Italian Book Market
In 2011, the total publishing market in Italy reached €3.408 billion, analyst at the Association of Italian Editors said. The number of book copies produced was 208,165. Additionally, more than 2,500 companies operate in book publishing. This sector employs roughly 40.000 workers. However, the book production industry reached approximately 2.6 billion euros in 2013 and the publishing industry reached 3,8 billion euros in 2013(an increase compared to 2011) (Simon & de Prato, 2012, p. 10).
Clearly, bookshops dominate with more than 30% of the total book retail market and a CAGR of 2.5%..
Here are some figures regarding book sales by category of retailers from 2006-2009 :
Consumers' behaviour & preferences
In Italy, reading is not as significant as Germany when it comes to assessing this leisure activity. Youngers, aged between 11 to 17 years, happen to be the biggest book readers in Italy with over 59% of the total number of readers. Moreover, seemingly women read more than men by year. Another element is that the more you are educated, the more you read books.
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Suppliers & Distributors
Education institutions can be very helpful since there are more than 89 universities in Italy with more than 1.8 million students. Plus, the 42.000 Schools and their 9 million students are big consumers of books. Other big religious institutions such as churches, UNESCO or student associations can be of a big assistance for BWB.
Competition analysis
The war between online against physical stores is taking place in Italy with a 49% operating online and 51% only offline. Only the fast-comers will be able to attract quickly a huge customer base. The strongest shall sustain his position and hold his clients by innovating in this up-and-coming market.