BTW News Briefs

Sales Rep Group Changes

NAIBAhood News, the newsletter of the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association, reported on a number of recent rep group changes:

• Workman Publishing Company has bought Como Sales Company, Inc., the Northeast commission group founded by Jock Moore, Murray Cohen, and Henry Hirsch. With the exception of Judy Hirsch, the Como sales team will remain intact.

• Sirak & Sirak Associates, the Mid-Atlantic rep group headed by Jim and Lisa Sirak, and billbooks & associates, the New England rep group headed by Bill Palizzolo, are merging. Their new group, which will cover both territories, will be called Northeast Publishers Reps (NPR).

• Beth Ann Walck, head of Walck Sales & Marketing, the 30-year-old Mid-Atlantic commission group, has announced that she and colleagues Lindsey and Paul Emberley would be retiring at the end of 2008. Walck said that she would remain in book publishing, while the Emberleys were looking forward to spending more time traveling and enjoying their grandchildren.

AAP Reports Decrease in September Sales

Book sales tracked by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) for the month of September decreased by 2.0 percent at $1.062 billion and were down by 1.5 percent for the year. The Adult Hardcover category was down by 29.8 percent in September with sales of $173.3 million; year-to-date sales were down by 9.2 percent. Adult Paperback sales decreased 8.6 percent for the month ($134.7 million) but increased by 6.9 percent for the year. The Adult Mass Market category was down 8.3 percent for September with sales totaling $67.4 million; sales were up by 0.8 percent year-to-date. The Children's/YA Hardcover category saw an increased jump of 41.9 percent for the month with sales of $119.8 million; sales for year-to-date dropped by 26.3 percent. The Children's/YA Paperback category was down 19.1 percent in September with sales totaling $51.5 million, although sales increased by 8.8 percent for the year.

Audio Book sales posted a decrease of 12.3 percent in September with sales totaling $18.7 million; sales for the whole year were down by 24.7 percent. E-books sales jumped up by 77.8 percent for the month ($5.1 million), reflecting an increase of 55.2 percent for the year. Religious Books saw a decrease of 11.8 percent for the month with sales totaling $76.8 million; sales were also down by 8.9 percent for the year.

Sales of University Press Hardcover books dropped 3.6 percent in September with sales of $6.3 million; sales decreased by 6.1 percent for the year. University Press Paperback sales posted an increase of 4.4 percent for the month with sales totaling $6.5 million; sales were down 6.5 percent for the year. Sales in the Professional and Scholarly category were up by 6.8 percent in September ($60.5 million) but decreased by 1.0 percent for the year.

Online Retailers "Not Immune" to Challenging Holiday Season

Though the holiday season will be challenging across the board, online retailers are expecting more than coal in their stockings. According to results of the 2008 eHoliday Study, conducted by Shopzilla for Shop.org, more than half of online retailers (56.1 percent) expect their holiday sales to increase at least 15 percent over last year. However, the rate of growth is slowing: three-fourths (77.5 percent) of retailers surveyed last year expected their sales to grow more than 15 percent.

The study also found that, despite an increase in transportation costs, retailers do not plan to cut back on popular free shipping promotions. This year, the majority of retailers (78 percent) plan to offer free shipping with conditions at some point during the holiday season, consistent with last year's levels. Retailers are compensating for increased shipping costs by renegotiating terms with shipping providers (40.4 percent), closely managing company headcount (33.3 percent), and reducing other promotions (15.8 percent). In addition, one-fifth (21.3 percent) of retailers say they will require a higher purchase amount for customers to be eligible for free shipping and one in 10 (10.6 percent) will cut back on usage of free shipping with no conditions.

Many retailers have also rolled out new website features to improve the customer experience, including improved site searches, product video, customer reviews, and enhanced "clearance" and "featured sale" pages. In addition, retailers are continuing to experiment with social networking. Nearly one-fourth of the study's participating online retailers reported having added a Facebook page this year.