Websites are gaining market share in book sales in France, despite public policies to protect bookstores, show figures released Thursday by the Ministry of Culture.
Ahead of the Paris Book Festival (April 21-23), the ministry revealed to the press data compiled by the Kantar market research institute.
In 2022, commercial websites (Amazon.fr, fnac.com, chapter.com, etc.) increased to 21.9% market share (+1.9 points in one year). This is as much as in 2020, a year marked by the Covid-19 pandemic and long weeks of bookstore closures. Internet had reached 10% of the market in 2009 and exceeded 20% in 2017.
This figure is still lower than that of bookstores, which account for 22.9% of the market in 2022. Since 2006 (first year of available data), when it peaked at 25.8%, the market share of booksellers it has fallen to a low of 21.5% in 2013. before rising again.
Large specialized surfaces at the head
For the eleventh consecutive year, the largest book sellers according to Kantar are specialized supermarkets (Fnac, Cultura, E.Leclerc cultural spaces, etc.) with 27.7%. This market share has tended to increase over the last fifteen years, but has fallen slightly from its peak of 28.6% in 2020.
Hypermarkets and supermarkets will account for 18.7% in 2022. The rest is divided between mail order sales, clubs (such as France Loisirs) threatened with extinction (3.2%) and other businesses not specialized in books (5.4%) .
France is the most advanced country in protecting a network of independent bookstores that it claims to be the densest in the world, with 3,500 points of sale.
To encourage people to buy their books in bookstores, a law passed in December 2021 will ban almost free shipping for online book orders of less than 35 euros from October 2023.
The American Amazon said it was hostile to it. “We are concerned about the impact this measure will have on reading and readers, especially those living in rural areas and small towns. These territories often lack bookstores and today account for 46% of Amazon shipping books,” he said. its French subsidiary in a press release on Sunday.
Source: BFM TV
