If you import now, why do you do it, and in what volume?
Kinokuniya imports on average 20 pallets of books per week from sources all over the world. Our store has over 300,000 titles in stock at any one time and Australian publishers/distributors do not carry a range that could fill a store as large as Kinokuniya.
If the PIRs were abolished, how would your importing behaviour change?
Kinokuniya may choose to import and stock on the shelves American hardcovers/limited editions/different formats to complement the local edition. This would be in addition to local sales, adding value to an author profile. It does not reduce sales of local titles.
We may also choose to airfreight copies of a niche author's new book to fill the lead time between the international and local publishing dates. Some customers would like to read a book simultaneously to their US/UK counterparts and Kinokuniya has the ability to offer simultaneous--or close to simultaneous--releases. In most cases once the book is released in Australia we would switch our buying over to the local supplier.
As most multinational publishers base their editions on UK pricing, we may also choose to import US editions of indent titles we feel are over-priced in this market. We accept that an indent title may be more expensive due to economies of scale, but our globally minded customers expect internationally competitive pricing.
What trading terms do you get from the overseas wholesalers (discount, freight, returns, etc)?
Kinokuniya does not divulge trading terms, but needless to say as one of the largest retail chains in the world we are offered attractive discounts/terms from wholesalers and freight companies; discounts are usually comparable to local publisher's discounts. All stock bought from overseas wholesalers is on better SOR terms than buying locally.
How do you arrive at an Australian retail price for the import? What factors do you take into account? Would this price be normally lower than that of the local edition? How much lower?
Kinokuniya uses a formula for each supplier factoring in exchange rates, shipping, and selected on costs. The sold price is never manipulated up to set price-points. Sometimes import prices are lower than the local edition and sometimes they are higher--but for open-market titles customers can have the choice of edition and price. The customer has the power to decide what edition/price they wish to have/pay, not the publisher, and not government regulations.
What are the problems with importing (eg. foreign exchange exposure, inventory management, etc)?
We are very experienced importers and so suffer very few problems. However retailers starting out would have to consider exchange-rate losses, and titles bought from wholesalers should always be ordered firm-sale even though they are SOR; this would save future costs.
What do you think the local supplier could do to effectively compete?
Easy--just be the same or better than an overseas wholesaler. Due to contractual obligations a bookstore cannot buy directly from overseas publishers--the best terms a retailer may receive, other than from the local publisher, is from an overseas wholesaler. Being as good as a wholesaler would mean publishers would have to upgrade Titlepage, at no extra cost to a bookseller, be more efficient with stockholding (ie employ an experienced book buyer who would buy ahead of the trends--not just follow trends) and offer a discount that is representative of a customer's business. A strong customer/supplier relationship may need to be established; not all publishers believe bookstores are their customers. It would also be beneficial to print more books simultaneously [with overseas release]; current technologies means a manuscript can be sent by email. The argument used to protect the time-lag on releases, saying overseas publishers are slow to send the manuscripts to Australia, says more about Australian/ US publisher relationships than what is, or isn't possible.
What do you think? Bookseller+Publisher welcomes responses. If you'd like to comment, or if you're a bookseller and would like to answer these questions in confidence yourself, email bookseller.publisher@thorpe.com.au.
