How do bookstore influencers win readers’ hearts?
Zhongshuge Bookstore, an online influencer in Chongqing Photo: FILE
In the Jihe Bookstore in Xining, Qinghai Province, yak cashmere from the pastoral area is woven into scarfs, wool felts and coasters, and more than 380 kinds of ethnic handicrafts display the culture of the snowy region, intertwining tradition and modernity, as well as liveliness and quietness. This bookstore, covering an area of about 10,000 square meters, has become popular on social media due to its transplanting the “book + culture + coffee” model.
“If I were a reader, what would my ideal bookstore look like?” Lin Geng, the founder of Jihe Bookstore, often thought of this question in the early design stages of the bookstore. After one year of operation, Jihe Bookstore ranked among the top five on the Xinhua Wenxuan system in terms of sales volume, and it rose as the city’s new cultural landmark, because it showcases the meaning and vitality of the distinct plateau culture to the outside world.
Development
Jihe Bookstore is not alone. The boom of influential bookstores on social media has helped China’s physical bookstores survive a slump, encouraging them to seek new operation models. “All these changes are inseparable from the support of national policies,” Lin said.
In 2016, several departments of the Chinese government jointly issued “Guiding Opinions on Supporting Development of Physical Bookstores,” implementing a tax exemption for book wholesale and retail in 2018. Many physical bookstores seized the opportunity and innovated with their business ideas.
Bookstore influencers across China are attracting a throng of consumers. Meanwhile, a voice of doubt is fermenting. In the era when people are merely keen to share their visits to bookstores on social media platforms, are these popular bookstores encouraging reading? Has taking pictures given way to heartfelt reading? In the face of these doubts, we can’t help asking: Is it wrong to be an influential bookstore on social media?
“Physical bookstores that are mentioned frequently on social media are a unique product of the internet era. Its emergence and popularity are attributed to the eyeball economy. From this perspective, bookstore influencers have their value. Criticism doesn’t target the bookstores themselves. People criticize because the fans have failed to put these bookstores’ functions into good use,” said Wang Linsheng, a research fellow from the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences.
Gao Hongcun, the chief expert for the innovation project of the CPC Central Committee Party School, held that the emergence of bookstore influencers is a good phenomenon, as it is a testament to the internet’s penetration into the development of the cultural sector. “The internet penetration rate in China has exceeded 60%. Bookstores, as a traditional form of cultural space, are becoming profoundly integrated with the internet. Exclusive design concepts have created a cultural format fit for the consumption habits of young people, reflecting the innovation and iteration of the cultural sector,” Gao said.
“Bookstore influencers have risen on top of their attractive interior design and are thriving due to elements of culture. People’s pursuit of a high-quality life will undergo subtle changes as reading becomes a lifestyle and the behavior of visiting these bookstores turns from a fashion into an appropriate usage of public space,” said Qi Yongfeng, a professor at the Communication University of China.
Sustainability
Dazhong Bookstore is one of the representative chain bookstores in China, whose manager said that the bookstore hopes to create a novel “cultural park” based on book consumption with other cultural formats playing a supportive role. The bookstore also serves as a place to spread the latest cultural information and invite people to experience the latest cultural activities. What has led to the tremendous success of bookstores on social media? These cases reflect the dilemma facing physical bookstores in China and the efforts to tackle it.
The development of the internet and e-commerce heavily impacted physical bookstores several years ago, forcing many physical bookstores to shut down in a short period. Afterward, driven by favorable national policies, physical bookstores in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Xi’an started to recover, resulting in a wave of new physical bookstores across the country.
In 2018, Beijing released the policy “Implementing Opinions on Supporting the Development of Physical Bookstores,” which has built a favorable policy and business environment and chartered a golden age for the development of physical bookstores. Since 2018, more than 200 physical bookstores have been opened in the city, and well-known bookstores headquartered outside Beijing have expanded their businesses into the capital city, such as Jiantou Bookstore, Shanghai Life Bookstore, Yan Ji You, Sisyphus and Zhongshuge.
Today, physical bookstores, like movie theaters and supermarkets, are becoming a necessity for large shopping malls and cultural centers. Professionals in the sector understand that the physical bookstore industry’s ability to make a profit remains weak. Faced with the impact of online bookstores, e-commerce platforms and changes in people’s reading habits, many physical bookstores still feel that the future is bleak. Transformation and innovation still have a long way to go.
Besides strikingly beautiful design, how should bookstore influencers and other bookstores develop in the future? “Traditional bookstores are merely a place to sell books. Nowadays, online book dealers have greater advantages in this area, posing new challenges to physical bookstores. Given the new situation and readers’ new needs, we must creatively diversify the function of book sales by implementing a “book +” model so that bookstores can become a comprehensive living and cultural space in addition to selling books,” Gao said.
“The development of bookstore influencers needs the support of meaningfulness. The distinctive interior design is no more than a means to solicit public attention. As never more than a prerequisite for meaningfulness, bookstores’ outstanding design can’t fuel their sustainability. They need strong support from content. Only by providing more valuable content and other related services can bookstore influencers gain greater popularity,” Wang Linsheng said.
Values
Visitors may find they have arrived at a treasure trove in the Yan Ji You Bookstore in Haidian District, Beijing. Readers can order a cup of coffee while reading a book. More attractive things are other projects that allow people to experience home furnishings, costumes, art galleries, floral arts, potted plants and DIY handicrafts. Yan Ji You breaks through the traditional format of bookstores and creates diverse forms of value through innovation.
Innovative physical bookstores started in the first-tier cities, but today they have penetrated into third- and fourth-tier cities. At Ruiyou Bookstore in Dingnan County, Jiangxi Province, readers can select books according to their own needs, and they can also enjoy a variety of services such as catering, creative cultural products, lifestyle products and home furnishings. The concept of integrated development has not only boosted book sales but also opened up new cultural spaces for the city.
Facing innovative operating models, people are arguing whether books and reading should remain at the core as bookstores evolve. What kind of development ideas should be applied in the pursuit of non-book sales and marketing?
“The emergence of bookstore influencers reflects the understanding of the importance of reading in contemporary society. It is attributed to the country’s emphasis on reading. Also, traditional bookstores have transformed and diversified by changing the ways of cultural consumption. It is essentially a marketing method to be influential on social media. It is a way of attracting visitors by innovating with consumption scenes. But the enduring and profound experience will eventually return to reading itself. Otherwise, bookstore influencers would soon be replaced by other forms of spaces that can get greater attention on the internet,” said Hu Na, director of the Industrial Development Department at the China Cultural and Creative Industry Research Association.
This article was translated from Guangming Daily.
edited by MA YUHONG