Independent Bookstore Day: Bookshop.org founder on how small retailers are taking on Amazon

Independent bookstores are beacons of hope, offering intangible commodities such as connection, empathy, and knowledge, in addition to physical books.

The convenience and discounts of Amazon have long threatened their very existence.

Since 2015, Independent Bookstore Day has worked to combat this threat on the last Saturday of April. This year’s festivities fall on April 25.

Fast Company sat down with Andy Hunter, founder and CEO of Bookshop.org, to talk not only about the holiday and his organization’s work to offer an Amazon alternative.

A cultural awakening around independent bookstores

Since the pandemic and continued high cost of living, we as a society have undergone a social awakening and become more intentional about where we are spending our hard-earned money. This even translates to bookstores.

The cultural awakening makes Hunter optimistic.

“People are really galvanizing around bookstores as a force for good in our culture,” he says. “You see that in the fact that there are about 70% more bookstores now than there were six years ago in the United States. After 20 years of declining numbers, they’re coming roaring back.”

Independent Bookstore Day started as a local California event in 2012 thought up by writer and editor Samantha Schoech. As it expanded, this literary event also became a critical financial lifeline.

“Bookstores have fallow periods, and sometimes it’s tough for them to get through the year,” Hunter says. “Bookstores are not a high-margin business. They’re a high-love business.”

What to expect on Independent Bookstore Day

Independent Bookstore Day is a celebration of all things literary. There will be a festive community-based atmosphere floating around the bookshelves.

Many stores will have custom merchandise for sale. Some will have special editions of books or host author events. There may even be sales or giveaways. Helpful booksellers will be on hand to help you pick the perfect read.

In San Diego, local indie bookstores banded together and created a bookstore crawl. At each stop, participants can get a stamp on their event passport and earn prizes.

Hunter will be celebrating by doing his own self-made crawl. He plans to stop at some of his favorite local bookstores in Brooklyn, including Word and Greenlight.

Christine Onorati, founder of Word, is a close friend and actually inspired him to start Bookshop.org.

How Bookshop.org helps save independent bookstores

Hunter created Bookshop.org in January 2020 to help independent bookstores survive by utilizing e-commerce.

“I was watching as half of the bookstores in the country went out of business as Amazon grew,” he says. “There were over 5,000 bookstores in the American Booksellers Association in 1995, which is one year after Amazon launched. By 2019, that had gone down to 1,889, so more than half of them disappeared.”

He says he never could have predicted how the pandemic would accelerate his company’s growth.

“If we had even waited a month, we wouldn’t have been able to make the difference that we did when everybody went to lockdown [because of COVID-19],” Hunter says. “All these stores that had been trying to get around e-commerce or never really launching or building their website, they had to sell online. That was the only way they could survive during the pandemic.”

Bookshop.org is an online retail space to buy books while supporting your favorite independent bookstore. More than 80% of the profit goes back to independent bookstores.

Consumers can choose to designate an individual store or help many through a shared earnings pool.

While Hunter says he would love to beat Amazon, he remains realistic. He knows he’s going up against a huge corporation with vast resources. Instead, he’s focused on continuing to create an infrastructure that Amazon cannot replicate.

“Our goal is to help independent local bookstores get their fair share of online sales, which would end up being maybe 10% of Amazon’s market share,” he says. “And right now we’re at about 2%, so we have a long way to go. But a lot of people didn’t even think we could ever get 1%.”

Although Bookshop.org has been around for only six years, it has already helped create change.

Since 2020, not only have more bookstores opened than closed, but the American Booksellers Association membership has grown from 1,900 to 3,200. Bookshop.org has given almost $47 million back to local bookstores.

For Hunter, it’s not just about the money but changing the way society thinks. He’s delighted that many big organizations no longer use Amazon affiliate links, choosing to send people his way instead.

“People have absorbed the message that they should support independent bookstores when they buy books,” he says.

If you feel moved to do your part this Independent Bookstore Day, head to your local shop and enjoy the festivities. If you can’t make it in person, Bookshop.org is offering free shipping on the big day.

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