Andy Hunter is the booksellers answer to Midas. Everything he touches turns to gold. At the beginning of the year, Hunter noticed untapped ground – there was no independent platform to retail books from. If one were to exist and could capture the minds and loosen the purse strings of even a handful of Amazon’s customer base, the profits would be considerable indeed.
Hunter was considered a dreamer when he disclosed his projected estimates to investors – $30 million in the next two years. Then Covid-19 hit, and his fortunes changed.
Bookshop is currently on track to exceed $40 million in profits this year alone. In May alone, the site sold $4.5 million worth of books, and $7 million in June thus far. Over 750 bookshops have joined the initiative, with the company planning on extending their reach to the UK in late 2020.
Amazon, who accounts for 70 per cent of online book sales, has continued to strengthen its platform during the pandemic, however, there is some concern that Bookshop will be unable to maintain such concerted growth further to the pandemic.
Hunter remains optimistic – of the American Booksellers Association, responsible for 1,880 stores, some 40 per cent are using his platform. This is coupled with the fact that only one fifth of book buyers who frequented independent bookstores had heard of Bookshop.
“If it’s sticky and it lasts beyond this Covid crisis, it’s going to really help bookstores thrive,” says Hunter.
“If we ever felt we were damaging indie bookstore sales in any way, we would change course” he promised.
