People attend salon at a bookstore. (Photo via Chengdu Daily)
Italy's Alberto Rivolta, sales director of publishing company Feltrinelli Group, said that he hopes that all bookstores could find a way of localization, to adjust their styles and fit in the cities. For instance, bookstores besides the Roman Senate could put various kinds of commodities on their shelves while those near the train stations could provide quick services to passersby.
In China, after going through years of downturn, the bookstores have now found their new places. Instead of fading out together with the printed books, the number of bookstores is in fact rising.
On April 23 this year, marked as the World Book Day, there are at least four new bookstores celebrated their opening. Most of the survived bookstores have embraced their new roles.
The Sisyphe Bookstore, a bookstore chain in China, has at least 30 bookstores and over 20 coffee bars across the country. The One-Way Street bookstore, one of the most well-known independent bookstore chain in China, has also transformed into a multimedia, which sells not only books but also an idealized lifestyle by throwing cultural salon or other events.
Taiwan's Eslite Bookstore also opened its first branch on the Chinese mainland in 2015.
The transformation of the bookstores is a global trend as well. Attendees to the 2017 Chengdu International Bookstore Forum agreed that reforming the business mode is the one thing that has been jointly agreed by most bookstore owners.
"At least 70 percent of our turnover was brought by adopting creativity and reforms, and only 30 percent came from the sales of books," said Alberto Rivolta.
He said bookstores could not force readers to purchase books from online bookstores, but they could attract them by forging a community which has a more powerful strength.
Rivolta said they hope bookstores could become a community where readers could find the resonance from the cities, and they could help shape the cities into places where people love and enjoy a living.
