How big is the threat of online bookstores to traditional bookstores?

You can freely find the books you want to read online without leaving home, and you can also enjoy the convenient service of door-to-door delivery at a lower price than traditional bookstores. Online bookstores have gradually become the first choice for many readers.

Under the sweeping tide of online shopping, traditional bookstores have suffered a lot. The market is getting more and more crowded and customers are losing. Will traditional bookstores be replaced by online bookstores in the future?

Online shops are in the ascendant.

With the development of network, online shopping has become more and more popular. As a commodity, books have become a commodity suitable for online sales because of their simple after-sales service. Buying books online has become the fastest growing field of e-commerce. Dangdang.com, Joyo.com and other well-known online bookstores in China have low prices and low freight rates, which have gathered a large number of readers.

Xiao Zhao is a white-collar worker who works in a company in Hefei. Every month, she spends one or two hundred yuan to buy new books online. First, she looks at the evaluation, and then shop around. After confirming the order, she sat at home waiting for delivery. "Xinhua Bookstore is far from home and there is no discount. If you buy too much, you have to take a taxi to get it back. You can buy books online and deliver them to your door. You can save money and save trouble without freight. "

The customer service staff of an online bookstore said that most online bookstores have reached an agreement with the publishing house to purchase goods at the lowest price, and it is easy to gain the advantage of low price without renting a storefront and too many employees. Online bookstores have also solved the problems that traditional bookstores can't overcome, such as limited varieties, limited shelf space, and inconvenience for readers to find books. Readers can easily search and view a large amount of book information.

Relevant data show that at present, the share of online books in China accounts for more than 30% of the overall book market.

According to the Statistical Report on the Development of Internet in China, the number of netizens in China has reached 338 million in the first half of this year, and the number of netizens using mobile phones has reached 654.38+55 million. About 1 netizens in China are online shopping users, while in countries with high Internet penetration rate such as Europe and America, two out of every three netizens shop online, and the potential of online shopping in China has not yet been released.

Is the traditional bookstore in trouble?

According to statistics, Shenzhen people spend more than 200 million yuan a year on books through Dangdang, while the sales of traditional bookstores show a downward trend year on year.

The owner of a 20-square-meter private bookstore in Baihuajing, Hefei, admits that small shops like them have high purchase costs and can't make much discounts. The cost of store rent, water and electricity, employee salary and so on is increasing year by year, and the profit from running such a small bookstore is very small. Bookstores now make a profit by selling newspapers, magazines and other things.

It is understood that in the past, many small bookstores mostly relied on pirated books to survive. With the improvement of intellectual property protection, the living space of pirated books has shrunk. In addition, small bookstores are not dominant in capital and purchase channels, and many are facing bankruptcy.

Although some large bookstores say that online bookstores will not "shake" their dominant position, they also admit that online bookstores have a great impact on them.

The staff of a bookstore in Hefei said that compared with online bookstores, the operating costs of large bookstores are higher, such as rent, labor and logistics. And air conditioning costs seven or eight thousand dollars a day in summer, but online bookstores don't need these expenses at all. Besides, many people now just go into bookstores to look at the contents, buy books or surf the Internet.

support

The market is getting more and more crowded and customers are losing. Will traditional bookstores be replaced by online bookstores in the future? Different people have different opinions.

Some netizens are pessimistic about the future of traditional bookstores. "In the past two years, many bookstores regarded as' cultural landmarks' have closed down one after another, which represents the living conditions of a large part of traditional bookstores. It's only a matter of time before the physical bookstore disappears, "said Xiaoyu, a dizzy netizen.

Some netizens also said: "Physical bookstores should not disappear, nor can they be completely replaced by online bookstores. Without a physical bookstore, readers will have no direction to find books online. The physical bookstore still has its market, but it must change the original business mode and bookstore model. "

Some insiders believe that choosing to buy books online is often based on entertainment and career counseling, while professionals tend to buy books in professional bookstores. After all, you need to read professional books to know whether you can answer the buyer's questions. The lack of reading service in online bookstores will make some consumers turn to traditional bookstores.

Facing the impact of online bookstores, traditional bookstores have changed their marketing strategies. Xinhua Bookstore in some places began to sell books online, hoping to get a slice of the online market.

"The most important thing to deal with competition is to make your own characteristics." Many netizens "support" the survival of small bookstores. Small bookstores can take the road of characteristic management, find their own positioning, find the market gap, and launch differentiated competition with big bookstores and online bookstores. "