Ghana’s publishing industry is a growth industry. Publishers stand out for traditional ways of selling books. Books are efficiently sold in traditional physical stores (bookstore) and others through churches, schools, buses, gas stations and supermarkets. However, the most common and widespread way of selling books in Ghana is through traveling booksellers.
Mobile booksellers play a prominent role in selling books throughout Ghana. They are mobile bookcases that carry books moving from one place to another. They mostly operate while on the go in markets, schools, along highways, bus stations, and others.
Bookstores are also spread across all regions. In some areas, however, they are concentrated. Those in a large group form associations. Most booksellers are in business to make money. They are mostly those who lack knowledge in information technology.
One marketing avenue that may be important for publishers in Ghana is selling books over the Internet. Some people have suggested that the Internet may be a less expensive way to sell books than traditional physical stores. However, in most cases, selling books online in Ghana is likely to be more expensive than selling in traditional stores due to the high costs of order processing and direct-to-customer delivery.
The first major challenge affecting the viability of internet bookselling in Ghana is visitation. A visit is definitely not the same as a purchase, but without the visit of the e-Shopper there is no possibility of buying anything. Having a website that is easy to find by major global and local search engines and web directories is an important factor in attracting visitors, but it is by no means sufficient to build a strong e-business. Attracting visitors to a website is not a simple matter of keeping search engines up to date with the right keywords.
However, most Ghanaians living in other parts of Ghana do not have access to an Internet service where they can visit a publisher’s site to make a purchase. However, visiting the Internet is a paid venture that most people will find unacceptable.
Some factors that are relevant to assess the viability of the Internet as an effective way of selling books in Ghana are:
Value-to-Bulk Ratio: Books that have a lot of squeezed value are often more cost effective to deliver to end customers than bulkier books with less value. However, most Ghanaian publishers have fewer resources to deliver their books to customers, even if they buy online.
Absolute margins: Some books can have a fairly high margin percentage, for example, if a book is bought wholesale for GH10 and is increased by 100% to sell for GH20. However, the absolute margin is only GH¢20-GH¢10=$10. Conversely, you can buy another book at 50 GH¢ and have a markup of just 15%, or 7.5 GH¢, for a total price of 57.5 GH¢. Here, however, the absolute margin will be higher: GH¢7.5. This allows the publisher to spend money processing, packaging, and delivering the order. Ten Ghanaian Cedis, by contrast, can only cover a small amount of employee time and very limited packaging.
However, there are a number of economic realities of online competition:
As mentioned, the costs of handling online orders are often higher than those of distributing through brick-and-mortar stores. Publishers may not have the financial resources to attend to the distribution of the books.
Even if selling online is more profitable in some situations, a Ghanaian publisher selling online will, in the long run, compete with other online booksellers, not just traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Due to the forces of supply and demand, online prices will be reduced so that the profit from selling online is no more than from traditional retail. The reduced costs would then be expected to go to customers.
The prerequisite for the sale of books over the Internet is the existence of an efficient telecommunication infrastructure and services, the poor state of which has been one of the main constraints on the access of many African countries to the global information infrastructure. However, promoting the book will require efficient financial and payment systems to settle interregional transactions. This means that regional and national infrastructure is required to provide adequate access to information technology in banking; strengthen prudential regulation and the legal framework; build strong and efficient payment systems; and the deepening of capital markets.
Several factors are also identified among the major factors affecting the viability of Internet bookselling in Ghana.
Supply-side restrictions have also affected the development of services to meet the growing demand that the platform establishes for access to information technology. These restrictions include the state monopoly of telecommunications and the existence of regulations that prevent the participation of the private sector in the sector.
The lack of resources to increase investment in the telecommunications sector also contributes, sometimes due to the high level of indebtedness of the local operator. Even when funds are available, limited project implementation capacity can limit network development. In other cases, investors are deterred by a lack of political stability and civil strife.
The concept of selling books over the Internet requires a publisher’s clientele to use modern technology to overcome the limitations of traditional book marketing. This ever-changing and overly advanced technology requires more than just a natural knack for book merchandising. This means that the editor must also have some technical skills in computers and software. A site built at random will only generate complaints; not earnings.
However, the high cost of computers and software is also an important factor to consider. This represents a serious impediment to accessibility to the world of information technology. The cost of personal computers is higher than the per capita income of many Ghanaians, so most people, including some publishers, do not have access to them.
Many large online booksellers tend to put together extremely complicated sites. This poses one of the main limitations of selling books over the Internet, where it is difficult for potential customers to access some sites. Complications can be error messages that appear when trying to access a link or website errors that affect the overall marketing campaign.
It is also important to point out that the sale of books over the Internet is diversified. For example, it not only serves its customers by providing them with information, but also consists of services. Promotions and various other advertisements are included to stand out from other competitors. However, it is not wrong that the sale of books over the Internet can provide a wide space for market research and analysis.
Internet book selling compared to traditional marketing in Ghana has several drawbacks such as not giving customers the ability to touch and feel the book, flip through the pages and have a fair assessment of its physical features to know the type of paper used. , cover type (paper cover or hardcover), and design layout before purchase. From a buyer’s perspective, many people who buy books in Ghana don’t just want to see, they want to ‘touch’ before making a purchase. This creates a sense of security for most. Therefore, Internet marketing can present a challenge in this area.
It is also very difficult to convince high-level members of companies to try the Internet due to their limited knowledge of modern technology.