Niche bookstores in Malaysia are holding their own, even while COVID-19 hurts businesses
18 October, 2020
While COVID-19 has hurt the viability of several businesses, independent bookstores in Malaysia are holding on to their customers, thanks to loyal bibliophiles who prefer old school print in writing.
Amid the pandemic and its own movement restrictions, regular customers are purchasing more publications, sometimes via online platforms.
In June, following movement restrictions throughout Malaysia, well-known bookstore chain MPH Group Sdn Bhd closed a lot of its outlets. Its CEO Donald Kee said then in a statement that the business would shift from an offline business model to a digitalized ecosystem.
Regardless of the challenging business environment, smaller bookstores appear to have found their niche selling specific collections.
Gerak Budaya bookstore manager Wong Ho Wai told CNA that his establishment in Petaling Jaya, Selangor has over time won over a group of readers who prefer a difficult copy book instead of an e-book or a Kindle.
“I have already been a bookstore manager here since 2017. From my time here, I realize that most people still prefer reading physical books.
“Of course that is probably also as a result of the average age of our customer base which is just about 40 and above. Our younger customers are usually journalists and those who come searching for academic materials,” he said.
Moontree House is a bookstore selling Chinese titles. (Photo: Moontree House Facebook)
Similarly, Moontree House in Kuala Lumpur which sells only Chinese book titles told CNA that it generally does not foresee customers shifting to e-books anytime soon.
Store owner Law Yee Wan said that when it comes to Chinese books, the next of readers can last for many years.
“Chinese (books) readership is quite small, especially in Malaysia and these small groups of people identify bookstores and continue purchasing the books they need from there.
“I opened my bookstore this year 2010 and now a decade later, I still have the same 20 odd customers come if you ask me if they need their supply of books. Of course, the readers are aging and the titles they choose will differ but they will continue coming,” she said.
As well as the regulars, Law said there are “come and go” customers who have a tendency to be younger.
“They come here to obtain academic supplies. That market is another the one that would still need printed books for at least another 10 years,” she said.
MORE ONLINE SALES DURING MCO
As the Movement Control Order (MCO) had influenced the viability of several businesses, bookstores with a niche following saw more sales instead.
“Through MCO, we are doing online methods of selling and our website is doing much better than before,” said Wong of Gerak Budaya.
He explained that persons were still concerned about coming out to look. So they bought books online and had them delivered instead. Print is still the preferred medium.
“About 2 yrs ago we tried to sell e-books... Honestly, it didn't prosper at all. For all of us and our readers, it’s the traditional print on paper for sure,” he said.
Intelligentsia Book Station owner Cheah Moon Chung said that lots of who frequented his 27-year old bookstore had requested for him to market his books via an online platform.
“But we haven’t done this online sale before. So we use our existing website for our readers to get quotes because of their books then give us a call and place orders.
“Then we prepare the books for them in order that they can just come and grab and never have to spend the amount of time in the bookstore,” he said.
He said this technique of sales did very well during the MCO because a lot of his regulars were school-going children seeking Chinese book titles.
“This concept managed to get easier for the parents as they felt it was better for their children to shop this way,” he explained.
INCREASING OFFERINGS TO MEET GROWING DEMAND
For some traditional bookshops, the increased demand during MCO pushed them to improve their offerings.
Kedai Buku Jilid Melayu (Malay title bookstore), a traditional bookstore in the outskirts of Rawang told CNA that despite having sold only Malay titles for over 25 years, the bookstore started selling English titles lately.
Manager Azlinda Ahmad Fauzi said the bookstore's owner was, in the beginning, worried when the MCO was imposed in March.
“We have a following you see. But after MCO (was announced), we had a need to do something to make sure we could generate more revenue for the reason that purchases from our regulars are very seasonal.
“The majority of our sales usually are through the release of new titles by our regular publishers and in addition of course before schools open. So we'd to find a thing that works to ensure we are able to sustain at other times,” she said.
After seeking the views of the regulars, the bookshop made a decision to stock up on some English titles as well.
“We usually do not do English novels though. Only academic titles and self-help books and that sort of category in general.
“To our pleasant surprise, those titles did effectively too. And also our Malay titles would during peak season,” she said.
Similarly, Sivaguru Book Depot in Brickfields, which specializes in titles by specific Indian authors, shared they have picked up more titles within the last few months.
P Shiva, a store manager, told CNA that the store used to stock mainly religious titles.
“Thankfully we have a great following of readers plus they all continued buying our titles despite MCO. Actually, more of our books were sold during MCO. I assume because people had time to read.
“Quite a few readers did mention that they might appreciate if we'd this and that title, just what exactly we did was fill up on those. Fortunately, each of them sold as well as our regular titles, so we are planning to keep those titles here on,” he said.
Read this story in Bahasa Melayu here.
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