Zhong Shu Ge Beijing Lafayette store. Photo by Wu Qingshan/Guangming Pictures
YanJi also beijing Wukesong Huaxi Live center store. Photo by Han Han/Guangming photo by reporter of this newspaper
Qingyuan Bookstore in Nanchang, Jiangxi. Bright pictures
Zhong Shu Ge Shanghai Songjiang Jiali Plaza Branch. Photo by Zhang Zhenyu/Guangming Photo
Winter evenings, cold winds. The door of the Yanji chain bookstore in the Wangfujing Wangfu Central Building in Beijing is closed.
"It's been a while since it's been open." Building security personnel told reporters.
Recently, the bookstore chain has been caught in a storm of unpaid wages. A real-time updated navigation App shows that only 3 of the 8 stores originally opened in Beijing are still operating normally, and 5 stores located in downtown areas such as Wangfujing, Zhongguancun, and Xicui Road have been closed or suspended.
As a well-known brand in the bookstore industry, the current situation of yanji has touched the nerves of the industry, and has also attracted some self-media to criticize the internet red bookstore, believing that the internet red bookstore "has its own appearance". Further back, in the list of bookstores that have closed their doors in recent years, there are many well-known bookstores such as Eslite Bookstore Shenzhen Wanxiang Tiandi Store and Chongqing Fangsuo Bookstore.
A senior bookstore operator said that if there is a problem with such a brand chain as Yanji, it shows that the business model of "enhancing popularity - draining to the store - compound business - increasing income" previously explored by physical bookstores has encountered difficulties.
Internet celebrity bookstore, is it time to leave?
The "most beautiful" bookstore was once very popular
As the "physical bookstore version 2.0", the net red bookstore is the product of the bookstore industry after the rise of the Internet, the bookstore industry suffered a heavy blow from e-commerce, and strived to save itself.
Relevant data show that due to factors such as changes in consumer shopping habits and rising land prices, from 2008 to 2012, as many as 10,000 private bookstores have closed nationwide. In order to cope with this decline, physical bookstores began to make efforts in multi-format operation and spatial experience, and strived to create the "most beautiful" bookstore. Including Yan Ji you, Sisyphus and Zhong Shuge, etc., they were all private chain brand bookstores founded during this period.
The "most beautiful" bookstore, with its beautiful appearance, exquisite cultural creation, and fashionable catering, naturally attracted media attention, and even became an Internet celebrity. They have changed the old appearance and single function of physical bookstores in the past, attracting many young readers to the store to consume, and were once highly expected by the industry. Urban business districts value their drainage capacity, and have also introduced preferential measures such as rent reduction and invitation to settle in. Under the multiple benefits, the net red bookstore once expanded rapidly.
At the most prosperous time, Yanji had more than 60 stores across the country, and the total amount of four rounds of financing from 2014 to 2018 reached hundreds of millions of yuan. In 2018 alone, the newly opened Maike Center store in Xi'an, with an area of 4,500 square meters and an investment of more than 100 million, was designed by a well-known Japanese architectural designer.
It's not just a few words.
Jin Hao, founder of Zhong Shu Ge, recalled: "When we built the Shanghai Songjiang Times store in 2012, we proposed the concept of the 'most beautiful' bookstore. When this concept was at its hottest, capital from any industry wanted to come in and get a piece of the pie, and there were new 'most beautiful' bookstores everywhere. ”
However, after all, the operation of physical bookstores is a low-profit, professionalism requires high requirements, and it takes a long time to precipitate. The pace of expansion is too fast, and money and management may not keep up.
Walking into the storefront of The Five Pines Huaxi Live Center in Beijing, the reporter's first feeling is "a bit empty" - about 600 square meters of space, there are not many books placed, about two-thirds of the position is given to drinks and cultural creation; the corresponding classification, the number of new books is not rich, from one side to confirm the "Yanji and book supply problems" transmitted on the Internet.
Industry insiders believe that for bookstore operators, ping efficiency is a very key concept - that is, the turnover that can be produced per ping (1 ping = 3.3 square meters, editor's note) area. If the bookstore pays too much attention to the experience of the space, it will invisibly reduce the efficiency of the floor and increase the operating cost. If people are attracted in, they cannot rely on their strength to convert passenger flow into a stable turnover, and it will be difficult to operate for a long time.
Both "red" and "not red" are facing survival pressure
The core competitiveness of bookstores is books, but it has to be admitted that in reality, many physical bookstores that insist on selling good books are also facing operational problems.
In an interview with reporters, Jin Hao stressed that Zhong Shuge is very popular, but it is not an Internet celebrity, but both inside and outside: "We have always regarded books as a long-term business to operate, coffee plus cultural and creative income accounted for less than 20%, most of the revenue comes from books." ”
So, what do you think of the closure of online celebrity bookstores?
"Part of it is the natural washing of the market, and part of it is due to the double impact of the epidemic and online shopping." Zhou Yaoguang, head of the marketing center of CICC Yiyun Technology Co., Ltd., analyzed and said.
"The idea of attracting customers to the store is no problem, and having popularity is the first step to increase turnover." Without this step, the subsequent management cannot be discussed. At present, physical bookstores are facing difficulties, mainly due to the new crown pneumonia epidemic. Taking the Zhong Shu Ge Chongqing store as an example, the forward store had to queue for up to two hours, and now this situation is gone. "Jin Hao's most obvious feeling is that from the beginning of 2020 to the present, the flow of customers to the store has decreased significantly.
The sharp decline in passenger flow will inevitably affect revenue. According to the statistics of CICC Yiyun Technology Co., Ltd. on the operation of thousands of offline bookstores across the country: from July to November 2021, the total number of offline bookstore sales was 17.407 billion yuan, of which the retail code of bookstores was 6.277 billion yuan. Although the downward trend of total yard ocean is less obvious, the number of yard oceans realized through retail channels has decreased by 16.3% and 24.9% respectively compared with 2020 and 2019.
Yang Jingxin, general manager of Paper Tiger Bookstore, which has two physical stores in Beijing, told reporters frankly: "Revenue in 2020 has dropped sharply year-on-year. In 2021, in the environment where the epidemic is effectively controlled, as of the end of November, revenue will increase by 30% over the previous year, but there is still a big gap compared with before the epidemic. Yang Jingxin believes that as a private physical bookstore, paper tigers can stand firm under the impact of the epidemic, first of all, it is inseparable from the timely financial support of the municipal government and the relevant district governments. At the same time, bookstores adopt a rotation mechanism that determines the number of sales personnel according to the flow of customers in the store, and tries to save costs as much as possible.
Li Chun, planning director of Shaanxi Jiahui Hantang Book City, which has several stores in Xi'an, told reporters: "The proportion of book operations has declined year by year. Relying on our own brand, we have only been keeping the bookstore breakeven for the past two years and are slightly profitable. ”
In what ways has the epidemic profoundly changed the industry ecology? Yuanyuan Bookstore, which has been working in Tieling, Liaoning Province for 27 years and has 13 chain stores, has a deep understanding of this. "Physical bookstores have core competitive offline cultural activities and marketing activities, which cannot be carried out systematically; there are basically no channels to participate in industry exhibitions and expand the new supply chain of foreign offline, and commodity innovation is insufficient; the normalized epidemic prevention and control process of entering stores has increased manpower and management costs." Jiang Tao, general manager of the cultural sector of Yuanyuan Cultural Education Group, told reporters.
What makes Jin Hao more worried is that the price of books in physical bookstores is not competitive compared with online shopping, and the epidemic has prompted consumers to shift to online, and once habits are formed, physical bookstores may be more difficult.
"Going out", or the ice-breaking move of physical bookstores
Operating in Nanchang, Jiangxi for nearly 30 years, Qingyuan Bookstore, which focuses on humanities and social science books, now has 3 physical stores and provides operational services for 3 local public libraries.
"During the epidemic, the most difficult time is that wages will not be paid. After years of operation, we have actually had a stable private domain traffic and condensed a group of high-end readers with spending power. Through we sent an article to members through weChat public accounts and other channels, calling on them to store value and help bookstores tide over the difficulties. The members are very powerful, in just a few days, we have raised hundreds of thousands of yuan. However, this is by no means a long-term solution for business. Wan Guoying, head of Qingyuan Bookstore, told reporters.
The secret of Qingyuan's ability to tide over difficulties and continue to operate is to actively "go global". With the vision of book selection, they provide book purchase services for more than a dozen local enterprises and institutions in Nanchang, including courts, banks, municipal public utility groups, etc.
"This gives Qingyuan a stable pool of cash." "In addition to the book purchase service, we also participated in the bidding of Nanchang public library operators, winning 3 of the 10, further expanding the source of income," Wan Guoying said. ”
After the sharp decline in the flow of customers to the store, zhong Shuge's method of making up for it is also to "go out", cooperate with the community, and use books as a carrier to provide free cultural services such as lectures for community residents. "They think the books are good, so they buy some." Jin Hao said.
As for the "price war" with online shopping channels, Jin Hao said, "People who understand books will not feel that books with low prices are good books."
Yuanyuan Bookstore achieved a growth rate of more than 10% in sales, gross profit and profit in 2020 and 2021, relying on the business model of combining culture and education and providing reading services for the government.
"We strive to integrate the joint efforts of multi-format sectors within the group, give full play to the advantages of bookstore +, provide bookstore + education, bookstore + reading guidance and other services to the student group, and realize the specialization and high frequency of cultural activities and offline education." At the same time, we also actively participate in the construction of government reading service functions and become a professional operator of the urban study system. Jiang Tao introduced.
"The operation of physical bookstores is facing relatively large difficulties. If you want to change this situation, in addition to the continuous improvement of your own capabilities, you also need to help from many parties. When the 'net red' business, which was once regarded as a breakthrough road, was blocked, it was necessary to explore more directions. Zhou Yaoguang said.
"Blow out the reading lamp, all are the moon." The city is full of books, which is one of the indicators of the degree of civilization of a city. The rise and fall of physical bookstores may never be a simple business problem.
(Guangming Daily)