The way to save yourself in a physical bookstore
Changan Shopping Center, located on Fuxingmenwai Street in Beijing, is an old department store that opened in 1990. After 8 months of closure, it was rebuilt and opened at the end of last year. On the second floor of the mall, the bookstore "Inari Shrine" opened on December 27 last year. It is envisaged to welcome the upcoming Spring Festival season.
New crown pneumonia outbreak.
In order to keep pace with the mall, Daocheng and the company have not closed stores, but from January 24th, the business hours have been adjusted from the previous 10-22 hours to 11-18 hours. One person is on duty every day, and the light meal service is cancelled. Book and coffee retail as usual. At present, the average daily turnover is less than 100 yuan, and basically no income since February.
During the epidemic, there were not many physical bookstores still open like Inari Kazuo.
A questionnaire report focusing on small and medium-sized private bookstores shows that as of February 5, of the 1021 bookstores participating in the survey, 926 had ceased operations, accounting for more than 90%; more than 99% of the bookstores had no normal income ; There are 890 bookstores without other sources of income, accounting for 87%, which means that the ability to resist risks is very weak.
The survey report pointed out that the development results of the bookstore industry in the past stage will be subject to real inspections from the market at present and in the future.
1200 bookshop, a chain of bookstores located in Guangzhou, closed more than half of its stores without any source of income; the store remained open, and its operating income was less than one-tenth of the usual; in February, all bookstores lost money across the board. Bookstore founder Liu Erzheng sent a message asking for help, and obtained 500,000 yuan in "help money" by selling stored-value cards and cultural and creative products, and "can support another 3 months."
On February 24, Unidirectional Space released a letter of assistance from the founder Xu Zhiyuan, "adhering to the unidirectional crowdfunding for 15 years to continue his life". At present, among the only four physical bookstores remaining in one-way space, Beijing Dongfeng Store, Hangzhou Letigang Store and Qinhuangdao Anaya Store are closed. Only Beijing Chaoyang Joy City Store is open. However, the traffic of Joy City is only one-tenth of the usual. The bookstore can only sell 15 books per day (half were bought by colleagues). It is estimated that the bookstore's February revenue will fall by 80% compared with previous years. For industries with low profits, this means despair.
Since its opening in 1996, the first 15 stores of Nanjing Pioneer Book Store have not been open for a whole month, and there is currently no time to resume work. On February 25th and 26th, Nanjing Pioneer Bookstore successively launched crowdfunding in the form of blind selection of books, sales of member prepaid cards and study places. "As a non-required cultural industry, bookstores have begun to face a crisis of survival."
Mr. Zhuang Ning, the manager of Daocheng and his manager, said, "We have considered issuing public accounts to readers, like 1200bookshop and one-way space. However, because the store has been opened for less than 3 months, the influence is small and the audience is narrow. There is no crowdfunding or product sales online, and because the epidemic could not ship, it was not prepared before. "
Chang'an Shopping Center exempted the bookstore from rent and property charges in February, and Daocheng also did not give up self-help. According to Zhuang Ning, the bookstore and New Oxygen Life established an online aesthetic education brand "Traveling Museum", contacted 6 museums including Tsinghua University Art Museum, Shanxi Museum, Shaanxi History Museum, etc., and tried live broadcasting, public welfare courses, knowledge payment, etc. "It cannot be realized in the short term, and I hope to accumulate more experience in operating online courses."
Zhuang Ning also uses his personal influence to sell bookstore products in the circle of friends and micro-stores. "I know that many bookstores sell books online, and the boss even delivers them in person. I think it is the regional traffic that works. It can solve certain difficulties in the short term. , Such as credit card bills, employee salaries, etc. "
"At present, Daocheng and his brand and project are in the early days of creation. I dare not talk about how miserable. The shareholders and employees are very supportive, and they are all paying for the activities. I think we can reach 5 in terms of preparation and mentality. Month. If the store revenue does not improve after May, the situation will be more passive. "Zhuang Ning said.
Private bookstores are difficult, and Xinhua Bookstores are having a hard time. In addition to the direct loss caused by closing the store, Lu Yi, a book marketing expert who was the manager of the marketing planning department of Xinhua Bookstore in Zhengzhou, found that a major revenue decline for Xinhua Bookstore was that the parents of the students were concentrated in the store on the eve of school. In the high season of purchasing teaching materials, after entering the store, they often purchase other books such as teaching aids, as well as stationery and school bags, which account for more than half of the amount of an order. "Now that customers purchase teaching materials online, other additional consumption is large. The rate of decline has almost disappeared. "
What worries Lu Yi more is the future of brick-and-mortar bookstores: "The stable customer base of brick-and-mortar bookstores cultivated over the years has been going to the bookstores for a week or a month. If you don't go there for a few months now, your bookshopping habits may be affected. Change. They are also used to reading and buying online, which is not very optimistic for brick-and-mortar bookstores. This crisis is not yet visible, and there will be more obvious signs after the bookstores reopen. "
Liu Jingjing, deputy dean of the School of Cultural Industry Management, Communication University of China, said that under the epidemic, the offline cultural industry has been greatly impacted, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, while physical bookstores are generally small and micro-enterprises, and their anti-risk capabilities are weak. Online business is the way to save yourself. "
Liu Jingjing just did a survey of public cultural needs during the epidemic, and 4,550 valid questionnaires showed that 15.38% of people staying at home were reading and 9.16% were watching and listening to various salon lectures. "It can be seen that bookstores can carry out online recommendation sales, such as health or public safety, crisis response, post-disaster psychological healing and other professional or literary books, and organize various online salon lectures."
However, the good vision has a prerequisite that cannot be ignored-it depends to a large extent on whether there are fans or members accumulated in the bookstore before, as well as author resources, online planning and marketing capabilities, etc. "The epidemic situation is an in-depth review of the operation capabilities of all bookstores and the survival of the fittest. Managing a good reading community and cultivating reading professional service capabilities should be the focus of all physical bookstores in the future." Liu Jingjing said.
The first flagship store was opened in Shanghai in July 2016, and the Jiantou Bookstore was upgraded to appear. "Each year's revenue is improving. I was thinking of making efforts in 2020 to strive for greater breakthroughs in revenue and business models." Said Li Lu, the brand director of Jiantou Bookstore. However, due to the epidemic, it was 29 years old (January 23). Initially, all five stores of the Jiantou Bookstore in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou were closed.
"The closure of offline stores has forced bookstores to have new channels and new things." Li Lu said that starting on February 3, the bookstores will be moving the "Stars Shining Gold Black and White" Hollywood Art Exhibition being held at the Guomao Art Gallery from the store. Online; On February 6, Li Lu and the manager and deputy manager of Shanghai Pujiang Store came to the bookstore behind closed doors, broadcasting live the column of "The Survival Record of the Empty Nest Bureau King", leading readers to the "Self Segregation" Bookstore; On February 24th, the original video column "Hello! Bookstore" was launched, featuring bookstore employees as the protagonist, sharing the life stories and attitudes of bookstores and bookstore people ... As of now, the Jiantou Bookstore has conducted 12 games Live broadcast, with more than 90,000 viewers.
"The income of Jianwen Bookstore's book, cultural and creative coffee and the income of cultural consultants (such as management consulting for cultural space and planning cultural activities for enterprises) are basically 1: 1. The team configuration has also shifted from the retail core to the content core. Epidemic During the period, the income of the former dropped to the freezing point, and the latter became the main income. "Li Lu said that during the rest period of the physical bookstore operation, the bookstore can turn its attention to the in-depth planning and operation of the product.
"In response to this epidemic, bookstores have begun to make efforts online, but we cannot ignore or give up physical space. The strongest bookstores are not commodities-books, cultural and creative are not exclusive, and the strongest bookstores are collection spaces, people. With content products, we need to further enhance the creativity and planning of bookstore people, while linking more business resources. "Li Lu said.
"After two months, we still hope that we will work hard in the second half of the year to resume normal business. When you are bored at home, you can really feel that people need offline social networking. The physical bookstore is the spirit and spiritual base of the bookstore. The bookstore itself is an advocate of deep reading and deep content. With offline bookstores, readers, books, content, and bookstores have deep cultural links. "Li Lu said," The bookstore still has a store! "
China Youth Daily • China Youth Daily reporter Jiang Xiaobin Source: China Youth Daily