Independent bookstore lovers now have a new way to interact with their favorite shops specializing in the written word. Bookshop.org announced this week that these stores will be able to sell ebooks “for the first time in history.”
Before we get to that development, however, let’s take a look at the changes in how consumers get books over the past 30 years. We’re choosing that timeframe because bookstores everywhere took a hit when Amazon – the behemoth online retailer that started with a focus on books – came on the scene in 1995.
According to a 2017 article from Harvard Business School citing the American Booksellers Association (ABA), the number of independent bookstores in the U.S. dropped by 43% from 1995 to 2000. Then something interesting happened. Borders, a large chain of bookstores, went out of business in 2011 and independent bookstores made a comeback.
“Between 2009 and 2015, the ABA reported a 35% growth in the number of independent booksellers, from 1,651 stores to 2,227,” said Harvard Business School. Ryan Raffaelli, an assistant professor in the school’s Organizational Behavior unit decided to research this phenomenon.
“Independent bookstores have been able to compete with Amazon by cultivating deep relationships with readers and authors,” Raffaelli said, according to a CNBC article from January of last year. “Such relationships represent the passion ‘indie’ bookstore employees have for reading, and their longstanding commitment to share the next great book with others. It’s considered a sacred act of community-building,” he said.
Still, independent bookstores face pressure from larger chains such as Barnes & Noble and from online retailers such as Amazon. That CNBC article from last year covered the rollout of Amazon’s Your Books service that provided readers with recommendations, for example.
Robert Martin, executive director of the Independent Booksellers Consortium, founded in 1993, said that algorithms might help companies sell more books, but they don’t really match what an independent bookstore can do when it comes to recommendations. CNBC explained that “generating new recommendations that adhere tightly to previous likes has a tendency to create a reading bubble,” while Martin said booksellers are focused more on finding unique titles and new voices.
For independent bookstores, one double-edged sword has been a limit to physical books. On one hand, CNBC said that Amazon has had to face the “endurance of the book as a physical object,” and the fact that people prefer to display their books rather than keep them hidden away in a digital shelf. On the other hand, Bookshop.org said a quarter of readers in the U.S. prefer ebooks – a significant slice of potential customers that has been challenging for independent bookstores to cater to.
Now, Bookshop.org’s Ebook platform will allow “indie bookstores [to] go head-to-head with Amazon's Kindle apps,” said a press release. This service is “built to bolster revenue streams for brick-and-mortar bookstores,” it added.
Bookshop.org, a certified B Corp, was founded five years ago with a mission to help support independent bookstores. Since then, it has raised more than $35 million for local bookstores and every purchase on the site goes towards that goal.
“When we launched Bookshop.org, the vision was to support local bookstores in their battle against Amazon and other online retailers,” says Andy Hunter, CEO and founder of Bookshop.org. “This launch represents our commitment to bookstores and their communities. We’re focused on keeping bookstores afloat and helping them flourish in the digital age.”
Through the Bookshop.org Ebook platform, readers can purchase and download books from their favorite independent bookstores (which earn 100% of the profits) and share their favorite moments from the digital tomes on social media. At launch the platform had a library of 3 million ebooks.
“I’ve said it before – booksellers and bookstores save lives. I’m thrilled to see Bookshop.org’s new platform making ebooks accessible while staying true to supporting independent bookstores,” said bestselling author James Patterson of the launch.