Indies report uptick in Christmas sales in BA survey

Independent booksellers have reported an uptick in Christmas trading this year, with 50% of respondents in the Booksellers Association (BA) Christmas Trading Survey saying sales had increased compared to Christmas 2021.

UK sales of National Book Tokens gift cards in the run up to Christmas 2022 also grew by over 8% year on year, driven by strong growth in key high street locations. Sales of gift cards through independent bookshops reached a new record level and now trade well ahead of pre-Covid-19 levels.

While 40% of respondents noted that footfall was up in their bookshop during the festive period, the same proportion reported that overall footfall on the high street was down in 2022. And though 40% of bookshops said individual transaction values increased, almost 25% reported a decrease in transaction values and 73% of respondents reported an increase in turnover for the whole year compared to 2021. The mixed bag echoes the results found in The Bookseller’s Christmas survey earlier this week.

The BA’s survey also highlighted the key concerns that booksellers have today, with the most common responses being: the cost of living and consumer confidence; energy/utility bills; the UK economy; increasing r.r.ps; wholesale prices; and staff costs. Supply chain issues were also flagged as a concern, with paper shortages, shipping delays and storage scarcity continuing to place pressure on the publishing industry at large.  

Meryl Halls, managing director at the BA, said: “Having come through the pandemic crisis with a growing community of booksellers on our high streets, it’s heartening to see that Christmas trading held steady, and that consumer behaviour followed largely the pattern suggested in our pre-Christmas research on consumers’ attitudes to book buying – with a continued commitment to buying books from high street bookshops. These results show us that books are resilient so far in this economic downturn, and that bookshops continue to work fiendishly hard to get great books to readers. While there is a sizeable minority of bookshops that are not reporting year-on-year growth, we should take heart from our members’ holding steady last year. This year will bring new challenges, but also new bookshops, and the BA continues to offer advice and support to all booksellers to help them through.”

Alex de Berry, managing director at National Book Tokens, said: “We are very pleased not just by the level of our growth this Christmas, but because it was based on very strong sales through specialist bookshops, our heartland. And, despite the cold snap and travel challenges, consumers proved again their preference for shopping in bookshops and locally.”