Sainsbury's and Blackwell's report rise in Christmas book sales

Sainsbury’s and Blackwell’s have reported positive book sales over the Christmas period, with Pete Selby, head of books at the supermarket, saying that gift purchases are now "shifting" from other entertainment to books.

Selby told The Bookseller that “broadly speaking” he was “really happy” with how books performed in Sainsbury’s over the Christmas period.

Like Waterstones and Foyles, the supermarket was hit by snow in mid-December, but “fortunately we pulled a lot of it back over the crucial, final 10 days”.

In the four-week run up to Christmas Eve, book sales at Sainsbury’s stores fractionally trailed 2016, but when including Week 51 and 52 the picture was “more positive” said Selby, with Sainsbury’s enjoying double digit, year on year growth.

“With other entertainment formats such as DVDs and CDs facing a tougher trading period, it’s evident that there was a fair degree of gift purchase switching to books,” he said.

The supermarket saw “incredible success” from Guinness World Records and David Walliams’ Bad Dad (HarperCollins Children’s), which Selby said “both displayed very healthy year on year growth”, with sales of Jamie Oliver’s 5 Ingredients (Michael Joseph) up a “staggering” 920% against his Christmas Cookbook in 2016. “However, Sinclair McKay’s Bletchley Park Brainteasers (Headline) was a wonderful surprise and as such the standout Q4 book for me,” said Selby. “With 45,000 copies sold at Sainsbury’s it is the perfect example of smart, impulsive non-fiction gift publishing”.     

Blackwell’s too reported positive like-for-like sales, up 15% year-on-year in December driven by e-commerce sales, which more than doubled on 2016, said sales and marketing director Dean Drew.

“Our non-academic shops were also marginally up like-for-like on last year, despite a drop in footfall,” he said. “Our new Oxford Westgate shop opened in October and has also made a significant incremental contribution. Everyone has worked hard to deliver an amazing customer service with recommendations and help.  The teams have also had to be constantly reassessing promotions, displays and offers to keep them fresh and local.”

The chain cited Philip Pullman's La Belle Sauvage (David Fickling/Penguin Random House) and Mary Beard's Women and Power (Profile Books) as top sellers, along with Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo (Particular Books), named the Blackwell's Book of the Year in December. Naomi Alderman's The Power (Penguin), Ali Smith's Autumn and Yuval Noah Harari's Homo Deus (Vintage) also shifted in high volume.

Online bestsellers for the retailer ranged from Homer's The Odyssey by Emily Wilson to Xanathar's Guide to Everything by the Wizards RPG team. Children's sales grew the most for Blackwell’s though, with sales up over 10%, which Drew said reflected the additional focus it has given to children's events, curation and promotions over the period. By contrast nostalgia and parody titles saw the biggest decline of the season, he said.

Earlier in the week Waterstones reported that its December sales were slightly down on last year after the mid-month snow hit footfall. Amazon gained during this period, managing director James Daunt believes, and the brick and mortar retailer also suffered from a lack of stand out titles luring non-traditional book buyers into stores.

Despite a “tricky’ December month though, Daunt said he was “pleased” with the chain’s performance, with Scotland and the West Country in particular doing well.

“I was expecting worse simply on the grounds of the relative weakness of publishing,” he said. “In fact, large parts of the country did very well with Scotland, the West Country and our large, metropolitan shops all showing decent growth.

"My sense is that (the weather and the popularity of e-commerce) caught the high street in general but did not cause much bother to Waterstones, except in a few particular geographies. The West Midlands suffered most from the weather and our out-of-town shopping centre shops from the weak footfall; otherwise we saw a solid performance, especially in the final week."

Foyles’ chief executive Paul Currie said that the mini-chain hadn’t yet crunched its December sales figures, but he too felt the snow in mid-December had impacted on sales, which were continuing to migrate online.

He also warned that heavy discounting around Black Friday was a “dangerous and negative distraction for retailers” which will “hurt margins for many”, but said that Foyles had steered clear of the temptation to join in the “discounting frenzy”.

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