Life-size toys and gaming consoles greet you now at the entrance of a Landmark bookstore, instead of Terry Prachet or Thomas Friedman. Books now jostle for space with toys and stationery at a Crossword store. Clearly, the business of bookstores is now going through a transformation.
The change in books retailers’ product mix reflects the need to boost non-book revenues at a time when margins in book sales is dropping.
Following market leader Tata Group-owned Landmark, Shoppers Stop’s Crossword and Apeejay-owned Oxford Bookstore are also veering towards increasing the proportion of non-books category at their stores.
A major factor leading to declining sales is the growing format of e-shopping, wherein sites offer products at a discount. Added to this, there is a pattern in the shift of high-margin books.
For instance, childrens’ books are more profitable than non-fiction or reference books. Indian authors are more popular than writers from abroad.
“It does benefit the company which offers a whole range of mix of products under one roof,” a spokesperson from Crossword said.
Experts say that the margin pressure from book publishers and distributors is increasing and it is important for companies to plan their merchandising to balance the best and top sellers with higher margins.
Harish Bijoor, CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc said that going forward, more bookstores would reduce their exposure to books.
?Books have started coming under pressure. More than books, music came under pressure. What we have done is expanded toys significantly and increased the area for a category for gaming,? Ashutosh Pandey, chief operating officer at Landmark said, admitting that several categories of books have lost their sheen with customers.
Landmark is almost doubling the space for toys and gaming consoles in the stores that are growing at about 35-40%, while Crossword has cut down on the space for movie and music categories.
Pandey reckons that although childrens’ books is growing at 30%, they have not quite made up for the losses incurred by reference books going out of circulation.
Odyssey stores, owned by Deccan Chronicle, has shut many of its stores across the country. The largest US book retailer, Barnes and Noble Inc., has come out with a range of e-readers and a tablet to keep itself afloat in such competitive times.
Former US book and music chain Borders Group Inc. shut shop last year after deteriorating sales for years.
?At present, we operate at a 72:28 ratio for books and non books and we have a time- based plan to move towards a favourable ratio for non-books,? said Oxford’s chief operating officer Abhishek Kumar. Meanwhile, small bookstores are bucking the trend. A manager at Mumbai’s oldest bookshop, The Strand, admits that they would not sell anything but books as has been the legacy. ?Even if they we wanted to bring in other products, we do not have any space for it,? he says.
