Bookshop footfall plateaus but sales stay strong

The Booksellers Association (BA) has reported a plateau in the number of customers visiting bookshops in the weeks before the spring bank holiday weekend, though stores reported a broadly positive trading experience, with sales largely unaffected.

Some booksellers have said the easing of restrictions in other sectors, such as hospitality, has boosted their takings, while most are experiencing fluctuating custom.

Meryl Halls, m.d. of the BA, said: “When bookshops reopened in April, we knew that quieter high streets and decreased footfall would mean a challenging period ahead for booksellers, particularly those in city centres. After a strong spike in sales upon reopening, as the public revisited their favourite bookshops, we have seen a drop off in customer numbers over the past weeks, which seems to mirror the wider experience across the retail landscape. However, we are hearing consistently of lower footfall being, happily, offset by bigger basket sizes, which proves the point about bookshop customers’ inherent loyalty."

Halls is hopeful traffic to bookshops will increase due to half term and holiday makers choosing to say in the UK. “As hospitality reopens and our town centres begin drawing people back in, we hope that foot traffic and sales will increase again, boosted by half term and a staycation summer. In the meantime, we are seeing booksellers bringing their passion and knowledge to their online offerings, allowing them to reach book loving customers wherever they are,” she said.

The BA’s findings are consistent with the current picture of British retail. Recent statistics released by analyst Springboard said footfall across all UK shopping destinations was only up by 1.1% week-on-week at the end of May, and almost 28% lower than for the same period in 2019. It is expected that last week’s easing of restrictions, which allowed pubs and restaurants to serve customers indoors, will have a beneficial knock-on effect.

Kate Skipper, chief operting officer at Waterstones, said sales were doing well at the chain, despite the lower footfall in touristic locations. "Our sales have consistently exceeded expectation since reopening and continue to follow very logical patterns, with neighbourhood and market town shops performing especially strongly, whilst footfall is naturally lower in locations particularly reliant on tourists or commuters,” she said.

“Many of our bookshops received a further boost as our cafes have been able to reopen as restrictions have allowed. New publishing remains exceptionally varied and strong, which is helping to drive sales and provides booksellers with plenty of opportunities for new recommendations to customers.”

Similarly to Waterstones, branches of Blackwell’s have also experienced a surge in shoppers, which Zool Verjee, head of marketing and publicity, attributes in part to the reopening of cafes, and the excitement around live author events returning. He said: “Online continues to perform well, building on the growth it saw throughout 2020. Our shops are getting busier much more quickly than after the first lockdown last summer. There is still some local variance of course, as shops in some locations see better footfall than in other areas.

“The re-opening of coffee shops for sit-in hospitality brought us more footfall, as expected. We are also busy planning for the return of author events, children’s activities and bookstalls in weeks to come, while keeping a careful eye on the guidelines, and this will result in even more visitors through the summer months.”

Richard Drake, owner of Drake the Bookshop in Stockton-on-Tees, said fewer families were coming into the shop but sales haven’t been massively impacted. “We seem to be slightly up on 2019 for April and May,” he said. “Footfall is funny, some days it seems to be quiet yet we take a lot, there are lots of people and takings are lower, ever was the case in retail I guess.

“We are still seeing fewer children and families in the shop, but children's books are still being bought in number. It will be interesting to see how next week fairs with half term here.”

However, Debbie Philips, deputy manager of Imagined Things in Harrogate, said trade has been “very up and down” since reopening. “There’s no telling what is going to make one day busy and the next quiet. Whereas we used to know that specific days or good weather or bad weather would effect footfall, there now doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it,” she said.

Mog Giacomelli-Harris, co-owner of Warwick Books, said footfall is currently “very good”, with sales consistent. “Everything feels calm and steady,” she said. "We’ve had more time to catch up with customers, it’s been a chatty and sociable month.” However, both she and Pauline Harris, co-owner, are ready for the “energy to change”.

“We’re missing in-person events, we’ve made the executive decision to wait to host them, and it’s been a year of not having [in-person] book fairs and BA events, so it’s still doesn’t feel like we’re back into the normal bookselling groove yet. We will get there.”