The State of Bookselling in Canada 2020
Returns Last but not least in our look at bookstore operations is return. The average return rate for the bookstores who completed our survey was 17%, with half of respondents having a return rate of 15% or higher (the median was 16%). When we segment this by size of bookstore, we find that the average return rate is lower for small bookstores (revenue under $450K) (14%) and higher for medium (16%) and large bookstores (22%). The majority of booksellers thought their rate of returns to suppliers was about right (36%) or somewhat low (34%). Perception of the return rate
n=47 Even though most booksellers thought the rate of returns were about right or somewhat low we still solicited suggestions for reducing or better managing the level of returns. Ideas were put into three categories: COVID-19 related, internal, and industry. But, as one bookseller noted, “there is no easy solution or it would have happened.” In the COVID-19 category, booksellers commented that because of COVID-19 they weren’t able to sell to customers, that online events weren’t bringing in the same volume of sales as in person events, and/or that they didn’t know that their suppliers/distributors were able to receive returns (this was related to supply chain constraints due to COVID-19).
© BookNet Canada 2021
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