The Bookseller.com

20th July 2008

WHS and Amazon at front of pack

14.12.07 Graeme Neill

Amazon and W H Smith have emerged as the pace-setters in this year’s "ferocious" Christmas trading battle. Publishers hailed the two retailers for pushing highly aggressive campaigns backed by quality advertising.

"Amazon continues to be very strong—we’re up 45% to 50% up year-on-year with them," said the m.d. of a trade publisher. A sales director added: "W H Smith have been great. They have really pushed footfall and are very competitive on price."

Publishers were largely positive about the performance of the entire retail market this year, citing high levels of compliance and a solid range of offers across the board.

As booksellers gear up for a crucial final 10 days of trading, Waterstone’s announced sales growth of 8.7% to £244.5m in the six months to 27th October. Like-for-like sales were up 1.4%, which the retailer attributed to the Ottakar’s acquisition last year and the success of Harry Potter.

But Waterstone’s said it saw some dilution in its market share, which it put down to its store closure programme. Its operating loss for the period was £8.9m, £500,000 more than for the same period last year. Despite this, HMV Group c.e.o. Simon Fox said that the retailing group was "very well prepared" for Christmas.

Vince Gunn, m.d. of Blackwell, described Christmas trading as "ferocious". "The level of aggression on discounting is quite unprecedented, and you only do that when things are really bad," he said.

The comments came as the latest figures from Nielsen BookScan’s General Retail Market—a good indicator of high street bookshop performance—show a 3.6% fall in revenue compared to 2006. According to Book Marketing Ltd, chain bookshops accounted for 29.1% of the UK book market by volume for the 40 weeks ending 14th October, down from 36.2% for the same period two years ago.

The Retail Footfall Index reported a 3.8% fall in footfall on the high street in the first week of December compared to the same period last year, citing the internet and out-of-town locations as "emerging winners".

"Our supermarket performance has been strong," agreed a publishing m.d. A sales director added: "For the second year running, Amazon has racked up its offer well and been fantastically successful."

Independent booksellers reported a turnaround after a sluggish November and early December. "It was a slow start, but now it’s just taken off," said Anne Ingleby-Lewis of The ­Forest Bookshop in Coleford, Gloucestershire. "Whether it’s going to peter out remains to be seen." At the Kemptown Bookshop in Brighton, a bookseller said the shop was "not as busy as usual and [Christmas has] been quite late".

Publishers praised W H Smith for its blanket television ads. "People are aware that for the top 20 titles, they are the place to go," said one sales director. "They came out really early with a strong offer, great branding and excellent pricepoints."

Waterstone’s was seen as having the most successful press ad campaign. "They have been very good at making certain books work in terms of price and promotion," said another sales director. However, a rival publisher said Waterstone’s television ad spend was a "missed opportunity" as it didn’t push enough titles or the retailer’s brand hard enough.

Retail W H Smith amazon Graeme Neill

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