Online book sales in Russia the fastest growing market segment. By the first half of 2019, the share of book sales in online stores increased from 20% to 24%, which amounts to 20,1 billion rubles. President and co-owner of the Eksmo-AST company Oleg Novikov believes that by the end of the year they will grow by another 8%. Many buyers prefer to purchase books online because it is cheaper. Often people come to brick-and-mortar stores to choose books and then buy them on online platforms.
One of the growth drivers was electronic and audio books. According to estimates by liters general director Sergei Anuriev, by the end of 2019 their sales will increase by 35% and amount to 6,9 billion. The share of e-books in total book sales will reach 11–12%. In federal and regional book chains, sales since the beginning of the year have increased to 14,3 billion rubles, which is 16% of total book sales. However, sales in book retail fell by 4%, dropping to 24,1 billion rubles.
By the end of the year, the overall book market should grow by 8% to 92 billion rubles, Novikov estimates.
Economists predict that Russian online retailers will soon become more popular and begin to displace traditional offline stores, despite technical difficulties, the actions of criminals and logistics problems.
So, in the first two weeks of August, preparations for the new school year began. But in 2019, sales of office supplies in online stores increased sharply. In July and August, online sales of goods in this category by more than 300%.
Source: 3dnews.ru