Sales at Mass Merchandisers Continue to Bounce Back

The mass merchandiser channel, which had struggled before the runup to Easter, continued its rebound in late April. At outlets that report to NPD BookScan, unit sales through mass merchandisers were 8% higher in the week ended Apr. 23, 2017, than in the comparable week in 2016. Despite the recent gains, however, sales through the channel were still 7% lower in the period through Apr. 23, 2017, than in the same period in 2016. The gains in the mass merchandiser channel have been accompanied by big increases in sales of board books. Sales of the format jumped 42% higher than the week ended Apr. 24, 2016. Board books continued to place high on both the juvenile fiction and nonfiction bestseller lists, helping unit sales to increase 11% in fiction and 10% in nonfiction. Four board books published by DK landed in the fourth through eighth spots on the juvenile nonfiction bestseller list, selling more than 18,000 copies. In addition to board books, sales of juvenile fiction benefited from continued strong sales of Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why and the Netflix tie-in edition, 13 Reasons Why, which together sold more than 56,000 copies in the week. A second author had one title do well in two editions: Nicola Yoon’s Everything, Everything sold about 21,000 copies total in its original and movie tie-in editions. Unit sales were 3% higher in the adult nonfiction category than in the comparable week in 2016. Six books landed in the top 10 in their first week on sale. This Is Our Fight by Elizabeth Warren was #3 on the category bestsellers list, selling more than 18,000 copies. In first place was Make Your Bed by William McRaven, which sold almost 26,000 copies in the week. Despite a good showing in its first week on sale (about 41,000 copies), David Baldacci’s The Fix couldn’t prevent unit sales in the adult fiction segment from falling 2% in the week from the comparable week in 2016.

Unit Sales of Print Books by Channel (in thousands)

Unit Sales of Print Books by Category (in thousands)

Unit Sales of Print Books by Format (in thousands)