Online vs offline - How consumers across markets buy books
Do readers prefer the leisurely experience of browsing through bookshelves in a store or would they rather opt for the efficiency of online book shopping, scrolling for the best deals, adding titles to their digital cart on the go?
According to data from a recent YouGov survey, more than a third of consumers across 17 international markets (36%) prefer buying books from a brick-and-mortar store. But a larger proportion (46%) would prefer doing so from an online retailer.
More than one in ten consumers across markets (11%) do not buy books, data from YouGov Surveys: Serviced shows.
Demographic data reveals that the youngest age cohort surveyed (18-to-24-years) is the most likely across age groups to prefer buying books in-store - 42% of this groups prefers doing so.
On the other hand, 35-to-44-year-olds are the least likely to prefer buying books from a bookstore (32%). In fact, this group leads (51%) in its preference of buying book online.
Book buying preferences by market
Data from individual markets reveals that the French (46%) are the most likely across markets to prefer buying books from a physical establishment. Equal proportions of Indians (42%), Indonesians (42%) and Spanish (42%) follow French.
Poles are the least likely across markets (25%, nonetheless) to prefer buying books from a store.
Interestingly, Poles account for the largest proportion of consumers across markets (57%) who prefer buying books online, followed by consumers in Italy (52%), Sweden (51%) and the UAE (50%).
Brits are more likely than Americans (46% vs. 43%) to prefer buying books from an online retailer.
Singaporeans lean towards online book shopping as well (44%). However, consumers in this market lead all markets surveyed (20%) in saying they do not purchase books, closely followed by Danes (18%). At 16%, Americans aren’t far behind.
Explore our living data - for free
Discover more retail content here
Want to run your own research? Run a survey now
Make smarter business decisions with better intelligence. Understand exactly what your audience is thinking by leveraging our panel of 26 million+ members. Speak with us today.
Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from
nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 17 markets with sample sizes varying between 505 and 2001 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in July 2024. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.
Photo by Dario Fernandez Ruz on Pexels