1. 1 BookTrack Australia - helping tighten the publishing supply chain

2. 2 > AdRem, C-2-C, JIS etc all show that oversupply ‘clogs’ the supply chain > Output increasing - over 2m books in print and over 100,000 new ‘commercial’ titles per annum > Even a small bookseller stocks more product lines than the average supermarket > Average product life is now below 12 weeks > Little research into who buys what, when, why and from where > Generally accepted that a tightened supply chain is essential Some of the issues...

3. 3 >Marketing effort and distribution efficiencies are wasted while returns are high > Reduced returns = increased profitability = industry survival > EPOS was considered a major breakthrough in returns management but it is proving to be a double edged sword > EPOS manages stock but itself doesn’t necessarily reduce returns Returns inhibit profitability...

4. 4 The EPOS dilemma... > Evidence suggests that 2nd/3rd generation systems make retailers more introverted > EPOS tells booksellers what they are doing well, not what they are doing badly > Industry efficiency won’t increase if information technology is limited to in-house use > Need to reference EPOS data against total market performance

5. 5 Referencing to total market... > Quality decision making can only be assessed against whole market performance > Understanding seasonality and author sales performance lets retailers measure themselves externally as well as internally > Internal measuring can be deceptive - 300% increase in category sales is poor if market increase is 400% - Under ordering isn’t the answer… 3 in, 3 sold, no residual stock, no returns is not good bookselling if the book’s a runaway success

6. 6 Measuring against the market... > Sales tracking across the whole market forces the supply chain to be reactive > Booksellers don’t want to take big advanced orders > Better to take smaller first stock and restock once sales shape ( their own and the whole market) is understood > Over a product life cycle this may have little effect on publisher revenues, but it lowers administration, reprint, returns costs > Sales tracking allows the supply chain to better match customer demand

7. 7 BookTrack sales tracking service... > BookTrack is the only continuous electronic sales monitoring service for books across the whole market > Operating within UK since 1996 with over 4600 stores contributing sales data and is now established as the authoritative source of book information in the UK > BookTrack Australia is a joint venture between ACNielsen in Australia and J Whitaker & Sons in the UK

8. 8 The BookTrack process... > Each participating bookseller, reports daily or weekly via their EPOS systems to the UK: ISBN Quantity purchased Price paid Date of sale > Information is matched against bibliographic databases by ISBN > Delivered as weekly title rankings and 4 weekly reports to clients by Friday, following the Saturday of the previous week’s reporting period

9. 9 Australian Book Industry Internet Book club / mail order Supermarkets Education Newsagents Specialists (non trade) Publisher (direct to the consumer) Initially BookTrack will measure this group Dept stores Independents Discounters Book chains Estimated total value = $900m-$1b

10. 10 Australian Book Industry Dept stores Independents Discounters Book chains ALP-1ALP-2 += ALP-3 + BookTrack panel development will occur in phases (ALP = Australia Launch Panel)

11. 11 Building the Australian panel... BookTrack reports Total Australia only. Individual retailer information is not identified.

12. 12 Australia Launch Panel - 1 > First report in Dec 2000 > Estimated coverage = 50-60% of book retail trade > represented sales from approximately 700 outlets ­ approximately $7.5 million sales per week ­ 400,000 unit sales per week - 37,000 different titles measured each week > ALP 2 to cover 85-90% of retail market > Data is NEVER retailer identified

13. 13 ALP-1 Market Movement - Value $ $75.3m $32.8m $36.1m

14. 14 ALP-1 market movement - units sold Units sold Average price

15. 15 ALP-1 by genre

16. 16 Monitoring individual title sales

17. 17 Monitoring for reprint decisions

18. 18 Value of supply chain data... > Having both the shape of sales out and actual sales through to the reader are key indicators to good supply chain management > Sales data analysis can be a valuable indicator to future sell-through rates and can significantly improve ‘out-of-stocks’ > The shape of a title timeline on a backlist title can indicate the latent re-stocking level. This is key information for the reprint decisions > Although BookTrack will not cover every retailer, the shape of the data is critical. Knowing the universe allows weighting to cover non-contributing outlets.

19. 19 BookTrack data characteristics... > All titles are measured > All titles are subject classified (6 subject groups ) Fiction Non Fiction Children Academic & professional Scientific, technical and medical School text > All titles are categorised (140+ subject categories) Romance Fiction Mystery Fiction Historical Fiction War Fiction > Format (paperback, hardback), RRP and ASP > Publisher and imprint information

20. 20 Chart and report types...

21. 21 Chart example...

22. 22 Market Share Report example...

23. 23 Period Trend Report example...

24. 24 BookTrack trend so far... Christmas Mothers Day Easter & School holidays Back to School Mid Year Sales Fathers Day

25. 25 Tracking average selling prices...

26. 26 Bridget Jones’ performance...

27. 27 Comparing category titles...

28. 28 Desk research is a much cheaper and more productive use of time and money than publishing a title and hoping it will sell!