Booksellers continue to give the personal touch and feel no fear in the face of online retail giants like Amazon.
AMAZON will never be able to replicate the feeling of browsing through a bookshop and stumbling upon a gem: that’s the truth, according to local bookshop owners who are positive that the experience offered by in-person shops can’t ever be matched by Amazon or any online retailer.
The multi-billion dollar company last month launched their Irish-registered .ie domain for the first time, and the challenge for local booksellers is not necessarily a new one.
Amazon sold their first book online in 1995, and since then shops like Kerr’s in Clonakilty and Bantry Bookshop have found ways of engaging with customers in a way an online retailer never can.
Local retailers connect the shops to the community by hosting novel launches and numerous other special events during the year, while on a wider scale festivals like the much-lauded West Cork Literary Festival brings a host of new customers each year, crucially those who are more likely to want to spend time in a bookshop environment.
Before Amazon launched their Irish domain, those living on these shores typically relied on the UK domain which, after Brexit, caused some issues with customs tax and longer delivery times on certain products.
‘Our broad view of it is that it is the same problem, it wasn’t ever going to go away,’ Bantry Bookshop owners and sisters Kate Smyth and Marney Smyth Fischer told The Southern Star.
‘People who buy books from Amazon are going to continue to buy books from Amazon. People who look for a bookshop experience, are going to keep coming to a bookshop.’
Sisters Marney Smyth Fischer and Kate Fischer, the owners of Bantry Bookshop.
While allegedly low prices and ease of purchase are the main things that Amazon can offer a potential customer, there are other factors too, including the fact that a the monolithic online platform can store huge amounts of books, which can make it difficult for local bookshops to source stock. However, none of that can replace the irreplaceable value of the knowledge behind the counter.
‘We are incredibly targeted in the books we buy,’ said Kate and Marney. ‘Not every new book is going to end up on our shelves, but we get to know our customers really well and the kinds of things they like. We have a good sense of our stock and the kinds of things coming out that will appeal to our customers and we have a good relationship with our wholesalers.’
Both Bantry Bookshop and Kerr’s in Clonakilty have been longlisted in the past for the coveted An Post Bookshop of the Year, an award given to the best community retailers in Ireland, and it’s that sense of community that drives the local industry.
‘The local service phenomenon in bookshops is enjoying a re-birth as customers demonstrate over and over again in increasing numbers a desire to engage with booksellers who have the knowledge and experience of advising on choices and ranking preferences,’ Trish Kerr, owner at Kerr’s, told The Southern Star.
Trish also believes that there may be some benefits to Amazon for the local bookshop: ‘Amazon.ie will impact us for sure as inevitably market share will migrate in their direction, but from a strategic perspective, I am of the view that Amazon.ie will provide us with even more customers who would browse online but shop in town.’
The industry works together as well. At Christmas, demand spiked for Irish Food History: A Companion, with shops across the country working together to keep customers supplied. ‘We were sending copies up to Wicklow, copies were coming down to us from Galway and Mayo; small bookshops talk to each other and that is a very vibrant network,’ said Kate.
The message from all is simple: buy a book.
‘In towns that have bookshops, there is an awareness certainly amongst the community that these are important things to have. It gives life, community and engagement at a town level,’ said Marney.
