Why are bookstores becoming more and more difficult to operate?

Internal reasons for the current difficulties in the operation of physical bookstores.

First, the establishment of online book purchasing platform has a direct impact on the operation of physical bookstores. Online bookstores, because of their large purchases, have lower discounts from publishers, greater flexibility in business marketing and greater profit margins. Dangdang.com, Joyo.com and other e-commerce companies that started selling books online are in full swing, and JD.COM Mall, which made its fortune as an online appliance store, also started selling books at the end of 20 10. Its CEO Liu said that the sales of books and videos in 20 1 1 year will far exceed 500 million, and the monthly compound growth rate will exceed 10%. On October 201110/October 3 10, Suning.cn Book Channel was officially launched, with 600,000 books. According to the data of "20 1 1 Quarterly Monitoring of China Online Retail Market in the Second Quarter" released by Analysys International, online book sales increased by 84.5% year-on-year, which became the primary magic weapon for many B2C websites to attract click-through rates. Faced with a more comprehensive variety of e-commerce, lower prices and faster services, traditional physical bookstores, especially small and medium-sized private bookstores, can only "stay at a respectful distance".

Second, affected by the current economic environment, the operating costs of physical bookstores have increased substantially, further eroding their profit margins. At present, the rent and human resource cost of physical bookstores are rising. Jiang Aijun, the owner of Hangzhou Xiaofeng Bookstore, pointed out in an interview that the current bookstore rent is too high, and the cost of store maintenance, inventory, salespeople's salary and so on determines that a 20% discount on a book is unprofitable. The survey results show that in 20 1 1 year, the rent of physical bookstores in H city increased by 33% year-on-year, and the salary of employees increased by 2 1% year-on-year, especially for bookstores with good location conditions, the rent pressure was more obvious. At present, the rent in downtown is expensive, which basically forces small and medium-sized private entity bookstores to retreat.

Third, the rapid development of communication technology has spawned a reading revolution for the public, and the prevalence of digital publishing has further compressed the space for traditional reading. At present, ordinary social audiences, especially teenagers, are increasingly accustomed to reading news, browsing information and obtaining information through digital terminals such as network platforms. Interest in and dependence on traditional publications have further decreased. According to the author's questionnaire, 76% of college students have changed their traditional reading habits because of the promotion of multimedia terminals. This also directly affects the sales of physical bookstores to some extent. At present, the spread of some impetuous emotions in society has directly affected the public's sense of identity and participation in reading, and objectively it will also have a potential impact on the operation of bookstores.