A third of bookshop customers unsure about returning, Nielsen finds

Around 35% of regular bookshop customers are unsure about returning to bricks and mortar premises now lockdown has eased, according to a survey by Nielsen.

The results were revealed on 16th July during a webinar by the company, which has been running a consumer tracking survey during the pandemic. The poll covered 1,000 UK adults between 25th and 29th June, just after lockdown was eased in England.

It showed 39% of people still reported consuming books and audiobooks more than before lockdown began, down from 42% during the lockdown period, with just 11% saying they consumed less. That reading increase was driven mainly by women and younger men.

However, only 26% of people reported they were buying more books overall - up by 2% on lockdown figures — with 18% buying fewer.

Quizzed on where they were getting their books, 39% reported reading books they already owned, particularly older readers, with another 19% borrowing from other people.

Around one in five book-buyers and 28% of habitual bookshop users planned to visit a bookshop within four weeks, the survey found. Nearly half of bookshop customers said they would be back within six months. However, 22% of both book-buyers and regular bookshop customers wanted to wait to see the ongoing effect of Covid-19 before venturing into a bookshop.

Of regular bookshop customer,s 13% didn't know when they would go back and 5% said they would not return. For book-buyers as a whole, 17% were unsure, with browsing and safety concerns the commonly cited barriers, while 13% did not want to go to a bookshop at all.

The results also backed up sales data, showing an increased interest in crime, popular fiction and romance, alongside cookery, history and gardening. TCM stats from the first week of lockdown ending in England, in the week ending 20th June, showed reference and home learning was the strongest children's category, with big growth in comic book fiction, annuals and dictionaries. However, book research director Hazel Kenyon said absolute revenue year-on-year was strongest in picture books and children's fiction, which both had “a huge kick-up” that week. Three weeks later, growth was not as strong but still noticeably up on the previous year.

For adult fiction, the week ending 20th June showed a marked uptick in smaller categories including westerns and graphic novels. The absolute value change was highest in crime and thrillers alongside general and literary fiction, however.

Across the market, year-on-year sales by volume were up 30.2% and up 30.4% by value for the week ending 20th June, although those numbers took a slight dip the previous week