the borrower’s bank account the same day you apply (often immediately). To get basic information about payday loans, you can use popular online portals like https://www.lakevieworegon.org/. This portal helps users check out lenders’ ratings and read testimonials posted by real borrowers.
It is assumed that the peak of the deficit will occur at the beginning of summer. Some book publishers have already had to postpone the release of a number of books due to lack of paper.
Along with publishers, manufacturers of goods that require paper or cardboard packaging suffer from a shortage. Market participants call the situation unprecedented.
At the beginning of this year, imports of paper and cardboard products in the USA decreased compared to last year’s indicator by 14.5% in physical terms and by 8% in monetary terms. Domestic manufacturers attribute the paper shortage to a sharp increase in demand for it and a shortage of components for production.
What books do people buy most?
- Children’s books – 32.2%
- Fiction – 22.1%
- Educational books for schools – 22.1%
- Professional literature – 11.2%
- Applied literature – 8.7%
- Other books – 2%
Readers also willingly resell books they have read on the Internet. Moreover, they are often ready to significantly reduce the cost.
Category: General
Tags: books, finance, loans, online service