The book market is flourishing day by day, multi – format competition develops
In fact, Dangdang’s prostitution is just an isolated case. This does not reflect the overall state of the book market. Instead, dangdang was forced to sell itself largely because of its own problems. One, dangdang initial improper layout, resulting in a loss of hundreds of millions of yuan. Dangdang opened the book market after the opening of household appliances, 3C and other businesses, burned a lot of money, ultimately failed to support these businesses. Second, book e-commerce competition is fierce, dangdang advantage gradually receded. At first, the book e-commerce market when a monopoly, all the book e-commerce traffic. Subsequently, more and more players enter the game book e-commerce, dangdang’s advantage of being alone slowly disappeared. Therefore, dangdang prostitution does not mean that the book market depression. On the contrary, the book market is booming.
According to amazon China’s e-book sales list recently released on the fifth anniversary of Kindle’s introduction in China, the total number of Kindle books in China has reached nearly 700,000. Kindle book sales increased nearly tenfold compared to 2013. “The Kite Runner” and “The Grocery Store” were among the TOP 10 paid e-books on The Kindle. China has become the largest market for Amazon’s Kindle devices worldwide. Besides Kindle, there are many reading apps in China, such as netease Cloud Reading, Migu Reading, Shuqi Novel and so on. According to statistics, there are more than 40 reading apps on the market. Mobile reading is just one part of the book market. This shows the prosperity of The Chinese book market.
In addition to e-book devices such as Kindle and reading apps such as netease Cloud Reading, many new concept bookstores have emerged in the book market. For example, Sisyphus, Cat’s City in the Sky, Yan Youji, Fang Suo, Zhong Shuge, Kubrick and so on. These new concept bookstores set bookstore, cafe, lifestyle, third space or abstract, or concrete concepts in one, to create a new book consumption scene. The huge potential of the book market can be seen from the growing trend of these book shops springing up like mushrooms.
In addition, in recent years, the state has advocated reading for all. “Reading for all” has been written into the Government Work Report for many times. At the beginning of 2017, The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television issued the Notice on carrying out the Nationwide Reading Work in 2017, which marked another firm step in the national reading project. It is not hard to see that the state is strongly supporting people to read. In fact, with the improvement of living standards, people’s spiritual needs are greater. Book reading as a way to meet spiritual needs, its market prospects can be seen.
In general, the book market is booming and has great potential. At present, there are many types of book business, including book e-commerce represented by Amazon and Dangdang. Traditional bookstores represented by Xinhua Bookstore; Sisyphus, Yan Youji and other representatives of the new concept of bookstores. These book formats compete and develop with each other. However, as far as book e-commerce is concerned, the diversification of book formats makes it face many problems.
Diversification of book format, anxiety of book e-commerce
Once upon a time, book e-commerce rode the tide of online traffic to a rapid rise. Nowadays, due to the diversification of the book business, the market competition is more and more fierce. Under such circumstances, book e-commerce has many problems to be solved urgently. The whole book e-commerce industry is getting a little anxious.
Anxiety 1, the impact of diversified formats of books. The emergence of mobile reading has greatly reduced the purchase rate of paper books. According to data released by Analysys, China’s mobile reading market reached 15.318 billion yuan in 2017, up 29.16 percent from last year. From the statistics of China’s Mobile Reading Market Size from 2013 to 2017, it can be seen that after 2015, the growth rate of mobile reading market size has been on the rise, and the total size has been increasing year by year. Thus, mobile reading has eaten up part of the book market share. Most of the users of mobile reading and book e-commerce overlap with each other. To a certain extent, it can be said that mobile reading has robbed the users of book e-commerce.
Anxiety two, the book e-commerce development offline entity bookstore experience is insufficient. After the rise of new concept bookstores, book e-commerce companies have developed offline bookstores. It is understood that Dangdang and Amazon also began to layout offline. Dangdang opened physical stores with lectures, coffee bars, exhibitions and other cultural activities as the main elements. Amazon has opened nine book experience stores in the US. Even so, Dangdang and Amazon have had little tangible success with offline entities. This is mainly because dangdang, Amazon and other book e-commerce companies lack experience in offline physical bookstores. First, the competition mode of offline physical bookstores has been formed, and it is difficult for book e-commerce to break the pattern of physical bookstores. Second, the operation and management of offline bookstores are different from that of book e-commerce, and the management experience of the two cannot be borrowed from each other. It will take a long time for the book e-commerce to improve the management of offline bookstores.
Third, the crackdown on pirated books on e-commerce platforms is not enough. Many book e-commerce platforms have the problem of book piracy. Amazon has been administratively punished by the National Copyright Administration for selling pirated books, legal Evening News reported. At the time, Beijing Publishing Group sued Amazon for selling pirated books. After the case, Amazon said it would permanently close 36 buyers’ stores suspected of selling pirated books. The sale of pirated books has also taken a toll on Amazon.
At the present stage, the impact of diversified formats of books, the lack of experience in developing offline bookstores and the inadequate supervision of platforms on pirated books are all problems that restrict the development of book e-commerce. In the midst of new retail, companies in the book world are accelerating their transformation. So, how should book e-commerce develop?
Accelerating the transformation of book industry, where is the way of book e-commerce?
Throughout the book world, after suffering from the low price books brought by the book e-commerce, the traditional bookstore is transforming to the new concept bookstore. After being hit by mobile reading, some book e-commerce companies are also speeding up the pace of transformation. But the transition will not be easy. Book e-commerce should make more efforts in the following aspects.
First, book e-commerce should actively develop the integration of paper and electricity. As the name implies, paper books and e-books coexist. At present, most online book sellers sell paper books and few e-books. Therefore, when mobile reading is in full swing, book e-commerce has suffered a shock. Book e-commerce should make it clear that the development of science and technology has changed the way users read, and mobile reading is the trend of The Times. In the future, mobile reading will still account for half of the book market. Therefore, book e-commerce should combine paper books and e-books if they want to gain a firm foothold in the future. In other words, book e-commerce should sell both paper books and e-books. “Paper and electricity integrated” mode can provide users with a richer reading experience.
Second, there is no need for book e-commerce to break the established pattern of physical bookstores. Book e-commerce can be offline physical stores, but should take experience as the main purpose. In short, users can come into the store and experience it, and then choose to buy directly or online on the platform. Such experience stores should not be too many, but the location distribution of experience stores should be reasonable. In other words, the scope of experience store radiation should be able to maximize the coverage of the vast majority of users. In addition, the experience store can also serve as the warehouse of the book e-commerce platform to provide delivery and in-store pickup services for users of the store, further improving user experience.
Third, book e-commerce should also improve the ability to apply big data. As we all know, Amazon has the most say in big data application. In fact, the success of Amazon Bookstore today is due to amazon’s application and control of big data. With the help of big data, Amazon can accurately analyze users’ preferences and then recommend relevant books to them. In addition, Amazon constantly updates the categories and quantity of books on its platform based on big data, so as to achieve precise marketing. Amazon’s outstanding performance in big data is obvious to all in the industry. This is also worth learning from many book e-commerce.
Fourth, book e-commerce should strengthen the supervision of the merchants on the platform to prevent the sale of pirated books. Platforms should appropriately raise the threshold for third-party sellers of best-selling books, establish a seller recognition system, and strengthen the monitoring and punishment of third-party platforms. Monitoring third parties is one thing, though. More importantly, the platform should focus on developing self-owned stores and establishing its own book brand.
Fifth, book e-commerce should make a breakthrough in marketing means. The rise of short videos has given the book world a new marketing tool. In March, for example, a book called “I’m So Happy!! Books on the domestic market. The book was released at the same time as the most popular Douyin short video, which opened “I am so happy now!!” “Has attracted nearly 300,000 participants, making short douyin videos popular with hundreds of millions of active users. As a result, the book fell to no. 1 on JD.com’s book sales list during the pre-sale period, and quickly rose to no. 1 online. Less than 24 hours after the book was released, it became the top seller on three Chinese book e-commerce websites. Thus, marketing is very important.
Reading is the trend of The Times, the book market will be more prosperous. Neither paper books nor e-books are going away. In order to meet the needs of users, various book enterprises have carried out business transformation and upgrading. Under such a trend, book e-commerce can only rise to the challenge, just ride the wind and waves, soar to the sky.
Public ID: Liukuangtmt, this article first kuang Venture network