Online Book Fairs vs Amazon
Covid has changed the book fair industry forever.
Once the pandemic started last year, schools and school districts scrambled to keep up with regulations, a changing environment and keeping their students safe.
But, then most decisions were made for the school administration when school boards across the country decided to close their schools and move to a virtual world.
That meant the end of in school events and that included in person school book fairs.
For companies like Scholastic and Follett the news was devastating. Combined they had planned on more than 100,000 book fairs. That meant warehouses needed to be filled with adequate inventory. New marketing pieces were developed and produced. Operations and sales staffing was in place.
And then the book fair world shut down.
Moving Online
With virtually all in person book fair cancelled the main suppliers scrambled to salvage their businesses. The most obvious solution was to follow the school lead and move from in person to virtual.
The problem, though, was the very essence of the book fair required it to be an in person event. The things that made them reasonably successful was that students could take time away from their class to browse through the book store and try to spend the money their parents sent with them to school.
So what happened when Scholastic and Follett attempted to virtual?
- Sales tumbled more than 90%.
- Profits earned by schools were drastically reduced.
Why?
Once the book fair went virtual it had a new competitor named Amazon that it didn’t have before. And, frankly, Amazon is much better and more efficient at selling books than Scholastic or Follett are.
Amazon is typically cheaper and they ship the books directly to buyer’s home. Sometimes the books can arrive the same day and shipping is free. Amazon also offers virtually every title ever produced.
Scholastic and Follett did a great job offering in person book fairs. Love them or hate them. Those companies were experts at book fairs.
But once they went virtual they had no chance of competing with Amazon. And they’re not alone. Amazon has changed the landscape for so many companies. They raised the bar so high it’s difficult for anyone to compete.
So What Happens Now?
The future is unfolding quickly when it comes to school book fairs.
Follett recently announced it had sold it’s Follett School Solutions division to an investment banking firm that specializes in technology.
Industry insiders believe that investment firm Francisco Partners purchased the division because Follett Destiny has installations in more than 75,000 K-12 schools worldwide and could be used to enhance sales of other technology companies Francisco owns or has invested in.
As for Follett, the sale was necessary. According to a quote from Britten Follett, who heads the division for the family-run company, “without a deal, we had limited amount of capital to spend.”
There’s been no word on their book fair division. But a division that is very dependent on labor, inventory and physical infrastructure hardly seems attractive to an investment banking firm specializing in technology.
Scholastic, on the other hand, is clearly not leaving the book fair industry despite plummeting sales.
But the company is having to deal with family disputes and possible legal wrangling because Dick Robinson, the long time CEO, left all his stock in the company to a non-family member.
Needless to say the book fair industry needs to find its way. But, most certainly, it doesn’t want to compete with Amazon.
