Book Smile will continue to aggressively promote low-priced pocketbooks in 7-Eleven convenience stores after racking up 30-per-cent growth in sales of such books last year.
Yuthasak Poomurakul, vice president of marketing and merchandising at CP All, the operator of 7-Eleven, yesterday said the company had begun to focus more on books priced Bt39-Bt59 to tap the middle- to low-income consumer segment last year.
Book Smile will launch nine titles of low-priced books and put travel books on its shelves besides just inspirational books this year.
According to Book Smile's research, 28 per cent of respondents preferred buying good content but at a low price.
The company has purchased licences from publishers and writers to republish about 100,000 copies for sale only at Book Smile at Bt39-Bt59. These books account for 25 per cent of pocketbook sales at Book Smile.
Book Smile projects selling 1 million low-priced books this year.
It is also helping publishers to dispose of non-moving stocks by bringing old books to resale at Bt69-Bt99. Such resales represent 25 per cent of pocketbook sales, with the rest from new pocketbooks.
In this current book business cycle there are few publishers, so books have high prices and people are spending less on books. But Book Smile wants to encourage the habit of reading among Thais by creating a new book business cycle, he said.
"We have selected best-sellers to reprint in large runs in order to pull down prices with even thinner margins. We have met greater sales volume from selling low-priced books," he said.
Pocketbooks make up 20 per cent of Book Smile's sales, while 30 per cent comes from magazines and newspapers, 20 per cent from entertainment media such as VCD/DVDs and 30 per cent from stationery.
Book Smile targets sales of Bt5 billion this year, up from Bt4.5 billion last year.
