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After a slow start, Tolino— the digital alliance set up in March 2013 by leading German bookselling companies together with Deutsche Telekom as technological partner—is gaining momentum.
According to the latest figures published by market-research company GfK, Tolino leads Kindle for the first time in Germany. In the third quarter of 2014, GfK put Tolino at 45% of e-book sales (up from 38% in Q2), while Amazon’s Kindle Store accounted for only 39% (down from 47%).
While precise sales figures are being kept strictly under wraps, expectations are high for the Christmas holiday season. “E-readers are the new trend in gifts, both in our brick and mortar branches and in the online shop”, said Sikko Böhm, managing director of Weltbild. The Augsburg- based book chain—one of the founding members of the Tolino alliance, alongside Hugendubel, Thalia and Bertelsmann’s Der Club—retails the new water-resistant Tolino Vision 2 as well as the basic model Tolino Shine—and both are among the chain’s top-selling products. Weltbild will host around 300 events in its stores throughout December to introduce Tolino devices to its customers.
The growing confidence within the Tolino alliance is not only based on the GfK figures, but also on the knowledge that there is potential for further growth, both in German- speaking countries and non-Germanic markets. The biggest step forward in its domestic market came in October, when wholesaler Libri came on board with its e-commerce platform Shopline, which is used by around 1,000 independent booksellers. Every Tolino e-reader sold through Shopline will automatically contain a link to the e-book shop of the store from which the device was purchased.
Reportedly more than 200 Shopline booksellers have already signed up
to Tolino, with new stores joining in rapid succession. Among the first to join were Berlin’s cultural institution KulturKaufhaus Dussmann, and 60 travel bookshops owned by Unternehmensgruppe Dr Eckert which trade under the names “Ludwig” and “Eckert” throughout Germany.
The latest addition was announced on 1st December, when Düsseldorf-based Buchhaus Stern-Verlag—one of Europe’s largest booksellers, with around 6,000 sq m of floor space—launched its new online shop using Shopline and including the Tolino readers. Since the end of November, coffee retailer Tchibo has also been selling the Tolino Shine device.
In July, Belgium’s market leader Standaard Boekhandel (SB) became Tolino’s first international partner. After nearly four months of selling Tolino devices and e-books in its 145 stores and online, SB c.e.o. Geert Schotte has nothing but praise for the German alliance, noting that sales of e-books went up “dramatically” and sales of the hardware were
well in line with his “high” expectations.
In September, Dutch bookstore co-operative Libris signed Tolino to be
the new digital partner for its estate, comprising nearly 100 member shops. The latest European expansion—and perhaps the link
with the largest strategic potential—has come in Italy, where Tolino has recently joined forces with Internet BookShop Italia (IBS.it), Italy’s biggest online bookseller. IBS.it is primarily a website but it also has its own shops. It is owned by Messaggerie Italiane, which is not only the country’s biggest overall bookseller and book distributor, but it also owns Gruppo editoriale Mauri Spagnol (GeMS), Italy’s third- largest book publisher.
IBS.it will promote Tolino devices online as well as offline through its brick- and-mortar bookstores, of which it owns 10 directly and more than 30 in partnerships.