the development of Ukrainian bookstores in the rating of the “Laboratory” publishing house

Since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, many new bookstores have opened – an extremely positive trend for the market and, one might say, a symbolic ray of hope in the realities of life during the war. Why is the bookstore a very important link in the industry? Because it educates a new reader. A book is an emotional purchase, and when a person comes across a book in a good bookstore, an impulse to buy appears. An analogy is coffee, which we consume because of a habit formed by its availability.

It is a special pleasure to see how bookstores go beyond the usual (and often stereotypical) format: most of them become real cultural hubs with their clubs, communities and events for every taste, and the assortment is not limited to books themselves (meet for coffee /breakfast and looking for something to read no longer need to search for separate establishments, everything can be done in one place. Recently I saw a person in a bookstore with a dog and a tablet, watching YouTube and drinking coffee. Perhaps the concept of an ordinary bookstore is gradually fading into history, instead a bookstore can become a serious competitor even to popular coffee shops.

For example, at the beginning of the year, a new large Sens bookstore opened in the very center of Kyiv: three floors with as much as 1,500 square meters. A huge event, especially in wartime. In terms of traffic, Sens can now compare with McDonald’s, which is opposite here, through the same Khreschatyk. In the first 2 weeks of operation, Sens not only broke into the top 20 bookstores in terms of sales of Laboratory books, but also took the lead – with an incredible share of 26.01%. For comparison, in January, the first in such a “championship” of the Laboratory was Readeat on Antonovych with a result of 19.38%.

Book.ua, which was opened by Ivan Bohdan, a former director of one of the large online bookstores, in November in a posh place on the Golden Gate, is firmly in the top three. In February, the bookstore’s share in the Laboratory’s sales rating was 11.90%. Next in the standings is Lviv Bookstore E from Svobody Avenue (8.13%). Among non-capital cities, Ternopil (Bookstore E, 2.69%), Lutsk (Bookstore E, 2.42%), Khmelnytskyi (Bookstore E, 2.29%), Ivano-Frankivsk (Bookstore E, 1, 88% and Vivat, 1.71%), Chernivtsi (E Bookstore, 1.48%) and Kharkiv (Vivat, 1.24%). Unfortunately, we do not have enough data for some other cities of Ukraine in forming the rating – the table will be updated monthly, so it is not worth making final conclusions about the reading level of different regions. But it is worth talking about the increase in the number of bookstores in the country, because the more bookstores, the more contacts a person has with books, and, accordingly, purchases, and then readings and the spread of knowledge in society.

In February, the number of Kyiv bookstores in the rating decreased from 10 to 9, compared to January. It is interesting to see how things are going at bookstores in the same quarter of Kyiv, which are very close to each other: Knyzhkovy Lev on Mezhihirska and Knygarnia Ye on Spasska – both are near the Kontraktova ploshcha metro station. But Knyzhkovy Lev is one hundred percent ahead of Ye Bookstore, despite the latter’s more accessible location. Working with the audience is important.

There are also more “niche” bookstores – such as Plekai, Zbirka, Readellion or Mysto. Such bookstores form their communities and develop reading.

But not everything is as positive as it might seem: to hold out for a long time and establish yourself in the center of Kyiv with a rental on the same Khreshchatyk is not an easy task. Moreover, after decades of expansion of the Russian book market, the assortment for a bookstore of 1,500 square meters is visually insufficient. And an English-language book won’t save here – we still don’t read much in the original, according to sales statistics, it’s 5-7% of the bookstore’s turnover. Publishers and authors need years and resources to fill diverse literary niches – the process is already underway, progress is visible, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

It is difficult for books to compete for the attention and time of the consumer, because on the other side there is a large amount of a wide variety of content – from streaming platforms, movies and TV series to educational courses or thematic podcasts. But, as practice shows, this competition is possible, the book will not remain in the past – in particular, thanks to bookstores that are progressive in everything. And remember one important detail. It’s all thanks to you. Because it is you who read, buy, donate books and thus support the development of the knowledge ecosystem.