Thais still like books they can touch, study finds

They are seeking more active booksellers in terms of communications and engagement, both traditional and digital, a recent study by the Publisher and Booksellers Association of Thailand has found.
Using qualitative research involving six focus groups at three bookstore chains – Nai-in, B2S and Se-Ed – the association aimed to gain a deeper understanding of today’s reader behaviour, particularly of regular and rare visitors to bookstores after the impact from evolving media.
People aged 20-35 took part in this study from July 16-18.
Thipsuda Sinchawarnwat, a member of the association’s executive committee who was the research head, said yesterday that the research results suggested that regular visitors were likely to go to bookstores about once a fortnight or more often.
The average size of their basket was about Bt1,000. Their favourite genre was novels.
Regular visitors always plan which books they want to buy before heading to the store.
This was a different story for rare visitors who go to a bookstore once a month without pre-planning.
This group was more likely to be sensitive to promotional campaigns and compelling messages at points of sale. Their basket size was about Bt500 per trip.
Most participants – 60-80 per cent – said they still purchased books at physical stores while 20-40 per cent per cent said they could wait for annual book fairs to buy books with special offers.
And less than 10 per cent admitted to buying e-books.
“This means that most Thai readers have not changed their purchasing pattern for books,” Thipsuda said.
Charan Homtientong, president of the association, said e-book sales were not growing as expected, as people still preferred to read and touch real books.
Readers are spending more time on social media but they still keep reading books.
Regular visitors still dominate the market and most of them admit that booksellers and publishers are still passive in terms of customer engagement.
“Today’s readers seem to be aggressively eager to get new updates including trends in book society and new title releases. So their voice must be heard,” Thipsuda said.
Booksellers should revamp their customer-relationship-management system to get a better understanding of customer needs and communicate with them in the right direction via both conventional and digital channels, she said.
Each bookstore should provide more space inside to build a readers’ community and expand their network under the same interests.
Like other traditional media, book sales have stagnated since 2010.
By the end of this year, sales of books will reach about Bt12 billion, the association estimates.