German book market
In 2014, the book industry was ranked 14th in Germany among the leisure activities sector (50 in total). The industry’s turnover accounted for 9.5 billion euros in 2013 with a GAGR of 0.2% (German Publishers & Booksellers Association, 2014 : « Books and the book trade in figures »).
Further, according to the German Publishers & Booksellers Association, in 2015 there were 3,204 booksellers spread entirely in Germany. Overall, the number of booksellers has been nonstop falling for some years now (in 2013, there were 3,896 booksellers whereas today they account for 3,2000 shops).
Consumers' behaviour & preferences
In Germany, heavy readers dominate with 44% of the population. Further, women read more than men and the formers buy books 1.7 times more than the latters. Moreover, in Germany the share of book buyers increase with age.
The distribution channels in Germany are divided into four main classes: Retail bookshops (49% of the market share), publishers’ direct sales (21%), e-stores sales (16%) and other channels (14%).
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Suppliers & Distributors
BWB can get its books with either donations or paying its suppliers to ensure a full allocation of volumes.
Important sources might be the German librairies, the 423 Universities and the 50.000 schools with their 15.5 million students who have each year millions of books either to sell, to give away or to throw out. There are also big publishers who deliver books to companies.
Competition analysis
The trend nowadays in the German market is to go hybrid. Enormous book retailers such as Thalia, DHB and others are operating both on physical and virtual markets. They were all suffering because of Amazon’s show-off on the German market. Notwithstanding, a lot of German bookshops and retailers’ joint forces by establishing an ecosystem (enabling thus the manufacturing of Tolino) in order to cope with the fierce competition created by Amazon.