Bookstores Industry Profile

The US bookstores industry includes about 10,000 stores with combined annual revenue of about $16 billion. Major companies include Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million. The industry is highly concentrated: the 50 largest companies account for about 85 percent of sales.

The industry includes companies that operate physical retail locations. Online booksellers, such as Amazon.com, are covered in the industry profile for Internet and Catalog Retailers.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Demand is driven by demographics and consumer income. The profitability of individual companies depends on merchandising and marketing. Large companies can provide broader selections and lower prices. Small companies can compete by offering specialized products or serving a local market. The industry is labor-intensive: average annual sales per employee are about $130,000. Sales per employee tend to be lower for smaller, independent bookstores.

The industry is being redefined as booksellers fend off intense competition from discount stores and online retailers and adjust to increasing acceptance by consumers of digital books as an alternative to printed books. Bookstores are finding the times challenging and Borders, once the nation's #2 chain, filed for bankruptcy in early 2011 before moving to liquidate its assets.

PRODUCTS, OPERATIONS & TECHNOLOGY

The industry is segmented into general, college, and specialty bookstores. General bookstores sell mostly trade books (fiction, nonfiction, adult, children’s); college bookstores, mostly textbooks; and specialty bookstores, mostly religious books. Trade books account for about 35 percent of sales, textbooks for nearly 30 percent, and religious ...