250 percent more books sold in the first three months of the current year, and as much as 830 percent growth in the Hobby + Home book segment: the sales figures of Swiss online retailer Galaxus prove that books gained in popularity during the Corona pandemic – as you can read in the following guest blog by Stephan Kurmann, Communications Manager at Galaxus Switzerland.
Despite digital competition, the analog staple is on the rise: Galaxus customers bought three and a half times as many books in the first quarter of 2021 as they did at the same time last year. The reading slackers seem to be outnumbered. At least that's what our sales figures suggest: Bookworms have been busy turning pages since the pandemic began. In the first quarter of 2021, we sold around 250 percent more books than in the first three months of the previous year. Whether non-fiction, biographies or novels – every genre recorded an increase in sales.
Hobby + Home: up 830 percent
The most popular books at Galaxus are those for children and young people: six of the ten best-selling book genres have this target group in their sights. We're talking about picture and game books, for example, or learning aids.
It seems reasonable to assume that moms and dads have been buying more books from Galaxus to keep their offspring happy during the pandemic. What's more, parents often no longer have a clue about geometry or verb forms in the subjonctif – so learning aids are more than welcome.
The pandemic is also reflected in the reading behavior of the adult population: people are inspired to cook, do handicrafts or DIY. Books on the subject of hobbies + home marked the biggest growth with an increase in sales of 830 percent.
Large selection for great reading fun
And why should you buy your books at Galaxus? Isn't the selection much smaller than in a bookstore? Not at all: Galaxus teamed up with the Swiss Book Center at the end of 2020. The Book Center has around eight million copies of books in stock.
Maya Homberger, Portfolio Development Manager at Galaxus, and her teammates are incorporating book after book into the online store to expand the selection for bookworms. "We don't have eight million books for sale yet, but we already have several hundred thousand. And our assortment is growing day by day," says Maya Homberger, adding: "For us, the partnership with the book center is very valuable, because we can offer our customers a wide variety – and still don't have to have all the books in stock with us."
Galaxus only stocks the bestsellers itself, while the Book Center sends the rest of the books directly to our customers. And both are quick: books that we have in stock arrive one day after ordering, while direct deliveries from the book center take two to four days.
Yours
Stephan Kurmann,
Communications Manager, Galaxus Switzerland
This article appeared on the Galaxus website on May 3, 2021 and was kindly provided to us as a guest blog