The importance of bookshops according to professionals
Research into the bookshop (2025)
In 2019, KVB Boekwerk published the results of a survey into the current added value of bookshops for customers and local areas. This year, we are following up on that research. We have engaged with consumers and local organisations to research their experience of their local bookseller’s business activities and the importance of these activities to them. Based on the survey results, we have produced six recommendations for booksellers to further develop and strengthen their position within the community.
This article presents the results of the consumer survey. The results of interviews with local organisations can be accessed here. Scroll to the bottom of this page to view the full report (available in Dutch only) and the guide to the recommendations.
We know that booksellers deliver an array of cultural and community activities alongside their commercial trade in books. In collaboration with students at the University of Amsterdam’s book science programme, KVB Boekwerk collected thirteen case studies corroborating this image of the bookseller who organises author and book events, provides a platform for local art and culture, functions as a community hub and collaborates with local organisations, schools and libraries. These activities not only serve to attract customers, but may also contribute to the vitality of public spaces.
These findings represented the springboard for further research into consumers’ experience of their booksellers’ activities.
This consumer survey aims to analyse the importance of booksellers. In this case, ‘importance’ refers to any activity organised by a bookseller within or outside their shop that we come into contact with and which promotes our sense of emotional and material well-being. This may be at the individual level (a person enjoying a visit to a bookshop) or the community level (when we recognise that the bookseller contributes to local reading culture). The importance of the arts and cultural sector on our emotional and material well-being is generally divided into three categories: cultural, social and economic.
To understand the importance of booksellers to consumers, we engaged with a diverse group of shoppers to different types of bookshops: from independent bookshops on the high street to newsagents and online stores.
Two themes stand out in shoppers’ associations with bookshops and booksellers: a certain sense of nostalgia when visiting the bricks-and-mortar bookshop, and the idea of the booksellers themselves as a ‘specialist’. Shoppers view bookshops in contrast to ‘more modern’ shops, comparing them with other specialist businesses: “We’re slowly losing specialist small businesses like butchers, cheesemongers and nut vendors. Bookshops are one of the last remaining specialist shops. They provide the buzz on the high street.”
Consumers say they find bookshops inspiring and soothing, and will therefore visit a bookshop even if they have no immediate intention to buy. A bookshop’s physical space – its layout and the way in which books are presented – encourage shoppers to pause and reflect.
Yet the perception of a bookshop as a sanctuary is not to say that booksellers offer a low-stimulus environment. Consumers visiting bookshops go as far as to compare it with a walk through nature: unhurried, but stimulating nonetheless. The way shoppers find inspiration in bookshops is a personal experience, with some working their way through the shop while others request specific recommendations. Booksellers create space for shoppers to come into contact with books in their own way and at their own pace.
Both independent and chain bookshops, as well as newsagent franchises, can evoke a similar feeling of inspiration. However, when it comes to a sense of calm, shoppers perceive newsagents as less peaceful. This is due to various factors, one being that this type of bookshop often also serves as a parcel point, leading to increased customer traffic.
Newsagents, particularly those on busy high streets, are also associated to a lesser degree with ‘nostalgia’ and ‘specialist’. In less urbanised areas, the perceived difference between newsagents and other types of bookshop appears to be less pronounced. In other words, the local setting plays a pivotal role.
Online bookstores are not associated with calm and inspiration, but with efficiency and convenience, and in that sense fulfil another additional function.
The purpose of visiting a bookshop goes beyond buying a book. After visiting, shoppers report experiencing a feeling of contentment even without making a purchase. This applies to all types of bookshops, including newsagents at train stations: people prefer to ‘make use’ of their waiting time (in the bookshop) rather than standing on the platform. Online stores are valued for their role as search and comparison tools alongside their retail function.
As previously mentioned, we used the thirteen case studies to observe a number of other bookseller activities. For instance, a bookshop may feel like a community hub, or may organise events. How are these additional functions perceived by consumers? Conversations with visitors revealed that bookshops do serve as meeting places, although visitors feel this is not their primary function. Older visitors view the bookshop as a meeting place, while this perception is less common among younger visitors. The consumers interviewed almost never attend the events organised by their local bookseller.
Visitors describe the cultural importance of visiting a bookshop, partly because of the aforementioned feelings of calm and inspiration. A bookshop is a place to pause, wander and gain ideas. This cultural experience is felt so intensely that visiting a bookshop, even without making a purchase, is regarded as a valuable pastime. Essentially, booksellers offer a cultural experience that contributes to individual visitors’ sense of well-being.
Booksellers also play an active role in introducing visitors to new ideas, cultures and topics through choices in terms of shop layout, book curation and recommendations, providing a retail experience that in turn enables visitors to learn more. Nevertheless, only a small group of interviewees explicitly states that this dynamic between them and the bookseller has a societal importance, with most saying that the majority of the books they purchase are for relaxation and entertainment purposes.
Consumers also mention that booksellers have a societal importance through their contribution to reading culture, viewing bookshops as places that keep reading visible and accessible. In this sense, bookshops join schools, libraries and suchlike as spaces that uphold local reading culture. Visitors are keenly aware of the importance of that role for themselves as well as society at large.
Lastly, a bookseller’s activities have an economic importance by strengthening high street diversity and functionality. Consumers state that the time they spend on the high street is enriched by the presence of a bookshop. In this sense, a bookseller contributes to the appeal of the environment. As visitors combine a visit to a bookshop with a visit to other shops or eateries, the bookshop itself can be the starting point for a high street visit or a pit stop for shoppers to catch their breath.
This research offers six recommendations to further develop and strengthen the position of bookshops within the community, as summarised below. The recommendations guide provides a more detailed description of the recommendations and supporting arguments.
Research into the bookshop (2025)
