More and more brick-and-mortar bookstores are exploring diversification and becoming diverse spaces for cultural experiences.
 

 

Traditional brick-and-mortar bookstores in China have fallen on hard times financially for a number of reasons.

Most local bookstores are relatively small enterprises, with low profit margins. If they don’t order books directly from publishing houses and instead purchase them from regional wholesalers, then that profit margin is around 10 percent per book, without factoring in other overheads.

In general, the pricing of books in China is quite low.

Also, high labor and rent costs are a burden for most privately operated bookstores across the country. During the height of the real estate bubble, many brick-and-mortar bookstores went bankrupt. Some local bookstores have been driven out of commercial areas by urban redevelopment and planning requirements, which makes them lose many readers.

In addition, the intense competition brought about by online booksellers means that brick-and-mortar bookstores are facing a precarious financial situation.

The situation faced by bookstores has been dire for a long time, but those that have succeeded are the ones with a passion for culture.
 

Recently, financial support from the authorities has boosted the development of physical bookstores, but these funds are not sufficient to solve the problem. Bookstores must explore more innovative development strategies.
 

Some bookstores have embraced better service as a strategy. They have extended their service hours, broadened the range of services they offer and worked to improve customer service. The emergence of reading couches, free WiFi, mobile phone charging, recreational areas for children and small music performances in these bookstores can attract more readers.
 

Some bookstores make use of external forces. They open their chain stores where commercial centers already exist. Real estate agents can sometimes be persuaded to provide rental discounts, since bookstores are important cultural facilities for commercial centers. Some of them cooperate with local libraries, which can help their branding.
 

Many bookstores adopt diverse business operations. Selling tea and coffee to readers has been a successful strategy and they even try to combine book selling with local cultural products. For instance, Librairie Avant-grade, a privately operated academic bookstore in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, makes more money on innovative cultural products than it does selling books. Also, their business model has broken the boundaries of online and offline book selling. All positive strategies that promote book sales are worth examining.