A long-expected battle

Indian publishers are befuddled by online retail

The Indian reader, like every other Indian shopper, loves a bargain, especially if she doesn't have to step out of the house to get a fat discount. Over the last seven years, this characteristic coupled with the conspicuous lack of well-stocked bookstore chains and indie bookstores, has given online retailers like Flipkart, Infibeam and relatively new entrants like Amazon.in a massive share of the books market. In early 2014, for instance, the Nielsen Book Scan Report estimated that Flipkart's book sales alone accounted for 40-45 per cent of the organised retail market. Indian laws might prevent Amazon.in, Flipkart and other e-tailers from selling many goods directly - they act as a platform and interface for online as well as offline retailers. But despite these restrictions, online bookselling dominates the retail market, and Amazon.in's recent entry into the market is only going to expand online book retailers' collective market share.

Major publishers and booksellers across India have reacted strongly to the pricing policies of the biggest online retailers. Indian book prices, they argue, are already among the lowest in the world, with even book imports usually offered at what's called the special Indian price. On many online retailing sites, standard discounts on books run from 10 per cent to 20 per cent and can go up to as high as 40 per cent on special offers; the highly price-sensitive Indian reader has responded by buying even more books. Both publishers and booksellers have found it difficult to match these discounts, and its impact on both small publishing imprints and indie bookstores has been grievous. On October 30, the trade publishing industry and booksellers' federations will discuss what legal action they might take against what they see as the menace of online retail pricing practices. The only other issue that has seen such an emotional response from publishers (chiefly trade, Hindi and English language houses and booksellers) has been book piracy, which similarly siphons off profits.

These battles in India mirror the schisms that have already riven the global publishing industry over Amazon's monopoly, and over the inescapable domination of online retailers. And little has been learned from those decade-long publishing wars. Flipkart entered the market back in 2007; any sympathy for booksellers and the industry can only be undercut by exasperation at how little the industry has done in the service of readers and authors since then. Many bookstore chains rapidly discovered that other products - handbags, kitchen items, jewellery - were more profitable and gave their space over to retail kitsch; few invested in proper inventories, in training their staff or in creating a more attractive environment within bookstores to woo away customers getting addicted to online purchases. In the presence of online alternatives, brick-and-mortar outlets have to offer value-added services that encourage customers - the advent of travel websites has changed the travel agent business, but not eliminated it. Publishing houses in India have imitated their counterparts elsewhere by being remarkably unresponsive, sticking with a business model that is blind to the changing needs of authors and readers without challenging or questioning it. Nor did publishers in India consider - as Bookworld in Australia has attempted - challenging the dominance of online retailers by building their own giant online bookstore.

Publishers and booksellers are clearly impacted by the loss of business because of the massive discounting with which Flipkart, Amazon.in and other online companies bait readers. But they might want to ask why they're in the position of reacting defensively to the moves made by online retailers. The bigger question remains unanswered: why do so few Indian publishers and booksellers understand, or reach out to, the millions of readers who prefer to buy their books online?