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https://theconversation.com/booktopia-australias-biggest-online-bookseller-is-poised-for-collapse-that-doesnt-mean-bookshops-are-in-trouble-233975>
"At its height, Australia’s largest online bookseller, Booktopia, had a A$2.4
million turnover, 5 million customers, and sold a book “every 3.9 seconds”.
This week, it entered voluntary administration, a month after announcing the
axing of 50 jobs and resignation of senior staff, including its chief
executive. Shares had fallen to 4.5 cents, compared with about $3 a share in
2021.
But even at its peak, in the 2022 financial year, Booktopia was still
unprofitable. What happened?
Co-founder of Booktopia, Tony Nash, who has said “I was never much of a
reader”, defied the book industry’s expectations of a bookseller. Australian
bookselling is a business of small profit margins, where workers are driven by
their love of books.
But Nash simply identified the book trade as a business opportunity in the
early days of online selling. When he attended a booksellers’ conference early
in the Booktopia venture, Nash reviewed his local competitors as made up of
people who lack business acumen: “These guys have no idea”.
Yet shortly after its 20th birthday, Booktopia has gone into receivership. By
contrast, the independents and local chain stores have certainly shrunk in
number, but are holding up reasonably well.
How is it that a data-driven, market-focused business has failed, while
traditional book businesses continue to define the industry?
“It’s not that bookshops aren’t viable businesses,” Robbie Egan, chief
executive of Australian booksellers association BookPeople told the
Sydney
Morning Herald last month, “it’s that Booktopia appears not to be.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
