Reader feedback: Bookstores have started losing customers at an accelerated pace
The decline in offline book retail has accelerated in Russia. According to the results of the first half of 2026, the turnover of stores decreased by 5.1% year—on-year to 14.04 billion rubles, the Association of Book Distributors told Izvestia. Book outlets have been losing customers for the fourth year in a row, but the market has not fallen at such a pace before. Sales are declining amid rising prices, the tax burden, and an outflow of audience to marketplaces and digital services. Competition for readers will only increase, and government support measures can bring the industry out of the crisis, experts believe. How the book industry is changing in Russia — in the material of Izvestia.
Bookstores are losing customers
The turnover of bookstores in Russia in the first half of 2026 amounted to 14.04 billion rubles, which is 5.1% lower than the same period in 2025, Svetlana Zorina, president of the Association of Book Distributors (ASKR), told Izvestia. This trend has been going on for four years now: in 2022, sales totaled 39.96 billion rubles, in 2023 they fell to 38.02 billion, in 2024 - 37.43 billion, and by the end of 2025 — 36.98 billion.
Industry participants cite the rising cost of books in the face of falling purchasing power as one of the main challenges for retail. During the specified period, the average price of a book increased by 12.7% and amounted to 615.4 rubles, according to the ASKR data.
Similar dynamics are demonstrated by sales in the Bukvoed bookstore chain. According to Tatiana Shcherbina, the brand director of the chain, the average check in the network increased by 10% over the year, amounting to 880 rubles offline and 1,100 rubles online. In general, the turnover in money in online and offline channels of the network for the first six months of 2026 remained at the level of last year, she added. Although by the third quarter of 2026, the company notes a positive trend in attendance and turnover by 10%.
In addition, the financial burden in the book retail segment is increasing due to the tax base, the ASKR said. Pressure on the market is also exerted by the general economic situation, the imposition of sanctions, the withdrawal of a number of publishers and foreign authors, and even the crisis in the fuel market, as it affects the cost of logistics services, added Sergey Sigerson, a representative of the independent Piotrovsky bookstore.
— We see a redistribution of priorities, the transfer of book purchases to the optional zone. Books are increasingly becoming an element of luxury, an indicator of status, rather than an everyday consumption model," he believes.
As a result, the offline market continues to lose players. According to the ASKR, 558 bookstores were closed in 2024-2025, while only 272 were opened. At the same time, the struggle for the buyer is only increasing, stores compete not only with each other, but also with marketplaces, electronic and audiobooks.
The subscription boom
For several years now, there has been a noticeable increase in demand for electronic and audiobooks on subscription services in Russia. According to the Yandex Books service, 7.5 million subscribers read and listen to books on the platform on average per month, which is 44% more than a year earlier.
— The growth in the number of subscribers is influenced by the development of all services that are included in the multi-subscription. Thus, by the end of the second quarter of 2026, the number of Plus subscribers reached 49.4 million, which is 14.4% more than a year earlier. At the same time, we see that books are becoming a noticeable driver of its connectivity: reading and listening to books is becoming one of the key subscription scenarios, along with music and movies," said Vitaly Grigorash, head of the Yandex Books service.
Litres (which includes the Litres, MyBook, and LiveLib services) does not disclose data on the number of subscribers. However, they clarified that in the first six months of 2026, the e—book market grew by 11% year-on-year, and audiobooks by 8%.
— In previous years, audiobooks grew faster. For example, in the first half of 2025, the segment increased by 28%. Now its dynamics are slowing down, this is due to the fact that it has entered a mature phase," said Sergey Anuryev, General Director of Litres Group.
Readers' interest in the digital book market is quite diverse. In 2026, detective, thriller and other action-packed works became the most popular genres on Yandex Books. Users were also attracted to books at the junction of genres: romantic detective stories, fantasy with local mythology, healing novels with elements of fiction. There is a continuing interest in psychology and self-development among non-fiction.
Similar trends are observed in Liters. In the first half of 2026, the revenue of romance novels on the company's platforms increased by 19% year—on—year, fiction by 14%, fantasy by 12%.
— We see the development of samizdat and the growing popularity of digital authors as one of the key trends in the coming years. It is already one of the main drivers of the Russian digital book market," said Sergey Anuryev.
He explained that by the end of the first half of the year, samizdat grew by 26% year-on-year, and its share in the e-book market reached 46%.
At the same time, the services plan to further increase their audience, including through the introduction of personal recommendations and AI search. For example, a user can contact an AI assistant to find a suitable book based on their interests or just their mood. According to Vitaly Grigorash, due to the development of such technologies, the average reading time among users is also growing: in June 2026, it increased by 12% per reader in Yandex Books compared to last year.
What awaits the book industry
The book industry has to fight more and more actively for a person's time, Vitaly Grigorash noted. Moreover, this is a competition not only between bookstores and digital platforms, but also with other leisure activities, including music, movies, and social media. Therefore, high-quality and diverse content remains the foundation of the book market, he believes.
Experts believe that government support measures can help offline book retail in times of crisis. For example, the ASKR advocates the inclusion of specialized book trade in the list of activities that qualify for a reduced insurance premium rate of 15%. In addition, bookstores that own the store's premises are proposed to be exempt from property tax. It is also proposed to include the book trade in the list of activities in the field of creative industries. However, the listed support measures are still at the stage of initiatives and proposals.
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