Buscalibre has conquered readers from the virtuality with its offer of physical books. According to its regional director, Juan José Daza, last year it sold more than one million units and this points to a growth of 17%, which will also include strong support to Colombian authors.
Has demand been maintained following the pandemic?
Yes. In the pandemic there was a very large growth, by 2019 we were selling 270,000 copies a year and in 2020 we went to almost 800,000. Being locked up activated books as an entertainment channel. By the end of 2021, when an opening is beginning to be seen, we thought we were going to have a decline but we closed with growth. People kept that practice of reading so we can have other entertainment.
How many books do they hope to sell this year? How many titles do they have?
We expect to close the year with 1.2 million units. We have more than five million titles, while a physical bookstore handles regarding 50,000.
What are the most demanded genres?
The genres that have been leading are wellness, self-help and the youth genre.
Is Colombia a good market versus other countries?
Yes, within Buscalibre it is the second country in which we sell books following Chile.
How much does the Colombian local author consume?
The consumption of the Colombian author is quite high. There are the cases of Dr. Carlos Jaramillo, who is the best seller, Piedad Bonett; Mario Mendoza, Pilar Quintana.
In the case of Buscalibre, we also seek to be able to internationalize local authors. That a Chilean, an Argentine, a Mexican, can buy books from Colombians.
How do you support authors?
We work a lot directly with them, among the actions is our ‘reading at home’ space in which we connect the Buscalibre accounts of different countries on social networks so that there is an exhibition of the authors; and we have specific discounts and promotions for titles in other countries.
Innovations coming?
Yes, we want to improve the logistics part, which is one of our fundamental pillars with the offer. We are shipping for free throughout the country and we are focusing on making it faster with ‘envío libre’ to ship on the same day or 24 hours both in Bogotá and we will start in Medellín.
What is the user flow?
In Colombia we handle more than 3 million customers who have purchased. Users increase as we improve.
