While Barnes & Noble, the largest chain bookstore in the United States, has been struggling, Canada’s largest bookseller, Indigo Books & Music, is growing. In their latest earnings report, they announced plans to expand into the United States for the first time, starting in New Jersey in the summer of 2018.
Indigo’s press release says they will replicate their Canadian “cultural department store” model, offering a “joyful, addictive omni-channel experience as well as the ultimate community for book lovers.” That means the stores will sell a variety of gift and lifestyle merchandise; about 40 percent of their store sales are non-book items, and those sales have been increasing by the double digits. (Print book sales have been falling.) Currently, Indigo runs 89 superstores under the names Indigo and Chapters, plus 122 smaller stores under the names Coles, Indigospirit, SmithBooks, and The Book Company.
Canada hasn’t been immune to the shift of book sales to online retailers, but Canadian companies have been able to hold their own against Amazon. Indigo’s online sales grew 15 percent last year, and in the Canadian ebook market, Kobo outsells Amazon.
Bottom line: Indigo’s sales patterns exhibit the same trend as those of Barnes & Noble: growth in merchandise, gifts, and toys, with flat sales or declines in print books. Indigo’s leadership seems to be more aggressive in changing the store’s brand and product mix to that of a lifestyle shopping experience. Barnes & Noble is headed in a similar direction, although we wonder if the restaurant model now being tested in concept stores is the right play.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
