By Kaipee Luther Newray, newraykaipee@gmail.com
Dehradun, India-The sales of physical books in India are reduced due to the entry of two major e-commerce platforms, Flipkart and amazon into the online marketing of books.
The presence of these companies is gradually putting independent booksellers out of serious business in this digital era.
Flipkart is an Indian e-commerce company, headquartered in Bangalore, and incorporated in Singapore as a private limited company and Amazon.com, Inc. Is an American multinational technology company that focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence.
Here in India, numerous publishers are sending their books directly to Flipkart and Amazon for online marketing, instead of offline bookstores.
Mr. Naseem Ahmed, Owner of Readers’ Choice, a local bookstore in Dehradun, Uttarakhand said, “nowadays marketing books offline is very difficult due because every book can be found on social media platforms like Amazon and Flipkart.”
Both companies are selling books with huge discounts, thus making it difficult for independent bookshops to earn profits like before’’ he noted.
He also indicated that maintaining books during the exhibition, especially rainy season is challenging.
“Since the establishment of Readers’ Choice in 1995, we have been conducting books exhibitions across India. In 2007, we joined the REACH Virasat festival to enhance our book exhibition scheme in Uttarakhand,” he added.
Readers’ Choice CEO, wants government to prioritize the promotion of effective reading culture in the Indian society.
He then encouraged parents to keep their kids from television and social media and show them more interest in reading books to keep calm.
Ahmed admits that kids and youths showing more interest in reading books than adults in India.
‘’They encouraged the styles of reading and that is why we are committed to give our best efforts to sell the books to the youngsters.”
“Old books are still attracting readers, especially the youngsters in India,” he said.
However, Readers’ Choice is currently exhibiting children’s books, motivational, fiction, arts, are the kinds of books here at the ongoing Virasat festival with a discount on all books from 10% to 70%.
Books for kids on fair are Nursery rhymes, Three Minutes Tales Chicks, The very Lazy Boy, a picture book, the Jungle Books, a coloring book and The Three Musketeers written by French author Alexandre Dumas.
Also, they are motivational books like India’s Struggles for Independence by Bipin Chandra, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho’s, A Promised Land by Barack Obama, The Miracle morning by Hal Elrod, Who Stole the American Dream by journalist Hedrick Smith published in 2012, and many English novels.
India’s book publishers are facing new challenges, including higher costs due to inflation and a smaller readership. India’s book publishers are also facing a myriad of challenges ranging from heightened production costs of a reduction in the kinds of books consumers are willing to read.