Booktopia’s sales surge after Covid-19

Rhea Soco

22nd Sep 2020

Australia’s largest e-commerce book retail Booktopia has reported a 28-per-cent surge in new book sales during the 2020 financial year.

The firm has sold 6.4 million books with total sales topping $165 million for the first time.

Booktopia Founder and CEO Tony Nash said the volume of online sales accelerated dramatically in the second half of the financial year, during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, while the growth of online purchasing of physical books has been increasing steadily every recent year.

“The events of the last six months have now brought forward much of that future growth and we would expect many of the converts to be convinced that online purchases are their new preference,” he said.

Booktopia also recorded significant growth of its customer database to 4.5 million, with more than 1.4 million active customers. It ships around 30,000 items per day.

Nash added that the company has raised $20 million in capital as part of a major expansion of its inventory and picking-and-packing capacity at its Lidcombe distribution centre in Sydney.

The funds have been used to expand its inbound and outbound capacity to 60,000 books per day and store more titles at its 14,000sqm Sydney Distribution Centre.

“The funding will allow us to accelerate our growth in a controlled and measured way by investing in our ability to deliver to Australian book consumers through automation, robotics and stock,” said Nash.

Booktopia acquired University Co-operative Bookshops this year and major rival Angus & Robertson back in 2015.