Bookstores find niche areas as e-books, online shopping take off

BOOKSTORES in Brunei are under pressure to tap into niche areas amidst rising popularity of online shopping and the advent of electronic books (e-book).

Edwin Wun, the owner of local bookstore Reader's Haven, said "it is kind of hard" for conventional book retailers to maintain business as readers increasingly purchase books online.

"We're just basically getting by. For the time being, we can still compete but if more people are buying books online, it may mean game over for bookstores," he said.

In order to remain in the business, his company is considering new, specialised books for specific readers, he said.

"Most bookstores are serving the general market. We only do fictions, we don't sell dated books."

He shared his opinion that despite the trend for consumers to move away from buying traditional books and enjoy the latest popular fiction on their Kindle or e-reader, there are still some readers who seek rare or niche books and prefer to buy from local booksellers and read the old-fashioned way.

"There are some people who prefer hard copies and there are some special editions that are only available in hardcopies," Wun said.

"We are looking into many options to find the niche market, because online reading is the future that we cannot defy."

The assistant manager at Mubarak Book Emporium, Barkath Ali, said his company is looking at outsourcing e-book materials in the near future.

"We are planning to serve customers online. We are the first store in Brunei to start a website page in 2009 (after) realising that everybody is going online," he said.

Ali cited censorship and accessibility as the main reasons as why local readers have resorted to purchasing books online.

"Online is all open. They can access and view basically everything online," the assistant manager said.

"In the past four years since the introduction of online purchasing and e-books, the number of customers are decreasing, our magazine sales are dropping."

In previous years, the technology would have not "dramatically affect Asian countries", he said.

"Now as you can virtually see, we are starting to feel it," said Barkath.

The assistant manager believes that by focusing on the sales of best-selling books and novels, his company will still be able to compete.

"We try to bring the hot-selling books or series early and release them on the same day they are being launched in the US or UK," he said, adding that this could help differentiate his company from other bookstores.

A representative of Ickle Books, who declined to be named, said that "as society changes, businesses will have to change as well".

She said that as most of her reading materials are not available in e-book format, so business is "as usual" for the company.

However, she said that: "e-books will play a pivotal role in (the future of) our business in the long run".The Brunei Times