German book sales up marginally in 2016; online retailers increase market share

In Germany, book trade association Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels has released data showing sales of books and journals in Germany in 2016 rose marginally for the first time since 2013, reports the Bookseller.

Sales increased by one percent to €9.28bn (A$13.8bn), with bricks-and-mortar bookstores making up the largest sales channel with a turnover of €4.39bn (A$6.53bn), down 0.8% from 2015, with a market share of 47.3%, down from 48.2%. This is the second year that physical bookstores have shown a decline in terms of sales and market share.

Online retailing sales grew 5.3% to €1.69bn (A$2.51bn), with the market share rising from 17.4% to 18.2%, while ebooks remained largely on par with last year, with a market share of 4.6% (up from 4.5%).

Overall, German publishers published fewer new releases than they did in the previous year: 72,820 titles were published in 2016, dropping 4.9% from 76,547 in 2015. Fiction was the strongest category, despite a drop in market share of 0.5% to 31.5%. Children’s and YA continued to grow, increasing its market share by 9% to 16.5%, ahead of self-help books (14.5%) and science books (11.1%). Translations were up 4.5% from 9454 to 9882.

Category: International news