Bookstore sales are down

Book retail turnover in Russia decreased by 8% in monetary terms and by 15% in physical terms, according to estimates from the Association of Book Distributors (ASKR). Regional bookselling chains have not been able to take advantage of the benefits that the government provided to the industry back in 2021. Market participants clarify that existing support measures, according to which stores have received the status of social entrepreneurs, do not allow increasing business efficiency and reducing costs. Only 44% of paper publications sold in the country are already sold through bookstores.

Kommersant got acquainted with the ASKR report on the situation of bookselling chains in the first half of the year. Store sales decreased by 8% in monetary terms and by 15.4% in physical terms compared to the entire year 2022. The ASKR did not provide absolute indicators. In 2022, the book market as a whole, according to the Ministry of Digital Development, grew by 7%, to 101.6 billion rubles, of which printed publications accounted for 90.7 billion rubles. (growth by 7.5%). Traditional bookstores accounted for 44% of sales (46.3% in 2021).

According to the association’s report, bookstore traffic fell by 10% in January-June, and the average selling price of books from publishers increased by almost 9.6%. In retail, the cost of books increased by 7.4%, the average bill by 3.2%.

The buyer purchases cheaper books (for example, pocket books – paperback publications with lower quality paper) or fewer in quantity at a time, explained the head of ASKR Svetlana Zorina during the Book Market 2023 conference. According to her, the owners of bookselling chains note the ineffectiveness of government support measures for the industry.

The point is that since 2021, bookstores owned by representatives of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) have received the status of social entrepreneurs. The rules apply to stores that sell books for children and youth, educational, educational and reference literature. Government agencies and local authorities can provide SMEs in the field of social entrepreneurship with financial, guarantee, property, information, and consulting support. Last year, President Vladimir Putin extended the regulations until the end of 2024.

ASKR conducted a study among industry participants and found that so far bookstores have not been able to take advantage of a single benefit, Ms. Zorina emphasized. According to her, the association appealed to the Ministry of Digital Development with a request to conduct monitoring in other sectors of the economy to find out what benefits SMEs took advantage of in principle: “We could transfer this experience to bookstores.”

The Ministry of Digital Development did not respond to Kommersant’s request. In the industry report, the ministry clarified that bookselling enterprises in Russia are represented “predominantly by private business”; state municipal book distribution facilities remain only in Moscow (SUE OTs MDK), Rostov region (JSC Rostovkniga), Primorsky Territory (JSC Primorsky Torgovy House of Books”), as well as “singlely in other regions.”

Regional book chains confirm the problem. Samara-based Metida received the status of a social enterprise in 2023, says the head of the chain, Naira Mnatsakanyan: “In practice, obtaining a grant is a complicated procedure, and bookstores do not have any preferences.”

Support measures did not allow increasing business efficiency and reducing basic costs in the Kaliningrad Book Shop chain, confirms its head Tamara Kolesnik. General Director of the Magistr network (Rostov-on-Don), Elena Shtekhina, also says that support measures “have not yielded anything in practical terms.”

But comparing last year with the current one “can be very conditional,” clarifies Dmitry Repin, general director of the united network “Read-Gorod-Bukvoed”: “In 2022, against the backdrop of a wave of high-profile reports in the media about rising book prices and a general anxious mood in society, we observed in June and July there is a rush to buy books.” He says that this year customer demand “has been more consistent, so the company is seeing a slight decrease in the number of receipts.”

Yulia Yurasova