Is Amazon responsible for the demise of the bookstore?
On the 5th of July 1994 in Bellevue Washington, Amazon was founded. Since then it has become the top ecommerce platform in the country. ‘Each month more than 197 million people around the world get on their devices and visit Amazon.com.’ (Owlcation, 2019) Currently Amazon sells over 12 million products , many being the items they started off selling: books. Prior to the digital age, books had to be purchased in person from a shop, so has Amazon affected the way people consume books?
1. The ease of online shopping
As online shopping has become a part of the day to day activity of our modern day lives, it would make sense that we would start to buy our books online. Before the internet we would have to leave the comfort of our home or the workplace, make a conscious decision to drive and have to find a parking space or get on the bus to travel to the shop to find that book we want to read. Now we can simply log on to Amazon and get a hard copy delivered to our door within 24 hours.
2. The Kindle and Audible
Not only does Amazon have a platform where we can order hard copy books, it also has created technologies such as the Kindle, which allows us to download multiple books on an e reader preventing the issue of physical space. There is even the opportunity to download a sample of the book before fully committing to it. Audible books means that the customer can simply listen to someone reading the book to them, even while driving and has had the additional benefit of making books far more accessible to those with for example vision loss. In this way we we can still consume books even when reading them traditionally may not be possible.
3. Shelf Space
One of Amazons major advantages is the fact that they do not suffer from the same problem as physical bookstores do when it comes to shelf space. Amazon can carry thousands of books with no problem , where as bookshops have a limit to the amount of books they can carry. The public know that they shouldn’t have problem finding the book they desire on Amazon , no matter whether it is from an independent publisher or from an underground genre. Every type of customer can be accommodated without limit.
4. Cost
The number of times people come and look at the book on the shelves and say, ‘I’ll order that on Amazon.’ I’ve heard that over and over again.’ (Flood, 2019)) With no high street leases and other expenses, online companies are able to reduce their own costs and pass them on to the consumer, thus adding further pressure to book shops which can not compete financially. If they can not lower their prices then custom is lost.
5. Will bookstores survive?
There is still the argument that there is a beauty that comes with going into a physical bookstore and flicking through the pages which is just something you can’t compare with ordering a book online. This could be a reason why some bookstores have managed to avoid getting destroyed by amazon. Julie Danskin, who owns a bookshop in Edinburgh recently said that “together with a small team of booksellers and a dedicated owner we have grown our bookshop from a struggling business to a thriving one.” (Moss, 2019)
Maybe bookstores will be able to hold their ground in the upcoming years and avoid the wrath of Amazon. Or will Amazon continue to prosper and become more popular when it comes to books and cause more bookstores to shut down.
Flood, A. (2019). Amazon blamed as ‘iconic’ bookshops announce closure. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/30/amazon-blamed-as-iconic-bookshops-announce-closure [Accessed 30 Sep. 2019].
Moss, S. (2019). Unputdownable! The bookshops Amazon couldn’t kill. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/06/amazon-booksellers-beating-odds-book-shops [Accessed 6 Oct. 2019].
Nytimes.com. (2019). Bookstore Chains, Long in Decline, Are Undergoing a Final Shakeout. [online] Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/technology/bookstores-final-shakeout.html [Accessed 30 Sep. 2019].
Owlcation. (2019). 10 Reasons Why eBooks Are Better Than Print. [online] Available at: https://owlcation.com/humanities/10-Reasons-Why-eBooks-are-Better-than-Print-Books [Accessed 30 Sep. 2019].
