Kindle sales have 'disappeared', says UK's largest book retailer

Waterstones says sales of physical books rose 5pc in December, while Kindle sales collapsed

Jeff Bezos, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Amazon.com Inc., holds an Amazon.com Kindle DX electronic reader during a news conference in New York, U.S., on Wednesday, May 6, 2009.
Amazon launched the Kindle, which is now in its seventh generation, in 2007. Sales peaked in 2011 at around 13.44m Credit: Photo: Bloomberg News

Waterstones has admitted that sales of Amazon's Kindle e-book reader had "disappeared" after seeing higher demand for physical books.

The UK's largest book retailing chain, which teamed up with Amazon in 2012 to sell the Kindle in its stores, saw sales of physical books rise 5pc in December, at the expense of the popular e-reader.

Kindle sales had “disappeared to all intents and purposes”, Waterstones said.

James Daunt, chief executive, told the Financial Times that the resurgence in popularity of hardback and paperback books was due to Waterstones refurbishing some of its 290 shops.

Head office also handed more control over what stores sold to the managers running them, so they could cater their stock to local tastes.

“We used to try and run exactly the same bookshop in Blackpool as in Hampstead. That, my youngest daughter would tell you, is probably not sensible,” Mr Daunt said.

Waterstones, which expects to break even this year, plans to open at least a dozen more shops this year as the e-book revolution appears to go in reverse.

Amazon launched the Kindle, which is now in its seventh generation, in 2007. Sales peaked in 2011 at around 13.44m, according to Forbes. That figure fell to 9.7m in 2012, with sales flat the following year. It is estimated that Amazon has sold around 30m Kindles in total.

At the same time, British consumers spent £2.2bn on print in 2013, compared with just £300m on e-books, according to Nielsen.

London bookstore Foyles has reported a surge in sales of physical books over Christmas.

US book giant Barnes & Noble is looking to spin off its Nook e-reader business, which is estimated to be losing $70m a year. Meanwhile, core sales, excluding Nook, rose 5pc in the most recent quarter.

Last March, Tim Waterstone, who founded the bookshop chain in 1982, argued that the printed word was far from dead, adding that he had heard and read “more garbage about the strength of the e-book revolution than anything else I’ve known”.

“The e-books have developed a share of the market, of course they have, but every indication – certainly from America – shows the share is already in decline. The indications are that it will do exactly the same in the UK," he told the Oxford Literary Festival.