On January 9, 2024, the "2024 China Bookstore Conference" co-sponsored by the China Book Publishing Industry Association and Anhui Xinhua Publishing (Group) Holding Co., Ltd. was held in Beijing. With the theme of "Innovation, Reshaping the Value of Bookstores", this year's China Bookstore Conference aims to stimulate vitality and how innovation benchmarks should follow the trend and build a reading culture consumption mode that is compatible with the timesWhat are the experience of bookstore management innovation and service innovation worthy of attention?What is the basic consensus for the future development of physical bookstores?These questions were answered at this China Bookstore Conference.
The scene of the 2024 China Bookstore Conference.
The transformation and upgrading of physical bookstores has achieved phased results.
At the conference, Dong Yiwei, deputy director of the Printing and Distribution Bureau of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee and first-level inspector, delivered a speech, pointing out that in 2023, publishing and distribution will achieve a new leap from transformation and upgrading to integrated development, book retail channels will continue to differentiate, and new channels and new models will continue to emerge, but the book sales behavior of low prices and random prices still exists, the survival status of physical bookstores is still worrying, online and offline distribution behaviors need to be regulated urgently, and the transformation of some bookstores is still being explored.
Evey Dong. At present, the transformation and upgrading of physical bookstores has achieved phased results. In his speech at the conference, Ai Limin, chairman of the China Book Publishing Industry Association, said that in 2016, 11 ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Supporting the Development of Physical Bookstores" to encourage the development of physical bookstores, and China's physical bookstores ushered in a valuable period of development. At present, the number of physical bookstores in the country is stable, and some provinces and cities have increased slightlyA large number of specialized and new bookstores have come to the fore and shown good development prospectsReading services have penetrated more widely into all fields of cultural construction and public cultural services, and have become the leading force in national reading activities. However, he also pointed out that the publishing and distribution industry still faces many challenges and uncertainties in the process of promoting the high-quality development of the industry. In particular, the income tax exemption policy enjoyed by the publishing and distribution units to transform into enterprises is about to end, the policy dividend and demographic dividend caused by the continuous decline in the birth rate will no longer exist, and the promotion speed of digital teaching materials may be faster than we expected, and the iterative development of new technologies is beyond our imagination. All of these factors will have a profound impact on the development of the industry. Therefore, the industry should continue to take reform as the driving force, development as the first priority, and innovation as the way to break the situation, continue to promote innovation in operation and management, integrated development and innovation, service mode innovation, and positioning innovation, constantly tap the cultural value of bookstores themselves, tell the cultural stories of bookstores, and explore various effective methods for the sustainable development of physical bookstores, so as to achieve "no one has me, and no one has me".
Eric Ermen. As one of the organizers of this year, Anhui Xinhua Distribution (Group) Holding Co., Ltd. and its subsidiary Anhui New Media have been working steadily and innovatively, and have accumulated many successful experiences in innovation and transformation and upgrading. Jin Tao, Secretary of the Party Committee, Chairman and General Manager of the Group, said in his speech that bookstore practitioners are constantly exploring, adapting, adjusting and trying under the influence of the times, and they are all doing one thing: how to make bookstores rejuvenate their vitality. China's bookstore industry is in a period of profound change and a critical period of industrial transformation and upgrading, and only by reshaping the value of bookstores with joint innovation and building a new industrial pattern of bookstore alliance can we form a scale effect and enhance the ability to resist risks. To reshape the value of bookstores, we need to respond to the spiritual needs of readers in an all-round and multi-angle way and meet the desires of cultural lifeWe need to position ourselves as cultural demonstrators, so that bookstores can be integrated into urban development and become a spiritual harbor for public cultural service spacesWe need to bring forth the new, create a new model of cross-border integration, and build a new multicultural ecology. In 2023, the Group will integrate Hefei Sipailou, the largest old store in Anhui, into new elements of science and technology, create new consumption scenarios, and try to build a new digital bookstore "Yuan Bookstore", which has been recognized by readers and bookstore practitioners since its opening. On January 28, 2024, the Group will also release the IP brand image of Xinhua Bookstore "Yuan Xiaoao" in Hefei, Anhui Province, implying that "reading" is the first place, and promotes the transformation of bookstores from form to connotation, from offline to online, from ground stores to cultural space, and to achieve new leapfrog development.
Jin Tao. A new exploration of the value of bookstores under the combination of integrity and innovation.
Zhang Kewen, member of the Party Committee of Anhui Xinhua Distribution (Group) Holdings and general manager of Anhui Xinhua Media Co., Ltd., in his keynote speech on the topic of "Rethinking the Value of Xinhua Bookstore", started from "strengthening a core value and promoting the industrial chain with the value chain", "based on two markets, promoting the integrated development of online and offline", "connecting the three integrations, reshaping the value of Xinhua Bookstore industry", "focusing on four aspects, promoting the digital transformation of bookstores", "achieving five strengthenings, and reshaping the relationship between bookstores and readers" and other five aspects were shared with the participants.
Zhang Kewen. Zhang Kewen said that in the context of the new era, the market environment has forced Xinhua Bookstore to innovate and upgrade, and the mission requires Xinhua Bookstore to improve quality and efficiency. To this end, Xinhua Bookstore must firmly maintain the core value of publishing and the distribution goal of "finding readers for good books and good books for readers". In 2023, online sales will account for 88% of the entire book sales channel, and have become an important way for readers, especially young readers, to buy books. To this end, Xinhua Bookstore e-commerce must have its own way of playing. In 2023, Anhui Xinhua will focus on the segment of children's books, create a characteristic children's vertical e-commerce, and strengthen and expand the children's book market segment. The first is to form a matrix online main position integrating platform e-commerce, live broadcast e-commerce, short ** e-commerce, and content e-commerce. The second is to cooperate with the publishing houses that produce "good books" to jointly develop new products, customized explosive products, and unique products on the whole network, so as to ensure the scale and profit of exclusive sales, and finally form a win-win industrial chain integrating content production, book customization, and exclusive sales.
In addition, Zhang Kewen also said that it is necessary to vigorously promote the innovative and integrated development of bookstores through diversified integration, public cultural service integration, and cultural and tourism integration, expand the boundaries of bookstores, broaden the extension of bookstores, and further tap the new value of bookstores. Bookstore 1The 0 era is the traditional book sale. In the past, bookstores were mainly operated as offline stores that mainly sold books, and were distribution channels for disseminating knowledge and culture through books. Bookstore 2The 0 era is a complex cultural space of "bookstore + x". With readers' demand for multiculturalism, the concept of "bookstore+" has pushed the industry into 2In the 0 era, "bookstore + cultural creativity", "bookstore + parent-child space", "bookstore + café", "bookstore + cultural salon" ......Many formats are integrated into the bookstore. Bookstore 3The 0 era is the development of digital integration, which is the only way for Xinhua Bookstore to transform from a traditional enterprise to a modern enterprise. Zhang Kewen mentioned in his speech that Xinhua Bookstore should strengthen conceptual change, strengthen service functions, strengthen reading promotion services, strengthen service to the grassroots, strengthen local characteristics, and reshape the relationship between bookstores and readers.
Li Hui is the founder of Chongqing Book Shopping Center, and the founder of Johor Bahru Bookstore, a cutting-edge book retail brand, the former representing the old era of book retailing, and the latter representing a new way of thinking about book retailing. At the conference, he shared his new thinking on Johor Bahru Book House with the title of "Four Hour Slow Life Solution for Urban Women – The Innovation Road of Johor Bahru Book House". He believes that the bookstore itself is not divorced from the needs of the market and the changes of the times, because "the essence of the bookstore is to pay for knowledge". The problem is that the user system and user value of traditional bookstores have been disintegrated under the impact of new Internet information tools, and there is a serious mismatch between users' demand for bookstores and bookstores' scene supply, which makes it difficult to increase revenue. To this end, Johor Bahru Bookstore has identified its market positioning as "a complex space with cultural temperament, a representative urban landmark, and a leisure and social emotional space for white-collar and middle-class youth", and has defined the user group as "women between the ages of 25 and 40 who love reading and socializing, and love a better life". Li Hui pointed out that first of all, it is necessary to reflect the value of bookstores in book selection, product display, content output, etc., and require products to better reflect cognitive and user value, reflect life aesthetics, and output high-quality content with cultural temperament. Secondly, it is necessary to provide users with new immersive consumption experiences and rich immersive social scenarios through emotional value and interactive socialization. Today, books, coffee, food and beverage and on-site events are the four major formats that underpin Johor Bahru Bookstore's business model. From the perspective of innovation and interaction, Li Hui put forward his own solution: on the B-end or G-side, through the optimization of tourism public services, the integration of culture and tourism of "bookstore + tourism", enrich cultural experience consumption, enhance regional competitiveness, and realize the integration of culture and tourismOn the C side, through brand direct sales, rooted in first- and second-tier cities, thousands of stores and thousands of faces, the composite space of cultural temperament brings accurate user flow;On the B-side, we use space building, cultural empowerment, community operation, and brand cooperation to achieve business empowerment.
Li Hui. 
Johor Bahru Bookstore's users are targeting women between the ages of 25 and 40.
In February 2023, the first offline bookstore in the country, which has 60 million followers, opened in Shanghai. In terms of book selection, the "mixed knowledge team" composed of top students has specially listed a "mixed knowledge book list";In the creation experience area, citizens can observe the comic creation process of "Brother Bastard" and the team guysIn the "Mixed Knowledge Small Universe" with a sense of science and technology, readers can design their own exclusive "Mixed Brother" avatar and print the pattern on cultural and creative products to become a unique giftA pop-up area for knowledge sharing was also built to provide readers with interesting and inspirational cultural exchanges and displaysThe small theater, the coffee and the small wine bureau all demonstrate the vitality and creativity of this young bookstore. Chen Lei, the founder of the bookstore, shared his process of opening and building this bookstore from scratch in more than two years at the bookstore conference. He said that the original intention was to build a physical platform to communicate, communicate and build trust with readers, and the content IP also needed to be presented in a more diversified and multi-dimensional way. Bookstores are no longer a single function for selling books, but a terminal for urban leisure and even socialization. Therefore, it is a comprehensive experience terminal of eating, drinking, and playing + culture. Reading activities, knowledge lectures, content exhibitions, etc., which enrich the experience of bookstores on the one hand, are also part of the overall marketing of IP. "In a bookstore opened by an author, 'work' is its label and soul theme. For the future of bookstores, Chen Lei said that bookstores are not only a buying and selling place, but also a manifestation of urban temperament, which can carry more cultural and publicity needs. The bookstore will be reproduced differently in the city: the city will provide more characteristic cultural content, and the bookstore will be responsible for displaying them in a unique form, and the bookstore will be the city pavilion.
Chen Lei. 
Mixed Knowledge Bookstore. In addition, Ren Zhenmao, Secretary of the Party Committee, Director and Deputy General Manager of Henan Xinhua Bookstore Distribution Group, shared Henan Xinhua's practices in reshaping the reading space in recent years with the theme of "Let the Xinhua Brand Continue in Innovation and Integration". Jiang Chuanyang, member of the Party Committee of Zhejiang Publishing United Group, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Zhejiang Xinhua Bookstore Group, shared Zhejiang Xinhua's thoughts on several basic issues in the transformation of physical bookstores with the title of "Strengthening the Basic Consensus of Physical Bookstores and Reconstructing the Offline Chain Management System" at the bookstore conference.
In recent years, She Jiangtao, the former party secretary and general manager of Phoenix Publishing and Media Co., Ltd., has written a number of articles about Xinhua Distribution, expressing his anxiety and thoughts about its current situation and future. At the bookstore conference, he raised his own question with "How far can Xinhua Distribution go": in the Internet era where information, data, digital, and intelligence are constantly upgraded;In the era of increasing pressure on the economical operation of warehousing and logistics;In the era when books are becoming more and more standardized on campus and the number of students is decreasing, in the era when the ability of social institutions to digest B-end bulk books is declining, in the era when the services required by various libraries are constantly upgrading, in the era when the natural and random sales of physical stores are basically disappearing, in the era when all kinds of e-commerce are dividing the traffic and sales of traditional e-commerce, and in the era of the integration of production and sales of publishing houses, Xinhua Publishing is facing the challenge of omni-channel, and how far it can go is an increasingly real problem.
She Jiangtao. She Jiangtao believes that the best time to solve the problem is before it rises to the top, when the cost is minimal, the cost is minimal, the conflict and contradiction are minimal, and the cash flow and profit can depress and smooth the waves. In order to achieve steady and far-reaching development, Xinhua Distribution Group must do several things well: First, solve the problem of the enlargement of the caliber of traditional services: teaching materials, tutorial books, and party and government reading materials are the traditional foundation, but they are not the way out and the future. The caliber of primary and secondary education services and large customer services should be larger, the connotation of students' extracurricular reading materials and party and government reading materials should be richer, and the ability to package topics and provide knowledge services should be stronger. Second, solve the problem of G-end services: establish a digital information-database for books and digital resources, improve the service capacity of urban public libraries, university libraries, and various libraries, and use it as a new business growth point. Third, solve the problems of offline C-end: first, it is necessary to eliminate the thinking of book stores in general, strengthen the positioning and area planning of physical stores, and borrow third-party resources to open effective bookstoresThe second is to improve the multicultural service function of the community and users, and gradually change from simple subcontracting to characteristic self-operation, so that the positioning of the bookstore and multicultural services are integrated, rather than mechanical patchwork or even random piling up;The third is to strengthen the construction of the store manager and sales staff, the store manager is the soul of the bookstore, without a good store manager, there will be no good bookstore;Fourth, improve the chain procurement and supply capacity of the headquarters, improve the ability of physical bookstores to independently purchase and cultural products, and optimize the structure of books and cultural productsFifth, do a good job in cultural activities and sales inside and outside the store, do a good job in the cultural, knowledge, and ideological services of thematic book exhibitions, and do a good job in the sales services of thematic packagingSixth, strengthen the in-depth integration of social stores and make full use of the content resources and new marketing resources of the publishing house. All of the above requires an all-round improvement of the cultural capabilities of Xinhua Distribution. Fourth, solve the problem of online C-end: on the basis of absorbing the practical experience of self-operated e-commerce on third-party platforms, strengthen the construction of self-owned e-commerce. Self-owned e-commerce should form a closed sales loop with the new marketing resources of the publishing unit, realize the introduction of traffic, and expand the traffic poolCooperate with publishers in terms of open products, phased exclusive products, and exclusive products to prevent disintermediationAt the same time, it will continue to improve its capabilities in vertical, content, and new fields, improve its drainage ability and monetization ability, form a closed loop with profitability, endow itself with new channel capabilities, get rid of its dependence on platform e-commerce, and get rid of the constraints of the business logic and rules of platform e-commerce.
The China Bookstore Conference is a public welfare forum aimed at leading industry issues and sharing industry experience, starting from the first bookstore conference in January 2018, and this year is the sixth year of the China Bookstore Conference. Each year, the bookstore conference sets a different theme according to the development of the industry in that year, and strives to look back on the development of the physical bookstore industry in the previous year, focus on industry issues, and look forward to future development trends.
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