Selling to bookworms in China
Posted 10-06-2008 at 12:09 AM by Kerry Finch
Online sales of books have consistently ranked high in mainland China. It seems that there are a lot of bookworms in China and most of them prefer to buy their books online.
It has been observed that online book sales have overtaken those made in traditional book stores. The thirst for knowledge and reading material may be linked to active censorship and self regulation of major Western websites in China. Strong online book sales also reflect the profile of the average online buyer who is said to be highly educated and capable of spending at least $150 US dollars monthly on books.
With these in mind, it is not surprising to hear that the traditional Chinese bookstore brand Xinhua Bookstore has collaborated with seven bookstores in Beijing for the sale of various book titles in its beifabook.com website. The beifabook.com opened in November 2007 but it only started to sell books recently. A Xinhua representative said that the website will slowly shift from offering book consultancy to selling books that are on display at the real bookstores.
While online book sales are on an upswing, this does not mean the end of the book stores in China. Chinese online buyers complain that the product description of books that they order online generally differ from the actual contents of the book as received. Thus, they still have to go to the traditional book store to browse through a book’s pages before purchasing online. The biggest reason why the frugal Chinese buys a book online is that online bookstores like beifabook.com sell the same titles at discounted prices.
It has been observed that online book sales have overtaken those made in traditional book stores. The thirst for knowledge and reading material may be linked to active censorship and self regulation of major Western websites in China. Strong online book sales also reflect the profile of the average online buyer who is said to be highly educated and capable of spending at least $150 US dollars monthly on books.
With these in mind, it is not surprising to hear that the traditional Chinese bookstore brand Xinhua Bookstore has collaborated with seven bookstores in Beijing for the sale of various book titles in its beifabook.com website. The beifabook.com opened in November 2007 but it only started to sell books recently. A Xinhua representative said that the website will slowly shift from offering book consultancy to selling books that are on display at the real bookstores.
While online book sales are on an upswing, this does not mean the end of the book stores in China. Chinese online buyers complain that the product description of books that they order online generally differ from the actual contents of the book as received. Thus, they still have to go to the traditional book store to browse through a book’s pages before purchasing online. The biggest reason why the frugal Chinese buys a book online is that online bookstores like beifabook.com sell the same titles at discounted prices.
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