Books Remain Top Christmas Gift in 2011 Despite Slight Spending Dip
Once again this year, the good old book remains the most popular gift for friends and family during the holiday season. This is according to a survey by the Society for Consumer Research (GfK) of 3,558 people aged between 14 and 65.
On average, Germans plan to spend 241 euros on gifts this year, with 37 euros reserved for books. This is slightly below last year’s figure, where an average of 38 euros was spent on reading material. 37.2 percent of respondents have books on their gift list. As a result, book sales are expected to reach 1.05 billion euros (including vouchers).
The situation is quite similar in Austria. According to Standard, 38 percent of Austrians plan to give books as gifts.
“Germans are by no means tired of books,” comments Wolfgang Adlwarth from GfK on the situation. “The fact that they’re planning to spend a little less money on reading material this year is likely due to the lack of bestsellers.” To recall: Last year, Thilo Sarrazin’s ‘Germany Does Away With Itself’ significantly boosted book sales.
However, the previous year wasn’t all positive for book sales. Due to heavy snowfall at the end of 2010, sales fell sharply. Revenue in December was 5 percent below the previous year’s level. If the weather cooperates this year, Adlwarth predicts, “the book trade should roughly reach last year’s level.”
The brick-and-mortar book trade is nevertheless under greater pressure than it was last year. This year, 41 percent of respondents plan to make their book purchases online—7 percent more than last year. This benefits not only Amazon but also other online retailers.
Interest in eBook readers was not surveyed by GfK. “However, since the prices for the devices are significantly lower than a year ago, we assume that demand is increasing,” they nonetheless forecast. However, they do not believe these are being purchased as gifts but rather that digital content is being acquired for personal use.
Further Survey Confirms Popularity
UPDATE: A post-Christmas survey by the German Retail Association (HDE) dated December 27, 2011, conducted among 1,000 people, confirms this once again.
A month ago, 37.2 percent of Germans and 38 percent of Austrians said they planned to give books as gifts. In the HDE survey, this figure decreased but remains at the top spot with 32.5 percent. Women are more likely than men to give books as gifts.
Books are followed by perfumes (20 percent), games and toys (18 percent), vouchers (17.6 percent), sweets (14 percent), DVDs (12 percent), clothing (11.4 percent), jewelry (8.8 percent), photos and photo albums (8.3 percent), money (8.0 percent), and calendars (5.4 percent).
Every fifth man gave a voucher, while for women, it was less than one in six. Men gave perfumes, clothing, jewelry, and tech products like DVDs, cell phones, and smartphones more often than women. Along with books, women also gave games and toys more frequently.
Unfortunately, they did not gather data on how often eBook readers or eBooks were gifted, likely because the numbers are still relatively low. Perhaps that will change soon!
German Book Trade Remains Positive, Or Does It?
Buchreport reports that the book trade continues to see positive figures by the second Advent weekend. During the first Advent, the book trade achieved a sales increase of 2.6 percent. The second Advent weekend remains positive with a 3 percent increase. With these figures, the book trade would be above the overall retail average during the holiday season. However, in the annual balance, the book trade is struggling with a 4.9 percent decrease, while overall retail can report an increase of 2.6 percent.
In contrast, Börsenblatt has found different numbers, noting increased customer frequencies but declining sales. From November 28 to December 3, a survey of 50 bookstores revealed an average revenue decrease of 1.9 percent. Particularly poor results were in regions where the weather was unfavorable, with sales losses of up to 25 percent.
Popular titles in this year’s fiction selection include Jeff Kinney’s “No Pressure!”, Eugen Ruge’s novel “In Times of Fading Light,” and Christopher Paolini’s fourth Eragon book “Inheritance.” In nonfiction, Helmut Schmidt and Peer Steinbrück’s discussions “In Step” and Walter Isaacson’s biography “Steve Jobs” lead the way.
Whether the book trade has recorded a sales increase or decrease during the current holiday season can’t be definitively answered due to the contradictory data. The truth is probably somewhere in between, and the sales are likely close to last year’s level.
