Industry Description Of The Retailing Industry - 1043 Words

Industry Description Book retailing is an industry where companies sell books and other reading media, including, audio books, e-books and e-readers. Some bookstores sell other products including DVDs, stationery and gifts. Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWCS) world network reports sales of sixty billion globally, including e-books (Hoovers Inc, 2016). Most Book retailers operate from storefronts, although some bookstores also operate online. Barnes Noble US, Fnac France, Page One China, Thalia Germany, and WH Smith UK are prominent companies in this industry. (Hoovers Inc, 2016). According to Yee, (n.d.). Dymocks is the largest bookstore chain in Australia; others include Collins Booksellers, Books and Gifts and department stores such as†¦show more content†¦Over the five year period until 2015-6, there was an annual decline in revenue of 10.6% (ibisworld, 2016). Numerous challenges have beset the industry, such as, lower book prices, strong competition from online retailers and a change in popular ity from printed books to e-books (ibisworld, 2016). Other issues that have a significant effect on bookstores are parallel import restrictions (IBISWorld, 2016), and online retailers being advantaged by low freight charges and often no requirement to pay (GST) Goods and Services Tax (ABC, 2016). Encouraging Signs However, there are encouraging signs according to Williams, (2015) who points to the icon of bookstores Dymocks, which claims to have had its best ever sales year. Sydney book retailer Jon Page noted an upward surge in sales in the final quarter leading up to Christmas, a period that accounts for around 70% of annual sales (Han, 2015). According to the Nielsen book scan data, there were 55.4 million in sales of printed books in Australia last year, a 2.2% increase over the previous year, the first sales increase since 2009. (Han, 2015). Some of the downturns in printed book sales may be as a result of economic conditions which have affected all retailers. According to Page, (n.d.) the global financial crisis has dramatically changed retailing regardless of your product (Han, 2015).The chief executive of the Australian Booksellers Association, Joel Becker commented, the