Independent Bookshops Numbers Decline Slightly But Outperforms Wider Sector
The latest membership numbers released by the Booksellers Association (BA) revealed that the number of independent bookshops has declined slightly in 2024 from 1063 to 1052, continuing 2023’s downward trend. However, independent bookshops continue to outperform the wider retail sector which, according to recent data from the Centre of Retail Research, saw about 37 shop closures per day in 2024.

The Booksellers Association (BA) welcomes the healthy number of 45 independent bookshops opening in 2024 (compared to 51 in 2023) as a continued vote of confidence in bookselling but signals that any decline of overall independent bookshop members is a reminder of the delicate ecosystem and fine financial margins within which independent booksellers operate.

In recent years the resilience and innovation of independent booksellers has kept independent bookshop numbers consistently above the 2016 low of 867. The Booksellers Association (BA) urges trade, creatives, consumers and all governments to value and commit to helping them through the coming challenges in 2025.
Independent Bookshops opened in 2024 include:

East of England
• Bodies in the Bookshop, Cambridge
• Butterfly and Bee, Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex
• Lucky Hare Books, Ampthill, Bedfordshire
• Mandy’s Book Snug, Southend, Essex
• Words and Wonder Books, Downham Market, Norfolk

East Midlands
• 2nd Chapter, Matlock, Derbyshire
• Bizy Lizy Books, Heanor, Derbyshire
• Lark Books, Lincoln, Lincolnshire

Ireland
• Little Lane Bookshop, Waterford, Ireland

London
• Bard Books, London
• Brunswick Bookshop, London
• Everybody Reads, London
• Poetry Pharmacy, London
• The Scarlett Letters CIC, London
• Veranda Books, London

Yorkshire and the Humber
• Kemps on the Corner, Wetherby, North Yorkshire
• Paper People Books, Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire

North West
• The Curious Cat Bookshop, Frodsham, Cheshire

Scotland
• Book Lovers Bookshop, Edinburgh
• Daydreams Bookshop, Milngavie
• Read and Relax, Kinross

South East
• Chapters Coffee and Books, Sturry, Kent
• Station Books, Tunbridge Wells, Kent
• Under The Cherry Tree, Titchfield, Hampshire

South West
• Chocolate Books, Wiveliscombe, Somerset
• Sodbury Book Garden, Chipping Sodbury

Wales
• Book Space, Cardiff

Independent Bookshops Tough-Out Challenging Christmas Trading
Christmas trading for independent bookshops in 2024 was made more challenging by a sluggish overall book market and declining footfall in the wider high street. According to Nielsen BookScan data, the year-on-year volume and value of book sales in 2024 were down 1.7% and 0.6% respectively, with high street footfall being down 2.5% in the retail sector’s Golden Quarter (October to December) according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

A Booksellers Association (BA) Christmas Trading Survey of over 150 independent bookshops painted a picture of continued resilience in 2024, though tempered by some mounting concern for 2025. After a slow start to Christmas trading, a slim majority of independent bookshops rallied to increased year-on-year sales and footfall but with turnover for a significant minority below 2023.

The Trading Survey revealed:
• 56% saw Christmas Sales increase YOY in 2024, up from 50% in 2023 (with 31% seeing a decrease, down from 30% in 2023)
• 38% saw Christmas Footfall increase YOY in 2024, up from 35% in 2023 (with 30.5% seeing a decrease, down from 35% in 2023)
• 43% saw Per-Customer Spend increase YOY in 2024, down from 49% in 2023 (with 23.5% seeing a decrease, up from 22% in 2023)

The heartening upwards trend of more independent bookshops seeing year-on-year sales and footfall increases, and fewer seeing decreases, was tempered by the shrinking in Per-Customer Spend - indicating that more consumers are supporting their local independent bookshop but they’re spending less.

The same survey revealed that the top five concerns of independent bookshops for 2025 all relate to further financial pressure via increasing overheads and softening consumer confidence:
1. Impact of cost of living on consumer confidence – 76.6%
2. The UK economy – 66.9%
3. Staff costs – 60.7%
4. Energy & Utility bills – 53.1%
5. Increasing RRPs & wholesale prices – 53%

Policy and Geography Define 2025 Challenges for Independent Bookshops
In 2025 and as demonstrated by the results of the survey, all independent bookshops will have to collectively navigate consumer confidence softened by a slowing economy and see their overheads impacted. Smaller businesses by being more acutely affected by rising energy and utility bills and larger businesses disproportionately burdened by increased staff and business costs led by changes to National Insurance Contributions and Business Rates Relief.

Independent bookshops in England will need to navigate the window, created by last year’s Budget, between the welcomed realignment between online and high street retailer business rates in 2026 and the cut to retailer relief rates in 2025, leaving 40% almost £10,000 worse off on average annually.

Scottish independent bookshops will neither see the rates relief offered to their English counterparts nor directly benefit from the funding support of Creative Scotland in the recent Holyrood Budget.

In Wales, the end of the ‘Schools Love Reading’ project in 2024 will still be felt by independent bookshops, who have no replacement for the revenue stream offered for several years by the Welsh Government purchasing a book for every schoolchild from them.

Similarly in Ireland, alongside bracing themselves for Amazon's launch of a dedicated online store in 2025, Irish bookshops will continue to lose a significant and longstanding revenue stream following the expansion of the Irish government's direct schoolbook supply programme.

Independent Bookshops Cultural Impact Continues To Reach Beyond The High Street
The importance of bookshops has been illustrated repeatedly, and the contribution they make to their communities is well-documented. The sector has proven to help lift struggling high streets across the UK and Ireland by delivering social and cultural benefit via spirited booksellers.

It was revealed in a Booksellers Association (BA) report commissioned by Arts Council England, entitled The Cultural Role and Value of England's Independent Bookshops, that:
• 92% run activities and events for their local communities
• 69% donate books
• 63% support local literary and arts festivals
• 60% run book clubs and reading groups
• 60% support local charities
• 56% run events in partnership with local arts and community organisations
• 45% organise authors going to schools
• 43% support libraries
• 40% organise creative writing workshops
• 36% support parenting groups

Meryl Halls, Managing Director of The Booksellers Association said:
"Each year, our membership numbers tell us a story of resilience with bookshops bucking the trend of high street decline through the graft, creativity and passion of booksellers. Bookshops provide local jobs, enrich local communities and fuel local economies; they bring social cohesion and cultural capital to their towns and villages; they bring authors to schools, readers to high streets, donations to charities and support to literacy programmes. They should be celebrated by us all but not to the point of complacency or at the cost of action.
This year’s Christmas trading survey of our members showed us how, in a sluggish overall book market and declining footfall, bookshops once again found a way through the situation and should act as a reminder to everyone that bookshops cannot survive only on the tenacity and resourcefulness of booksellers. We must act as an industry to help reward and consolidate their resilience and creativity and secure the next generation of bookshop owners and booksellers.’