News: retail

Burley Fisher launches weekend festival to mark birthday

Hackney independent bookshop Burley Fisher is to host a weekend festival in October, partnering with indie presses to mark its belated fifth birthday. Read more

The Works sees 19% sales decline despite online surge

Retail chain The Works saw a 19% decline in total sales year on year for the 53 weeks to 2nd May 2021 despite online revenues rocketing... Read more

Indie bookshops face 'danger' from third-party sites, Daunt warns

Independent booksellers face “danger” by allowing third-party sites to “sever the connection” between them and their customers, Waterstones m.d. James Daunt has warned. ... Read more

Rankin's A Song for the Dark Times hits the high note in top spot

Ian Rankin's A Song for the Dark Times (Orion) has clearly struck a chord with the book-buying public, reaching a crescendo in its first full... Read more

Bookshop.org urges industry to back indies with links in Independent Bookshop Week

Online indie retailer Bookshop.org is calling for publishers and authors to link to independent bookshops and its own site for the duration of Independent Bookshop Week... Read more

Waterstones reduces prominence of PRH books in credit limit dispute

Waterstones has reduced the visibility of books from Penguin Random House in its branches after the publisher placed a limit on its credit.... Read more

Amazon paid no Luxembourg corporation tax despite record sales income

Amazon paid no corporation tax on its European operations in Luxembourg in 2020 despite reporting record sales income of €43.8bn (£38bn), accounts show. Read more

Second Shelf campaign helps Peters to bumper Bookshop sales

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell (Tinder Press) has topped online retailer Bookshop.org's bestsellers chart for April, while a campaign by bookshop The Second Shelf helped Torrey Peters' Detransition,... Read more

London Review Bookshop launches biannual festival series

The London Review Bookshop has launched a biannual series of short festivals called Subject/Object, kicking off with an event featuring Anita Sethi, Paul Theroux and... Read more

French and Horowitz in Richard and Judy's 2021's Summer Book Club

Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan have returned with their latest Book Club, featuring Dawn French, Jo Nesbo, Anthony Horowitz and Emma Donoghue. ... Read more

W H Smith raises £325m and plans to open 100 new Travel stores

W H Smith has reported a revenue decline of 44% in the six months to February 2021 but is raising £325m as it seeks to... Read more

Queues and bumper sales as Scottish bookshops reopen

Scottish booksellers say they are “thrilled” to be open again after months of lockdown, with bumper sales and queues forming outside some stores on opening... Read more

UK publishing income up 2% in Covid-hit 2020 despite print decline

Total publishing income hit record levels in 2020, rising 2% to £6.4bn, buoyed by a digital surge that helped offset a 6% decline in print... Read more