Book sales in Portugal rose 14.1% in terms of units sold in the first half of this year in the first half of this year, corresponding to an 18.9% increase in value, according to data from consulting firm Gfk released on Monday.
According to a study of reading sector behavior that covered nine countries, Gfk, an independent organization that monitors and counts book sales throughout the year in Portugal, also found that the average price of books increased slightly in those first six months of the year, by 4.2 %, to the equivalent of 12.98 euros, on average.
The best-selling books were in the Technical / Scientific and Practical Life / Leisure / News categories, where growth was 22.9% and 23.2%, respectively. In terms of sales channels, bookstores were the places most chosen by consumers to buy books, accounting for 61.6% of the total, resulting in a 16.9% increase over the same period in 2020. In contrast, 38.4% of books were sold through hypermarkets and supermarkets.
About a year ago, in October 2020, book sales in Portugal “caught a bit” from the sharp drop recorded by the pandemic, but even so, they continued to record a 15.8% drop at the time. Between March 19 and May 2 of last year, the country was in a state of emergency that immediately turned into disaster and the market plummeted: a study by Gfk between the second week of March and the end of May of this year. year showed a drop of 57.6%.
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In the first half of this year, as in the case of the Portuguese scenario, there was a positive trend in book sales in other countries covered by the study, compared to 2020 and 2019, the pre-pandemic years. In some countries, sales grew by more than a third in one year, with France at the top with a positive deviation of 43.4%. It was followed by Spain, Italy and Brazil, which showed growth of 38.3%, 36.8% and 33.4%, respectively.
Despite the positive variation, some countries continued a more subtle evolution, namely Switzerland (11.1%), the Netherlands (4.3%) and Germany (4.1%). The study also analyzed two regions of Belgium, where in Flanders evolution was 6.8% and in Wallonia more than doubled (33.8%).
Also in these countries the same market trends were confirmed as in Portugal: an increase in the cost of average prices for books and the category of nonfiction, which includes political, financial, culinary and artistic works. Lifestyle and on topics related to feminism, to collect preferences at the expense of artistic works.
The market for comics, especially manga, is still popular, especially in France, Italy and Spain, while videos streaming this proved to be a factor in the development of the literary market, as it stimulated the purchase of books that inspired films and TV series. Finally, GfK found that interest in e-books was starting to chill and was not keeping up with the positive developments that had taken place in the previous year.
