New Research: What Influences Canadian Book Buyers?

From BookNet Canada:

In 2013, 40% of book buyers discovered the title they purchased online, according to a report released today by BookNet Canada. The Canadian Book Consumer 2013: Book Purchases by Channel is the second in a series of three reports based on quarterly surveys conducted by BookNet Canada in 2013.
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The report also investigates if purchases of certain book genres are more likely to be impulsive or planned. For example, book purchases at grocery stores and non-book retailers were the most likely to be impulsive rather than planned. And for 6% of book purchases at grocery stores, the buyer was made aware of that title through a radio broadcast, whereas for other channels, only about 3% of sales were attributed to radio.

From a BookNet Canada Blog Post

In both 2012 and 2013, we found an extremely high correlation between online discovery and online purchase; similarly, there is a high correlation between discovering books in-person and ultimately purchasing books from a bricks-and-mortar retailer.
People who purchase a print book from an online retailer or download a book from an ebook or audio site are the most likely to have read a customer review, and these reviews rank higher as awareness factors than newspaper reviews (e.g., a book review from The New York Times). People who purchase their books from non-book retailers are significantly more likely to have become aware of books through in-store interactions.
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Close to two-thirds of Biography & Autobiography book buyers (63%) and Health & Fitness book buyers (60%) found their books through online experiences, compared to just over a third of History buyers (35%). 34% of Espionage/Thriller buyers and 21% of Mystery/Detective buyers were influenced by an in-store experience—since purchasers of these genres were likely to have planned out a specific time to buy a book, without having a specific title in mind, they were probably relying on store selection and merchandising to discover new or popular titles.

Blog Post Includes Chart: Awareness Factors by Method of Purchase

Learn More. Details About the Complete BookNet Canada Report

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