The bookselling landscape throughout Europe is in a state of flux. A look at the performance of major book retailers on the continent in the summer of 2015 shows that consumer confidence in many countries has not yet recovered from the recent economic downturn. While there were no large- scale bookshop crashes in recent months—like that of Dutch book chain Polare earlier last year or Germany’s Weltbild in 2013—sales losses are the order of the day, resulting in further consolidation and restructuring.

During the past two or three years, the landscape in many book markets has changed drasti...