Are Bookstores Dead? How Online Shops Are Innovating Past the Brick and Mortar

To many, it almost seems as if the book in general is dead. As the Internet and the spread of gaming and television ultimately penetrates the youth everywhere, it seems as though readers are becoming sparse.

But, that simply isn’t true. The trend of reading a book is still huge – reading most definitely isn’t out of fashion. Sure, reading isn’t nearly as big as it used to be in the 70s and 80s, when 9 out of 10 Americans had read a book in the previous year – but considering the fact that over 70% of Americans had read a book in 2013 according to an Atlantic article, it’s certain that people out there still crack open a paperback every once in a while.

Or do they? Recently, there has been word on the streets that the eBook is dead – but as the Guardian points out, that’s simply an overstatement. The fact of the matter, as Nielsen points out with its statistics on eBook retail cycles, is that the fiction genre is stagnating, slowing eBook sales and healing the sales of non-fictional print books – but many believe that this is nothing but a transitional phase as more and more people begin to convert from print media to digital reading.

It’s simply easier and more convenient to shop for digital books. Although the nostalgia effect of a physical book remains, digital content is growing – and the industry has noticed.

Large Retail Bookshops Are Dead

The true reason so much media is hyped up to hear about the decline of digital readership is simple – digital books have been killing the traditional brick-and-mortar book and publishing industry. In the past, the reason publishers were so integral to the success of an author was that publishing a book was about more than just writing it – you would need to have the financial backing of a publishing house to market and produce your book. Printing, after all, wasn’t cheap.

It still isn’t cheap today – but digital distribution is practically free. Authors no longer need to rely on publishers as marketers – digital marketing is a hugely developed art that anyone can take a shot at, and succeed in with the right tools. To the authors, the digital market has absolutely transformed what it means to be a writer.

The same can be said for readers. Given the low cost of production and distribution, authors can afford to sell eBooks for as little as two or three dollars – meaning readers can buy books in volumes never thought of before. And since storage technology today has moved on to storing as much audio and video as possible, storing something as uncomplicated as text has come quite cheap as well.

These two factors combined doesn’t mean that the middleman between authors and readers is dead – it’s just that the middleman has changed, much to the chagrin of the print industry. But some companies aren’t simply staring in awe, complaining about the change – they’re doing something about it.

Indie Bookstores Will Always Exist

There’s a certain quality to an independent bookstore that lends it the credence it needs to stand on its own, even in an age where print media is slowly declining in usage, and rapidly declining in convenience. Reading on the go will soon become the realm of mostly eBooks – but reading in a café or among friends is infinitely more pleasurable when the smells of old pages is combined with the scent of coffee grounds, and the comfortable feel of a cotton cushion. By turning bookstores into hubs for intellectual conversation and exchange, indie bookstores are tapping into a niche that large, faceless, soulless bookstore corporations can’t, and one that the eBook market is physically unable to counter.

Retailers Online Are Innovating Through Better Cataloguing

But what the digital market lacks in physical presence, it makes up for everywhere else. Large retailers have long realized that their market will go belly-up – as Crain’s New York Business paper reports, even Barnes and Noble is closing its doors slowly. While it’s a shame, it has led to innovations on a different front – as per Barnes and Noble Readouts, a B&N online initiative that is taking charge of online book retailing by changing the way people browse their books.

Cataloguing is an alarming issue online. As more and more books are published, it’s becoming difficult for readers to choose what they want to read. The days where going to a bookstore and picking up a good-looking title while flipping through its pages are coming to an end – and thus, an alternative needs to be created that gives readers the same ability to choose what they want to read without becoming overwhelming.

But, despite setbacks like that, innovators in the industry are proving that, just because people are beginning to rely on the Internet for their books doesn’t have to mean that the age of literacy is coming to an end. It’s simply undergoing a change in perspective.

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