What effects did the pandemic have on reading habits?

The commemoration of the international day of the book and the Spanish language takes place on April 23rd due to the symbolic load that this date has in literature.

Did you know that three of the greatest writers in the history of the world passed away on that date? They are Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, William Shakespeare and Garcilaso de la Vega.

This commemoration began in 1988, promoted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and, since then, the habits of readers have changed, but without a doubt the pandemic accelerated the digitization of this industry.

The Colombian Book Chamber pointed out that the partial closure of the physical marketing channels put pressure on the digitization of publishing funds.

Figures from the entity highlight that, in 2019, 26% of the records of the international numbering system for publications (ISBN) were in digital format, by 2020 this percentage rose to 38%.

"Phone sales, use of social networks, e-commerce pages and specialized commerce platforms were a channel that grew significantly during the past year", explained Enrique González Villa, CEO of the Colombian Book Chamber.

Although 2020 has been one of the most challenging years for the book industry, it was also the opportunity for new ways of reading and new shopping channels to be explored.

For Interbooks, a distributor of educational books, undoubtedly the reading through its digital library increased in amid the pandemic, “the service we offer is like a Netflix of books, here they find a number of areas, themes and genres, people they select what they want to read or listen to for a specified time and pay for it”, explained Johan Cárdenas, the company's general manager.

Leonardo Carrero, manager of the Aquarium bookstore, affirms that although electronic commerce is a great alternative to conquer customers in the digital world is not easy at all, "People are very visual and it is not enough to just put the cover of the book. What has worked for us is to take photos of the books so that people somehow feel that they are in the bookstore, that helps improve sales”.

For both entrepreneurs, although digital channels have gained ground, they will never replace the physical channel, since they affirm that a born reader who could acquire a book in bookstores will surely do so. Innpulsa is looking for companies to promote them for free