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Commentary: Book Depository closing isn’t surprising. The mourning over its demise is

Book Depository fan Adrian Choo was sad to hear that the online store will shut down on Apr 26, but he wasn’t entirely surprised. Here’s why.

Commentary: Book Depository closing isn’t surprising. The mourning over its demise is

File photo of a stack of books. (Photo: iStock/percds)

SINGAPORE: Popular online store Book Depository is closing down on Apr 26 after almost two decades of selling books with free delivery worldwide.

With an extensive catalogue of more than 20 million books, its impending closure marks the end of an era for a massive name that disrupted brick-and-mortar bookstores.

I was sad to hear the news. But truth be told, I wasn’t entirely surprised. I was more surprised by the reaction of book lovers to the closure - after all, all the signs were there.

THE DISRUPTOR

What lessons can we learn from this? Let's refresh our memories.

We used to have to go downtown to a bookstore like MPH or Times to buy our books until the mid-1990s when mega-bookstores like Borders came to town with their comfy sofas and hot cappuccinos, enabling us to sit down and have a good browse before carting home half-a-dozen books.

That was, until 2004, when the world started to go online in a big way - from mobile banking to streaming TV and online gaming, no segment of the market was untouched.

Then, former Amazon employee Andrew Crawford and his business partner Stuart Felton thought it was a great idea to start an online bookstore that shipped worldwide - for free. Thus Book Depository was born and it was an instant hit.

Physical bookstores were unable to compete with Book Depository’s expansive catalogue and affordable pricing. Sure, the lengthy delivery time was a pain (I once waited two weeks for an order) but good things come to those who wait, right? 

Even the original market disruptor, Amazon, couldn’t compete and had their online book business disrupted by Book Depository too. 

Book Depository focused exclusively on books, had a wider selection, and could even source rare books or those that were supposedly “out of print”. (I remember buying the rare Barefoot Gen series, Volume 1 to 7 by Keiji Nakazawa from them in 2009).

Moreover, their “free delivery worldwide to over 170 countries” was hard to duplicate, especially for a giant like Amazon, and they conceded market share to this upstart. 

Book Depository was riding high on the online bookstore wave indeed and in 2011, Amazon decided to rid themselves of this pain in their side by buying them outright for an undisclosed sum of money.

THE BIRTH OF "SHOWROOMING"

As online bookstores boomed, retailers also saw the rise of a unique phenomenon called “showrooming”, where shoppers would go down to a physical store, spend time browsing the products on display, then go online to purchase them at a lower price.

Showrooming has had a significant impact on the traditional bookstore business. A survey by American Booksellers Association in 2013 showed that more than 80 per cent of independent bookstore owners said showrooming was affecting their business, with 47 per cent describing the impact as “moderate” or "significant".

Thus, the ye olde bookstore model was broken. In 2011, Borders, one of the biggest retail bookstores, filed for bankruptcy.

A NEW CHAPTER EMERGES

A newer disruption in the form of e-books came around 2010 with the mainstream adoption of the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes & Noble Nook.

Instead of owning a shelf full of books, readers could now get volumes of their epic Harry Potter novels on a single device tucked snugly in their backpacks.

Even though I never owned an e-book reader, I used my tablet as a substitute and migrated to the digital format in 2012.

With ardent fans like me, the growth of the phenomenal e-book sector continued. According to Future Market Insights, the value of the global e-book market was estimated at US$19.95 billion in 2022, and is projected to reach US$32.19 billion this year.

CHANGING READING HABITS

With the advent and mass adoption of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, shortform writing of no more than three paragraphs has reduced readers’ attention span significantly.

In a study conducted by Microsoft, it was found that the average attention span of humans had dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to eight seconds in 2013, potentially due to digital devices.

With a goldfish-worthy attention span, what hope would any publication that is longer than a pamphlet have with the modern reader? 

Moreover, audiobooks have surged in popularity since 2010, with revenue expected to increase 26.4 per cent annually from 2022 until 2030, possibly sounding the death knell for physical books.

THE NAIL IN THE COFFIN

Like many companies during the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain difficulties for both printing and distribution of books led to delayed fulfilment and countless disappointed customers.

As much as I am disappointed with Book Depository’s closure, I am not overly saddened because I consume all my books digitally now.

I had started out as a big fan of Book Depository, but the last book I purchased from them was in 2017. 

Their closure, however, serves as a precautionary tale to many businesses with three important lessons to be learnt.

First, never be complacent. In a dog-eat-dog world, even the disruptors will get disrupted if they are not consistently innovating.

Second, watch out for new technologies and changing consumer habits. You never know when the next fad will go mainstream and destroy your entire business model.

Third, choose your industry well. A client who was the CEO of a 200-year-old US publishing company once told me: “If you want to get rich, don’t go into the book business".

In today’s fast-changing and volatile world, nothing seems permanent. From Tower Records to Yellow Pages and Blockbuster, these brands once stood as giants but today, have long faded from memory.

Which company will be next? Your guess is as good as mine.

Adrian Choo is the CEO and founder of Career Agility International, a career strategy consultancy.

Source: CNA/aj

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